Monday, October 28, 2013

Melaka - Part 1

So we took a bus from Larkin to Melaka/Malacca (still don't know the correct spelling!) and headed to our hotel. The bus dropped us off a ways a way so we got a taxi to our hotel. I remember the guy at the taxi rank, noticing all my loose notes in my bag and telling me I should secure them better so they didn't fall out.  A slight paranoia crept in but was completely unnecessary and actually he was spot on the (errr, money) with that advice because something sorta funny, sorta horrible happened to me a few days later (promise I'll share) but today is all about Melaka!


Our accommodating zzz hotel was great, I originally had us planned to hire bikes but it turned out, as with the rest of our trip, everything was quite close together and even though the hotel looked quite far from the city centre it was at max a ten minute walk :) City centre might be the wrong choice of words as Melaka consists of a river, some historical streets and on the other side of town (the zzz hotel side) some shopping centres. Ben mentioned he could of stayed longer than just a night and personally I would of been happy staying for two :)


Wow water in our room! This was super fancy for us, well comparing our previous accommodations :p

This photo above was taken walking along one of the historical streets.
Jonker Street seems to be the street everyone knows about but there are other parallel streets and lots of smaller joining streets that Ben and I had a lot of fun exploring :)

The decorated trishaws were beyond amazing, you'll see I took a lot of pictures of them :p

Mr Asia and Mr Universe oh and Ben (my favourite!) Ben arrived home on Thursday from being weeks away at his work, so life is happy and a little bit sappy!

So awesome! 

Ben bought this for someone special and no it wasn't for me.

It's fun walking along the river, although the river isn't too spectacular there are some fun painted murals along the way

The treat was actually Pulut Inti, where traditionally, the rice is dyed using blue flowers and is made up of rice, coconut and sugar wrapped up into a banana leaf :)


And this is the special guy, a baby kitten we found. Ben insisted we spent the next half hour hunting him down some meat. We had to settle on the rice, because we just couldn't find anything else.

I hope our friend is doing alright :)

I kept thinking the streets of Malaka would make the perfect background for a fashion photo shoot



This is the baboon house and if you ever find yourself in Melaka go there! Unfortunately photos weren't allowed inside which killed me because it was amazing (google it for people that were more sneaky than me) it was here Ben and I had the best burgers we'd ever eaten even better than freshness burger in Japan!


This is the outside, I believe one of the owners is an artist and as you walk into the cafe you pass a gallery of all his work, but it was the garden inside and bare walls and yummo food that totally sold Ben and I.  Ben was ready to pack up and move to Melaka and start something similar himself :)


One of the rickshaws was playing the chicken dance as it zipped past, I love that they compete for tourists by upping their outrageousness!

A giant tea Tarik form Lao qian! I'd definitely recommend one of these as the frosty-ness hit the spot on such a hot day :)


And now for the tragedy of sweet home! I'll let you in on a little secret, I kind of only planned Melaka because of this hello kitty themed hotel but by the time I went to book they were no vacancies left - I could have cried. My friend Emaya suggested we sneak in and take photos which we tried to do but found it was tightly secured.  Even taking photos outside, someone came out and inquired what I was doing! errr, they didn't seem very friendly so I was okay with just staying at z hotel!

Loved all the street art, Melaka is definitely eclectic :)

*shakes fist*


At night we went for a wander to find t-bowl a themed restaurant where the serve their food and desserts in toilet shaped ceramic dishes, you also get to sit on a toilet seat! Sounded amazing, unfortunately after wandering many streets we worked out it must have closed down :(


We instead, stopped by Ole Sayang, a Chinese Restaurant where I got to try the famous Cendol! Basically a shaved ice dessert with coconut milk and red beans and jelly stripes and lets just say lots and lots of sugar!!



Too much sugar!

 Love it!

I'll be back again tomorrow with even more photos of Melaka for you guys :)

20 comments:

  1. oh, these are fab. I only went to Melaca on a day trip down from KL. loved it. not sure I would have wanted to spend more time there. it's rather small. but your night pics are sure amazing :)

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  2. Ben was sold on spending a lot more time there but I think two nights would have done it for me. There are a lot of food opportunities you just can't get through in one day :P lol

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  3. oh my! I just love those rickshaws! I LOVE fake flowers!!!

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  4. Amazing photos. I went to Melaka when I was 12 so that was ages ago and it looked nothing like this!!! I love that you bought the sticky rice dumpling for the little kitten, and that is one massive teh tarik!

    Look forward to hearing more about your trip.

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  5. Ahh Trishie do you have any photos from your trip? That would make for a fun blog post one day!

    The teh tarik was mainly ice but I approved of such icey-ness!

    Thimble - I love fake flowers too!

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  6. Those rickshaws are incredible. The whole town looks so colourful and interesting.

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  7. What an amazing trip- reminds me of the time I spent in Bali.. gorgeous art and yummy snacks and lots of culture around every corner. Can't wait to see more photos.

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  8. It was such a fun place to explore I'm glad we ended up putting it on our itinerary :)

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  9. It looks like your having so much fun. All the photos are amazing!

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  10. Malacca seems like a photo Paradise <3

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  11. Ah it is, you photographer ladies would go crazy!

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  12. actually in the baboon house you can take photos of the environment and food, except for the paintings as most of them are for sale

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  13. Oh no! That's super sad. I just saw the no photography sign as we entered and assumed that would be for the whole place :(

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  14. Melaka is the perfect photographic place! The murals, colors, so good. And the kitschy rickshaws with the tunning of neon at night! My favorite pic is the one with the round window with Ben and the blue wall. And the tea tarik looks amazing! And also your cosmic kitty t-shirt. oh so many things to love in this post! :) my heart goes with you guys with the little kitty and the rice ♥

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  15. It was a photographers dream :)

    Thanks Damaris!!

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  16. There's a Hello Kitty guesthouse in Melaka? Must visit! I'm a Malaysian and I never knew this guesthouse existed.

    Aggie
    www.onceoverlightly.com

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  17. yeah I wish I could of gone :( Looked nice from the outside peering in :P

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  18. The tragedy of sweet home....
    When i walk in to the Reception, the receptionies services is very bad and Its is Pirated Hello Kitty yet the room rate is very high...
    Pls think twice....

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  19. Thanks for letting us know Mary!

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