Melaka City Day ( The extended weekend )

Come April 15th every year, the city of Melaka celebrates grandly the achievement of her City Status and most locals look forward to this date as it provides them with an extra holiday, bonus if it falls on a weekend (as it does this year).These periods give locals like me an opportunity to enjoy the City sans the usual crowds. The joy of driving beginning from Lebuhraya Ayer Keroh to the town centers i.e.Jalan Bendahara & adjacent Jalan Bunga Raya all the way to Melaka Raya was pure joy and an absolute breeze as the entire journey took only 15 minutes sans traffic!

The traffic free roads clearly brought back memories to me of Melaka town 20-30 years back as I sat at the back of my dad's Renault car whilst he traversed the town getting from points A to wherever. There were more trishaws than today, bicycles were still the acceptable mode for travel and the city buses were clean and on time for everyday use. I recall there used to be very large Flame of the Forest trees throughout the town areas those days which gave the whole place an ethereal look in the wee hours of the evening as we went back home satisfied with a good days work in anticipation of dinner with family and loved ones.

As for me at that time; this thought brought more palpable senses to my memory as we passed the landmark in town at that time which was a famous roundabout at the base of Hang Tuah Bridge, which I remember vividly as the memory is etched in my brain, for some reason or other.

My mom's cooking was waiting for me at home piping hot for all of us to tuck into! The passing motion of the sky and trees from inside the car as it travels across the tarred roads and the type of trees we passed, would tell me, while lying on my back, with my legs up in the backseat, where we were at any given moment of the journey.......

Ahh...Malacca of old, the air was cleaner and the people friendlier; life in general was less stressful. And we had Rose Chan's strip tease show in the Majestic to look forward to in the later hours of the evening!

Those were the safe and care free days! 

Coming back forward, the long weekend enabled many locals to plan and spend their family holidays out of Melaka but for me and my family it was a fully packed long weekend of Fun & Frolic here in Melaka as this weekend also coincidentally was Chittirai Matham or Spring Equinox New Year for many Indians. The Punjabs refer to  this period as Vaisakhi, The Telegu people Vishu & Tamils- Chittirai Puthandu.

All Indian houses would use this as an opportunity to clean and re-energize their homes, some will decorate,  whilst others invite friends over for prayers and generally make merry.

The evening of Thursday (12/04/2012) saw me driving Michelle and Shiv Charan Kaur for the Toast masters meeting in Hotel 906 in Melaka Raya where we were met by Seelan,Sandra,Roy,Kayode and the others.

The meeting ended around 10.00pm and we adjourned to a chinese restaurant nearby to enjoy our supper. The pleasant company and good food (deer meat, stir fried pucuk paku and keladi leaves, braised pork rolls, egg taufoo sezchuan styled with copious amount of guinness stout) made this evening outing extremely pleasurable and enjoyable for all of us. We eventually parted around 1.00am for an early start tomorrow.

Locally raised deer meat braised in XO oyster sauce and stir fried capsicum / large onions/  black pepper

Pucuk paku and Keladi leaves wok fried in chili ginger sauce

Patin Fish steamed in soya sauce.

The new day started earlier than usual for me as the sms'es wishing Happy New Year came one after another from friends and family followed by a wake up call @ 8.30am from my buddy Phillip Tay who wanted my presence in SFI to show the Alumni's support to the check handing over ceremony from the Chief Minister Of Melaka to the Guru Besar of the school.

With the whole school in full VIP Regalia and all her supporters out in full force, the event was very well orchestrated with command performances by the school 14 Drums & Military Bands and other uniform bodies eager to welcome the CM. This was followed with a sit down Brunch for those involved in securing the RM 140,000.00 donation from the state for the Alma Mater.

Interestingly, I was caught quite unawares to find out (MTA's) Madelina & Raja( MICCI) were close friends and that both had known each other for years and were in fact sitting in the SFI primary school's PIBG. 

Even Datuk Basil is an Old Boy!

It is indeed a small world.

The CM and SFI Officials during the Cheque handing ceremony

Raja took the opportunity to brief me on the current situation within the Chambers and said he wanted to meet me, bharat and saravanan for some planning work for the the next few projects in Micci. As Jayanthi was also there, I pulled her along to join in with us to make the meeting merrier.

 We walked over to Straits Hotel where Bharat was and met Saravanan there for our meeting.

Jayanthi was a god sent as somewhere around 1.30 pm, my wife called to say that Sandra, Roy, Kayode, Seelan,& Ariff wanted to join us in Vaisakhi Night celebration in The Malacca Club and they needed tickets.

Vaisakhi Night celebration in Malacca Club

Since the event was sold out a month earlier, getting tickets (RM 30.00per pax for Vegetarian Food and one Beer) at the last minute seemed impossible. Luckily Jayanthi had Vishva's number and as he was the organizing committee member, he managed to insert one table just for us!

So the New Year celebrations were off to a Grand start indeed.

Saturday morning started with Hj. Moidu personally inviting my family and I to his latest restaurant (Tiga Abdul) opening in Rembau. Having never visited the state of Rembau, Seremban before, we found the drive to his restaurant very uplifting; with the views of the Minang Architecture, mountains and green verdant forests presiding over the town center very oddly comforting and reminiscent of old Melaka.

It was quite the grand affair as the opening was done by the Datuk Maharaja Lela, Undang Luak (who is the local royalty in Rembau) and very impressively done for that town's standard. Moidu's shop was very upscale with down to earth prices and I see only a bright future for his restaurant as his located in a very good area.

After a hearty mamak styled local lunch, we arrived back in Melaka around 2.30pm before checking in at the Casa Del Rio Hotel, which had been chasing Michelle for ages for an opportunity to host her stay in their Hotel 


My son who’s heading to KL to meet up with his mother in law later in the evening met us there for an opportunity to enjoy Casa's facilities with Baby Nicole in tow. Nicole was so cute dressed up that we couldn't help taking tons of pictures of her here!

 Casa del Rio hosting Mr &Mrs. Gunabalan to a weekend stay en suite

Baby Nicole @ 6 months old

The Princess

Utheya,Baby Nicole and Joey at Casa's Poolside

During our stay in Casa, the owner of Straits Hotel-Bharat Ajmera rang me up and humorously invited my wife and I to partake in the Hotels's going away Fete for their Long Term guest and friend Mr. Malcolm McDowell of Swansea  in the UK. The dinner arrangement was a small private affair with the personal invite of the Hotel owner to his friends and family.

Over plates of air flown Lobster from Sabah, Tenggiri fish in asam pedas,free flow of wine & beer, the conversations that night was at first cordial, entertaining and later engrossing with Malcolm reciting his adventures way back in '54 here in Malaya ( while stationed with the British army in PD, Penang & Singapura).

Michelle had the Rouge which she declared dry but because it was adequately chilled it was palatable to her. She was as usual beet root red in no time given her "putik melepak" complexion.

Bharat also had his Indonesian students doing practical training in Straits join us during Dinner whereby he ribbed us all to get to know his students better ! Over more drinks, I was introduced to Ishak ,the MD of Melaka Hari Ini- the local state funded newspaper in melaka and he, after being told that I write for fun, obligingly requested that samples of my writing be sent to him for print in MHI ; the English section !

This offer has not been taken up by me just yet but the thought itself was very welcomed.

We left Bharat's place that evening with happy memories as the night had begun calling her mesmerising call to bed, ending the night with pleasantly filled tummies and good vibes..

Bharat and Entourage 's hosted Dinner for Malcolm McDowell

My wife and I ended our day with a nightcap on the balcony of our suite room over looking the famed  fairy lights of the melaka river; the stars out in full force & the night winds soulfully whispering hopes of pleasant dreams in our ears as we lounged naked, out in the open 2 floors up from the maddening crowds enclosed in the sights and sounds of Melaka not seen by many. 

The inviting Ensuite King sized Bedrom

This was the view outside our balcony tonight

Still busy talking

Ahh....To be Free and Relaxed.
Listening to Jazz, Drink in hand and your beautiful wife beside you,what more can a man want ?

The morning sun of the next day was brightly shining from the east when our eyes opened next. It was very luxuriously relaxing as we awoke in the splendor of the Egyptian Down and Goose Feather pillows of the King sized en suite bed.

As we meandered down to our Breakfast, a slight detour to walk the promenade of the melaka river presented too big a temptation to us to turn down. We strolled hand in hand along the banks of the river, my wife remembering her youth spent traversing these same route 40 odd years ago.

All the local pantang's that they observed even as kids came flooding back to her memory as we took in the sight and sounds and smell (or lack of ) of this late morning.

Returning back to the Hotel, the welcoming building shielding us from the morning sun with her breath of jasmine scented air con and comfortable chairs willing us to try her ample food and beverages on offer seemed very enticingly coddling and desirous.

Milk, Oat Meal, Juice,Cereal,Fruit and Dried Raisins Bar

The Quiche (Eggs, Roquefort Cheese baked in Bread)
was very light and tasty.
YUM!

Buffet Breakfast includes the Bread counter,Tom Yam Soup,
Porridge & Cereal Bar with Real honey dripping from a glassed honeycomb!

Stir fried with large prawns Kway Teow 

The House Breakfast Option

The Big Breakfast Plate.
How to Finish?

The sampling on offer for us this Breakfast was truly copious and filling. The ambiance of the Grill Room over looking the river was truly worth the price of admission to this select place.We truly felt like a couple pampered  richly and enjoying themselves luxuriously whilst the world careens on outside oblivious to us.

Felt a little like how the British gentlemen and ladies would have liked to live 50-60 years ago in Malaya. Truly Decadent.

After spending a better half of an hour and half in their Grill Room, we decided to retreat in their luxuriously outfitted Library, which is a room specially created to provide a quite reading area for in- house guests.
As we were the only ones there at this early afternoon hour, it accorded us the privacy like we were in our own little house away from the doldrums of the routines and times.

It was at this time that we received another call from the sales team at Casa to extend our check out to after 3pm and join them for lunch as they wanted us to relate to them any misgivings and or problems we may have encountered during our stay in their hotel and how our feedback would be useful to them. 

Our Hosted Lunch with The Casa Del Rio Sales team
started with me enjoying a light salad nicoise 

 Lunch was another Grand Food affair as the western meal choices were not only beautiful to look at but also very good tasting as although we were still quite full from our morning breakfast adventure in their grill room, the mouth watering dishes were just too enticing to turn away from !

Of course the  company of the pleasant sales manager-Agnes and her colleague Nikki only made the whole scenery that much more welcoming and entertaining.

The wife had soft shell crabs for appetizer
Very large portions and very crunchy.
Nice.

The girls had Fettucini Alfredo
topped with prawns and other seafood.

Main Dish was marinated Rack of Lamb with chives and asparagus
Simply Bagus !

And such was how our time spent these past few days prior to the (Tamil) New Year made the coming future days of 2012 seem so much more comfortable and inviting for us.

Thank You All.

The "Mandi Bunga" Ritual

Mandi bunga (Floral Baths) are practiced by the Malays, Chinese and Indians in Malaysia. As with the different cultures, the methods of the mandi bunga also varies.

The mandi bunga is performed to dispel bad luck (bad vibes) - "buang sui" or "buang sial". The rationale is that once a person is void of bad luck, he's able to attract good fortune.

Kaffir Lime (limau purut) and pomelo (the Chinese grapefruit) leaves are commonly used ingredients in the mandi bunga ritual.

The Chinese believe that pomelo leafs dispel bad luck. The Chinese has been practicing mandi bunga for centuries - when one is feeling unwell, or facing hardship and misfortunes or even when one is in need for better luck, he/she should wash his/her hands, face or take a bath with boiled pomelo leaves with water.

Common name: Pomelo.
Scientific name: Citrus grandis.
Malay name: Limau bali, limau besar, limau tambun, limau abong (Malaysia), jeruk bali, jeruk adas, jeruk machan, limau kibau, limau balak,

limau besar, limau betawi, jambua (Indonesia). Other common names: Shaddock, Batavia lemon.

The Malays and Indians believe that bathing with kaffir lime can dispel evil and bad luck. The fruit is cut and blended with plain water and then bathe with as part of spiritual cleansing to "buang sial".

"Limau purut", the Malay name for kaffir lime, or its scientific name citrus hystrix is of the rutaceae family.

Over the years different variants of mandi bunga have emerged transcending cultures. There is a practice of having a bath fusing both kaffir lime and pomelo leaves together.

Another variation is to select one flower for every color of the rainbow. It doesn't matter what type of flower it is, and it need not have a fragrance. Different colour flowers are used because in Tibetan Buddhism it is believed that each color carries a specific energy or vibration. Healing using colors is 'supplementary' to other types of healing.

First, run your bath water. Then, add whatever other ingredients you desire into the bath - it could be pomelo leaves and kaffir lime. Lastly, place the flowers in your bath water with their stems on; or, you can pull off the petals and place only the petals in the water. Don't place the flowers them directly under the water. Instead just sprinkle them around the entire tub.

Leave the flowers in the water for at least 15 minutes prior to your getting into the bath. After soaking the flowers for 15 minutes, completely soak yourself and stay in the water for at least 15 minutes - you can even completely submerge yourself in the water. After the 15 minutes, you can either choose to remain in your flower bath or you can get out.

Once you're out of the flower bath, take a cool shower. It doesn't matter if you use soap or any other products to shower. :)

In some feng shui practices, kafir lime leaves are also used is space clearing.

There is, however, no scientific evidence as to how effective these baths are in achieving the desired result or if they do really work. What we know is, that these baths have been practiced for generations and could be nothing more than a case of mind over matter - a placebo. Whatever it is, there is no harm trying - at least it is refreshing.

Despite what is said about Asian rituals, such as, it not being congruent with western science - there is no way to explain the Asian concept "heaty" and "cooling" with reference to western science, but the practice has been proven to effectively cure minor ailments like flu, coughs, colds, fevers etc, nevertheless. Similarly, whilst the effectiveness of mandi bunga cannot be proved with reference to western science, it may nevertheless work.

Internet Scammers and Con men

Yesterday Phillip Tay from the SFA called me rather breathlessly at about 2pm asking my opinion on a particularly tempting situation that had been offered to him by an unknown individual who claimed to be an old boy of the school. It seemed that this chap said he was an auctioneer for cars in Tanjung Malim and that he had on auction within the next 24 hours several E250 Mercedes Benz. He wanted my friend to enjoy the benefit he was willing to give to old boys but due to the tight time frame the offer meant my friend had to deposit some security deposit -RM 10,000.00 ( to be eligible to bid for the Mercedes at a starting price of RM 30.000). Phillip smelt a rat but called me to confirm his gut instinct just in case.

Of course I advised Phillip against depositing any cash to any dubious company and told him to request for observer status from the guy offering the opportunity to prove their legitimacy as I'm sure there would be other opportunities down the road it they turn out to be legit.

The amount of scams and con jobs perpetrated daily on locals here from abroad is on the rise according to some concerned parties I've  been lucky to been in conversation with, and they say every conceivable method of con, from love sms'es, internet based phone calls asking for help to internet love scandals and "Innocent" locals turned into Drug mules for Free overseas trips; all seems to be all over the gossip mills and rumor mongering newspaper reports of the day.

In an exciting turn of events, pure chance lead me to an opportunity to speak to one such individual who knew such people and so, lately I've been in conversation with a Liberian individual (West Africa) who consented to answer some unanswered question I've had on the mentality of these individuals who perpetrate such scams knowing how much pain and anger they caused to their victims.

Apparently the life style choices of even the poorest Malaysian that we take for granted here in this country is heaven for some of these simple poor people over in west Africa where the fear of  war, death, slavery to the powerful and to debt; rape and most detestably, mind numbing hunger; who grew up in social situations that is unimaginable to us and who in their quest for ...not a good life but for the opportunity to live are made to turn predatorial.

This is what he had to say to me after a few beers and a stomach full of Mc Donalds Big Mac:

“They’re called les brouteurs du net in Ivory Coast – ‘grazers’. They graze the internet for the gullible and the greedy, people who can be trapped into sending their banking details or paying in advance for goods or services they will never receive.

Many brouteurs pay to be initiated and taught the tricks of the trade; it’s a secretive world where, paradoxically, ostentation (showing off) is key to being respected.
 “Who wants to be poor? You see, in this city, if you haven’t shown your face in a nightclub for over a month, you’re a nobody,” Each time they made money, he said, they rented a car, got the prettiest girls of the ghetto, went to a nightclub, ordered several bottles of whisky and paid the DJ to heap praise on them. It’s every young man’s dream.

West Africa has no patience for losers. “There is a generally held belief that those who fall for a scam may not be honest people in the first place. If you are being cheated, it means God doesn’t like you.”

Another scammer he’s met consider good scamming an art form. “You have to put yourself in your client’s shoes, think like him, find out what it is he’s looking for,” he said. “A successful scammer is like an artist.” And then, of course, there’s the adrenaline rush. “The first time you do it, you do it for the money,” he said.

“But what’s addictive, is that your intelligence is put to the test. You have to be smarter than the other person, tempt him, and seduce him, in a way.”

You outsiders can spare the money, he said; you’re rich enough. “You people are a victim of your own technology.”

Mid Morning Thunder Storm & Hi-Tea Escapades

Wow ! Check out the effect a 15 min rain, thunder and wind damage can do to your property.

These pictures were taken on my drive out to the Spa last Sunday.

Luckily no person seemed to be hurt in the thunder-storm melee between the old damaged tree trunks and the windyrain !

My heart goes out to the poor owners of the affected cars and property because these natural calamity damages are very rarely worth the hassle of claiming insurance as they will cost you your NCB, and even then the company will press you to prove you took precaution when you were perking there !

Who would have known when they parked there or even imagined10 minutes before the dark clouds formed, that it would end in such disastrous way?

God bless the poor souls who were affected.

'S-a- matter of fact, my family and I were not even aware it was raining at first as inside our house it seemed like a mild drizzle was going on outside with a sporadic burst of wind and a sudden splatter of rain in between.

The mid morning hours passed my wife and I by rather languidly; as we went about our routines and geared down for the day in anticipation of the kids visiting us with our grand child, as is the norm with this family.


But suddenly Michelle reminded me that Datin Sandra wanted us to join her & Joan Marbeck's family members up for Hi Tea at Casa Del Rio.

My wife had mentioned it in passing earlier yesterday and since we were supposed to go there anyways as the Sales Manager Agnes had been trying to get Michelle to visit their establishment for ages now, it seemed like a good idea to do it all in together !

Playing with our granddaughter  for the few hours that Utheya & his wife visits us on Sundays is one of the current pleasures in both our lives that is immensely gratifying.


Even though Nicole is one cranky kid!,I believe it's a phase she's going through and look forward to all her moods and shared experiences we will have together, as she grows older with much anticipation and grandfatherly hope !

I was telling Michelle the other day on our drive home from another Lunch appointment which we could not quite make due to the traffic jams that Malacca is turning into another Petaling Jaya suburb as evident by the almost indiscernible life style developments on offer to the upper middle class here.









It's indiscernible because to many the changes are happening almost naturally over a period of 8 -12 years.

Over time it seems like almost every one  is in awe and yet accepting of the new life style choices (from property to food) available to the middle class and above but few realise it normally takes much investment and commercial support  backed by huge population growths - which in Melaka is lacking.
Local purchasing power support,
 I mean.

So the obvious question is " Is this sustainable?"

But, also obviously, the discreet planned development in and around this Unesco recognised city, needs to be commercially viable before the bankers would borrow the developers cash so they must know something we don't!
But what is evident is that,we can see even more life style choices brought here to us .

So something must be cooking.


By that I mean that the local population explosion has yet to happen here to give support to these commercially driven projects as most business plans submitted look towards the burgeoning tourist population to support their ventures.

With a recorded 12.5 million visitors per annum we may seem to be ill prepared for the deluge of visitors in our Town Centers and main roads but these are the very life blood of moneyed tourists the developers and business men are looking for.

It is this precarious thin divide that allows us locals the opportunity to enjoy our lives in terms of the benefits of modern city living.

Whether it is sustainable in the long term only God knows but the political leaders seem confident they can sustain this momentum and grow, which is good news for the local citizenry as I truly believe that the world is waiting to come to Melaka- either through the life style choices or their food !

News garnered from the web on melaka:

Further Growth In Melaka:
Tourism is the major industry contributing to Melaka due to its historical heritage; it is classified as World Heritage Site by UNESCO. 
12.35 Million tourists arrived to Melaka in 2011 and we are targeting 13 Million in 2012 and expecting more in 2013. 


A coastal highway linking Port Dickson to here and upgrading the busy Ayer Keroh dual carriageway are among four infrastructure projects proposed by the state government in Budget 2012.

After the upgrade of Melaka International Airport, it has further put Melaka prominently on the global map and we see a steady growth of foreigners visiting Melaka for leisure, business and medical treatments.


New Township Plans are presently under way to turn Melaka into a major destination for the Malaysia My Second Home programme.
The project combining heritage, culture and nature is expected to be carried out in either Ayer Keroh or the Bemban area. This program will definitely attract more foreigners especially from Indonesia, Singapore, Australia and Europe to make Melaka as their second home under the Malaysia My Second Home initiative.
A new Premium Outlet which offers high-end branded labels at discounted rates will be opened in Melaka soon, this will attract more tourists to Melaka and boost tourist spending in Melaka.

Melaka has three medical specialist centers and with the up-coming RM 250M Resort-Style Melaka Medical Centre, more local and foreigners will come to Melaka for the first class medical facility. In additional, Melaka will also focus on the Education Tourism to attract international students to Melaka. 


Multimedia University, Technical University of Malaysia Malacca, Melaka Manipal Medical College and many other renowned colleges have established themselves in Melaka.


In addition, Masers Energy will invest US 20 Billion to setup low carbon project in Melaka as a pilot project and Infineon unveils RM 480 Million to expand its facility in Melaka.

All these upcoming developments will make Melaka a better place to stay for fun, leisure, business, health care and tertiary education.

HI-Tea Time with  Sandra, Paul Ponnudurai-the guitarist & his partner

With many of our friends now either working for the new Hotel developments in and around town or directly owning the properties as in Yeo Kian Huat in Rennaisance,Sazali in Seri Malaysia; Bharat in Trend Hotel & Straits Hotel; David from Beuford Hotel, Datuk Seet,  Datuk Alkaff in EQ, many opportunities present themselves to my wife and I to savor all the events and promotions they seasonally commercialize.

And so it was on Easter Sunday we went a visiting to Casa Del Rio for a sample of their Buffet, with Sandra and her friends in tow which included Paul Ponnudurai and his partner. I must say the layout and design of the hotel was very Portuguese with overlaying Spanish influences throughout and although their restaurant was very Grill like architecturally (with a laid back luxury kind of ambiance); the moment we step in we realized you could also dine by the river side al fresco while enjoying the local fare. Now that, was truly sensational!