weekend trip to muar and melaka {mega pic post}

during lunch on one of the hot, humid weekday afternoons, my boss (kelvin) had the idea of going on a short trip to my colleague’s (ally) home town of muar and swinging by melaka. so the few of us decided that ‘yes’ we should and weeks later, we finally packed our bags for a quick 2 day trip to visit malaysia. we practically ate and shopped through the 2 towns. can’t imagine that i could eat that much…

to avoid the weekend human traffic, we had to take the 545AM bus from singapore to JB, then another 730AM bus from larkin terminal to muar! you can guess how zombified we were…

here’s ally and her bf, chris-BEE, our very kind host and tour guides. i guess they’re used to the early morning trips back to malaysia. how could they look so fresh!?

the other zombies – jamie (ex-colleague), kelvin (dunno chatting with who at 530 in the morning) and shirley (who was out partying the night before and never slept)

we had wanton mee at larkin terminal, but some of them found that it was not that nice, so kelvin had a 2nd round of nasi lemak while waiting for the 730AM bus. for the record, i thought the noodle was quite nice. (food round 1 – breakfast)

we got single seats! so comfortable. and hence begins our 2hr coach ride back to the rustic town of muar…

kel and jamie got the “couple” seats instead. hahaha

when we got to muar, ally’s mum (here on left) came to pick us up in cars and we visited their very nice house. she was very hospitable and made us tea and served us pong piah. (food round 2 – snacks)

After that, we went over to the hotel and dumped our bags in the 1 room they could release to us (we checked in way earlier than the stipulated time) and headed to get massages done. The massage was quite good and i sort of chickened out from a thai body massage and had my feet done instead. after the massage, we went to the coffeeshop opposite to wait for ally and her bf to arrive. kelvin felt peckish and had some pork soup while the rest had drinks. (food round 3 )

very fresh fruits from shop near our hotel. <click to enlarge>

here’s our hotel – streetview hotel near glutton street. nice little boutique hotel, clean and comfortable.

we all got our individual king-sized beds! and the shower was equally comfortable – good water pressure! (very very important)

after meeting up with ally and chris, we drove down to a nearby fishing village (by nearby, it’s about 20mins away) and we went to have a very nice seafood lunch.

It’s a REAL fishing village. People were cleaning fishes, and there were boats everywhere. <click to enlarge>

Does someone stay on the boat? <click to enlarge>

Lunch! Sotong with prawns and petai / orh lua / assam fish / and tofu. All extremely delicious, and it’s only 2PM in the afternoon… (food round 4 – lunch)

jamie with 2 bags of huge guavas. I bought 2 bags full as well – that’s 7 guavas for 10ringgit (about S$4.40)

after lunch, we drove directly up to melaka. Kelvin became our chaffeur instead, with ally as v-commander. it was quite fun, rather like a little road trip. well the scenery was just plants, plants and more plants…

melaka! we were parked near the river, so of course, it was time for photo-opp…

for the record, i didn’t ask them to do that. kelvin did…

quaint little cheng ho teahouse. more pictures further down.

i love the colours of this house. white-washed walls and dark wood. must take note for future house.

rustic streets of melaka. love the laidback feel. <click to enlarge>

this mosque is quite famous for it’s architecture. it’s muslim but has hindu influences in the building design. for example this minaret is not the usual one with the dome on top, but looks more like a pagoda. <click to enlarge>

we then headed into cheng ho tea house for some ‘kungfu tea’. it was such a serene little place where the people just drank and appreciated chinese tea, and the teahouse owner’s friends would come by and gather to drink tea and chit chat the afternoon away. (food round 5 – snacks) <click to enlarge>

kelvin, being the tea connoisseur, decided to serve us the tea. quite skillful leh.

one of the owner’s friends brought their new kitteh to the teahouse. she was so cute!

remember the little doorway to the teahouse above? it actually leads to this lane in between buildings, covered in plants. almost like a gateway into pan’s labyrinth or something… <click to enlarge>

VW minibus! <click to enlarge>

of course we went to the christ church area. they waited for me while i ran around shooting everything…

the famous christ church melaka <click to enlarge>

then we walked to palahwan to shop a little more and i bought tonnes of foodstuff, and we headed to A&W for some nostalgia. A&W rootbeer flat! (food round 6 – snacks)

after we headed back to muar (a very late and scary night drive away), we went to the nearby hawker centre for dinner. even more awesome food! we had char kway teow, fried seafood noodles, more orh lua, more otak, stingray, la la, satay, chee cheong fun and wanton mee, washed down with 8 treasure tea. completely stuffed (food round 7 – dinner)

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the next morning we just took it easy. woke at 9am and went around the area near the hotel and had breakfast, the prepared to go back to singapore on the 12noon coach…

the street where we stayed.

anyone else remember kelvinator?

another hawker centre opposite the hotel…

this char kway stall was in an alley next to the hotel. they were completely sold out by 11am!

i found this old-fashioned barber shop.

old Rex cinema turned into an appliance store…

this is ally’s primary school!

old cathay cinema turned into an apparels store

this was right opposite our hotel – a very beautiful peranakan style shophouse that’s 70 years old.

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so that was our little trip to malaysia! and i actually spent a lot less than i had budgeted. hehe. it was really quite fun, but would have been better if we could explore melaka at a more leisurely pace. i couldn’t believe i ate so much in 1 day, but the food were all awesome. i must have tried like at least 3 types of otak at 3 different locations (which muar is famous for), and all were excellent. seafood was fresh and the hawker foods were all very good. the shopping was boring, but i guess it’s more about eating than anything else!

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