Family Self-Drive Trip to Malacca: The Journey & Jonker Walk

The first family self-drive trip to Malacca started at dawn. While majority of Singapore was still sleeping comfortably in their beds, we had to tear our sleepy bodies away from the bed to prepare for the long day/drive ahead. After a quick stop-over at PIL's place to sort out the logistics, we made our way to Woodlands Custom and arrived at 5AM. Crossing the custom was a breeze and we cleared it within an hour. We drove straight for Muar, with the occasional stops for toilet break. After spending half a day in Muar to visit the relatives, we headed to Malacca. I relied on my trusty iPhone map for navigation and brought us safely to Malacca. 

Once again, we stayed at Courtyard @ Heeren for its excellent location and breakfast spread. I felt totally at home the moment I stepped in through the front doors.

  

We stayed next door to PIL on the ground floor while BIL took the family room on the 2nd floor. The corridors on the first floor is littered with antiques. I felt ancient as I sat on the chair opposite our room. There is even a real well in the middle, left behind from olden days.

We booked the superior room which comes equipped with LCD TV (I spent the night watching K-concert on cable), basic toiletries and complimentary coffee/tea/mineral water.

Courtyard @ Heeren
91 Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock,
75200, Melaka, Malaysia
Tel: +606 281 0088  

We made our way to Jonker Walk. Every Friday-Sunday from 6PM onwards, the street is blocked from traffic and turned into a night market. We walked aimlessly while keeping a lookout for yummy food to fill the tummies. Even though people normally come here for food, there are a lot of tourist attractions along the street too *mental note to visit at least a couple during my next visit*

This was also Leecher's first visit to Malacca, so we are taking this as momento to celebrate this special occasion. 

First stop: Taste Better, famously known for their delicious custard durian puffs. The best way to enjoy it is to put the whole puff into your mouth; which is pretty easy since they are known as one-bite puffs. Besides puffs, there is also soft serve ice cream in durian, cempedak and dragon fruit.

Leecher distributed the puffs while I was snapping pictures. He conveniently took the last puff and put it inside his mouth w/o sharing with me! He tried to justify his action saying the instructions on the box said 一口一粒. 

Taste Better @ Melaka Unesco 
Jonker Street 96
Opens daily

I led the way to the food street for dinner. As usual, it was crowded and it wasn't easy getting a table to accommodate a big group. The boys were in charge of ordering food and came back with curry fishballs, stingray, lala, fried kway teow, curry noodles etc. The rojak was such a disappointment - it was full of random fruits with a pathetic chunk of you tiao. Garlic oyster was the hit of the day!

Doing touristy stuff with the niece before we ended the night :) Stay tuned for the rest of our journey! 

 ******
Read our Malacca adventures here:

❤ Malacca 2015: 5 things to do in Malacca

❤ Family Self-Drive Trip to Malacca: St Paul's Church and A' Famosa Fort
❤ Family Self-Drive Trip to Malacca: Nadeje Mille Crepe and Jonker 88 
❤ Family Self-Drive Trip to Malacca: Christ Church and Heading Home 

4th Wedding Anniversary: A Simple Celebration

As we ushered in the new year, I decided to have a revamp ..... by changing my font type on this blog for the entries moving forward. We are now at the 2nd week of 2016 - work has been busy, a good start to the year with several items on my pipeline. Whenever I had some free moments in office, I will think through of what I want to achieve this year #selfmotivationmode #whileitlasts 

To start the ball rolling, I even had time to sort out pictures for an entry! On the 4th wedding anniversary, things got a lot simpler. We even had a tiff the night before and I went to sleep, without saying good-night to the hubby #coldwarmode The next morning, he gave me a little hug - his way of breaking the silence - while the stubborn me wiggled my way through his embrace, my way of ending the war. We then left for work, like any other day. 

The real surprise came when the door-bell rang. A fellow colleague opened the door and the delivery guy walked in, asking for me. When I turned around, I was surprised to see a bouquet, wrapped in my favourite flowers. Ha, I thought he was trying to guilt-trip me. He actually remembered that I liked using symbols to denote each wedding anniversary. The 4th year signifies flower/fruits - thankfully he ordered flowers instead of fruits but the auntie me think that I would have better use for fruits, heh. Well-played, my love.

So, this became my first wedding anniversary bouquet on our 4th wedding anniversary. 

Yanni kindly loaned me her vase to put the flowers :) Love how the floral scent linger in the house. 

 

Instead of dining out, like how we usually spend our anniversaries, Leecher decided that we should have a home-cooked meal. His excuse at trying out the grill pan, a seldom-used item that we acquired during sales period.

 2 thick slab of steak with minimal seasoning, sizzling on the pan! Leecher even grilled some onions on the side, while I stir-fried some leftover fishcakes + mushrooms + chilli padi in case we die of meat overdose.

Initially I was worried that Leecher might not be able to grill it well, given that the meat was thicker compared to those that we usually buy. Leecher leaned on his best friend - Google - for help and he nailed it pretty well! 

 Tadah - the finished product. The steak was really juicy and finger-licking good! 

A bottle of red wine which we lugged home from Yarra Valley. During our trip to Melbourne, we spent 2 days at Yarra Valley, hopping from vineyard to vineyard. It was one of the highlights of the trip and we learnt more about wine tasting and appreciation. Will share more about it in later posts! 

Tuck in! A simple celebration of home-cooked meal to mark the celebration. Looking forward to the next anniversary, my love :)

Psst ... coincidentally, this also marked the 1000th post on this blog.