Jonker Walk Revisited

Took a bus from Bandar Tasik Selatan and was picked up by the girlfriend's Mom at Melaka Sentral.

I went down to Malacca for six days last week to see my girlfriend, Michelle, or now more commonly known as Dr Gan haha! As she has started her housemanship for several weeks already now, I hardly get to see her nowadays. Even when we Skype, we only talk for less than thirty minutes most of the time. Sometimes, when we are too busy and tired, it gets so short that it can be just for a few minutes!

Just in case you wanna know her working hours, technically Michelle works seven days a week, averaging over one to two on-calls in that period. Crazy isn't it? So, you might wonder, don't they have breaks or off-days? They do, but very minimal - just eight off-days in four months. That is like two days per month! So, although they might be earning slightly more than other jobs, the time and effort and sacrifices doctors put in their job is far more than what they should be getting.

Home-cooked dinner, by the girlfriend's Mom - Nyonya sambal chicken and stir-fried Chinese sawi.

Nevertheless, it is a "noble job".

That's what Michelle and I always tell ourselves to make ourselves feel better, whenever her busy schedule made us unable to spend more time together. And at the same time, I will tell myself it is okay because I will get "good karma" (hopefully, haha!) too as I make myself understand that she is busy with her job haha!

The stage for the local folks to sing karaoke every weekend nights. I will be honest here; their singing is errrr... quite not okay lol!



And not surprisingly, the "fans" down the stage listening to them was also from the same group age haha!

Just like a couple of months ago when I went to Malacca, the first place we went for dating (not sure if going to pasar malam can be considered a date haha!) was Jonker Walk, which is just located nearby Michelle's house. Jonker Walk is popular for its weekend pasar malam stalls, which attracts tourists and local people alike to spend their weekend nights there.

We have taken our dinner earlier that evening but yet, we ended up eating quite a lot that night at Jonker.

The streets along Jonker Walk was still decorated with lanterns and red papers written with some Chinese characters, although Chinese New Year was one month back.

First stop was at "Perfect Ice-Cream", which are egg-shaped ice-creams with different flavours.

Our yam-flavour ice cream was already broken into two, so the lady sold them for RM2 per egg. Normal price is RM3 for an egg.

Malacca tart was our next stop. I cannot really differentiate this with Portuguese egg tart.

The burnt part of the egg in the middle gives a crisp feeling when you bite the tart. Worth a try.

Fried ice-cream. I think I have never tried this before. I'm a jakun, I know haha!

Although the outer layer is fried in hot oil, the ice-cream inside didn't melt.

A traditional candy sweets called gula ketuk, literally translates as "sugar hit".

It was quite pricey for one small packet of this candy cost RM3. It was kinda hard, so if you feel like testing the hardness of your teeth, biting on this candy can be a good test haha!

Taiwan sausages. Very common thing to see in any other pasar malam, I suppose?

This small little girl was so serious (and a bit lan si actually lol!) when I handed her the money. I offered her a friendly smile to her, but she did not reply me and just buat tak tau haha!

Muar otak-otak - a must-have thing every time we go to Jonker.

The lady from the next stall suggested me to take this shot from this angle to show how the otak-otak are prepared, using charcoal.

Cotton candy, one of the girlfriend's favourite pick of the night. You just have to see how excited she became when she got this haha!

So, now you can roughly get the idea how much food we stuffed our stomach that night.

Alright, I shall move on to some random shots taken along Jonker Walk that night. It was a Friday night, so the place wasn't as packed compared to Saturday and Sunday nights. And most of the people there were local people. I guess you get to see more tourists during the weekend nights. So here are the remaining shots from Jonker Walk.

Some café, which used to be a guild during the olden days, if I am not mistaken.

Beautiful red lanterns were still spotted hanging along the street.

This time, I took a photo with a dragon at the Taman Warisan. It was with an elephant on my previous visit here.

Terompah (in Malay), or kha kiak in Hokkien. What do you call this is English?

 Smaller versions of kha kiak, for decorative purposes. They are magnets and key-chains.

Colourful alarm clocks with supersonic loud sound, that will guarantee you to be awake every morning haha!

Melaka's 60's fruit tea. We didn't try this, so I cannot really say whether it's nice or not.

Nice graphic design t-shirts with catchy phrases.

Trishaws lining up at the end of the street, ready to pick up passengers to go home.

Ohh yea, by the way, just before I forget, one of the thing I like about Jonker Street is introducing the concept of smoke-free zone. I hope this idea can be expended to more public places in town and perhaps, raise the awareness about the danger of smoking among the smokers, especially towards the secondary smoker like most of us.

Remember, you gain nothing through smoking.

It is a non-smoking zone along Jonker Walk.

So, why not use the money you use to buy your cigarette and buy otak-otak instead. It can make your stomach full, and maybe, smarter too!