just 1week ago we took a flying visit to Melakka...by car :)

it was something dh *needed* to do. i had a mountain of things to do in that short holiday, but dh twisted my arm and convinced me that relaxing by the pool with e kids wd be better than visiting e green frog show :>

some memorable snippets:

-e drive up was without incident.

-e roads, coffeeshops and hotels were dead-quiet because of e malay fasting month. (we had not expected this, but it was a pleasant surprise.)

-we stayed at e new holiday inn, cos equatorial was having renovations. as e kids and i were feeling asthmatic, we decided not to try our luck. holiday inn is more of a business stop than a family place. pool area full sun, no shade. pools straight up-n-down...rather boring for kids.

-e only room with bathtub was app *club*. (dh had made e bkg and didnt realise this... so we had to pay xtra). on the upside, it came with 'free' snacks and beverages in e day... fruit, crackers, nuts, yoghurts, soft drinks, tea & coffee, and wine and other alcoholic beverages with something more substantial like chicken parcels and springrolls in the evenings.  needless to say, dh and e kids were happy to go there every time it was open. :)  (for comparison, Equatorial still has better club-food by far. rather than stuff out of pkts/ or frozen and fried, their food looks like it's prepared by a proper trained chef. the presentation and choices of dishes were of a far higher standard.... like night and day.

but the best bit for me abt e H/Inn club lounge, was not e food at all... it was e sunset. :)  e lounge is situated very nicely, such that e setting sun streams rt in through the side window...making the whole room awash in beautiful hues. while at the front, a little balcony gives access to a view of e strait that runs between the little island and the jetty. very beautiful relaxing in an armchair, watching the seabirds fly to and fro in formation at sunset. very very soothing with a smooth chilled white-wine in hand. :) 

-kynan's shoes both fell apart at/ and b4 the hols. so he was lucky enough to choose *2* new pairs at e nearest mall. this has *never* happened b4, so he was noticeably over-the-moon :b it was hard to find a pair of trainers that fitted him well, *and* with a flexible sole for good running and hiking. but eventually he did. :) for e 1st time, he chose "big-boy" sandals. they are kind of in the timberland style... dark leather uppers, with proper cushioned suede insole. (but at a fraction of e cost! :)) so we were all happy!

-kayla didnt *need* anything, so 2 little sticker-sheets + 2 cheap teddy-bear hairbands were enuff to make her ever-so-happy.  :)

-dh and i were happy with the hotel's pre-dinner drinks so we really didnt need anything else! :>

-e last night b4 leaving, we took a boat trip down e river. it was surprisingly cheap and beautiful. all was dark by then. and a myriad twinkling blue and white lights had bn hung beside the river. little alphabet and number lights adorned the lamp-posts (which kept the kids busily amused), and at one stretch, all the wooden stilted 'kampung' houses had been beutifully lit up. it made for a very pleasant ride.... something i'd be sure to do again on any subsequent visits. (and no, there was no smell this time!) the entire stretch of the waterway has also been lined with paved, lit promenades on both sides, so one cd easily walk the entire stretch both ways.  definately something we will return to do.

-one thing which cd be spotted along e way, was e pirate theme park. really it's just a big wheel ride, along with a pirate ship, and a small climbing rock-wall. it's beautifully lit up at nite though...and was oh-so-enticing to the kids...but by then we just didnt have any time left to go. (but i'm pretty sure they'll remind us nxt time :))

-we took a walk along Jonker street on a weekday-night. it's very beautiful ard those streets when all is quiet and darkness falls. i'd never really noticed it b4, but e exteriors of e buildings are aglow in red light as u look down e streets.  we passed row-upon-row of really old houses...inside walls stacked high with cartons, while elderly folk dined on e floor or squatting on low stools, chopsticks clicking against bowls with rice and veg. it's like another world inside. another world so far removed from that where our kids r growing up. as we walk further, a really old chap with a face of weathered wrinkled skin rides by on a rickety old bicycle...boxes strapped behind, and a black bowler hat perched askew on his head.  it's like i've gone back in time and life stands still for a moment... he turns and looks at us, smiles and turns back.   "i like yr hat!" i call out..   is it the wine, the warmth of a balmy night, or  the strangeness of this whole encounter that make me lose my senses for a while?  :) 

-breakfast was predictable after e 1st day. hot western food was not really pallatable. day1: vienna sausage-halves boiled, frozen corn&peas mixture in a mayonnaise-like hot white sauce. (i cdnt bring myself to taste it.) day2: cheap tasteless chicken/beef sausages, boiled, & e same thin white sauce over mixed frozen veg, along with some over-fried hashbrowns... hard and soaked with oil.   i stuck to freshly-made omelettes and pancakes, along with some soft cheese crumbled on toast.  dh had e eastern/asian hot food (which is e same evrywhere), while e kids stuck to toast, ham, cheese and milk/ fruit juice. (brown bread ran out b4 we even got there on all 3days and was never replenished... which was quite a dissapointment. so we usually ended up packing some dried cereals in a tupperware for e kids cos we knew they'd be hungry again not long after.

-if yr a foodie, then rt now, from my experience, this is probably not e place for u....unless they're still teething problems. one nite i ordered a chicken sandwich at e foyer-cafe/bar. my lime-juice at ard $12, took 20minutes to pur and serve. (i was e only ustomer, with 4 serving staff at e empty bar a few feet away. after 45 minutes the food had still not arrived and e area was getting smokey from a lamb being roated upstairs... so i asked to move nearer the restaurant.  after close to 10min they had still not brought my drink over, so i went to get it myself, only to find half had been spilled across the table. at this point my asthma was kicking up a few notches and my inhaler was up in my room. so i asked them to pls send it all straight up as soon as they cd.  "certainly, 10 more minutes ma'am."   i'd not eaten since breakfast and it was now 5pm. after 1.5hrs of waiting, and feeling rather queasy and faint, i called dh at e poolside to pls try bring e food up for me. "10 more minutes ma'am" they told him. when it finally arrived e chicken slices were so tough that they'd probably bn under the grill for a full hour or more. (or was it yesterday's chicken resurrected? it certainly tasted that way. well i'm not even a foodie, but i wont be going there again any time soon. )

-our return trip was *interesting*.  leaving Melakka, dd was bored with e breakfast choices and ended up eating only cheese; 2 yellow types, and one crumbly white and blue one. then on the way out, she grabbed a mango lhassi from e club lounge and downed half of it in one go..... an hr later on the expressway, the weather was getting nice and warm amd it all came out...nicely covering her carseat, clothes and soft-toy in a wonderfully-scented sour milk and clotted cheese mask. (not!)  e next petrol-station toilets never came too soon!  all food was banned until we hit JB... where we stocked up on some groceries and snacks.  part2 of e saga started there.

JB side cleared smoothly, but s/p side had a major jam. ky started a migraine... and e only way to keep his screams from escalating, was e sight of e uniformed customs officials alongside. i was so glad for e chilli crisps bought earlier...he got through a packet of them by way of distraction... we were veeerry happy when we finally got home! :))) and we were all even happier to get into a nice warm sweet-smelling bath and go straight to bed after. (but not mummy... not until i'd done 2loads of laundry and stripped and gassed a certain carseat! :))

***afterthoughts:

-we'll go again to that oh-so-favourite haunt of ours.  but no, i wdnt pay again to go to Holiday Inn.  (nice simple decor yes, nice original art pieces yes, but imho not worth e $ for a family stay)  oh, and another thing that miffed me: "free sauna and jacuzzi* they advertised....  what they fail to mention is that they have only *1* jacuzzi and that is reserved for the *men*. no ladies allowed- even if it is empty. no separate hrs designated  for men and ladies. no family slots. (well now since when do ladies prefer going to the sauna???? i thought that was more of a guy-thing?)     the kids had so been looking forward to it with me that they were dreadfully dissaponted. so dh checked that it was free of other guys, then took them in for a bit. doubly-miffed.... i felt happy for them yes, but decidedly left out!!! ....yes i'll say it again... "i'm not going back."

-oh yes, one other thing we've not had the joy to expereince on our hols.... unsavoury poolside etiquette.  sad to say, it was from those with accents closest to home. :(    just 2 incidences were enuff to mar the enjoymnt of the rest... and they honestly seemed completely oblivious to this fact...?  i wish i cd have helped the situation... that most were not like that...but the unfotunate coincidence of both happening in 2days, did not bear well for our fellow countrymen.

an example on day 1-  a mum got her 9/10yr-old child to blow her veeeery snotty nose rt into the pool. it was near the edge of the infinity pool, (which some mt say is ok?) but the girl was washing her very very streaming snotty hands in the water rt beside me. it was a mucus waterfall 3x over.  ( toilets with toilet paper were just a 1minute stroll away....) to make it worse, the lady spoke in quite an educated manner. i cdnt bear to stay in the pool a minute longer, though were i thicker skinned i wd probably hv offered to take her kid to the loos myself. (but considering the girl's age, i think it wd prob just be too embarrassing for her. ) so i did the easy thing and took my kids and went.

day2 was not spared either.  (pls dont read if yr squeamish or eating while reading this)...  -while reading a book & sunbathing, i heard an older man saying very loudly to his 11/12yr-old dd, (loud enough for all other 12/15guests in the pool to hear).... "squeeze it harder. harder. no not like that, harder. squeeze till the blood comes out." ...  now this is not e usual type of conversation that i'd hear poolside... so in shock and disbelief i cdnt keep myself from looking up.  (i shdnt have!)  he was in e water at e far end of e pool, circular receding hairline, daughter behind his back, but i cdnt see wot she was up to? ....as i was still trying to figure out exactly what was happening (from behind my book), a young foreign chinese girl and her eastern european friend jumped out of e pool in a hurry and grabbed their towels. "his kid is squeezing his zits, his big yellow pimples!!!  can u believe it?!!!"  they chorused.. (the guys conversation continued. i cdnt stay to listen. i had completely no appetite after that!) any lifeguard to complain to? not in sight. shd i have offered some tissues i wondered...?mb he'd have got the point? i cdnt bear to get back in the water, let alone hang ard there anymore... :(

-so if not there, then where?

presenlty my preference wd be Equatorial for style and quality, comfort, good club snacks, and it's family-oriented...with nice big club rooms, and not-to-foget: their fabulously lush down bedding.  and their pools offer more privacy as u can relax under e trees ard e landscaped edges. 

my 2nd-choice wd be Mahkota. ya it's a bit run down (but they were painting it in stages when we last went?), but check-in can be tedious...yet it's relaxed, has good breakfast choices, ie good quality food that tastes fresh, and a nice choice of pools and play areas for e kids.  (and of course the putt-putt which the kids lurrv!)  mostly malaysians frequent this one, so i find the pools to be quiter (kids seem better behaved?...no running n screaming wild ard the pool perimeters, nor trying hard to drown siblings each time their parent tunrs!), and the adults are very quiet in their conversations. so the whole pool environment is rather inobtrusive.   it's also nice to see whole families swimming together, esp with fathers involved in the minding and supervision of the children.  a whole lot more pleasant of an atmosphere imho :)

-any other good family spots that r close to e towncentre i wonder? with pool, family-size room, good selection of local and western food on site....? :)