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Thursday 26 October 2017

2D1N Free & Easy Melaka Part 2



This post is a continuation from HERE.


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Destination: Malacca (Malaysia)
Mode of travel: Free & Easy
Coach: Going with KKKL Travel & Tours Pte and back with WTS Travel & Tours Pte Ltd (Total S$126 for 2 pax)
Accommodation: Hatten Hotel Melaka, Junior Suite (1 night MYR332.78)
Duration: 2D1N  3rd - 4th Jun 2017
Travel Buddy: Le Hubby

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We went Amy Nonya at around 3pm and it was closed.  So we just popped into another one which was a few units away.

Amboi Nyonya
No.85, Jalan Melaka Raya 24, Taman Melaka Raya 1, 75000 Melaka

This was about 5mins walk from our hotel.

Stir fried 4 Heavenly Kings MYR16.98
The 4 "Heavenly Kings" were Eggplant,  Lady's finger, Long beans, Winged beans (which I ate the first time).   Stir fried with chilli and dried shrimps, it's a little on the dry side, but very tasty.

Salted Egg Prawns MYR26.42
Dishes with salted egg tends to get too heavy especially after a few bites.  But this was good.  The gravy was light with real bits of salt egg yolk.  We shared a plate of rice to go with these 2 dishes.  It's a weird choice for tea-break lolxx....

We waste no time to explore Melaka.

We went into Dataran Pahlawan hunting for A&W.
The shopping mall was a wonderful escape from the heat.

A&W (Dataran Pahlawan)
G-073A/G-075/Upper Ground Floor 

Tea break no. 2 at 4pm, lolxx...

The root-beer is just different from those canned ones.  Root Beer Float MYR5.95

Waffles to die for even if it's plain at MYR7.55.
Why you no come back to Singapore!!!

Right behind A&W, we saw horse carriages.

And lot's of trishaws!


All trishaws were a mini version of our Chingay vehicles lolxx...

Each trishaw were decorated in a theme with loud music as they move.   They played different songs/music for different passengers, 小苹果 for the chinese, Gangnam Style for hipsters and various english pops for ang mos lolxx....


Outside Melaka UMNO Museum.

There were stationery planes and trains as we walked along the path leading towards St Pauls' Church.



Spotted a tree that looked pregnant.

Another usual tree with a little cave.

We were at the foot of St. Paul's Church.

A bit of climbing here....

We had a good view of part of Melaka from the top.

St Paul's Church
Jalan Kota, Bandar Hilir, 75000 Melaka, Malaysia

This historical church was originally built in 1521, the oldest church building in Malaysia and Southeast Asia.

I love taking photos of historical buildings, no matter how lousy my photo skills are, the photos always turns out amazing, like this:






I read online that this protected area is actually an open grave of St Francis Xavier, where his body was laid here for nine months before it was moved to Goa in India.
I don't know the full story but to move a body after so many months was incredible.


Before we left, we saw a amazing couple having their wedding photo shot.  The groom is a chinese, bride a indian, we were like.... wow.... how's their love story like?  I am sure it's not a easy path for them, but they made it together!


We walked down from the right side of St Paul's hill.  At the foot was a vintage Fire Engine Truck made in 1939.

Besides it was this Bulldozer of 1940s.

Walked blindly along with the crowd without looking at the map, we found ourselves in Red Square, where historical Dutch building, Stadthuys was located.  It looked too new to be build in 1650.

The Red Square was flooded with trishaws and vendors selling souvenirs for tourists and I was desperately looking for a shade to hide.


Fountain on strike, no water flowing.

Queued to get this pic taken, silly but memorable.

We passed by St Francis Xavier Church.
12 Jalan Banda Kaba, Bandar Hilir, 75000, Melaka Malaysia.

This church was found since 1859.  We did not enter to explore cos we were late for another famous spot......

Capitol Satay
41, Lorong Bukit Cina, Bandar Hilir, 75100 Melaka, Malaysia.

Not sure if it opened at 4 or 5pm, we reached around 5.30pm which was obviously too late.  No other nation loves to queue more than Singaporeans, there were at least 30 of them in the queue -____-|||  Hubby and I are exceptions, we left, not willing to spend an hour on the queue, time was too precious.

With the help of google map, we walked passed a place infested by pigeons and their droppings towards Jonker Street.

We passed by this interesting looking cafe.

After 10mins walk, we found the river, crossed it and we were at Jonker Street.

View by Melaka River was picturesque.





The first food spot which appeared without us hunting was Bikini Toppings.
46 Lorong Hang Jebat, 752000 Melaka, Malaysia.


It was surprisingly empty with a grandma and grandpa tending this hipster cafe.
The moment I sat down, my legs left me lolxxx...... TIRED......

It's 6pm, instead of dinner we were having dessert lolxx....
We shared a small husk of coconut ice cream with longan toppings and coconut flesh.  I forgotten how much we paid for but it's affordable and worth it!  Sure glad to find delicious coconut ice cream in Melaka other then Bangkok.  The cafe closed for the day after we left.

Along the same lane, a few shophouses away was
6 East & West Rendezvous
60, Lorong Hang Jebat, 75200 Melaka, Malaysia

I managed to buy one of famous Nonya dumpling to try, just before they shut their gates.  Can't remember the price also...

The beautiful blue little rice dumpling made me drool just by looking and smelling it.  I sat by the roadside (very unglam but I don't give a damn) opposite their shop munching away the soft and slightly sticky flavorful glutinous rice with it's  addictive dried shrimp fillings.

We wandered around, had fun taking some photos but lanes was too quiet, we didn't see anybody around us...



Hubby gotten worried, in case we kena rob or something, we started to walk towards some crowd.




Then it gotten so crowded that we could hardly move forward lolxx...
Nothing was cheap in 三叔公 souvenir shop, left empty handed.

We enjoyed the crowd here, looking at every food stall hopping to eat everything, but our stomachs no space already.

We found a foot massage in a quiet lane.  Though our legs were desperate for a massage, we decided to give it a miss as inside was empty.
 Just then a granny behind us walked into the shop and jio us to for a massage.  The granny looked friendly enough so we walked in.  Everything was old inside but still acceptable.  The granny started phone for the masseurs which came in after a while.

Hubby started to chat non-stop with the masseurs.  I hate it to the max when he does that cos' I feel that talking too much will distract the masseurs and they couldn't massage properly.  However, it was through the conversation, that we found out that most masseurs in Jonker Street are freelancers.  As in they are not employed under any particular parlour or salon.  They walked over to which ever shops that calls them, earning commissions from each customer.  In another words, choosing whichever foot massage place doesn't make a difference at all.

After saving our legs, we continued to walk a bit more.

Love avocado, so bought a cup to enjoy!


Reluctantly, we left Jonker Street around 9pm.

We rolled over to this restaurant for it's famous cheese bee hoon around 9.30pm.  We thought there would be less crowd at this hour but no...... In the restaurant half of the tables were eating and half were still waiting for their food to be serve.
There were only 2 pax queuing in front of us.  After half an hour, my patience, stamina and energy were all worn off and we left.

We found another alternative which was nearer to our hotel:
Zhong Tai 中泰食馆
No 267 & 267A, Jalan Melaka Raya 3, Taman Melaka Raya, Malaysia

Their menu had a introduction on Melaka Cheese Prawn Bee Hoon.  It was said that it all started from "French Cheese Grilled Lobster" back in 1880.  When this dish was brought to Hong Kong in the 1970s, the chinese quit grilling the lobster and turned the spaghetti into Yi Min (伊面).

In 2009, Melaka gave it another twist by using Bee Hoon, replaced lobster with giant river prawns which are more affordable.

We waited one hour for this to come, but at 11pm we were too tired to kick a fuss:
Cheese Prawn Bee Hoon MYR37.10
Nothing cheesy about the entire dish.  It's just bee hoon in milk broth, but frankly speaking, was quite tasty and the prawns were big and fresh.



And this took another half an hour to arrive and totally not worth the wait:
Thai Style Pork with Kai Lan MYR21.20

After supper we crawled back to the hotel, talking and smiling about the adventure we had.  Being with him was all that matters....

Next day was fun filled, stay tuned.