Malacca CNY 2020 – six years later, day #1
The last times we came here Jude was a rather large bump in Wifey’s tummy, and then something like 4 months old. We came here to escape the haze in Singapore, but the wind had changed and blew it all up North to Malacca. But we still had a quality trip at that time. We also had to come for a Wifey & Jude Escape From Alcatraz to get new visitor Visa. You know us, foodies – any excuse. So six years on and it being CNY we thought we would escape Singapore and show Jude a slightly older ‘out-of-tummy’ experience of the place. This is Malacca CNY 2020 – six years later, day #1.
CLICK HERE to have a look at that experience back in 2014.
CLICK HERE to have a look at our family ‘miss the haze’ trip in June 2013.
CLICK HERE to have a look at our family foodie version of the trip in June 2013.
We decided on the luxury coach option again to have someone else responsible for all that inane driving. Yeah, that was such a great idea. An early rise for the 0730 departing coach though, but hey well worth it to get to Melacca ar a decent time. So starts Malacca CNY 2020 – six years later, day #1.
We were all pensive about how long this journey will take us having had previous experiences of three hours++ alone to get over the causeway into Malaysia. We sat and prepared for the journey in super comfy seats with sick backs and an empty bottle for an emergency pee. 30 minutes later we were though Singaporean immigration. 20 minutes later we were on our way to Malacca. 1300 we arrived at the hotel. OMG!!! How good was that? Sadly, I don’t think the same experience will happen on the way back.
Happy campers on our luxury coach. It was a really nice coach actually. Only 3 seats across, so super-wide seats full recline with leg-rests. Yeah, nicely done K.K.K.L. Our driver Uncle was a Grumpy old sod though. All things communicated through REALLY garbled Singlish and hand-gestures – clearly not a people person. But he did get us there super-fast so Kudos there my friend. Just a thought to the bus-company – KKK – could you not think of another 3 letters for the acronym or mix em about? Just sayin’ like. I was wondering why the driver was wearing a white sheet and holding a burning cross when we got on…
Selfie on the back-row. Three seats for Strawberry Blonde and I. Which were soon invaded by Jude Jude and having to play eye-spy “Jude version” for about 2 hours. The funniest one was; ‘eye spy with my two little eyes something cute and furry…’ The answer was Mum’s Kili Kili (Filipino) AKA Mum’s armpits.
Strawberry Blonde & Jude Jude chilling out. A very cool journey, literally the same duration as going to Cebu on a flight including a wee stop-off at a rather cool ‘service station’ with some of the nicest chicken rice I have ever tried. Yummo. We also see the amazing drop in how much the cost of things is in Malaysia compare to home.
We booked into Hatten Place Hotel. A 2-year-old place and ‘sister’ property to Hatten Hotel. It’s a really nice place. It’s that new concept of a single property of 4 towers of hotel, residences, restaurants and shopping centres all in one. It’s cool. It’s a little away from the tourist action and to address that they have a free shuttle bus that runs every hour which is superb. We’ll be on that tomorrow for our tourism blitz and foodie journey. We’re hoping that all will be open again post the 1st day of CNY – loads more of that coming in the next blog.
Check out; Hatten Place Melaka, Jalan Melaka Raya 23, Hatten City, 75000 Melaka. Phone;06-222 9696
It seriously is a great value for money for what you get.
But Hatten Place we have to tell it like it is. It’s warts and all – bearing in mind you are 2-years-old. On check-in, we were very early and rooms were not ready, and that’s groovy as check-in is officially 3 pm. So we decide to stay here for lunch at the hotel. So you go to the 12th floor to check-in, but as our rooms are not available we needed the concierge. Guess where that is? Ground floor. So down we go to check-in the luggage. Luckily to get to the restaurant of choice we had to go to the ground floor anyways. But if we had been eating at the hotel restaurant, Thyme, we’d have gone G, to 12, to G, to 12. Interesting design.
CLICK HERE for a quick walk around the 360 SkyPark – the tallest building in Malacca. Also where we had lunch today.
We decided to go to the top of the shop and the 360 SkyPark for Malacca CNY 2020 – six years later, day #1 lunch. No point trying to get into town, and likely pretty much everything would be closed anyway due to Chinese New Year today. It was funny we were at the lobby and asked the lady what the two restaurants were at the top – Chinese or French. Hmmm, as we are eating a lot of Chinese/Peranakan/Nonya over the next few days we go French. And we get to Gales, which is actually Western Fusion with hardly any French influence.
But the food was damned good – CLICK HERE to see the review on Islifearecipe.net.
A complaint though has to be raised to Hatten Group (of which the restaurant is part of), which still bemuses me today. It also seems to be a common theme at Hatten which has to be called out. The staff seem untrained in hospitality & F&B generically. We just finished our mains and asked for a menu for dessert. We ordered dessert and 5 or so minutes later the waiter comes back to advise the kitchen is closed. They should have advised us that the kitchen was closing with a 15-minute warning, or not taken the order in the 1st place. So they lose additional revenue from us for lost orders of drinks and dessert and we likely will not be going back again. Bizarre.
We then have a great experience when we go back from Gales to G to then 12 to get our room keys. I am standing there with a whole heap of other guests who are in full check-in mode. All we need is key cards as we have done the full check-in already. From nowhere a gentleman appears and asks if we are just awaiting keys, takes our details and takes over. 5 minutes later he returns with our keys, giving us adjoining rooms and asking me to reach out to him personally if we have any needs. What a TOP GUY and great service. He then hands me his name card and it turns out he is the General Manager. That’s how it’s done! Shamsol, some work needs doing with the rest of your crew though my friend – see also Malacca CNY 2020 – six years later, day #2 for a bit of a bad breakfast experience too.
Malacca CNY 2020 – six years later, day #1 then became dinner time. We thought about getting a taxi, but as it was 1st day CNY evening, forget that. So we took a wander to find an ATM, and yeah it was realised that literally everywhere was closed. Everywhere. So we decided to head back to a Korean BBQ place we saw opposite the hotel.
Again CLICK HERE to see a review of Palsaik Korean BBQ on Islifearecipe.net. What a quality dinner that was. It was a really unique experience for the set-menu. Absolutely superb. So lunch and dinner today were both excellent, but not one drop of Chinese/Peranakan/Nonya yet haha. But so damned good!!!
The happy family sat at our table, or is that workstation? It looks all rather industrial. Jude, Jude using his rather amusing new pose. “How you doing…?”
Now that table set-up starts to make sense, ah ha! Nice. Check that bad boy piece of shelving out at the back of the table in the picture. Yeah we are excited. Jude, Jude reverts to old-style photo posing haha.
This guy was our BFF. He was cooking at like 4 tables, literally running back and forth between each. So funny though, being a cook at heart I could not help myself but turn a bit of pork, move the garlic to the heat, pus a bit of meat to brown it more etc… Every time I touched the food. Literally every time, he came sprinting back and put it back where it was. It was hysterical so of course, I took massive advantage of the situation and had some fun with BFF. Same goes for the ‘call-button’, see the circle by Jude Jude’s legs? Din-Dong it goes when you press it. Well sorry, restaurant but 15 minutes to deliver a Coca Cola, despite about 10 reminders means that thing becomes my toy. Dong-Dong, Ding-Dong, Ding-Dong – not one cry-Wolf, all we legit orders, it just so happened that they were always individual items. Classic!!! They earnt their pay haha!!!
CLICK HERE to watch a video of our BFF making our dinner.
So there you go, folks, our first day in Malacca for 6 years and Jude was something like 4 months old. More of that tomorrow with some comparison photos of then and now. See tomorrow’s blog. I highly recommend the coach trips into Malaysia guys, it is so quite relaxing. Just sit back and watch the amazing views of about 200 Billion bloody Palm Oil trees. It’s stunning, haha!!! Malacca CNY 2020 – six years later, day #1 was a cracker. We all had fun, despite any negatives. Such a giggle. We walked home after or Korean BBQ stinking to high heaven. We were tired and journey-worn. We had a lovely early night ready for day #2 ahead of us. It was time for Jonkers and Chicken Rice Balls. Tomorrow we hit Melacca HARD, read on folks and – ENJOY!!!
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