our "limo". we were squashed like a sardine can :\

the drive took about 1 hour and a half i think, because there wasn't a jam yet. the driver said if there's a jam then i would probably take 2 to 3 hours. arrived Melaka, we couldn't find our hotel, LOL. the driver said if it's a big and famous hotel, he knows lah. ours were slightly smaller and more economical lah. i told Mum that we didn't need any fancy hotels cause our purpose going there was to explore anyway and not just stay in the hotel and hibernate =.= so after a few turns and here and there, I FOUND THE HOTEL!!! lol. i almost let loose a hysterical scream, "THERE IT IS!!!!!" LOLLLLLLLLL.

Mum booked 2 rooms but with an adjoining door. one room with a queen sized bed and the other were 2 single beds. both with own toilet and dresser and closet. GOOD. i don't have to share with........., HA!

me and Koko

Mum's.

as soon as we dropped our stuff in our room, wash up a lil and then out we went for a day of exploring around Melaka! :) the hotel manager was very friendly, he gave us all the directions and also gave us a map to get around! so that day we just wandered around and tried to get lost in Melaka, haha. but first, we cannot go dora the explorer without any fuel to burn! lols. lunch lunch lunch!

after lunch we walked around here and there without a particular destination in mind ;)

jambatan kg. Jawa

i love their river!!! it has a type of "feel" to it. and i think it would look absolutely romantic during the sunset :)

oh look! there's a river cruise! we did manage to get on the river cruise but not on that day lah..

there was a pet shop nearby..

kg. jawa bridge, if i'm not mistaken it was also known as the HAUNTED bridge O__O *whoooooo, spooks.

more views of the Melaka river.

that's St. Francis Xavier church up aheard!!

roaming around the streets of Melaka...

their shoplots look very ancient and old, but not in a bad way! it's like each building secretly holds its own secrets and its own past, who knows how long have the buildings been there? the buildings probably have watched civilization from the 1900s' turn to the the now 21st century, or maybe older than that. it's quite mysterious and somehow quite magical, really. it's like, land of the lost or something.

they have MANY open art galleries! real artists pouring their heart out on a painting and selling them in hopes of getting at least a few cash to get them by. went inside this one and i bought a postcard of the artist's painting :) had a little chat with the artist and it was quite fun :) haha. it was an angmoh!!! XD

Mum said they are shark fins. my gosh. imagine, the shark is probably very huge and can swallow an adult human in one big giant mouth. poor shark :'(

just look at how ancient the buildings are!

stopped by a Baba Nyonya restaurant to try out some Baba Nyonya recipe!

inside the restaurant, whoa, all sorts of antiques were on display!

and old radio!! very retro :) haha. few days ago i went to Po's house and i saw she a radio like that too! i'll ask her later if i can keep it! LOL.

just shelf after shelf of precious antiques! who knows they've been passed down from how many generations?!

we took a seat at the back of the restaurant, next to Melaka river :) the view is really nice!! while waiting for our food, me and the brothers walked around the back of the shoplots and did some exploring XD

St. Francis Xavier church.

i have many pictures of this church, more will be uploaded in the next post :) i dunno why but i really like the church, maybe it's the structure or maybe it's all the little details on the church. you should see the inside. their coloured glass is really beautiful...

murals on a B&B hotel.

our food arrived!! some of the dishes we tried...

gula melaka pudding. sweet and cooling especially on a hot weather. though the sago was quite, um, lumpy.

meehun siam. erm, ok lah it's quite spicy.

"YERRRR!! WHY BLUE COLOUR DE?!?!?!" don't ask me, i also dunno, haha. this is called "rempah udang". erm, quite similar to the ones like in KK but the taste is slightly different lah, you can taste the many spices in it.

OHHH!!! GUESS WHAT ATAI FOUND UNDERNEATH OUR FEET, UNDERNEATH THE WOODEN FLOOR WHILE AT THE RESTAURANT?!?!?!?! a RM100 bill? a gold bar? a treasure chest?!

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OH. MY. GAWD. hahahahahaha!! only people who are very free and have nothing to do in the world would discover this animal lurking underneath our feet. haha. we even informed the waitress there and she didn't dare to even STEP on the wooden floor right above the lizard =.= haha. what's it called already ah...oh ya! BIAWAK! i told the chef to cook it for dinner. LOL. the chef ever stayed in Sabah and he said Sabahan love love love it very much, LOLLLLL.

after that, we went to a few antique shops, just looking around :)

old money..

old tea?

an old vintage telephone!! actually we weren't allowed to take pictures or to touch them. but i sneaked a few shots, LOL. me and Koko picked up the phone and very sakai-ly dialed the numbers! sooooo cool oohhhhh. i wanna take the phone back home with me!! :(

it's a turnable!!! i tried to lift the huge CD and it felt soooo fragile and very breakable O__O

old iron!!

these keepsake tins are nice!! i wanted to get some for my friends but when i saw the price...on second thought..haha.

do you know they also sell antique doors?!

a spindle! wahhh, i immediately thought of Sleeping Beauty! i go touch the sharp thing that Princess Aurora accidentally picked her finger at and made her go into a deep slumber, but nothing happened to me also =.= haha. just kidding :P

this is a kacang plate, LOL. i mean, it looks like one of those plates people use to put kacangs in. look at the details on the plate O___O really nice!! they said it was hand-drawn!

we came across a museum, which was called Muzium Cheng Ho, aka. Cheng Ho Museum.

i dunno if it says that on the board lah. I CAN'T READ IT!! D:

love the drawings on the lantern!

this is the carriage used to carry the bride! the door is like seriously VERY SMALL. there's no way i could in it. i feel offended D: haha.

it's a real well! BWUAHAHAHAHA, CAREFUL AHHH, SAMARA LIVES IN THEREEEEEE!!! you guys know who's Samara bah right? it's the long hair-ed girl who was trapped inside the well and died inside it in the movie The RING. i freaking remember the story very clearly because it seriously scared the crap outta me. Samara comes and haunt you after you watch a mysterious tape, and then you will see her slowly crawling out from the wall and getting closer...closer...and closer to your tv screen and then she will...........crawl out from your tv screen AND GET YOU!! ahhh!!

a miniature of what Melaka looked like back then. that building there is actually the museum NOW. but due to certain reasons issued by the government, they were forced to take down the two bell towers :( so only left the middle structure as the museum.

huge pots, not sure if that's the right word for it, um, tempurung? they're original and been donated by all the locals around Melaka for the musem.

so Cheng Ho is a really famous explorer or something. he opened the doors for China to establish business with other countries. he sailed to Melaka, and reached to as far as Africa! well, someplace in Africa lah if i'm not mistaken. on one of the destinations, the king or some sort gave Cheng Ho a HUGE giraffe to be brought back for the emperor of China then!

the giraffe's butt. IT'S HUGE!! so can you imagine how BIG is Cheng Ho's ship to carry this giant giraffe?! gosh, maybe it's as huge as Megalong oh!! really, the museum man said they built really huge ships for his journey.

China plates and bowls that Cheng Ho brought to Melaka. these are real artifacts. i also have on of that blue bowls at home, haha.

another well. there's a total of 3 wells in that museum!

after the tour around the museum, we get to watch a puppet show! :D

Cheng Ho was a eunuch. means, he had his "thing" removed when he was a kid and served the emperor king. cruel thing, really.

after that we continued our tour...

back in those days, people store medicines here!

traditional chinese instruments

chess!

oh!!! HERE'S THE HEAD OF THE GIANT GIRAFFE!! see it's 2 storey tall O___O

did you know? Cheng Ho was actually born in a muslim family?? i think that's why he dared to sail to Melaka since it's also a muslim country!

see? got Jawi features also..

that jar is the....what my friends told me just early this year. the "thing" is stored inside the jar and is being carried around by the eunuch, oh gosh. won't rot de meh? LOL.

miniature of all of Cheng Ho's ships during his sail. there were hundreds of them!!

other really famous explorers, Christopher Columbus, Francis Drake etc..