From Miss to Missus Part 1 : Melaka Trip

Finally I got the idea of telling about Ain's wedding (pre and post). I've been meaning to write about it but I just thought that there were too many photos and too many events, so yesterday I thought that I'll do it in parts.

There will be 3 parts I think - Part 1, our trip to melaka, Part 2, the bachelorette party and part 3 the wedding.

I am going to start with our little "Bachelorette" Melaka trip on (31 Oct 09- 1 Nov 09). The plan was actually involved Chot and Zati because Zati was also getting married but the wedding date was too near, so Zati was a little bit nervous to leave home. The idea was that we spent time away from the city, just us, before Ain & Zati entered into their new life. Anyway, we chose Melaka because we just want to go someplace near, not too distant because we didn't want spent too much time on the road. We just one a quick getaway. We also chose Melaka because Ain is familiar with the town as she used to live in Melaka for several years when she was a kid. As for myself, I have been to Melaka before of course many times, I even have relatives there which we usually visit during Eid. I've been to all those tourist places but it has been ages since the last time and I never really explore those places. Instead of me entertaining Ain, Ain was the one entertaining me, showing off all those places she loves. hehe.

DAY 1

We pushed off from Kajang before noon, reached there around 12 something I think and we took the chance to meet up my darling friend, Atie, whom I haven't met in such a long time. We decided to meet up at Mydin, Ayer Keroh since it is near Atie's home. It was a quick meeting because Atie coincidently was going back to KL. Though it was short, it was enough to catch up with each other's current news. The best thing was also that, Atie, somehow knew Ain by reputation, because Atie's friend is Ain's friend, Zati's sister, Zura. Zura also heard about me from Zati (who is also now my friend) and Atie! What a small world huh?
Me & Atie
Atie & Ain - they looked like old friends, right? I love my friends! heeheh

Then since it was too early to check in, we decided to walk around town. Ain parked the car near The Stadthuys/Christ Church area, and we walked around there. It was scorching hot, and perfect day for photos! We were sweating and thirsty in no time! lol.

Very excited looking local tourists. lol.
We love this "hole" at the Stadhuys. Don't you think the colour is unique?

At the fountain at the Stadhuys
Decorated beca (trishaws) for tourists.

We then walked further up, to a row of shophouses which were painted the same red as the Stadhuys adn we fell in love with the wooden doors, and pretty kebaya places.
Door model
Yeah, Holland is this way
Take a break
Well, I can't find my size!!!
Pretty kebaya
Thirsty?

We then decided to find the River Cruise ticket counter place, got lost but ended up walking at the backlane of the shophouses and were delighted with the view. Who thought Melaka looked like this? We felt like we were somewhere in venice lol.
Melaka, the heritage city
riverside
At the row of little shops and cafes
found this door, and loved it. :P
Tunggu sape tu?
I felt like singing "on the boardwalk, boardwalk" here. heheh
We came across thsi fort.. maybe it is the Dutch fort? not too sure what it is called
and also this, the windmill? or something like it. hahaha i know i am not helping but this is just somewhere opposite the Stadhuys, you wont miss it for sure.

We got tired and can't stand the sun anymore, so we went to the hotel. We loved our room, too big for just the 2 of us. We spent the afternoon indoors, recharged and freshened up and we couldn't really go out anyway since it was raining outside.
We are here!

By 6pm, we were already ready for dinner, in Umbai.

Umbai is a little village famous for its "ikan bakar" or grilled fish. I think it is about 30 minutes from the Melaka town, heading to Muar. There are several spots in Umbai that has these "Medan Ikan Bakar" but the place we went to was "Medan Ikan Bakar Umbai - Pernu". More description about the food and the place, you can visit here (i am too lazy to write. haha)

Grilled prawns
The famous grilled fish
Here in Umbai, nasi lemak is served to accompany your seafood.

After dinner, we went to Jonker Street, but it was raining and not many stalls were opened. We were kind of disappointed as people say that you can get good bargains here, but what to do, so we decided to check out a new shopping mall in town, Dataran Pahlawan. Since we were there not for shopping, we walked around for awhile then we decided to call it a night.

Ain at Jonker Street sign
It was raining, but we managed to walk through till the end of the road
One for the album
There was a parade at the Dataran Pahlawan area.

Day 2

We started off the day early, checked out straight away to save time. We skipped breakfast at the hotel since Ain wanted to take me to this one stall famous for its kuihs (traditional cakes). We were quite disappointed because there weren't much choice, probably it was too early?
Common local kuihs

We went to the A Famosa, The Melaka Sultanate Palace, passed through the Portuguese Settlement before we made another stop to Jonker Street, since we couldn't go there the night before.
A Famosa

The Malay Sultanate Palace
Inside the palace, there were lots of paintings, mannequins adorned with complete traditional costume (which freaked us out.. cuz they looked so real), we were actually quite scared in there, hahahaha we both gets scared easily and there were not much people inside anyway, so it gets pretty creepy ok? So if you easily scared like us, go in numbers, but you must go to this place as the place is worth the visit.
I love the wooden walls, very traditional

The Portuguese Settlement

These places are rich with history. I love the natural colour of the bricks at A Famosa. We fell in love with the beautiful replica of the old Malay palace. Everyone should go there, the place is very well maintained and I wished that there are more to see there. Going to Portuguese village was enlighting, to know that there are still people there, where the roots go way back to the old days. Oh there are also more museums around Melaka which we didn't get to go so please here for more information.

and you know what, I fell in love with Jonker Street. I love the authenticity of the place, with those uniques shops and boutiques. I never been anywhere like it here in Malaysia, but then again, I never been to this kind of trip before. Usually I didn't really have the time to explore the places, usually if I went for holiday it was quick and always rushing. I like this one, we took time walking, it was nothing really, just endless walking, but I was glad that we walked around the place. Actually we didn't know we were going, we just walked through the streets. We even had a chance to taste the famous Portuguese Egg Tarts.

Welcome to Jonker Walk
Lots of antiques, they got pretty old stuff there, like a bronze iron which i used to see in my late grand uncle house, which is pretty cool (who have to put in fire up coal to heat them up)
Pretty decoration in front of one of the rest houses/boutique hotels
One of the many crafts stores there
A clogs shop. Look at those pretty coloured clogs behind!
At a really nice interior design boutique, i think it is called Puri Padi. Pretty awesome stuff inside
we love the door!!!
hehehe one of the antique shops there. Notice that the statues are "chained" erks
Orang utan house - selling paintings and tshirts with messages.. love them
Founf this at random, i think it was a tattoo shop
Beautiful mosque

All the mosques in Melaka looks like this.

Then we finished of our trip with lunch at this one famous restaurant for its "Asam Pedas" (a local delicacy here - a soupy like dish, with broth made of chilli and tamarind juice and usually we use fish, chicken or beef) and Cendol (a dessert made of shaved ice, melted palm sugar, coconut milk with little green jelly strings) at Ain's favourite place during her childhood and also a quick trip to buy some local products (shrimp paste, snacks, etc) for home.

The restaurant. It is around the Mahkota Parade area, opposite Menara Taming Sari
Our lunch, Asam Pedas
Pretty common household spread at meal time
Cendol!!

Local products, showing off shrimp paste

It was a simple, quick trip but a memorable one, I love every single minute of it. We walked and walked and walked. This trip changed my perception towards holidays. I love this trip because it seems like I got to know the places, than just passing through.

*phew* this is one of the longest post (with the pictures) i ever done, hehe sorry as I wanted to cram all in one post.

Till the next part, stay tuned :)