[21.9.2012] Melaka Trip Part 2

So hey.. continuing on from the first post..

Along the banks of the Sungai Melaka (Melaka River) there were some historical sights and excavations which I had shown in the earlier post. If you keep walking along in you will come upon a bridge which takes you across the river and on to the other side which has Jonker Walk.

"If this is the first time to Melaka, you must go to Jonker Walk".. thats what friends and colleagues keep telling me.

Well what's at Jonker Walk? Basically its a market of some sorts that situated in between these old authentic shop houses.  These buildings basically date back to the Baba and Nyonya period in Melaka. Baba and Nyonya are simply  peranakan people who were originally chinese immigrants who came around during the British Colonization in Melaka.

So when they said that Melaka was a heritage site, this would also be part of it as you can see how some of the old buildings were and how some shops had actually bought the old shop houses and totally made it into something better!

view when crossing the bridge

 So when you cross the street, you will be greeted by this creature. Its a dragon thats hung up and actually shoots water out of its mouth at certain periods of the day.

If you head to your left after crossing the bridge, you can find Hard Rock Cafe Melaka and get some souveniers for yourself.. (seems like one is popping up everywhere nowadays)

So what's in Jonker Walk you might ask? Well basically its a market thats very culturally themed. You can find things like pop-up cards (very pretty), magnets, Chopsticks with family surnames on them (suitable for your chinese friends or loved ones) and also food! 

The market

Chopstiks with chinese surname in chinese characters

Chinese money packets to give to people (used often during weddings in lieu of gifts)

When walking along Jonker Walk/Street you may find that a lot of the shops have been converted into restaurants and cafes and also boutiques selling unique T-shirts...

Unique boutique, they bought the whole length of the shop but they did not allow us to take pictures.. but take it from me, the interior looks awesome! Some parts had been renovated and some parts were kept authentic. The spiral staircase is interesting. 

A unique bistro.. u walk in and it opens up to a nice comfortable looking courtyard of sorts.

this is the famous chicken rice ball shop in Jonker.. The place was closing up for the day.

Unfortunately when we arrived some of the best shops had decided to call it a day or had already closed before we got the chance to try out the food. And seriously Jonker Street is pretty warm even at night.. So i dont recommend any thick clothings... T-shirt and shorts are recommended here.

As we were walking along, we noticed this nice stall selling cards.. The interesting bit about this card was that it actually can be folded up and opened up again.

As it was getting kind of warm, we went looking for this famous shop selling cendol or ice kacang which everyone seemed to recommend.. But again we managed to only see the door as it too was closed.

Closed shop...

we did however manage to go get some ice kacang from the shop next door which is also good and had a long enough line for us to be tempted to try it out. Check here to see how it really looks like. 

Manggo cendol and normal cendol.. 

I do recommend anyone coming to Melaka to try out the cendol as compared to the ones in KL, the gula Melaka here is damn thick... It was a pleasure having some chewy morsels together with the ice and coconut milk. 

After resting our tired feet and cooling down with the cendol, we decided to head out of Jonker Walk and go see the other sites around Melaka Town from the other side of the river. The hotel that was situated on this side of the river is actually a nice one. I would wonder what it looks like on the inside. 

So crossing back from Jonker we found ourselves across from the Stradhuys Building which is the old Dutch dwelling that was left behind. The dutch had built several buildings and coloured them red and as can be seen by the pics below it still looks nice.

You can enter the buildings during the day but as we were kind of late, we missed out on that chance too.

All in all the trip was a great trip and allowed me to finally say I've been to Melaka! haha.. 

But my recommendations when going to Melaka is to go early and have some small understanding of what happened here and who had conquered or colonised the place and what was the major landmarks left by them.

Also I recommend for you to wear light clothing that wouldnt allow you to get too hot as the place is freaking warm. As a Malaysian I can tell you that its warmer than normal there.  But I do recommend the place for people who like culture and walking around to see stuff. Cuti-cuti malaysia peeps!

[15.9.2012] Melaka Trip [Part 1]

Hey guys! I know i've been MIA for the past few days... The Malaysia day weekend was a crazy weekend.

So... as you know I went to Melaka for a day trip and i guess you have been waiting for it right since the promo..hehe but sorry to play with your feelings again but the Melaka  trip started way earlier than that. Initially I went to a bro's Fadzly's house and then I headed straight to Adam and Aida's open house in Melaka.  Here's a few pics of the food there and the open house pics!

 This is a pic of the selection availlable at Fadzly's.. (Clockwise above is Roasted Lamb, Nasi briyani, Beef Rendang with some papadoms, Roti Jala and Garlic Bread!)

More fine pics of the food (LOOK AT THE LAMB and the beautifully rolled up Roti Jala!)

 The Soto Ayam

Check out the Soto

and the Chocolate Fondue kinda watery

Met up with Deepak and Kimberly at the open house

So at about 2 I left Fadzly's house and went to pick up the Madamme and started the journey south. As expected, the hari raya crowd had clogged up all the roads with massive traffic jams and I only managed to pick up the Madamme at 330. Oh well I thought we could use the kajang exit and come out on the highway and be on our way to Melaka, but again we were thwarted by another traffic jam which was as a result of slow and inconsiderate drivers. 

Anyhow, by the time we arrived at Adam and Aida's open house, it was already 6 and we just came by to eat.. muahahaha.. Although the hosts were tired and we arrived well after the whole event was over, they were very welcoming and presented me with a great meal and i brought home extra's too!

So after the open houses at Adam and Aida's it seemed like it was getting late and we decided to just shoot off to Melaka town. Well thank god Melaka town wasnt that difficult to find and the GPS in my phone also helped. 

(I have to appologise now for the badly tourned out pics.. Usually the night mode looks good from my G12 but I guess it decided to give out that night. I appologise again..)

So when we arrived in Melaka, the first thing we saw was this:  

Yes!! Finally in Melaka Town and the World Heritage City!

So we managed to find a nice parking spot near the ferry and then went on to see what we could do in Melaka. Originally our plan was to go do the cruise, Jonker Walk and try the seafood and such in Melaka, but due to the lateness of it all we kinda messed up on it. Check out the following :

 So after we parked the car, we had a walk along the Melaka river. On the other side was Casa Del Rio.. a swanky looking hotel which looks pretty awesome.. I totally did not expect this and was truthfully quite thrilled to see it. I still wonder how it looks like though.

So you see the river there right, thats where the river cruise goes through... Here's pics of the cruise ticket counter. However, when we arrived the line for the ferry (not the ticket line) was sooo long that we thought we'd try it out later.. Turns out that we totally missed it as it had closed at 11.

Ticket prices are not that bad

Regular sights in Melaka.. Trishaw 

 The trishaw is really nice.. We took a ride in it later.. Costs about 25 bucks for a whole ride around the Melaka sites.. (I dont know if we got ripped off but the fella was really nice).

Replica of a Melaka water wheel

 Along the river there's a replica watermill that was created to showcase the mechanical ingenuity of the Melaka people at that time.

Explaination of the Water Wheel

Excavation  showing the old remnants of the Melaka town

More excavations

In Melaka town you can find many historical sites and structures left behind by the former colonialists and occupiers of Melaka. For those who dont know, Melaka was one of the earliest kingdom/state in Malaysia.

Melaka was a very famous trading port back then which was due to its location central to the trade routes between the east and the west. This naturally attracted the attention of the Portugese and Dutch and British who all colonized Melaka at one time.

So when you visit Melaka you can expect to find some interesting structures that are left behind which are unique to either the Portugese, Dutch or British.

Part of the old fortification that was left behind by the Portugese, Dutch and British

Showing the different layers built by the Dutch 

View from the top

There's this little charming restaurant that overlooks the river which looked rather appealing... We however didnt try for some reason hehe..

Lastly the picture above shows the history of Melaka, in this picture it shows Parameswara who created Melaka when he came to rest under the Melaka tree along the banks of the Melaka River. There his hunting dog had  encountered a mouse deer who had kicked his dog away. Seeing the bravery  and the strength of the local animals, i was decided that there would be the place where he would create a new kingdom and the rest is history i guess..

Anyhow, i'll continue on part 2 with our visit to Jonker Walk and the other sights around Melaka. Till then.. wait for it!