Jennie's in town!: Malacca

Today we headed to Malacca for a day trip. Well, strictly speaking, it was less than a day but the hour-long drive (one way) was enough to kill plenty of my brain cells. We did not get lost. We even managed to find a parking space without any hassle. Come on, if I can navigate my way around NZ and Australia, I don't see why I can't handle a place like Malacca...

After paying RM2 to the car park attendant, we walked along the River Walk towards Jonker Street. First place of recommendation: Restoran Chung Wah.

Famous for their chicken rice ball, Jennie could not stop drinking the sauce! Admittedly, their chicken was delectable to our tastebuds. The texture of the chicken was just right and the sauce, yes, just imagine Jennie licking the plate clean.

What better way to walk off the calories than to explore Jonker Street? We walked into the fashion boutiques that sold quirky t-shirts and colourful accessories. We walked into shops selling traditional handicrafts. We visited Cheng Hoon Teng Temple. I did not dare to snap photos as it was a place of worship and being the oldest temple in Malaysia, due respect has to be given.

Across the road from the temple, there was an attractive art gallery. I bought a cheap painting and took home some free bookmarks. The artist himself was there. There was a set of lily paintings which I thought would have suited Mum but hm, better not to be so spendthrift la. He was friendly and helpful, informing us of where to go for makan and for knowledge. We heeded his advice and foud ourselves digging into heavenly cendol and ais kacang served at Jonker 88:

We walked around the area to soak in the 'Malacca feel': pre-historic houses...

and literal kaki limas (five-foot ways)...

When you are in Malacca, you must stop by the Orang Utan House to buy their t-shirts. Today, we were lucky enough to have been served by the artist himself! Aiya, but I was too shy to ask for a photo with him...

On the way to the Peranakan museum, we walked past a shop that sold clogs

and when we showed Belinda the pictures, she pointed out that the person making the clogs was her uncle!

Any trip to Malacca would be incomplete without stopping by what's left of the fort, A'Famosa:

We climbed the hill at the back of it to reach St. Paul's Cathedral, or haha, what's left of it as well:

Oh, can you see Eye On Malacca in the background?

On the drive home, I nearly fell asleep. Jennie was already asleep by the time we got out of Malacca. I blame the highway for being too straight and green. How can you not fall asleep after eating so much in a place like Malacca?!?

I took Jennie to Belinda's house as it was her turn to care for Jennie that night. I had my dancing to attend. After dance, Yee Khai was sweet enough to take me out to Desa and together, we brought Jennie up to 'Little Genting'. As we couldn't find the place where all the makan shops were, we decided to head back down to Kuchai. Again, due to time constraints, Jennie's wish of going to Ipoh for the hor fun could not be fulfilled and was replaced with Old Town White Coffee's chicken hor fun. Haha, and guess what was her verdict?

Yes, it was too sweet!

Jennie's in town!: Touch down

Any of you remember my Hong Konger friend, Jennie? The one with the high-pitched voice? The one who is crazy intelligent? The one who can sing at the karaoke for four hours straight? The one who shared my wall for 1.5 years?

Well, she recently took a short break from her hectic E&Y schedule to pay me a visit down here in warm and stuffy KL. I was so happy to see her!

She nearly panicked at the airport as I was in the toilet when she came out of the arrival gates. Without coverage in the toilet, she couldn't get through to my phone and so, haha, she contacted Belinda instead. Of course, first thing you'd do when you've not met your friend in 4 years would be to give her a big bear hug!

We stopped by home for a bit to take down her luggage and freshen up a little. Went over to say hi to mum and we headed straight for chow. Haha, we are Chinese, aren't we? We will always be thinking of eating! I actually wanted to bring her to Qi Xuan's mum's shop for yong taufu but they don't open on Wednesdays so it was to Leong Ya over near the Mines. I thought she'd find the 'paper wrapped chicken' interesting but no, she'd seen it before. Cheh.

Decided to drive directly to Midvalley after that because I did not want to get stuck in traffic. Just as well because it was nearly peak hour. We did a little window-shopping while waiting for Belinda to arrive. When she did, we had dinner at Little Penang. Why that particular shop? Well, as Jennie's tight schedule did not allow for us to physically be in Penang, we thought we might as well have some Penang food here in KL. Little Penang would naturally be the first choice.

It's weird how Jennie thought everything we ordered tasted sweet. Even the laksa she had and the prawn noodles I ordered tasted sweet to her. She seemed to prefer the prawn noodle over the laksa but she was good sport, as she tried everything. She was obviously trying to withstand the spiciness of the food (she was sweating profusely) but she said, "Everything have to try ma!"

After that, we introduced her to yumcha, Malaysian style. You see, in HK, yumcha would be having dimsum in the morning. In Malaysia, yumcha would be literaly drinking tea of some sort at a mamak stall. Again, she found our drinks really sweet but liked the teh-o ais limau Belinda ordered for her. The roti tisu was too sweet, too!

She gave me a 'look' when I ordered my drink and said, "Wah, old habits die hard ah, you still love your Milo!"

Dor's wedding dinner

Like all Chinese wedding dinners, this one started late. We were at Equatorial KL and were expecting good food (as they were reputed to be one of the better wedding banquet organisers in town). If not for the company that night, I thought Shamy's wedding banquet was much better but hey, who am I to complain? Yuen Chai made the comment that service was not up to par. I thought the food was bland. The only dishes I enjoyed were the first and the last, the dessert.

I only managed to take a picture of the last one as the first one was gobbled up before I could remember where my camera was!

We spent most of the night catching up, drinking and snapping photos. I think we were the most disorganised table for the night. Haha, and I think the noisiest as well. Let's start with a photo for the album:

Here's Tai Wai gulping down a bowl of 'sharkfin' soup...

Lee Sih and Sim Yee going full blast with their catching up...

Yee Teng and Yew Fon, as sweet as ever...

Peng Wai observing everyone else...

Weng Lok rebutting opinions...

I took catch-up pictures with Yuen Chai...

Tai Wai...

Yee Teng...

and also one with all the girls at the table...

Max saw this and wanted to take catch-up pictures, too. So he took pictures with Lee Sih...

Sim Yee...

as well as, Yuen Chai and I...

The other table came and join in our photo-taking frenzy...

Wai Kong was just happy to chat with Max...

The most enjoyable part of the night had to be the yumseng session. I swear that our table was THE loudest and exaggerated table there.

Dor, I am so happy for you! Here's to wishing both Darren and you all the best!

Dor's big day

I know, I know... this wasn't exactly her BIG day but in Malaysia, it was! What she had in November did not include us so nah, we're not going to take that into account.

Dor really does know how to choose dates. She chose to hold her Chinese ceremony on May 1; Labour Day. Ah, convenient. Everyone would be able to attend as no one could say, "Aiya, I'm working on that day la". And so, we gathered at her Uncle Daniel's house in OUG for the exciting day.

When I arrived, she was still doing her hair and make-up. Then, Yew Fon and Yee Teng arrived and together, we made preparations. Making 'Boobs & Sticks' was rather interesting. We were trying to get the boobs to be the same size. Another funny one was kissing paper. We had to cover the entire A4 paper so yea, we were madly kissing the paper. Yew Fon was great in the kitchen, preparing the sambal and wasabi spreads.

And it was time... they have arrived! The first challenge was Boobs & Sticks. Song choice: Macarena.

It was super hilarious! I had to hide behind the girls to hide my glee!

Having passed that challenge, they were allowed to proceed into the house. Now, it involved food but it was still physical. Let's have a look:

Yup, this is called the banana push-up. They guys were to do as many push-ups required to finish the banana. Only one bite per push-up so, yea... Colin was amazing - he finished the whole thing with just one push-up!

The Q&A session was less daunting. Oh well, at least not to us. For me, all I did was ask the questions and try not to look like I was trying to give out answers... haha... For them, hm, I guess it was otherwise as Darren had to crack his head trying to recall dates and shoe sizes and what not. He was one lucky chap as his first guess of Dor's lip print was the right one! Other questions, he wasn't as lucky so his pals helped him with taking the punishment, which they could select from the following:

They do not look friendly, do they?

I am not going to post all the questions we asked here but I will tell you that Darren does know his stuff. Another question he was lucky with was the one where he had to pick Dor's bra out of a dozen of them. He managed on the first pick, again!

Then it was up the stairs. Yes, much closer to Dor now. He had to sing her a song through the door. Simple? Yes, if she did not make him improvise the lyrics. He actually sang Macarena but she rejected because it was not a love song. Haha! There was a contract that he had to seal with kisses...

And finally, the last challenge of finding the key to the door of her room. We prepared a pail of ice where there were five keys of the same kind. Darren had to use his toes to pick a key to try to see if it opens the door. And what do you know? The first key was THE key! My golly!

And so the fun part of the day came to an end. The next part, the tea ceremony, was a family affair so us classmates left the scene.

Travellogue Taiwan: Back in Taipei

This corridor between the two blocks of buildings may not look like much but walk through and you'd find a treasure trove of food!

We walked quite deep in before we found what we were looking for:

Grandma Lai's Taro Balls!

They came in an assortment of colours and flavours! Personally, I thought they looked very much like our tangyuan.

There was also a funny and definitely memorable character at Jiufen - this funny-looking aunty:

Apparently, she dresses differently in exaggerated costumes to attract customers. She even sings songs! Dui mian de nan hai kan guo lai....

There were ocarinas for sale as well!

I couldn't help but buy myself one. Don't be fooled by it's attractive appearance and deceptive melodies. I mean, of course the people at the shop could play it with ease - they sell the thing! When I tried to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, gosh, I found out the reason I played the piano better than the flute...

We collected our things from a dessert shop (I bought over a hundred ringgit worth of dessert!) and headed back for Taipei city. We had to rush to catch the change of guards at erm, I don't even know what that place is...

Of course, a must-see in Taipei would be their world-famous museum. It houses the most valuable artifacts from China. Artifacts, which we may not see today if not for some visionary men who sacrificed their own lives to protect the Chinese heritage and history. And then it was makan time again. On our final night in Taiwan, we were brought to the largest night market in Taiwan - Shilin.

Just look at all the foodstalls! This is what you'd call a gigantic hawker centre!

Originally, we were supposed to spend out last night in the same hotel we did on our first night. However, there were some plumbing problems so we were switched to a 5-star hotel called Brother Hotel. And my, 5-star it was! Blessing in disguise, I'd say.

After putting down our luggage in our rooms, we headed out again to experience their MTRs. It was pretty straight-forward getting from our hotel to Shilin. Why did we head back to Shilin? Well, all we saw was the food centre. We did not get to see the shopping district. I ended up with two souvenirs for myself - a pair of Adidas and an ODM watch. Muahahahaha....

All in all, I'd have to say, it was a fun trip. I was lucky to have had that particular group of people on the trip. I am particularly thankful for the friendly tour guide. Although it was tiring due to the long rides on the bus, the sights and sounds made up for all of it.

Taiwan, I will be back and this time, I'll concentrate on just Taipei and perhaps I'd head up to Alishan!