Malaysia Trip 2008 (Part 2)
I would absolutely love to complete all five days of my trip in this blog post. Let’s me try.
Day 1 – 24th December 2008
We woke up at about 5.30am on the 24th, the first day, preparing for a long drive there with the always expected jams at the Causeway. It was after a long decision that we decided to take the risk and take the first link, which has had the new CIQ just opening a few days ago – something new, you’d expect hiccups.
Of course, we never quite made it there at the time of 6.30am. We reached Woodlands at about 7.30am, after many, many, many delays at home. You bet we were half expecting a jam then. On the contary, upon reaching Woodlands, there wasn’t much of a jam. Going through Woodlands was quite a breeze then.
The new CIQ is relatively deep into Malaysian territory, with all the areas along the road into the CIQ fenced up – though the fence doesn’t seem any secure to me…seems like as if it could be easily pryed or climbed over. And it was a breeze through the new CIQ too! The new CIQ is NOT nicely placed in front of the way to the coastal road, after driving around some places, following the signboards, you then get led back onto the old coastal road, which brings you to the highway. Troublesome… 
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Anyway, after some four hour drive, we arrive at our hotel! That is a feat done with making some unneccersary turns to find the hotel despite having a GPS with you :\. The streets there are narrowly one way, which makes it quite hard to navigate…and one wrong turn will bring you back to the headof the street, only to join in the never-ending queue of cars and buses. We booked Hotel Puri for the first day…and no other hotel for the second, third and fourth day 
. Certainly a smart plan to want to book hotels along the way…but the trip wasn’t really a “planned” four day trip, we booked along the way so that we can go back anytime we liked.
Some scenes in front of the hotel located on a small street by the name of Jalan Tan Cheng Lock…
 Facade of Hotel Puri |
 Buildings to the left of the hotel |
 The Church in front of Hotel Puri |
 Buildings to the right of Hotel Puri |
The hotel is described as a Boutique Hotel and if I’m not mistaken, it’s where the popular Channel 8 Drama, The Little Nyona, was flimed. The building was owned by someone, can’t remember who now, and then it was revamped into this hotel, with the original facade and other stuff still intact. The hotel has its own carpark a few units away, so you don’t have to park your car outside. There’s too, a little secret about this hotel that I’ll mention later…
The hotel’s interior is nice looking and gives you some cozy feeling. You can easily see what the unit was like before it was revamped into the hotel. Some pictures of the interior and from the window in front of my hotel room’s door…
 Rooftop view from Hotel Puri |
 Rooftop view from Hotel Puri |
 Hotel Interior, facing the front door |
 The old windows that are still there...I doubt you can actually go up to the second floor since the stairs was chained... |
Shophouses along Jalan Tan Cheng Lock
After unpacking the items in the hotel room, it was time to move out and explore this place…the entire street was full of shophouses like these. There was a unit that was under renovation, and NUS’s name was on it…I wonder what they’re doing there!
The street leads you to the riverside, Melaka River. There’s not much life on the river, hence it certainly looks clean. The occasional riverboats passing by, which make a loop back at the end of the river that has been dammed up. Nice scene…took a few pictures of it too! I realised I’m taking pictures of everything – glad I’m going to collage all my pictures next time instead of posting them one by one!
 Riverside view with the water-wheel |
 The street behind the riverside, intersecting with Jalan Tan Cheng Lock |
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Heeren House. My parents wanted to stay here, but they were out of rooms - they only had 4 rooms. This is not Heeren Inn which has bad reviews! |
 Melaka River with the fort and the bridge in the background |
 Signpost by the riverside! |
 Further down the river, where the malls are still largely under construction...many things there are still being built. One of the tour boats is in the background too! |
It was almost lunchtime by then. Next to the river you can find Jonker Street, this street is full of life – with never-ending traffic flow – human and cars alike – save for maybe at night. When it’s almost 9-10pm, you can barely find anything on this street, mentioned later! Some street scenes as usual:
 Big Stone Plague that says Jonker Street! |
 Shops... |
 No prizes for guessing what else is there... |
 And even more shops... |
We took lunch at this shop called Famosa Chicken Rice Ball. The food was quite nice, and the shop has a unique design too! Of course, pictures speak a thousand words…
 Front interior of the shop |
 Fishballs on the left? No, it's actually chicken rice balls! |
 At the back of the shop... |
 The gold looking design of the shop! |
 There's even a place for kings...! |
 Close-up of the King's Throne |
After lunch, we began exploring Jonker Street again and we found this small hole which leads to a supposed tea-house. Money tree plants are all around you as you dig your waythrough the narrow pathway into the tea house. What I never expected was that this tea house also functions as a museum at the same time, which has tour guides and shows. The tea house cum museum is some 6 shophouses long if memory serves!
 Riverside view with the water-wheel |
 The street behind the riverside, intersecting with Jalan Tan Cheng Lock |
 The entrance to the Museum cum Tea-house |
 Yet another street scene... |
After this was a walk over the river to the other side, where you can find the Stadhuys and the Clock Tower, at the very heart of Malacca. Pictures will do the talking again since I’m lazy – you know, a montage IS the way to go…
 Signboard with the River's Name |
 Another scene of the river with the docks in the background... |
 The Stadhyus and Church and the Tang Beng Swee Clock Tower |
 Red Square with a Pasar Malam |
 The Art Gallery and Church. They sure don't call this place the Red Square for nothing... |
 River with a tour boat arriving. Notice the OCBC Bank in the background - it has closed. |
 Fountain in the middle of the Red Square |
 Pasar Malam at the back of the Red Square |
Oh, then guess what we saw while walking around the Red Square? Mounted Tourist Police, I wonder where do you see these anymore! Certainly a sight to behold…and I do wonder how these policemen go on duty with people taking photos of their horses all the time 
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 Mounted Tourist Police on Horses! |
 Another picture of the tourist police on horses! They're so nice! |
After that, we got on one of the bicycle tour rides, forgot what was the term…brought us around for about 5 minutes and showed us places that we were lazy to walk to before it headed back to the Red Square. It seems to me that there’s no fixed pricing there, with the people riding just setting the prices on their own 
.
 One of the bicycles with the cabins...gah cannot remember the term for it now. |
 We saw the mounted police again...so here's another picture! |
 I cannot really remember what is the train, but it is probably some old KTM train mounted there. In the background would be the Taming Sari Revolving Tower which we went on later |
 All the uhm, nicely decorated, bicycle taxis! |
 MAN Tourist Public Transport Bus in Malacca  OCBC Bank Structure |
After alighting, it was more walking to be done! Here’s some local public transport infrastructure, or more like tourist infrastructure…it’s a tourist bus that brings you around the town’s attractions. No, I did not go on the bus.
And the OCBC Bank structure in the background…of course if you’re looking at something else, I wouldn’t be suprised |
The next place we went to was the Porta de Santiago, an old Portuguese fort that has been rebuilt by the Dutch…amazingly, they dug it up and reconstructed it according to the layers and even labelled them . There’s still digging being done I believe.
 The Fort from opposite the river. |
 The layers of the fort reconstructed and labelled! |
 View of the street from above the fort |
 The fort and its cannons! |
 Close-up of a cannon in the Fort |
 Lookout Tower on the Fort. It is a really, really small hole. |
 Fort from the base, with the cannons protruding outwards |
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The Ship in question
After the fort, we proceeded and continued walking towards the Revolving Tower…and passed by several attractions on the way, such as this ship. It’s some tourist attraction, but I can’t remember what is it…here’s a picture of it nevertheless.
When we reached the Revolving Tower, a queue begun to form. There was some form of school excursion there and hence there was a huge group of students, right in front of us queueing up too…Luckily the queueing time was relatively short, despite the length of the queue. There was either no English guide on the Revolving Tower to tell you what you see, or I simply couldn’t understand what the person was muttering, so if you don’t speak Malay, you’re quite left on your own to just see what you can see!
 The Capsule of the Revolving Tower |
 Scenes on the Revolving Tower |
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 I love this Sunset. |
 The sky darkens... |
After this, we walked back to our Hotel to get some rest, I think, because there isn’t anymore photos to help me back any story up. We figured out where the Ferries Wheel was. On our way back, we saw huge groups of 燕子’s flying and flying in huge flocks, it’s quite an amazing sight to behold…but I don’t have any pictures to describe it! They were literally black masses flying in the sky, making chirping sounds non-stop…
On our way back, we stopped by Jonker Street again, and looked at several things and bought some CNY Goodies back. The flattened love letters that we bought is quite nice, so is the rolled up version .
We didn’t go out for dinner until 9:30pm, and that was another problem. Everything was closed in the vicinity, save for the pubs which were preparing to celebrate Christmas with loud, non-stop blasting music…
To be continued in part 3~