Monday 25 July 2005

Back again!

Another weekend spent in Malacca but this time nearer to town and directly next to the beach. This time I was there with my colleagues with the hope of having a good time together as well as pig out on the local food. With much more time on our hands, I managed to bring them to try out Sate Celup at the Capitol Satay, bring them for a walk along Jonker Street to see the night market as well as savour the delicious Baba Nonya Cendol and finally a last stop at Moon Luck coffeeshop to eat some fried oysters in egg. All this in one night, I bet you can definitely imagine the amount we ate. Yes, tonnes! Only the strong could survive or the smart because almost everyone practiced great self control which proved to be most useful.

The Sate Celup was great, I haven't eaten it in a long long while and I truly enjoyed every bit of it. On average people eat about maybe 12-15 sticks but the highest amount I heard consumed in a single night was about 40 sticks. I myself ate about 14 sticks, about 6 less than my usual 20. No one really did reach the 20 mark though. Malacca itself is quite small so after dinner we took a short 10 minute walk towards Jonker Street to try some mouth watering cendol. The cendol was nice but you can't really take too much of it because of the thick gula melaka and santan. Maybe I should have tried the "Eight Precious Cendol" or EPC for short. It really did look scrumptious.

The highlight of Jonker Street that night was some guy named Ho who apparently appeared on the Malaysian Book of Records for being able to break 3 coconuts with his index finger. Talk about crazy but my curiousity got the better of me. A quick observation showed me that his right index finger has already been broken countless of times. I really wonder how many but the way it was bent off angle really gave me the bejeebers. Next time, I'll use a hammer to break my coconuts next time. The really irritating thing was that he kept on babbling about some herbal medicine which he is trying to sell and kept on delaying the coconut breaking. In true honesty, I didnt't mind the babbling bit, of course one has to make a living. Only problem was that he spoke in Mandarin which made me feel a little lost and confused (GG mandarin classes). Looks like I have to put in more effort studying my mandarin. There were a few english phrases as well as BM phrases he used to sort of not lose the foreigners and malay crowd. He even had the time to scold some youths for acting rude with a loud "Diam!" and "Tolong bekerjasama!". Heh.

The second day was fun because I managed to eat chicken rice balls again and I brought my colleagues around for a little sightseeing. We started off from the Red Buildings, moved onwards towards St Pauls church on the hill where the beautiful coast can be seen and ended it off with A-Famosa. Being back in Malacca really brings out the history lover in me. Its so good to be from a place so rich in history, so much has taken place on the very soil I walked on and so much more will be done in the future. But as urbanisation takes over, more and more historical landmarks are surrounded by the urban jungle, less and less people are aware of their own heritage.

Of course not every trip to Malacca has to end without a quick stop at Tan Kim Hock to buy some dodol and pineapple tarts. Feeling tired from all of the tourist-guide action, I finally made my way back home with a slight detour in to Seremban to purchase some siew-pau but alas, we were there too late and everyone had sold out of siew-paus and we were just too lazy to wait for the next batch. Hopefully tonight I might have the time to write up some reviews for Vincent's website adding in a little touch from outside the PJ area. Maybe an article about the famous chicken rice balls and sate celup.

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