Malacca and its surprises!

We were lucky when we booked our coach tickets to Malacca. There was a 3-day promotion by the Malaysian Tourism Board and we paid $50 per pax for a return trip. Then we managed to book the premier junior suite at Hatten hotel for this trip with breakfast thrown in and access to their premier lounge.

So we went last weekend and the boys were cooperative in our coach ride. They napped in the coach on both ways which meant peace, peace and peace.

Arriving at Hatten hotel

being ushered to the premier lounge at level 12

someone obviously enjoyed himself

roomy lavatory to freshen up

We dropped our luggages at my mum's suite (since hers was ready) and made our way to the connecting mall for Tang Shi Fu. We were raving about Tang Shi Fu for their superb double boiled soup and delicious healthy dishes at JPO outing during our March Legoland trip. But we had a hard time navigating our way there as the mall directory wasn't very helpful. After asking several people, we managed to find the restaurant and tucked in to a yummy lunch.

After lunch, our suite was ready too and both suites were besides each other. The suites weren't huge but at 33m2, it was pretty decent with space for the boys to play. Yes, after my experience with Meritus staycation, bringing the bricks along is a good idea.

Living area (not as big as Meritus, of course!)

Living area from the other angle

king size bed

bathing facility

We unpacked a little and decided to make our way to the pool. Unfortunately, it was a real quick dip because thunderstorm was looming and the security pool personnel chased us away. So we went back to our suite to get changed and headed out for some shopping instead. The bonus of staying at Hatten was the connecting bridge to the mall so rain or shine, shopping is just a stone's throw away.


We shopped a little and noticed the boys were getting grumpy. Lack of sleep made them grouchy. So we had dinner at Dragon-I restaurant which was next to Tang Shi Fu. Jonathan was disappointed that their roasted ducks had sold out but their Shanghainese la-mian was very good. The xiao long bao was good as well. At where we were seated, we could see the Famosa site and decided tomorrow morning, after our breakfast, we would go out for our excursion.

Famosa

Bastion House

water wheel

Melaka river as backdrop

maritime museum as backdrop

not forgetting the Unesco site - Christ Church

We walked from Hatten, passed Famosa, passed the Bastion House, the People museum. We didn't climb up to view the St. Paul's church but we made a pit stop at Christ Church which the younger boy decided the holy ground was a nice place to poo! Yes, that's our worst fear when we bring Matthew out. He can poo anywhere, everywhere, anytime!

trishaw ride

We had trishaw ride at RM50 to bring us round the popular tourist spots and then we walked over to Jonker street to have our chicken rice ball and chendol. The gula melaka used in their chendols was distinctively different from here. Their was really much more fragrant and less sweet, I find.


We took a taxi back (RM15) and the boys asked to go to the pool. We obliged and had a fun time at the pool before dark cloud loomed over us again. We took opportunity of the boys napping and had high tea at the premier lounge and went shopping on our own. I guess having the mum and the helper around made a lot of difference to family trips. We got to enjoy some couple time which saw us having drinks at Hatten's Sky Alto lounge (level 22) on the first night. We even managed to have foot reflexology on our second night.

drinks with Malacca's city skyline

We were also very lucky in this trip that we managed to get ourselves a table at the famous Tong Sheng Seafood restaurant. Good thing was Hubby asked the way around prior making our way there, secondly the boys managed to wake up in time to walk there. We reached the restaurant at 6.30pm and by 7pm, a snake queue had formed outside the restaurant. The rain also stopped momentarily while we had dinner and during our coach back to Singapore, my mum discovered that Tong Sheng closed on alternate Monday and we were so so lucky that it wasn't closed on that Monday we were there.

Tong Sheng

Cheese Prawn Bee Hoon

Fresh Milk Crabs

When you are at Tong Sheng, you must try their popular cheese prawn bee hoon and fresh milk crabs. Both were fantatistic, not greasy, not buttery or cheesy, not too spicy and no MSG involved. Strictly pure natural flavours from the fresh seafood. We also had seaweed soup, a vegetable dish, a fu rong egg. Total cost RM208 for 4 adults and 2 kids. It was so yummy that Tong Sheng is my mandate if I return to Malacca again.


The last day at Malacca, besides pool time, I was surprised that we managed to squeeze in the Melaka river cruise.

start point for the river cruise

It was a 40 minute boat ride which we cruised along the Melaka river, taking in breath of their wall murals and unique houses. It was a nice breezy boat ride which everyone enjoyed except one little boy who sulked all the way.

sulky little Matt

The sulky little boy fell asleep halfway through the cruise and the father had to carry him and walked quite a distance to hitch a taxi back to the hotel. We checked out by 1pm and left our luggages with the concierge and had lunch at the nearby mall. Then it was time to board the coach and made our way home. The trip ended nicely with us, back in Singapore, having a good dinner at Ambush (JEM). One good memorable family trip!