My Second Malacca Trip (06 to 07 June 2014)

June 22, 2014

My Second Malacca Trip (06 to 07 June 2014)

I had the chance to visit Malacca again and this time, I actually got to get down and see for myself the famous 'red' landmarks and even visited the Peranakan Museum owned by a wealthy Peranakan family. Well, it was also my first company trip where I actually had to pay half of the amount which is bummer for me but it's er..reasonably priced..just treat it as a mini holiday. I have to work harder now just to recoup back the money, haha. But yes, you will probably argue that the experience of learning and being immersed in the culture from another country is priceless.

There are some things that I, unfortunately, can't eat like their famous bowl of Chendol which my VP raved about because they were simply good and most importantly, authentic with its 'gula melaka' goodness. So much so, they ate it for the second time, thanks to him...when we went back to the Jongker street at night, to experience the night market, and boy was it SUPER THE CROWDED. It's amazing how I managed to find my way out, haha. Though I didn't eat the must be delicious chendol, I had ice kachang instead. I preferred the original version than the mango ice kachang. The latter was a tad bit too sweet.

The tour we had at the Peranakan Museum offered us a glimpse on how they used to live in the past with their super strict culture and how they ostracized the single women and delegating the women to home stay and duties, not allowing them to work. Hrm..we should be lucky that we are allowed to be more independent now than in the past although in some cultures, women are still treated as second class citizens.

Oh, just a tiny discovery we made about the tour guide. She moonlights as one of the street hawkers just outside the Peranakan Museum at night! So she was right in saying that now, women have to work unlike in the past generations to bring in money. Talk about working tirelessly.

While this was not part of the learning journey, we actually had lunch at two different golf courses and they were huge with such beautiful sceneries. Can't help but take selfies, and eventually, a group photo together. After a long while too, I stayed at the hotel for one night with my colleague and except for a few silly mishaps (like me wetting the dry toilet floor..no thanks to the leaking pipe) and a slight argument and unhappiness about the hotel rooms. My kind room mate who was also the organiser, had kindly offered to exchange our room with another pair who was simply unhappy that they had to get the room with no windows, aka, no view. While that was kind of a bummer, I'm just happy to get a room. See, how easy to please me, like as if I get the chance to stay at a hotel every other day. I understand their unhappiness and how they were forced to agree that it was a non-issue.

However, I did get some view eventually in the next morning when we went room venturing to our other colleagues' room, which I agree, were far bigger than us. The only difference was that I couldn't tell between the day and night when there is no window, haha.

I think my only grouch (besides the room with no view) was that how I had to queue for quite awhile on the second day at Aeon, which is a pretty big shopping mall, to get my stuffs, eventually missing out on the more important shopping such as for clothes. I didn't believe I queued that long for a piece of pretzel, should have just walked away and proceeded to the department store instead. It was a public holiday for them as it was the King's birthday, plus it was Saturday. But still, angry with myself for spending unneccesary queueing time at a queue which moved ever so slowly. I didn't understand how only one person managed the counter while one was just arranging the pretzels and the other one was moping the very small area of space for a long time. Talk about inefficiency and the couple behind just can't stop yakking about how these girls were inefficient.

Oh well..

Other than that, please enjoy the pictures!