Malacca
June 17th, 2008 -- Posted in travel | 5 Comments »
This weekends, Sunsun and I went for a one-day road trip down to Malacca. I was scheduled for a follow-up visit to have my liver scanned at Mahkota Medical Centre, so I thought we can arrive a day earlier to roam the historical town.
Malacca (or spelled “Melaka” locally), dubbed The Historical State, is located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, on the Straits of Malacca. It borders Negeri Sembilan to the north and the state of Johor to the south. The state’s capital is Malacca Town. The town has numerous historical spots, including the famous red-painted Stadhuys Building and the many churches left from the western settlements. The key unique thing about Malacca is the ethnical varsity that differs from other parts of Malaysia, being the birthplace of the Baba-Nyonya (aka Peranakan), descendants of the very early Chinese immigrants who have partially adopted Malay customs, and home of the Kristang people, a unique ethnic group of mixed Portuguese and Asian descent. The Portuguese forefathers of settled in this area between the 16th and 17th centuries and today, they speak a distinctive Kristang language, a creole based on Portuguese and Malay.
While we roamed the town to kill time before we could check in the hotel, we couldn’t find the Portuguese Square which I was hoping to see cultural melting pot. After a few fruitless rounds, we got hungry so decided to stop for a quick lunch.
We had chicken rice balls for lunch. Ee Jin Ban is located along Jalan Melaka Raya 3 and is one of the many chicken rice spots around Malacca. Can’t compare to the one at Jonker’s Street, but it’s still really good. It has the chicken rice balls, which is claimed to be from Malacca. Not sure who had it first, but the ones I used to see in Singapore are bigger than these. While these Malacca chicken rice balls are of the size of pingpong balls, Singaporean chicken rice balls were the size of tennis balls.
Since we couldn’t get the last minute booking at Holiday Inn, I got a room at the Mahkota Floor at Mahkota Hotel instead. Not a top range hotel but it was comfortable for a night stay and is conveniently next to Mahkota Parade and Mahkota Medical Centre.
The room is really clean, though I wish they’d given us more towels and get the air conditioner vent cleaned. Other than that, it’s relatively comfortable. It has a bouncy bed for great nocturnal activities *ahem.
Not the best balcony view facing the sea like the rooms at Holiday Inn, but it’s still pleasant for an evening sunset view. In between Mahkota Hotel and Holiday Inn next door is The Jetty, a newly constructed structure built on a jetty, housing several restaurants, spas and pubs. We wanted to try the place out but decided we wanted more historical places.
Mahkota Parade, just next to the hotel, is probably the largest shopping mall in town. Though we can’t compare it to Parvillion, KL, it’s still a nice air-conditioned hideout from the heat of the afternoon.
Dinner came early next door at the new Newton Food Centre, Melaka Raya. Apparently there is an older Newton Food Centre at Banda Hilir. Unlike the crowded Newton back in Singapore, this new food centre is nicely spaced and is amazingly cooling beneath the malay styled high celing.
While trying different dishes, Sunsun claims to have found the best popiah ever. Better than even the ones in Singapore. My guess is that they use real fried pig lard instead of substitutes like the ones back home. I had what was probably the best kong-bak rice I ever tasted. The dark soya sauce is simply phenomenal!
After dinner, we drove around to catch sights of the town before it gets dark. It turned out… that the city became more beautiful as the sun set. The glow of the city at nightfall transformed the old streets into a different wonderland. I love especially the row of shophouses near the Stadhurys building painted with the same red. With the red lightings up, the place became some kind of mystical.
”... That’s me in the corner. That’s me in the spotlight, I’m losing my rel…”
From here we walked across the bridge and came to Jonker Street, a street near Chinatown full of antique shops. At night, this street came alive with more than just antiques.
At one end of the street is a street performance stage. A lady in her late years sang hokkien songs about drinking in misery while her dancing companions of similar ages grooved to tune in their personal cha-cha steps. Very cool! There was even a solo Uncle Joget in front of the stage joget-ing to his own ecstaticism.
While walking back, we saw the famous Jonker Walk Coconut Kungfu Master who smashes coconuts with his index finger. Unfortunately his show was really long winded and we didn’t wait to catch his final coconut-smashing act.
So that was that for the highlights. The rest are just a boring half-day at the medical centre. Good and bad news. My liver is in good shape, but my cholesterol level is still high. Need to work out more and cut the nasi lemak, I guess.
On the way back, we came across this beat up classic Datsun with a hand drawn vehicle plate. How crazy is that?!
