Spent my weekend w my ex-colleagues at Malacca over the weekend. It was planned and organized by ahem, me. haha cos they mentioned of having a getaway together and the next thing you know, tickets booked and itinerary planned and here we go! Met at Golden Mile to check in at Transtar Travels early in the morning. yup, booked the trip w Transtar cos after reviewing all the agencies online, there was a mixed reviews of certain agencies so I just tried my luck and booked with Transtar. It was a f&e package inclusive of accommodation so I guess it was pretty fine. The coach we took was under Konsortium express. Surprisingly, it was decent. There was no cockroaches whatever even though some of the seats are squeaky. lol. But other than that, it was a pleasant 4 and 1/2 hours ride to Malacca! 🙂

Our entertainment on the bus. IT WAS A CHALLENGE. haha cos the bus was rocking so the cards were moving in all directions as well

At the lobby for check in!

We stayed at Hotel Equatorial, which was just next to a megamall and a stone throw away from the places of interest. Generally, the hotel is pretty nice but one bad thing is there was no free hotel wifi so if you are wifi addict, haha too bad. :p Cos the rest were starving, we settled lunch at a random foodcourt (which we took forever to find) and had thai food (that was horrible. hahahah) I did not even finish half of mine so as to leave some stomach space for other stuffs. We split up to do some quick shopping before walking over to Jonker walk!

me and my intern 🙂

Out to explore! I remember while trying to take this photo eagerly we did not press the lift button. So after this shot, we were like why is the lift not moving? hahahah JOKE.

The horrible thai food with the pathetic prawn. Boycott the stall please.

Grabbed some A&W along the way as well. Root beer float ftw!! ❤

I don’t know what is this actually, but I this this used to be a Dutch house/Late Malacca Museum. haha

There were lots of this flower-ed trishaws around. haha I mean, it’s interesting. But I wouldn’t spent money to be on it.

The area map

St Paul Church. I know right, which part of it looks like one?! haha

The description of the church.

On the way to Christ Church/The Stadthuys Building. They were trying to help Anna pack her souvenirs haha just in case you are wondering what they were all doing

Tada! The coral red building you always see on Malacca itinerary.

The stretch of shops selling souvenirs

I still remember the person doesn’t understand I wanted her to help us take this photo. lol. She was looking at me with a puzzled look. haha

The bridge that connects to Jonker Walk. Love how this photo gives me a nostalgic feeling. hehe

And this is the famous Jonker Walk everyone! Yeah it’s still early so all the stalls are not up. It’s a very different story at night. haha

So we walked the whole stretch and continued on our eating trail. First up, durian chendol at Jonker 88 dessert stall! With an additional order of laksa and ah mah fish cake 🙂 I heard the reviews on this chendol stall and I die die must try. hahaha. I’m actually not a personal fan of chendol, but somehow my tastebuds changed. LOL. I love how the fragrance of the coconut milk + the softness of the green jelly + the sweetness of the gula melaka. The gula melaka is definitely different from all that I had tasted. This one is especially sweet and nice. While standing outside the stall, we observed a long queue (had no idea what they q-ing for) but we later learned they were buying laksa. So we bought a bowl to try and hmmm, it tastes really different. hahah. I guess we prefer our normal sg laksa. So moral of the story? It does not always necessarily mean the stall w the longest q serves the best food. haha. BUT, ah mah fish cake was a surprise! It is actually ngoh hiang which you get to choose a variety of dishes and pair it with their special made sauce.

The stall! The chendol stall is on the left while the laksa is on the right.

yay!!

I ordered the durian chendol but I think the portion of the durian paste is a lil too little 😦

Laksa, which looks like yong tau foo laksa in a diluted laksa soup base. haha

The ah mah fish cake. THIS IS REALLY GOOD. MUST TRY OK. I approve. haha

The stall is hidden inside so you have to go inside to order

I was full after half a bowl of chendol + few pieces of fish cake. hahaha. I think I have a small stomach nowadays, get full pretty easily though I love to savour all the good food 🙂 Next up was street snacks! We bought peppermint 麥芽糖 to try. It was my first! I mean, you don’t get to eat such traditional candies often what more is peppermint flavoured. And on to dim sums they were selling at the roadside. hahaha. It was just so tempting!

Peppermint 麥芽糖

So tempting right! haha

Fresh & piping hot! haha I swear anymore food and I’m gonna throw up

We passed by the filming site of Little Nonya, which is the Baba and Nonya Museum but sadly, they closed pretty early. Would definitely take a chance to tour the museum the next time 🙂

Familiar? haha

Dinner was at Capitol Satay. Again, I researched and it was pretty famous. So we walked over from Jonker and to our horror, there was a long q forming infront of the shop. Sadly, we took 2 hours before we finally got a seat. Our legs were pretty much giving way already. hahaha. In short, it was worth the price but definitely not worth the wait. We paid like $6.50 sgd each for all the food we ordered! HOW CHEAP! haha. The satay was different too. It was not like our normal grilled satay over the charcoal but instead, they had the satay sauce in a pot and you grabbed all the ingredients and dipped to eat with it.

The sky was still bright when we reached. And yes, it only opened at 5pm! hahaha. I highly recommend to go at like 430pm.

Entertaining ourselves with diamond dash

The never ending q. haha See, the sky had already darkened.

At the legs-really-cannot-take-it moment. lol

You can grab anything you want. They have a variety of food! Towards the end, the helper would put a bunch of big jumbo prawns + other stuffs on the tray, you do not have to eat them! If not, you have to pay extra for them.

The sauce being prepared on the spot

My favourite? Quail eggs + taiwanese sausage + fishballs. haha super awesome.

I guess the first 10 minutes is the nicest. LOL. This is cos when the gravy is thick and you can really taste the satay. I mean they subsequently will come every now and then to make the sauce to the right combination but just that the condiments always sink to the bottom of the pot so it gets v diluted on top. Okay, so 2 hours later we had 120+ sticks and 9 v full people. haha and yes, only $6.50 per pax!! The next time, I would not try Capitol again. hahaha. 2 hours? No way.

The 2 survivors left. hahaha

We went back to Jonker Walk to walk the night market and they eventually settled for oyster omelette. I gave them the I-cannot-believe-them face. We just had dinner like….. less than 1 hour ago?! hahahah. I did not try the omelette cos me really cannot endure any more food. And they say the night is still young, so we settled at this random pub drinking the night away.

my cocktail!

Tequila pop

So we had alot of drinks. haha. And we played guess the number as well. The 10 bottles of beer was gone in no time, shared by 5 of us and they ordered more tequila pop after that. Gosh, the stomach was filled with water! haha

Cheers!

pop!

My checker 😀 She’s the best checker in the whole wide world. haha ❤

We walked back to the hotel after this and just before reaching, they stopped by Macs to get macs!! I was like @@ either my stomach is too small or they are really really hungry. Time check. 2am. We had just ate and drank for 12 hours. HAHAHA.

The next morning the 3 young ones woke up early to buffet breakfast, provided by the hotel. The breakfast was surprisingly not bad! hahaha I think maybe cos I had no expectations of everything there so the outcomes are more desirable than what I imagined. Then we went to the megamall to shop. The shops opened pretty early! I mean comparing with sg, they opened at like 10am! haha. And then we decided to settle lunch there as well. We had chicken rice for lunch cos I know malacca chicken rice is different. But no, we did not try the famous one cos there was not enough time so sadly, the one we tried was really bad. hahahaha. I will try the chung wah chicken rice ball the next time round. I WILL.

Please do not try this chicken rice stall. LOL

While waiting for the food

damn pathetic lah

So we had desserts after that at Nadeje. We had a hard time finding the place. hahaha. The mall is a freaking maze please. My checker strongly recommended the cakes cos it’s different. It’s a type of layered cake with thin crepe underlying each layer. It’s pretty nice! I like the original one best cos the tiramisu and strawberry just tasted normal, like nothing special. The chocolate one was alright~

Original

Tiramisu

Strawberry

YUMS

And then it was time to go back to the hotel, but me and my intern decided to buy kitty specs cos they were simply too cute. hahaha. And we made the rest pose in them too. haha. Thanks for being so spontaneous.

HAHA

okay last photo. haha cos we slept right away after that. It was pretty nice to sleep if not for I need to use the toilet urgently. LOL. But to our horror, the bus driver did not stop at any rest stops! So once he reached custom, we just ran. HAHAHAH. and this bus driver is damn awesome. He took 3 and 1/2 hours to reach sg from malacca!!!

I think it is really cool to have short trips like these occasionally. It does not help bond friendship but also create a different sense of understanding towards your own colleagues. What more to have a team of people that cliques along well is something that should be treasured. Though my stay was short, I’m glad all of you are part of it 🙂