Our family decided to take a family trip to Malacca for no apparent reason. XD Per usual I was the assistant driver to my dad.. Not that I mind, by the way. Of all the places that we got to first was Nilai 3. No folks, it's not in Malacca but it's on the way there. Hahaha~! Directions to this bazaar like place is simple with gigantic sign like this.
Anyway, along the highway we came across some unusual things. Of those taken, was this signboard. Ok, ok. so it's not like some freakish signboard but it's not common to my eyes.. hehe.. Maybe I should travel more to give knowlegde to these eyes. [pokes eye] Ow~!
Curious, can the wind actually blow a vehicle off the road? There has to be a reason behind this signboard, it's yellow & diamond shaped. For you guys who don't know what that implies, it means it's a warning sign; As in dangerous if you didn't obey this rule.. Well, that's what i know anyway.. I could be wrong Xp
Another interesting sight on the road was this overhead KFC. It's not common here but apparently according to my parents, it's quite common in Europe. XD Since I was driving at the time, my dad took this shot for me. If he didn't, I'd still take it even though I'm driving. muahahah~!
It was the deepa-raya break & I assumed that not so much people would be heading to Malacca (Melaka). I certainly didn't expect this jam~! Sheesh, don't you guys have any other place to go? Hehe... [sigh] Being in a jam is a normal occurence here. So i guess there's no escaping it...
We safely reached Malacca by lunch time. Even after snacking in the car, we were still hungry. Haha! Anyway, apparently in Malacca, there's this famous Chicken Rice Balls. My parents saw this in this local show called "Hao Chiack" (Translation to English that'll be Good Eat)
Since it was such a hot and sunny day, I decided to order a cool, refreshing coconut drink. Lucky for me, the coconut I got was not some super old coconut. Hehe, my dad got one old coconut. For those who don't know, the older the coconut the thicker the "meat" but the harder it'll be to scrape off. Best is to get something in between...
When we arrived, there was a few tables for us. In just moments, there was a full house. Interesting... However, when the food arrived, frankly speaking.. it's just chicken rice. Nothing fancy. When the rice balls arrived, my younger sis commented she expected it to be bigger.. Like an onigiri (Japanese rice "balls") It's about the size of fishballs.
Anyway, the calculation is eating five riceballs equals to eating a bowl of rice. My dad said that the best chicken rice is still Ipoh Chicken rice. But then again, this place we dined at is not the same place as the one introduced in the show. So, maybe that place has better chicken rice. [Eager to try]
The moment of truth.. [drum roll] [anxiety in the air] The total for lunch was RM77/= Not too bad. Lunch for six, RM12.83 each. Then again, if I recalculate...
Chicken + CharSiew rice in Ming Tien = RM4.50
(let's round that up to RM5)
Coconut drink = RM2?
That gives us a total of RM7. Right...
After the expensive lunch, we came to this interesting shop. It has freaky huge mockup dodol boxes outside the shop~!
We stepped into the shop and holy cows, there were numerous towers of goodies~! [jumps around in glee] If you must know, I grew with with dodols, coconut cookies, coconut candy... the works~! So ya, they've got all my favourite goodies and more.
Some of the towers were really high.. Some reached to the ceiling~! Some were dangerously in balance. Lucky to note, there was no accidents while I was there. I'm clumsy after all... I had to be extra careful here.
If you were in the shop with me, you'd think I was nuts, going around taking pictures of all this things. You must know that the camera I was using then was some big chunky SLR camera. [super grin] Anyway, we spent quite a bit here and there was not a lot of space in the backspace of an Avanza.
The most interesting thing that we found in this shop was this jam. Durian jam~! Ya, they were selling this bottle for RM9.90. I wonder if it's as good as the real deal.. Durian is king of the fruits here. You either love it or hate it~! [sigh] I wonder when the durian season will come along for me to eat them. ^___^
Leaving the haven of goodies, we made our way to the Red Building. Malacca is really the historical city. It's so chock full of history, it attracts foreigners & local alike there. I wonder... If historians made a mistake & the history we know is actually all wrong, what would happen..? Mass reproduction of history text books? Or would they continue to deceive the public?
That thoughts aside, Malacca is a picturesque place. Many old buildings here stand with modern day buildings.
Then again, it's made this beautiful for tourist... Would that be considered tampering with the actual history piece or preserving it? [walking on thin ice here] [deliberate change in subject] All the tourist attractions here are more or less walking distance from each other. So ya, this day trip involved a lot of walking.
I like this shot quite a bit.. I take photo like there's no tomorrow. I have myself a trigger happy finger and having this SLR that allows me to save up to 2000++ photos helps it along. [grin] You can't have too much of a good photo, right? [strayed off topic]
There were a lot of beca (trishaw) around here. A lot of heavily decorated trishaws. Some even have mounted radio into their trishaw. I suppose it’s really competitive business. One could walk or take the trishaw to the tourist attractions around here.
There was this interesting water fountain. It only sprays water after a particular time. I didn’t stay too long to be able to find out exactly how long. From the looks of it, it was really old.
The famous red house. Built by the Dutch (Orang Belanda) when they came to conquer Malacca. That’s after the Portuguese reign. When & how long each power reigned.. That I don’t really remember.
From the red building, we climbed up a hill to an abandoned church… Well, it looked nothing like a church because the building was in pieces.
Mostly there were Chinese & foreigners around. There were a lot of tombstones around there also. I’d hate to imagine being there last at night. [shudders]
After walking for a long, long time, the idea of riding the trishaw seemed tempting. If only it wasn’t so expensive… If I’m not mistaken, it was RM40 per hour. It’s sad to have such poor memory…
Right, later I found out that the original purpose of coming to Malacca was to take photo of the night life at Jonker Street. We drove from the red building area to Jonker Street. I bumped into a college mate there. It’s surprising since he was the one who spotted me and I only know him since he was my classmate’s boyfriend. Small world
Anyway, there were a lot of temple & Chinese associations at Jonker Street. I took a lot of photos of the magnificent cravings. This two are the best shots.
Being in the heat of the sun does get to you. So when my dad spotted a shop selling cendol at RM1 per bowl & it stated ‘You won’t want to miss it’, we pranced on in. Let me tell you, once you savour its taste, you’d want some more which we did. It consisted of freshly shaved ice, with red beans, coconut milk (santan) & cendol in it. The best part is the thick Malacca syrup (Gula Melaka). Simply delicious~!
After our cendol treat, the ridiculously hot day turned to become a rainy evening. So the umbrellas which we initially used to shelter from the sun were used to keep us dry in the rain. Such an interesting coincidence. But because of the rain, we left Malacca without taking photos of the Night Jonker Street. Pity~! Maybe next time? Hehe.. We’ll see.
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