Upon reaching Indonesia?s Presidential Election Day, lots of people was getting this scare-if-there-would-be-riot kinda feeling. Or it could be just my neighbors whom felt so. But, the election day went smooth. Pfiuh.

In one day time, the quick count result was out and SBY, our current President, has the highest point (more than 50%). There was no riot, demonstration, whatsoever. Pfiuh.

Now, it is almost 10 days since the election day and we are living in peace. NOT! Somebody decided to break the peace and the result was the huge explosion at JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton, Jakarta, this morning. Great choice of places! And right timing cause MU was scheduled to come to Jakarta on tomorrow.

This is not the first explosion for JW Marriott. I remember they experienced once back in 2003 (if not mistaken) and wtf they never learn from experience is it?

Whoever did this, whatever your motive is, you have done a ‘very good’ job in spoiling this country (image, reputation, the people, everything). Sigh. *zip mouth to prevent from saying unnecessary thing*

Every place has its own delicacies and so does Melaka, with the chicken rice ball, cendol, satay celup, popiah, and other Nyonya foods. I think travel agents should include some culinary tour into their travel deals for destination like Melaka.

But, I don’t have interest in trying those delicacies, except the Hainanese chicken rice ball from Chung Wah kopitiam. I wanted to try it so badly. But, when I went there with boyfriend on last April, the stall (both Hoe Kee and Chung Wah) was already closed. Left the infamous Famosa Chicken Rice Ball. *disappointed*

So on last June, we decided to go down Melaka earlier abit so we can have lunch at Chung Wah kopitiam. After exploring Melaka zoo for more than 1 hour, we headed down to Melaka town.

It was almost 3pm when we arrived and immediately located the Chung Wah kopitiam at the corner of Jonker Walk (Jonker street), opposite OCBC bank.

Chung Wah is well known for the chicken rice ball and the crowd (long queue). Luckily we arrived after lunch hour. It was full house, but there was less people coming in already. And they closed before 5pm.

One person = one plate = 5 pieces of rice ball. I managed to finish all. Yay to me!

Boyfriend and my brother still felt hungry so we ordered another 10 rice ball for both.

The hainanese chicken wasn’t cooked 100% but 90%, or so I heard. It is yummylicious, but not something oh-so-wowing though.

Here’s the man behind the yummilicious and famous chicken rice ball.

One more thing that hasn’t fulfilled yet is to visit the Baba Nyonya museum. Mum has been wanting to pay a visit ever since she watched the Singapore-Malaysia drama called The Little Nyonya. -__-” We did go there on last June, but the museum was closed already – it was almost 5pm.

Never mind, there will be next time.

During the chatting last night, boyfriend informed me that IKEA will be having SALE during mid of July until mid of August. Hah! He knows that I love IKEA products (but never have a chance to buy them except for a small book rack, cause it was too pricey for a student like me) and I always get exciting with coupons and sale or discount.

Call me cheap skate, whatever. I need to be thrifty at some point, since we are in long distance relationship which requires us to take flight quite often to see each other. Enough to dry our pocket. *sweat*

So, a good girlfriend is there to help the boyfriend to save , such as using coupon code when buying domain name and hosting (in my case). For girlie girl, you can buy make-up products using E.L.F. Cosmetics Coupons with up to 50% off for certain products.

Bottom line, coupon is my new best friend now. Back to IKEA sale, too bad it doesn’t happen at the right place and right time. I’ll just continue to adore their products from the online brochure.

My first visit to Melaka, the historical town in Malaysia, was on 2002. It was a study tour with high school mates including Penang, KL and Melaka. The only thing that I remember from Melaka was the red building, the huge ship museum and that it was a boring small town.

The mindset changed when I had my second trip to Melaka on early 2008 with family. We took the river cruise, went to the red building ‘Stadhuys‘ and other historical monuments, and took HOHO – Hop On Hop Off bus to go around Melaka town. It was Chinese New Year, bad timing to visit Melaka, cause shops at Jonker Street a.k.a Jonker Walk and the Chinese restaurants were closed.

But, the second trip changed my impression. Melaka turn out to be a very interesting town and 2 days 1 night is definitely not enough if one really wants to explore the town – including foods.

The third trip was on last April, when I strolled down Jonker Walk/Jonker Street with boyfriend. The architecture of the old shops and buildings along Jonker Walk was really amazing. The down side of this trip was, the chicken rice ball from Chung Wah was closed already, cause by the time we arrived it was 6pm.

The fourth trip was on last June, with family and boyfriend. Highlight of the trip was to eat the famous hainanese chicken rice ball from Chung Wah kopitiam. Before that, we visited Melaka Zoo first. It is said to be the 2nd largest zoo in Malaysia after zoo negara (correct me if I’m wrong), so we thought it should be worth visited. And yes, it even turn up to be better than zoo negara cause it has more trees so visitors can hide from the bright sunny sun. Another thing, the zoo was quite clean and not smelly, except at some certain places.

I can’t help but to think of Faber Castell watercolor pencils – where the front part of the packaging is a painting of two parrots.

First time ever seeing Tapir.

Look, Ma! It’s Rafiki from Lion King the Disney movie! Erm, I mean, a baboon.

Welcome to ‘my family’ kingdom! I’m a shio tiger, that’s why. The weather was quite hot and I think it affected them.

But this tiger was quite active, kept walking forth and back.

The tigers were sleeping at the back, can’t really see them.

The ugly crocodile.

Don’t know what is this called. The right hand side looked young and healthy. The left hand side looked aging and oh so skinny, the two-legs-at-the-back couldn’t even stand straight. Sigh.

The deer family.

The cutie primate. A visitor threw some food to him and he shared it with his mate. So sweet.

Giraffes and us. Although boyfriend doesn’t like to take picture but his camwhoring skill is still as good as ever.

Another pic.

The handsome/beautiful bird.

Hello, ostrich!

Bottom line, the Melaka Zoo is large enough with loads of animals from various kingdoms. Kids should be brought there so they can have a real life lesson, instead of sitting in the classroom and learn from textbook’s pictures.

I received the news that one of the Freundschaft-er (read: senior high school friend. Freundschaft is our class name.) was in town. Suz is taking two weeks leave from her-job-in-Singapore.

So, we had a meet up last night at Sun Plaza and dinner at Pizza Hut. Just the 3 of us, since a few cannot make it and a few has lost contact. Their impression towards me is,”OMG! You’re getting thinner. What’s wrong? Stress?” Yes, I know, physically I look skinnier and the number on the weight scale has decreased too, which is not done on purpose. So now, when most of my friends are working on how to lose fat in 3 months or so, I’m working on gaining my weight.

Me, the artsy fartsy designer, and Suz, the lab researcher (focus in cancer).

With our Ms.dentist.

It’s been 6 years since we graduated from school. Back then we planned to have reunion after (or every) 5 years, but it never happened. Well, a few of them did gather a few times – with most of the time I didn’t know or couldn’t attend – but it never reach half of the class. It is hard to get everyone coming home and have a gathering, due to each other location and work.

The old song ‘Graduation’ (Friends Forever) by Vit C is playing in my head now.

And so we talked all night about the rest of our lives
Where we’re gonna be when we turn 25
I keep thinking times will never change
Keep on thinking things will always be the same
But when we leave this year we won’t be coming back
No more hanging out cause we’re on a different track
….

It’s just one of those days, of me being melancholy and thinking back about the past (read: school time).