JUST TO SHARE (Lau Tai Onn): A Brief Account Of Our 2D1N Leisure Trip To Melaka On 10 & 11 September, 2020

My eldest son Wai Kit proposed a 2D1N leisure trip to Melaka on Thursday, 10 September, 2020 & Friday, 11 September, 2020 and booked/paid for a hotel. We purposely chose weekdays so as to avoid crowds if any. The main purpose of the trip was to explore good food and not sight-seeing. A friend had given some tips for food and I searched online a few others before departure.

At 10.15am on Thursday, my wife Soh Ai, Wai Kit and I left home in our Avanza car. I drove and stopped by Pasar Besar Seremban at about 11.00am. We ordered one bowl of beef noodle and another bowl of beef balls and shared among three of us (we had earlier taken some light breakfast at home). The taste of noodle and balls were not bad. Soh Ai paid the bill of RM18 using her T&G e-wallet.

Wai Kit took over the wheels and drove to Melaka. There were intermittent raining (not heavy) along the way. We arrived at DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, Hatten City, Jln. Melaka Raya 23, Bandar Hilir, Melaka Raya at 1.15pm andchecked into Twin Guest Room High Floor (city view, 2 single beds, max. 3 adults) at 22^nd floor. It is a 5-star hotel. Wai Kit just mentioned it was RM300+ for a night.

There is a transparent glass-panel wall between the bedroom and the attached bathroom. The good thing is there is an auto-sliding curtain operable from a switch in the bathroom.

The drizzling had stopped at about 2.00pm and we went out to Jonker Street using Grab taxi. It is convenient to use Grab taxis to save the hassles in searching places using Waze apps and parking is the main problem. The fare is around RM5 to RM8 only. We parked our car in the hotel and never used it for traveling in town.

We managed to savour the following food as planned:

1. Lard residue popiah (猪油渣薄饼）or “Bunga Raya Popiah”, a road-sdie stall in front of Madam King’s Shopping Mall, Jalan Bunga Raya, Kampung Jawa.

We bought 2 pieces of popiah RM5 each.

(春兴薄饼 - 满满的猪油渣就是薄饼的重点，内馅有常见的薄饼材料–沙葛、鸡蛋、豆芽等材料，用厚度适中的薄饼皮裹着。一口咬下去满口都是猪油渣的浓郁香气。春兴薄饼的档口就坐落在Madam’s King购物中心前。营业时间: 周一至周六 1pm – 9pm / 周日 1pm – 5.30pm)

2. Longkang siham, lala, sotong kangkung, century eggs (垄沟蛳蛤、啦啦、鱿鱼翁菜、皮蛋）at Tong Bee's Stall Shell Food, Jalan Bunga Raya, Kampung Jawa, 75100 Melaka.

We took one plate each of siham (RM3), lala (RM3), sotong kangkung (RM7), 2 nos. century eggs (RM4). and 2 glasses of lime drinks (RM3). The siham and lala were very small in size and tasted so-so only, while the other two foods were ok.

(垄沟蛳蚶: “Longkang” 就是“垄沟”的谐音，“沟渠”或“水沟”的意思；“Siham” 则是广东人说的“蛳蚶”谐音，也就是“鲜蛤”、“血蚶”或“泥蚶”。这是大马后巷美食文化的一种特色! 那里有两摊卖着一样的食物，分别是第一档的东美档 (Tong Bee)，据说是第一个经营 Longkang Siham 的摊子；第二档则是佳必多 (Capitol Seafood)，墙壁上也都贴着有关的广告。桌子上贴着一目了然的价格表。营业：5pm ~ 11pm)

3. Cheesy prawn meehun, gam hiong shrimp and salted egg yolk beancurds (芝士生虾米粉、甘香虾羔、金沙豆腐）at Restoran Tong Sheng (東昇園海鮮家) , 377 & 378, Jalan Melaka Raya 6, Taman Melaka Raya, 75000 Melaka. 营业时间: 5.30pm – 11pm / 每两周休息一天 (星期一) **公共假期照常营业

Needed to pre-book using WhatsApp for reservation of table. We ordered:

(a) Cheesy prawn meehun (medium) - RM98.00

(b) Gam hiong shrimp - RM20.00

(d) Chinese tea - RM3.00

Total plus tax: RM147.35.

In view of the different timing, we took a Grab taxi to Jonker Walk after eating the popiah at a nearby Mamak stall. There were not many tourists.

The night market (pasar malam) in Jonker Street is closed today as it is only open on Fridays to Sundays. So our plan of having supper there was gone!

At about 4.30pm, we took another Grab taxi back to Madam King’s Mall and had the longkang siham & etc. After that,l we went to Restoran Tong Sheng to take the cheesy prawn noodle & etc. for dinner at 5.30pm. The taste of this food was good but there were only 6 large prawns.

As the restaurant was only about 1.7km from our hotel, we decided to walk back.

There was nothing to do in the evening. We thought of going for suana/steam bath at 13^th common facilities floor but it was closed for operation at night. All of us slept quite early at around 9.00pm.

Central Market of Seremban

Beef noodle (牛腩粉) and beef balls (牛肉丸)

Leaving Seremban for Melaka

Checking into DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, Melaka at 12th floor Hotel Reception

Hotel reception lobby

Each of us must produce our identity cards for record purpose

Our room keys required to be tapped everywhere we go in the hotel, including guest room, lift, swimming pool and etc.

Twin bed guest room

The bathroom is visible from the bedroom. Luckily there is an auto-sliding curtain for the glass-panel common partition wall.

View from inside the bathroom to look through at the bedroom

The auto-sliding curtain operable from a switch inside the bathroom bear the wash basin

Bathroom

View of the city at Jalan Melaka Raya from our room window at 22nd floor of the hotel

Taking a stroll to take a look at the gym facility of the hotel

Going out of the hotel by Grab taxi

Road-side stall of Bunga Raya Popiah

Ordering popiah

Walking to the nearby back-lane to eat the popiah at a mamak stall

Lard-residue popiah (each RM5) - 猪油渣薄饼

Visiting Melaka heritage site

Very few tourists at sight

Soh Ai shopping for health canes (健康棒) for fitness exercise use. Only RM4 per bundle of thin canes.

Durian ice-cream (RM10)

Jalan Hang Jebat (fka Holand Road)

Jonker Street 鸡腸文化街

Back-lane site for renowned "longkang siham"

Tong Bee's stall shell food

The siham and lala we ordered. Each plate RM3. But the sizes of both were small!

Sotong kangkung (RM7). The chilli sauce was rather spicy.

Century eggs with ginger slices (2 pcs, each RM2)

Restoran Tong Sheng - famous for cheesy prawn meehun and crabs

Cheesy prawn meehun 芝士生虾米粉 (Medium plate - RM98)

Salted egg yolk beancurds 金沙豆腐 (RM18)

Gam hiong shrimp 甘香虾羔 (RM20)

Name card and bill of the dinner

The restaurant is located not far from our hotel as seen here at the background

We walked back to the hotel after dinner

Nice view of DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel on the left and Hatten Place on the right linked by skybridge in thje middle and roof top

A view from our room window in the late afternoon

The sky at 7.04pm was still bright

View at night through the window (reflection of me was visible)

At 7.45am on Friday morning, we had our buffet breakfast at 12^th floor (hotel reception and kitchen) which was included in our room rate. There were many varieties of tasty Oriental food. We had to wear mask all the time in the kitchen except for dining.

Wai Kit and I went for swimming at 9..00am. There were only a couple beside us in the outdoor pool. I have not engaged in swimming for decades. I swam for a total of 12 laps (one lap is the length of the pool, which I found from the hotel staff later to be 25m). The maximum depth of the pool is 4 ft. Or 1.2m, and the width is 8m. Really enjoyed the swim.

After the swim at 9.45am, we went to the sauna/steam bath room just next to the pool, but the facility was not operational due to Covid-19.

We rested in the hotel room until 11.40am before checking out. We put our luggage int the car and went out by Grab taxi to Jonker Walk again.

There we patronized Calanthe Art Cafe (Malaysia 13 states coffee) to have coffee (RM7.60 each), curry laksa (RM13.80) and chicken satay (5 pieces RM16.80). The cafe is well decorated with many art pieces and we were lucky as there weren't many customers hindering our photo-taking. But in another 10 minutes or so, many tourists started to pour into this cafe.

We ordered 3 types of coffee, Kelantan/Penang/Melaka but I really couldn’t taste any difference.

(迦南地艺术咖啡馆Calanthe Art Cafe十三州咖啡 - 有來自马来西亚十三个州的咖啡种类，可一次品尝多元口味的咖啡。除此之外，咖哩叻沙是店里的必吃！17, Jalan Hang Kasturi, 75200 Melaka 營業時間：週日至週三09:00–23:00，週五六09:00–00:00週四公休）

After that, we walked around Jonker Walk to do a bit of last minute shopping of local products (a total of RM77.90) from San Shu Gong (三叔公), before returning to the hotel to pick up our car and depart at 1.15pm.

I used Waze to drive to Baba Charlie Nyonya Cakes but it led to a wrong place at Jalan Pokok Mangga. We should use the address of Baba Charlie Cafe at 631, Jalan Siantan, Taman Siantan Seksyen 2.

We bought 3 packets of nyonya kuih (5 pc) as gifts for neighbors (RM6.50 each), nyonya chang or dumpling (RM5.50) to eat in the cafe there, 5 other types of kuih. Total RM38.90. We also had coconut cendol/lime drink before leaving.

Wai Kit drove all the way back home reaching at about 4.30pm.

In conclusion, it was a pleasant and satisfactory trip in view of the fact that we managed to savour all the foods as planned, not even one item (except supper at Jonker Street) was amiss!