Melaka Part 1

After hours, day and night of filtering, editing, and uploading, I hereby present you the first part of my Melaka trip, with my college friends.

Before you begin reading, I shall have some forewords. This will be one hell long of a post, so you will have 2 choices now.

1) Read and observe the photos happily, and be jealous, if you wish XD

2) I don't think you don't wanna read, so yeah, just freaking read or see the photos coz i know u wanna see them :)

Eh give face a bit la u think edit and select photos out of hundreds of photos is a fun job is it, quite tedious wan ok.

Day 1

So... where to start...

We gathered at Zhi San's house and had breakfast (except me, coz I'm a good boy who wanna eat breakfast with my family) in the morning before departing. Traveled in 2 cars, of which both the drivers (Eyu and Kian How) were kind enough to offer their cars as our transport tool there.

I think it's quite impossible to travel in melaka without a car, you can, but it'll be super inconvenient. Unless you like to walk under the scorching hot sun from one end to the other, you won't if you're a Malaysian I dare say.



The sign of read houses tells us we're there... Melaka, the city of many historical land marks.

Just step into any places, especially jonker walk, you'll see shops and houses which still retains their historical breath, be it in the form of structure, culture and the people around there.



Lol, I'm talking as if I'm a foreigner who have never been to Melaka, but truth is, Melaka is somewhere I thought it was nothing but a boring place, never have I even think that I'll go there for a vacation with a bunch of friends. But I was wrong.

It was an experience like no others.



In fact, I think this is the first time I've walked the jonker street from end to ends, (fyi they have 2 ends, because it's a split road) and to discover the beautiful buildings and structure which are still lying on the ground is quite an amazing feeling. Probably because it's preserved to attract tourists, but either way, I get to see it, the government get to attract tourists, so it's a win win thing.



Ok anyway, back to Melaka. Upon arrival, we decided to leave our luggage first and check in at our budget hotel. It's not exactly a hotel, it's more like a hostel/guest house kind of accommodation.



Meet Tang House. It's run by a family, so you get very friendly services and all, plus the best part is, it's really clean. My idea of budget hotel is like those old, unfurnished, yellow-ish type with paints peeling off from the wall, and green mosses growing in the toilet etc, but much to my surprise, this was a total opposite. For my first budget hotel stay, I'll give this a 10 out of 10 :D



Let me just introduce this place to you briefly. Upon entering, you'll see this mini art gallery in the hall, as well as 2 computers for you to access for free (with internet duh), and a small lounge for you to eat. There's also books, cards, checkers, chess etc etc for you to play! It's a really homey place for people and tourists, with much of it's local touch and vibe.



Initially, we reserved 2 medium room and 1 large room, but the boss was kind enough to upgrade our medium room to large, without any increase in charge! Weeee :D The entire place is newly furnished, very clean, and they have this balcony which you can relax, sit down, chit chat and play some songs. Not to mention there's also an open kitchen for you to cook if you want, provided you don't burn down the entire place.



Meet Eyu, a very pro guitarist and singer, walao I think all the girls melted already when they heard him sing. Basically, the balcony is where friends hang out, maybe have a drink or two, be chatty and merry, play and sing songs together. What else could have been better?



The hostel is located right at the entrance of Jonker Street, somewhere easy to locate and basically convenient for us to get down for a walk at Jonker. From the balcony itself, if you turn stand close to the left corner, you could see the entrance and stage of Jonker's Walk, where there will be performances every weekend. We didn't watch any of them though.



And ahead of you will be the views of Temple, churches, and the scenic view of Melaka's blue sky. Not that there's any difference in Melaka's sky and KL's sky, but well, I have to write like it's very impressive, beautiful and all right, so exaggerate a bit lor XD

The 1 night stay there was purely awesome. But, there's only one problem, because it's a guest house and the fact that it's quite small, we're not really allowed to be super noisy like we usually do. Well, let's just say we're too ignorant to ignore that, oh well. Bitches we are.

Anyway, I strongly recommend people/tourist/friends and family to stay there if you're going to visit melaka, it's CLEAN, CHEAP AND REALLY CONVENIENT! (provided if you don't mind sharing toilets with other guests, but who cares, it's new and clean)

The 1 night stay there only cost us about RM16 per person.

More info visit http://www.tanghouse.com.my



After leaving our luggage, all our stomachs were growling like mad already. Our first destination? the all time famous Melaka Chicken Rice Ball! The last time I ate melaka's rice ball at Mahkota Parade, it sucked and I told myself this piece of shit is over-rated. I hope I wont be disappointed this time, because I've never been to the real famous stall!



On our way there, we spotted our own Jason Mraz and Perez Hilton.. Wait, since when are they even walking together? -.-



Anyway, here's the famous stall, we reached there at about 3pm+ and heck, why is the que still so long, I thought it's way past lunch time already.



It's located near one end of Jonker Street, and when you saw the Ah Xian poster, you'll probably know you came to the right stall :) The 11 of us waited for our turn before going in, because it's still fully occupied =(



Note the shop's name, this is the stall you want to go to for a nice and delicious rice ball.



And so we camwhored.



And camwhored..



Repeating..



Oh well this is only like 5% of the total..



Mini group photo, less the photographer :)



And so the foods arrived. They kinda ran out of rice balls so they gave us normal rice as well. Trust me, I think this is the best rice ball I've ever tasted. Probably because, this is only my second time and it's better than the first? lol.

Chicken was normal only. Still, it's worth the try.

After meal = shopping at Jonker. The girls have to stop by every single store, doing what they are best at. Photos below are pretty self explanatory, not gonna caption already, i'm getting tired of typing.







Looks like my sister XD elder but shorter. HAHAHAHA











Horny bitch who get overly excited over a mural with a dick. hahaha.

Back to cam-whoring in the room.





The girls were happily cam-whoring until......... little did they realize, they just got caught in a candid shot.



Awesome pic below.





Wow I looked so pale like ghost. o o o o o o .



They intended to take a very lesbianic photo, a lot of shots were taken, some failed, and some... i think this one's the sweetest XD

*

So.. Our afternoon were mainly spent on walking and shopping around Jonker Street.

Night falls into place, with much excitement, our 1 day Melaka City trip is just starting to get interesting.

With much recommendation from people all over the places, forumers especially, almost everyone who've been to Melaka strongly recommends the all time must-try Capitol Satay Celup, located somewhere near Bukit Cina. We walked there from our guest house, which takes about 30 mins, of which 20 mins were spent squeezing through the crowded Jonker street at night.



Look at the crowd man, the entire street turned even more lively at night, with more people and stalls. It's very much like Pasar Malam, only with more things to sell. But bare in mind, walking along the streets also mean bathing in sweats, be very prepared to wear cozy and windy clothes.



And it's a totally different view at night. Buildings were lighted up with red/orange lights, making the entire structure looked more dashing and vibrant, creating that kind of warm-reddish ambiance. I think you can only see this in the heart of Melaka City. It's truly remarkable.



It was really quite an enjoyable experience walking through the streets of red buildings, of shops and houses. Which I can't help but to reflect of on our history, the remnance of the past, the dominance of Portuguese, British and the Japanese. What's left standing on the ground is an effort, that must be appreciated.



We passed by Melaka River as well. How nice is it to stay beside a river, where you wake up every morning to be greeted by a steady flow of water, which signifies endless flow and the beginning of a new life. You see a bit of the resemblance of Venice, just that the water is chocolate in color XD



Naturally taken, funny expression from Wei Yi.



This is Restaurant Capitol Satay Celop. Not hard 2 locate, ask anyone in Melaka and they will easily direct you there. Again, que-ing.... sigh why everywhere in Melaka also have to que. There's also this very famous cendol stall at Jonker walk we never manage to try, because the que is even scarier.



Well, good food comes with a price. And for that it's accompanied by a long wait, but since we're the biggest group there, I guess the queuing process was still considerably bearable.



Ok, food verdict time. You see, it's called Satay Celop for a reason. I guess most of the KL-rians have had no idea what on earth is this about, let me just enlighten you.

Satay, like the conventional skewed meat (chicken, mutton or beaf) on a stick, this comes with a big variety, ranging from seafoods, to meats and some fried stuffs. Some foods are kept refrigerated, you get a tray, much like the buffet style, and you pick what you like to eat. Each sticks cost about 70 cents, with the exceptional of other foods which comes in the form of colored plates.



And there's this hot pot in the middle, composing of the typical satay gravy, where you insert your stick into this hot pot and wait until it's cooked.

If you tried "lok-lok" before, I guess you know what I'm talking. But this comes with a satay sauce. Every now and then, the staff will refill the pot, and they will also bring a scoop of nuts and add it into the pot, restoring the flavors and amount of sauce in the pot.

Oh they also replace a new pot of sauce whenever customers leaves. Unlike some other stalls which I heard, they only replenish the sauce, instead of replacing a new one.



This is the first time I've ever tried Satay Celop, although I won't say it's totally exquisite, the experience is still worthwhile. Not every food blends well with the satay sauce you see, in fact some even tasted quite weird.

After the meal, we went back to our guest room with much satisfaction, and the night has just begun.

I shall resume in part 2, till then.