Malacca Road Trip

Assalamualaikum and hi to all.

The reason that I managed to blog quite frequently these few days is because my company was having three days plant shutdown, which means three days of `forced' leave for the employees. I think people from manufacturing/operation background would be very familiar with this annual occurence, while the rest I think you can understand this as the period for the whole plant undergo maintenance and facilities enhancements, since the machines were running twenty-four seven every day.

Thus, me and a few of my colleagues went to Malacca for a brief roadtrip with only one goal in mind : FOOD-HUNTING. At first, I was quite confused why they chose Malacca over several other choices of interesting places, but after a while I actually can understand why. Mind you, most of my colleagues in my current workplace are Chinese, and they are very nice guys. So the Chinese always have special delicacies in Malacca that they particularly look for, namely the Dodol Durian, Chicken Rice Ball, the `Thong Shui' desserts, satay celup, pineapple tarts and many more. Although I've been in Malacca several times before, I never actually heard of these food since obviously, I'm not looking for them anyway.

So on Wednesday afternoon, after a few pitstops and several wrong turns (!), we arrived in Malacca. The fact that none of us are actually familiar with the Malacca streets, and they actually rely on ME, whom my last visit in Malacca dated six years ago. Nevertheless, using the skills of a surveyor's daughter (ehem, well, my Dad always thought us (me and my bros) to read maps and roads and signboards thus now we become quite good at it), we managed to arrive at the historic city.

After check-in the hotel (we don't have any reservations, we just crash into one) and performed jama' prayers (Maghrib and Isya) for the Muslims, off we head to Umbai, the best seafood place in town. Actually it was my idea to go to this place, even one Malacca guy that joined us never go to this place! What a waste..(huhu). When we arrived there, I was surprised at the new features of the place. Very nice and beautiful, unlike six years ago. We had our seafood favourites (ikan pari bakar, mussels, squids etc)and believe it or not, we only paid less than RM80 for 9 persons dishes! It was `dirt cheap' (as my friends used to refer it). So people, pergilah Umbai for the best seafood at the best price!

The next day we went for a brief sightseeing in Malacca town. It was back in PJ where one of my friend, Afif really wants to taste the famous Chicken Rice Ball. Initially he did not believe that the rice ball is actually round, that's why he was all excited to go to Malacca in the first place. But when we reached the shop, it took us an instant glance to find that the restaurant is a non-Halal one. So I actually urged the non-Muslim boys to go ahead, while we (only three of us are Muslims) can opt for Pizza Hut across the road. However they refused to go and joined us to Pizza Hut instead. Well, I was overwhelmed by their action, they really are the nicest guys I ever meet. We even discussed on Halal issues over the lunch as they really wanted to understand why the Muslims can't eat pork and meat with improper slaughter, so on and so forth.After a few more hours spent in town, we eventually left for KL.

Besides, we playfully believed some of us brought bad omens along to Malacca. We experienced a series of unfortunate events through out the day. It started with one of the car sudden broke down, then several wrong turns and dead-end roads, some bad chewing gums experience, a few `saman' in just four hours(!), my friend had to pay more than RM1k to repair the car and other minor ones. Despite the bad and good things happened, we certainly felt this trip was a memorable one. We would laugh our heads off ten years later, when we look back down the memory lane..

p/s: I didn't bring my camera because I left the memory card at home, thus the pics will be several posts delayed okay :)