The Jitches: Journey to Malacca

On a random day via our whatsapp chat, the Sisters decided that we should embark on our first solo trip. After a quick look through on our availability, we decided on the date & destination. So, this was the starting point of our road trip to Malacca. Fling managed to got us a lovely room at a boutique hotel within a short notice. As I'm typing this entry, I just got "activated" for another Malacca trip with the in-laws later this year ;) 

We debated on the various mode of transport - taking coach/self-drive a rented car etc. Thankfully for us, a kind friend of Fling offered to loan us his car over the weekend for our road trip! 爱死你了;) Thus, Miao & Fling collected the car on the day of departure while Qian & I headed towards Woodlands station for pick up. Clearing the customs was relatively fast - we expected jam of 2h but managed to clear it within 1h. A great start to our trip! We then headed to Fling's place to pick up her barang-barang. 

 

Goofing around while waiting for Fling to get ready. We bought identical aviators, but mine didn't survive the Korea trip so I had to make do with another one. A short 15 min wait spanned to over 1h at the lobby. We tried means and ways to contact her as we couldn't access her floor without an access card. Just when we decided to shout out her name, Fling appeared and turned out that she had a minor crisis with her contact lens, lol! 

Fling took over as the driver and drove us all to Malacca. Before that, we need to top up on fuel for our tummies, as well as the car. We stocked up on snacks and drinks at the petrol kiosk for our journey to Malacca. We even assigned roles for this trip, lol! Qian will be the auditor for taking charge of expenses used on the car. Fling & Miao are the appointed drivers while I'm in charge of our kitty fund + taking pictures. Once the car had its fill, we made a pit stop at Ah Hong Kopitiam for breakfast.

We were all famished and immediately placed our orders! Check out our "hunger" faces, lol :)

I ordered a set which came with mee siam, with otah and chicken wings + drink at RM11.90. The mee siam was quite dry and plain that I had to mix in lots of chilli to get the kick. Nevertheless, I love the crispy chicken wings. We spent around RM46 for breakfast, which worked out to SGD$4.50 per pax.

Ah Hong Kopitiam
60, Jalan Sutera Tanjung 8/4
Taman Sutera Utama 81300
Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Tel: +60 12 771 9600

After our breakfast, we were ready to hit the roads. The back-seat passengers (Qian & I) started distributing drinks and snacks to the drivers group. We gossiped for a long while before the sleeping bug took charge. Qian & I concussed at the back while the drivers brought us safely to Malacca. Good job girls, love you *muacks*

We arrived at Topic Healthcare Centre for our massage. Qian & Miao headed for full body massage while Fling & I opted for foot massage. I always find massages are relatively expensive in Singapore, thus I'll head for a massage whenever I'm in BKK/Bali/JB. I love Balinese massages the most ;) The foot massage package that I had was around RM$50 (if I recall correctly). Fling & I chatted for the whole duration that time just flew by us without us knowing it.

Topic Healthcare Centre
177 & 177A, Jalan Merdeka
Taman Melaka Raya, 75000
Melaka, Malaysia
Tel: +60 6281 6957

I will be back with more entries documenting our sister trip, so keep a lookout for it ;) 

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 Read our Malacca adventures here:
Malacca 2014: 5 things to do in Malacca  

The Jitches Adventure in Malacca: Hotel Courtyard @ Heeren and Asam Laksa at Jonker 88
The Jitches Adventure in Malacca: Snacks & Pastries in Malacca
The Jitches Adventure in Malacca: Conquering Jonker Street
The Jitches Adventure in Malacca: Geographer Cafe  
The Jitches Adventure in Malacca: Breakfast, Chicken Rice Balls and Heading Home  

KL Work Trip, Sep 2012: Madam Kwan & Shanghai 上海苏浙苑

 

TGIF! Can't believe Friday is here again - the last Friday of Feb before another month comes knocking at our doorstep. Before I head off for another busy weekend (celebrating Leecher's birthday!), here is the 2nd installment of KL Sep work trip, which I have almost forgotten till I saw the folder (on Desktop) staring at me, alongside with many other folders, haha! Since I started Feb with an entry on this trip (Part One), I thought I should end the month with the last entry on this trip :) 

A large cup of tea as my morning perk-me-up, alongside with orange juice.
Loaded up on breakfast as I figured that I'll be stuck at client's place all the way till late afternoon. Suffered from hunger pangs attack in between but thankfully I brought along some energy bars to nibble on. 
 
Lunch at a local food court which looked pretty much like SG food court, with plenty of food choices for everyone.
 
I had a mini wok of hokkien fried noodles (black) with chicken and chili - gosh, this was really yummy! Love cheap & good food :)

It was back to the hotel after a long day of work & I was mentally exhausted. Provided one-on-one training to over 20 users; felt like a broken recorder after a while having to repeat so many times.

 

A quick change of outfit later - well, just switching my skirt for jeans & heels for flats, it was time to head out for dinner! 

Back to Pavilion again for dinner. Yes, I'm getting lazier (and perhaps boring) in my quest to travel to find tasty food, haha! I'll just look for the next best alternative nearby, since I'm just too tired to venture further than 100 steps.

 

Acting all touristy :) My trusty Pus Pus ran out of juice (aka no batt) so I had to rely on backup aka Iphone 4S instead.

After walking round the whole basement, I finally settled for Madam Kwan - well known for uniquely Malaysian dishes, from the signature Nasi Lemak to "wok" style hokkien mee.

A quick glance at the menu, I was all set to order (^^)
 
No brainer as to what I ordered, haha! Dived straight into one of their signatures - Nasi Lemak completed with a side dish of achar. 

Topped it up with dessert - a scope of chocolate ice cream sitting on top of shaved ice + corn. 

Madam Kwan at Pavilion Shopping Centre

Lot 1-16-00, Level 1

168 Jalan Bukit Bintang

55100, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Tel: +603 2143 2297/98

After 2 nights staying in the hotel, it was time to head home. Before I board the flight home, I had lunch at Shanghai 上海苏浙苑, a leading Chinese restaurant that specializes in exquisite Shanghainese cuisine.

I was shown to a corner table and magazines swiftly arrived to keep me company as I waited for the dishes to be served. 
 
Extremely bloated from lunch, I was all ready to head home!

Shanghai 上海苏浙苑

JW Marriott Kuala Lumpur 

183 Jalan Bukit Bintang Level 1

55100, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

KL Work Trip, Aug 2012: Little Penang Kafe & Aseana Cafe Bar

Arrival at Traders' Hotel

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You can probably tell by now that I'm trying to clear as much backlog from my travels as possible on this blog. I hope to finish clearing my 2012 travel posts by year end, with 2 months to go! I just had a quick peep into my 2012 folder and realized that there are still 3 more work trips left, jiayou! I look after Southeast Asia region in my work - even so, I'll normally travel to KL and BKK. The mission is to add one more region under my cover this year, so I'll have to depend on the pre-sales team to make this happen, haha! Anyway, I'm more than happy to cover 3 regions for now :) 

 Complimentary buggy ride to & fro to KLCC. If you missed the ride, you can always head to KLCC on foot since it is just a short walk away. By a stroke of luck, I managed to catch the buggy ride on my way out thus saving me the walk. #gettinglazy 

 

Off to KLCC for dinner. I had a hard time deciding what I want to eat, given the wide variety of restaurants available. For overseas tourists, please rem to obtain your copy of tourist privileges from Concierge.

After walking for a few rounds, I decided to settle my dinner at Little Penang Kafe, which serves the best of penang food all under one roof. The decor reminded me of the old nostalgic Penang kitchen, with its coloured tiles dotting the walls and floor.

 

I was starving, so I ordered 2 of their specialties to try. In fact, I do remember faintly of visiting this place before. So, I went back to trace my entries and true enough, I came here with Rinta way back in 2010. Haha, the wonders of keeping a blog where you can (digitally) lock your memories. Well, I even ordered the same food 2 years later - some things do never change! 

Little Penang Kafe

KLCC, 4th Level #409-411

Tel: 603 2163 0215

 

I took a walk in the park to walk off the excess weight that I gained from stuffing myself silly during dinner. Named as KLCC park, this park was designed to provide greenery to the twin towers & the area surrounding it.
 

The park has a 1.3km long jogging track. I spotted quite a few joggers enjoying their evening jog while heading back to the hotel. For a couple of times, I packed my jogging shoes in my luggage but never got to use it for the bed was sooo comfy. 

 

There are a couple of photo spots located around the park. At this particular spot, you get a nice view of the twin towers! 

  
Ta-dah! With every visit to KL, I kept telling myself that I should head up to the sky bridge, but never once did I manage to do so :(
    

Since I'm at the photo spot, must take a pic right? haha! Headed back to the hotel, showered and worked on my laptop before retiring for the night. I didn't even speak to Leecher but just messaged him good night. Sleep is more important than hubby now, lol! 

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 Breakfast in my room the next morning for I had to prepare some work before heading to client's place for meeting. The food arrived just as I stepped out from the shower - great timing! 

 

Ordered Eggs Benedict & a glass of orange juice to kick-start the day.

 

It was back to KLCC again for lunch before I head to the airport. Instead of pondering over what to have, I headed over to the nearest restaurant that had seats/tables available.

 Aseana Cafe & Bar, located at ground level was the choice for lunch. Thankfully, I managed to grab a table before the lunch crowd starts pouring in.

  

Cushion seats that I can lean back and relax :)   

Aseana is both a cafe & bar. The menu features a wide variety of scrumptious Asian & Western comfort food, complete with a selection of wines and lounge music. If I could have the luxury of time, I would definitely relax in the cushion seats and read a book or the papers.

    I can't really remember exactly what I had - I supposed it was nasi lemak with chicken rendang.  Since I don't have any recollection, the taste must be ordinary at best, haha! 

Aseana Cafe

G15, Ground Floor, Suria KLCC

Tel: 603 2382 0395

Opening Hours: 11am till 8.30pm daily

          
 I took the buggy ride back to the hotel for it was scorching hot to walk in the park even though there was a sheltered walk way. At least I could feel some breeze while sitting inside the buggy.
 

Reached the airport within 40 min. Somehow, I feel all the taxi drivers in KL are aiming to be F1 drivers, lol! As long as there is smooth traffic (which usually is when you hit the highways), the drivers will drive at min 130km/h. Even though I was early, I couldn't change to an earlier flight, boohoo!

 
Walking to my fave chill-out spot. 
 
Was on whatsapp with Leecher, then took this pic for him and send it across in case he missed me, lol! 

 Where got own hubby say his wife is old one? *smack forehead* Since you so mean to me, I shall 以牙还牙, hmp!
  

Scribbling down my meeting notes & follow ups inside my little notebook. I used to carry Winnie the Pooh notebook around and my clients will always be amused by it. Since then, I have switched to a more sleek leather-bound notebook ... but I'll still stick Winnie the Pooh name stickers on the cover, lol!