One particular day, I randomly told hubby that I wanted to visit Malacca since Malacca is well-known for their yummy food and accessibility. Being only a 3hr plus journey away from Singapore, not much planning was required and a weekend getaway was possible. Hence, we went straight into the booking of coach and hotel.
We boarded the coach from at Golden Mile Complex on a Saturday morning. After about 4 hours (including immigration), our coach arrived at Malacca. It then began the journey of dropping passengers at various hotels. As our hotel was one of the nearest one to the town centre, we were dropped last and picked up the earliest (on the return trip).
The Straits Hotel and Suites is located within walking distance from Malacca’s major attractions and shopping malls. Initially, my plan was to book the Deluxe Twin room. But after comparing the prices and finding out that the Premier Suite cost only SGD70 per night (just a few more dollars than the Deluxe Twin), we decided to go with that!
The suite was a corner room. It came with a spacious living room with dining area, as well as a right-angled balcony overlooking the sea and other hotels in the region. In the room, there was a spacious toilet and walk-in wardrobe. Although we had only 1 night there, it felt really quite luxurious to stay in such a nice room. Having explored my suite, we decided to look at other facilities in the hotel. The pool was located at level 23 of the building and was 1 of the infinity pools in Malacca. It overlooked the city and directly faced the Hatten Hotel which is a popular choice (and more expensive) among Singaporeans. However, the pool was super chilly. I decided not to jump into it and headed out for my food hunt instead.
Bedroom and toilet 
Living area 
Infinity pool 
Lobby
Chicken Rice Balls – Ee Ji Ban Chicken Rice Stall
As we were really hungry by now, we stopped by the 1st chicken rice stall we saw just next to our hotel. Seats were available and it did no take us long to decide on our order! The meat is not as dry as others said it to be. Maybe we were hungry.. So we gobbled up our food. Not bad!
After which, we cut through the Melaka Megamall to reach the other attractions. A Famosa is a fortress built by the Portuguese during the Portuguese administration. At that time, it was used to defend against foreign invasion. Now, it is a popular tourist photo stop.
As we continued uphill, we arrived at the St Paul’s Church. Built in 1521, this is believed to be the oldest church building in Malaysia. Inside the church, there were several huge tombstones with engravings. If you have the time, do slow down and try to make sense of the inscriptions. Outside the church, we also met a friendly old artist who was painting on postcard sized papers. We had a short chat with him and he gifted us with 1 of his works!
By now, we were feeling very hot and were trying to find an indoor place to hide from the sun. We then headed to the Maritime Museum. It is housed in a giant ship replica and shoes had to be removed before entering. We had a quick tour of the museum. There were some life sized figurines telling the history of Malacca’s trade. It was not exactly cooling in the museum and to be honest, I was quite worried about my slippers missing!
We past by a stall selling chilled watermelon juice in the whole watermelon itself! We grabbed one and continued our journey on our food hunt. For food, we were prepared to walk… Even if it means carrying a watermelon in hand!
Satay Lok Lok – Restoran Capital Satay
According to google maps, the walk should only take 11mins. But somehow, we took around 20mins to reach. Perhaps the heat was draining us… We heard about how popular the satay lok lok here could be and how long we might have to queue for it. Being a typical kiasu Singaporean, we arrived at 4pm so as to be in the front of the queue when the eatery open at 5pm. To our pleasant surprised, I actually got the opening hours wrong! It was already opened at 4pm and hence, we managed to get a seat very soon and occupied a table to ourselves! Customers that came later than us had to share table! There was a good variety of food in the fridge. All we had to do was to dip the sticks into the thick satay gravy, devour the food and then pay at the counter before we left! Each stick had a different colour code which indicated the different prices.
An empty restaurant cause we were there early by mistake! 
Wide variety of choices! 
Yumsss 
We look hungry and hot!
With a full and satisfied tummy, we took a stroll back to the Jonker Street Night Market. There were stalls and eateries lined on both sides of the street. It was quite a nice stroll in the evening (minus the hot weather).
With time to spare, we went on a river cruise along the Malacca River. There, we saw many other hotels in Malacca with a river view. We then stood by the river and watched other colourful boats go past us as the clock ticked away…
Peranakan Food – Cottage Spices Peranakan Food
With some peranakan heritage linked to her history, Malacca is also known for serving delicious peranakan food. On the following day before we left, we randomly entered a restaurant just behind our hotel and ordered some dishes to share. It was really yummy!
Although it was a mere 24hrs in Malacca, I understood why it is such a popular destination among Singaporeans. It is near. It is convenient. Hotels are affordable. Food is yummylicious. In fact, I want to go back again more for the food than shopping or the attractions! Hope to see you again soon, Malacca!
Perrine Travels 