Melaka - A trip down memory lane

This CNY, my family and I planned a trip down to Melaka. Not that we have not been there before, but we have not done so with the entire family. So, this time I managed to gather the entire family to go on this short escapade with me.


Seeing that I love to stay at hostels or B&B over hotels anytime, i chose to stay at this guest house called The Riverview Guest House.

Pic above: a shot of my sis, Sue Shan hanging out at the balcony

It is located at Lot 94 & 96, Jalan Kampung Pantai, adjacent to Lorong Hang Jebat and runs parallel to the famous Jonker street.

I guess staying in these budget or no-frill accommodations is something I've picked up when I was backpacking in Italy and Spain. It is great as very often, they come cheap (RM 25/per person/night), have more characters (this guest house has been listed as a UNESCO site) and you also get to mingle with the other guests for chats.

The guest house is also centrally located as all the interesting attractions are just a stone-throw away. The owners are very friendly, though they were surprise to see us and shared with us that they don't find many Malaysians staying at their guest house as they mostly receive international visitors, mainly backpackers. Beds are comfy with the occasional bed bugs, common toilets are clean, nice owners and a wonderful view of the river for relaxation.

Pic above: Picture perfect view of the Melaka river

Places of interests in Melaka are St. Paul's Church, The Famosa fort, and about 5 different museums. I did a refresher course in history after checking out the Melaka Sultanate Museum (RM 2 per person). Man, I realised that all my history lessons has been given back to my History teacher. Lets see whether I can recall what I have learnt during my visit to the Museum:

1. After witnessing a white mousedeer kicking a hunting dog off the river bank, Parameswara (who fled from Temasek after killing Temagi) decided to establish his administration here in Melaka. It is named after the tree where he sought shelter.
2. Bendahara is equivalent to the present day Prime Minister
3. Laksamana is equivalent to the present day Admiral
4. Temenggung is equivalent to the present day Chief Police Officer

Pic above: i am the envoy from the Ming Dynasty, having an audience with the Sultan ....hahhah

Everything else appeared fuzzy after that....well, I am never that good in history anyway.

This is the time of the year where everybody comes to Melaka, as the traffic was horrendous, especially along Jonker Street. Luckily, we stayed nearby and walked most of the time.

Pic above: Jonker Street @ night

Eating is never a problem in Melaka. Famous local cuisine usually include the famous Satay Celup (Capitol), Chicken rice balls (along Jonker Street), Cendol and Baba Laksa (Jonker88) and Asam Pedas fish.

Pic above: Laksa Baba, Asam Laksa & Cendol @ Jonker 88

Baba & Nyonya restaurants are also scattered around town. Must try foods are Ayam Ponteh and Ayam Keluak. Famous pubs include Geographer and Discovery.

But if you can, make your way to Batu Berendam as you can find some pretty good eats. These are the places where the locals go for their daily fixes of chicken rice balls (RM 3 per serving) and coconut pudding (RM 8 per coconut, serves 3). The coconut pudding is highly recommended. Hmmmm....i will try to see whether I can make this at home.

Pic above: Coconut pudding at Dragon Deluxe Restaurant, Bt Berendam

In the evening, a few rounds of card games followed before we called it a night.

Early the next day, when the rest of my family members went out for breakfast, I took the opportunity to lounge at the balcony of the guest house while sipping my cup of tea, overlooking the river (hence the name of the guest house). Ah, what bliss........

Will I come back to Melaka for a visit in the future?.....most defintely.....but not during CNY!

Diva - What to wear for first day of work after CNY

Diva - What to wear for first day of work after CNY

The best ice cream experience I ever had

The Best Ice Cream experience I ever had?…..mmmm lets just say that there was never a best experience but all ice cream occasions could be summed up as my best life experiences…..

I grew up on ice cream. Come to think of it, I still remember when I was just a little girl, my dad used to take me and my sister to this ice cream parlour located in SS2. The parlour was beautifully decorated and everything seems to be in pretty pink. From the colour of the walls, to the tables and chairs and even the countertops were all in pink hues!

Not only that, the owners liked to show the cartoon ‘The Pink Panther’ through a projector on the wall as we were enjoying our cup of ice cream. I also remembered that they loved to garnish the ice-cream with these little wooden-stick umbrellas which I collected and meticulously used when we were playing with our Barbie dolls. I really love my visits to that parlour as I feel that I am being cocooned in a whole new world filled with love and flurry animals. I believe that was when I started associating ice cream with all things nice.

As I grow up, everyday after school sessions ended, I love to buy ice-cream ‘potong’ from this uncle from the roadside for a mere 20 cents. It was artificially coloured and flavoured but still tasted good! Hey, what do we know then?.....cring cring cring….the sound of the bell from the ice vendor is here….hooray! Ice cream then was associated to a job well-done at school and I used that excuse to reward myself often.

When I was in my teens, ice cream buffets were the fads. People actually paid to have ‘All you can eat’ ice creams at the outlets and boy was it heaven. Flavours of ice creams also expanded from the common chocolates, vanilla, corn and strawberry to a variety of flavours ranging from butterscotch to cookies and creams. Ice creams then was associated to good fun with friends and also love for that special someone……

Now when I am more matured and subdue, health has become more important. Hence, I love to frequent the New Zealand Natural outlet from where I work for their fat-free versions of ice creams. Cookies and Cream is still my favourite choice and if I had a bad day at work, I can just lounge at the outlet with a New Zealand Natural brownie topped with ice cream. Ice cream to me is a healthy stress reliever. My husband is also a fan but he prefers the milk shakes from New Zealand Natural.

There you have it! My ice cream life experiences ………

Sound clip: Catastrophic Lexus crash

Sound clip: Catastrophic Lexus crash

Unintended acceleration had caused this Lexus crash. Four people were in the car when it crashed into a fiery fireball. This is a sound recording of their last moments: a male passenger's emergency call to the 911 hotline

S&S in Perak.......sweet

It has been a while since my last visit to Perak.....okok, well again maybe not that long as i am always going to Perak for work.......'sian'...... So here I am with my bunch of colleagues working our arse off during the day, but still manage to squeeze in all the makan sessions during our stay there....Hey, we still need to eat right?

So first stop.......'Tong sui kai' or Dessert Street. A row of stalls located just opposite the SRK (C) Sam Tet where people like to go for dinner and of course the desserts. We ordered rojak buah, 'leng chi kang', chee cheong fun and also ais kacang but this special ice kacang has got lots of fruits in it.

rojak buah

Yummy chee cheong fun with bits of mushrooms. You can also order the herbal chee cheong fun as well......

Herbal chee cheong fun (very tasty)

Leng chi kang

Now this is the ice kacang that i'm talking about. Quite popular. In it you can find mango, watermelon, dragon fruit, jackfruit, bananas and topped with ice cream.....delicious..

The following day, we went to Cowan Street restaurant for the famous Ipoh chicken hor fun and bean sprout. This is the place where the locals go (not the Lou Wong or Ong Kee, which are more touristy). It is located not too far away from Excelsior Hotel.

Hor fun is translucent and smooth, the soup abit too oily, but still tasted yummy.

The chicken here is cooked to perfection and i find it to be more tender than those served at the more touristy restaurants.

and alas......my favourite bean sprouts. Juicy and fat (unlike the ones you find in KL where the bean sprouts are thin and stringy).

If you love tau foo fah, head over to Funny Mountain at Jalan Theatre

It is a small corner lot shop selling soya bean juice and bean curd. It must be the water around Ipoh cause the tau foo fah is very soft and melts right in your mouth.

This is the front view of the shop.

The barrel was almost empty by the time we reached there about 1 pm.

Another favourite of mine is the curry noodles/mee from a coffee shop called Nam Chau at old town (Jalan Bandar Timah, i think).

You can opt for either the dry noodles (above) or the soupy kind. Not very spicy and yet spicy enough ............

Nam chau also serves toasted bread, pastries (legendary) and Ipoh White Coffee. Wah....

Not sure what is this called already as i always point to the poster when i order from the aunty working in the shop. It is best eaten when the pastry is still warm and soft and the filling is pandan lotus.........so good! + Ipoh White Coffee = Heavenly........

Ipoh White Coffee (somehow they make it better in Ipoh), so I must have two ............

Steam sponge cake with kaya.......another favourite of mine

In Taiping, we stopped at another kopi tiam for the seafood porridge (fresh big prawns) and pai tee.........the crust is crunchy and the filling is really good too.....a must try for those who visit Taiping ....

Wah....drool.........(hehehhe, that was our exact reaction when we first saw the claypot of seafood porridge)

Appetiser - pai tee

This time i gave Foh San (famous dim sum place) a miss (though my colleague is kind enough to ta pau 'polo pau' for me.......'happy').

Till the next time.........ciow.....

Why I like it longer?

Why I like it LONGER? Simple...all good things should last forever, if not, LONGER........


A short visit to the Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary. These gentle creatures are being driven out of their natural habitat due to modernisation and development. How I wish to see these graceful animals roaming freely in the wild a little bit LONGER.............


Our first family cat, nicknamed poochie. He was a good house cat but tends to zone out every once in a while. He was like family to us till the day he laid still on the tar road underneath a neighbour's car. Oh how we cried and mourned his death that day......'sob sob'..... I wish he could be with us a little while LONGER...........



Trees provided us with shelter, food and oxygen. Yet, we take them for granted by destroying them for our own greed. This is me doing my part by planting mangrove saplings in Kuala Selangor. With small efforts such as this and the implementation of the 'No plastic bag days', i wish all Malaysians could do their part in preserving the trees so they could continue to grow and heal Mother Earth for much LONGER............


These colourful blossoms attract many bees and birds to the parks. They bloom during certain months but withered away soon after. Sadly, when the flowers are gone, so are the bees and birds. How I wish they could flower every day and stay that way LONGER.........


Everyone loves fairytales and where else could we experience a 'happy ever after' if not in Disneyland!...I was there for only a short time and how I wish I could be there an extra day LONGER..........


My husband and I on a white-water rafting trip to KKB. The fast rapids and the jaw-dropping plunges gave us a high that we crave so much. Too bad it has to end when we reached our destination. How I wish that the rapid current is 10 km LONGER.............


My family means the world to me. Without them, I have nothing. Without them, life is meaningless. Our love for one another is unconditional and should remain that way always........and LONGER


I enjoy bird-watching and one thing i've learnt from the birds is that many of them remain loyal to their partners. Hornbills, Penguins, Malkohas mate for life and do not change partners even if the other is dead. This always gives me a warm-fuzzy feeling. How sad that we human beings do not cherish our own relationships and many ended up in divorce or break-ups. How I wish all humans could learn from the birds and love one another LONGER...........


Traveling is my passion and one of my favourite monuments is the La Sagrada Familia in Spain. The cathedral is designed and built by Antoni Gaudi but was never completed. How I wish Gaudi could lived a little LONGER so he could actually finished this masterpiece for the world to see.....


I am not getting any younger and my eyes are not as sharp as before. That's why i like to own a LG Chocolate as the LONGER sexy shape allows for better browsing of web pages, checking of emails and viewing of videos on the cinema-like screen.

So there you have it! All my favourite people and things such as the LG Choc and why all good things should be LONGER...........

My Valentine's Day

My sweet Valentine has got to be Ashton Kutcher.

He comes to my door,
with freshly-picked blooms,
Oh how my heart soar,
from yesterdays gloom

He looks so fine,
with his big goofy smile,
He is my life line,
or am I still in denial?

We went for a drive,
down memory lane,
From nine till five,
till we go insane

As we lay down on the soft white sand,
we wine and dine on burgers and beers,
The breeze plays like our favourite music band,
We cuddle together, we know no fear

Before we part ways at my front gate,
he leans forward and kisses me goodbye,
I hold his gaze and i then know my fate,
he's the one I'll love till the day I die......

Happy Valentine's Day.........