It's been like 2 year since I made a trip to Malacca and the last trip was just an overnight stay. I never got to really try to find the Nonya food that Malacca is known for and also the various new cafes that have popped up in and around Jonker Street.
Charmaine worried that the trip was all talk and no action so she sneakily went to book the accomodations, knowing that I wouldn't be able to back out once she's done that.
Sigh... My friends know how to push my buttons...
Anyway, good time for Xiao Huang to do another road trip before her COE expires in Dec.
Weekday is a good time to drive up as the traffic was so smooth! We made good time and arrived in time to catch some dim sum breakfast. Yums!
And it's so much more affordable than eating in Singapore. Entire breakfast only cost me RM 24. That's like S$3.50 per person. Totally impossible to get a dim sum breakfast for $3.50 in Singapore. One plate of siew mai would already cost me $3.50.
We booked a slightly more high-end hotel, Treasures Hotel and Suites. S$130 inclusive of breakfast for two. You can check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/treasureshotel/
To be honest, it's really a little bit of the high side for Malaysian hotel. But it is brand new and less likely to have stained bedsheets and faulty fridges. I'm sorry but I am terribly biased against Malaysian hotels. On the average, unless you are staying in 6-stars, half the time, I am bound to find some stains on the bedsheets, scratchy towels, grumbling fridges and whatnots. If you are expecting a 3-stars standard, you better book a 4-stars.
So, yes, on the whole, this hotel is not bad, but there are still areas to improve. The shower drainage wasn't working too well. After a 5 mins bath, I was standing in 3cm deep of bath water. Zzz... The corridors were padded with carpet which eliminated the sound of footsteps but the air smelt like a musty cupboard that forgot to be cleaned out. Breakfast is sufficient but not impressive.
For S$130, I would expect a slightly higher quality breakfast? I'm good with the usual American breakfast but at least give me a small serving of decent fried brown mushrooms and not half a mushroom that came out of a can. My plate looked quite miserable and the ham was tasteless. Didn't quite make my morning!
I'm a difficult person to please....
Hopefully lunch will be much better!
We went to visit St Paul Church after breakfast. St. Paul's Church is a historic church building in Malacca City, Malaysia that was originally built in 1521, making it the oldest church building in Malaysia and Southeast Asia. It is located at the summit of St. Paul's Hill and is today part of the Malacca Museum Complex comprising the A Famosa ruins, the Stadthuys and other historical buildings.(Quoted from Wikipedia)
The entire place isn't very big and you could easily cover it within 15 mins. You can also get abit of view of the Malacca town area and the sea beyond it.
We then took a short drive around Jonker Street and decided to go for lunch at Restoran Atlantic 1.
Maybe it was a Friday so the place was relatively quiet. There were only 2 tables occupied. A bit apprehensive but we decided to order some food to try. The reviews online were pretty good.
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| Sambal Okra |
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| Ayam Buah Keluak |
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| Fish Otak |
Not too bad! The Ayam Buah Keluak would be even tastier if they had used fresh chicken instead of the frozen ones. I can taste the difference! I like the otak. It had pieces of fish meat instead and the entire piece was fragrant and soft.
After lunch, we took a nice walk around Jonker Street. We made the right decision to come on Friday. Maybe some of the shops are not open but it was much nicer to walk around without throngs of people and cars.
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| Very warm and nostalgic place to have afternoon coffee |
The rest of the day was just spent visiting the shopping mall and doing some retail therapy. We attempted to look for the sand dune place at Klebang some bloggers mentioned but seeing the weather was turning a bit grey, we decided to give up the idea. The sand dune place was near the Klebang beach. We were quite amused that swimming was not allowed . What's a beach for if not for wallowing in the water? There many chut chut (sea snails) at the water's edge though. So maybe they are trying to protect the chut chuts? Hahaha!
People reading this must think that we are gluttons because it's time for dinner! We choose a local's favourite zi char place. Supposed to be famous for their cheesy prawn bee hooon. But Charmaine's slightly allergic to prawns so better not! We had their signature crab dish, deep fried sweet and sour pork and a veg.
Half through the meal, we got a scare from a crazy Indian man who parked his bike in front of the restaurant and was blowing the exhaust. He got off his bike and stood like barely 5m from our table (we were sitting in the open area in front of the restaurant) and kept making faces and staring at us. The restaurant chef hurriedly came out and tried to ask him to go away. The Indian guy just walked away for like a few minutes but came back to prowl the front the restaurant again. I was frantically trying to remember all the Muay Thai moves Evone taught me. Or should I attempt to smash my chair in his face if he tries to approach our table? Thankfully, the chef came out again and this time, managed to get him to go away. No further drama needed.
We decided to end the day having some beers at the rooftop swimming pool area of our hotel. Reduce the chances of bumping into another crazy person.
The next morning, we decided to take a slow walk to Jonker Street again as we needed to get some snacks and local produce for family.
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| The red heritage shophouses next to the river |
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| Christ Church Melaka |
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| Melaka River |
And what's a trip to Malacca without eating Cendol! Another tick off our checklist.
And Nonya lunch again! We had Ayam Ponteh and Fish Maw Soup.
We spend the rest of the day soaking in the hotel's swimming pool to feel less guilty about eating all the time.
It was a nice relaxing trip to Malacca...
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