Malacca Trip (Part 3)

Bird's nest is one of Hotel Puri's main attraction because birds actually lay their nest inside the hotel itself ( guest rooms not included, don't worry).

Day 2 was mainly about getting to know more about the Baba & Nyonya culture. In order to do so, went to a Baba Heritage Musuem where cameras are not allowed.. *sigh*

This lantern is spotted outside the Musuem.

To most of us, these lanterns are deemed as lanterns used during funerals. However, for the B & N culture, they are the normal sets of lanterns used in their daily lives. They have a different set of lanterns for funerals.

Okay,
A little history lesson here...
The B & N culture all started when the Chinese business man from China comes to Melaka and meets his love of their life which happens to be a Malay local and marries her. That was how the assimilation process occured. In my opinion, as the male was Chinese, thus chinese culture was more dominant. This is because most of the B & N apparatus and customs are adopted from the Chinese culture rather than the Malay culture. Anyhow, their outfit portrays a balance in mixture cultures.

The blouse is supposely Chinese which has changed in design after many years and the sarung is Malay.

Taken from Hotel Puri but this is roughly how the windows look like in the B & N house.

The B & N culture is an interesting cultures which is rich in customs and good food! However, I've gotta pity the Nyonyas as they had to be conservative by staying at home to learn how to sew and cook. They are also not allowed to leave the house as they cannot be seen by guys. FYI, in case you are thinking, liddat how they are they gonna find a husband lerr.. Marriages are arranged by their parents in the olden days people. And a Nyonya who has passed the age of 20 years old and has not married yet will be deemed destined to be a spinster for the rest of her life. She will have to work as a maid for the remaining time of her life. Sad huh..

B'days are like the most important day of our lives nowadays because we look forward to the wishes and special treatment we are going to receive and also not forgetting the nice presents.

Olden times, in the B & N cultures the B'day presents are quite intriguing. Imagine getting them for your B'day.. I would like to see your reaction.. XD

B'day presents options list :
1) Rock Sugar - Wishing you a sweet life in the future

2) Eggs - Wishing you good fertility

3) Candles - Used to lighten up your way in life

4) Longevity Noodles - Wishing you long life

Yea, its superstitious but those were the days.. Long GONE.. :)

The roofs of the houses look like those olden roofs in China.

Well, before heading home..
Visited Malaysia's Oldest temple!
400 years old..
Its called Cheng Hoon Teng..

Thats all about the trip.

Have a nice day!

Malacca Trip (Part 2)

After checking into the hotel,

Went around town to explore. Did that on foot and was bloody hot. Imagine me having my camera bag strapped on my back and camera on hand roaming down the streets of Malacca with the weather conditions nowadays. Got me sweating like a dog. Because of that I had to buy an extra shirt as I under packed.

Here are the places I'd visited,

St. Paul's Church

The statue is St. Francis Xavier. His body was temporarily stored in this Church before it was moved to Goa, India.

Entrance of the St. Paul's Church

One of the tombstones that were displayed inside the Church

Surviving gate of A Famosa Portugese fort

Inside the gate of A Famosa

On the way back to the hotel after an exhausting walk through the town, went to Jonker Street to get a drink. My mom got attracted by the interior design of a restaurant and went in to have a look. Got a shot of a vintage looking spiral staircase which don't exist in modern houses nowadays.

At night,
Jonker Street which was accessible to automobiles are now closed for a night bazaar. After having dinner, took a stroll in the street. Nothing special really, just like a typical pasar malam. On the way back to the hotel, crossed a river.

And this is where I stayed for the night.

The environment of the hotel is nice but the room and food sucks though. Its not worth the money spent. After all, its targeting the Singaporean market.

Will blog about Day 2 tomorrow..

Malacca Trip (Part 1)

Malacca

A state that we should be proud of due to the rich history that is buried within it. This place used to be a place where the whites fight to conquer because of its strategic position in terms of geography which allows it to prosper through trading.

It is listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO which means that the old buildings cannot be demolished and must retain the design to preserve history. Now, Malacca is a tourist area and to my surprise as i have just found out that it is Singaporean's favourite hang out spot. In fact, some restaurants plan their off days based on Singaporean's school holidays. For instance, when our M'sian school are having holidays, they take their rest as well to prepare their themselves for the hard work when the Singaporean crowd arrives.

Arrived there in the afternoon,
Was crowded like mad because coincidentally the Singaporeans schools were off as well. Started the tour by getting lost in the city to know the place really well.

First stop,
Bukit Cina
Went to the Royal Well where Hang Li Poh, a princess from China used it as a source of water. Now it is not usable and caged up..

Second stop,
Jonker Street

This was where I got to try the famous balls. This is a famous delicacy in this region and of course there are many ball makers in town. In fact, there is even a competition of eating balls! Chicken rice balls you perv..

After lunch, took a walk around the area..

The famous red building

Rickshaw

Will update more about the trip.. Await for Part 2!

Have you met CoCo?

Went back to my secondary school, WMS for CoCo nite. An event where clubs promote themselves to parents to show that they are actually doing something in my opinion. But I still find it a good opportunity for students to actually do something for the club rather than rotting in every club meeting.

Baah, gotta admit that WMS clubs kinda suck.. other than the active ones..

Passing by the computer booth,
there was a mascot attracting people to their booth.

(Optimus Prime with a jacket and headsets... How fitting..)

to play?

Wiiii


Spotted this at the entrance of the chemistry lab,

Well, being back at old school cannot be short of my old buds!

Yoon Chee, stop clipping Jing Tao's lips.. =_=

On the way to watch some performances from Lidra Club, we were halted by a lawyer who wanted to challenge us. So, we sent out our best candidate - Hoong Min (future lawyer). And they were challenging to a game of ?

Swt huh..

The future lawyer. Be careful, he bites..

Went to visit my history teacher Mdm. Premila. Apparently she was in charge of some cultural thing. Dharsh tried out the Batik.. Reminds me of the time where he used to brag about his art work just because he got high marks for art exam although his art work sucks. You'll understand when you see it. Sorry Dharsh if you're reading this.. lol.. My art work was slightly better than his but still I always get lower than him. I think the teacher hates me then because I always get caught for being up to some mischief during her class all thanks to Yoon Chee who constantly keeps the art class interesting. XD

After hanging around for hours, we got bored and decided to accompany Jing Tao to his "booth" which was the DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) machine.. Terrible bully he was, whooping kids of much younger age in DDR.. tsk tsk

Watch the Geek on the dance floor!

This trip back to WMS wasn't one wasted trip,
at least now i know that my ex-club which was just formed last year is really active.. Good job Mr. Naresh!




and I got to meet up many of my friends who are still in school..



Today,
me and my buds went to support Greg in his play Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead.

I didn't know he was playing the lead role - Rosencrantz. And Greg had all the good lines. He plays a character who is always slow in the head and always is the last to understand everything. Basically, he was the humorous one who cheers up the atmosphere of the play.

Kudos to you Greg!

MCKL PC takes over Sungai Chongkak

Yesterday,

was in Sungai Chongkak for a club's field trip. Got Leanne's Grandfather as a mentor to teach us how to shoot streams creating a cotton effect at the portions of water gushing. Was a pretty fun day until some nonsensical thing happened.

Anyway, not to ruin the mood, pictures first!

Everyone snapping away with their cameras.
The person on the far left is Mr. Lau (mentor)

Mr. Reyhan

The wilderness

Group Photo

Overall, the trip was fun and educational.

BUT,

when we were leaving the premises, the van that we hired broke down. We were left stranded at outskirts for freaking 2 hours. The driver of the van rang the headquarters to get another van to come over to help out with the situation. After waiting for around an hour, the van arrived and apparently it was the guy i was dealing with to hire the van - Mr. P.

Mr. P is one of the worst people i have dealt with. He is in a service business but he is so hard to contact. Forever not picking up his cellphone and even after texting him, he doesn't even reply to let me know he has acknowledged my request. He was the one giving me stress the whole time while organising this trip. Making me worry that a van will not show up on the day of field trip.

So Mr. P reached and instead of giving us a ride back when we were already so late, he went fixing the van that broke down instead. We waited patiently for around an hour until he gave up trying to fix the van and decided to send us back to the college.

We got back late and hungry because we missed lunch. Me, Rey and my teacher advisor were negotiating to get the fare reduced due to the delay but Mr. P kept on insisting that it was all an accident and it could not be anticipated so it was entirely not their fault. Therefore, the fare remains the SAME.

BUT MR. P WAS MORE INTERESTED IN GETTING 2 VANS OPERATIONAL TO GO ON WITH THEIR SCHEDULE RATHER THAN MAKING SURE THAT WE GET BACK TO COLLEGE ASAP. What kind of service is that man.

Then he starts rambling about the trust he has upon us and a lot of other bullshit. In the end, I couldn't get the fare reduced and had to pay the full amount for lousy service.

Not long later, I got an sms from an unknown number:


Kids, u hv miss use d trust i ve on u. Vy dissapointed as wat i can tel u.


These were his exact words. Must be from Mr. P.

I can tell u that i'm more disappointed in the first place.

KL planet

Kuala Lumpur City transformed into a planet!