Short getaway - Malacca City
- Alex Arvin
- Nov 10, 2016
- 6 min read
Malacca was a Budget choice destination. Before Semester begins it is a must to travel on a summer break but with my cost adding on for my exchange semester, Kishen and I decided to go somewhere simple and cheap. This post is long over due but not the memories. Malacca stunned me like never before. I been there several times with church groups and dad's friends but never have I enjoyed this much. Of course I wasn't excited and honestly did not expect much from Malacca based on my pass experience so going with no expectation helps. HAHA. BUTT I did my research and it was WORTH ITTTT!!! So before you embark anywhere I urge you to read up at least a little. To know about the places to visit and food to eat... I loved my TRIP and I want to go back!!!
We took a coach from the ever famous golden mile and the best part we both where the only ones in the bus when the journey begin or at least until the bus uncle entered old boon lay bus station to pick up a elderly father and son. But it's not that bad right?? we still had the whole bus to ourselves.!!! (click here to book yours to any part of Malaysia)
The two way trip was pretty in expensive, with insurance it came up to $46.50. That is pure cheap!!! Well we traveled after peak period so that could be a reason. Our bus stopped us directly at the hotel lobby,
If you ever decide to go Malacca you MUST... let me repeat you MUST stay in Hatten Hotel. I have stayed in a couple of hotels in Malacca. THIS is the best for value hotel... It is CHEAP, NEW, CLEAN, it has HUGE rooms, GREAT BUFFET SPREAD and the best part is it is smack in the center if the city! It cost us each S$90.50 to book a junior suit.
View from our room
Alto Sky Lounge
We were super hungry by the time we checked in so we decided to have something that we could find. The hotel has a shopping center to itself ... so we headed there and ate something simple. We ate from the same chain outlet before we departed back to Singapore. The food was good not fantastic but real cheap. It cost us about MYR 12 each and that includes the teh tarik. Which comes up to S$4.00ish
After Lunch we headed for massage. The massage was so good that we went there again on the second day. Kishen had foot massage while i did foot and shoulder. This shop is cheap and offers authentic Thai massage just like in Bangkok and Phuket. The masseuse were from Thailand. We surveyed a few others but they were expensive. This was just across our hotel, opposite Starbucks so we decided on this.
Entrance of the Thai massage shop
After massage we walked over to the famous Jonker Street and spent the rest of the afternoon there. Jonker street is a street (DUHH) with lots of shops that sells souvenirs, cheap clothings for men,women and kids. They also have lots of eateries. We didn't buy anything but we took lots of photos and had a good time window shopping.
They have many other nice places to take photos and if you are a instagrammer you'll love this place as much as i did.
For dinner I wanted to try Portuguese food. So we took a cab from the hotel to Portuguese settlement. YOU MUST GO THERE. Once we alighted we had stall owners to great us in the most friendliest manner.. HAHA. WELL not so much of what you will expect. Before I go there let me explain about this Portuguese settlement. It is a area where the Portuguese people of Malacca lives. Before you reach the hawker you will pass by their houses and it is pretty interesting to see how similar they looked. I was told that they know each and every one living in the community by name. Well it is pretty small so it is kinda expected but it was nice to see them united.
The hawker has 10 different stalls selling almost the same dishes. Sooo upon my arrival the various stall waiter came rushing to up sell their stall. But they did it in a friendliest manner and weren't pushy. You are given the liberty to choose which stall you want to dine in. So we both surveyed as usual. We checked which stall had more customers and if the cook were Portuguese and finally came to a conclusion to dish out in STALL 2... WE never regret this decision. THIS was the best food we had in the whole trip.
We had Portuguese style brinjal... DAMN it was delicious... Sambal Kang Kong... Ikan Bakar in some Portuguese spicy sauce. Our stall ran out of devil's curry so they bought it from another stall but sadly it was not as good as the other dishes we had in this stall. I believe their devil's curry were TOOO good that it ran out. I WANT TO GO BACK !! The food was real FANTA-BULOUS!
After dinner we took a stroll along the harbor just behind the hawker and continued to Jonker riverside for some drinks. Note that taxi doesn't come in frequently so get the contact of the taxi driver you arrived in and ask the stall waiter to help you to call them when you are done.
Along the river there are lots of drink stalls but it gets crowded by the night and if there are no spaces for you to sit you can't stay there. The area is pretty tight so you don't really have crowds of people there which makes it free from disturbance. The drinks were inexpensive i got myself apple juice and Kishen got some beer. It is a nice place to chill out and have a end to your day, the river side ambiance is peaceful and i had awesome time I must say.
Jonker by the night with brightly lit trishaw
For the 2 mornings I was there, my day began with us having a dip in the pool. It was then that kishen decided to test his water resistant phone's function and never got it to start again. Poor boy!!!
For breakfast we had a sumptuous spread, well it was not as good as hotel Equtorial Melaka but it was still good. After breakfast we took a short nap and head on for lunch. YES YES!! I know what you are thinking. We seem like gluttons eating none stop. Haha. You cannot simply come to Melacca and not try their Chicken rice balls RIGHT??. We were too lazy to walk to Jonker so we tried the one near our hotel. It had all the advertisement and signatures of celebrities around the stall that got us thinking it must be good. But it was nothing but tasteless wet rice with rubbery chicken.
After the disappointing lunch we went for our massage again at the same outlet and continued on with shopping. For dinner we wanted to try Nonya cuisine. The day before, on our way to Portuguese settlement we went pass this Nonya shop which seemed authentic but again it was a trap. Tourist place which we realized only after ordering our food. Because a group of China tourist came in after we took our seat while having our drinks. We thought of canceling our order but we never did. However, the food was good but i doubt it is authentic Nonya. We did enjoy our time there so NO REGRETS. Well, at least I did. haha... I had a good laugh when Kishen was dragged on stage to dance and the ladies finger was too good.
This cute aunty works as a waiter and was super friendly. She even asked us to tag her on Fackbook.
The chicken and the ladies finger (okra) was AWESOME!!! the portion is huge and we paid around MYR 60 which is about S$20. I was dead full by then. With all the laughter and the entertainment we continued our journey to Jonker. YES again... You'll never get bored... We got some drinks and said cheers to the awesome trip.
Melacca surprised me like never before. As mentioned I have been there a couple of time and never had adventured this much. Of course the company was great but the place was simply amazing. It was a great budget getaway. From the start till the end inclusive of accommodation and transport i spent about S$200.00. If you ever need a short getaway this weekend ... Don't think of Batam. Trust me Melacca is worth it.
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