Half-Day Melaka Look, See, Eat trip!

I've only been to Melaka once in my life - back when I was five. And even then I don't remember anything about it - only that I've got some photographs of me playing around some cannons, or something. Anyway the darling and I, and a visitor from HK, took a half-day trip to look, see, and eat!

We arrive at Jonker street at 10 and promptly head to Jonker 88 cafe. Their specialty food is apparently the laksa, but as none of us are laksa fans we try the Chicken Curry Rendang Noodles (not too sure the exact name) instead. Great taste, but the curry is thick, and combined with the natural starchiness of the yellow noodles, brings on the jelak feeling super quick. The darling and Mr. HK also found it too spicy. Was OK for me though.


Of course we also have to try the Cendol. We go for the EPC (Eight Precious Cendol). It's a Cendol with a bunch of different things inside - peanuts, nutmeg, attap chi, etc, and drizzled with the thickest gula melaka syrup I've ever seen. Personally I feel the regular cendol is better; the addition of all the ingredients makes it too 'campur.' I also think the Penang Road cendol is better :P


We then take a walk around the museum areas. Found an interesting mural of ... well I guess he's Admiral Cheng Ho ... somewhere near Mahkota Parade.


Of course, no first-timers trip to Melaka would be complete without visiting the A Famosa fort. I could've sworn A Famosa was much bigger, but I guess when you're five years old, everything seems bigger in comparison :). Here's the darling posing with one of the cannons, with St Paul's cathedral in the background.


Taking a breather after walking up to St. Paul's - the view of the sea is nice!


Sitting in the ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral.


Melaka's heritage area must have the highest density of museums in the world. There's literally more than 10 small ones all within 10 minutes walking distance. None of us have particular interests in history though, so we skip most of them - except this one: I'll go out on a limb and assume it used to be a real 19th century ship - how not to go in?


Anyway, time for lunch after the tour, and we want to try Melaka's Chicken Rice Ball. Unfortunately, we were starving, and Chung Wah and Hoe Kee had 50 people queue'ing outside, so we settle for A Famosa Chicken Rice Ball, also along Jonker Street.

In a nutshell: we are unimpressed. And a little disappointed, truth be told. Maybe we went to the wrong shop, but the chicken was only average, and the chicken rice balls were bland and dry. Mr HK commented that eating them was "like eating flour."


Needing to rush off for Bon Odori, we leave back to KL after lunch. Was a nice trip, and pretty fun. Will definitely be back another day - if for nothing else other than to eat Chung Wah chicken rice ball.