Malacca Shore Excursion - SuperStar Virgo Cruise

Whilst on board the SuperStar Virgo holiday cruise ship, if you are on the route that stops at Malacca, you can opt for the Malacca shore excursion. However, this is a stop which is not free and easy. You will be required to book your Malacca shore excursion before 2230 hrs the night before. This can be taken as a mini Malacca vacation with a quick overview of the town.

Duration of Malacca shore excursion:- approximately 11 hours
Time to assemble:- 0715 hrs
Price:- SGD75 adult / SGD65 child

Itinerary:-
• St. Paul’s Hill Complex – visit the Independence Memorial, Porta De Santiago and the ruins of St. Paul’s Church

St Paul's Hill

• Bukit Cina – as the name implies, ‘Chinese Hill’ was the official settlement of the entourage that arrived with the Chinese Princess Hang Li Po. She was sent to Malacca by the Ming emperor to marry the Sultan, marking the advent of diplomatic relations between China and Malacca
• Hang Li Po’s Well – built by the followers of Hang Li Po, the well was the only source of water during great droughts. The Dutch enclosed it with stout walls to reserve it for their exclusive use. Today, it enjoys a reputation as a wishing well.

Hang Li Poh well

• Dutch Square – discover the Stadhuys, the Tan Beng Swee Clock Tower, Queen Victoria Fountain and Christ Church

Dutch Square

• Cheng Hoon Teng Temple – one of the oldest Chinese temple in the country, it was built in 1646 with materials shipped from China. Fine workmanship is evident in the ornate decorated mythological figures, carvings, and lacquer work inside the temple
• Jonker Street – authentic artifacts and relic, some dating as far back as 300 years, can be found among a host of interesting collectibles, each with its own history and mystery

Jonker Street

• Baba-Nyonya Heritage Museum – the ancestral home of three generations of a Straits-born Chinese Baba family, the building is now converted into a stunning museum that preserves the unique legacy of the Babas. The Babas combine Chinese and Malay culture, a result of marriages between early Chinese settlers and local Malay women. Over the years, a distinct culture called the Baba Nyonya or Peranakan culture emerged
• Photostop at the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur - one of the world’s tallest buildings

Petronas Twin Towers

• Petaling Street (Chinatown) – this colourful street of shops, restaurants and hawker stalls bustles with vitality. Flanking both sides of this street are shops selling anything from textiles to Chinese herbal medicines.



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Malaysia Shopping Trip 6 Mar - 7 Mar 2010

Petronas Twin Towers Malaysia

Taking the weekend off, we decided to make a trip up to Kuala Lumpur for some Malaysia shopping. This was a very last minute decision, as we needed to purchase some items from a pharmacy in Kuala Lumpur urgently. Since we were going to be traveling more than 300 km to Kuala Lumpur it only made sense for us to spend the night there before embarking on our journey back to Singapore. When we were searching online to book our Kuala Lumpur accommodation yesterday, we came across a few Kuala Lumpur hotels that were fully booked. We finally gave our friend Selva, assistant sales manager of Citrus Hotel, a call and asked him to help us book a room. As the Club Room which we stayed in before was fully booked, we managed to get a standard room at RM130 (USD40.50) nett including 2 breakfasts.

Leaving our house just after 0630 hrs in the morning, we hit the petrol station to top up petrol and dropped off some items at Mother’s house before we reached Tuas Checkpoint at 0720 hrs. We cleared both Singapore and Malaysia customs and immigrations at 0730 hrs and were on our way to Kuala Lumpur soon after via the North South Highway.

In between Tuas Checkpoint in Singapore and Sultan Abu Bakar Complex in Malaysia

Halfway through the journey, we made a brief stop at Restoran Jejantas (Overhead Bridge) Ayer Keroh. We took the opportunity to top up our Touch ‘n Go Card, a stored value card which we use at the toll booths and certain car parks in Malaysia.

Some of the toll booths you will pass along the North South Highway

Fork in the road where you decide to either go up north to Malacca and Kuala Lumpur or return south to Johor and Singapore

Distance to Malacca and Kuala Lumpur

Restoran Jejantas Ayer Keroh

The shop where you can top up your Touch n Go card

Or you can also top up your Touch n Go card where you see the Touch n Go sign


With not many vehicles on the North South highway and no slow moving traffic, we reached the Kuala Lumpur Sungei Besi toll at 1040 hrs which was very good timing. With the help of our Garmin global positioning system, we made our way to Sri Petaling area.

Getting into Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

When we arrived at our destination, we parked at the roadside where you are required to pay via a parking meter. However when we tried using the parking meter, we were stumped and did not know how to cancel the wrong data that was input. LOL… We finally drove to Sri Petaling Hotel less than 100 m away and parked in the hotel car park. Parking charges start from RM2 (USD0.60) for the first hour and RM1 (USD0.30) every subsequent hour.

We headed for AA Pharmacy in Sri Petaling to get our specially ordered items. At the same time, we were browsing through the shelves and were pleasantly surprised by the knowledge of the staff. We finally ended up buying some other supplements as well.

AA Pharmacy in Sri Petaling

As we explored the Sri Petaling area of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, we could get a very strong and fragrant smell of bak kut teh (pork ribs soup) coming from one of the shops. However they only start operations from 1700 hrs. Instead, the lady who entertained us invited us to try her dim sum food (small portions of a variety of fried and steamed dishes) next door.

We decided to take her advice and give it a try. We found the dim sum food to be quite tasty. In addition, we managed to try a few varieties of dim sum such as lotus paste bao (bun), chicken feet (yes, we actually love this dish), chee cheong fun (rice noodle roll) and century egg porridge amongst others. It was a pleasant and tasty lunch. The total cost for the dim sum meal was RM25.60 (USD8.00). Here are some pictures of the various dim sum food that we ordered for lunch.

Century egg porridge

Lotus paste bao

Other varieties of dim sum, with the chicken feet at top left

Chee cheong fun

The many varieties of dim sum food that you can choose from

The place where we had our dim sum lunch

Hotel Citrus, Kuala Lumpur

Next we went back to Sri Petaling Hotel’s car park, retrieved the car and made our way to our Kuala Lumpur accommodation for the night, Citrus Hotel. This time we did not lose our way, as we knew exactly where the hotel was with the assistance of our Garmin global positioning system plus the fact that this was our second time staying in this hotel. By the time we arrived at the hotel and checked in, it was already after 1400 hrs, the official check-in time.

Clean, bright and simple bedroom

View of the pool from our room

The room from another angle

After leaving our luggage in the room and freshening up, we walked to the Chow Kit area across the road. This is the wholesale area and you can find lots of wholesalers in the area. We spent our afternoon shopping in this area. Whilst making our way across the road to the wholesale area, we could see the majestic architectural splendour, the Petronas twin towers.

Petronas twin towers

You can find a variety of items at wholesale prices including fashion accessories, timepieces, clothing, bags, haberdashery, etc…

Here you can find lots of candies, snacks and drinks

Some of the wholesalers in the area



We had a fun time at the Suanson as well as Bake with Yen shops where we found lots of items that the avid baker would go ‘gaga’ over. If you are like me who can spend hours in such shops, I recommend that you go early as most of the shops in this area close at 1700 hrs.

Bake with Yen

Suanson

Lovely boxes

And more baking supplies

As we left the area, we could see the stall holders for the Chow Kit night market starting to set up shop.

Stall holders setting up shop for the night market

After we finished shopping, we walked back to our accommodation and left our shopping goodies in the room. We took a short ten minutes rest before going out for dinner. To our surprise, the roads were wet. It must have been a passing shower that we had narrowly missed.

We walked around the corner and came across Restoran Ong Lai. This establishment operates from 1730 hrs – 0130 hrs. For dinner, we ordered sambal kangkung, sweet and sour pork, fried hokkien mee as well as fried glass noodle. We couldn’t wait to try the Malaysian food. In addition, we ordered two glasses of lime juice as well as a glass of coca-cola. Total bill after including RM1 (USD0.30) for 2 wet towels came up to RM42.60 (USD13.30).

Restoran Ong Lai

Thirst quenching lime juice

Quite a good crowd at an early hour

Fried hokkien mee

Fried glass noodle

Sweet and sour pork

Sambal kang kung

We have to admit that the food here was of restaurant standard. You will enjoy the tasty and delicious food. At the same time, the pricing is of restaurant standard as well! This place seems to be quite popular as there were quite a number of people dining here as well. You can get some great tasting Malaysian food here.

Chefs at work along the roadside

After dinner, we walked around the area for a short while before making our way back to our Kuala Lumpur accommodation for the night. As we were tired from all the Malaysia shopping as well as being totally satisfied with the wonderfully simple, yet delicious, Malaysian and dim sum food that we had tasted, we decided to call it an early night.



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Malaysia Shopping – Malacca & KL 23 – 24th Jan 2010

Once again, we embark on another Malaysia shopping journey. This time, we travel the Singapore Malacca route via the North South highway enroute to Kuala Lumpur. We were fortunate to taste some delicious local Malaysian food.

We started on our Singapore Malacca journey bright and early at 0630 hrs. Having made good timing, we cleared both the Singapore and Malaysia customs and immigration by 0720 hrs even with a little queue at the Malaysian side of the Second Link.

Queue starting at the Malaysian end of the Second Link

Booth where we used to be able to collect Malaysia's white card - the immigration form - but which have been out of stock for the past few months.  Fortunately for us, we managed to get them from the immigration officer...  finally!

Exiting at Ayer Keroh, the latest toll was RM24.30 (USD7.15). However our Touch & Go card was short of RM1.80 (USD0.55) after having paid RM10.80 (USD3.15) and RM3.90 (USD1.15) in tolls earlier. The toll attendant came over and told us to pay up RM2 (USD0.60). Pulling up at the Ayer Keroh toll office just a few metres away, we immediately topped up our Touch & Go Card.

Holiday Travel Tips:-

Ensure you have sufficient amount in your Touch & Go card so that you do not need to pay any extra. And it makes for a much smoother journey.

Malacca, here we come

Our first destination in Malacca was Jalan Temenggong. Arriving at about 0945 hrs, we took a while to find a parking lot. Next we had to find a place to purchase the parking coupons which cost RM6 (USD1.75) for 10 hours of parking at RM0.60 (USD0.20) per hour.

A make-shift stall frying Chinese cruellers, just next to where we parked

Gan Hong Hoe Market

We headed straight for Gan Hong Hoe Market to check out the place. Selling mostly meats, fish and vegetables in the wet market section, we proceeded to the back and found some food stalls at Medan Selera. We decided to try their Malaysian food and ordered their prawn noodles as well as fish head noodles.

Medan Selera Food Centre

The prawn noodles at RM3 (USD0.90) was quite plain though the chilli was spicy. There was a long wait for the fish head noodles but it was well worth it. At RM5 (USD1.50) a bowl, it was very tasty with a generous topping of fish. What a great choice indeed and we look forward to coming back for more from this stall which does not even have any sign to indicate what it was selling.

 Stall selling prawn noodles

Prawn noodles 

  

Fish noodle soup - oh, so yummy!

Stall selling fish noodles

  The wet market

After a hearty breakfast, we walked a few metres down the same street to King Hin Plastic Enterprise, a favourite haunt for avid bakers and stallholders. Well-known for their wide range of packaging including cake boxes and plastic containers of various shapes and sizes, it was quite crowded.

 Great place to shop for bakers and stall holders

Since Chinese New Year is just around the corner, some of the prices have been raised. However if you are looking for Chinese New Year stickers, a sheet of 9 stickers, approximately 1.5 – 2 inches in diameter cost RM1.10 (USD0.30) . Buying in greater quantity would get you a better price as well. We had just bought these stickers 3 days ago in Kulai, Malaysia, for RM1.80 after bargaining.

Next stop was Dataran Pahlawan Shopping Centre since we had a request to buy some coffee from San Shu Gong. Since we were there we took the opportunity to enjoy Malacca’s famous dessert, the chendol (dessert of shaved ice with coconut milk and brown palm sugar). Both the original chendol at RM4.80 (USD1.40) and the durian chendol at RM5.80(USD1.70) tasted good and the portion was generous. With a strong palm sugar flavour, this chendol is very different from others that we have tried for the fact that the ice is very smooth and find. This is definitely a ‘must-try’ if you are in Malacca, especially in San Shu Gong.

San Shu Gong, great place to buy Malaysia's local products

San Shu Gong's hampers (left) and trinkets (right)

 Their famous durian chendol

 The durian chendol

For those of you who are shy of the durians, then go for the original chendol

Chinese New Year decorations

Chinese New Year clothings 

1240 hrs saw us carrying on with our journey to Kuala Lumpur. Along the way, we managed to snap some interesting clouds images.

Clouds images

We stopped by Palace of the Golden Horses, a resort we stayed last November and met up with the Director of Operations, Mr Andrew Satu, for a friendly chat. At the same time, we managed to snap some pictures of the Chinese New Year decorations in the Palace of the Golden Horses.  Oh!  Not forgetting if you are looking for a great, grand and unique place for a wedding shoot, this is definitely one such place.










Happy Chinese New Year at The Palace of the Golden Horses, a beautiful resort hotel

 Chinese New Year decorations  

  At the Cafe. . .  

With Mr Andrew Satu  

 Looking for a great place for a wedding shoot?

Leaving the Palace of the Golden Horses just before 1600 hrs, we made our way to our Kuala Lumpur accommodation for the night – Citrus Hotel. Located off Jalan Raja Laut, this 171 rooms budget hotel enjoys easy access to the city centre. The hotel is in an excellent location with access to the rail network which provides efficient links to the entire city of Kuala Lumpur.

 Hotel Citrus Reception

Citrus Hotel, can be considered a budget hotel on the higher end

We managed to get one of the 15 parking lots located directly in front of the hotel. By the time we checked in and went to our Club room, it was already after 1700 hrs.

 Nice & spacious bedroom

Bedroom interior 

 Cozy sofa area

Holiday travel tips:-

You can book a club floor room on some online sites at RM150 (USD44) nett. However there are only limited rooms available. Should you be able to get that rate, it is really value for money as you will be entitled to the following:-
- welcome drink
- fresh fruits
- complimentary unlimited WIFI access
- complimentary shoe shine service
- late check out till 1600 hrs upon request, subject to availability

You will also have access to:-
- personalized check in and check out services
- complimentary coffee, tea and soft drinks
- complimentary snacks
- complimentary use of internet work stations
- concierge service
- business centre and secretarial services upon request

After freshening up, we proceeded to the Club Lounge on the 10th floor for a drink. The Club Lounge requires an elegant casual dress code which means no shorts, singlets, fitness attire, room slippers and flip flops. Strictly a non-smoking area, it was a lovely cozy place where you can get a clear view of the Petronas Twin Towers. The internet access though was intermittent and we just enjoyed the complimentary snacks provided.












At the Club Lounge

A cozy area where you can get internet access 

Coffe maker  

  Snacks

 

2 terminals available where you can access the internet

 Petronas Twin Towers - view from the Club Lounge

Next we took a walk to explore the surroundgs and came across a few other hotels in the area. We came across KWC Wholesale at 19 Jalan Belia off Jalan Raja Laut and decided to check it out. We managed to do some shopping there and found that some items were being offered at ‘wholesale’ prices.

 KWC Wholesale

Some of the varieties or items that were being sold

Our contact person for Citrus Hotel, Sleva, Assistant Sales Manager, gave us a call on our mobile phone and came to meet us at the KWC Wholesale shop. He and a friend of his, Fifi, then walked us back to Citrus Hotel to have dinner at Café Citrus.

Selva & Fifi











Our order included spaghetti carbonara, fried kway teow and beef hor fun (thick flat rice noodles). Verdict for the food in this budget hotel in Kuala Lumpur – not bad on the whole. The sago gula Malacca dessert was another local Malaysian food that we tried and thought was of quite a good standard.

Spaghetti carbonara

 Fried kway teow

Beef hor fun

 Sago gula Malacca

Banana split

Whilst having dinner, we had a great time chit chatting and catching up with Selva who had just joined Citrus Hotel 3 days ago. It was good to be able to catch up.


After dinner, we went back to the room and offloaded our shopping parcels. We then continued exploring the area. Less than 5 minutes away by foot, we came across the Chow Kit night market. Most of the other shops were closed by now except for the night market.



Chow Kit night market


As Selva mentioned that he would pick us up tomorrow between 1030 hrs – 1100 hrs to show us the way to some other wholesale shops, we did not walk for long. When we started making our way back to our Kuala Lumpur accommodation for the night, it started pouring and we were slightly drenched as it was a sudden downpour. We were caught unaware. At the same time, since most of the shops around the area were already closed, we decided to walk back to the hotel in the rain instead of waiting for the rain to subside.

Back at the Citrus Hotel, we proceeded once again to the Club Lounge on the 10th floor to enjoy the cozy atmosphere and a drink. The internet access here though was still intermittent and so we decided to go back to the room where the internet access was slightly better.  However, we did manage to take in the magnificent night view of the Petronas Twin Towers

 Beautiful night view of the Petronas Twin Towers

We called for some extra amenities and it took more than 30 minutes to arrive. Even when the runner came, he only brought one out of the 3 items requested and we were disappointed to hear that there were no more pillows. He came back a few minutes later bringing the second item and finally approximately half and hour from his first visit with the 2 extra pillows.

Being in a Club room, we were supposed to receive fresh fruits upon checking with the Reception earlier, we were told that the fruits would be placed in the room either in the morning or evening. However we did not receive any fruits today.

Thus ended our first day of our Malaysia shopping trip. Our Singapore Malacca portion of the journey was great as we thoroughly enjoyed the truly local Malaysian food we discovered at the market. We also managed to purchase most of the items that we were looking for and even found a wholesale area to shop in. The area around our Kuala Lumpur accommodation, Hotel Citrus, seems quite interesting especially with the wholesale shop that we found and the night market close by. However the service in the hotel could be improved for better guest experience.



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