Woah... Big title, huh? It's nothing big actually.
Did you know that Gunung Mulu National Park, Kinabalu Park, Melaka and Georgetown are 4 of the 878 properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Comittee considers as having outstanding universal value?
Haha! Malaysians! Stand proud against the world! =P
So anyway, as usual, we were 1 hour behind our schedule. My dad planned to wake up at 6am and get going at 7am. But we woke up at 7am and got going at 7.30am.
When we reached Melaka, it was raining. Quite a good start actually. Melaka is usually HOT! I wonder whether it's because of their geographical position or what? But who cares? I'm in Food Heaven and surrounded by cool antiques and buildings! =)
Actually, we wanted to eat the Chicken Rice Balls at a restaurant but then there was a line outside.. O.o So we ate at the other restaurants, just beside The Orangutan shop if you know where that shop is.
The Orangutan shop is actually an art gallery selling T-shirts with the owner, Charles Cham's art works. He believes in the balance in life and Yin and Yang and was in France some years back. There was a shirt saying, "Play Safe. Use Malaysian Rubber." =_= You know what it means, don't you?
Next, my dad went looking for this shop of another artist. Jehan Chan? According to my dad, he was quite famous even back in the 1990's. His art gallery is quite far from the restaurant that we were eating at and we have to walk there.. @_@ On the way there, we stopped by many many shops and we weren't exactly looking for the gallery, just my dad was the only one looking.
Then we stopped by the cendol shop... =D Yummy! The first time I went there was 2 years ago? I think. With my choir buddies when we finished our concert, we celebrated by going for a trip, FREE! =) But we have to pay for the food and all that. After that, I fell in love with that Cendol there.. I ate 2 bowls yesterday, by the way. RM1.70/bowl. Reasonable, right?
Then we checked in the hotel at about 2pm. Avilion Legacy, Melaka. I have to say that that hotel is really... dirty. The carpets were dirty and stained. They even have a weird, old hotel kind of smell. Yuck! We didn't even want to swim in the pool. Small.. The lobby was dimly lit and looked really like a place that Malays liked. No offence!
We stayed in the hotel till 5.30pm after finish watching Rogue, the croc movie based in Australia. I think it's called Rogue. My cold-blooded sister laughed throughout the movie. =__= She said the croc was too fake and when the croc ate one of the people, she laughed... Swt! Then, we went to the Portugese Village for dinner.
There were still Portugese here, but mixed with the locals. They even still speak Portugese! You would think that they are Malay if they don't speak. But they speak better English. Fascinating History!
Then, we went to Jonker Street which was PACKED, CROWDED with people! Maybe it's because it's Agong's Birthday. But anyway, I saw my cousin brother and a friend there. What a coincidence! I didn't buy anything to eat because I was too full. My sister and I walked around and saw the LeSportsac selling almost in every stall! The first stall when we asked for the price, it was RM45.. O.o That expensive for a fake one?! We walked on and saw those little lamps made from rice paper. My sister wanted to buy one but they designs was limited. So I suggested that we walk on and see if other stalls sell them too. But then we stumbled across a stall which sold more designs of the LeSportsac. I've seen some of my friends using it and I liked the designs. We asked for the price, and guess what, it's RM28! HUGE difference! My sister and I each chose 1 and they sold the bag at RM 50 for 2 bags. I loved the little girl at the stall. Her mum was busy chatting away but she was selling the bags. Cute girl! =) In the end, we decided not to buy the lamp since we don't even know where to put it and our room's already full with this-and-thats.
My dad didn't want to walk with us. Instead, he sat at the Pub. After our stroll, we went back to the pub to meet him and there was a LIVE band there singing. Well, not exactly a band but a singer. So we sat there and enjoyed the music. My mum was singing to each song and was reluctant to leave after that. The traffic jams there made us reach the hotel at 1am when we left Jonker Street at 11pm.
A little history: Jonker Street used to be a street where the merchants and sellers live so the houses, which are now shops, are not that big. But the street where the rich and famous live long ago was way bigger. They use to go around in horse carts so they have stables for their horses.
I have to say that the shops there are just really, really old. They were actually houses where the rice merchants used to live in. There's an air well in the house, so it's pretty cooling. The shops are LOOOONG... Divided into several parts of the house. There's also a well in most of the shops where they used to draw water from. Cool!
There were lots of pubs, Nyonya restaurants, art galleries, cookie and local delicasie shops, batik shops and lots and lots of antique shops. I went in one of the antique shops and took a trip back to the olden days. I saw a gramaphone and some old records. I even saw one record which plays Elvis in Concert. I saw old cameras, telephones, safe boxes, lamps, jewelery, forks, spoons, knives, glass bottles, clocks which are still working, pictures, signs, weapons, toys, magazines. There were also the Wang Pisang which was mentioned in the History text books. I also saw a "medicine cabinet" where old Chinese doctors used to keep their herbs. I'm sure you've seen this in those Chinese movies set in ancient China. And again, COOL!
My mum said my grandpa used to have some of the antiques there but most of it was broken. My grandpa's old house is an old colonial style bungalow wher ethe British used to live before they went back to England. They left behind their furniture and my grandparents used the furniture instead of throwing it away.
The antique shops were dusty and I can hardly catch my breath in there. But it's really cool to think of who used to own all those and it made me want to really go back in time to see how people used to live.
The Nyonya food there was one of the main attractions there. The Chinese came from China when Cheng Ho and Hang Li Po came to Melaka back during the days and brought servants and armies. Most of them got married with the locals and there you have the Baba and the Nyonya. Which was a "mix" of the Malay and the Chinese. They experimented with the food and the spices we have here and came out with mouth watering dishes, a fusion of the Chinese and Malay. There was also the multicoloured kuihs which are oh-so-delicious! The Cendol is also one of the Nyonya delights. Genius inventions~
I ate lots of yummies there, saw lots of foriegners there, saw lots of eye opening antiques there, took lots of pictures of the antiques , too! Even though I think that is not really allowed... ^^' The place was as usual, HOT and old and mind boggling. The mind boggling part was when I imagine myself back in the days when I look at those antiques. COOL STUFF! The crowd this time made me not wanting to go back there soon and the traffic jam back to Klang was just -- ugh!
So I hope the next time I go there, I won't have to squeeze shoulder-by-shoulder with the tourist. And I hope my dad can get a bigger car real SOON so that we won't have to stuff all 6 people in a Mercedes. Why, oh why did he sell his Innova! T_T
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