Everyone knows that Malacca is a historical city. And everyone would know that I'm not an avid fan of Malacca history, being stuck with the history since primary school. Therefore, the last time I went there was at least 5-6 years ago. The trip down south from KL is to "cari makan"! No museums, no moldy forts. And also, no ridiculous zoos, alligator parks or butterfly parks which had been haunting my memories of Malacca.
The journey itself was around 1 and a half hour, from Sg Besi toll to Malacca town. Stella and I drove alternately on the way. That's the fun of having a girlfriend who can drive too, so it's less tiring or taxing on your driving stamina.
We reached one of the famous Chicken Rice ball coffee shop "Chung Wah". Waited for a while only since it's a Thursday, so there's no massive crowd from the tiny little island further down south. Tasted the pricey dish there, and the service there has since improved when there's less crowd. Shows who's the boss, eh?
Well, the photos above were not taken by me, since my hands are busy... eating.. :P I must say that the chicken meat is good due to the heavily flavored ginger seasoning after they chopped the meat, and the chicken rice balls are one of the best tasted. However, being said that, the chicken meat was of low quality as you can taste that it is not fresh, and the bone shards and marrow pieces can be felt, due to poor chopping skills. You can't even imagine that the fella had been working for years and they still came out with poor chopping skills. Lol... Given any day, I would still be in favor over the normal oily rice, as this chicken rice ball is plain soggy, the way amateurs cooked their rice. Of course, the fact that hand hygiene plays an issue since the owner may have been to the toilet often, hence the extra flavoring.
And do you think the plastic glove the hawkers wear are clean? These gloves are meant to be changed at least once every few hours, and ideally not taken out and worn again and again, because that will be akin to not wearing at all, since contamination of the gloves has occur by their dirty hands.
And next was the Durian Cendol in San Shu Gong shop just opposite Chung Wah (The chicken rice ball place mentioned above) The shop's english name was Lao Qian Ice Cafe, which when pronounced, sounds like Conman Cafe in Mandarin. :P
They serve a variety of beverages, but it was the durian cendol which caught my attention, albeit being a bit pricey, at RM5.80. It's because.. of the shape! As you can see, the ingredients are prepared beforehand, so the shaved iced are just added on top of it before serving it to you. I would like my ingredients to be served on top of my icing though, but that's how it is for this shop. I had to stir it all up without touching the thorny edges.
Sold in such packs, I'm sure they'll make good souvenirs to bring back, although the thorns may make some holes in your plastic bags. A green way of revenge, perhaps?
Looks goo-ey after you stir it.
Ping Pong game, anyone?
The Durian Chendol was nice, actually. Although the ice shavings and other chendol ingredients are above average (still can be improved), but the durian concentrate they used tasted like the real creamy durian. We thought that they might have put in the real thing in there, but we dismissed the thought after some analytical reasoning put over it. It was really nice to have something there when the weather was ultimately hot at the time of our visit.
We checked in a budget hotel, namely The Sayang- Sayang Guesthouse by the riverside. There were a lot of good reviews on this budget hotel, so I decided to check it out. It turned out to be a kind of "youth hostel" stated on the boards there, but we checked in nevertheless.
Taken from the tourism site. n_n"
The private "rooms" were small partitioned cubicles. It's cost-saving when you partition the hall side-to-side to create more than 10 rooms left and right, with a walkway 3 feet wide in between. What's better, they even partition the rooms upwards with a loft bed style! So, the upper deck (made of sturdy plank of wood) is a small space enough for a double bed and a small lamp, while the lower deck houses a 2-seater comfy couch and a lamp desk. Interesting, right? At least no sleazy gloomy dorms from budget hotels.
Here's the photos of the private rooms taken from the tourism sites:
The upper deck (Teddy bears not included, apparently)
The bottom
The truth is, it's not really that well-lit. Since it's partitioned with no windows and the door is your real source of fresh air and light, it's dimly lit. This is my own rendition of the place from my photos, with the lighting from my W995's flash:
Upper deck - A bed and a lamp is all you need for a night's rest
The rather steep but nice stairs..
The bottom
The room was actually poorly ventilated for people like me having stuffy nose (and allergic to poor ventilation), and the small walkway causing people to slam/lean on the partitioned walls making noises (so choose the furthest room to the back), but for the price (RM45 on weekdays, RM55 on weekends for private rooms), it's kinda ok, especially when all you need is a place to rest for the night.
The common toilets/bathrooms are acceptable to my standards, as you see, Malaysian's are notorious for their toilets anyway. It's not five star, perhaps a 3 star, but as the "common" word implies, the bathroom's tend to shows signs of being used (some strands of hair, but not to the extent of clogging, and some leftover soap). One of the toilet was fitted with a hot shower, so you can enjoy the hot shower while squatting there doing your big business. Lol!
Now, another reason I chose there was because of the riverside location. Since the river has been cleaned up for river cruise, it's going to be a nice view there. At the back of this budget hotel, there is a common 5-foot walkway for a night walk, with benches along the way.
A view of the back entrance
The tables and chairs for the night view
Riverside Nightview 1
Riverside Nightview 2
Riverside Nightview 3
Overall, the people in the guesthouse were friendly. There would be no lacking in livelihood since they are mostly youngsters, and happened to be relatives. I suspect that at least half of the occupants there are relatives. Call out "Lee" and I'm sure a number of them would answer you. n_n" But oh well, they are still nice people, so you wouldn't expect any criminal behavior or activity going on here. Given, this would be one of the best budget hotels In Malacca, but if you have the money, there's plenty of 5-star hotels awaits and this would be out of your list.
And that concluded the 1st part of our visit. What else did we do there? Nothing much, just watching some movie (Fast and Furious 5) and drove around town on Thursday night. Oh yes, we did walk around Jonker street and finished within 1 hour! Simple, because Jonker Night Walk is only on Fri - Sunday! Worst still, there's hardly any food to hunt as you can hardly find any signs of life there. It's more like a haunted street, if you'd asked me. We did found some place to eat, as we avoided Malacca's Satay Celup, because our friend, Steve and his guy friend had cold sore (herpes) from eating satay celup! (And not from any sexual escapades either). And so, the next part is on our short day trip on a Friday afternoon at Jonker street, before returning to KL (I'm not a big fan of Jonker night walk actually, so it's not really a loss)
