Feeling: Relaxed
Weather: Cool
Listening To: Fall Out Boy- I Don’t Care

Dear dear Louis and I went for our first holiday together to Malacca on Sunday, 27th December 2009 to Tuesday, 29th December 2009 :3 It was an awesome trip, despite some minor glitches here and there, but after all it is our first holiday together, so I guess we’re still learning :P

All of the photos (And a few more) are on an album on my Facebook account, but I’ve decided to make a post here for the sake of posterity too anyway :D Plus, there’ll be more verbosity here compared to my Facebook album >_>

The photo above is pretty much a memento of our trip- a printed out photo of dear dear and me holding an albino python at the square in front of the Christ Church Malacca, the clock tower and Stadthuys and ticket stubs from our visits to the Malacca Zoo, the museum complex around Stadthuys, the Tortura 2 exhibition in a museum near A’ Famosa Fort (Exhibition of medieval torture methods and implements!) and the Malacca River Cruise :3

I’m going to be writing the travelogues for days 1 and 2 in this post, and day 3 in the next post XD

The bedrooms in my house (Mum’s, mine and little brother’s) are getting repainted within these few days, mine being the last to be repainted… meaning I will be celebrating New Year’s with my room being painted D: I shall take this opportunity to rearrange the clutter in my room, I guess :P

Day 1- Sunday, 27th December 2009

We left in the morning, but I don’t remember exactly what time though >_> We stopped by at Seremban for beef noodles, because dear dear knows I love beef noodles and he has promised to bring me here to try the beef noodles :D

They were delicious, and unlike the beef noodles I’ve always been accustomed to @_@ Unfortunately I had just contracted a bout of sore throat and flu (Which I was still nursing at that time) the day before due to walking in the rain, so my appetite wasn’t that huge and I only had a bowl of the noodles and nothing else ;_;

After the beef noodles, we continued our journey to Malacca, and after searching a while for our hotel, managed to locate it and checked in. It was… decent, to say the least. Maybe I had too high of an expectation, but at RM 150 a night at a 3-star hotel, I was expecting a room with at least carpeting and a bathtub >_> Oh well, it was the cheapest 3-star hotel we could find that had available rooms at that time, so we can’t really complain. And after all, we won’t be lazing around in the room much anyway :P

We actually planned to visit Louis’s grandparents’s grave after we have checked in, but it was raining so we had to cancel that part :( I really wish we could visit them, but there’s always a next time, so it’s OK :) So we ended up resting a while, then headed out to Dataran Pahlawan and Mahkota Parade to do some window shopping (And collecting our movie tickets) before walking to Jonker Walk.

I’ve not been inspired to take photos of the trip so far until the walk on the way to Jonker Walk and saw this scenery along the Malacca River :3 Pretty, isn’t it? I like the lighting and the buildings in general.

A boat ferrying tourists along the Malacca River on the Malacca River Cruise. There was a long, long line there, since it’s the weekend D:

And we have arrived at Jonker Walk! Since it’s the weekend as mentioned, there was a night market. The things peddled and sold there are much different from the night markets in Selangor or Kuala Lumpur in general, and even if they had similar items (e.g. imitation sunglasses), it was much cheaper XD

Bubbles!

I had a craving for radish cake, and while waiting for our radish cake to be cooked, Louis tried camwhoring :P

There was a karaoke competition going on on Jonker Walk’s centre stage, and when we passed by, saw the ending of this man’s performance. What drew me to take this photo was actually the fact that this old man was wearing a wig reminiscent of those olden day men or artists, and he also put a lot of effort into his performance (As compared to those after him, which we promptly skipped) XD Apparently, he is also blind, as dear dear and I soon found out while we were walking out from Jonker Walk and he was walking against us, his cane in hand @_@ No wonder he required assistance while walking down the stage- at first we thought it was due to his old age!

More bubbles on the way out of Jonker Walk!

I had to stop and blow my nose several times on our trip at Jonker Walk because of my flu ;_; Bought gifts for parents.

Colourful beca or trishaws dotting the area around Christ Church Malacca and Stadthuys. Taken on our way walking back from Jonker Walk to my car parked at Dataran Pahlawan :3 These trishaws pack not only mean lighting, but also mean sound systems XD

Louis’s attempt to ruin my photos but randomly appearing once I take them, but this photo actually turned out really nice and adorable ♥

“Old” (Because it’s not actually old) and new. An “old”-looking building with the Menara Taming Sari (Supposedly new XD) in the background.

WHAT IS THIS??? D:

Christ Church Malacca and the clock tower at night. This turned out really nice. So proud of myself XD

Another attempt by dear dear to ruin my photos ;_; (Psst, this was actually done on purpose, though :P)

A view of the Eye On Malaysia and the surrounding area.

The Muzium Samudera (Maritime Museum) as seen at night. Another nice photo I am proud of :x

Our dinner for the night- satay celup :D These are just the preliminary round for now :P We didn’t have it at Capitol though, as it’s over-hyped and not really that nice. This is at one of the many satay celup stalls in a row, and three of them were open that night. It was actually yummy too!

Our midnight movie in Malacca at Dataran Pahlawan :D Louis wants to bring me to watch Sherlock Holmes but didn’t have the time (As well as seats >_>) in Selangor, so at Malacca it was :P He even got us couple seats, which were extremely comfortable and nice for snuggling :x Very well worth the extra RM 1 he paid.

Dataran Pahlawan didn’t seem fitted for a cinema, much less midnight movies though. Only one access lift and one way into the cinema and out, causing massive human jams D:

Day 2- Monday, 28th December 2009

My sore throat seems to have pretty much disappeared (Yay!) but my flu was still there, although much better compared to last night. Hurrah for zealously medicating myself as soon as I got the symptoms :P We woke up early-ish despite the late night movie, and made it in time for free breakfast at the hotel (They were about to clear up) XD

Our agenda of the day- museums and A’ Famosa Fort!

The view on St. Paul’s Hill, going up towards the ruins of St. Paul’s Church and the surrounding areas, which includes some graves and a small Dutch Graveyard. I had no idea the ruins were a church though at first, due to the Latin-inscribed tombstones and grave markers lining the inside of it :x

A ship hit land! Oh, it’s just the Muzium Samudera (Maritime Museum), as visible from St. Paul’s Hill.

Dear dear at one of the cannons around A’ Famosa Fort :D

Another shot of dear dear. Kuma go bluek! :P A’ Famosa Fort isn’t as interesting as it used to be anymore, because the cannons overlook Dataran Pahlawan and modern buildings (They should at least make the buildings replicate old ones instead >_>) instead of the sea. A fort of supposed to fire out at sea, against pirates and/or invaders! >_<

Inside one of the museums in Stadthuys :o This is an old bicycle, used by the Japanese to get around during the Japanese Occupation.

A photo dear dear took of me with the bicycle XD

After the museums (We didn’t go to all of them, just the ones that we’ve never been to and those that interest us XD), we walked down to Jonker Walk (Yes, again! XD) as Louis’s mother requested for some fridge magnets of the nyonya beaded shoes and since it was a short walk anyway. Also settled some stuff for my Mum after some tedious searching and walking around the entire area @_@

Our (late) lunch for the day- pork satay! Granted, I don’t really actually enjoy satay in general, but this is a completely different thing. It’s delicious, very much so and doesn’t taste like usual satay. The kuah (Gravy) is unique too. In short, I love it. Ah, just thinking about it now makes me hungry for it ;_;

The reason for this photo was because dear dear looks cute with the way he carries his bag :P Taken at Dataran Pahlawan, where we had dinner that night. After pork satay there was really no other places of interest to go to, and the zoo would be closing soon, so we decided to leave that for the next day as planned earlier and take a rest before heading out for dinner :3

After dinner we decided to check out the Malacca River Cruise, as yesterday was too crowded. Thankfully it wasn’t today, so we decided to take it :D So much for planning to return early and get more sleep! XD

Taken after having boarded the boat and waiting for more passengers to embark. This is another view of the area surrounding the Eye On Malaysia. Was feeling very excited, as I’ve wanted to take the Malacca River Cruise anyway, just that it was crowded yesterday :D

Dear dear flash-banged himself while taking photos of us on the boat :P

Much better :D Such a nice photo of the both of us :3

With enough passengers on board, the boat finally moves and the Malacca River Cruise begins! I didn’t expect the sprays of water (Thankfully we were sitting not too front), and was considerably lucky that I managed to get a photo of it too :D Dear dear calls this “Malacca On Fire” >_>

The back alleys of the buildings along Malacca River. The street lights lend a certain charismatic, nice, old-ish feel to the whole scenery.

This is actually a failed shot, but uploaded to show how the kid’s hand looks like it’s touching the pole XD

The three street lights on the right of the photo reminds me of a foggy London town at night D:

Brightly lit Malay village houses along the Malacca River. Notice how straight the boat (In red and blue) is in this shot :P

The boat on its way back from the cruise. The cruise did not go the entire Malacca River, maybe just half, and we start the journey going upstream until a certain point before reversing back. When the boats meet each other they honk at each other, like buses or taxis here.

A rather interesting motion blur on the left, with a nice scenery on the right. Now you see why I love yellow lighting when taking photos most of the time- it lends a soft feel and mood to the whole photo. Or at least that’s my opinion >_>

Another clash between old and new. Old building vs new steel construction structure.

At the end of the cruise, there were nice lighting along the bank which I couldn’t resist taking photos of. The whole cruise was actually enjoyable, though you don’t exactly see much but bridges most of the time, and of course buildings, including the Cheng Ho Cultural Museum at Jonker Walk and also St. Peter’s Church. There was also a mini fun fair somewhere. In general the Malacca River Cruise was very relaxing and to an extent, romantic even, especially if it’s with the one you love ♥ A nice way to unwind after a long day and to relax.

Sigh, last night in Malacca ;_;

Day 3 continues here :3