Melaka-trippin’ – BS x PJ CG 26/3/16
The one thing everyone should have in mind is that sometimes (more often than not) during roadtrips or travels anywhere for that matter, nothing goes according to plan.
Much thought and planning had gone into the itinerary for our Melaka trip weeks before the date of the trip. Note also that there were 3 of us on the planning committee for the trip: Quennie, Janelle and I. The initial plan was:
Date: 26th March 2016 [ sleepover in church on Saturday night is optional but encouraged! :) ]
Time: 7.30a.m
Budget: rm50 - rm100
Itinerary:
7.30am - Depart from FGAKL
9am - Reach Malacca
- Breakfast @ Lung Ann Refreshment Kopitiam (authentic kaya toast)
- Pork Satay @ Sun May Hiong Satay House
11.30am - Jonker Street
- Lunch @ Kedai Kopi Chung Hwa (chicken rice balls)
- Jonker 88 or Justberry’s Cendol & Durian creampuff
- Sightsee (Christ Church, Dutch Square, Queen Victoria’s Fountain, Clock Tower, The Stadthuys)
- A Famosa (10 minutes walk)
- Bunga Raya Pork Popiah (opens @ 1pm)
- Baba Charlie (buy their kuih for a short picnic by the beach)
4.30pm - Klebang Beach
- coconut milkshake
- Pantai Klebang (10mins drive away from coconut place)
- Putu Piring Tengkera (opens @ 6pm)
6.30pm - Dinner.
- Satay Celup: Ban Lee Siang (15 mins drive from beach)
- Mango Shake @ Joes Only One Mango Juice (opens @ 5.30pm)
8pm - Leave Malacca
10pm - Reach FGAKL for Sleepover.
But now, scratch this itinerary off as this is how our trip actually panned out.
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Bright and early, we all gathered at the church basement as the sun came out – but as usual, there will always that one person (or two) who can never keep to their timing. When we confirmed the attendance of everyone who could make it, our drivers (Ram and Brian) got the vans running and checked. Everyone from the Bangsar and PJ CG were jumbled up as the point of this trip was to bond with people outside the comforts of our respective CGs.
Somehow or rather, I still ended up in a van with familiar faces and it was a pleasure to be seated next to my CG leader, Rebecca. She has always been someone I could vent out my feelings to and during the stretch of our journey to Melaka, a heart-to-heart session was in play.
We arrived in the land of the baking sun around 10.30am, and as the heat had already begun to dance up above us, we braced our stomachs for a day of being full-on gluttons.
The first on our agenda was the Pork Satay at Sun May Hiong Satay House (I don’t know, for the life of me, how I know the name of this shop but I do and it’s all thanks to my foodie-buddies) which only starts it’s operating hours at 11.30am. Being 30 mins early, Quennie got the owner to let us take our seats and wait until they were ready to serve us. Brian ordered 60 satays for 18 of us and I bet their stomachs were secretly thanking him for relieving their hunger pangs although he may never hear of it (except for me; not really much of a pork satay fan).
Lesson #1: Always make sure someone in your group knows how to speak Mandarin/Hokkien when you go to places where people only know how to speak Mandarin/Hokkien. Sometimes being a ‘banana’ – yellow on the outside, white on the inside – is useless, especially when it comes to ordering food.
After a hearty breakfast of pork satays, we made our way to Jonker Street for the ‘great-big-binge’. Jonker Street has been deemed a tourist attraction with it’s wide variety of food-vendors and knick-knack shops. The whole stretch of road is an expedition on it’s own, especially at night when it happens to be more ‘alive’.
We stopped for one of our must-haves – Chicken Rice Balls at Kedai Kopi Chung Hwa. This is one of Malacca's pride and joy. Whenever someone goes to Jonker Street, they are sure to get themselves some rice balls. Although overrated, it is still something people look forward to eat whenever they find themselves in Melaka, specifically at Kedai Kopi Chung Hwa. This kopitiam serves one of the best Chicken Rice Balls, and their portions of Roasted/Steamed chicken are as generous as it gets. It is so good that this particular kopitiam is always packed during lunchtime and when we arrived, we had to be escorted to their extended shoplot to be seated and served.
As we had to cancel out a few things from our itinerary, we had ample of time to chill and go slow on the binge.
Next up, Cendol. Since Daniel kept going on and on about his Cendol-experience– with added sound effects, if I might add – when he came back from Malacca a few months ago, we let him lead the way. Apparently, the chendol at Melaka tastes way better than the one we have back in KL as it all depends on the Gula Melaka and its authenticity. Unfortunately, one can sing as many praises for the Malaccan cendol but I’m satisfied with the cendol I get access to in Kuchai, where an Indian uncle serves cendol and rojak below a tree which is next to the bus station. Another place one can find good cendol is at Brickfields – there’s a lovely Chinese couple who sells some great-tasting cendol near YMCA and if you fancy something else, they even have ice-kacang and thirst-quenching coconut water. How convenient is that?
[ Photo credits: Chloe Foo ]
After cooling ourselves down with some cendol and durian puffs (both of which I had to turn down due to being sick and not being a durian fan), we split up into two groups. A handful of us roamed around the alleys at Jonker Walk to discover things and backdrops to photograph and we even checked out cafes which were slightly hidden behind a front row of shops. The rest of them made their way to a nearby mall to get coolness of the air-conditioning and just get away from the heat.
Despite all the sightseeing we were supposed to do if we were to have complied with the itinerary, we managed to stick to one, at the very least – We walked up those steep flights of stairs to St. Pauls Church, otherwise known as Church of Our Lady of Annunciation (Perpetual Help). I’ve been to Malacca million times but this was probably the first time I have actually been up there. Although left in ruins for almost 150 years, it is deemed a tourist attraction for the history it entails – let’s just say, the lighthouse that was built at the very front was used as a storage for gunpowder by the Portuguese. Inside what’s left of the holy sanctuary are tombstones of Dutch nobility which have died here; these tombstones line the church walls’ decaying interior. This Dutch burial vault was set up in 1952 when Malacca was the only port in the Straits. But put aside the eerie feeling of being in the midst of a graveyard and look at it as a historical study, you immediately breathe in a lighter atmosphere. And plus, when you walk out of the church, you find yourself at the tip of Malacca’s ‘iceberg’ and you get to feel the world at your feet.
Making our way back to the van, next on our agenda was the Klebang Coconut Milkshake. This is what everyone looks forward to after a long day of basking in the sun. But once again, I had to opt out. This time, instead of downing 2 huge glasses of coconut shakes like I did the last time, I had to order coconut water (damn you, flu bug). The line, as expected, was unbelievably long and even if we waited to be seated, it’ll take at least 30 minutes. So we all ordered take-away and finished it on the way back to our vans – so much for enjoying it by the beach)
As we were already in the area, we stopped by Klebang Beach. It’s not much of a beach per-se as the heat had left the beach a dry, barren land but when we drove in further, we saw so many cars parked at the foot of where the ‘sand-dunes’ were located at. That’s where we were headed. It was a 15 to 20 minute walk just to reach the Sand dunes and it was so worth it. The sand was so white and clear and immediately, before the sun went down, Jon rounded us up and got us to position ourselves for our group shot. We arrived at the perfect time as the sun was still shining bright and before we left, we at least got to witness the sun set – beautiful hues of red and pink were dancing in the sky.
This is THE place for photoshoots, literally. I KID YOU NOT. See for yourselves :)
Photo credits: Jonathan Richard
It started getting dark and with our hunger pangs pounding hard against our stomach walls, we were off to enjoy our final meal in Malacca – Satay Celup. On our way out of the area, we unfortunately experienced a minor incident. As we were heading out, we had to go through a height limitation bar, which scrapped the paint off the roof of the van. And it happened to both the vans we drove to Malacca. We held up traffic and in the midst of panic, we were so thankful to those passers-by on motorcycles which offered us advice to release air from our tires. Both the vans made it through the bar and we went straight to the nearest petrol station to check out the damage. The damage, although not major and no one got hurt, was still damage that needed to be paid for. So that was our only worry. But other than that, there was nothing much that could be done and so we headed straight for dinner.
It was hard to enjoy our meal after experiencing such a stressful situation but we enjoyed our satay celup in good spirits and made the most of our few moments left together here in Malacca.
We made it back home before the clock struck 12am. I was so tired and my body so sticky but my heart was so full from the hours I got to spend with really good company; I got to spend time with people whom I usually never get a chance to say more than just a ‘Hi’ or a ‘Bye’ to. And that was gold.
When I finally hit my bed, it was to Dreamland from here on out. *sweet sweet dreams*
P.S - Melaka/Malacca, same same difference. Don't mind the Malaysian in me. :)
Love always, Krissy xx