Malacca

What's up with us? We don't go to Malaysia for years and then suddenly we go twice in two months. All right, that's an exaggeration. Twice in three months.

The kids utterly loved Redang, when we went in September, and then on Nov 11, we drove up to Malacca in two cars with grandma and grandpa, Alan, Yuen Fong and Ethan.

We left late, about 7pm, and ran into a sea of motorbikes, eight deep in the lanes, at the Second Link. It took about 45 minutes to get through Sing immigration, but otherwise there wasn't a hitch driving up. Somehow we stumbled on the Renaissance Hotel (no thanks to the rather confusing directions from its website) checked in, dumped our bags and went out to get a bite. This was 10.30. We went to a no-name coffee shop nearby and had decent enough hokkien mee.

Then we went back to the hotel and slept, though it turned out that wasn't the end of the evening for grandma and grandpa, as grandma had forgotten her PJs. So while the rest of us were snoring, the two of them were shopping for something she could wear to bed!

The next morning we had breakfast in the hotel, then walked about 10 minutes to the church square and the stadhuys. Nothing much to see or do; the kids played in the playground by the UMNO museum and then we walked to Mahkota for some airconditioning.
It was blazing hot out, but our enthusiasm for good food was beyond reproach; somehow we located the Teochew Bak Kut Teh in Jalan Laksamana. Alexis was completely disgusted but the rest of us loved it. It wasn't just bak kut in the claypot, but belly pork, and mushrooms. The braised pig's trotters too were mixed with glistening slices of belly pork in a rich, redolent, slightly spicy gravy. To accompany it was tow gay, lightly stirfried and fragrant with garlic, and bowls of yam rice. Outstanding. And the whole bill came up to 68 ringgit.

Then it was back to the hotel for a dip in the very nice pool. I do like the Renaissance. It's not fancy but it's very decent, and it cost us $120 per room. Around 5pm we emerged again, to a Malay village on the river which we could see from our room. While the kids picked bunga raya from the aidilfitri celebrations, we went and poked around in somebody's home-cum-living museum. Lovely open Malay house on stilts dating from the 1920s. From there we walked to Jonker, along the river some of the way. The Malaccan government is putting money into building a boardwalk along the Melaka river. It will be quite a lovely walk when it's all completed. Right now, there's only about 500m of it.

We had dinner at a pokey hole in the wall place in Jalan Hang Kasturi called Teo Soon Loong, on the recommendation of a friend. You have to make a reservation at this poky place or you might not get a table. We over-ordered that night but who could blame us? Everything looked spectacular. As a result we had oyster noodles, a whole roast suckling pig, braised goose, steamed pomfret, steamed crab, deep fried soft shell crab,and stewed cabbage with abalone. We ate till we could eat no more and we had to cancel the orh ni. It was all unbelievably good. The noodles were especially satisfying. The damage was RM560. Pretty amazing value. Ok, by Singapore standards.

On the way back our eyes -- well, MY eyes -- popped out at the sight of the goodies along the way; orluak, chai tow kuay, ham cheem bang, steamed cockles, all cooked along the roadside and calling our names. Alas, they will have to wait till next time. In the hotel, we watched TV in Alan's room, drank beer and snacked on the left over suckling pig. Hehe.

Left the next day but not after doing more damage with chicken rice balls and Baba chendol in Jonker Street, in between poking around the shops and buying a few things. We left Malacca at about 4pm, and arrived in Gelang Patah at about 6.30, winding up our trip with more cheap and good food, this time seafood at a place called Tian Tian Lai.

We got home to Sunset Way about 8.45. Was royally late for Nat Soh's wedding but made it to the Tanglin Club at 10.30. Jonathan said he admired my energy! So did I!