Malacca, Malaysia

Hey there friends! :D

I am starting a new series of blogpost, titled "PassivePeon Travelogue", to share my memories of my holidays and travels. After all, I've always like traveling and it will be a pity to let the memories of my holiday fade off gradually..

Hence, "PassivePeon Travelogue" was set up to depict the travel adventures of a very ordinary guy, just like you!

You know, the ordinary looking bloke you typically see out on the street, and wouldn't give a look at? Yea, I'm that kind of guy. ;)

Anyway, the mantra of my travels will be 'travel fun, travel far, travel cheap'. In no specific order at all.

Very cheesy mantra I know, but I'll try to live up to it :p

One guiding principle for my holidays is to travel within budget, and not affect my annual target rate of savings. Hence, any traveling expenses that I incurred during my holidays will and should, never affect my plan to be a millionaire!

Okay enough of yakking away. Let me start off with the first blogpost of this series where I traveled to...

Malacca city! Which is located in southwest Malaysia. 

Malacca is a place filled with a rather interesting colonial past, having been colonised by the Portuguese, Dutch and Britain at various point in history. 

WHICH I didn't have a proper opportunity to explore for the 2 days I was there :(

That's because Missus PassivePeon tagged along this time round and she's not very interested in history. But its okay because Malacca has tons of other things to offer, with shopping, feasting and exploring the streets taking up the bulk of our time!

First up, we did our shopping in Mahkota Parade, which is one of the largest shopping mall in Malacca. The highlight of this shopping trip got to be our trip to this popular cafe, 'Nadeja', which serves these very awesome millicrepe.

We tried the original, chocolate and green tea flavored ones and gosh..all I can say is that the three cakes are worth the calories!

After our hearty and 'healthy' teabreak, we set out to explore some interesting places near Mahkota Parade, such as the 'Porta de Santiago', an old Portuguese gate house which used to be part of a larger fortress defending Malacca. 

Didn't last long there before I was whisked away by Missus PassivePeon:( 

Anyway, you will be able to see trishaw riders with their heavily customized trishaws around the vicinity of the gate house. 

The phrase, 'pimp my ride', takes on a new meaning here as the trishaws are deck out in elaborate decorations, with popular cartoon theme such as Frozen, Hello Kitty, etc. You can see them in the photo right below!

If you walk further down, you will get to see some other interesting sights such as a retro propeller plane as well as a vintage looking train! Yup, that's us right beside the vintage looking train:)

Now, if you walk even further down, you will get to a staircase that will bring you right up to the famous St Paul's Hill, where the oldest church and military fortification in Malaysia is located.

Despite the death stare from Missus PassivePeon, I did not succumb to fear and I mustered my courage, grabbed her hands and dragged her to the hill top. 

To be frank, we were rather disappointed upon reaching the top as it was quite dull. 

But it would make a very interesting destination at night though, with its eerie ambient. 

There's ancient tombstones there for god sake! :0 

 

 

So what's next after reaching the top of St Paul's hill? 

Walking further down again of course. As in literally walk down the hill I mean.

You will reach another tourist landmark, which is the Dutch Square. Here, you will get to see some vintage items such as a very old fire engine from the colonial period, as well as some colonial building like the Dutch influenced "Stadhuys" (Dutch for town hall) building, and Christ Church Melaka.  

  

 

Once you are tired of sight-seeing at the Dutch Square, head for the river and crosses it. Upon crossing the river, you'll have reach Jonker Street! Which is a must-go if you're in Malacca.

Jonker Street is actually a combination of a couple of streets, and is designated as a heritage zone. Packed full of eateries, heritage areas and shops, you will be able to spend hours there just like we did.

  

The day and night activities at Jonker Street are quite different. During the day, take your time to explore the cafes, restaurants and place of interests scatter around the area such as "The Daily Fix"!

We highly recommend going to The Daily Fix to get your 'daily fix'. Pun intended.

Famous for their 'Gula Melaka (palm sugar)' pancakes, 'The Daily Fix' is a quaint little vintage cafe located in a back alley along Jonker Street.

Keep your eyes peeled for its small signboard or you might just miss it.
 

Besides being a food paradise, Jonker Street also offer interesting sites such as these artsy-fartsy walls that will make a good backdrop for your instagram photos! 

 

Another place of interest at Jonker Street is the Mamee noodles museum. Mamee noodles is a tidbit that is rather popular in Malaysia and Singapore. And apparently, Malacca is where it originate! 

Either that or the peoples in Malacca exceptionally idolize the noodles. 

Look! You can see the advertising and branding of Mamee in multiple spots in Malacca :0

 

Okay. Here's the interesting part.

When night fall, Jonker Street will be transformed as the streets are closed to vehicles and street hawkers come out to peddle their wares and food. This makes Jonker Street an entirely different place to explore at night even though you might have walked along the same street a couple of hours earlier in the day!

Once I satisfied Missus PassivePeon's shopping needs, we headed back to Hatten Hotel Melaka, which is our accommodation for the night.

The hotel while comfortable, is nothing much to shout about. But there's one thing that should deserve your attention!

Order their in-room dining meals as they serve one of the nicest food around in Melaka. Urmm.. Yup, thats solely our opinion.

But still, just to give you an idea how delicious their meals are; we ordered the Seafood Hor Fun, Fried Kway Tiao and Mushroom Soup for two persons, and we managed to finish every last bit of the food!

I know the photo of the food does not look too appetizing. But trust me, that is due to my mediocre photography skill rather than the quality of the food.

With these, I have come to the end of my narration of our short 2days 1night trip to Melaka :D

Total cost of this Malacca for 2 persons? S$500 in total; including accommodation and bus transport from Singapore.

Who says we can't have fun and have an enjoyable holiday while working our way to financial independence!