If you have ever been to Malacca, you will know that the Christ Church and all the surrounding red buildings are absolutely impossible to miss! Situated in the heart of the malacca town, these buildings are part of the listed UNESCO heritage sites.

The church built in 1741 was actually originally painted in white and only in 1911 did all the buildings in the dutch square get a red coat of paint. The color was so distintive that it remains till today, the hallmark of Malacca’s Dutch era buildings.

Inside the Christ Church you’ll find hand crafted pews that are at least 200 years old! The ceiling beam of the church was made from one single wooden tree truck and has no joints in it! Look out also for a brass bible and the inscriptions on the tombstones.

The area generally makes for a good photo spot and it explains the dozens of photos mum and I took as well as the countless of tourists in that area. Another building to note in the Dutch Square is the Stadhuys. It was built in 1650 and is the oldest remaining Dutch building in Asia and is now the home of Malacca’s Museum of History and Ethnography.

Next we decided to leave my park car and headed for a short stroll by the Malacca River! Before long, the sun had set and we needed to get a quick meal before heading back to our hotel.

Hainanese chicken with chicken rice balls are my absolute favorite and a must-eat item whenever I visit Malacca. So we all had to go to Jonker Street to satisfy my craving. Jonker St is really hard to miss if you are in Malacca as it is in the heart of town. Despite it being a little too tourist driven, I still feel that there is much charm to the place with its old shop houses. Having great food in the area sure helps its reputation as well!

After having my craving satisfied, we needed to satisfy my mothers’ craving by bringing her to eat her favorite Jonkers Street Gula Melaka chendol and  Nonya Rojak. My mum kept telling me that she was absolutely full from the chicken rice ball lunch but the chendol was so good she finished 2 bowls and then finished my remaining half a bowl. Gosh! Now I know where I get my gluttony genes from.

And in case you were wondering, we also managed somehow to find room for the rojak! I think we must have evolved to be cows with 4 stomachs. But then again it was planned as a food trip so it has to live up to the expectations!

The first stop is Baba Charlie. It’s a very famous nonya kueh shop ( I mean, they even have a Phua Chu Kang endorsement that says that it is the best!). The store only opens till 3pm everyday except Thursdays when they are closed.

And if you want to check the store out the next time you go to Malacca, here’s the address.

72, Jalan Tengkera Pantai 2 75200 Melaka

My mum was really excited about the nonya kueh here because she says that it’s difficult to find really good ones these days and this is about as authentic as you can get. They even use flowers to color their kuehs instead of commercial colorings! There were so many different varieties of kuehs, I didn’t know the names to most of it. I tried the Ondah-Ondah and it was really yummy with gula melaka (coconut sugar) oozing out with every bite!

The love letters were really fragrant and every one of their products is still handmade from scratch. The kitchen is an open concept next to the little food selection area and if you are lucky, you can smell the aroma of freshly made kuehs sifting through the air.

We bought tons of kuehs, and other nonya specialties. I’m sure you can tell from the pictures, the crazy amount we bought and my very happy mummy will be bugging me to bring her back to this treasure trove of nonya kueh soon.

Here I am on my first day being the driver of this food expedition. I’m seriously the chauffeur in my family! Everyone expects me to drive all the time

Louis and Emmie were guarding my belongings and obviously wished they could come along too. I would love to bring them along if not because of the crazy quarantine restrictions they have to go through.

It was such a rainy drive. For a sneak preview of the up coming posts, watch the video below.

Video can be also found at http://youtu.be/0WkF3JFlwI4

Last month, I was invited to participate in a bloggers N.E.mation! workshop to learn more about stop motion animation. If you’ve not heard of N.E.mation before, N.E.mation! is a competition for youths to express their notions on Total Defence through animation. ( A really cool concept!)

Encouraged by the success of the five TD animation clips featured in the National Day Rally in 2006, Nexus has organised N.E.mation! since 2007 to provide a creative platform for students to express their personal ideas about Total Defence. With only 300 students in the first season, N.E.mation! has grown to attract over 2,200 participants this season. Since its inception, over 7,200 students from 160 different schools have submitted their stories to N.E.mation!.Several of the 50 clips produced so far have won local and overseas accolades over the years, such as the MediaCorp Viewers Choice & the Annecy Awards. (I’m so proud of our young Singaporeans!)

In the bloggers workshop, they basically were gonna equip us, in a couple of hours, the skills that they equip students to start our interest and knowledge of stop motion animation. So I got to do my own short little clip given a general story board on stopping air pollution.

Everyone in the class got to cracking right away! Drawing, cutting and forming all sorts of ideas in the short time we had. I had so much fun in the workshop and so much ideas that just couldn’t fit into the time frame we had. I learnt so much about the process of stop motion and what I had to look out for.

And if you are curious to what stop motion animation I made in the workshop, here’s my video below. You can also view it on youtube at http://youtu.be/fYhSIcWRW-E

What I managed to do in this workshop is so simple and basic compared to the students’ works. I really can’t wait to see what the students would come out with this year. The animation clips of the top ten finalist teams will be judged by a panel, including industry professionals such as Raman Hui(Animation Supervisor, DreamWorksAnimation SKG) academics and; Animation SKG), academics and government officials. In addition, the public can vote for their 3 favorite clips in January 2012. The winners of the competition will be determined by a combination of public voting (50%) and judging (50%).N.E.mation!

So please join the community at nemation.sg and be a member of the team you support and vote for your favorite clips to support the teams. News of how to vote will be released on N.E.mation’s facebook page.

Oh, and here are a couple more I tried with friends when visiting KL.

Sometimes I amaze myself with the amount for food I can eat in one sitting. My metabolic rate has always been on the high side but age has pretty much caught up to me and I do actually gain weight these days! It started off as a great thing and now I’m worried cause at the rate I eat I might turn unrecognizable in a few years

Anyhow, we reached Malacca a little too late and my favorite stall for the famous Malacca chicken rice balls were already sold out so we headed to a competitor’s shop. Still great tasting but it’s definitely not as good or as moist as the original stall. I was really hungry so a plate of chicken and 10 rice balls just for me!

After my meal I had Jonker Street famous durain ice chendol, a bowl of mutton soup and even found space for a packet of mua chee and some chinese cakes! Gosh… it doesn’t feel like a lot until I start writing about it!

Now back to this post which is about my last day for my Ipoh trip. We left and headed to KL followed by Malacca.

Known as one of the fruits grown near Ipoh, I bought some pomelo for my parents back in Singapore. My mum does this insane pomelo salad with her own secret sauce that is really delicious!

We visited some temples and mountains where they cremate bodies. It was beautiful. Such a gorgeous place to leave peacefully and not eerie at all! It’s a little like returning to nature. I’m not afraid of death but rather the suffering it would bring my love ones to not be there for them. In fact, I’ve always been on the fence about mercy killing. I’m not going to make that choice for others but if I were to be in a state of no return, it’s better to let me go then to sustain me on machines. It’ll ease the financial burdens of my love ones as well.