Melaka River Cruise Again

We started of our school holidays with our Melaka Trip.  This year we actually went there twice.  Thanks to Matta Fair for the great offer.  Whenever we are in Melaka, we will not miss the Melaka River Cruise.  I just loved the feeling of touring Melaka in the river cruise and with the kids around, they were so excited to sit on a boat! 

We paid RM10 per adult and RM5 for lil prince where as lil princess get to ride for free :).    Here are some photos that I managed to snap while on the boat.  I was busy admiring the surroundings and also listening to the briefing they gave on the cruise.  Although this was not the first time we took the river cruise, somehow, we still enjoyed it to the max!

The weather was just nice too, not too sunny and slightly cloudy.  

We will definately be back for more river cruise experience.   I know it's the same river but we never get bored! 

Swimming Pool @ The Gurney Hotel

We love the swimming pool at Gurney Hotel.  It was really big enough for the kids.  We prefer hotels with swimming pools so that the kids can have some outdoor activities besides staying in the hotel.  So far, among all our local destination visit, the best swimming pool or pool area was Hard Rock Hotel, second place goes to Gold Coast Morib and I would rate this as third best for us!

There are two slides at the kids pool for the kids to slide down.  One on the right and the other on the left.

At the kids pool too, they have a few  'mushrooms' with waters flowing down.  My lil prince loves to go inside the mushroom while lil princess was soooo afraid of the mushroom and won't even go near it!

While waiting for the time to check into the hotel (we arrived earlier than expected), we immediately changed into our swimming outfit and hop into the pool.  This shows how excited the kids were when they saw the pool (although it was lil prince second visit).  Hubby stayed dry to look after our belongings.  We were lucky that the weather was kind to us.  We didn't suffer any sun burn, eventhough we were swimming at 2.00pm in the afternoon!

There was also an adult pool at the other side where I didn't go into coz it looks pretty deep. 

Just in front of the swimming pool, it's a sandy beach (that what I called it) for the kids to have fun in the sand.  We only had one session of sand play as the kids are more interested to dip themselves in the pool.

For those who loves to work out at the gym, there is also a small gym area in front of the swimming pool.

There is a TV room on the same floor as the pool but we didn't get to see any movies inside.  Not really sure how was the condition there.  Our focus was only at the pool and sand :P.

We will definately visit this place again if our budget allows :P.  Although there were some hiccups with our reservation, overall this is a great place for family with kids.  We just can't have enough of the pool! 

Raya Holidays @ Penang

Our Raya Holidays.....

We didn't had a good start during the Raya holidays.  We had to go up North earlier than expected due to family matters.  However we didn't let it spoil our mood for our kids to have fun.

During our recent Penang trip, we stayed at The Gurney Resort Hotel & Residences.  This was our second time there as we stayed at this hotel back in 2010.  What we like about this hotel was the spacious room and also their swimming pool (will post the photo of the pool later, hopefully).

The room that we had was a studio suite with two single bed combined together.  We also make reservation for a baby cot but guess who slept in the baby cot?  It was lil prince who slept there for two nights instead of our baby girl!

The toilets were clean and they had a bath tub and also a shower area.  When the kids can't get enough of the swimming pool, they get to hop in the bath tub in the room!  That is what I called indoor swimming pool ^__^

The other thing I like was the Disney channel :P.  We don't have Astro at home so my lil prince was literally glued to the TV most of the time when we were in the room.  Somehow at his age, he has fallen in love with cartoons.  I used to think that he didn't like cartoons because he never watch cartoon when he was young.

I would say that the room was suitable for family with kids as it was spacious and there were plenty of space for the kids to run around.  There were extra space if you would like to add an extra bed or baby cot.


Somehow when we were there for the second time, we felt that this hotel can have a bit of 'touch up' :P.  Maybe they can upgrade the TV to LCD TV ^__^...hehehehe....

Yummy food @ Melaka Trip - Part II

Continue from previous post.....

These are the yummy food we had on our second day in Melaka.
 

For lunch on the second day, we visited the same restaurant again for chicken ball rice.  We are really a great fan of the chicken ball rice.  After all, that’s our favourite food in Melaka.  After lunch, we went back to our hotel for a short nap before going out for tea again.

Nadeje Cake Shop

We went to Nadeje for tea as I loved to eat mille crepe.  We ordered a tiramisu and a banana chocolate mille crepe and a Melaka crush ice-blended (it has a great taste of gula Melaka!).  I absolutely adored this mille crepe.  It was made out of layers of crepe with creams in between.  Really nice textures just that the price was a bit on the high end :P.   Since we had collected 10 stamps on our ‘priviledge card’, we redeem our FOC mille crepe as I’m not sure when we will visit the shop again.  We ordered the rum and raisin crepe for takeaway.

Restoran Nyonya Amy

For dinner, we visited  Aunty Amy’s Heritage Nyonya Cuisine at Melaka Raya for their famous nyonya food.  We ordered the ayam ponteh, fried omelette with cincaluk, fried toufu and a piece of otak-otak.  It was a pity as we were not able to ordered the spicy food as we had two kids around, we had to take all non-spicy food.  Hubby said nyonya food without any spicy-ness doesn’t  taste like nyonya food at all ^__^ .  Nevertheless, I loved the ayam ponteh and the fried omelette with cincaluk.   We also got a chance to meet Aunty Amy too.  She is a very nice and friendly lady.  Next time when we return, we will definately try all the spicy food!!

Yummy food @ Melaka Trip - Part I

We had lots of good food during our short trip to Melaka.  Here are some of the highlights of our yummmmmy food :P

Day 1

      Chicken Rice Ball

Every time when we go to Melaka, we will not fail to visit this Chicken Rice Ball shop at Kedai Kopi Chung Wah.   This is a MUST have when you go to Melaka.   This is always our FIRST pit stop in Melaka.  We arrived early before 12pm to avoid the heavy crowd.  Ordered 25 chicken rice ball (it comes with five balls per plate) and a medium chicken serving.  We just loved the fragrance of the rice.  Even my lil princess with no teeth only eat the chicken rice balls alone.  She loved it! This shop is located at Jalan Hang Jebat.

Nyonya Dumpling and Cendol

After our lunch, we walk down the road to savor the best nyonya chang.  We went to the East and West Rendezvous shop which was also located along Lorong Hang Jebat.  We ordered two nyonya chang and cendols.  The nyonya ‘chang’ was priced at RM4.00 each and the cendol cost RM 2.50 per bowl.  I loved the taste of the nyonya  ‘chang’!!  This is something which we don’t find in KL.  The nyonya ‘chang’ was filled with diced pork, dried shrimps, mushroom and etc.  It was very fragrance.  Loved the blue-coloured rice (which is a type of flower, I’m not sure what flower it is ^__^).  The cendol was good as it has a very strong taste of gula Melaka.  Before we left Melaka, we even ‘tapau’ eight nyonya chang back to KL!  

 The aunty told me that we can keep it for two weeks in the fridge.  Besides the nyonya ‘chang’ we also bought back the pineapple tarts for lil prince teachers at school.

Fried Oyster

Our next stop was to try the fried oyster at the end of Lorong Hang Jebat.  This shop only opens from 4pm onwards (if I'm not mistaken).  We were the first customer on that day.  We ordered a medium portion.  I find that oyster a bit plain though, probably we forgot to add the pepper and sauce that was placed at our table.  Hubby told me that the fried oyster at Melaka Raya is better.  Nevertheless, it was worth trying.

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Satay Celup

One thing that you will not miss when you go Melaka is to try the satay celup.  We decided to try the satay celup at Restaurant Capitol.  This shop only opens at 5.00pm onwards.  Mind you, before 5pm, you can see the queue of people.  Customers already started to queue at 4.30pm and we were one of them too..hehehe.  There were lots of varieties to choose (ie. fish balls, chicken, crab meat and a whole long list).  All ingredients were placed in a fridge rack, I guess it is to preserved the freshness of the food.  Each stick is priced at RM 0.80.  They also gave us a cup of water for us to wash away the sauce in case it is too spicy for the kids. 

"Burger Maut"

Before the day end, we tried the burget ‘maut’ at Semabok.  We read about it from internet that it was good.  The burger stall was opposite Semabok Inn.  We ordered the Burger Convert (it comes in a hotdog bun with two burger meat cut into small pieces).  Looked at the way he fried the burger in high flames!  This stall opens from 8.30pm onwards till 12 midnight.  Overall, the burger tasted really good!  I guess it must be due to the hot flames ^__^.  Loved the juicy burger meat…yummy!!

Melaka River Cruise

Whenever we are in Melaka, we will definitely go for the river cruise.  We never fail to go on the river cruise.  Each time we go Melaka, this is a MUST have on our itinerary.  We loved to sit back and relax on the boat and observed the surroundings historical landmarks, modern buildings, bridges and etc.  The journey for the cruise takes approximately 45 minutes.  The ticket price per adult was RM10 and for child was RM 5.  We were lucky to have a 20% discount voucher from Matta Fair.  This makes our total ticket price to RM20 (instead of RM 25) for three pax as lil princess was FOC.  Tip of the day, go to Matta Fair before you plan your holiday destination.  It will help you save some $$$ ^__^.  For this Melaka trip, we were very lucky as Matta Fair was held one week before.  We got most of our offers and discounts from there.

We took the river cruise in the evening around 5.30pm as it was not too hot.  The weather was just nice and it was very windy too.   Along the river cruise, we see some old and new buildings, some buildings had mural painted on it.  We also saw the monorail having a test run ( I guess).  Both my lil ones were so amazed of the water splashing on them off and on.  

Here are some photos taken during our river cruise.

The next trip, we shall try the night cruise!

Melaka Trip

Melaka has always been our favourite holiday destination.  We loved going there for the food especially and there are so many things to do in Melaka.  We stayed at Hotel Puri during our short break at Melaka last week.  I had always wanted to stay in this boutique hotel.   I find that the location of this hotel was very strategic.  It was located at Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock and very near to Jonker’s Street.  I had read so many good reviews about this boutique hotel and three years ago, when we went to Melaka, I went in for a short tour around the lobby area of this hotel.  I just loved all the ‘antique’ decoration that they had in this hotel.

When we went to Matta Fair two weeks ago, Hotel Puri was having a promotion for RM149 nett for a superior room per night.  Since we were planning for a trip to Melaka, we book for two nights stay with breakfast.  I believe this was a promotion price as I remembered their hotel rates for superior room was around RM200 per room.

We arrived around 12.00pm, had our lunch at the famous chicken ball rice shop (will blog about it later) and checked in the hotel around 2.00pm.  We requested for a baby cot for our lil princess but in the end it was our lil prince who slept in the baby cot and lil princess slept on the bed J.  I personally find the room spacious and clean.  I loved the antique chairs and cupboards in the room.   The toilet was clean and they provide the basic toiletries.  

 

Our package comes with breakfast for two days and I find that their breakfast selection was good.  Among the food on the menu were sausages, fried meehoon, asam laksa (on the first day), fried eggs or omelette, potatoes wedges, mushroom lasagna and etc.  There was also some selection of breads, cornflakes, coco crunch and fruits.  I find that there was a  lot of food just for breakfast. 

Here are some photos taken at the boutique hotel.  Next, will blog about the wonderful food that we had in Melaka!