Malacca Family Trip Dec 2015- Day 1

Max suggested that our family go for a trip together and because Ace had such fond memories of his Malacca school trip, we decided to visit Malacca as a family this time.. which is great for me since I have never visited Malacca before as well:)


We woke and decided to head to Mac Donalds for Aces favorite breakfast before going on the way...

Ace insisted that he has to bring this cup that Uncle Anshun gave to him for christmas... cos he wants to DABAO his iced milo and keep it cold ;)

In the car and on the way liao...

While we were driving, we saw a sign that said Johor Premium Outlet... And Max was excited and said maybe we can stop by for a while..

We walked around but din see anything exciting except Max's fav shirt brand- sacoor....

So we spent lots of time trying out and picking out clothes there which made Ace started to grumble... "This place is so boring...."

But I am glad he tries to entertain himself.. when we were in Timberland.. he told me suddenly, "Mummy, look! I can lie down and blend in to this floor... It's perfect!" Wahahaha.. and true enough.. he does look like he can blend in totally!:)

When we went back into the car, Ace took a nap....

And I fell asleep too... By the time I woke up, Max says he already found a place for lunch and we were already driving to this Vegeterian place in Yong Peng...

When I looked out of the window.. saw a huge lorry carrying really large logs...

While we were stopping to double check the GPS, saw this plot of land with lots of banana trees:)

Finally found the vegetarian restaurant we were looking for:)

The outside dun look fantastic.. but I hope the food dun disappoint ;)

The laoban niang was very friendly.. she said she is 阿里山的姑娘from Taiwan. She married here for more than 30 years liao... and she said that the people here in Yong Peng tend to like foods that have a heavier taste cos the last time she brought stuff back from Taiwan, the people here say eat liao no kick cos not spicy enough:) hahaha...

We asked her to recommend some dishes and then prayed hard that the food will be good:) hahaha

Waiting for our food to arrive....

And the food DID NOT DISAPPOINT!:) Ace says the tomato fried egg tastes like what nai nai cooks and was happy tat even in Malaysia, he can have a taste of his grandma's cooking:) hahahahah

The food is good and tastes homely.. :)

Potato leaves...

Din know can cry petai with brinjal and chilli.. IDEA!:)

The fried rice..

Though very simple, the food is so good we contemplated coming here again on our way back to singapore :) hahahaha

We had company... There was this really thin cat who came and rubbed his body around our chairs and legs...

He likes to stand near Ace though and thank goodness that after Ace's Myammar trip with his dad.. he is no longer so afraid of small animals :)

After a good meal, we went on our way again...

This time, we are met with lots of mountains around us.. I told Max that this reminds me of our drive into Oman and Fujairah when we were living in Dubai :) I love driving past mountains.. they always seem so majestic to me!:)

Also met a cool Harley Davidson gang on the road;)

And here we are!

Realized that Malacca is very high tech lor.. all the banners are LED display panels lor.. (which is why the picture did not turn out well)

Along the way, we keep seeing this "Don't mess with Meleka" banner in various formats.. Ace told me it is to remind people not to commit crime but when I googled, Mr Google says that it is actually a campaign to remind people to keep Malacca clean because littering was prevalent.

We finally reached our hotel :) We were staying in Ramada and I was a little surprised to find it all decorated up for Christmas...

I love this tree.. I think it is sooooooooooo pretty!:)

Maybe Malacca is near the sea.. so in the hotel lobby, there were many displays of ships...

When I walked back to the large christmas tree in the middle of the hotel lobby again after taking pictures all around, I realized that the hotel is running a Make A Wish program and on the tree are little tags of presents that children in need wished for this christmas...

I went forward to take a look at the wishes and I was a little amused that children all around the world seem to wish for the same things. Many of them who are around Ace's age wished for what Ace wished for-- a power bank! And some wished for MP3, Gshock Watch.. (all the things Ace like lah...) And there was only one person who wished for something different-- an electronic dictionary.

This door reminded me of the lovely door we had in our kitchen in our old 422 flat... I wonder where those doors are now... I wish we could have packed them up when we shifted out of that place...

Our room came with two slightly larger single beds.. and so I suggested pushing the beds together to which both father and son looked and me and asked, "Can meh?" Hahahaaha.. of cos can lah! If not how to sleep two adults in this bed???

Anyway, I very seasoned furniture mover in hotel rooms one.. Still remembered once when I visited Perth, me and my friends moved a piece of furniture like a sofa from one room to the other to make room for another friend joining us:) hahahaa

Ace was so impressed that the TV knows his dad's name:) hahahahaha

And then,... this is my son's idea of a GREAT HOLIDAY.. unlimited supply of movies to watch!:)

So leh... everyone rested and watched TV for a while... Ace insisted that our  whole family has to watch Chappie together cos... It is such a great movie that he cried when he watched... and we have to watch together again cos the last time he played it, his dad was not around and I was doing my own thing and not watching it with him...

But ok lah, the movie is not bad..

View from our room. Notice that most buildings here are very short? Anyway, I think Malacca is a HERITAGE CITY and so the people here are not allowed to tear down all the old old buildings to build skyscrapers and so the skyscrapers are a little furthur away...

Then after everyone is a little more rested.. we made our way to the touristy part of town- Jonker Street...

Archaeological excavations conducted by the department of National Heritage in 2006 discovered the site of the Malacca Fort. Amazing how they were only uncovered so recently...

Quaint riverside cafes and motels:)

Ace said he has done this Meleka River Cruise before when he came with his school...

By the way, MAMEE is big here.. everywhere also can see their logo and ads.. Max said it could be that MAMEE is from Malacca...

Saw some really old stones that they used to build the buildings in the olden days... these stones are cut into cubes so that it is easier to build...  Really not easy lor.. olden days the tools are not as advanced. I wonder how they cut nicely into cubes....

Family photo.... FYI, in this photo.. Ace closed his eyes.. but it was the ONLY family photo we had during this trip and so nice somemore.. all spoilt cos he closed his eyes.. sigh... ...so I copied and paste his eyes from another photo so tat at least he has OPENED EYES:) hahahahahahah...

So pretty hor:)

Malacca is a very interesting city... founded by Parameswara from Sumatra (remember him from Singapore's history?) and then taken over by the Portuguese, then the Dutch.. and eventually the British... but eventually became Islamic state... so there is a mish mash of cultures here and it can be seen in the buildings. THere are also alot of peranakan people here....

The famous must been there done that photo of that red colour church:) That is my memory of malacca before this trip...  cos that building is what I associate with this city since this picture appears all the time whenever Malacca is mentioned in reading materials...

Was quite impressed with these trishaws.. all so nicely decorated... mostly with cartoon characters.. I think to entice children to bug their parents to let them sit inside:)

My fav HELLO KITTY!:)

Another part of the fort...

Ace says, "Look mummy! Chappie!" hahahahaha...

Later in the night, these trishaws can play music and light up in the dark lor! But leh, I couldnt manage to take any pics of the trishaws with lights...

Passed by Hard Rock and Max said maybe we can come back here for dinner the next day..

Reached Jonker street and find it a little quiet.. reason being that it is a weekday.. and also, many shops are already closed except for this one that is selling the same few clothes and stuff called Jonker Gallery.. and also the eating places...

There are quite alot of Chinese temples in this area I noticed...

I know WHO will like this particular trishaw!:) hahahahaah

And so we were walking around looking for this vegeterian place called Veggie Planet... But walk and walk.. cannot find the street.. and while walking around, we even walked past and abatoir where pigs were being killed. Interestingly, I was oblivious but the two vegetarians who are animal lovers all cringed when they walked past... I din realize that they were killing pigs at all lor...

We finally asked for help and the uncle said it is quite a long walk away.. by then quite hungry liao and then I saw a sign that said that there is vegeterian meals there.. and so I told Max to check it out.. He was not sure they will sell vegeterian food and I told him they surely will... cos the poster said they had vegeterian food...

And that was the best surprise of the night cos we came to this lovely, old place called Cheng He Tea House.

Now, this building itself is very very old... it is one of the oldest buildings in this street and it was bought by a Singaporean Doctor some 30 years ago and converted into a small inn and restaurant and a few years ago, they converted their restaurant into a vegetarian tea house. According to the GM, this building is 400 years old...

This is a nicer picture of the doorway I found on the internet... just to give you the FEEL of this gem of a place:)

This house is personally owned by this person who used to be some sort of guard in the Ming dynasty.. in his house, there is even like a small room for them to welcome guests like officals and what not.. and because of this.. when Zheng He travelled around the world and arrived in Malacca, he has ever visited this place before ;) Ok.. actually all these is the GM of the place tell us when we chat with him one.. hahahaha..

I think the place also used to have puppet shows or wat..

Here is a nice picture I got of the internet of the place where they serve tea.. beyond this tea place there is a courtyard and we sat in the courtyard cos it seemed cooler:)

Here  are 2 other pictures of the courtyard in the day and night... picture I took from the internet... so quaint..

Do you see that on the left, there is a small stage? That is where they usually have traditional performances.. and also, you will see this greyish "picture".. it is actually a map that tracks the travel of Cheng Ho.. (picture above from http://rage.com.my/back-in-time/)

Check out these doors.. they have poems on them.. Max was impressed when I told him this door has a poem and even more impressive when I can read memorize the poems... Hahahaha... Cos you know why? They are poems I studied when I did Chinese Literature in school :)

Even the menu so cute:)

While waiting for our food to come, Ace took out his notebook and wrote down all the things he wanted to do during his trip:) hahahaha... and he ticked off those that he has already done:)

Max asked me what these four words meant but I overheard the GM telling someone else it was a given as a gift.. I tried to google and it means something like epitome of benovelece  and righteousness... But hor, given that the original owner of the house used to be a guard of a certain rank.. it is no wonder he was given this plaque.

Check out all the fine details in the construction..

Wonder what is the piece of history related to this peace bell...

This man in blue is the original owner of the house and this is the waiting room for officials to visit.. Kapitan Li... I think he is very respected in this area since his portrait is kept in one of the oldest  Chinese temples in Meleka-- The Cheng Hoon Teng Temple...

(PS: I found out later that Kapitan Lee Wei King, the leader of the Chinese people during the Dutch colonisation of Malacca.. dun play play okie! Also, I found out that the tea house is linked to another cafe at Jonker street.. cos Max was confused and said.. "Wah, another vegeterian place.." when he saw their poster.. I told him is same poster lah.. But we never explored that small opening.. we should have done so cos it was supposedly some time travel theme thingy they designed so peopel can walk from modern cafe into a Ming style tea house...)

More doors with poetry ;)

So we asked why is the teahouse vegeterian and the answer is cos... did you know Cheng Ho is MUSLIM? So vegeterian food is also muslim friendly mah.. hahahaha:)

Ayway, the food is good:) THe fried kway teow...

Curry toufu!:)

Vegeterian ngor hiang:)

Food is so good Max is still trying to slurp every last bit of the sauce...

His DL face when finally no more sauce.. hahahaha......

Then we noticed this small puppy from afar...

Ace cannot help it.. but had to go over to take picture.

Then i tried to go over to take some pics of this cute little few month old puppy:)

Then Max went over and asked Ace to use the laser light to attract the puppy's attention so he will sit still... same lighting but the iphone captured a much better picture than my samsung note3 :(

Ace fell in love with the puppy and kept going, "So cute.. so cute..."

Here is a video of Ace having fun with the little puppy...

After speaking with the GM, we realized there is another room to the right and went in. They have traditional peranakan wedding bed and even a wedding photo..

Then Ace said wanna go walk walk and we walked around Jonker street abit after dinner...

This is soooooo Max:) hahahaa

Then as we were walking home, we saw this long queue... and realized uncle selling fried oyster (orh jian)... and we cannot help it.. have to order a pack home to try :) hahahahah...

Aunty packing our order:)

Later as we were leaving a aunty asked the people queuing up.. "Why so long queue? Is it very nice?"

And the man shot her a "wah lau, 问废话" look and said yes it is quite nice.. tat is why got queue...

The next day when we walked past this same place, it was a different person selling a different thing.. no wonder the stall din have like zhao pai or anything like tat... Interesting!:)

Meleka is a little like Singapore in the 70s i think.. walking through the streets felt like walking around in Singapore in maybe the 70s... Many of the shops are very old... 

We even found a shop that only sells TAPES! I dun even think my son knows what a tape is...

Seems like all the good food only come out during the night.. saw this stall tat sells hum chee peng and you tiao too and when we passed by again the next day in the morning.. they are not opened lor..

Funniest part is we walked past this place called Meleka All Star Charity Club... and hor, when we walked past on our way to Jonker street, it is just filled with lots of antique looking stuff that looked like they are things from China... At night.. we heard someone singing and realized that laoban was singing on the karaoke machine lor :) hahahahahaha...

I look at all the people from other countries who are living here in Malacca... and I wonder if they had a chance to shift to singapore, will they do that.. or will they prefer to stay in this slower pace, quaint place with some charm :)

Reached home liao.. Ace bathed and then sat down to eat his mai ya tang... and wanted to continue watching the LEGO movie... (Yes, he is watching again cos he wants to watch and cos I watched with him but his dad did not...)

And the supper we bought :)

Actually mostly is egg... I dun really eat oysters but they fry till the oysters so dried and small.. I just eat lah.. since I am the only one in the family who is not vegeterian :)

Shiok!:)

Happy belly, happy night, happy dreams!:)

Malacca Family Trip Dec 2015Malacca Family Trip Dec 2015- Day 1
Malacca Family Trip Dec 2015- Day 2
Malacca Family Trip Dec 2015- Day 3

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