Celebrating Chinese New Year in Malacca
HUAT ARH!! Happy Chinese New Year!! As promised, I am back here to blog about my trip to Malacca during the Chinese New Year season. BEWARE: This is photo-heavy post. Yeap, without further ado...Let's start! This year, I also went back to Malacca to visit my grand parents, relatives and cousins. This time round, it's a 4 days and 3 nights stay.
First Day (30 Jan 14)
The day kicked off as early as 6 AM. I woke up early, started packing my luggage and washed up for the day. My family and I took off at 7:30 AM and boarded the coach at roughly 8:50 AM. The coach ride was a smooth and quick one. I watched one episode of Chocolat (流氓蛋糕店) and Marvel Animation Movie: The Next Avengers before I reached Malacca.
We alighted at the main bus terminal, Melaka Sentral. Upon alighting, my dad went to get a SIM card for the trip. After that, my sister brought the family to the nearby mall (Aeon) for lunch. We rested our feet and fed our hungry stomach at Garden Recipe. The restaurant was located on the 1st floor of the mall, nearby the food street. It's pretty easy to find the restaurant as they got a really nice setting outside their store. See photos below.
My lunch
Garden Recipe @ AEON Bandaraya Melaka
G55 Food Avenue
2 Jalan Legenda, Taman I-Legenda,
75400 Melaka, Malaysia
The unique setting of the restaurant seen outside of it was one of the highlights which is why I decided to give them a try. Anyway, we each ordered a main course and drink, 2 of my cousins also joined us on this meal. Basically, the restaurant served a variety of western dishes such as fish and chips, spaghetti, grilled chicken cutlets etc;. Other than that, they also serves healthy vegetarian dishes and aromatic flower teas. The total bill came up to around RM110 for 6 pax dining in (IMO, it's a pretty reasonable price).
After our lunch, my sister, mum and dad went shopping at AEON. Meanwhile, my cousins accompanied me and my uncles to check into our hotel rooms at Venus Boutique Hotel. The hotel was conveniently located at the heart of Mahkota downtown. This is my first time staying at a hotel during Chinese New Year, as normally, I would stay at my grandparents' home. Indeed, it was a nice experience and it was a much comfortable one too.
Both of my family and aunt's family stayed at the 4-person family room. The room was spacious and my room comes with a nice view towards the sea. The bathroom was nice and sweet enough to pamper my tiring body after long hours of shopping and walking around. In total, we paid S$360 for 3 nights stay. IMO, the price tag of the stay is affordable and reasonable as each room fits in 4 persons. While my sister, mum and dad were back at AEON shopping mall, I waited for them at the hotel after checking in. Eventually, I fell asleep on the comfy bed. Hahas.
View from my family's room
At about 7:30PM, my family finally reached the hotel and brought me to my grandparents home for dinner. It was a short 20 mins ride to my grandparents home from the hotel. On the way, we accompanied my uncle (Who happened to be the driver too) to buy a birthday cake for my cousin. The cake...hmm, green-tea flavored, was not bad (I had it after dinner). Dinner was nice but not as great. The foods were not warm and everything my grandparents cooked seem so oily. However, I still enjoyed the foods. After dinner and green-tea cakes, I watched the TV and see my cousins playing with the firecrackers. I also seen some pretty fireworks too. We left for the hotel at around 11:30 PM...That's summed up my first day/night.
Firework of the night
Second Day (31 Jan 14)
We woke up at around 9:30 AM, brushed our teeth and wash up for the day. We took off at around 11:00 AM to Jonker Street (雞場街). It takes about 15 minutes to reach the street from our hotel and man, the weather was harsh (Weather: Warm). Well, our first stop was at the popular retail store of "三叔公". In here, you can find many traditional snacks such as bean paste biscuits (豆沙餅), wife's biscuit (老婆餅), peanut crackers (花生餅) and more. They also sells coffee powder and coffee packs too. Other than buying souvenirs for your loved friends and family, you can also drop by their cafe section where you can sit down and drink a cup of nice coffee. One of their specialties is the Durian Cendol, I definitely recommend it for a warm day's visit.
Jonker Street
Happy family! Hahas.
Durian Cendol!
San Shu Gong (三叔公) @ Jonker Street
33, Jalan Hang Jebat, 75200 Melaka
Operation Hours:
Weekdays - 1000 hrs to 1800 hrs
Weekends - 1000 hrs to 2130 hrs
After our shopping at the store, we finally went for our first meal of the day at the popular chicken rice restaurant, "古城雞飯粒". The restaurant was crowded with people even though it was Chinese New Year. We ordered a few dishes to share. Of course, we had the steamed chicken as it was their signature dish. Then, we also ordered vegetables, fish balls soup and wanton soup. Our bill came up to around RM80. The queue cleared pretty fast which is a plus point. The chicken rice balls are also their hot pick, do remember to order them.
After our meal, we went back to our hotel to rest for a while before going for more shopping. I still did enjoyed my day though, I am not the one shopping. I had my first Starbucks drink of the trip that afternoon too, it was so satisfying after accompanying my sister shops. At night, we went back to my grandparent's home for dinner. This time round, the foods were much better. Hmm...that's about my second day/night. Nothing much, yea? Hahas.
Third Day (1 Feb 14)
Believe or not, third day is yet another shopping day! Gosh! But this time round, we are more focused on malls only as the weather is sunny and hot. Early in the morning, we did the usual wash-up. We then have Mcdonalds for breakfast at Mahkota Parade. We did the usual walk around the mall and I am sure this is one of the best shopping hauls for my family of all the days at Malacca. My mum bought 3 tops, my sister bought shoes and a lot more and I also got myself a new pair of shoes from Timberland! The shoes cost me approximately S$71 and I think it's much cheaper than in Singapore, no? Hahas.
After walking for some time, I lost track of my mum and sis. Meanwhile, I am with my uncles, aunt and cousin. Well...We had a nice tea break session at Nadaje while waiting for my mum and sis to meet us at the cafe. Nadaje is one of the popular cafes in Malacca, they serves a variety of mille crepe cakes (Like those from First Love, Singapore). There are many flavours available such as the recommended original flavoured, tiramisu, green tea and mores. We ordered 4 of the flavours (Tiramisu, Cheese, Original & Green Tea) to try and all of them tasted really nice. (FYI, each slice cost RM6.50)
My fave, Tiramisu!!
Summary of the cakes that we had
Beautiful view from the cafe
The store is located at the outside area of the mall, navigate yourself to the KFC of the mall then take the exit to outdoor area. From there, you turn left and walk straight. Then, you will be able to see the cafe. There are always queue during the weekends however the waiting time is quite short (Approximately, 10 to 15 mins should do the job).
G-23 & 25, Jalan PM 4,
Plazza Mahkota, 75000 Melaka.
Tel: 06-283 8750
After all the resting and relaxing chit-chat at the cafe, we headed off to the next mall, Dataran Pahlawan. We had a great walk there and then, we settled for late lunch at Secret Recipe. I ordered the some spaghetti dish with beef slices (I already forgot what is that though), my mum got the grilled chicken with salad and potatoes and my sister got the laksa (Amazingly tasty). We rested our tiring feet at the restaurant till around 7:30 PM before my uncle come and fetch us back to my grandparents' home for dinner.
My sister's Laksa
My mum's share
That evening, I am really sad as I am suffering from a bad diarrhoea. Thus, I did not had a nice dinner that night. I just grabbed some new year snacks to stuff my stomach to pass the night. That evening, my sister and I was chatting with our cousins and also watched the television programmes. Hmm...I love their Astro's channels, partially that they got good hosts and actors. These wonderful channels are like our cable TV channels, they got all the nice movies and best of all, they are shown in their dialect languages which you hardly get from Singapore's TV channels. That summed up my last night at Malacca.
The next day started really early as my aunt bought the coach ticket which the bus departure's timing is at 8:30AM!! We woke up at 6 AM, washed up quickly and rushed to the coach terminal for breakfast before boarding the coach back to Singapore. Lesson learnt: Never ask my aunt buy coach tickets again. Wahahas...No lah, we will try to book the tickets from Singapore the next time then. That's about my Chinese New Year trip for this year. I hope this long post did not disappoint you and you did enjoyed reading it. Nevertheless, I wish you guys a very happy lunar new year and HUAT ARH!!
Story Closed on 07.02.14.
#travels #malaysia #annualtrip #malacca #mahkotaparade #chinesenewyear #cny #dataranpahlawan #astro #venusboutiquehotel #venusboutique #aeon #gardenrecipe #nadaje #millecrepecake #crepecake #dessert #foods #snacks #asian #malaysiatrulyasia #chinesecuisine #westerncuisine
Photo Credits:
- https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMAW0NN5Nsu2mgoV9fPXlonjfju8aprYHKjyfu9jkcfCXS9E6H9uVx5bD9qWR9oYdAY1a-keZUZy8eyj5m5wZHFwY8oxHVnGKS0xA8NHRXARfjrMSZw7C8JwU9_U9PuzR0xR4ZcQ/s1600/DSC00273.JPG
- http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt140/thammelissa/Melaka%202013/IMG_6862_zpsaf39639e.jpg
You may also like to read my other posts on my visits to Malaysia!
- Johor Bahru: September 13
- Truly Malaysia - Malacca 2013
- Celebrating CNY in Malaysia (2013)
- Trule Malaysia - Malacca 2011
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