malaysia's sleepy hollow

made an impromptu trip up to malacca. wasn't really in the mood to shop so i decided to be all touristy again, esp since this was meant to be an 'ideas' trip anyway.



people always wonder why we like going up to malacca so much. they claim there's nothing to do there!



there is what. see, there's yummy food!

what more do you want on a trip?? we started with our usual hainanese chicken rice balls because what's a trip to malacca without chicken rice balls, and ate our way through my favourite patty moon CCF (having tracked it down after it moved), carrot cake and other usual hawker delights and then ended with really good authentic nonya food.



you see, we keep making such short trips. this time we were only there for 3 meals (we usually eat breakfast in). so of course we have to go repeatedly otherwise we'd never get round to kengdom's beef steamboat and curry chicken pie, beizhan's everything, A&W, bak kut teh, durian, etc etc.

then there's shopping too! not a lot, but enough to keep you busy and happy without getting too tired. we walked through the (fairly) new Pathuwan Plaza which looked deceptively small from the outside cos it only had one floor, but it was a very big floor! and above there's a promenade and a huge field so next time we can play frisbee there!



although, as i said, i wasn't really in a shopping mood so i was walking around the historical area instead. Most of Malacca still consists of nice old shop houses. i love old shophouses. they're always charming and they exude a very laidback vibe. the sleepiness of malacca is precisely what makes it such a nice holiday destination... no city-ish hustle and bustle and traffic jams.

what stands out most in my childhood memories of our malacca hols is making many many trips to visit countless antique shops along jonker street. to me it was all just boring and hot and sticky and itchy (so many mosquitoes! and that hasn't changed) but the one thing that i liked about the antique shops was how many of them had interesting spiral staircases that led upstairs and the second floor was often split into several different chambers, crammed full of antique beds, statues, cupboards, dressers. that was fun for exploring!

but now there are a lot less antique shops and those that are left often close off their upper floor. instead there are more clothes shops, souvenir shops, and cafes. bah.

things are changing though. slowly, and the changes probably won't stay good long, but they're still changing. like see! the path in the foreground of this picture just used to be a dirty gravel area filled with litter and the river stank!

now it looks posh! can't quite come to terms with it.

so anyway i took a whole bunch of photos just to remember malacca by before it becomes completely unrecognisable.

(they're also reclaiming so much land off the coast that soon we'll be able to walk to the island across from our aptmt man! talk about walking on water.)

to round off the trip on a suitable note, i started building a miniature Malacca town on our mantelpiece. -pleased as punch cos i made them real careful-like and they're real cute. cor!-



haha

also dedicated to pam & jes & sam and yes we'll make it up there together one day