My Very First Blog

Continued from Part 2

After our visits to the historical sites in Melaka, I brought Joey to Jonker Walk (Jalan Hang Jebat) for lunch.

We passed by the bridge overlooking Melaka River.



Can you see a restaurant overlooking the river? It's Harper's Restaurant and Lounge, popular amongst tourists. I have to admit I have never dined in there before. Perhaps I should try it next time.



Walking along Jonker Street, we stopped by the restaurants selling chicken rice balls but did not go in. Reason - I think Melaka chicken rice balls are grossly overrated! So I told Joey I would recommend him to skip it. LOL!

What I really wanted to try was the durian cendol at Jonker 88 restaurant! And perhaps other food there. But when we reached Jonker 88, we were horrified to see the huge crowd!



I went in to search for empty tables but there was none. In the end, I decided to ta-pao (take-away) the durian cendol. I did not like the way the lady prepared my durian cendol. Let's just say she did not do it with love and sincerity! Well, I guess I should not blame her as they have too many customers already!

Joey and I sat down somewhere nearby to eat our durian cendol. We were in front of this bodybuilding statue. There were less crowd here so it's cool.



This is how our durian cendol looked like. I thought it looked horrible and unappetizing!



Taste wise, it was not too bad. But it certainly did not impress me much. Perhaps I was expecting better after reading a lot of good reviews about this durian cendol.

After that, we continued walking along Jonker Street. We walked past this famous Geographer Cafe (yellow colour building) which is a popular eatery amongst Western tourists.



We did not go in as I was thinking of bringing Joey to Yung Lai Siang Restaurant at Jalan Bunga Raya Pantai for its famous curry mee.

However, as it turned out, we ended up eating our lunch at Nadeje in Plaza Mahkota.

But first, a few more photos of Jonker Walk.



There is this stage (on the left side of the picture above) where you can see performances during the night. Yes, Jonker Walk is more happening during the night especially during the weekends, but I guess we did not have a chance to experience that!

This is the arch at one end of Jonker Walk.



There is a Tamil Methodist Church next to the arch.



After that we backtracked and walk along this alley to reach my car which was parked along Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock which is a road parallel to Jonker Street.



I drove over to Plaza Mahkota to have our lunch at Nadeje.



Nadeje is famous for its Mille crepe cakes, so I ordered a piece of rum raisin crepe cake for Joey. I was no longer very fond of crepe cakes, so I did not eat it. I hope Joey enjoyed it!



Instead I ordered this for my lunch. I could not even remember the name! I think it's chicken teriyaki don if I'm not mistaken.



It came in a set with a small serving of salad and a bowl of miso soup.

Joey ordered the Katsu don chicken set.



I thought the price was quite reasonable. My chicken teriyaki don set costs RM7.80, Joey's Katsu don chicken set costs RM8.80 and the piece of Mille crepe cake is RM9.00.



There is a restaurant opposite Nadeje called Wok & Pan which was recommended to me by a friend, but we were too full to dine there. Perhaps I will give it a try next time.



We spent quite some time in Nadeje. After that, I brought Joey to buy the famous putu piring at Jalan Tengkera. Read my post about this famous putu piring stall in Melaka HERE.



I have to say this stall sells one of the best putu pirings in Malaysia. I won't dare to say it is the best, but it definitely is one of the best. At 90 sen per piece, it was slightly on the expensive side but if you like it, then it is still worth buying.



I just love the hot gula melaka (palm sugar) oozing out of the putu piring. Yum!! I hope Joey like it too.

I would be meeting up with a Twitter friend (for the first time) over a satay celup dinner later that night. Of course, I would be bringing Joey along. But it was still about 2 hours away from dinner time. So, where did we go in the meantime?

Find out in my next post coming right up!

To be continued ....

Continued from Part 1

Some people go to Melaka just for the food. Others go there to visit the historical sites. If you are a first timer to Melaka, then you must visit the historical sites as Melaka is now listed as a UNESCO World Heritage City.

Last April, I brought my Filipino friend Joey to Melaka. As he had never visited Melaka before, I decided to be his tour guide even though I was not that familiar with this city. Besides the historical sites, I also brought him to savor some of Melaka's famous food. I think he did not really like the satay celup, but that's a story for another day.

After our visits to Melaka Clock Tower, Christ Church Melaka and The Stadthuys, we climbed the St. Paul's Hill to visit the famous St. Paul's Church located at the summit.

A statue of St. Francis Xavier greeted us. Francis Xavier was a Roman Catholic missionary from Spain during the Portuguese rule.



This statue was erected in 1952 in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of St. Francis Xavier's sojourn in Melaka.

Did you notice that broken right arm? Well, something strange happened a day after the statue was consecrated. A large Casuarina tree fell on the statue breaking off its right arm! Interestingly, the right forearm of Xavier was actually detached back in 1614 as a relic! Coincidence?

Behind the statue is the ruins of St. Paul's Church.



Built in 1521 by a Portuguese nobleman, the original structure was a simple chapel but was later further enlarged with the addition of a second floor and a belfry tower.



This is how the interior of the church ruins look like.



See those rectangular objects leaning on both sides of the wall? They are actually tombstones!



There's a burial vault in this church and many people of distinction were actually buried here. However, there were also many graves scattered around the vicinity of this church. During an excavation done in 1930 by the Malacca Historical Society, the tombstones that were uncovered were then affixed to the walls.



Then I saw some people peering into a strange looking structure at the back of the church ruins. I was wondering what they were looking at!



I remember Joey asking me what that structure was and I really could not give him an answer. What a lousy tour guide I must be! Haha!



I did not see any information there that could help me out so that I could at least give an intelligent reply to Joey. Later however, I learnt that it is actually an open grave where St. Francis Xavier was once buried!



Xavier had used the church as his base for his missionary journeys to China and Japan. In one of those journeys, he fell sick and died in Shangchuan Island, China. His body was brought back and buried temporarily in this church before it was finally shipped to Goa in India.

As we left St. Paul's Church and walked down the hill towards the A Famosa ruins, we passed by the Dutch Graveyard.



Can you see Melaka's famous revolving tower, Menara Taming Sari in the distance?



Soon we reached A Famosa. I took a picture of this cannon.



A Famosa (The Famous) is a fortress built by the Portuguese to defend themselves after capturing Melaka. It however suffered severe destruction during the Dutch invasion. The British later completely demolished it except for this small gate house called Porta de Santiago.



Sadly, the Porta de Santiago is the only remaining part of the whole fortress still standing to this day.

Here is a photo of my Filipino friend, Joey posing in front of the fortress gate.



It was a nice historical trip for us, but our stomachs were growling. So we decided to head to Jonker Street next for some food!

To be continued ....

I am in the midst of blogging about my Bangkok trip this year and also my Hong Kong trip last year, but guess what? Well, I am going to interrupt all that with a few posts about my trip to Melaka two months ago!


In case you are not familiar with Melaka's history, let me give you a short briefing.

Melaka was first founded by a prince from Sumatra in the 14th century. It soon became a major trading port for ships from as far as India and China. However, as the Melaka Sultanate flourished, Melaka was conquered by the Portuguese in 1511. Later, the Dutch took over in 1641 but even later, the British Empire ruled over Melaka.

Melaka finally got its independence in 1957 together with other Malaya states.

This is Christ Church Melaka. It was built by the Dutch in 1753.



Joey wanted to enter the church, so we went in.

However, we were not allowed to take any photos inside the church. We soon found out the reason - it appeared that they were selling pictures of the church interior. I think Joey managed to take a picture on his handphone secretly. LOL!

This is Joey in front of the church.



Next, we went over to The Stadthuys. This is the building next to the church on the right side of the photo below.



The Stadthuys was originally the official residence of the Dutch Governor. It now houses the History and Ethnography Museum.

We went up the stairs but we did not enter the Museum.



I was not very fond of museums and Joey did not wish to check out the museum, so it was OK. Instead, we decided to walk over to St. Paul's Hill nearby.

This is the pathway leading to St. Paul's Hill.



From here, we could see the streets below.



Climbing up a series of stairs, we soon reached the top of St. Paul's Hill. The ruins of St. Paul's Church came into view.



More about St. Paul's Church, A Famosa and Jonker Street in my next post, so stay tuned! : )

To be continued ....