Travel Diary: Malacca & A Lil Bit of KL

So, earlier this January, I had a spontaneous trip with Angel (or you can just call her Tweety or Mojacko or whatever cause she looks like them, at least to me 😂). We booked the flight around 3 or 2 weeks before and went there during the weekend. It was my first time in Malaysia after 10 years. 

Kuala Lumpur

DAY 1

We decided to stay in KL just for a day then visit Malacca since KL is pretty much like Jakarta and both of us prefer something historical. So the first day in Malaysia, we're greeted by heavy rain. Our host at that time was Pak Ally and he's nice, I brought some shrimp chips for him since he said the family love it that much.

Our first food was Rojak, similar to Asinan rather than Rujak in Indonesia

The first night, we just spent it in the city center and unexpectedly we shopped! 😂😂😂  Yeah, it was before Chinese New Year so there were a lot of shopping deals. Even Angel, who was always careful with shopping, ended up buying few clothes due to the cheap price. After that we met with another Couchsurfing fellow; Kyle. He took us for a ride and hang out together. I highly recommend you to try Couchsurfing as I've been using it for years and it is one of the best way to travel since you'll meet with locals! 

Then, on the second day, we decided to go around the city and visit Batu Cave. Since we want to make it easier, we put our baggage in coin locker at TBS Bandar Tasik Selatan (TBS-BTS), it was RM 20 for the large locker which can keep up to 2 big backpacks. Then we headed to Batu Caves.

As advised by Pak Ally, we arrived there around 8 AM and there were only few people which is great. The climbing was quite tiring (guess I'm old already 😅), not just because the stairs is steep but also because of.... the MONKEYS 🐵 .

Yeah I was attacked by a monkey......... I think he thought that I have food inside my bag. I freezed instantly as I was afraid that it will paw and bite me if I try to shoo him away. After around 2-3 minutes, finally he went away. OMG, it was like....... I didn't come for this! 😂  So, if you guys are not keen on climbing the stairs or dancing with the monkeys, I don't recommend Batu Caves for you.

Moreover, I have to say there's not much to see here. This is my personal opinion though, as I don't find bats excrements, vicious monkeys, and unsafe stairs (some are too steep without decent handle) interesting. But on the positive side, we got to see how Hindu (especially Indian) perform their religious rituals here. Plus, we exercised! 👯

The funny part was to see a lot of tourists (mainly westerners) stopped and was amazed by cockfight! 😂😂😂  They even recorded the whole fight....... Too funny.

If I have to mention things that I love in Batu Caves, it's the above picture. I love collecting komorebi pictures and I know it's not exactly it is. But, I just think that it's really beautiful to bathe under the lights while still inside the cave. It's like symbol of hope and the beauty in every struggle that we've experience #WiseTia.

And one more thing, since we came early in the morning, I got this perfect picture with nobody photobombing me behind! 😍 #instaworthy

Malacca

DAY 2

Initially, we plan to go to Malacca either on Friday or Saturday. And we just decided to go on Friday after we arrived in KL #sounprepared but we're soo lucky since Angel was able to get a host to accompany us. His name is Eugene and he was kind to take us everywhere during our whole visit in Malacca.

Me - Angel - Eugene

Eugene took us to local night market as he's an advocate for 'experience like locals do' thing. It's nice to see local place and we tasted lots of street snacks. After that, he took us for late dinner, it was Pakistan food (my first!) and DELICIOUS!!! Next, He took us to his favorite sea food place, it was like hidden gem since it is located in an alley. Enough with the quick stroll around the city, he took us to check some hostels, but all full-booked. Luckily, we found one!

Would love to go back here

We booked a last minute room at Da Som Inn and thanks to Angel's negotiation skill, we only have to pay RM 50 for private bedroom for us. HAHAHA. The room was surprisingly spacious and comes with TV (though we didn't turn it on, only single night stay). The receptionist was friendly and it comes with free breakfast as well.

DAY 3

After a good night's sleep, in the morning we went straight to Melaka Straits Mosque (Masjid Selat Melaka), which was located by the sea. The architecture is beautiful with its golden dome.

And everyone that enters need to cover up. But no need to be worried, they provide the veil and robe for both men and women. Angel was so funny as she leave her fringe visible 😂

After that, we went to Stadthuys. I remember riding the rickshaw here 10 years ago (photo below).

OMG sooooo bulat

But now.... Those beautiful flowery rickshaw has gone gone gone. Now it's all Spongebob, Pokemon, Doraemon, and other cartoons. I know it's attracting the kids, but it destroy everything! 😭  For me, it is supposed to be traditional and beautiful...... But anyway, I guess I'm old. Too many things that I complain about 😅

We explored the whole area, walked around and entered the church as well.

Eugene was very helpful as he helped taking pictures of both of us. 😍  HAHAHA!

After Stadhuys, we move to Jonker Walk and since it's nicer in the night, we walked around and stopped at the temple.

Another thing that I love with using Couchsurfing is how we can interact with the locals. We talked about everything! From politics, religion, no basa-basi busuk. I love how we did visited 3 different religious places in a day and see how it can live harmoniously. There's still hope! (Considering what sparked in Indonesia now).

For food, we also tried lots of food here. We went to Klebang to drink Coconut shake (loooove it though it's so sinful since it uses 4 scoops of vanilla ice cream in a single glass) and basically the food is similar to Gorengan in Indonesia.

And for lunch we had the banana leaves. The food was delicious, I finished it all, even Angel's veggies. 🙈

SPOTTED: Funny Trump's sandal in Jonker

And, Eugene also took us to another hidden gem in Malacca; the sand dune at Pantai Klebang. Best place to snap picture!! Though it was long walk to reach the place, it was worth it!

Unfortunately, it was windy since it was going to rain when we're there. So we only stayed around 30 minutes + few minutes of being lost our way back. 😅😂

Last but not least, we went to Jonker Walk (I bet you guys are already familiar with this place) and stroll around tasting apple cider and eating street snacks.

Around 9 PM, we decided that we want to buy some souvenirs and go to AEON Mall. It was too crowded due to the upcoming Chinese New Year, so mission aborted! But I did some shopping at SaSa, LOL. Makeup of course 💄

After finished with shopping, we went back to the hostel to take our baggage and headed to the terminal to take the last bus to KLIA 2. We decided to rest in the airport and eat early breakfast at Mc Donalds 😎

DAY 4

Early morning around 8AM we took our flight back to Jakarta and that's the end of our journey in Malaysia. What I think about this trip? It was beyond my expectation. The trip was fun, full of interesting things, some dramas as well HAHAHA, but overall it's such a great trip. Since Malaysia is neighbor to Indonesia, we found a lot of similar things as well as different ones. Most of it are funny and we had a good laugh over the 'misunderstandings' (e.g. similar words but very different meaning).

See you later Malaysia!