Revisiting Melaka

Recently, we had a wedding to attend on a Saturday afternoon in Melaka @ Malacca. As a Malaysian and especially if you are from the Klang Valley, it’s easy to take Melaka for granted. It’s only 90 miles away from KL and I'm sure that it's been done to death by many. But the fact remains that Malacca is a city steeped in history and heritage. It's a melting pot of cultures from bygone years; of Portuguese, Dutch and Baba and Nyonya. And it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site to boot. So staying a night there was a foregone conclusion.

Accommodation

Choosing a hotel was easy. You are no longer limited to a bog-standard hotel room - recent years have seen an influx of boutique hotels to suit varying levels of budgets. The one that suited our criteria was Estadia Hotel, a Peranakan-style boutique hotel under the same management with the bigger and more popular Hatten Hotel. It’s located within walking distance from Jonker Street (or so they told us) and a 2-bedroom family suite cost RM420 per night (we were travelling with the parents) when booked directly from their website. The room is tastefully decorated with Peranakan elements and I think it is a great value for what we paid.

One of the bedrooms with 2 single beds. The other bedroom
comes with a king bed

The cafe where buffet breakfast
was served

At the lobby of Estadia Hotel

The hotel is in the same building as Hatten Square Mall hence they share the same parking. We wanted to walk to Jonker Street and we were advised by the concierge to walk through the malls and the walk would take 15 minutes. Conveniently, there was a door through to Hatten Square just next to the lobby. However, the time given of 15 minutes did not take into the account that the mall, connected to the bigger Dataran Pahlawan Megamall, was a huge maze. I am not sure whether we sucked at taking directions or the few people that we asked sucked at giving directions but after 15 minutes we were just walking out of one of the exits into the open area parking space.

Trishaw ride

Then Irf saw something that made his eyes open wide. Rows of trishaws or beca, all decked in the brightest and most colourful of lights and all individually themed. Now, I don't have Minions, Hello Kitty and Pokemon in mind when I think of Melaka as a heritage site but if these creatures could take us immediately to Jonker Street without us breaking more sweat, I was all up for it. RM50 changed hands for 2 trishaws and soon we were cruising along in a blaze of neon lights with local pop music blaring in the background. I thought that it was highway robbery to have to pay so much for such a short distance but the trishaw was manually powered and we were no longer living in a feudal era. Tacky and garish aside, I secretly enjoyed the ride. Irf enjoyed it too and that was not a secret.

The trishaws could make up a whole 
new season of Pimp My Ride

Jonker Street

Jonker Street or Jonker Walk or Jalan Hang Jebat as it is currently named comes alive on Friday and Saturday nights with a Night Market. The whole of Melaka tourism industry gravitates towards this 500-metres stretch of beautifully preserved shop houses selling antiques, crafts and food. During the Night Markets, the street is lined up with hawker stalls where Irf went on a Pokemon cards frenzy. Unfortunately, the Night Market is a victim of its own popularity and I couldn't wait to get out from the crowd. I believe the beauty of Jonker Street is walking and exploring its surrounding streets during the day when there are less people, something that we could not do on this trip.

Night Market at Jonker Street

Coffee and ice-cream

No walk is complete without these. We happened to come accross Stolen Cup Cafe on Jonker Street itself, a rustic and retro-looking cafe selling coffee with a local twist. We had the iced Gula Melaka Latte, a delicious and much-needed shot of coffee.

Coffee break to escape the crowd

I was also chuffed to stumble upon Inside Scoop on Jalan Hang Kasturi (just off Jonker Street) especially when I found out that they did have passion fruit sorbet. This flavour is always sold out in the outlet in Bangsar so to be able to have it in Melaka is just lucky. The guy serving us was very friendly and not only did he sell us ice-cream but he gave us an important tip on where to get something that was a specific request by a certain someone.

Kuih keria

My mother has not been to Melaka for many years and naturally I asked her whether she had somewhere specific to go to visit. I expected her to ask us to take her to A'Famosa, The Stadthuys or even go on a river cruise. But no, these were apparently already outdated as far as tourist attractions go. She only wanted to get one thing, she said, which was the kuih keria gula melaka. 

This Kuih Keria Antarabangsa thingy has gone viral in the past few years or so. Apparently people queue up for hours to get their hands on these. Now, I usually try not to queue for more than 5 minutes for food, unless it's absolutely necessary like the country was at war and I had to queue for food rations. So to go to Limbongan for this was an absolute no-no. Here is where the Inside Scoop guy came to the rescue. He mentioned to us that the stall in Batu Berendam would be much less crowded.

The next day, after checking out and before leaving for home, we Waze-d our way to the stall in Batu Berendam. The cosmic alignment must be right at that time for there was no customer and there a was a huge batch of freshly fried kuih keria. Between us, we bought 70 pieces. No that was not a typo, we actually bought RM42 worth of kuih keria. After tasting my first, I am now a covert. The crispy gula melaka combined with the fluffy sweet potato are the stuff of dreams. I can definitely queue up for this in the future - for 10 minutes perhaps.

The queue of 5 people after us

Next to the stall was another one selling coconut shake which was apparently famous too. Irf is into coconuts and ice-cream (as you could tell from previous posts), so this was his stuff of dreams.

Coconuts galore

We ended our Melaka trip high on kuih keria and coconut shake. Time did not allow us to revisit the main attractions in Melaka but it was good enough being there without a fixed itinerary and finding delightful things by accident. We hope to return soon with more time to explore the rest of this historical city.

Last hoorah in Colombo - Galle Face Green

Up until the day before we were to leave Tissa for Colombo, I had no idea where to go in Colombo (except Galle Face Green) with our luggage and how to get to the airport. Our flight to KL from Colombo was only at 11pm. We wanted to leave Tissa early and anyway the car that we rented was only meant to take us to central Colombo. One option was to leave our backpacks at the Left Luggage facility at Fort Railway Station (apparently there is one but I could not vouch for it as we did not get to use it) and then kill time at Galle Face Green before getting a cab. But Rohan came to the rescue. He got the driver to take us to Galle Face Green, wait for us there and then take us to the airport – all for an additional Rs2,000.

The drive from Tissa to Colombo was uneventful, except that Irf was complaining of nausea and was feeling a bit under the weather. The quickest way to Colombo was via the highway which was relatively deserted compared to the coastal road. We stopped at a rest area on the highway for lunch. The toilets were super clean, as was the general common areas. We had lunch there and Irf immediately knew what he wanted when he saw Pizza Hut. He had a mini vegetable pizza (with lots of mushroom). I generally avoid Pizza Hut like the plague but that pizza that I tasted in an obscure Pizza Hut branch on an unknown Sri Lanka highway was on a whole different level. It could be the fresh ingredients used or the fact that it was freshly baked.

After what seemed like years in the van, especially with all the traffic starting from the suburbs of Colombo, we reached Galle Face Green at around 5pm.  This is a half kilometre promenade right at the centre of Colombo.  In the evenings when the sun is no longer at its fiercest, locals and tourists alike flock here to relax, take a stroll and hope to see the perfect sunset. Another famous activity that can be enjoyed here is kite-flying. The sky was full of colourful kites of many shapes and forms and flying them was a breeze (no pun intended) due to the wind in the open space. We bought one for Irf from one of the few vendors for around RM15 - a falcon, no less. A cheap amount to pay for seemingly endless entertainment.

Having a tough time deciding which kite to buy

A kite runner in Colombo

After a while, it got more crowded. The locals were coming in droves, enjoying themselves on the beach or eating from the many food stalls/kiosks. We were getting thirsty and tired and I remembered that the Galle Face Green Hotel was just next to the promenade. We don't usually pop over to 5-star hotels to quench our thirst but this hotel is an iconic landmark built in the colonial era and I really needed to go to the toilet. We sauntered into the lobby, asked around and eventually found ourselves at one of the best seats at The Chequerboard - front row for sunset viewing.

The steps leading from The Chequerboard to the beach

Seated on wicker chairs between the colonial structure of the beautiful hotel and the crashing waves of the Indian Ocean, I thought it was the perfect ending to our Sri Lanka trip. Never mind that we had to pay more than RM100 for 3 mocktails. As if that was not enough, a bagpiper dressed in a kilt appeared out of nowhere, accompanying a uniformed concierge to the flag pole for the flag-lowering ceremony. It was done with such pomp and grandeur, with music from the bagpipe in the background.

Sun going down...

...and down...

It was soon time to leave Colombo for the airport. We bade farewell to the Ceylonese capital and at the airport, Irf had another pizza. So that's Pizza Hut for lunch and dinner in one day.

All in all, we had a great time in Sri Lanka. There were no theme parks and no Disneyland/Legoland but there were animals to sight, lakes to navigate and ruins and forts to explore. Unfortunately Irf brought back an unwanted "souvenir" - his first food poisoning and diarrhea in his life. It could be the pizza at the airport but I was just glad that it started when we had reached Malaysia. I took that as a stroke of bad luck, definitely not something to deter from taking kids to Sri Lanka.

Yala National Park - A game of Spot the Leopard

Like most other people, our stay in Tissa was purely for one reason - a safari at Yala National Park. When we were arranging for our accommodation in Tissa, Rohan of Shangri-Lanka Village offered to arrange a jeep for us for Rs5,500. Adding the price of the entrance fees to the jeep hire, I found that the price was cheaper than full packages quoted on tour agent's websites. So we decided to take up Rohan's offer, and save ourselves the hassle of arranging our own safari package.

You can choose either a half-day safari (morning or afternoon) of a full day one. Ours was a morning half-day safari  but that meant a very early start of 5am in the morning. It was still pitch dark and as I groggily walked towards the gate, I wondered again and again (after other early morning starts for Borobudur, Angkor Wat, Bagan and Luang Prabang) why I kept on putting ourselves in this kind of ordeal. The jeep waiting for us was a 8-seater Toyota, more than comfortable for the 3 of us. Irf continued his sleep in the jeep despite the chilly wind in the open-air jeep - it always pays to bring a jacket/blanket on early morning tours.

We reached the ticket counter for the National Park at 5.45 am. There were already 20 other jeeps parked there, with the drivers/guides queuing up to buy tickets.  There was a basic coffee shop, an information center and toilets but I read that the conditions of the toilets were terrible.

Dawn was breaking by the time we were driven for the 5-minutes journey to the entrance to the Park. Another queue - and soon at 6.am sharp the gate was open and the jeeps went their separate ways along the many dirt tracks in the vast park.

Entrance to Yala National Park

Irf in the open-air Jeep

Many of the more expensive packages offered a guide who could tell you more on what you are seeing but I don't think that it's necessary if you have a driver who knows where to look for things. In our case, Rohan has assured us that ours would be good enough without a guide. In  a way, he was. In fact, I think he has bionic eyes. Here are some of the animals that we saw:

Wild water buffaloes - an endangered species

Elephants and a water buffalo going about their morning wash

Sri Lankan elephant (Elephas maximus maximus) -
another endangered species

Spotted deer - the source of the leopards' lunch
and dinner

One of the many peacocks that we saw

Crocs were in abundance

Wild boars

Indian mongoose

As excited as we were to see the above animals in their natural habitat, the king of the park was undoubtedly the leopards. Yala National Park has one of the highest leopard concentration in the world and it is for this reason that Yala is the most visited national park in Sri Lanka. Alas, the leopards are an elusive animal and sightings of them are not guaranteed. So whenever there is a whiff of a leopard being spotted anywhere in the park, news of this would  travel around amongst the safari jeep drivers/guides through phone calls. This resulted in a mad scramble amongst the jeeps to get to where leopards could be spotted.

We found ourselves in one such situation. Our driver received a phone call on his mobile phone and instantly turned into a race-car driver. The drive became a very fast and bumpy one and soon we were joining throngs of other jeeps waiting in a queue to get to the spot where a leopard has been spotted. I would want to tell people that yes, I did see leopards on the safari in Yala National Park.  But I guess I have to be honest - for I could barely see the form of the leopard, let alone the spots. It was supposedly sleeping on a branch of a tall tree. But A's eyes were better than mine and he managed to capture this shot...

At least I could say that I was there when this shot was taken...

Peak hour at Leopard Central

We couldn't spend a long time at that spot as more jeeps came and were waiting for their turns. It was a bit chaotic and I couldn't wait to get away and to be among peaceful surroundings once again.

Later, we were also brought to a "rest area" by the beach with toilet facilities, the only place where we were allowed to leave the jeep. It was more like an abandoned place than a rest area - and I soon discovered why. During the 2004 tsunami, 47 safari visitors and guides perished on or near the very spot that we were standing on. All that is left now are ruins of a bungalow, with only the foundation and some tiled walls/floors. A steel monument was subsequently built. Amazingly, none of the animals in the park died - evidence of how strong animal instincts are.

Overall, we went on the safari for about 3 hours. By 9 am, even Irf had had enough and I was already visualising the bed in our hotel room. The driver started to head towards the exit and soon we were speeding away towards Shangri- Lanka Village for a proper breakfast and to continue our sleep.