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.

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. For a great selection of places to stay with discount prices visit Melaka Hotels for more info.

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.

Ah yes, boyfriend and I went down to Melaka/Malacca on yesterday afternoon with the help of GPS from Nokie E71, our very own road-guide. Thanks G we didn’t get lost though we went to a wrong direction once.

It was an extremely short trip. We started the journey at 4.30pm and arrived Melaka town, Jonker Walk to be exact, at 6pm. Spend about two and half hours there before we headed home at 8.30pm. Return toll ticket was around RM25.

We walked through the long lane of Jonker Walk, also known as Jonker street or Jalan Hang Jebat, an open air night market that looks like Petaling Street (read: Chinatown in KL) but is more exciting cause of the old buildings along the lane. My first time there as Jonker Walk didn’t open when I went to Melaka on Chinese New Year Eve 2008.

Next, we walked to Stadhuys, the reddish building, which is located at the opposite side of Jonker Walk. A quick sightseeing before we headed off for dinner at some dimsum restaurant, that we came across after driving through a confusing road of Melaka town. Wanting to go to Dataran Pahlawan shopping complex but couldn’t find the parking lot. Besides, it was so wtf if we went to shopping complex there since Melaka is known as a historical town instead of a shopping town. Enough of shopping complex, we can find a bigger one in KL.

I was craving for the chicken rice ball but the famous Chung Wah kopitiam was closed already and so did Hoe Kee chicken rice ball. Left only Famosa chicken rice ball which (people said) is expensive and doesn’t taste nice. You could see the word disappointment being stamped on my forehead. What is going to Melaka mean if I don’t get to eat the very famous chicken rice ball? Both restaurants didn’t open too during my 2008 CNY trip. I thought I would be able to try it this time, but no, they didn’t open for dinner. Now you can see the word disappointment falls onto my head and breaks me into pieces.

Spot a man that was camwhoring with his phone camera.

I don’t mind not having the chance to eat the ‘satay celup’ and ‘cendol’ cause all I want is chicken rice ball! You know, the feeling of wanting to try something (that everyone has been talking about) so much but after several attempt you still not able to try it. It s*cks big time. But never mind, I’m in the acceptance stage now which means I have somewhat overcame the disappointment and able to accept it now.

Put aside that chicken-rice-ball disappointment, it was a great trip. A quick escape from a busy city to a historical city with the love one is priceless. Really.

7 Feb 2008, 1st day of Chinese New Year / Che It

Dong Dong Jiang! It was the 1st day of Chinese New Year, Che It. Bye bye Piggie year. Welcome rat/mice year. My bro and I wore Ang ang / red red. Hopefully it will be a better year for all of us.

The hotel provided 2 complimentary breakfast for each room. They have about 12 sets, mostly western menu and nasi lemak. I ordered the huge set with 10″ sausage (if I not mistaken) so I could share with my mum.

After that, we went to Stadhuys and waited for the ‘Hop On Hop Off’ bus.

Took picture in front of Christ Church.

A candid shot in front of the fountain.

The uncle took the picture of 5 of us. Almost 1 hour and still no sign that the bus is coming, while the tour buses kept coming and dropped the travelers. We continued the walk to the other side of the hotel with so many museums along the street.

Dataran Pahlawan and the shopping complex.

The colourful and flower-ful beca.

We went to A Famosa (fortress gate) and the St. Paul’s Hill.

It was hot. The sun was so eager to say Hi to all of us. I felt tired hiking up the ladders. This is the sign that I am lack of exercise. Duh..

Enough of the sightseeing, we walked back to the ship area. That was when we saw the double decker ‘Hop On Hop Off’ bus coming. Without wasting time, we took a ride on it, RM 5 / person. Not bad, with that price we could see Malacca town already, even cheaper than the Malacca cruise.

During the journey, I saw this cafe named ‘Kafe Bulldog’ serving Nyonya food. -__-” I just felt weird hearing bulldog as a cafe name. Couldn’t get away with the bulldog face. The bus also went to Malacca Sentral, bus station, opposite Tesco.

After 1 hours plus, it drove back to Stadhuys where we hopped off. It was already noon when we finished our lunch and finished packing. Unlike hotels in Medan which allow you to check out at 1pm, this hotel is quite strict. The staff called and reminded us that check out time is at noon.

Bye Malacca, you will always be in my memory. I’ll pay you another visit some time within this year. What I regretted was that I haven’t tried the famous rice ball with golf size.

We checked out at 12sth and took the van to KL. It was the same van that took us from LCCT to Malacca. This time we had 15% discount from the previous price. But since we were heading to Bukit Bintang instead of LCCT, we gotta pay another RM80, which made the taxi fare became RM330 from Malacca to Bukit Bintang, KL. Again, it was for the sake of convinience. If it wasn’t peak season, we would take bus instead of taxi.It was a hot day. The car’s aircon broke, we gotta be glad with the wind from outside. In about 1 hour plus, we reached KL already. Before dropped us at the hotel, the driver brought us to the chocolate factory somewhere near Imbi road. They accepted credit card with minimal purchase, Rupiah, SGD, and USD.

Done with the chocolate shopping, we were dropped at Agora Hotel, where we spent the next 4 nights. The check in was smooth. The room was clean but no Astro and bathtub. After took a rest and had some shower, we start the shopping time. Off we went to BB plaza which is opposite the hotel and walked to Sungei Wang. So many shops were closed until Saturday or Sunday.

Enough of Sungei Wang, we took Monorail from Bukit Bintang station to Maharajalela station. From there, Chinatown a.k.a. Petaling Street a.k.a. Ci Cong Kai was in walking distance. I preferred to go Chinatown in the evening or night. Less hot, more stalls.

Like the previous visit, I was hunting for Rolex watches for my Dad. -__-” We went from stall to stall until we found what we want. It was a hard time bargaining the price with the seller. Last year I could get that watch at RM65. This time, 2 watches almost RM200. Aiyoyo..Through the bargain, the seller knew that we were Medanese. Then he said that his wife is a Medanese too, though her house is not in the Medan city itself, but Sunggal, near the famous Sunggal He-Ci stall. He even shown us her IC and their pic at SiPisoPiso waterfall. Bah.. The world is so small.Consider pe pe Medan lang, he gave us harga pas instead of discount price. -__-” RM160 but I still didn’t satisfy with it. After a long bargain, we closed the price at RM155. Ai si, what a tiring bargain.

Then Mum saw the bag that she wanted. Another hard time of bargaining. From speaking Mandarin, this young man (the seller) spoke Hokkien with us. -__-” We then knew that he was from Johor. The price stopped at RM75. We cao and came back again for a few times, but he still couldn’t gave it cheaper, not even cheaper by RM1. Duh.. Mum wanted it so badly, we came back to the stall when it was about to close. After sold the bag to us, he offered to be friend with me. -__-” Sorry, man.We ended the night at almost 10pm and went back by Monorail.

6 Feb 2008, Chinese New Year Eve / Sa Cap Meh

We took the 10.40am (GMT + 07:00) Airasia flight, from Medan to KL. Arrived LCCT (KL) at 12.30pm (GMT + 08:00). There were 6 of us; mum, bro, I, mum’s friend, her husband and daughter.

On the earlier plan, I thought of taking bus from LCCT to Pudu Raya, continue with bus from Pudu to Malacca bus station, and taxi from the bus station to the hotel. It took time and I didn’t wana risk having all tickets sold out at Pudu bus station since it was a peak season. Some more I had 2 senior citizens with me. So, for the sake of convinience, we decided to take taxi.

I went to the taxi counter and asked for the taxi fare from LCCT to Malacca / Melaka. The lady suggested me to take a van / limo at RM297 rather than a taxi-for-4 people that is almost RM200 (which means, we will need 2 taxi). So off we went to Malacca with van. In less than 1 1/2 hour we already reached Malacca town.

Looking for Aldy hotel wasn’t that hard because it’s near with the reddish Stadthuys building and the other historical places. That’s the reason of why I booked it. Thanks to streetdirectory. But still, we missed a turn, terlewat. After the Stadthuys building, we should turn left and would see the 4-level-red-colour hotel. It is beside the Police station anyway.

The ground floor is a bistro. According to the signage, receptionist area is at the 1st floor. So, 6 of us took the lift along with the luggage. When the lift’s door opened, SURPRISED~! The receptionist counter was in front of our eyes. I couldn’t lie that there was only 4 of us, but 6. Actually I booked 2 rooms, with 2 persons each room. So, additional two persons were charged at RM20/person + RM30 since it was a peak season. Two persons = RM100. Dammit! The rooms itself is at about RM150/room. Sa Cap Meh already threw away money. Duh.. Lesson learnt: It’s better if only 1 or 2 person go check in. After get the room’s key, ask the rest to go to the particular level. Done!

I didn’t take the picture of the room but after all, it’s clean. There is Jacuzzi at the roof top, open at 9am – 7pm if I not mistaken. At the other side of the roof top is a BBQ place.

Later in the evening, we took a ride on Malacca river cruise, RM 10 / person for 45 minutes. As if travelled through time to the old town with old buildings where mesothelioma didn’t exist.

This was my 2nd time to Malacca. The 1st time was 5 or 6 years ago during the senior high school time, followed the study groups’ tour.

All I could remember is the reddish buildings, fountain, some Portugal bastion and a ship’s replica.

It was quite hard to look for makan-ing places because it was Chinese New Year eve. Duh.. Luckily Dataran Pahlawan and Mahkota Parade were in walking distance. After bought Digi simcard, we had our late reunion dinner at Seoul Garden. It was 1 hour plus before it closed. So sayang or else we could eat more.

A few bites of oranges ended our night. It was 11 sth when we were about to sleep. But the music from the bistro downstairs made me couldn’t sleep. I am extremely sensitive; I can’t sleep with any noise. Luckily it’s not the house music type of songs but slow one. My mind wandered here and there. And zzzz….