Snaps of Jonker

An Old World Charm. The colonials meets Peranakan. The fusion of the East and the West. That was what the Straits Settlements had in common. It was a theme we could explore in all three areas. Penang, Malacca and Singapore. They have this row of house and dare I say a different ways of living their lives. Seemed that the modern era effected them in a special way, to only enrich their culture rather than change too much with the time.

From the rows of colourful cafes, the warmth of the locals - apart from the obvious fact that the local merchants were now replaced by the foreigners - the brightly painted shop facade, the laid back eateries and bed and breakfast littering the town. It all added to the potpourri of feelings you had when you visit the City. And there were gems to be found in unexpected corners if you dare to explore. Be it a specialty shop or a rustic restaurant. Just bring your camera along and pray for great weather.

I had the same feeling when I travel to Penang as well but somehow things moved at a faster pace there. Here, it was more easygoing, although weekends were nightmares. Too many people. Too many cars. Driving into Bandar Melaka can be an ordeal.

But if you were willing to spend a couple of nights - better still at the charming bed and breakfast they had around Jonker - you could absorb the charm as they come. And that was a good thing.

Traveling there for a day trip really fit not make justice to the city. After negotiating the hundreds of traffic lights from Ayer Keroh where you exit the highway and finding a parking spot in town, you could only afford a few hours walking around before it was time to go again.

We plan to spend a night here in the future. And really explore the place .....

Allan's Water

*This entry was originally written in September 2016*

This place was closed for renovations when we were here last December and it had am certainly received an uplift. There were new facilities built and the place looked spruced up compared to the last time we were there in 2012. It was basically a reservoir on top nod the hill which stored fresh water for the town. It was big enough for water activities and located about 10 minutes up hill from the town center.

We spend about 30 minutes hanging around there, feeding the fish and enjoying the fresh mountain air.

There were kayaks and pedal board for those interested as well as bumper balls as well. But Anita didn't approve of those...

Next to the lake was a small potting farm, which sold vegetables and flowers. Spend another few minutes there, taking photos of the nice flowers on display. The strawberries were off season when we visit and in was sure that would be a future attraction.

Nice time to spend the late afternoon before heading into town for early dinner. There was also a small tuck shop there for drinks and snack.

Getting Set

Since the apartment was in the middle of renovations, free time for Anita was scarce. During my break, I decided that on one of the days, we must have a day trip. After much planning, we took off to Melaka for a short drive - although we spent significant amount of times waiting for the lights to turn green at the traffic lights!

We left as soon as Irfan was sent to school. Idlan had to take the bus that morning - contributing more to his bad mood. I packed the evening before. Got my Garmin charged up for GPS geotagging on my photos later. I took a couple of bodies plus the Ricoh GR - everything fit in well into the Ming Then bag. Plus a couple of extra batteries.

Making sure the cameras were charged upTime to carry the bag alongWe had to drop Irfan first in school, which meant that we would be driving across town to join the highways. We decided to press on and have breakfast along the highway ....

So off we went!

Back to Jump Street

Idlan had been nagging me for quite some time to take him to Jump Street. The last time we visited this trampoline park was almost a year ago. It had been a while but I must say that I picked a wrong day to go there. The place was packed with children enjoying their school holiday.

Far too crowdedWhere to go first?I was surprised that the owner actually let in such a big crowd, as we actually checked for teh ticket availability on line a couple of days before. Se assumed that there would be a control in terms of number of people being let in on each of their hourly slots. Obviously the system wasn't working and Idlan ended up only managing about 10 minutes on the trampoline and 3 minutes in the dodgeball court in the whole couple of hours that we paid for.

Not much changed outside ....Except for the lack of car parking spaceLet's queue first ....Before we start bouncingBefore we play a bit of dodgeball ....And there was also a matter of car parking arrangements - or the lack of it. We ended up parking across the road, but since we came in a group, I just dropped Anita and the boys by the entrance before circling around to look for a spot to park. I saw many families with small children having to cross the road to get to the entrance from where they parked. Most of the spots that thye had previously was given away to another company which occupied the building in front of the the facilities.

Not such a clever idea.

That Lunch

With the new highway called LATAR, the journey from my parents’ place in Gombak to Kuala Selangor had been cut from 2 hours before to half that. Yesterday - as I was free, I decided to take them for lunch there. Luckily one of the driver was free and I had the chance to just chill out on the journey.

I though the crab looked smaller ....Thats the one ...Airy ....Time to orderWe left rather late as I had some things to do at the hospital that morning. We finally arrived at the restaurant at around 1.30. The crowd was still building up at the time. But the cook there was really efficient, and despite the crowd, we got our food quite fast as we were already hungry when we arrived.

Getting readyFresh fish coming in from the seaNeeded some spicing up ....The food were finally here ...We ordered a couple kilograms of crabs, some prawns and fish as well as vegetables. And true to our word, we finished them all. The crab was fresh but the highlight must have been the garoupa. It was exceptional!

And the aftermathIt was too warm to walk around. Anita shelved the idea of walking around to buy salted fish. It only took me 10 minutes before going to sleep at the back of the car …..