Malacca, In A Weekend

Posted on 09.20.08 to Photography, Travels by Joan

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Last month, we took a weekend trip up north with my cousins, and spent two days eating non-stop in Malacca, Malaysia. Armed with walkie-talkies, we drove up in two cars, early in the morning and in heavy rain. Despite the dreary start, we actually had a really nice time and were blessed with great weather the next day.

Here are five things you can do in Malacca.

1. Eat, eat, eat
This is the most important thing to do of all. It did not matter that there were only three meals in a day. We had a checklist to go through, and I think we pretty much achieved what we set out to do.

On the way up, we stopped by this town called Yong Peng, which is about an hour from Singapore. Apparently, they’ve got a fairly famous fishball noodles stall. While the fishballs were rather nice, I wasn’t so hot about the noodles. The otak was very good though.

When we got into Malacca an hour later, we checked into our hotel Hotel Equatorial and immediately headed out for more food. We had laksa and chendol, and while I’m not a big fan of the two dishes, these ones really blew me away. Especially the chendol.

After that, we bought the obligatory pineapple tarts and white coffee powder for our family back home, and then headed for some satay. Not the best I had though, but Clare seemed to enjoy it plenty!

That’s Clare at the shop we bought pineapple tarts from. Look at that giant mosquito bite on her eye. She had so much of it on her arms and legs. I think there was a mosquito in the car when we were driving up.

For dinner, we queued up for an hour at least, in a light rain, for satay celup (which is basically food on sticks, cooked in a pot of satay sauce, like steamboat). OK, the boys queued up while the girls sat in the coffee shop opposite. The food was really good and somehow the strange combination of liver and satay sauce really went down well with me.

The next day we had chicken rice balls for breakfast. The chicken was a little tough, but the rice balls were delicious! They were so soft and basically melted in our mouth. They were also bursting with flavour. I sometimes feel like making the two hour drive up just to satisfy my occasional craving for it.

Then, we had wonton mee for brunch. Again, I was extremely satisfied.

We went for another round of chendol at another dessert place, but it wasn’t as good. After that, I was too stuffed to think of more food and we headed back to Singapore.

2. Climb St Paul’s Hill
Here’s a write up about St Paul’s Hill. We were contemplating whether we were game to climb up the hill and spent a fair bit of time milling about at the foot, where the fortress is. But we eventually climbed it and it was quite nice, to say the least.

Taken on day 2, when the sun came out to play.

3. Buy random knick-knacks

I bought one of these clogs for my fridge. I’m starting a travel collection of fridge magnets.

4. Take a ride on a colourful trishaw.
I got so beat from carrying Clare and/or the camera, so I decided to take the trishaw back and forth between Jonker Street and my hotel. It was about RM8, and definitely a much welcome reprieve after spending an afternoon walking and carrying heavy stuff.

5. Experience the red
The last time I was in Malacca, I remember it being a very red place. So many of the buildings there are red and I really found it quite nice for taking photos. These two are my favourite pictures of the trip.

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I’m so glad I made this trip with my cousins. The last time we travelled together was 14 years ago. I think we bonded a little bit more over the weekend, which is so much more than we normally do when we see each other for dinner on Sundays.

The full set of the photos can be seen here.

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Other related weekend trip posts here:

Kuala Lumpur, In A Weekend
Hong Kong, In A Weekend

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