October, 2010 | ronald-tan.com

Continuing from “A Day in Kuala Lumpur 2“, we decided to check out from the hotel early (immediately after breakfast) so that we can visit Malacca on our way back to Singapore. We spotted Philea Resort and Spa when we exited the expressway and went in to have a look. 🙂

Philea Resort and Spa, seems like a quiet place to rest and relax.

Close-up view of the accommodation at Philea Resort and Spa. Think the ambiance at night will be great!

Swimming pool at Philea Resort and Spa. There wasn’t much guests around when we were there, think they might have checked out…

It was almost time for lunch and we were already hungry so we stop by Restoran Famosa Chicken Rice Ball.

The interior of Restoran Famosa – comes with air-conditioning. A relief to the hot weather!

Chicken Rice Ball at Restoran Famosa. According to their website, the rice balls are moulded by machine so it’s hygienic.

Dumpling Soup at Restoran Famosa.

Fish Ball Soup at Restoran Famosa.

Roasted Chicken at Restoran Famosa.

Choy Sum & Roasted Pork at Restoran Famosa.

Steamed Chicken at Restoran Famosa.

Then after our lunch, we took a short stroll to the nearby “Tan Kim Hock Product Centre” to buy Dodol durian.

Other then Dodol durian, there are also many snacks and food products for sale. Some of them are really nostalgic – products that we used to have in Singapore!

Old historical scene of Malacca.

Passing by a Chinese temple.

YSL (Yue Sang Loong) selling Chinese raw medicine.

Old style coffee shop – we still have something similar back home in Singapore but it’s getting less and hard to find. Maybe I should go take photos and blog about it before it’s gone…

Provision shop at Malacca.

Antique wares at Malacca.

Heard that this is the famous Chicken Rice stall at Jonker Walk…but we already had our fill. Hehe! Next time!

Spotted San Shu Gong (三叔公) so we went in to buy food products. Heard there is one San Shu Gong at Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 3 too!

Interior of San Shu Gong – there was a lot of people inside buying stuffs and it was pretty hot as the air-conditioning is not working. This photo shows the quiet corner as I didn’t want to jostle with the shoppers. Haha!

We couldn’t stand the stuffiness so we quickly bought our stuffs and left. There is a Lao Qian Ice Cafe near the entrance of San Shu Gong.

Walking down Jonker Street in search of famous Chendol to eat.

I didn’t have a gook look but think the stall is probably selling Ding Ding Candy…

Passing by a stall that sells ice cream shaped like an egg.

Hokkien Huay Kuan at Malacca.

Grilled cuttlefish – you can smell it from a distance away… 😛

Finally reached our destination for Chendol – Jonker Dessert 88.

Interior of Jonker Dessert 88 and it’s actually a cafe museum. Love the old nostalgic setting!

In the shelves, there are many exhibits such as old currency notes, pots, artifacts, etc but I think majority of the patrons are concentrating on the food only!

Waiting for our orders to be prepared. 🙂

Cendol from Jonker Dessert 88. Nice! Think it’s because of the superb Gula Melaka.

Ice Kacang from Jonker Dessert 88. My friend had this!

After the dessert, we went back to our car and continue our journey home to Singapore. We met with a massive jam at Johor Bahru (all the Singapore cars are going back!) and the vehicles were practically not moving at all. Then, we decided to break away from the jam to go for dinner first and hope that the traffic jam have eased. We were thinking too positively – the jam was worse after our dinner! We then decided to try going back by Tuas Checkpoint instead of Woodlands Checkpoint and to our surprise, there wasn’t any jam at all and it was so smooth. Lesson learned, next time just whack straight back from Tuas Checkpoint if we go to Malaysia during long weekends in Singapore, I think traffic will not be as bad as Johor Bahru even there is a jam! But crap happens too and you can be never too sure!

Hiya, this is a long overdue blog post! The Kuala Lumpur trip was made during the long weekend of 7th to 9th August 2010 where Singapore was celebrating it’s National Day and it’s a holiday on 9th August 2010. We (a group of 6 adults and 2 children) took the opportunity to go for a last-minute short trip and the hotels was almost full (well, they did jack up the prices though!). It was a self-drive journey and there was jams along the way (especially at immigration) as many Singaporeans also had the same idea of relaxing out of Singapore! Anyway, the photo above show my lunch (Fish Ball Kway Teow Soup) at Yong Peng Rest Stop.

By the time we reached our hotel (The Gardens Hotel) at Mid Valley, it was already around 6pm. There was a queue at the front desk and we got our rooms separated on different floors even though we have made requests.

The Gardens Hotel – Nice room with comfortable-looking bed.

The Gardens Hotel – Large desk area for those who are going to do work or surf internet.

The Gardens Hotel – Vanity area.

The Gardens Hotel – the bathroom comes with a selection between using the normal shower head or the rain shower function. You can also take a soak in the bath tub too!

The Gardens Hotel – Separated dry toilet for you to take a dump without getting your feet wet! 😛

The Gardens Hotel – View from our room.

The Gardens Hotel – Comes with a mini-fridge and complimentary tea/coffee/drinking water.

The Gardens Hotel – Outside of the hotel where you can valet park your vehicle. For hotel guests, it is much more economical to valet then to park on your own.

The Gardens Hotel – Sofas at the lobby area where we always use as a meeting place. 🙂

Taking a walk at Mid Valley Megamall.

Having our dinner at Little Penang Kafe at Mid Valley Megamall.

Little Penang Kafe serves the best of Penang cuisine and seems to get a fair bit of press write-ups!

Assam Laksa at Little Penang Kafe.

Prawn Mee at Little Penang Kafe.

After our dinner, we continue to take a walk around Mid Valley Megamall.

After several grueling hours of shopping, we head off to T.G.I. Friday’s to have a drink and light supper. It was already 10.30pm!

T.G.I. Friday’s – Long Island Tea for my partner and I had Erdinger.

Our simple supper at T.G.I. Friday’s.

T.G.I. Friday’s – The interior of the restaurant. Love the “Kitchen” signage!

T.G.I. Friday’s – Guitars and photos of singers are hung on the wall. Not sure why but it sure gives me a feeling that I am in Hard Rock Cafe…

Forward to the next morning, we had our free buffet breakfast within The Gardens Hotel.

Breakfast time at The Gardens Hotel was having long queues at the reception to wait for tables. Believe that lot of the tourists are Singaporeans!

After breakfast, we went to the swimming pool to have a look even though we were not planning to swim. Nice looking pool!

The view from the swimming pool at The Gardens Hotel.

After our tour at the swimming pool, we went to Suria KLCC and it’s shopping time for the ladies. Huge crowd here even though it was early morning!

Interesting roof architecture at Suria KLCC.

Our wives getting all frenzied up with Vincci shoes… It was so packed that there is virtually no air-conditioning in the shop… haha!

Went outdoors to take a photo of Petronas Twin Tower.

Open area in front of Suria KLCC. We didn’t hang around for long as it’s really warm outside!

We went back indoors and then to Olio Dome Café to take a break from our tired legs.

My drink at Olio Dome Café, think it was Passion Fruit Berries or something like that… hehe!

Wanted to have Bak Kut Teh but it was not open yet so we had lunch at a Chinese restaurant at the corner of Jalan Alor. My partner having chicken noodles.

I am having Wonton noodles. Decent meal.

The outside of the restaurant. Think most people might be familiar with this location.

After our meal, my friend decided that we should have durians for dessert and went to buy a couple of them. We brought them into the restaurant to eat after seeking the staff’s approval. Damn, these durians are good!

Next, we went to Pavilion Mall to walk around. Basically, this trip is more of hanging around and shopping rather than like my usual of exploring the less-traveled areas. It’s good for a change but not too often as I do get bored at shopping centers! Haha!

The next morning, we will be leaving Kuala Lumpur and back to Singapore, but before so, we will stop by Malacca for a couple of hours to buy food stuffs and eat Cendol! 🙂