Sunday, July 20, 2008
My Weekend
After we cleared the other cust0m, got ourselves some drinks, we were on our way to Melak@. We did not have any stopovers and sped all the way to our destination. After an approx 2ish hour drive, we finally got to pump petrol at Melak@ and had our t0ilet break.
Soon, we checked into Emperor hotel, quickly dumped our bags and rushed out to have our lunch. We were so famished and luckily there was this chicken rice restaurant nearby.
What you see is the rice ball. Which is not exactly nice. But the chicken and char siew were good.
We then wandered around, wanting to go to Jonker Street, which is in fact a street market.
Welcome to Jonker Street.We started our walk at 5pm. We first entered this Jonker Gallery, which retails clothing. I bought a tee for rm35.90 only. But as we walk along, we realized there were several Jonker Gallery butiks, except that they sell a different 'genre'.
Then there are the odd finds along the way.
The 'punishing' footwearThere are cowboy hats going for rm8, batons, swords, toy guns...
Less than 10minutes later, we chanced upon this store that baked pineapple tarts. It came out fresh from the oven and the samples tasted so wonderful and the 8 of us grabbed as much as we wanted. I got 3 boxes myself.
At 5ish, the streets still looked empty.
Kinda remind me of Bugis Street.Just that Jonker Street is def. more fun to walk.
And you would never go hungry there.
Popiah seller's roaring businessSidetrack... Daniel brought along his wishlist. Chicken rice. Done.
Then we had the chendol he had wanted. It was SO GOOD.
By 6, vendors started to set up their stalls. Just like what they do in Phuket. Difference is that the things in Jonker Street is worth seeing and that you have this feeling you won't get carrot-chopped.
Someone told me this was nice.
I had no idea what it was and ordered kiwi.
It was just kiwi, coated with malted suger.
Chey. Nothing special.
Then there was this dim sum store.
I tried some of them and they tasted quite good. Abit hard though, cus it was filled up with so much meat.
Jonker Street comprises of 2 lanes filled with stalls. And it took us more than 2 hours to cover most of it.
Disappointing thing is that it started to drizzle.
It didn't spoil our mood. We proceeded to have some more food in the open. I thought this was quite interesting. rm0.60 per stick only.
Daniel's 3rd wish came true when he ordered bowls of laksa.
I dunno why I thought it was interesting to find one J@panese store out of nowhere.By 9, we made our way out of there as the drizzle started to get heavier. We went back to our hotel room for a shower. There was abit of dilly-dallying as Daniel and I watched Amazing Race in our room.
At 10ish, we made our way to the hawker centre opposite our hotel. We had earlier pooled rm50 each to fund our group meals. We spent the rest of it on satays, bbq chicken wings, beggar chicken, sting ray, oyster omelette, rojak and several bottles of Heineken.
By then, we were so tired and our feet were aching.
But I wasn't allowed to enter into this foot massage place. No Salesman.
Emperor Hotel is a budget hotel. It cost us 5gd60 for a room. But the room itself was not too shabby. Quite comfy, I would say.
Same like R0yal Paradise in Phuket, Emperor Hotel offers a magnificent view.
Daniel and I woke up at 7ish and wanted to go for a swim. The weather was so cooling and cold air was blowing at our faces. The water was so cold, it took me quite sometime to go in the water. As I put on my google and went into it, I was disgusted at how green the water was. I couldn't even see the pool wall!
I jumped right out of the water and almost instantly regretted at my decision as the wind continued to slap me.
The two of us just stood there, admiring the scenary. I was actually looking at our cars from the bird's eye view.
We met the rest for English breakfast at 9, packed our stuff, and checked out at 1030. We then headed towards their local snack shops, where I loaded some biscuits. There, I saw 2 familiar faces.
We headed to one of the shopping centers. It was huge. But Center World in B@ngk0k is bigger. Nvm that.
The building is so big that underneath that HUGE field is the level 1 of the shopping center. What you see in the picture is another part of the shopping center. Fine, it looked like a m0sque to me until I saw the C@rref0ur signage.
Another thing that I realized is that the B@nk is quite 'aggressive' in Melak@. You can find banners all over the streets.
Then there is this roadshow me and my c0lleagues would die to go for. Just look at the HUGE turnout!
The br@nch is renovated the same way as our transf0rmed branches in 5'p0re.
Different unif0rms though.
Cute sporty Lati0. M@rk should consider doing up his.
We had a filling lunch, cleared the bowels and it was time to leave Melak@.
Another few hours of drive. Which I find it enjoyable.
But the rain caused a couple of accidents along the way. One of them saw a couple cars crashed. In fact, it affected 2 lanes.
Some of my own purchases.We had a couple of stopovers and the last one saw us having dinner at KFC, pumped the petrol and cleared our way through the massive jam at Tu@s checkp0int. Dropped my friends and then headed to the club for a swim. Was 8 then, and thought I should do some exercise to burn off what I had consumed over the past 2 days.
Dunno why I'm having M0nday blues. Something I had not have since this year.
Back to wearing unif0rms.
