I'm so slow with updating my trip that I've already done two other trips! I was in Macau for a couple of days for good Portuguese/Macanese delights and more of St Francis Xavier's influences in the East and most recently a white water rafting outing at Kuala Kubu Bharu. 

So, let me just continue where I left off..

Here are some night shots of Melaka.

We were on the way to Menara Taming Sari but it was closed at that hour as it was time for their Muslim staffs to break fast. So we went back to Jonker Walk. We were crossing the bridge over the Melaka river and couldn't help but to be in awe of the beautiful sunset. You'd never think you would see sucha a scene in Melaka, did you?

We had fruit juice at the Limau Limau cafe along Jonker Walk to quench our thirst! Mmm yums! Oh, and to take a few bites of pineapple tarts that we got at the night market. Some of the must buys are dried mee sua, cincalok (fermented shrimp sauce.. sounds delish, no?) and gula melaka.

Limau Limau cafe sure does have a character and I really like this place coz of its organized mess.

This is Melaka's latest icon - the Taming Sari Tower that stands 110m tall. It's a 7 minutes ride with 360 degree view of Melaka. Since we were there at night, we could easily spot the heavy density of lights on Merdeka Road where Dataran Pahlawan, Newton's Food Court, Equatorial Hotel are situated along this busy stretch.

Satay Celup for dinner. As soon as you find a place to sit, you can choose whatever they have in the fridge. They have an assortment of food in sticks like fishball, pork ball, fish cakes in cute star shapes and faces (my fav!), kangkung, foochuk etc

1) Select your food.

2) Take picture of your favourite star.

3) Dip your food into the boiling satay sauce and wait till cooked.

4) Repeat steps 1-3 until full.

We were so full that we felt our tummies burn! Must be the 'heatiness'. After searching for the nearest 7-11 for some chilled drinks, we were lost in Melaka. Sigh. Such a small place but yet we couldn't find the road back to our hotel.

to be continued...

After a heavy lunch, we decided on taking a rest before we head out on our last night in Melaka. But again, we got distracted. Since our hotel is so close to the St Paul's Hill (the perks of having your hotel in the centre of everything), we gathered what's left of our energy for a final tourist task.

The leaf placement was not done on purpose. I didn't even notice it until we were playing back the photos in the camera. Kinda reminds me of the characters of the Ribena berries TVC a long time ago. Wee!

Follow this trail and it'll lead you to some of the major 'must see' places.

• A Farmosa (the most famous landmark which we missed!)
• The ruins of St. Paul Church
• Cultural Museum
• Historical Garden
• Independence Memorial

In 1952, a statue of St. Francis Xavier was built to commemorate the passing of the saint. You must be wondering what happened to his right arm. On the morning after the consecration ceremony, a large casuarina tree fell on the statue which resulted to a broken right arm.

That was many years after St. Francis Xavier died in 1552, canonized and was made Goa's Patron Saint. His body was incorruptible - does not decay! According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "in 1614, by order of Claudius Acquaviva, then General of the Society of Jesus, the right arm was severed at the albow and conveyed to Rome."

Now, I really wonder is there's any connection to the broken and missing right arm of this statue.

St. Francis Xavier was a member of the Jesuits society founded by Ignatius Loyola. His embalmed body now rests in the Basilica of Bom Jesus, Goa. In fact, this whole place here reminded me of my trip to the Old City of Goa which was under the Portuguese rule in 1510. A while later the Portuguese settled in Melaka.

It was a beautiful evening in Melaka. Sunny but the breeze from the straits of Melaka was very welcoming. I love how the rich blue sky complemented the white and green foreground.

There's this sudden want to visit the Greek islands. Perhaps it's because of the white buildings and blue skies.

We were now entering the ruins of the church.

Taking pics of myself entering historical ruins is so typical of me.

Plenty of monumental tombstone were scattered around because the church was used as a Dutch graveyard when the Dutch took over the Portuguese in 1641.

It wasn't all about taking pictures of the ruins and landmarks. We had our fun too.

To be continued.. what's the deal with satay celup?!

Where to go next ah? River cruise!

About 10 mins away from Taman Buaya was the main port of the Melaka River Cruise. You need to have a maximum number of pax per boat before it can begin.

While we waited for more people to arrive, the camera came in to good use. Plenty of stumpy coconut trees around that provided shade on a very sunny Saturday afternoon.  

There were many boats parked on the side but not many 'sailors' to man it. So we had no choice but to wait until we got enough people to occupy the boat.

Tourists like us had to pass time by posing for their camera person. These uncles and aunties got summoned RM 10 each. Group photo mug shot...

This is our model mocking the uncle and aunty tourists. Haha, however his summon is double (coz gotta pay for me also la).

We ended up sharing the boat with 20 Standard 3 kids and Miss Lim. You can imagine how noisy it was!

The river cruise lasted about 30 minutes. You should go on the cruise without any expectations. The problem with four of us is that we had some pretty high expectations. Wouldn’t you be when the Melaka river is tagged as “Venice of the East”? If you have been to Venice or have even watched what Venice is all about on TV, I’d like to say that this is a far cry from what we like to depict the straits of Melaka to be. 

The most common view was the backside of the many shops and restaurants built by the side of the river. Must have been a very busy alley during its hey day.

The water was calm. On the way there, we did spot a couple of heads bobbing around... heads of swimming monitor lizards, that is! Too bad, I didn't manage to capture pictures of them.

After a while, the scene remains unchanged. There were some construction going on at the banks of the river. Hopefully, in future, it'll make the ride more interesting.

Me into you into me

Overall, I personally thought it was a pleasant ride. Chip commented that the river smelled but I didn't think it was that bad. I guess the only exciting part about our trip were the appearance of monitor lizards at the river bank. I guess the exuberance is amplified when you have Standard 3 kids screaming with excitement.

Our verdict: Melaka River Cruise (2/5)

to be continued...

Where to go next ah?

Taman Buaya!

Yeah, we absolutely went all out to do all the touristy thing. Let’s check out what Malacca, the newly sanctioned Heritage City by UNESCO has to offer.

The Taman Buaya is located about 20 minutes away from the city centre. Well, we did take longer than that because we got lost we were exploring the roads of Malacca. You would probably not miss this park if you enter Malacca through the Ayer Keroh highway.

At the entrance of the park lies Johnny; a stuffed crocodile that used to be a resident of this park. Johnny was huge and he must have been the largest crocodile that ever lived here. Here I am resting my fingers in his opened jaw. Like so brave kan?

Johnny is so popular that tourists flocked to take pictures next to him. He must have been a a star!

Unfortunately, Johnny's stardom was shortlived. He died due to the park’s negligence. According to what we heard through the grapevine, the new ‘house’ that Johnny got was so badly designed that left him to lie on the cement pavement for 2 days without any water.

Tsk. Oh wait, it’s not something we heard through the grapevine. There was actually a sign next to Johnny to state why he died. OMG. What is the management trying to say?!

At RM 5 per pax, I rather pay an entrance fee of RM 10 just so to ensure that these crocs will be well taken off. Even the crocs I wear on my feet is properly treated and not trampled on. How utterly embarrassing to have visitors to pay to witness such sorry state the crocs and the park are in.

The crocs are skinny and lazy. 

Safety is not a criteria in this park. Some cages are left without any locks. Anybody could unlatch and enter, or let a croc escape (for their own good maybe). It's an accident waiting to happen.

On one side of the park, you have REALLY cheesy entertainment stuffs inherited from the 80s. You know those kinda rides and shows that you have in those freak circus? Things like Cermin Ajaib and Rumah Hantu with badly painted skulls and blood just don't make the cut anymore. IT DOESN'T!

At the end of the park was a mini water playground for kids. From afar, it looked like the only new feature of the park.

But about 5 feet away, you will understand why it still looks new. The plastic cover that wraps the décor and equipment is not removed completely, leaving the remnants floating in still water.

The water reeked and was littered with all kinds of rubbish. There were tadpoles swimming and sediments at the button of the pool indicating the length of time any maintenance or cleaning was done.

Question: What is the function of the mini playground?

Whatever it is, it must have made someone VERY rich. I am truly appalled. It was a white elephant just ready to crumble one of these days. I wouldn’t be surprised that the next 10 years I visit, you’ll still find this place as is. Shameful.

To be fair, there was another side of the park that was completely new with water, sand and palm trees. I can't even tell if the crocodiles are even healthier there but they don't look as pathetic as their friends on the other side of the hood. It was like Manhattan vs the Bronx.

What made us chuckle was that the park had a type of croc only - i.e. Saltwater Crocodile. But they tried to make it look as if they had a variety of crocodiles by including some retarded ones e.g. the tailless croc and the croc with a hump. Haha.

Our verdict:

Crocodile park / Taman Buaya Melaka (0/5)

To drive all the way to the park and drench ourselves with disappointment, the only satisfying moment was quenching our thirst at the neighbouring McDonald's. Ahh.. cold, icy Coke.

to be continued... The Malacca River Cruise