... is very relaxing, as they say.
(As you can see, I'm rhyming.... hooray?)
For the Wesak Day holiday, Princess Jasmine and I decided to drive four hours (traffic congestion) down south to the land of commercialised history, Malacca.
(Actually, I drove four hours down south while she played navigator to my driver by offering Pringles and keeping me awake)
We stayed near Jonker Street because we are tourists.
Our guest house is located along the river that smells like a fish tank.
The bathrooms were communal and had a very large window opening towards the river.
Princess Jasmine told me "You will enjoy the view"
I returned to the room after my visit to the loo and asked "I will enjoy the view or THEY will enjoy the view?"
Our room had four beds so we rolled around like queens.
Once we were freshened up we immediately went searching for lunch.
Princess Jasmine wanted the famous assam laksa so she lined up for 45 minutes while I searched for a place to sit among the throng of tourists.
Then we walked along and met up with SeoHun who lives there.
She brought us to a place called The Baboon House which is the loveliest place I have ever been to.
Words don't do it justice, let's hope my pictures do.
On the way to The Baboon House, we walked by an antique shop which I was attracted to because of the many antique chandeliers hanging from its ceilings.
I was informed by SeoHun that it is one of the better antique shops.
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I found my dream lamp there. I have never been happier.
(This is the part where I leaned over the van parked outside to look into the antique shop)
We had dinner at the very touristy Geographers Cafe.
Filled to the brim and vowing not the eat anything more, we exited into the night market and promptly purchase Ma Zhi which was so good.
... and then we called up SeoHun (who was helping her friend at his restaurant)
We met up with her at this little hole called Shantaram. Owned by a lovely Malaysian man and his Swiss wife, we were greeted by the wife with a "Canned beer is 6 dollars and soft drinks are 5. It's in the fridge so help yourself"
Lovely!
(Note: Instead of business hours, it says "Beastness Hours")
The next day, we woke up late.
I woke at 7 because I heard thunder. She woke up at 8 to visit the loo. She promptly returned to fall back asleep. My alarm rang at 10, I rose to switch it off and she did not even so much as twitch. We both woke up fully at 10:30.
After showering in the communal bathroom, we departed with SeoHun for some dimsum.
Then we did the touristy thing and visited the Masjid Kampung Kling and the temple (something Hoon Teng, I think).
Don't tell my very Christian grandmother but I kneeled before the 'idol' and did the can shaking thing to get my fortune read.
An experience this born-Christian-now-free-thinker has never experienced.
After coming out of the temple, Princess Jasmine and my minds filled with giddy thoughts due to the lucky fortunes we received, we walked into a village called Kampung Ketek.
According to SeoHun 'ketek' is 'ketiak' which is 'armpit'.
I would love to write that in my address.
Within this village lies a few graves; of course we walked in.
After the temple and grave visits and before we retrieved our luggage and my car, we dropped by a second hand bookstore owned by the same lovely couple who owns Shantaram.
I bought two books, The Many Loves of Casanova Part 1 and The Story of English Literature.
Both were printed in the 60's.
I love finding old books.
After driving through a very intense jam on a one lane road, we arrived in Klebang for ye famous coconut shake.
After crowding with the weekenders, we realised it was 5:30PM and decided to leave for home.
Basically, a really good weekend.
