Just three weeks into 2015, we embarked on our first overseas trip. It wasn't planned till 2 weeks before the trip, and it was an impromptu yet easy one as it was just an overnight trip at Malacca. Malacca is chosen as we can explore the place just over the weekend and I also aimed to start my M'sia Starbucks mug collection. P had not been to Malacca before and my last trip there was almost four years ago, so it is ideal. We chose to travel on 24th-25th Jan to commemorate our three years anniversary.
I saw a lot of Groupon deals going to Malacca and apparently, traveling to Malacca on coach and stay in a decent hotel just cost slightly over $100/pax so it was quite affordable. I read from a Malacca trip blog that traveling on Lapan Lapan was quite comfortable so I took the Groupon deal from them. The staff replied promptly and everything was settled with just one email from me. Meanwhile, I read some other Malacca blogs to find out more abt what we can do there and I roughly gathered the things we want to do there: Starbucks, Spa, Hello Kitty Trishaw tour, Nadeje Layer Crepe cakes, Chicken rice balls, Lok Lok Satay and then Jonker Walk night market. Seems pretty easy and doable for a overnight trip yah?
It was easy to pack for an overnight trip, we woke up almost the same time as any workday and we were off by 645am. We went across the road to get breakfast and take a cab to Park Royal hotel near city square mall, where the coach will pick us up. For once, we were early as we reached the meeting spot by 7.20am and the bus only leave at 8am. We crossed the road to City Square mall but it was still closed, we sat outside to rest and P continued his sleep as he's really not a morning person. About a quarter to 8, we went back to the bus and there were many people gathered around it, waiting to set off. Unfortunately, the staff told us that they need more time to repair something in the bus and there's a half an hour delay. I was skeptical when she told me the maintenance would only take half an hour, but the bus did manage to set off at 8.30am.
At 9.30am we reached second checkpt at Tuas, there was no jam so we cleared the customs quickly. After that part, I snoozed on the bus till we reached the pit stop at Yong Peng. P and I were not hungry so we only went to the washroom, returning to the bus well ahead of the 30min we were giving. I was looking forward to continue my sleep but the driver informed us that the air-con had stopped working so he had to send the bus for repair. I really decided there and then that I'll not take up any tour from Lapan Lapan again. Luckily, the bus really came back after 30 min like what he promised and we were on our way again.
The seats on the coach are considered spacious so I slipped into snoozing mode till we got near Malacca. I sat up and looked outside the window as we drone up to the city. I was happy to note that there is a Starbucks outlet just a few min away from our hotel, in fact there are two just next to our hotel. Hatten hotel is awesome and the best that we've stayed in Msia so far. It has a big and posh check in area, it's a hot favorite among Singaporeans but it was fast when we checked in. We were in the room and resting by 2pm, resting our feet before we start touring at 3pm.
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| The fridge and the amenities |
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| A close up look ( only the bottled water was used) |
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| I like the idea of having a separate living area in the room |
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| The washroom |
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| The tv in front of our beds |
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| Twin sharing for the first time |
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| Street view from our room |
Our phones could use the hotel wifi but the laptop had to use LAN wire, I only brought along my MacBook Air which do not have a LAN port. The hotel along gave us a free upgrade from a studio room to a bigger deluxe room, we asked for a double bed but only a twin sharnh room was available. It's the first time we have this arrangement but we did not mind too much since we always traveled together.
P was hungry when it was 3pm and he requested for cereal prawn.. again!! Luckily Chinese cuisine is quite common in Malacca and they do have buttered prawns that taste the same as cereal prawns. I did some research on tripadvisor before we ventured out. I was glad that I had subscribed to unlimited data roaming for that day, the $15 spent really made everything easier for us. There was a recommended seafood restaurant near our hotel and we only managed to find our way there, but it was only opened at 5pm. The stretch of shops just around our hotel was really quiet and many of them are closed even though it was a Saturday afternoon. We managed to find our way to another stall and the reviews were not too bad, so we ordered cereal prawns, fried rice and fried egg. I intended to try out those street food later on, so we kept the potions small. There were not many costumers in the restaurant and the food turned out quite okay, the bill also came up to just 50+ RM so it was pretty affordable.
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| Our lunch orders |
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| Watermelon Juice for him and Carrot Milk for me |
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| Egg Fu Yong and Fried Rice |
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| Cereal Prawns |
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| Chung Wah Chicken Rice sold out |
After we left the restaurant, it was our mission to look for spa treatment. I had done my homework and we headed straight to the top recommended spa which happened to be really near to our hotel. We wanted enjoy spa that very day so that we do not need to rush the next day, but there were no slots available. Nevertheless, we booked our slots for the following morning even though we were taking it as a backup plan (tried to look for another spa if there's one available).
It was time to venture to Jonker Street, where the main activities were happening. From Google map, it showed that Jonker was just 20min walk away from our hotel, but we got too lazy and hopped onto the cab. The cabbie quoted 20RM as they do not go by meter there, I knew that it was grossly overpriced but felt too lazy to bargain with him. We saw the Cheng Ho ship landmark once we reached Jonker street vicinity, the famous shop for getting souvenirs and foodstuff (San Shu Gong) was also there but we did not enter the place. I also saw the famous Chung Wah chicken rice shop but it was already closed.
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| Hard Rock Cafe |
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| Busy Jonker Street |
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| Cheng Ho ship landmark |
We saw the landmark of Dutch Sq just across the road from Jonker Street, so we decided to venture there first. We saw a lot of tourists taking pictures at the area, the iconic red tower and the red old Christ Church next to it. We took some pictures and went on to finish our first mission, a ride on one of the colourful trishaws! We wanted to ride on a spiderman decorated trishaw but the uncle next to that trishaw was very enthusiastic and we ended up taking one with frozen princess instead. We are going on an extended route and the uncle will stop at a few places to let us take some photos, the uncle asked for 50RM but I bargained it till 45RM, he gladly took us as there were many other trishaws around the area. It was quite fun passing other tourists on our way around Malacca.
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| The ancient Christ Church of Malacca |
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| Tourists around the area |
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The landmark of Dutch Square
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Our first stop was somewhere near a a Maritime museum and there was a giant ship structure next to it, we stopped to take some photos of the ship and the river next to it. Then we passed another area with a train and aeroplane structure, there was nothing much to do there except to snap some photos. The uncle allow us a short 5-10min stop at each destination but actually there wasnt much we can do or see except for taking photographs. The last stop was at the famous A'Famosa Fort, I was really huffing and puffing when we climbed the long flight of stairs up to the church area where the old stone structures of the ancient building stood. We were surprised when we reached the top as we could actually see our hotel from the area. It started drizzling when we were heading down (it was drizzling on and off the whole time we were in Malacca), and the uncle took us back to Dutch Square (where everything started). In the end, we still gave him RM50 to thank him for the effort of bringing us around.
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Trishaw uncle who took us around in his "Frozen" ride
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| Us on the trishaw |
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| Nice uncle took pictures for us |
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Maritime museum with the giant ship structure
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| Reminds me of Singapore River |
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The train...
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| And the aeroplane |
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Last stop at A'Famosa
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| Interesting minions trishaw |
Our next station was Nadeja Layer Cakes, I read from many blogs that the cakes tasted really good so I asked the trishaw uncle for direction to the one of the outlets. Luckily, I had subscribed for one day unlimited auto roaming (cost me $15SGD) so I was able to search for direction on my iPhone. We passed the old Francis Xavier Church on our way and there was a mass going on so we stopped for a few minutes there. We basically walked back to where the uncle took us on the trishaw, passed the maritime museum and further along the river. Once again, we spotted our hotel from a distance and realised the place we're headed to (Mahkota Parade) is just next to our hotel.
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| Nadeje Mille Crepe |
We were tired from all the walking after we finally reached the cafe, my feet were also hurting from all the walking and I regretted not bringing a pair of slippers for this trip. There were not many people at the cafe so we were able to get our seats immediately. It was only 5pm and we only wanted to take a short tea break, however, after each of us chose a piece of cake, P also added an Hawaiian pizza which was about 9inch big. The layered cake wasnt too bad, I wondered where we can find something similar in Singapore. The Hawaiian pizza did not taste like the standard Hawaiian pizza, it had a lot of onions and capsicums on it but not much of the pineapple, P even asked the crew why it was so but they only smiled at us. We only finished half of the pizza and decided to bring back the other half since we had a really dinner. It ended up in the trash when we checked out the next day as we were not really hungry even later that night.
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Our mille crepe orders
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| The 'Hawaiian pizza' |
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| Bought slippers at about $10 SGD to save my feet |
We went to the Starbucks outlet at Mahkota Parade and I got my Malaysia Starbucks mug. We went into the big shopping mall to look around as I really needed to get myself a pair of slippers and save myself from the painful walking. We ended up walking around the mall for quite awhile, the frustrating thing was that it was just next to our hotel and we thought it should be linked to our hotel but we could not find the linkway after going through all the different levels. It was getting dark and drizzling outside when we realised that it's linked by an overhead bridge but we had to get out of the mall area first. We were really relieved to finally get back to our room at 8pm, it was really early to rest for the night but we needed a break after all the walking.
P dozed off immediately as he slept really late the night before, it was a bad sign as I had a feeling we would not step out of the hotel room after that. I dozed off a little but woke up at 10pm and realised it was still drizzling outside. I wanted so much to go to the Jonker night market but P would not budge from his sleep, I got a little angry as he even suggested that I try making the trip on my own. As we were only spending one night in Malacca, I thought it was really a waste of the evening, so I decided to take a good shower and was prepared to go out and venture on my own. P woke up eventually and he said he had nightmares after telling me those stuff, we were laughing at our silliness and I was really glad he walked out of the room sleepily to make the trip with me. It was exactly like our last night in Boracay, actually it was really not worth the trip going out, but somehow I felt really 对不起自己 if I just waste the whole night in the hotel room. The night market was really closing by the time we reached the area, many of the stalls were packing up so we did not get to see or try anything (except for the 鸡蛋冰). I thought of chilling at the one of the pubs by the river but P is really not a drinker and we were not feeling hungry. After spending 20min getting to the night market and walking one round around the area, I was feeling tired again so we headed back. I knocked out immediately after we reached the hotel room as I felt really tired and sleepy.
The next morning, we woke up early for breakfast as our spa appointment was at 11am and we had to check out earlier. There was a long queue at the hotel breakfast area but the queue cleared fast as there were actually many seats and the staff just needed time to show the guests to the table. The breakfast buffet spread was quite good but we ate our fill quickly as we want to go back to the room to take a short rest before checking out.
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| The popular Scents & Senses spa near our hotel |
Checking out from the hotel was also fast and we reached the spa (Scents and Senses) promptly at 11am. It had just opened for the day and the thai masseurs were still chatting at the reception area when we arrived. Our couple room looked really nice and cosy, it is typical for a mid range spa but the aromatic smell and the relaxing atmosphere was something we really enjoyed. We had a two hour session, P had actually asked for a 30min ear candling session (no idea why he really like ear candling and always ask for it) but there was a miscommunication so they did not include it in the end. They were really apologetic but we were cool with it and left the place after paying up. I paid by credit card and the two hour session for the both of us came up to 100 SGD, which I felt was quite reasonable for the relaxing session.
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Spa room with jacuzzi
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Ee Ji Ban
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There was another Starbucks next to the spa, I've decided to get the Malacca mug even though it's not part of the world series mugs I'm collecting. After we bought our first few mugs, P had came up with an ingenious way to collect Starbuck mugs and cards, he will get the Starbucks cards and then use the credits in the cards to get the mugs so that we can collect both.
There was still time after we bought the mug, so we decided to go to a chicken rice ball stall near our hotel to try out the food there. Unfortunately, we had ran out of cash (only changed 300RM earlier) so we took some time to search for a atm to withdraw cash to pay for the food. When I looked out of our hotel room window earlier, I can see this Ee Ji Ban Chicken Rice ball stall just across the road, I read from the reviews that it is the only halal chicken rice in Malacca and the chicken tasted really good. It is P first time trying out the rice balls, he did not fancy it too much so I finished most of it, the sticky soft taste of the rice balls do not appeal to everyone but I quite liked it. The meal came up to be really cheap as we only ordered enough to fill up our stomach a bit for the journey home.
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| Small portion but just enough for us |
Having done most of the things I had wanted to do for our Malacca trip (except for Satay Lok Lok), it was time to head home. We saw the driver of the Lapan Lapan waiting for us at the hotel lobby and boarded the bus to head back to Singapore. I noticed that some of the other passengers who traveled with us took another Lapan Lapan bus instead but I did not get the chance to find out why. The bus company filled up the seats by picking up some other passengers along the way. The journey home was not smooth and we got stuck at Yong Peng again. This time, it was worse as we stayed at the place for more than 90min while waiting for them to resolve the issue with the battery. I was starting to panic as night was falling and they still could not get the bus started, I even started to think of alternative way to get us back to Singapore. I really told myself it was the last time I will travel with this agency. Fortunately, the bus finally got started again when it was almost 7pm when we board the bus, I really breathed a sigh of relief then. Once again, there was no jam and no crowd at the second link so we cleared the customs quite fast. We alighted from the bus at Taman Jurong so that we can get a cab back home from there instead of traveling all the way back to the agency.
**The story of our Malacca trip almost ended there but two weeks after the trip, P was looking for his passport out of the blue. He searched every possible place but it was nowhere to be found. I was quite certain that it was somewhere in the house but suggested that he contact the agency just in case we dropped the passport on the bus. Miraculously, Lapan Lapan staff called him back and informed him that they really found his passport on the bus after we alighted to take the cab! Faith restored in Lapan Lapan but I still will not take up any of their trips again. Their staff were really friendly and helpful, but their Malaysian buses were too unreliable.
