Thank you for being a friend « Becklee’s Blog

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Thank you for being a friend

Thursday, February 5, 2009 by becklee

On 2 February 2009, Irene and I drove down to Malacca to meet up with Jen who is back here from Melbourne to visit her family for the Chinese New Year as well as to attend a relative’s wedding in Singapore. We bunked in with Jen and her two children at the Mahkota Hotel Melaka. She had booked a two room deluxe apartment and we had a comfortable stay there.

Mahkota Hotel Melaka

After unloading our bags into the apartment, we walked to Mahkota Parade which is right across the road from the hotel. The mall was brightly decorated…

Inside Mahkota Parade

Little red lanterns

We went to the food court to have our late lunch. I had chicken rice and so did Jen’s two children. Irene had fried koay teow and Jen had some spicy chicken rice. We also shared the popiah and ice kacang. The ice kacang was delicious because of the “gula melaka”.

Popiah

Ice kacang

Jen and her kids did some shopping but the three of us were so engrossed in talking inside the shops that her kids disappeared on their own without our knowing. Anyway, we then decided to go back to Mahkota Hotel to continue yakking. Jen, Irene and I have been best friends since we were classmates from Form 3 to Form 5. Even after we left school to pursue our further education and careers, we kept in touch through letters and in recent years through emails.

That night, we joined our former classmates for dinner (that’s a story to be told in my next posting). After dinner we continued yakking until nearly 1 a.m. before going to bed.

The next morning, after breakfast, we decided to explore the facilities at the hotel. Jen had scouted around early in the morning and had done some work-out at the gym while Irene and I were still in bed.

First off we went to the spa which was next to the swimming pool. Both Irene and I didn’t bring our swimming suits so we thought we could try our luck by jumping into the spa pool with our shorts and t-shirts. But luck was against us and the pool attendant said no, we couldn’t use the spa and that if we wanted we could use the kiddie pool. So we left and tried our hand at the mini golf. This was the first time that Irene and I held a golf stick and hit a golf ball. My first hit sent the ball flying out of the mini golf course but after a few swings, it was okay. Then we walked bare-footed on the reflexology path. It was good but Irene gave it a skip. We saw this model of a kampung house ….

Model of Malay kampung house

and trishaw…

Trishaw

After that we decided to explore outside the hotel. We walked to the Jetty. This jetty connects the Mahkota Hotel to the Holiday Inn.

The Jetty connecting Mahkota Hotel and Holiday Inn

Holiday Inn

As we walked along the Jetty, we could see the Straits of Malacca. It was almost mid-day but it looks hazy, is the place polluted or what? There are pubs, karaoke, cyber cafe, massage centre, cafes and shops along the Jetty. It was quite deserted in the day time, maybe this place would come alive at night.