Memorable Weekend

If you've known me for some time, you'll find that I have problems remembering or recalling incidences or events, sometimes even significant ones(!). But I believe that last weekend will be one of the few experiences that I'll always remember and cherish. Not because I'm writing it down here, but because it was very special to me in many many ways.

I was looking forward for the weekend the whole week. And it finally came. It was actually a weekend visit to Malacca by aunty L (coming down from KL), cousin PW (from Seremban), and sis (coming all the way from Singapore).

The Saturday morning started off insignificantly, with my having to attend a 3 hours session of students' presentation, called common programme, on bronchial asthma. It ended earlier than usual at about 11.15am, and L and PW were supposed to reach by 11.30pm (calculated based on the driving speed of L with extra time allocated!).

Anyway, I gave PW a call to see if they were about to reach, only to find out that our dearest aunt L's "BMW" got overheated and had to be fixed in Seremban, which had caused their delay. They were just leaving Seremban at that time. By then, sis was already reaching Melaka Sentral. So, M and I went to pick her up and we went for a "light" lunch at a hainanese chicken rice shop.

After lunch, M dropped us back to the hostel, to wait for the arrival of the rest of our "weekend gang" members. They reached at about 12.45pm and we went for lunch at sis' favourite bak kut teh shop in Malacca.

Food was just average. For that amount, it was over-priced. And as for the service, it was a disgrace. No extra soup was given, it was finished apparently. What is bak kut teh without liberal amount of soup?

For dessert, we went to a Nyonya place behind Jonker's street, called Donald and Lily's. Here we ordered their famous cendol with gula Melaka and sago and toufoo rojak.

Below:

This is how PW looked like when I asked her to show her expression into the camera,

as though she's seeing me for the first time after many, many years.

She looks more like she'd just seen a ghost!

After stuffed with food, we went off walking along Jonker's Street towards a smaller lane, where L wanted to get a chinese traditional basket. I've got her one before (sis paid for it, as L's birthday present), but she wanted one more for decoration. That was the intention she told us, and we believed her. How silly of us! When we reached that shop, she started calling her friend quoting the prices of the basket. And she ended up buying a big one for her friend and only a tiny one for herself. I wonder if the small one was just for show, so we won't bug her life!

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Sis with a very typical chinese pose!

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Look at the size of the basket L's holding, which she's buying for herself!

Compare it to the one on the table in front of her, which was for her friend.

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A modern golden variant. More expensive.

Apparently real gold coating.

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Other decorative items for sale in the shop

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These mandarin ducks cost RM108.

Made of some crystals.

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Promoting the other things that we bought at the shop along Malacca river,

which you can go for a boat ride.

After much bargaining at the basket shop, it was almost 5pm. Tea time! This place where I was planning to take them to, specialised in different types of sweet desserts. And it is situated at the foothill of a 19th century chinese cemetery called Bukit Cina. Many of the tombs had collapsed but the surroundings are well looked after by an association. In the evenings, there'll be alot of uncles walking and exercises along the pathway in between ths tombs.

As we were heading to the car, we bought vegetable roll (popiah) at Jonker's street. The secret ingredient was sprinkling oil made of pig's fats! Well, it's not really a secret. EVERY chinese knows that nothing tastes better than food cooked in that kind of oil!

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My favourite dessert from the stall at the cemetery.

It's made of barley, called pai mai (directly translated as white porridge)

After persistent hinting, they finally realised that I would like to go back to my hostel room to handle some "business" in the toilet. So off we went to my campus!

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My door deco to uplift the CNY mood!

While I was in the bathroom, 3 of them were outside chitchatting. Not long after, I could only hear sis voice relating some angry stories to L, in an angry manner and rather loudly. Every now and then, I heard L's voice asking questions or giving comments. Neither did I suspect, but by the time I showered and came out, PW was already sound asleep! Nobody needed to whisper or speak softly, cause she was already in her La La Land...

Anyway, we woke her up after we got ready. Then, it was straight to our next food destination! We went to pack putu piring, which has gula Melaka as filling and eaten with coconut. I'm not sure what putu means, but piring probably came from it's shape. It's basically a different version of Indian putu mayam or idiapam. It was introduced by sis when I first came to Malacca. It was a small time family business, with the shop right in front of their house. Very good business, usually sold off by 10pm, even on weekdays.



We had the putu piring at a famous satay celup restaurant along Jln. Ong Kim Wee, eventhough there was a sign board saying, "No outside food allowed" (some people just don't understand instructions! Hehe....).

Satay celup as the name indicates, is nothing but lok-lok dip straight into hot satay sauce, instead of normal boiling water. There's a pot in the centre of the table containing the sauce, which is continuously being heated up by a gas stove. A must try for all tourist. Abit too expensive for locals, as the size of the lok-lok is getting smaller by the week.

Not to disgust you, but how hygienic do you think it is? For those who only dip new ones everytime, that's ok. But what about those who repeatedly dip their half eaten lok-lok into the same sauce, that will not be changed until the end of the day? Hmm... Maybe that's what that make this so tasty.... The germs and diseases!

Continuing with the dinner, from local delicacy to North Indian cuisines. This place is called Pak Putra, located adjacent to Jonker Street, which only starts operating at 6pm, everyday except Mondays and during fasting season (they are Indian Muslim). They are famous for their tandoori chickens and nans. If you like cheese, their cheese nan is not to be missed!

The special thing about this place that stands out from all others, is their method of cooking. For the chicken, it is skewered and the oil is allowed to drip, while being cooked in a big clay barrel. Beside it, in another clay barrel is where the nan is cooked. It is stuck on the inner side of the barrel, and also cooked without oil. Healthy no?

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The end result.

Served with mint sauce.

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Potato nan,

apparently not available elsewhere according to L.

That was what we thought the last meal of the day was, cause by then we were all having problems breathing from congested abdomen pushing up our diaphragms! So off we went for a walk along Jonker's Street, where the night life is...

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In one of the shops.

We just had to take a picture for remembrance

that we accidentally "colour-coded" on that day.

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Some tid-bits that we tried in Jonker's.

Rt: Fried prawns

Lt: Fried baby crabs
I supposed they would have been nice if they were hot.

But they were not, so....

After the walk, after the food digested, off we went for some asam pedas fish in a Malay stall, just a walking distance away. This was recommended by sis. But what a disappointment. It was "pedas", but there wasn't any "asam" taste in it. Rather blunt, in fact. But it sure was cheap, just RM3 for a fish.

We initially had plans to go for a drink at Geographers (a strategic pub at the centre of Jonker's Street), but prolonged and sustained hyperglycaemia finally kicked in, and we were all too tired and decided to call it a day.

Back in our family suite...

I don't even know where or how to begin describing the hotel... How do I put it in a nicer way? Er... It was utterly disgusting! Haha... Now before you say, or even think anything, this was actually the second time I booked this hotel. BUT, this was the first time we were using the so called family suite. The standard rooms that i booked previously, were satisfactory, I even checked them out first before booking. And having some confidence in it (which was absolutely wrong!) I booked this hotel again, as other hotels were already full. To be honest, it was actually our last affordable option!

To our horror (and just to point out a few problems), the bathroom was dirty, with black stains on the floor and wall. Shower and heater were not working properly. The comforters were yellow (God only know how often they wash them), but luckily there was a layer or white sheets underneath.

We did fall asleep after chitchatting awhile. We were too tired to stay awake, no matter how hard we tried.

I for one, did not step into the bathroom! I showered when we were back in my hostel earlier in the evening. I did not pee. And I did not brush my teeth before sleep or after waking up!

We checked out at 6am and went straight to my hostel! Haha...

We took our sweet time there. Listen to live radio from internet, online shopping, try on my clothes, etc. Slowly one by one took turn to shower.

We went for dim sum for breakfast. Dearest L, were still thinking of yesterday's bak kut teh. She even suggested that we bring one of my bowls from my room, go and pack the bak kut teh and eat it at Dim Sum Garden! We told her to go sit at the next table on her own!

M joined us for breakfast. For once, he did not complain about being full and refused to eat! Good boy. (All because L was there, I think! Hehe...)

After breakfast, M left for his place to continue sleeping, while we head off to Dataran Pahlawan for some shopping. By then it was around 10am and we shopped until 2 something, before starting to leave to go for lunch at the same chicken rice shop as yesterday. By the time we actually left, with the jam and all, it was too late for sis to join us for lunch, as her bus was leaving at 4pm, and her bag was still in my hostel.

We collected her bag and sent her off to the bus station. Poor fella...

Anyway, M joined us for lunch too. We ordered a mixture of steamed and roasted chickens, stewed pork with eggs, deep fried prawn dumplings with bean sprouts in salted fish.

After lunch, L and PW started their journey home to Seremban. L was prepared to wash and vacuum her car there (She even brought her own vacuum cleaner all the way from PJ!).

I left with M. We guided them to the road leading to the highway. Just between you and me, we kind of took them one big round because we did not show our signal early enough for L's liking (or skills) and missed a turning! Sshhh...

Anyway, after that instead of going home, we went to a sports shop and M finally bought his second long overdue anniversary present.