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4D3N Genting&Malacca Escapade...
- Monday, August 14, 2006
Finally,the day I was to go to Genting&Malacca arrived...Was not that excited about it cos it was just gonna be me,my dad and his church friends..so I figured I was probably gonna be really bored..but things just worked out really fine for me and I actually enjoyed myself quite a bit...And I had all the uncles and mostly aunties looking after me really well..=)My dad really has many female friends man..haha...
Me and Daddy on the bus towards Genting..Had to wake up at a crazy hour of 5am and be at church at 7am for the coach to pick us up.That explains the ugly specs...
During the long journey uphill, I saw this sign and for a moment was happy cos I thought we would be reaching damn soon..but sadly this sign was deceiving...it was still a long,tedious and slow drive upwards...
A scenery I captured from the bus.
After about 9 hours of travelling including all the toilet and lunch breaks,we finally caught sight of this colourful building which by the way happens to be our hotel, known as the First World Hotel. It looks pretty "oh-biang" to me actually..haha...
Our super tiny hotel room...
Me in our room...
After putting down our stuff in the room,we wasted no time and headed to the older casino at the other hotel Genting I think..on our way to the casino,I saw beautiful orchids so decided to take a pic too...but guess the photo does not do justice to the how beautiful the flowers were cos it's way too dark.
Later we headed for our buffet dinner at the First World Cafe. The cafe was ridiculously big which led to huge numbers of people messing up the whole area...so much food,so many people and so much wastage...Food was alright only, nothing compared to the buffets we have in Singapore I feel...Funny thing was there were alot of Middle East visitors so they even had a section specially catering Middle Eastern Cuisine. Many of the women had to be covered from head to toe in black so it was pretty scary at first when I first reached Genting...Here's my Dad helping himself to the food...
Fruits Galore!They even had pomelo and...
DURIANS!!We had to like queue up for the durians which the men will cut open,take out and put on a plate for us...
Despite having a super duper bad cough, I could not resist but have one durian seed...I don't particularly like durians but it was strange eating durians for a buffet so just had to try it la, especially under the influence of all the aunties sitting at the same table as me..haha...
After dinner,we went to watch a show "Mysteria" which basically was very much based on illusion la..This was the stage the performers were on...
You see the high white and green stuff in this photo? Those were the Chinese acrobats on top of white chairs...and they were all young children actually...
The second day was basically more walking around and exploring what our hotel had to offer...While I shopped at times alone or with a few aunties,my dad would go to the casino to try his luck...Not bad actually cos he won like 200 ringgit from his three visits to the casino...=)
At Times Square,this huge shopping cum theme park area...there were plenty of fashion shops,restaurants and eateries as well as rides for all ages in this area..a pretty happening place...In this photo, you see the statue of liberty which imitates the one in NYC!
Some replica of a clock tower...
Me and the merry-go-round...
There was this section in the hotel called cultural village which had small shops named after a certain Asian country and selling things associated with that country.Pretty interesting stuff...
For lunch on the second day,me,my dad and a few of his lady friends went to eat some local food at this place called "Lao Di Fang" which was pretty pricey..It was like 11 ringgit for a bowl of fishball noodle soup..damn ex!!but no choice cos we were all starving by then..Then it was off shopping again...so we kinda split up to walk around and agreed to meet back for dinner much later...
Here you see me and my Dad chilling out at Coffee Bean...How happening right?haha...
This was a sight I took after lunch on the second day...super misty so much so that we could not even see the outdoor theme park clearly...
We were supposed to meet at 7pm for dinner but my dad and I came down half an hour earlier so we took a stroll out of the hotel since the weather sorta changed and it was a pretty clear evening...like this photo which I took from our hotel..
At the lobby of Hotel First World.
And the lighted up Malaysian Flag...
Us with the colourful hotel behind us...
Us again sitting on the benches outside...
For dinner on the second day,we went to some Kopitiam place which was reasonable and good. Most of us ordered Japanese food which was about max 10 Sing only.
Breakfast on the third day...the day we were to leave Genting and head down to Malacca.I really love American style breakfast..Yum!!=)
One last photo before I left the hotel..Tink the Malaysia food and fruit fair was on so there were many lights in the shape of fruits hanging all over the hotel...
I will definitely miss the weather in Genting...a cool 10plus degrees..Awesome!
Down the hills we go...
Check out how steep the highlands were...
And this was an example of the road the coach was on...it looks kinda unstable and dangerous man...so even when doing downhill, the coach had to go super slowly and make good use of the brakes at all times...
Me and Daddy on the bus again...
We stopped over at KL for lunch...where we of course had the famour Ampang Yong Tao Fu.This was the coffeshop we had lunch at...
Some of the dishes served...there were stir fried vegetables,fried wanton,wanton soup, paper-wrapped chicken,pork leg cooked with vinegar(most women eat this during their confinement),assam fish and of course,the yummy Yong Tao Fu!Lunch was indeed very very good...
Me,Auntie Jenny and the pushcart fruit seller...
Caught sight of a waterfall on the way to our hotel in Malacca.
A picture of our room at the Renaissance Hotel, the only 5 star hotel in Malacca...Compare it to the pathetic room I had in Genting man...
A view of the outside from our room window
We headed to the huge Mahkota shopping centre after that for a few hours before dinner...It was really comparable to the shopping centres we have in Singapore just that the things there are so much cheaper...saw so many cheap shoe shops that I almost went crazy..haha..but I controlled myself and only bought one pair of slippers...
Went to this place for dinner...you must be thinking so weird,go to a school hall for dinner?
Well that's because we were invited by the Melodians,some peranakan group in Malacca for a dinner&dance charity dinner there...There were also performances going on as we had dinner...like the "Black Pearl" band singing all the oldies for us...
Another singing performance by people dressed in traditional peranakan costumes...
After dinner, some of us headed to Jonker Street for more shopping and to enjoy the traditional flavour of walking along old shop houses. This place is really popular among tourists...
Some shots along the way...
Me and the crowded street...Reminds me of Bugis Village just that it is much more spacious...
In the pretty little clothes shop
A row of pubs similar to our Holland Village...
We left Jonker at about 12 midnight and took a cab back to the hotel.
On the last day of our trip,we made our way to St Francis Xavier church for mass...A pretty sight along the way...reminds me of boat quay man..
St Francis Xavier Church. Mass there was really quick,about 45 mins only and the choir was not bad. Moses said that his prayers were all answered when he prayed at this church so I prayed really hard that I would get my HRM module which I appealed for...
After mass,we went to Jonker street again for last minute shopping for local products as well as try the famous number 88 chendol..Had a cough so just took a few spoonfuls after my dad was done with his chendol..
The place we ate the chendol was really traditional man...Here we have Auntie Jenny and Auntie Cecilia enjoying their chendol and ice-kachang in this old shophouse.
Jonker Street in the day...behind us we have the well-known "Aik Cheong" coffee place.
After about an hour of shopping at Jonkers, we went for lunch at this Peranakan association place. Lunch was hosted by the Melodians and it was basically catered food consisting of Peranakan/Malay food like Chicken Rendang...
and Satay being cooked on the spot!
And it was in a old shophouse again that we ate,danced to the music and hanged out...
Some photos of the shophouse...
Me and Liana! She is this half Japanese half Chinese girl and the wildest friend I ever know man. She is way too cool for me actually...She has like three tattoos from her neck downwards, actually has bright pink hair which she dyed it back on the third day, smokes, breakdances, has a tongue stud,studies fashion design,makeup and hairstyling in UK and sings damn well..Seems that she got into the top 100 in the Singapore idol before getting eliminated..kinda regretted only talking to her more on the third day cos we get along pretty well..=)
Me and Liana in the coach and on the way back to Singapore
All the things that I bought excluding the large amount of local food products that we bought too...Bought like 4 tops,1 bag,2 Kate eyeshadows,1 Kanebo lip gloss,a pair of socks and a pair of bright red slippers from Vincci.Not much but good enough..=)
Overall the Malacca part of the trip was very Peranakan-based especially when most of my dad's friends spoke in Malay at times and we ate Peranakan food and visited shophouses selling Peranakan kerbayas and shoes...Jonker street especially was rich in the Peranakan flavour...Just wish my dad had taught me Malay from young..then I would appreciate my cultural roots more fully...
That's about all with regards my trip...gotta brave myself for school now...BIG SIGH!!!
raeanchiq penned her thoughts @ 1:08 PM
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