Melaka 2014

i planned for a short trip nearby for the boys during the school holidays. somewhere drive-able, with good food, nice places to see, maybe a beach but not necessarily, in town too in case of emergencies – aka if we run out of things to do.

so, Melaka it is then. there are quite a few hotels in town, i chose equatorial due to its proximity to the dataran pahlawan mall and the historical part of the city.

we drove down around mid-day, after tiza arrived (and had 2 bowls of corn flakes). toll to toll it took us an hour and a half and the boys were grumbling about their rumbling tummies as we neared the ayer keroh toll. our waze was locked for the klebang coconut shake stall and in less than 30 minutes the boys were happily shoveling down nasi lemak daun pisang. i liked the coconut shake, not to coconut-ty (as i’ve got this thing about coconut drinks) and very cooling after the long drive.

we got back into the car and drove 20 minutes to the hotel. check-in was a breeze and we relaxed and unpacked before going out again before it got dark. this time to find a heavier meal for dinner. we saw a couple of trishaws outside the hotel and got into them, asking the driver to take us near the river. he showed us where to eat and we had nice nasi ayam (and missed out on the satay!) before queueing up for the river cruise. the line looked quite long but we did not have to wait more than 5 minutes to get into the cruise.

the boys had a grand time on the boat, looking at the lights, feeling the night breeze. the cruise took around 40 minutes and by the time we got off the boat, it was almost 9pm. we took a trishaw back to the hotel.

we woke up late the next day. like really, really late. by the time we got down to the coffee house for breakfast, there were probably only 5 tables occupied and the staff were making ‘last buffet’ announcements.

according to google map, walking from the hotel to jonker walk would take 15 minutes. we were a bit skeptical because it didn’t look too near but, hah!, google’s always right. added some photo-snapping stops, we were at jonker walk entrance in 30 minutes. we wanted to have lunch at hrc but when we got there, our tummies were still full from the heavy breakfast and we’ve passed all the historical sites and walked quarter-way into jonker walk that we were a bit lost of what to do. yeah, i know, there’s more things to do and see but the day was scorching hot and all six of us were melting on the streets of Melaka. if we didn’t take the trishaw yesterday, we could have spent 40 minutes on it, or the cruise, if we didn’t take that too. so…we opted for a movie instead (the 'in-case-of-emergencies' i was talking about earlier).

a quick lunch after the movie before the boys get to jump into the hotel pool for a two-hour water play. it was packed when we first got there but people started leaving bit by bit and the boys had the pool to themselves for almost an hour up til maghrib.

we could have had seafood dinner but with the boys and us two, we didn’t really want to drive out of the town at night. i didn’t miss out on the seafood but I did feel a bit bad not having some portugese egg tarts and the cendol by the clock tower. felt very, very bad not having them, actually...

the next day, even though we said we’d get up early, we went down for breakfast the same time as the day before. we left the hotel for home slightly before 12pm and was home within two hours. alhamdulillah, both the outgoing and return journeys were traffic-free, except in Melaka town itself. we could see the heavy traffic going into the town on our way back and were grateful we planned for a weekday trip.

oh…we were treated to a fireworks show on our second night, not sure for what, but it was nice.