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Malacca Trip: St. Paul Church Ruin and A Famosa

How can a visit to Malacca without visiting the most famous historical site in Malacca, the A Famosa fortress gate and also the St. Paul Church Ruins be? Haha. Both of these are the leftover by the Portugese more than 500 years ago. Dutch are the bad people who destroy the fortress and the church which left only the gate and also the ruins. HAHA. Selfish dutch.

Anyway, don’t want to blame anyone already. But if they did not destroy the fortress, I may have more thing to see today, not only just the little gate.

A Famosa not the water theme park is located somewhere in Malacca Town near to Jonker Walk. Actually I think you are able to walk from Jonker Walk to A Famosa, it takes about 15 minutes I guess but then due to hot weather, we drove there.

All the attractions in Malacca are so closely linked together. The famous Dataran Pahlawan shopping mall is also near here also, so do the Taming Sari Revolving Observation Tower.

The weather was very hot that day. I wish it’s cloudy day.

And dear Hueisean didn’t want to join me up to check out the St. Paul Church Ruin because of the heat as we were already sweating like hell. The bad thing is that the St. Paul Church Ruins is located on a little hill and need to walk up a flight of stairs.

Things get better upon reaching up there because of a little bit of wind breeze. Yet, it’s still hot when there’s no win.

It’s so pretty, I feel it’s even better than the ruins of St Paul’s Church is Macau because there’s four walls intact instead of just one like in Macau. Haha. But the one in Macau is more colorful. Though, both were also left by the Portugese in the past.

Up here, it doesn’t feel like being in Malacca or Malaysia anymore. It’s so western-ish and I kinda like historical thing. The bricks, the tombstones of old-famous Portugese and English are placed up there. There’s people selling art by playing guitar and singing along. What a pretty place.

Didn’t spend really long time up there because there’s nothing much, it’s quite small then I went back down again.

Taming Sari Revolving Observation Tower which I didn’t check it out.

I went down, quickly open up the umbrella-eh-eh and walked back to my vehicle. Hardly stand the heat. Then we went to check out the shopping mall, Dataran Pahlawan and Hatten Square, it’s kinda nice and surprised that Malacca has good mall. Good job on doing a good tourism business, I hope my hometown Penang can be better and even the best! Oh yeah.

March 20, 2011
Malacca Trip: Tang House, A Good and Cheap Guesthosue

On my visit to Malacca few weeks there, I spent a night at Tang House. I found it throught Googling and the rate is quite cheap and affordable in my opinion. The best of all is it’s located at the end of Jonker Walk and the room is pretty clean.

I booked the room a month in advance via email and they put my name in the list. A room for 2 is only RM55. Don’t expect TV or big bed, it’s just 2 bed, air conditioned and free WIFI. =) Free wifi is awesome as nowadays big hotel don’t even provide free wifi.

Although there’s no attached bathroom in the room like hotel, there’s 2 bathroom on the upper floor which is clean and have water heater. The Tang’s family who run the guesthouse was kind and lend us 2 towels because we’ve forgotten to bring along.

There’s no free breakfast but they do prepare you some light meal at an affordable price. I didn’t eat out at there though.

There’s parking behind the hotel and the uncle collect RM2 per day parking. Be aware that if you park on the weekend, you are unable to move your car until midnight because the road is close for the Jonker Walk night market.

Head to the website for more information. =)

March 19, 2011
An Interior Behaviour Study Class

Another day in uni which is the just recent Thursday. =D Design course is not exam-oriented, it’s not about memorizing but it’s more on concept and thinking. Ah! Everyday, I think think think and think to do assignent, which is quite tiring to me, but somehow fun after getting outcome.

Sometimes, I thought, why not just give me exam and take away all the assignment because high school time was all about exam instead of assignment. Exam are easy IMO, it’s just study and memorizing. Haha. But assignment is always about thinking and enhancing the work to perfect.

Interior Behaviour Study is one of the subject I’ve got for this semester. It’s about study on the relationship of human behaviour with interior design. It’s theory again, but the there’s more hands-on work than reading. =(

CK and Arowa from Saudi Arabia.

And my lecturer CK is a perfectionist, so work always get rejected and I always thinking hard on how to do well on the project. Well, it’s OK, I can’t complain that much, yet it’s pretty tiring I feel. Current project is about designing a social place on existing Taylor’s site in-related to the human needs at that site. I think you probably don’t know what am I talk about, cut the crap. Haha.

Tell you something, Indonesian really love BlackBerry a lot. I have no idea why. You can see people with BlackBerry in Taylor’s are mostly Indonesian and they always BBM nonstop. Haa.

Farah, Jia Hui, Steve and Wesley. =D

It’s another day in class and the day was a tutorial on the on-going project we are doing right now. Worksome, and not-awesome. One thing not nice about the class is it’s 4 hours straight with no meal break. So I need to prepare myself a small packet of cookies to eat in class.

LOL. NA from Vincent of Vietnam.

Aseel look so EMO.

Hyper Aida.

Shy shy Wanyi from Penang, Nita and Mellysa from Medan. =D Really International class. Haha.

The fun about being in a small class is that you get close attention and the not-fun is you don’t get to meet new person throughout the course, unless you walk upfront to student of other courses.

And the nice thing about studying in Taylor’s is you meet people of different places. Sweet. =D

Kevin!

English, Mandarin, Hokkien and Malay are the medium of conversation in class. Haha. Multi-languages class. Nice to know that Medan’s Hokkien is almost identical to Penang Hokkien, just unfortunately there’s no people speaking the KL’s local Cantonese dialect which I use to speak to my family.

Vain Wesley from Seremban and Kevin from Vietnam.

Act cool Arvin of Medan.

Ah! I need to catch up with my assignment already. =X Any idea on creating a new interacting spaces on a walkway? Haha.

March 19, 2011
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
A Day In Building Construction Class

Just some random posting of my photos which dated 2 weeks back. Haha. Why, why, why, I am so lagging behind? You know, I had so much time during high school, everyday is just like a holiday, but then when comes to college, everything changed, holiday has become assignment day.

Currently in semester 2 of Interior Design course and it’s getting more and more hectic with assignment. The busy-ness is OK, I can’t complain anything because if there’s no work or too free, I felt it’s not worth after paying so much for the studies. Hehe.

Building Construction is not really a design class, it’s about, err, buidling construction, the method, the framework, force and stuff. Not so detail because I am not in engineering or architecture, it’s just some light touches on the topic. =)

Recently was busying making the plane construction which is making a surface out of paper which can support load up to 2kg.

Man in black is the lecturer, pretty funny and friendly lecturer.

Vincent from Vietnam.

Building Construction class is long, from 1pm to 5pm, a 4-hours straight class, nonstop but usually finished an hour earlier. Haha.

Studying in a small class course isn’t like going to the big lecture theater just to listen to the lecture, every of our courses are in a little class which get to interact two-way with the lecturer, just like what was back in the high school. I think this is pretty fun.

The prototype of the plane construction with Jia Hui in background.

Educational video about force. =D I think video is a very good learning method. Interesting.

No, this is not a building construction material, it’s just my lunch of that day. Haha.

Hello! Wish Japan can get well soon. =)

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 Famous Clock Tower Cendol Near Dutch Square

Hello people. I am back, from many places! From doing assignment, from Hong Kong, from Malacca and almost everywhere, but haven’t gone back home, Penang yet. I miss Penang’s food so much, so badly. OMG.

Today I want to talk about Malacca food because I went there 2 weeks ago. I think most people knows about the famous food in Malacca like chicken rice ball, satay celup, cendol and so on. But for me as a Penangite which also has a famous Cendol in town, it’s kinda surprise and curious for me to check out other’s famous cendol.

Having various spelling like Chendol, Cendol, I prefrebly call it cendol. There’s actually a few place in Malacca where you can find nice icy cendol and one of which is the one that is right opposite the famous Dutch Square which is a historical site. Selling my an Indian man which attracted quite many customers. It’s a nice dessert to eat and slurp during a super hot tropical weather in Malaysia.

The cendol, looking a little bit identical to Penang’s famous cendol, but selling at only RM1.50, it’s tasted similarly a little bit but it’s sweeter than the Penang’s, probably due to the usage of gula Melaka (Malacca Sweetener) in it. Different people have different feeling yet, I love the both feeling of Penang’s and Malacca’s. One is sweeter, and one is more to the taste of the cendol. IMO, I like Malacca’s more. =)

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com.my/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=215278323465761497274.000469feb8850ec72b675&ll=2.195591,102.249262&spn=0.010292,0.013733&z=16&iwloc=00049d95211db29615831&output=embed&w=640&h=480]

Which do you like more?

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

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