Baba Nyonya

I had a long leave for October. I wanted to take advantage of this and asked my hubby if we can have a short trip to nearby Malacca, Malaysia. My hubby was also free to travel with me so Malacca, Melaka, it is…..

I was thinking of taking the regular bus going to Malacca via Larkin to save some dollars. But it might be challenging choosing this route travelling with an active 1 year old. So I bought a ticket instead at Starmart Express Bus at Golden Mile Complex. It cost $20 for one person and no need to buy ticket for kids below 3 years old. There are specific seats, exact check-in time and departure time. I am so glad I did.

So we arrived at Golden Mile Towers at 7:45AM. Our check in time was 8:00 AM and bus was scheduled to leave at 8:30AM. The bus seats were very comfortable. They are massage chairs so you can get a massage while travelling. Cool, right? Though not all chairs are working.

We have to go up and down the bus when we reached the immigration area at Tuas and immigration area entering Malaysia. We have to bring all our belongings so remember to pack light. It’s a bit troublesome to go up and down the bus and queue at the immigration area but good thing queue is not that long and our bus waits for us at a designated area. After having our passport stamped, we are off to a 3-hour peaceful bus ride to Malacca. I was happy Naj wasn’t fussy during the trip. He slept most of the time and when he was awake he was quietly enjoying the view outside the bus window.

We arrived at Malacca Sentral Bus Terminal at around 12:30 noon. We got a taxi to drive us to our hotel. Taxis doesn’t use meters in Malacca. We paid the taxi driver RM20.00. Remember don’t pay more than that.

I picked The Sterling Boutique Hotel for our accommodation. The place looks regal day and night. It is a bit hidden from the main street and the taxi driver initially is not sure where to find the hotel.

The hallway have automatic air fresheners which made the hotel smell so floral but can be overpowering at times. The room was a bit small but the decors was modern with a hint of minimalist Victorian style. I am not very fond of their bathroom. I believe bathrooms are a deal breaker in hotels and this one really disappointed me with its frosted glass door and the tiles were old & moldy. There was weird smell in the bathroom that doesn’t go away, toilet doesn’t flush well and the shower has very complicated numerous knobs.

We were famished so we walked to the main street and found the Hard Rock Cafe. We decided to have lunch there. The main touristy places is just a walkable distance to our hotel which is great.

We had the Original Legendary Burger (RM56.00). It is huge burger for sharing topped with smoked turkey bacon, cheddar cheese, golden fried onion ring, crisp lettuce and tomato. It also has fries with it. The patty was juicy and flavourful. It is a good choice if you are very hungry.

We also got the Grilled Chicken Quesadilla (RM 32.00). It comes with pineapple, tossed in our tangy bar-b-que with melted sauce Jack cheese and stuffed in a chia-dusted tortilla. It comes with fresh guacamole, freshly made pica de gallo and sour cream. I love this! It is so yummy. I prefer to dip it in sour cream.

We had this refreshing Mango-Berry Cooler (RM29.00) to cool us from the humid sticky weather of Malacca.

When our bellies our full, we started our strolling around the World Heritage City, declared by UNESCO on 7th July 2008. The touristy spots are all nearby each other so bring your walking shoes when travelling in Malacca.

St. Francis Xavier Church

Melaka River

Christ Church

inside Christ Church

colourful trishaws

on our way to St. Paul’s Ruins

St. Paul’s Ruins

Malacca is a great place for fashion bloggers to visit because it provides the best background for OOTDS. It has a lot of bold and colourful walls for a great photo op.

After a long walk around the streets of Malacca, we headed to Jonker Street. A coconut ice cream kiosk caught our attention and we got one cup. It was so yummy! It was perfect dessert to cool us from our tiring walk around Malacca.

Then we returned to out hotel for some time to rest our feet and hide from the humid & heat outside. By 7:00 PM, Malacca became more alive and colorful. People come out to go to the Jonker Street, the night market. There are a lot of bright-lit trishaw with loud music blazing.

For dinner, we decided to try one of the bistrobar at Jonker Street called the Bistro 1673. We entered into an open restaurant with a live music with vintage decors.

We got a Penang Char Kueh Teow. I know my hubby loves this noodle dish and it didn’t disappoint. It wasn’t greasy and tasted awesome.

We also had 1/2 dozen Chicken Satay which was equally good as well. We are fans of satays and Malacca’s satay were good.

We ordered Heavenly Thai Pineapple Fried Rice to add to our food. It comes beautifully in a carved-out pineapple shell. The rice was fragrant with chilli paste, large seafoods and vegetables.

We were too full to try the chendol and we headed back to the hotel. We had a restful sleep that night with the aircon on full. We, three, were hugging each other from the cold.

The next day, we had brunch at the hotel. It was a semi-buffet of bread and cereal with a choice of set brunch. I have to say even the brunch was unfortunately disappointing.

After bathing and packing our stuff to leave at the hotel storage room, we went another slow stroll in the streets of Malacca. We went back to Jonker to look for this coffee place called Calanthe Art Cafe. It took us a long time to find the place. We keep asking locals and they don’t seem to know about the cafe. One store clerk said if I meant the 13 State Coffeeshop and gave me instructions to get to the place. Calanthe Art Cafe and 13 State Coffeeshop are one and the same.

I love the vibe of the place. I am sucker for quirky cafes. It exudes a hipster cool artsy aesthetics. You might thing the place is small but you have to go inside to see more of the place.

I learned that it is called 13 State Cafe because they make a local ice-blended coffee based on the choice of state you prefer. Pick a state and it has a corresponding coffee flavour. Isn’t that cool? You have Johor, Kelantan, Penang, Sarawak, to name a few. I picked Penang. Penang Coffee (RM 9.35) is a special selection of fine beans blended with nondairy creamer and sugar. I love my choice!

Hubby got a Brown Gentleman. It is cappuccino and mocha blended, topped with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. He loves sweet anything and it’s perfect for him.

I wanted to some chicken rice balls or the chendol but we weren’t so hungry after the coffee. So we headed to San Shu Gong to check out what we can buy to take back to Singapore. San Shu Gong also can be found in Jonker Street.

I got a box of coconut white chocolate balls, satay sauce and some durian sweets. Then, we tried to escape from the heat of the sun, we walked to Makhota Parade Mall to roam around the mall. We got a bit hungry from our window shopping, we went to Nadeje Cake Shop found outside of Makhota Parade. They sell mille crepes. It is a French pastry made of several layers of crepe stacked together. You have to queue a bit to try the famous mille crepes in Nadeje.

We had the Double Chocolate and Mango Yogurt and got some drinks, Orange Yakult and mocha coffee.

If you ask me if the mille crepe was worth the queue outside the humid and heat, I will have to say, not really. It wasn’t really sweet nor impressive. The texture was interesting though.

We went to another mall, Dataran Palawan Megamall and on Level 3 is the Nyonya Memoirs Memory Lane. It was just a serendipitous find while resting our feet from the walk. Entry is RM 10/adult which allows us to get acquainted with the Baba-Nyonya Culture with two free photos of us with the displays if we get the four stamps found inside the memory lane. Opening hours is 11 AM to 9 PM and last entrance at 8 PM. It was nice getting to know more about the splendour of the Peranakan Era and the colourful and interesting life they have. I love learning stuff like these in trips.

I find the trip to memory lane was worth it. I recommend it to travellers coming to Malacca. After Nyonya Memoirs, we went back to our hotel to get our stuff to catch our bus trip back to Singapore.

Melaka is a good place for non-fussy travellers, travellers who are interested in educational, interesting, rich culture, travellers who loves street foods, travellers who likes museums & ruins, fashion bloggers and back packers. Thank you for an interesting and educational trip, Melaka! All the best!