Piggy bday trip to Melaka-Part 5 Dim Sum breakfast

Since we did not buy buffet breakfast with the hotel, the task of looking for breakie falls onto my shoulder.

Read somewhere about a famous dim sum joint in Jonker street and decided to come here for breakfast. Rise and shine @7am to prepare to walk there but we dilly dally till 8am before making it out of the hotel.

Morning view of Melaka city

Name of the joint we are going today is called Low Yong Moh Restaurant ( 32, Jalan Tukang Emas, 75100, Melaka, Melaka, 75200, Malaysia).

I am not sure the best way to get there but here's ours:

1). Turn right once you enter Jonker street (where 三叔公 is located).
2). Walk staright and you will past the Cheng Ho Maritime museum 
3). Turn left onto the 1st street (Jalan Tukang Besi)
4). Walk straight till you see a mosque on your left.
5). The restaurant (or coffeeshop) is right opposite the mosque.

It was full house when we reached and there was a small crowd infront. Luckily, there were a few tables of guest leaving at the same time and we got a seat soon.

It was pretty chaotic, so no point being shy. Make your presence known to the workers there so that they can direct you to a seat when available. Standing there waiting for them to acknowledge your presence will maybe push you back by 3 or 4 tables.

We sat down and then waited for the helpers to bring the food to us to choose. Just like any other dim sum joints. The famous da pau was sold out though and so Mummy ordered Char Siew pau.

Loh Mai Kai

Pricing on the wall

Char Siew Pau

We ordered mostly one of all the available things, only skipping some that we usually don't eat.
Actually despite all the good reviews of this dim sum joint, I don't particularly find their food very va va vroom.

Perhaps it's due to different perference, but I seriously prefer our dim sum back in Singapore.  Also, those served to us are not even lukewarm, some are cold already. This is a big no no for dim sum.

The steam selects

One dish stands out though, their Lotus leave gultinous rice. The fragrance of the leaves seeped into the rice, giving it a very fragrant taste and the saltiness was just nice. I loved it.

Lotus leave glutinous rice

Fishballs & Otah

Service here was mediocre, perhaps due to the large crowd they have to handle. We had a hard time getting attention from the servers. We ended up getting the fried food selection ourselves since those serving them keep missing our table.

Fried food selection

Old school sign board

See the large crowd standing outside

Bill came up to RM89 for the 4 of us including tea. I must admit that we are all very full from the meal. Luckily we did not have to wait long for a table. If you asked me, I wouldn't think it is worthwhile to wait a table with the food standard.

Then again it is just my taste buds. If you are here on weekdays, you can consider dropping by to try their dim sum.

Were so full after breakfast that we decided to walk around the city before going back to the hotel. Walked down a street of old shop houses opposite St Paul's church but no shops were open. We then went to the street in the church compound to check out the gift shops.

Then it's back to the hotel to prepare to check out before we proceed to some last minute shopping. 

Old shophouses

Gift shops in church compound

Piggy bday trip to Melaka-Part 4 Jonker street

Jonker street in Melaka is probably the most famous street of all. For I keep hearing people to tell me go there when they learnt I am visiting Melaka.

Even Mummy also wanna visit as she stayed here during her school trip more than 40yrs ago. Our mission today is to locate the clan association she stayed and take a photo for her to show to her classmate. *FAINTS*

Jonker street is located right across St Paul's church where there is a bridge over a small stream. Cross it and you will be in Jonker street. There is a Hard rock cafe to the right as you enter Jonker street.

1st look of Jonker street

 三叔公 (San Shu Gong), the shop that sells local specialities is the 1st shop at the junction entering Jonker street.

We took the left lane to the shop and started exploring. The roads were still open to traffic at 4pm. Took a short break at 1 of the shop selling chendol ice. But it is not the 1 that Jin Hang told me to find.

Cars are still allowed at 4pm

Couple tees

 There are alot of shops selling interesting wares here and we went in one by one to check things out.
Funny thing is we brought nothing. Like I mentioned before, I am now at the phase of being afraid to pile things up in my house, therefore I would usually consider very carefully before buying stuff though it is cheap when converted into SG dollars.

 Had wanted to buy the cute couple tees we saw (Disney characters!!) but Mr Love need to remind me that we are in our 30s. So it doesn't seems very apt to wear such cute tees at this age. Gotta stick to the jerseys it seems.

Famous body builder that I dunno. Hehe

 We then managed to locate the statue that Jin Hang was telling me about and the famous chendol shop besides it. Mummy found it too crowded and we gave up and continue walking till she suddenly exclaimed excitedly that she found the clan association that she stayed 40yrs ago.

Man, she was literally jumping with joy since piggy and I keep teasing her that the association might be closed down for all we know. Took a few pictures here for her and we moved on. We did encourage her to go in and take a look but she declined.

So happy that she found the association

 We reached the end of the street and realised many vendors are setting up their stalls for the night market. Time check is 5pm and mummy is screaming that she is hungry.

The thing is, piggy and her couldn't agree what to have for dinner. Piggy wanted to try the local delights while mummy wanted an air-conditioned restaurant.

Muhaha. Suddenly we dunno who is the pampered Singaporean here. Her or us.

Food street

 I guessed mummy is really a true blue Singaporean now, more kiasu and kiasee then the 3 of us. Muhaha. She refused to have dinner at the food street citing hygiene reasons and keep insisting on find an air con restaurant for she is overheated.

Thank god she didn't see how we go around Taiwan. We just randomly buy from the street vendors whenever we are hungry.

See mummy keep fanning herself?

 We decided to walk back to Hard Rock cafe since there is any other air conditioned restaurant in sight. This time we turned into another street that is parallel to Jonker street and began walking.

The street is rather quiet but have quite a few motel/homestay here. I was banking to find the dim sum shop I wanted for tomorrow's breakfast here but was lost in the house numbers.

It is later when I asked a local then we realised we missed the place. Turns out, the shop is right across the mosque that we stopped to check for directions and I totally missed it!

Stopped and checking for directions

 We came across another famous eatery recommended by netizens. A teochew tze char shop which only have 8tables and you need at least 1 week advance booking.

Since the place looked pretty empty, we decided to try our luck and enquired. But the uncle helming the stove was like super duper triple yaya. When we asked whether there are available seats for us to have an early dinner. All he did was to knock on the full house sign in front of his shop with a black face without an answer.

I mean you could have answered and say it's fully booked right? Or to be more polite a bit. But he chose this method to answer us as if he's mute and kept knocking at the sign. So what your eatery is famous and served what people claimed to be authentic Teochew cuisine? Your attitute sucks! I dun pay for poor service no matter how nice the food is. Besides how difficult it is to get good food in Malaysia?

Super Yaya eatery

I love this shot hehe

 We came to the end of the street which brings us back to 三叔公. Did a bit of shopping here and off we went for dinner @ Hard Rock Cafe Melaka.

The famous chicken rice ball shop

 I have never been to Hard Rock cafe despite coming across it in different countries. Since mummy was insistent to eat here, we obliged. More so when piggy offered to pay. Muhaha. You can literally see gleam in my eyes. I started with wanting to order wine which is much more expensive than the main course and of course the most expensive main course in the menu @RM88.

Still empty at 5.30pm

 Piggy gotta stop me half way and told me to order something reasonable. Hehe.

And so we 4 ordered 1 different main course each and shared them around when the food arrives.

Mummy and her grilled chicken

My cheesy pasta and chicken breast

Mr Love's fish and chips

Piggy's steak burger

 The food was pretty decent, at least to me la. Prices was  on the high side but not surprising for Hard Rock but ambience was good.

Half way thru dinner, a heavy downpour came and we were struck in the restaurant. Many others came in to hide from the rain and was throwing angry looks at us for hogging the table. But you all came in because of the rain, we came in way before you because we wanted dinner. I reckon I have every right to stay on even we are finishing dinner.

Plus we did not bring our brollies with us and how are we supposed to get back to hotel in the heavy rain? The waiters couldn't chase us out would they? Mummy was a bit worried. But she knew if they did, I think I would have tore the place up. It's ok if it is me and Mr Love, but mummy was there with us. I couldn't risk having her run in the rain and fall sick.

Anyways, the rain stopped after an hr and we decided to forgo the night market and made our way back to the hotel. Walked throught the shopping center and went for a much need foot massage which costs RM29 for 30min.

It's a much needed one after so much walking today.

Piggy bday trip to Melaka-Part 3 Around Melaka City Center

 And so we began our little tour around Melaka City Center with the ending point at Jonker street.
Walked through the open spaced car park besides Hotel Equatorial which takes us to Ruins of St Paul Church.

There's some activities going on here and was super crowded.

Ruins of St Paul's church

Cannon

We then climbed up a super long flight of stairs which left me half dead at the top of it. There are more ruins up the hill it seems and piggy bro wanted to take photos there. Damn.

Top view from the stairs

Check out the long flight of stairs

Mummy and Mr Love

 There is actually nothing much up here to see except for a few walls. So we did wat I liked best, selfie! We actually brought along a selfie stick this time and showed mummy how it is used. She was damn impressed and keep asking us to play with it. Muhaha.

Meanwhile, piggy bro got lost in his phototaking and refuse to participate in ours.

See mummy is so happy to use the selfie stick

We then walked down an equally long flight of stairs. This would have meant we crossed the hill and got down from the other side of the church and brings us to a park where 2 train heads are situated. Not sure why these KTM train heads are here since there KTM does not run through Melaka. 

KTM Train head

Taken using the selfie stick again

 We continued trekking along the streets to the next attraction Piggy bro wanted to see- Some ship display that we did not enter since an entrance fee is required and it's near closing time.

I also realised we are not at the other end of the shopping center. So, if you are too scared of the heat and sunny weather, you can actually cut through the shopping center to get you here to Jonker street. Piggy bro had brought us walked the super long way since he wanted to check out the various attractions.

Hello Kitty trishaw!!

We walked 20min to see this ship

Of course must take a photo. Taken in haste, pardon the poor skills

We hit Jonker street 45min after walking, had taken a big detour since the normal walking time should be 15-20min. Mummy was nagging to buy food stuff at a particular shop called 三叔公 and we assured her that we will give her time to shop later. Wanted to explore the area without lugging all the purchases along.

Piggy bday trip to Melaka-Part 2 Hotel Equatorial Melaka

Although Hotel Equatorial Melaka was not my first choice when I first wanted to do booking, but I have heard good reviews of it from others. Hence when Hatten hotel was fully booked on our desired date, this is the back up.

Rates were at SGD105 per room and since we reached early, we were able to request for a connecting room. Early check in seems possible if the rooms are ready. But in our case it was not. Hence we left our luggage there and went in search for lunch.

Our King size bed

 Truth to be told, the hotel should have seen better days during it's prime. Though I heard it was renovated not long ago, but still the furnishing seems old. Not that we have much complaints but it's just an observation.

Passage way

 There was a little balcony in the room in which we were happy to find since can take a breath of fresh air. It overlooks Melaka city center and if you looked far enough, you can spot the coastline after the tall buildings. Nice view since we stayed on the 14th floor.

Balcony view from our room

Hatten hotel is right across us

Bathtub

Morning View of Melaka city

Overall, we were pretty happy with our stay here since it's only for a night. But I am not impressed with the cleanliness of the room as I found a wrapper left by presumably the previous or any 1 before us. It was quite a huge 1 and I don't understand that how it could be missed when even Mr Love spotted it and asked me.

The location was right in the smack of Melaka city and therefore giving it an edge over other hotels. Besides many coaches from Singapore stops and pick up passengers here. There would be a representative from the coach company waiting in the lobby neat the pick up time.

The most commendable thing about the hotel is their staff. I find them helpful, friendly and most importantly polite. Everyone you see around the hotel even to the cleaners, they greeted guests with smiles. Somehow, it makes me feel very welcome during my little stay here :)

我怕

Results came back for my scan and things did not look that good since 1 of the polyp was growing faster than the 1 shrinking. 

With that, I decided it is time to face the much dreaded operation. Had promised Mr Love & myself that I would go for it should the results returned unfavourable despite going for TCM.

My heart sank to the bottom when the doctor told me my scan results and it further sank when she informed me of the risks involved though it is a consider a minor surgery. 

Really I did not know how many risks there are after she went through a check list. They say accidents happen in 3 out of 1000 surgeries and when that happens they would have to perform other emergency surgery without having to seek consent from my family. That, I would need to acknowledge when I agreed to go for the op. Her words are all swimming in my head and yet I cannot register most of it. 

I was blessed with great family, husband, friends and colleagues. People who are around me everyday gave their upmost support. Many waited anxiously for my results and send me comfort words when they knew the condition got worse. I really appreciate that since there is nothing else I can asked from these great people at this point of time. 

I cried a ton on the results day and went back to office the next day. All seems to be calm on the outside but I was scared, scared stiff of the surgery. The risks, the uncertainties and of course the non guarantee of me able to conceive after it. I was asking myself whether all would really be well after the surgery when the doctor cannot even promised me anything. Not to mentioned there is a small risk of it being a tumor to start with. I will still need face the biopsy results later on.

I lost sleep, lost appetite all over these and yet I cannot let it show. As much as possible, I would want to have a normal lifestyle till the surgery since it can be me worrying too much. But who wouldn't if you were in my shoes?

The wait is killing me but the thought of going for the surgery is equally scary. 

With that said, I am still trying my best to adjust back to my normal lifestyle.

Colleagues are especially helpful since they are with me most of my waking hours. I really appreciate your concern no matter how insignificant you think your actions are, I can feel your good will:)

Mr Love had it worst of all since he gotta bear with my tears, tantrums and unstable emotions. I can be still happily talking to him this minute but would sank into deep thoughts the next. I knew he wasn't having it easy too but really I cannot control myself. 

Seriously, I hoped that when I make an entry on this issue later it would be good news. Till then, please keep me in your prayers as I count down to the surgery in Jan.

Piggy bday trip to Melaka-Part 1

In celebration of Piggy brother's 34th birthday, we decided to take a short break and travel to Malacca for one night stay.

Booked Hotel Equatorial Melaka for the trip and also return tickets for coach which provides drop off and pick up service from this hotel.

Was pleasantly surprised by the departuring coach we took from Konsortium which departs from Boon Lay shopping which is neaer to us compared to those in town. The seats are spacious and all of us are seated on the 2nd level of the coach. There's even a charging point beside every seat which Mr Love was happy with since he forgot to charge his power bank the night before.

Traffic was smooth on both countries' immigration and we cleared with breeze. It's an indication of a fun trip! Hehe Had a toilet break somewhere along the highway and we took the chance to stock up a bit of snacks from the makeshift stalls there.

We pulled into Melaka shortly after 4hrs of travelling and the bus made a stop at the central bus station before travelling into the city to drop passengers off at their respective hotel choice.

Hotel Equatorial Melaka looks magnificent at 1st look but as we stepped into the lobby, you can feel that it had seen better days before this. Anyways it's not like I have much choice. Hatten hotel which is my 1st choice was fully booked on my perferred date.

Check in was fast and the counter staff was polite and helpful. Was a bit disappointed that we couldn't get the rooms as it wasn't ready yet but at least we were assigned to connecting rooms.

We then went in search for lunch at Dataran Pahlawan Meleka Megamall which is right beside Hotel Equatorial and connected to Hatten Hotel.

I read somewhere that there is a A&W restaurant here and it got Mr Love and Piggy bro excited since this is not available in Singapore. Mummy on the other hand was less thrilled at the idea and we found a restaurant that sells Chinese and parked her there promising to collect her 45min later.

It is later then we realised that how big this mall is. Walked nearly 15min to get to A&W which is on the other end of the mall. Along the way, there are plenty of shops that caught my eye but I need to fill up the stomaches of the 2 hungry guys 1st.

To cut a long story short, A&W Malaysia is not as nice as their counterpart in Batam. Was seriously disappointed with it. Piggy went to pick mum up after that while Mr Love and I were still eating.

After lunch, we decided to walk around in the mall to cool down before doing a check in and then continue the walk to Jonker street. Found a Melissa-like shoe shop here called Jelly Bunny and the price was way cheaper than Melissa!

I realised the reason for the cheaper pricing when I went in to try their shoes excitedly. The shoes were made of harder jelly material and was not as comfortable as Melissa. I was only wearing for a while trying out and I can feel them cutting my feet. Did not get them since I need to walk in these shoes and feet cutting is a big NO-NO for me.

It's back to the hotel for check in and a brief toilet break before we made our way out for more sight seeing again.

Bestie is back

Its a super overdue post. Had meaning to post this ages ago since bestie moved back with her baker and my god son from Glasgow for good. But just couldn't get my ass moving to transfer the pictures to my pc for uploading. *bleah*

Anyways I'm glad bestie is back for good. Which means our bitching is now real time instead of 7hours difference. I get to see my handsome god son who had since grown so much and is more interactive now though the mother had not taught him to address me properly.

The only thing is it's year end and I dun have much leave left and also it's the busiest period of work and I am not able to meet up as often though we did went for 1 full day date and did a dinner. And the woman is comtemplating not to bring her son out the next time!!!

BUT BUT BUT, I wanna seee him. If its her, we can do whatsapp but he can't!!Haha.

Check out how much he had grown over the months. Kids, they really do grow up fast!

Afraid that I might take away the snacks

Snacking

Still snacking during lunch

Boys will always be boys. Playing with cars

The act cute mummy with the bo chap son

Love his smile here

 The good thing about my god son is, he is super friendly. I am certain he don't recognised me but he have no problems with me pushing him around in the stroller or carrying him. I was still afraid that he would reject me when I wanted to carry him. Turns out that my fears are unfound!

On another date the other night

When he came back for CNY early this year

Before he left for Glasgow last year

 In short, I am glad to have bestie back here for good. Was still worrying they would stayed in Glasgow for longer period. Till then baby, God ma will try find time to meet you and mummy kk?

Infidelity at its best

After years of working, I thought I have seen it all of those complicated relationships between colleagues. After all, my last company have like a like couple every 3months. So when it happen to my own department, I wasnt too shock. Just disgusted.

So I thought it would be the same when I realised what was happening this time in my current company. Though I or some of us have better faith in 1 half of the couple but I guess was just not enough.

But seriously, this time the infidelity was taken to a whole new level. While one wanted to be discreet,the other just want us to know. So, this creates a contradiction somewhere when they start to tell us things.

It can be the female giving us 1 version and the male giving us another. Initially it confused me as I dun understand why 2 of them cannot agreed on what they wanna say. But when I realised the truth, it drawn upon me that someone is trying to hide something while the other is not.

Since this happen to be part of my clique, I happen to be "honored" enough to see the whole sequence unfold in front of my eyes.

I used to not know what mummy is talking when she said how she picked up papa's changed attitude and also the lies he would tell during the initial years of his infidelity. Now I know. 

I realised when you are doing something immoral and you cannot convinced yourself of your own doings, you tend to show it. No longer you can talk freely without having to be afraid of others second guessing your every other sentence. Your answer would be short and you will try means and ways to change the topic so much so that you end up talking nonsense and pissing others off most of time since you try to shift the attention to others. But what you dunno is, we are all in this together to make you feel uncomfortable. So no matter how much you try to steer the topic again, it will come back somehow unless you don't talk. 

No longer you can answer our questions freely for you do not know when we are genuinely asking to know or asking to confirm what we know. You will have to think of whether you have given the answer to another person since we will cross check. This is the price you pay for not being forthcoming. But I dont think you can be too given this is no honor matter.

The most irritating of all is you try to test us on how much we know. This piss me off. Many a times asking questions that is obvious that you have an answer too but just want to test water on where are we on the issue. Nope I am not going to let you know how much we know or exchanged among ourselves since it would give you better idea on how to deal with us to hide your wrong doings. Face it if you dare to do.

Oh ya, and not forgetting that you love to act like you are not that close to your half. Often trying to play down your relationship or dragging others along with you. 

The other day, while having a gossip session with others. We cannot come to a conclusion on whether it would better if you just come clean with us or continue with your acting. Anyhow it will only do you damage. You should know it the day you decide to go ahead with this mistake.

The funny thing is, we have the women more angry with the guy and we put more responsibility in him. Out point is that he should have known better to deal with temptations rather than to give in. The guys on the other hand argued that the female shouldn't have taken the 1st step. No guys can resist temptations. It leads to a conclusion that men and women are from different planets and would always side their own counterparts and of course having very different views on issues. 

Actually this relationship opens my eyes to alot of things, it gives me an idea of how to detect changes in your better half. And of course it gives us a lot of topics to gossip. MUhahah who don't love a gossip any day?

Dec is here

Nov has been a busy month for me, made a short trip to Melaka, went for BBQ at colleague house and of course work. Not sure why but work seems to be piling up no matter how hard I try to clear.

In a blink of eyes, Dec is here already.

And of course my follow up check up is just around the corner. Am in jitters recently. Keep losing sleep over it. But there is nothing much I can do. Already tried my best by taking TCM for the past 4 months. I sincerely hoped that it will help improved my condition. Going for operation would be my last resort.

Luckily I am kept busy enough not to have time on hand during the day to worry about my condition. It's usually at night when I am about to sleep than I would be reminded of this condition.

Anyways what gonna come will eventually come. No point dwelling on unknown.

On a happier note, I am doing so much online shopping that my CC is gonna burst soon. Going stop else will go bankrupt before my bonus reach me (if there is any this year).

As we approach year end, I do hope next year will be a better year for us. And of course it would be great if we are blessed with a child soon:)

Updates on my recent activities soon when I have the time to sit down and type.