The last time I went to the old historical town was when I was still in primary school. It lasted only for dinner when my family decided to take a break from the long drive from Genting back to Singapore.
The bunch of us gathered at Kranji MRT station at 7am and we set off in three cars with Samuel taking the lead. Whey and Rick drove the other two. Josh chose not to drive because more cars would make the road trip complex, so we car-pooled with Rick.
Bad move to let Sam take the lead. That fella drove like a Grand Prix racer. The other two drivers were unfamiliar with the route had to speed up to keep up. Fortunately we brought walkie-talkies along and had a fine time screaming at him to slow down.
Actually, it was pretty cool listening to Samuel bark directions and seeing the our cars turn simultaneously right after.
We had a very simple breakfast at Damai Gardens in JB before our drive up to Malacca. As I had only three hours of sleep the night before, I slept through much of the journey. Josh woke me when we arrived at a Bee Museum. Someone wanted to buy honey.
I was much amused by the gigantic bee statues that stood guard at the museum's entrance. They reminded me of some low budget horror movies involving enormous insects.
The museum's displays were awful. I've always thought beehives to be ugly because of all those craters. Imagine the horror of seeing them up close! And the dead bees (they were probably preserved!) stuck onto the hives made the sights worse.
Lunch was up next! Malacca is famous for its traditional chicken rice balls. So that was what we went for.
Urgh. I wanted to scream. Josh and I sold chicken rice before. If I cannot tolerate eating Josh's chicken rice, which drew even regulars from as far as Jurong, why would I want to eat someone else's?
Alas, majority wins.
This was what we ate.
My verdict? IT IS LOUSY. The chilli sauce was too diluted and tasteless. The rice was too bland and dry. The beans sprouts in oyster sauce was a sad, sad dish.
I would have loved to slap the cook to appease my insulted tastebuds.
I was SO tempted to save the Aussie TV crew that was there to film a travelogue. It was unbelievable how the Malaysian guide kept singing the chicken rice's praises. Some poor Aussie traveller will travel all the way to Malacca for the god-awful chicken rice and be so disappointed.
At least I was happy again after a visit to a Peranakan dessert stall in Jonkers Walk. It sold traditional desserts like ice kachang, chendol, and more. Every bowl of the icy treat had a generous serving of thick liquid gula melaka over the ice shavings. After tasting that I don;t ever want to eat Singaporean ice kachang again!
And the best thing about this dessert stall? It resembles a traditional Peranakan house of yesteryears. If you have been to the Katong Antique House at East Coast, this place is just like that... except more dilapidated - in a nice way!
After that, we went shopping.
And at the mall's carpark, I saw this trash of a car.
Wan Jun and I could not resist and snapped a photo of it while the boys queued to pay for parking at the auto-pay station. Minutes later, we realised that the owner of the car was right behind us! Yikes!
Like any typical tourist, I was blown away by how cheap things were and bought a lot of useless stuff and accessories from Jonkers Walk and the city mall.Well, the girls went pretty liberal while shopping too.
When all were tired and satisfied, we rested at a cafe and snacked on cakes and milkshakes. Ahh, the life!
We left the mall around 4pm and headed down town for more cheap shopping at a wholesale foodstuff place. I bought lots of muruku, an Indian titbit, and crunchy satay fish snacks. I know these things are available in Singapore too, but that's what being a tourist does to you. You buy. Period.
Dinner was a superb seafood feast by the sea. I think it is called Joan & Al Chico's. Our tummies exploded. I like that.
It was past 11pm by the time we got off our heavy asses and started our drive back to Singapore.
Well-fed and exhausted after a full day of walking and sight-seeing, I fell asleep nestled in Josh's arms in the car.
2 blistering yaks:
If you had done a little research before writing, you would have realised thay you actually tried the worst of the chicken rice stalls. The one u went to is a fake stall trying to rely on the fame of the original and paying to put the picture of the famous guy at the entrance. They even pay to get listed in some books. Melakans and the wiser singaporeans and other malaysians will never step into that shop. They open a big impressive looking shop to trick people like you. And the irony is that u used such strong words in your blog without doing adequate research. I thought bloggers should be more responsible in their writings.
Dear Anonymous Chicken,
I spent a whole day trying to fathom what point you were trying to make through your comment.
I failed.
I sense anger but I cannot understand over what exactly.
Were you angry that I failed to find out before hand where I should dine at while in Malacca? But the whole point of traveling and going to new places is the element of surprise that comes with discoveries.
Were you angry that I chose to dine at the worst ever chicken rice stall in Malacca AND YET gave it a scathing review? This is the part of your comment that I truly cannot understand. Your comment made it sound as if I had enjoyed my meal at that terrible place, and was thus misleading my readers.
Pray tell, where in this post did I praise that awful stall.
You said the chicken rice stall is big and impressive. My god. You need to raise your standards. The shop is hardly big and impressive. Show me where in this post did I say it was.
You are one strange fella. Would you like to re-read this post - maybe after sex because you have a serious case of pent-up angst that you are venting on others - and re-post a more relevant comment?
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