[View from Infinity Pool, Holiday Inn Melaka]

Malacca or Melaka is located about 224km North of Johor Bahru, Malaysia. That’s about 3 hours drive through the busy streets of JB and the Expressway.

We planned to reach our destination around 12pm for lunch before checking into the hotel. However due to predictable circumstances likely punctuality issue, We set off from Kranji 8am instead of 7am. On top of this, there was a massive jam on the way to the Woodlands Checkpoint and this owing to the renowned SG fugitive. Everyone on the bus chose to get off halfway and walk all the way to the Checkpoint. -.-”

The group finally met up with my dearest colleague WL after being more than an hour behind time. My poor girl waited for us since 7ish! Not to mention she stays the furthest among all of us. After the long queue, we decided to cross the border on foot. Oh man…reminded me of my first diving trip when I had to carry my dive gears across the causeway. The weather was ridiculously scorching hot for early morning.

After free breakfast from the last arriver aka KH, we headed down to Plaza Seni to collect our cars from Mayflower Car Rental . Rental Fee for Proton Wira 1.5 Litres x 170RM x 2 units x 2 days = 680RM. Mayflower upgraded one of the cars to Proton Waja 1.6 Litres for no additional charge. Despite the upgrade and friendly service, we waited quite a while for the cars to be sent down. Oh well I should consider ourselves lucky that we can even rent two cars when most of the cars are assigned to KL for Formula One event. Cheers!

Car A a.k.a 母鸡: YB (我的宝贝:P), AK aka me (Vehicle Commander), WL (the walking Map of Malacca) & KH (the sometimes joker)

Car B a.k.a 小鸡: LX (the double of Ahn Jung Hwan, Korean soccer player), XT (Vehicle Commander), WM & ST (the just-married joyful couple).

And our roadtrip BEGINS!

Okay hold that thought…where’s the CD player?

/faint 什么年代了！Why is the car still installed with a cassette player!? Wasted my efforts preparing music cds. >.<”

WL takes up the main responsibility of leading us to her hometown, Malacca. Of course I have done my homework prior the trip. Before moving off, I briefly told everyone that we will be exiting from the North-South Highway E2 to Ayer Keroh. I have given XT a copy of map, so no one is getting lost or HorLan (a singlish slang which I learnt from the boys). For Malaysia road trips amateurs, please familarise yourself with the road signs. I guarantee that you will feel more confident driving in Malaysia (minus the security =x).

WL was educating the 母鸡 group on highway road signs are green with white text, then suddenly…

KH: Oh there’s a green signboard on the left! Hahahahahaha!

(We drove pass a green signboard with the word “Restoran”)

The rest of us: …

Let’s cut short and jump to our first meal in Malacca! The must-try Chicken Rice of Kedai Kopi Chung Wah (中华茶室). It is often described as “the one opposite OCBC Bank”. 8 people shared a whole chicken and each person had 5 rice balls. The rice balls are commonly mistaken for fishballs but what was on my mind….

“5 only? Oh man…I’m so not getting my stomach filled.”

Ohhhhhhhhh anyway the chicken rice with the splendid chilli sauce is simply sedap! Yummy Yummy! And price? No idea because our kind WL decided to play host and treat us to a nice lunch.

[LX & YB]

After lunch, we strolled down Jonker Street in search for Chendol. WL recommended a stall opposite Geographer Cafe but it was not opened. We tried the stall next door but it wasn’t that fantastic.

[Jonker Street]

I was feeling very drowsy and dehydrated by mid noon because I caught the flu bug back in office. WL led us to our one-night stay at Holiday Inn Malacca. Time to check in! We were told that our rooms would be upgraded (courtesy of WL’s connections) but somehow it took extremely long to check in. *Long story*

[Holiday Inn Melaka]

Although our rooms were eventually semi-upgraded, the rooms were really comfortable! We definitely made a wise decision to choose Holiday Inn over Mahkota. Our double room @ 118SGD and triple room @ 163SGD from Asiarooms. Holiday Inn is the newest hotel opened since Oct 07 while Mahkota may be really cheap but reviews of their room conditions are really bad.

Meanwhile…when I was taking a power nap, the others were cooling themselves off at the Infinity Pool that overlooks the Andaman Sea.

[KH, WM & LX enjoying a cool dip]

Dinner was at a Seafood BBQ restaurant in Muara Sungai Duyong. Our group was joined with two other colleague from WL’s department. The food was not too bad but sick AK couldn’t enjoy sambal to the fullest =( Wasted!

[At Medan Ikan Bakar]

And the night is still young! WL brought us to back to Jonker Street for drinks at Harper’s Cafe. We have the whole 2nd floor to ourselves and ordered 3 jugs of Heineken. The whole group immersed in fun and laughter with games of 007 and 7-Up. The good news is…..my sore throat was feeling so much relieved after two glasses of beer! *Cheers!*

[Jonker Street at night]

[Harper's Cafe Level 2]

[Outside Harper's]

After a good night’s sleep, YB and I went for early morning swim. The pool was quiet and it was the best time to enjoy moments of tranquility.

We joined the rest for buffet breakfast after shower and spotted Irene Ang next to our table. Hmmm I wonder if the slimming centre did a good job, I didn’t manage to have a good look at her figure. Hee :P

Before meeting up with WL, the whole group walked over to Mahkota Parade and Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall to shop around. Nothing amazing found. 8) Can be skipped completely.

[Satay for Lunch at Ming Sate Hut]

We checked out and joined by WL and her friend LG for satay lunch near Plaza Mahkota. The variety includes innies! *Omg* Innies are taboos to me >.< The chicken/mutton satay were great and so did the sauce with a twist of pineapple. *Yummy*

[Nadeje Pastisserie]

Just a few shops down the same block is where Nadeje Pastisserie is located. This is where you can find Mille Crepes, a French version of layered cake. I think we were enjoying the cakes so much, we actually forget to take pictures of the yummy cakes. You can read this article and find out all about the good and bad of the cafe.

It’s time to say our goodbyes to Malacca and our lovely host WL. WL would be returning by coach on Sunday while KH extended his stay to meet his friend who just returned to Malacca from the States. The rest of us left for Tan Kim Hock to buy some native local products and eat chendol (so-so).

We took 40mins to reach Muar and had early dinner at Jalan Haji Abu. Check out article about eating in Muar from EatingAsia. 4 Wanton Mee, Fried Oyster and 10 Otaks total up to only 28.20MYR! Cheap Cheap but so so.

[Dinner @ Muar]

The best is saved for the last…Supper at JB! After returning the car, I brought them to the one of the food street alleys near. 四角豆 + Super Big Sambal Stingray + Fried Kuay Teow + Popiah + Drinks @ 61MYR. Simply Sedap!

[Supper @ JB]

What a great way to end our roadtrip! I’m glad everyone enjoyed the trip and all the food!

I will be back in Melaka for more soon!

Oh Oh Oh I forget to add that we had so much fun using the walkie talkie to communicate between the two cars! Those are a must for roadtrips!

This entry was posted on Friday, May 2nd, 2008 at 1:57 am and is filed under Malaysia, Travelogue. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.