Saturday 5 April 2008

Melaka, O Malacca!

I picked my classmates up at 9.00 am from the Pujangga Homestay in Bukit Bintang area for our trip to Melaka. The hostel was not that bad, very homey but dusty.

Since all of us have yet to have our breakfast, I stopped at the BHP petrol station after the Sungai Besi Toll. They have a kopitiam there which I can't recall what it was called and I suggested my friends to try toast bread with kaya. I even tried to persuade them to have what I had i.e. laksa Sarawak, the only laksa that I take because it is made from prawn, instead of fish. Therefore, it doesn't have those "smelly" smell. I guess nasi lemak or laksa is too heavy for them.

On our way to Melaka, we stopped at Putrajaya for a quick visit to Putrajaya Square to give them the opportunity to take pictures of Prime Minister's Office Building and Putrajaya Mosque. There was an unpleasant incident during the Putrajaya Mosque tour. Besides the miscommunication about the pink vs. blue robes, the staff there were lack of courtesy in carrying out their duties. Some of them employed harsh tone in communicating with visitors, and there was one incident whereby one of the staff were clapping his hand in order to send the visitors with pink robes out from a designated area.

I really think that these staff desperately need proper training on communications skills and manners. In this regard, I would like to propose that these staff to learn from their counterparts at the Twin Towers Skywalk. Not only they're courteous and polite, they speak well too. I think if the staff have briefed the visitors properly on the DOs and DON'Ts in the Putrajaya as well as the rationale of BLUE or PINK robes, those unpleasant misunderstanding won't happen in the first place.

We left Putrajaya at about 12.30 am and an hour later, we arrived in Melaka safe and sound. My mother convinced me to come home first so that we could have lunch while waiting for the temperature to come down a bit. Plus, Amira and I could perform our prayer conveniently.

We left my parents' house at about 4pm and I dropped them in Banda Hilir before went to Melaka Sentral to pick Susan up, who had just arrived from Kuala Lumpur. We started with A Farmosa to Stadhuy's to Jonker Walk and we ended the day with a drink @Harpers, a nice pub by the Melaka river. We returned to my parents' at about 1.30 am.

While Amira, Claudia, Susan and Yasmin occupied the guest room, Craig joined me in my room, the only room in the ibu rumah, the only two parts from the old house built in end 1950s that still standing until today. The other part is the serambi.














We started the next day a bit late from what we've planned earlier. This is because my classmates only woke up at 10.00 am. We left my parents' at about 12pm and went straight away to the Mini Malaysia. They have to take a bus to return to Kuala Lumpur at 3pm. Therefore, I think Mini Malaysia and Mini ASEAN is the most suitable place to visit given the fact that they have only 2 hours left.

Nothing much has changed since the last time I visit this cultural village in 1997. However, there are a couple of new additions to the Mini ASEAN especially, houses from Indo China countries. I was wondering why we can't enter the houses in Mini ASEAN like we did for houses in Mini Malaysia? And the houses in Mini ASEAN were not properly maintained as their "counterparts". Hmmm...




























At about 15 to 3pm, I sent them off to Melaka Sentral and promised to meet them again tomorrow at KLIA for our flight back to the UK. Thank you very, very much for visiting Melaka. Visit Melaka means visit Malaysia. Is that so?

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