Monday, May 31, 2010

Malacca 29 - 30 May 2010

Hotel: Hotel Puri

My girlfriend and I wanted to take a day trip to Malacca for sight seeing and we were smart enough not to get a return trip ticket thinking how hard can it be to get a ticket when there's so many different buses to Singapore.  We were so wrong.  We have forgotten that it was a public holiday and thus, buses were mostly fully booked.  Our last resort was to search around for a hotel.  Most of the hotels were fully booked as well...until we walked into Hotel Puri.  We were lucky we got a room.

The hotel room was quite comfortable.  Love the Peranakan deco around the hotel.  The only bad thing is that there is no wifi!  I would have thought that all Boutique hotel comes with wifi, guess I was wrong.  The room was small and clean though it would be better if we can get a larger TV.
The very pretty Peranakan deco can be seen the moment we enter the hotel.  The oh-so-familiar Peranakan stairways that used to be in every Baba houses still look steady in the hallway.  This hotel used to be the ancestral home of Tan Kim Seng (1805-1864). Extreme care was taken to preserve the unique architecture during the refurbishment of the hotel.

Some other interesting historical exhibits can be found around the hotel premises.
We didn't have much time to roam around so we only manage to catch abit of the outdoor scene.  We were pretty sure that if we had stayed longer, there would be more to explore.
One of the must-try chicken rice would be the Famosa Chicken rice balls.  It's basically mushy chicken rice rolled into a ball.  There was another stall selling the same thing but the queue was long and we didn't really have time to queue.  So we opted for this.  There's 2 shop along Jonker's street.  I like the chicken, it was really juicy!
The night scenery was quite interesting as well. We reckon we won't have the time to take pictures of A'Famosa and Christ Church so we decided to take the night shot.  Will come back some other times to climb up A'Famosa.
Some other night scenes we took while walking along the river.
Do remember to visit this shop (at the beginning of Jonker's Street) for some local delights.  And if you are a lover of durian, you might also want to try their durian chendol.  We couldn't find a seat, thus decided to skip that.
Breakfast was filling.  There was quite a good variety of food items to choose from.  One thing I have to point out is that the food wasn't well heated up.  Most are a little cold. 
Before we leave for Singapore, we tried to satisfy our chendol craving.  Found a little shop along the way and shared a chendol.  It was good.  But we didn't like the mosquitoes that kept feasting on our blood while we were feasting on the chendol.

Looking forward for our next trip back to Malacca.  This time, we will definitely stay longer!

More photos available here