I probably should apologize for the long absence, no? I did mention on several occasions that I'm pretty erratic, in fact my attention span might be slightly longer than that of a China-made electrical appliance.

Anyway, some updates you should probably know about me:

Total...
Weight lost- approximately 10kg
Number of hair lost- Uncountable
Number of Hook-ups- 0
Number of Break-ups- 0
Number of times I thought, 'Lord, I'm bored out of my wits!'- 3, 4
46, 219 times
Number of Charity Drives I helped launch- 1

Speaking of which, this is the ad campaign to the Christmas Charity Drive: Part Deux that I designed (inspired by Heroes, lol!). Click on it to enlarge.

Malacca is a town located 2.5 hours away from Kuala Lumpur. It is known as the historical state of Malaysia, being the place where essentially the sultanate of Malaysia began. As one point in time, it was one of the busiest port in this region, connecting the east with the west, not unlike how Singapore and Hong Kong is at the moment. Having being colonized by Dutch and Portugese, and been visited by the Chinese in the olden days, the buildings in Malacca can be seen as having influenced by all these different cultures.

Anyway, we supposedly should have left by early morning, supposedly 8am. But by the time we woke up, dilly-dallied around, showered and left, the clock pointed 10am.

The journey took 2.5 hours. Having skipped breakfast, upon arrival, we immediately dashed to this infamous restaurant. Ask around and everyone will tell you-

The infamous A' Famosa Chicken Rice Balls Restaurant

Anyway, we have friends studying with us over there in Kursk who has told us of this dish before. And having never really seen it with my own eyes, there were many a heated discussion on whether it should really be named as 'Chicken Rice Balls' or 'Chicken Ball Rice'. Because in both of this instances, they can mean different things. Chicken Rice ball would imply that you'll be served with rice balls together with chicken. Whilst Chicken ball rice means that you'll have rice served with Chicken balls (whatever that means?!?!).


Alas it seems the former holds true. You're served rice balls with chicken. We ordered the original rice balls and glutinous rice balls, just to try it out. Everyone visiting Malacca should give it a try.

Next up, we took out time walking along Jonker street, this area in Malacca known for its well preserved shop houses.
A richshaw ching-a-chinging by
If it weren't for the Malaysian flags, would you have mistaken this sight for just another canal somewhere in Amsterdam?

As of July this year, Malacca has been listed as a prominent World Heritage Site of UNESCO.

Some of the highlights of Malacca include-
A row of shophouses famously knowned as Hung Uk, or 'Red Houses'

St Paul's Church, from where you can catch a bird's eye view of the Malacca city

Studhuys Square with a fountain

Christ Church, Malacca, constructed in the 1700's

Church of St Francis Xavier

And A' Famosa fort, built hundreds of years ago by the Portugese. Now it's a site that's visited by millions of travellers.

If you do visit Malacca, there's another delicacy you must try. Cendols are popular in Malaysia. They are basically a dessert consisting of shaved ice served with boiled red beans, green starched noodles, enjoyed together with flavourings like coconut milk and palm sugar. In Malacca, though, you can enjoy a different variety of cendol, aptly named 'Durian' cendol, it is served with Durian flavouring.
Many people have commented on how strong and pungent Durian smells, to the point where it is overbearing. However, true to the saying a man's trash is another's treasure, true-blooded Malaysians like me can't live without it.

We had our durian cendol at this shop, which emits this old-school feel. And the most special thing about this is the tables used are actually parts of an old sewing machine.

Let's ask our experts on their take on the Durian cendol
(Benny takes a mouthful)
Hrm... Not bad at all, not bad at all...
Ming was more generous with the review- thumbs up!

While asking for directions, we had an interesting encounter with this lady at the petrol station there. Before we knew it, we had converse with her for the past hour about all things including our studies in Russia, our career choices, her life as a mother, et cetera et cetera.

One thing about Malacca though, having being enlisted as a city in the UNESCO list, I would have thought that the locals would be a little more... polite? A little more tourist-friendly, maybe? As I was about to cross this road towards the Studhuys square, as there were no pedestrian traffic light, I was waiting for the streams of cars to stop before crossing over. When I saw what seemed like a good chance for me to cross, not knowing much, I took my time walking across. Suddenly from about a few miles off I can see a car coming. It was speeding, speeding and before I know it, I had to leap across in order not to be knocked down. And the driver was what seemed like a middle aged woman! Would it have been that difficult to slow down your car to let a tourist cross the road?

But anyway, all too soon, it was time to ciao. All and all I felt it was a worthwhile travel. After all being a short distance away from Kuala Lumpur, I would recommend a trip to those planning to visit Malaysia.

The journey back.

Disclaimer: Anyone who knows me know one of the biggest passion (if not THE single biggest passion) in my life is travelling. And while others splurge and indulge in theirs, I do mine a little unorthodoxly. Granted I squeeze every penny's worth, I still try to maximize fun everyway I can.
This is the series of adventure during my trip around Peninsular Malaysia during this past 3rd- 13th August. Enjoy, woo-hoo!

All right, for those of you who do not live in Malaysia and do not speak Malay, the word 'meliwat' means sodomizing, which is actually a play on the word melawat, which means visiting or touring. Seeing the state in which my beloved country is in at the moment (what's with the politics and the sex scandals and et cetera...) I deem it fit to name my 10 days journey 'Tahun Meliwat Malaysia 2008'.

DAY 1

The first picture I captured using my newly bought Sony Cyber Shot digital camera.

The crowd at PC Fair, KLCC

The greatest sales tactic known to mankind- have chicks distribute flyers for your company in revealing clothes, push-up bra and heavily made-up face. You'll fall for it every time.
In front of the Petronas Twin Towers, our national monument.


Us Malaysians and our 'yam cha' habit
Benny
Ming and Bernard having a hearty chat

As we were doing our shopping around Mid-Valley, there was this ruckus and what seems like a crowd of little children.
It was some promotional works done for the High School Musical Ice Tour here in Malaysia.
I don't know if other people see it the same way as I do, but franchises such as High School Musical, Hannah Montana and others are really just capitalizing, and using children as fodder for profit. Not really the best people to reap a profit from.
Having said that, me and Ming left the shopping mall that night, all the while humming to the tunes of 'What time is it? Summertime. Anticipation!' Damn those catchy High School Musical tunes!


Flaming Platter from Manhattan Fish Market for dinner
Liar liar pants on fire!


We ended the night at Halo Cafe, Sunway branch
Met up with Kazakh friends, Shopan and her boyfriend, Ira, with whom we chatted in Russian with.

You know how somedays everything can seem like a deja vu? Like as though you're repeating a page of your history? Well, today definitely seemed like it.

On the journey to Ming's place this evening, I came across this poster- a Jazz Rock concert, featuring acts William Kennedy, Jeff Lorber and Dave Koz from the United States and Russian musician Sergei Chipenko, in a trans-atlantic jazz performance. Frequent readers of my blog would know how BORING our lives here in Kursk are, so knowing that some international acts are performing in this town here, a 6 time grammy award nominated artist no less (Dave Koz), me and my friends are jumping with the idea of attending the concert, of course.

But what striked me as familiar was this flyer here.


If you read my earlier post here titled 'Political Frenzy', you'd realize that it's the flyer of the SAME COMPANY that was pasted on another poster, this time, on a poster for a clown show...


Anyway, the weather was nice, sun was out, and a walk through a park is exactly what is needed. It was spring, yes, and yet with these fallen leaves here, you might even mistake it for autumn.





Then I saw these parents and their children out Which gave me another flashback to this post I did, titled 'Autumn in Kursk', with a similiar view.


A grandpa was also bringing his pet dog out for a walk...


Not unlike a picture I snapped of an old grandpa with his pet out for a walk a few months back.


So the menu for the night are Nasi lemak- savoury rice with fried chicken and sliced cucumber served with sambal.


A little reminiscence of a dinner he did a while back in this post, titled 'The Great Escape'.


For drinks, we had 7up which Ming spiked with his vodka.


For dessert, I made Lek Tau Suan with Yew Char Kuay, a traditional chinese dessert.

Actually, I didn't really even know the significance about Men's day. Knowing me, I'd be happy if there was any reason for us to gather together and cook ourselves a meal. In fact I only knew the meaning of this celebration from reading my friend and fellow blogger, Irise's entry on it.

So here we are, 2 days after Chap Goh Meh (the 15th day of Chinese New Year), finding ourselves in another holiday, what are we to do? Celebrate, of course!

We had much much more planned out for the night, though.

Starting with this Abalone, which my friend Benny brought from Malaysia.

And the Sea cucumber that Choc Ky brought, also from Malaysia.

And this Vacuum-Packed, Pre-cooked Peking Roasted Duck that I brought from Belgrade, Serbia.


Want to go behind the scenes of what would be an expensive, high-class, 5-star dinner?

Benny started off by slicing the Abalone into a few slices.

These are the ingredients needed to prepare the Abalone-chicken stew. Some sliced up chicken breast, the Abalone, of course, and some chinese mushroom, soaked.

As for the sea cucumber, I braised it with sliced pork and some chicken mushroom, with oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and pepper as seasoning.

We also had chinese spring roll, another expensive chinese delicacy. Here you see Sandra helping me out with the rolling of the spring roll.

As for the vege, we had steamed caluli flower and carrot, with razor clams (also I brought from Malaysia).

Chop chop chop! Clang Clang Clang and Voila! Our Men's Day dinner.

Let's see what it costs:
Chicken and abalone stew with chinese mushroom= RM 80/ USD 23.5

Braised Pork with Sea Cucumber with chinese mushroom in soy sauce and oyster sauce gracy= RM 85/ USD 25

Peking Roasted Duck with Gravy, served with slices of fresh Chinese cabbages= RM 75/ USD 22

Chinese Spring Roll= RM 10/ USD 3

Steamed cauli flower with sliced carrot with razor clams= RM 10/ USD 3

Which meant...
Cost of Dinner = RM 260, or USD 77!
The fact that we had Abalone, Roasted Duck, Razor Clams, Spring Rolls and Sea Cucumber all in one night here in Kursk, Russia? = Priceless!