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Category: Cool Stuff

Malacca Trip: The Famous Night Market, Jonker Walk a.k.a. Jalan Hang Jebat

When people talk about Malacca, people talk about Jonker Walk. Jonker Walk is one of the icon of Malacca. So basically what is Jonker Walk? It’s a street which has various name, Jalan Hang Jebat, Jonker Street, Jonker Walk, but commonly known as Jonker Walk that sells souvinirs, antique and food, and also turns into crowded night market on the weekend.

The building on this street are old and have heritage feel and look. I like old building and places, they are real beautiful when compare to today’s architecture because olden’s day art were more complicated, more hard work which is different from today lazy minimaism art.

Jonker Street is quiet in the afternoon but when it comes to night on the weekend, the place turns into a crowded and most happenings place in Malacca. It’s a night market, selling street food, souvinirs, toys, clothing and lots more.

I actually came here before like when I was 13-14 years old but I can’t really recall that much about the place until I revisited a few weeks back. I was amaze by the crowds and how the people run this place. It isn’t like any places in Penang. It’s cool, it’s happening, it’s fun and there’s lots of food.

Local, other states people, tourist, Singaporean, all came to this place in the weekend. One thing that I wish is that it could be as long as the Taman Connaught’s night market, but nevertheless, it’s awesome and I feel it’s better because of the heritage feeling of the place.

Besides night market and stalls, you can locate quite a number of heritage-style restaurant along the Jonker Walk, catering western dishes and local dishes. Yum yum.

Delicious potato springy crispy thing. I like this very much! Various sauce and topping.

I am more into street food and local food so I didn’t really check out the restaurants at there. Street food are cool enough like taiwan sausaages, potato roll, bubble tea and more are damn awesome!

Breaking coconut with one-finger. I didn’t check it out, it’s just another marketing method for some Chinese medicine.

Girlfriend with beautiful light up of Jonker Walk.

In one of the boutique. <3

Sucks, DON’T EAT THIS. IT’S FREAKING RM10 AND NOT DELICIOUS AT ALL.

I am not defaming the sotong bakar, but it’s really very expensive with a small pack and it’s nothing special at all. It’s freaking RM10!

Jonker88. A nice restaurant service some good Malacca food, but crowded all the time and not very clean cause we saw a rat ran over. Haha.

Another nice potato roll stall.

Nice little park in the middle of the street.

The street is about half kilometre and we spent 3 hours at there, I am wondering how we spent so long at there. Haha. There’s some sort of high school student cultural performance at there, after walking tiringly, we sat down to check out what’s happening on the stage. When I see them perform, I misses my high school life, awhhh.

Well, this is a nice place and must-visit place in Malacca during the weekend, remember it’s only available on the weekend. Wear lightly as it’s pretty warm at night and perspiration may break out of your pore. Indulge yourself with the yummy street food and some shopping. =)

Penang, please make some place like this. It’s cool.

March 19, 2011
My Dorm Workspace / Workstation In Kuala Lumpur

Studying in a not-so-faraway land in Kuala Lumpur, I rent a room here, instead of living in the university hostel. Well you know the hostel at Taylor’s University is currently priced at RM86o per month, SUCKS and I am currently paying RM550 per month with nice owner. I recommend you rent a room if you are coming to study at Taylor’s, seriously, there’s plenty of them.

Well, I like to tidy my workspace, I like a clean workspace, a minimalist one, but this will become maximalist after a few days when tons of assignments crash on the table. Haha. Just cleaned my room today and here I want to share my simple workspace. Instead of having dual screen like what I had in Penang, I have only one, and the other one is still in Penang because I don’t want my room look empty at home.

The mini table on the left is the table provided by the owner which I think it’s pretty lousy and useless because of the smallness. I can’t even place a drawing board and laptop at the same time. Then I added the cheap Ikea table at about RM110. Nice and big and cheap.

I re-edited my plain wall just now with the sticky notes that my lovely girlfriend wrote for me. =D I want to look for some wall decal art to paste it since I am not allowed to paint the wall. Any recommendation of places that sell cheap wall art decal?

Share with me your workspace/workstation of your dorm, your bedroom, your office or whatever place your work with. =)

March 19, 2011
Malacca Trip: Beautiful Cheng Hoon Teng Taoist Temple on Jalan Tokong

No, the above picture is not the famous Cheng Hoon Teng temple in Malacca. It’s just located on the same street as the temple. Cheng Hoon Teng temple is a famous Taoist temple in Malacca and also is the oldest Taoist temple in Malaysia, built in 1645 by authentic real China-man Kapitan Lee Wei King during the don’t now what dynasty. So it’s really a very very very very very old temple.

The temple is located on Jalan Tokong, which is the street next to the famous Jonker Walk and also right down Tang’s House, the guesthouse I was staying. According to the history book, this temple was built with real China material imported from China long ago, only then preserved and repaired by local people.

It doesn’t look old to me, probably because of preservation and repairing work, but then it is beautiful, just like Khoo Kongsi, Tua Pek Kong Temple in Penang. Although the compound is not super big but it has already shows it beautiness, the well-preservation work is good.

Good job for the people who do the preservation and repairing work. Another thing is, the place is very clean. Not dusty.

Spent some time taking photos and did some light praying, then off we go. It was sunset time and there’s still people coming in. It’s open until night time.

That’s the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple.

A short while at Kampung Ketek.

While walking back to Jonker Walk to begin our night market shopping, eating tour, we found Kampung Ketek and kinda curious with the Malay’s leg house and we went to check it out.

Nothing much, it’s just a small place with a few Malay’s style houses with leg. Surprisingly, this little kampung is clean too. Wow.

Next up will be our night market tour at the famous Jonker Walk. =)

March 3, 2011
Malacca Trip: Exploring Dutch Square, River Side and Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock

Oh yeah, I am having mid-semester break next week and I am going back to my hometown. University’s style diploma course is relaxing because it follows the standard timetable of university which has 2 sem per year, a long summer holiday in midyear and a month holiday during Christmas. Oh yeah.

Back to my Malacca trip which I had few weeks back. After walking around Jonker Walk to look for lunch, Hueisean and I went to check out the standard, famous, Malacca’s historical attraction, the Dutch Square which is just stone throws away from Jonker Walk.

Malacca is pretty small place and all the attractions is just very near by and centralized, so walking around places are easy. If I have not mistaken, I have been here when I was small, like 5/6 years old. Yeah, and this was my second visit.

The Dutch Square was built by the Dutch during the Dutch colony time which is a long time ago and it’s famous for the RED Christ Church and the RED Stadhuys building. The RED is one of the attraction which is the only place with Dutch architecture, pretty cool. I have no idea what’s a Stadhuys building did last time.

The Stadhuys is the one beside th Christ Church. We went up to check it out and there’s actually a collection for entrance fee to the museum which houses inside and we walked away. Not worth to pay for museum, IMO because I am not a fan of paying-musuem, in Asia.

<3

Memorial stone.

We kept praying for a cloudy weather and no more sun shines on us and regretted for not bringing an umbrella because it was very hot! Haha. Nice thing to see around is that there’s many tourist checking out the place. I love people visiting my own country. =D

Checked out the Christ Church and the interior isn’t that fascinating as the exterior afterall. No Roman-Catholoc-Paris-ish feel. Just plain interior. Aduh.

Nothing much for us to check out already. While on a trip to the public toilet which is by the riverside, we found the riverside. Haha. It’s actually quite nice placing shop houses by the riverside and having walkways by it. I would like to have a home by the river. It’s so nice.

Walls built by old red bricks.

There’s nothing much at that area already and we accidentally found another church whch si the St Francis Xavier Church. Pretty awesome and this is a English’s church. Awesome.

Feeling untolerable with the heatness, we walked back to our guesthouse to take an afternoon rest to prepare for night market. But then we did not took the Jonker Walk route where we came and we walked on the other street parallel to Jonker Walk which is Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock and there’s heritage rows to see too.

I believe the windmill is just for decoration purpose. Right? Or is it some sort of historical thing again? Hmm.

While walking to Tun Tan Cheng Lock Road, we found the bigger riverside which is pretty beautiful. I like it. Just due to heat, we didn’t want to stay there for long. And we realised we missed the Maritime Museum by the riverside, though it’s quite far.

Baba Nyonya Peranakan Musuem which is another need-to-pay museum. So I just passed by. Penang also has a Peranakan House. =)

This kind of fruit tea is super famous in Malacca and is selling for RM4 per bottle. I asked the person why everywhere is selling this in Malacca, and she told me that it’s only available in Malacca. O.o Cool.

Nice one, no idea what kind of architecture is this. English?

It writes Weng Chun, I don’t know is it the Wing Chun martial art thingy or not, so I went in to check it out but there’s nothing related to the Wing Chun thingy.

One nice thing is that the clan/surname house is open to public all the time and people can go in to check it out.

Nice hotel.

In Malacca, they uses parking coupon for road side parking. So don’t simply park without coupon or you will get a “real” parking ticket. The place I parked was right behind Tang’s House for only RM2 perday.

Alley also can shoot. Haha.

Yay. Then we slept for a couple of hours in the afternoon then it’s evening time when the night market started. So that’s our afternoon in Malacca Town. Little bit thing to see and it’s quite awesome. And forgot to mention we had the famous Indian chendol at the Dutch Square. If you go to that place, do drop by at the Indian’s chendol store which is by the riverside, opposite the square. It’s refreshing and cheap. It’s different from Penang’s because it has more gula Melaka, sweet! =D

March 2, 2011
Malacca Trip: Afternoon Walkaround Jonker Walk / Jalan Hang Jebat

The above photo is actually the Tang’s House which was the guesthouse that we stayed in. Very good service, good room and good rate at only RM55 for two bed room. It’s just located at the end of the famous Jonker Walk which also known as Jalan Hang Jebat and there’s a parking area at RM2 per full day, great!

We couldn’t check in because we were too early, so left our stuff there and went for a walk to look for lunch on the famous Jonker Walk.

Nice Jonker Boutique Hotel.

A temple on Jonker Street.

Some rehearsal going on.

The weather that day was as usual, hot, no rain. If there’s little drizzle would be perfect but no. It’s freaking hot and I regretted not bring an umbrella with me. We just try to walk where there’s shade to cover ourselves from the sun. Haha. Perspiration got out pretty soon we walked for about 5 minutes.

Pineapple tart! =)

Though, it’s still nice checking the place out and taking photos.

Jonker Walk is famous for its night market which happens on weekends night and we came in a right time because it’s a Friday. Although it’s only happenings at night, but then there’s still shops to shop for stuff like t-shirt, and souvenirs which you will find it the same at the night market.

<3 Hueisean.

This is an old street featuring all the heritage shop houses built during the British and Dutch colony and this is more like a Chinatown to Malacca because long long time ago, this street was inhabitat by Chinese mostly. I like how they decorate and preserve the shop houses, unlike Penang, it’s so run down and ugly. Malacca really work hard on preserving their old buildings now.

A garden in the middle of the street, to be exact, house a public toilet in it.

Besides that, you will find a lot of antique shops and also clan house for different Chinese’s surname at there. It’s all gather at one place and not spreaded out like Penang, maybe because of this place is small. Malacca is really a super small state.

It’s pretty quiet during the day, but then when it comes to night, you can’t imagine how happenings it is, but on weekend only. I hope there’s place like this in Penang too, perhaps Campbell Street? Sadly, the Penang’s government haven’t take initiative in working this out.

Remember, it’s best to bring along an umbrella or wear a hat, it’s for the hot weather, super hot. =)

And finally we found famous chicken rice ball at the other end of Jonker Walk, which is known to be the start of it, but then that chicken rice ball (Jonker Chicken Rice Ball) was not a nice one. Recommend to try Hor Kee or Farmosa Chicken Rice Ball.

After lunch. We went to walk around the Dutch Square. Don’t want go back to the guesthouse just to check-in, so we went checking around the places before going back so it won’t waste our leg energy. Haha.

February 28, 2011
SS2 Mall, A New Mall In Petaling Jaya

SS2 Mall or SS Two Mall is a new hang out places located in the housing area of SS2 in Petaling Jaya. I accidentally found this place while on the way out from Tropicana City Mall. Because of curiousity, I stopped by and went to check it out with dearest, Hueisean. It seems empty on the first impression maybe because it’s new, but is’s pretty cool.

It’s not really a shopping mall, it’s something like Straits Quay in Penang, or Sunway Giza in Kota Damansara to be simple. A place targeted to the community around there and housing lots of F&B outlets.

There’s already quite some restaurants opened at there already. I didn’t try any there, guess I’ll go there when it’s more happening and more things to see.

There’s a open space down below the mall. Pretty nice, if there’s live band and cafe, and lots fo people, then this will be a nice place.

Hopefully the place get built up soon so I will have a new hang out place in PJ. Yeah.

February 27, 2011
Zhi Inn’s 20th Birthday At Fullhouse, Sunway Pyramid

I wanna talk about birthday this time. =) Few weeks ago, we, the Diploma In Interior Design, Sem 2 people celebrated Zhi Inn’s birthday together at Fullhouse, Sunway Pyramid. If you do not know, Fullhouse is a lifestyle restaurant + boutique, which is beautiful in the inside but food-wise, OKOK. Not gonna talk about food this time because I didn’t eat at there. Hehe.

They was planning to ask Zhi Inn out for lunch, just a casual gathering lunch and not mentioning anything about birthday as her birthday was 5 more days ahead. They planned a surprise, but no surprise. Haha. Why no surprise? It’s because she already saw the cake we passed to the waiter! Yet, it’s still fun.

It was a weekday and we do have class but our class was in the afternoon so we spent some times talking and taking photos at there. Woo. No food for me because money not enough. XD

Cup cakes are here!

It’s a pretty good idea of having cup cakes as birthday cake becauseno need to cut the cake and each people is allocate nicely with the cakes. =) To be honest, it’s my first time eating cup cakes and it’s awesome.

Tada! Happy birthday! When everyone was there, Wanyi, a friend keep WhatsApp me and ask me to call the waiter to bring in the cake, but quietly and secretly, but the scene of WhatsApp-ing here and there although on the same table and me walking to the waiter looks suspicious. And Zhi Inn saw the cake’s box and in the end failed, which means, didn’t even need to tell me secretly at first. Haha.

We bought cards and gift. Yeah. Even when writting the card on the message also need to be secretly, but somehow, secretly became obviously. Haha.

The girls and boys. A bunch of future interior designers. =D

February 14, 2011
Chinese New Year and Red Limited Edition BlackBerry

Hohoho, it’s Chinese New Year time, Gong Xi Fatt Chai! So how you guys been doing? My holiday just started and I have only get one week break which I don’t feel quite sufficient for me. Haha. But then I am looking quite forward to it and is already start feeling Chinese New Year. Gong hei gong hei gong hei.

As usual, Chinese New Year is about reunion, gathering, red and ang baos! It’s really a happy time of the year for everyone.

ADV: Well today I want talk about a promotion about BlackBerry in conjunction with this Chinese Rabbit New Year, you and everyone can stand a chance to win a Limited Edition Red BlackBerry Torch! Yeah, it’s the sexy red colour and it’s limited edition!

Xpax is giving away an auspicious red BlackBerry® Torch™ 9800 smartphone EVERYDAY from 20 Jan 2011 to 18 Feb 2011. All anybody has to do in order to stand a chance to win a red BlackBerry® Torch™ 9800 smartphone is to subscribe to the BlackBerry® prepaid access plans from Xpax!

Yeah. Free BlackBerry and I like it. What’s so great about BlackBerry is BBM and you can chit chat with your friend all the time for as low as RM0.50 BBM plan per day or other plan at RM1.00/day for BlackBerry Social and RM2.50/day for unlimited BiS service. Rocks man. Currently Xpax is one of the the cheapest BBM plan in Malaysia FYI. =)

So, how to win is very simple.

It’s simple! Just go to http://bit.ly/bbcny and check out the BlackBerry® prepaid plans they have. Subscribe to any one of them from 20 Jan 2011 to 18 Feb 2011 and you’re immediately in the running to get yourself a Red BlackBerry® Torch™ 9800!

Happy Chinese RedBlackBerry New Year! =)

January 30, 2011
Look Back 2010: APRIL

Wow, It’s still January, the year is still new and I still want to Look Back to what’s happened on my blog last year during April. Hehe.

Actually during the month, April, May and June, my blog was on a automatic posting mode. All the post were pre-written but there’s some good read too! =)

Another post about Miao Hui 2010.

SPM 2009’s result release day! OMG. I got 2A+, 5A, 1A-, 1B+ and 1C. Sucks.

Super old photos of me. Very young and childish.

Ker Ying’s birthday celebration at RED! And since then, I always go to RED Karaoke, thank’s to Ker Ying. Haha.

Big class 5SA1 of 2009 farewell at steamboat house (Part 1).

Penang Chines Girls High School Food Fair.

Big class 5SA1 of 2009 farewell at steamboat house (Part 2).

Hahahaha.

January 23, 2011
Awesome Hindu’s Thaipusam Festival At Batu Caves

Jam at MRR2 near to Batu Caves.

Thaipusam o Thaipusam. Last time, friends always invited me to go photoshoot at Thaipusam but I always didn’t go with them. Last year, I got to see a little part of Thaipusam happened at Dato Keramat of Penang where people throw coconut for praying and I got to join in with my friend Arron and Chien Chern.

When I was back in Penang few weeks ago, I thought “OMG, I am gonna miss Thaipusam this year because I will not be in Penang at that time”. Then I thought again, “I can celebrate and check it out in KL!”.

Parking by the roadside like 2KM before Batu Caves. Really crazy man. Clap for us as we parked close. Hehe.

Yeah, KL, Kuala Lumpur is one of the place that celebrate Thaipusam too, besides Penang. So on the day itself, I didn’t go there as early as those photography enthusiast does, I went there after lunch in the afternoon with Arron again, but this time not Chien Chern, instead is a girl, Carmen from Penang too! Both of them residing far at Sepang and only get to come down to town during holidays and went to check out the Thaipusam festival at Batu Caves.

At first we thought of not going there because was afraid of traffic congestion and hard to find parking but after checking through the net about the traffic, it was just all clear only until near to Batu Caves. Really surprise that the traffic was super duper smooth all the way from Bandar Sunway to MRR2 near Batu Caves, there’s not even a little jam, really weird. LDP is an expressway that is always jam or slow but that day was just an exception.

While our vehicle getting close to Batu Caves, there’s already vehicle parking by the roadside as far as 2KM from Batu Caves. We didn’t want to park there as it was hot and we kept on believe that there will be parking space for us at a nearer spot.

There’s even illegal parking collector collecting a fee of RM10. Being a stingy person, we didn’t want to park there and we got moving and we found a nice place, just less than 500m from Batu Caves, according to the GPS. Haha.

Me, Arron and Carmen. All Penang-kia.

We should have take the KTM to Batu Caves as the station was just right beside it. But one thing, KTM sucks! Slow and dirty.

Yay, we reached Batu Caves safely and I was pretty excited because I got to take photos. I should have bring my DSLR with me but then this trip to Batu Caves was quite spontaneous as we didn’t really plan the trip. Luckily I have my Panasonic with me and it served me well all the time.

The weather was pretty hot and sunny. Perhaps it’s Thaipusam. Anyway, since we were here, so it’s nothing good of hiding under the shade, so we just keep walking where everyone was walking to, the cave, the Batu Caves.

Well, Tzu-Chi went there to remind people not to throw rubbish on the floor but…

In case you don’t know, Thaipusam is a religious festival of the Hindu. According to Wikipedia, Thaipusam is a Hindu festival celebrated mostly by the Tamil community on the full moon in the Tamil month of Thai (January/February).

Rocks is that Malaysia is a multi-racial country where I can join the fun too! =)

Outside the famous Sri Subramaniar Swamy temple.

Frankly, I felt I was in Indian when I was there. Haha. It’s Indian anywhere! And they are friendly too. =)

Your current Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib. Haha. He is real big.

I say peace as it’s awesome. =)

Red Air Asia clowns. Cute.

Saw many sponsor booths at there and one of which is Air Asia which attracted me as the booth had the most crowds. Though, I didn’t get close because I didn’t know what was speaking on the speaker, it’s all tamil and I knew nothing, except “nan-de-ri” or something which means thank you.

Slums of Batu Caves.

Well, what you see is Malaysia, not India. It’s just not good with the trash management where trash are everywhere. I was actually keen to see Indian poking mouths and body but instead, I only saw them carrying the heavy kawadee up hill to the cave. As for poking stuff, I saw it in Penang last time.

Us before going out and was trying to capture the statue behind but failed.

Well, I have no idea what the people standing by the rail were looking at, it sounds as if we were supe
rstar, just without the red carpet.

Awesome art craft.

The cave wasn’t very tall or high after all, like about 5-6 storeys high but then the stairs up there was very steep. I really salute the people who carry the kawadee up, and kawadee is the thing that they carry on the back with their god statue on it.

Here we go. Up and down.

Another thing I saw was, the Indian devotees went up the stairs barefooted! It was a hot day and they walked barefooted. Really power.

Since there’s so many people on the stairs, we walked slowly and carefully, about 15 minutes, we reached the top. Many medical helpers were on standby there as some were almost fainted due to the heat.

Beautiful huge cave. I like it.

It was my first time being a nature cave and it is pretty. I love caves now. It’s not just a hole in the hill but it’s really a big caves which can house many people in there and there’s also a hole on top overlooking the sky. It would be creepy during full moon where moon shines in and a werewolf or vampire turned up. Haha.

Monkeys!

Smiling Indian kid.

Can you see the crowds? They just keep flowing in the cave.

Spent about 10 minutes in there, walking around and take a little photos then we went back down. It was just too crowded in there and a little bit smelly, no idea what smell was that..

It wasn’t that traffic jam when we was there, it was after we came. Really powerful.

And again, they were standing by the rail and looking at us. Hmm. Superstar?

Yummy juicy coconut!

The weather turned a little bit hotter after we came down and it was just burning all over our skins. How I wish I could get into an air-conditioned place as soon as possible and then we found coconut stalls. Bought a coconut for each of us then we drank, really quenching and the coconut meat was so awesome, young and juicy. Rocks. Only downside was that it’s not cold. It’s warm!

And so, I concluded my trip to Batu Caves and we all said it was real awesome. Another place is visited in Kuala Lumpur, time to go for the next place. =D Any recommendation of place to go in Selangor area?

January 23, 2011

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