Road Trip to Malacca

It was almost a spur of the moment decision to go to Malacca. We decided a week before that we would head up, and after a trial holiday at Sentosa, we were on our way to Malaysia! Asher's first overseas (or over-causeway) trip. Hopefully this is just the beginning of our continued travels. Jon and I believe that having a baby doesn't mean our travelling ways have to come to an end; rather Asher will join us in our adventures :) But I must say, travelling with a baby slows your pace down a lot. We can't zip about on a whim and have to have regular stops to feed Asher and keep him out of the hot mid-day sun.

The weather the day we left was good - windy, clear, and not too hot.


Managed to get a shot of all 3 of us! :)








Anyway, among the things that I packed for the trip was a bag full of Asher's toys to amuse him on the car rides to and from Malacca. His colourful 'book' that he's had since he was born, a new teether JJSB gave Asher, an improvised car seat toy (I had seen in stores how some toys had clips which looked like clothes pegs that were used to attach the toy to the bar of the car seat, so I decided to just use clothes pegs, and some hook/rings from another toy of Asher's to make a car toy!), his toy that my Mum gave him, etc. Actually my hand came in handy for many entertaining rounds of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star too :)































The drive up was thankfully uneventful, and reached Hotel Equitorial safe and sound. We had requested for a cot for Asher, and it came in a most delightful shade of...pink! Haha. But he seemed quite happy to lie in it with his best friend Lotty :) In fact, he was so excited (to be in a new cot? To be on holiday? Just plain excited?) that he couldn't stop kicking and waving his arms about!


Check out his legs...a blur of movement!







As we were only going to spend one night in Malacca we head off straightaway to do some sight-seeing, and EAT! We were starved! That, and we had been greedily waiting to devour all the yummy Malacca specialties. First stop - chicken rice balls! Don't be deceived by the few balls of rice and their small size. They are really quite filling! It was a good thing we shared the dish, otherwise we wouldn't have had as much space in our tummies for the other food.










We then went to were hunt down Donald and Lily's Nonya restaurant which is known for it's good, yet cheap Nonya food. We read about it in the Malaysia Lonely Planet guide, but the directions the book gave were wrong! So we ended up circling about, wandering into strange alleys, and finally just winging it and trusting our instincts. Yep, we found the place! It was tucked away in a non-descript, dusty alley, up a narrow flight of stairs behind a closed cendol stall. All that searching was worthwhile, though, cos the Nonya mee rebus was excellent! The tau kwa rojak was sedap sekali, and as a greedy afterthought, we also ordered char kway teow (after spying it on someone else's table), which was yummy too! Did you think we forgot cendol? No way! Just that we were so eager to eat it that I never got around to take a photo of it haha. That happened for all the cendols we ate during the trip :O) We wanted to try their Nonya Laksa too but it isn't available on Tuesdays, pity.



















Besides food, we did do some minor sightseeing. I guess our main idea was to just chill out in Malacca cos both of us have been to Malacca on school trips to explore the sights previously. Maybe when Asher grows up we'll do the sights again proper, but then again, he'll probably have a school trip to Malacca as well.

In any case, what trip to Malacca will be complete without pictures at these sights?















The funniest thing happened when I was taking this photo. As Jon held Asher on the canon, I could hear a group of women tourists suddenly go, "Aiyoooo, hou tak yee ah!! Hoi siong ah, hoi siong ah!" (Translation: "Aiyoooo, so adorable/cute/interesting! Take photo, take photo!") They were referring to Asher! He became a mini-celebrity of sorts, stealing the limelight from A Famosa for those few minutes. We found it so funny that he became a 'sight' for the tourists :) But anyway, I think he, as any baby would, charmed the people we met on our trip. From toilet cleaners to stall holders, passers-by to tourists, many stopped to pat his head and say hello :)

We of course also went to walk around Chinatown (which is where Donald and Lily's is located). Pity it wasn't a Friday, otherwise we could see the Jonker Street night market as well, but it was atmospheric enough as it was.












At one of the shops, I spied some slippers that I wanted to get to replace the disintegrating pair that I was wearing. It was cheap, and so comfortable! Best of all, the sole was non-slip - great for someone who has a tendency to be clumsy like myself :) And cos the Uncle said we could get a further discount if we bought 2 pairs, Jon decided to get a pair too since his slippers aren't in the best of conditions either! I was so tickled that we were going to have the same pair of slippers because we are totally not into his-her things! This is such a rarity! Initially Jon said he wouldn't wear his slippers when I wore mine, but they were so comfortable he couldn't resist and wore them straightaway. So yes, a his-her slipper shot we never thought would happen :) But yes, if you do go to Malacca, there's a shop along the main street in Chinatown (Jalan Hang Jebat) that sells Birkenstock look-a-likes called Hipopo. A good buy!



After yet another cendol stop, we decided to head back to the hotel in style - by trishaw! The Lonely Planet describes this as a must-do activity, so in the spirit of things, we went for it! Anyway, I've never taken the trishaws in Malacca, or for that matter Singapore, before, and neither had Jon. It was so kitsch, but so fun! Our trishaw had Boney M hits like "Sunny", "Daddy Cool" and "Rivers of Babylon" blaring from it's speakers, and it was decked out in a colourful but organised mess of artificial flowers. Asher was getting tired by then, and was pretty stoned for most of the ride :) I, on the other hand, happily sang along with all the songs :O)


I love this photo! During the trishaw ride we stopped by the Maritime Museum, which is housed in a ship, to take a photo. Jon held Asher high, while I called out to him to look at me. This pic captured the moment Asher smiled and at the same time excitedly kicked about, stepping onto Jon's spectacles, causing him to make a funny face :) Priceless!
























Back at the hotel after putting Asher to bed, we ordered room service for dinner! I love room service! I don't know why, just something fun about it. I guess it's just like how I like airplane food :) Anyway, the Hotel Equitorial deal comes with RM80 in credits which you can use at any of their restaurants or for room service. It was partly why we chose to stay there, cos we figured that once we put Asher to bed we can't go anywhere for dinner, so room service suited us just fine. I must commend Hotel Equitorial on the effort they put in to make the dinner table look good. It came complete with tablecloth, napkins, and even a flower! If I'm not wrong I think most places just bring in a tray of food? Anyway, add the dim lighting (cos Asher was sleeping), and we had a lovely romantic meal. Romantically laughing over how bad the food was :) Ok, I guess the steak was alright, but really nothing to shout about. But my ayam penyet was like KFC (and maybe KFC is better), and the rice that came with it was totally dry. We also ordered a red date creme brulee cos it sounded like an interesting twist to a favourite dessert of mine, but the execution was all wrong. There was no crust of caramalised sugar to crack!! How can!! I love cracking the shell! Instead there was a dainty pile of already cracked gula melaka bits in the middle of the dish. That wasn't all, the texture of the creme brulee was all wrong. It was not light and smooth, but more like thick, rough, mousse. A well-intentioned dish, but really not to my liking. However, the best disaster was the lava chocolate cake. We were so excited that offered that dessert, and were saving it for the last. We even strategised where to cut the cake so that the chocolate inside would ooze towards to berry compote. But we cut, and cut, and ate, and ate....and never found the lava! It was a molten rock cake! We thought maybe we read the menu wrongly, and ordered a brownie, but nope, the description was clear, there should be chocolate oozing from inside!! Bleah. A disappointment, but a good laugh.


After a disturbed sleep (rem from my previous post? Asher wakes up more when he sleeps in aircon...), we awoke to the sounds of students shouting and cheering while playing tug-of-war for PE. The losing team had to march around the field :) Quite old-school, but very nonstalgic.









We had breakfast of roti chenai, teh and kopi. Jon was actually sent on a mission to find a particular roti chenai stall that the Lonely Planet had recommended which was supposed to be near the hotel. It was supposedly one of the best in Malaysia. When Jon came back and served up the food, I commented that, "oh, this is what the best roti chenai in Malaysia tastes like. It's so-so." It was only then that he sheepish revealed that actually he couldn't find the stall, tsk :O) Trying to sneak one past me! :)













Anyway, it was another lovely day for drive back to Singapore. Armed with the toys, and a filled belly, we made it back home in good time :) Wonder when our next trip will be, and to where?