2012, Dec 28: HEY!? Famiglia attended HEY!? annual trip in 2012. Their safe house was at Hope's grandparents' house. This year, it was 3 days 2 nights trip. Elie, Mio, Kamio, Hisana and Kyo attended as HEY!? committee; Feito, Simon and Hope attended as HEY!? famiglia. Before the trip, they formed a trip committee with Simon as leader + driver, Mio as QM, Hisana as treasurer, Hope as driver and Feito as PR. There was a minutes about the meeting held on 2012, Dec 2, written by Feito. ( here is the link )
There were two meeting spots at 6.00am: for those who followed Hope's car (Elie, Hisana and Kyo) at Maluri Jusco and for those who followed Simon's car (Mio, Kamio and Feito) at Mio's house. At 6.00am, Kamio reached Mio's house. But Simon and Feito only reached at 7++am. Mio only slept for one hour and forty five minutes. She was a super human.
The two cars met at Old Town in Cheras area before 8.00am. Before going onto the high way, they stopped at a petrol station to reload some snacks. Mio's musics stuffed in Kamio's pendrive accompanied Simon's car throughout the journey. In the other car, Kyo's musics in her handphone accompanied them throughout the journey.
At 10.30am, the two cars reached the safe house. Hope's grandparents greeted the little ones warmly. They went up the spiral stairs to meet their rooms with heavy luggage bags, being careful not to roll down. Outside, birds chipped to welcome these city people and a bee flew around. The room the girls were going to use was quite spacious, enough for one bed and five mattresses plus one small lane to put their luggage bags. The boys had to use the space outside the room near the spiral stairs which was large enough for two mattresses with still some space left for luggage bags and laptop. The switches were enough for everyone to charge their electrical appliances. They were happy with their safe house. Quickly, the boys dragged their mattresses out of the room while the girls arranged their temporary nests. Before there was any objection, each left their markings at the spot they desired and rolled around. Feito brought his angry bird hat. It was black and cute. Kamio fell in love with it, but only during this trip.
Around 12pm, they went to Jonker Street. Hope switched his dark blue Kancil with aunty' silver Atos. On the way out, there were KFC and Pizza Hut lying side by side just at the junction of the housing area. Further out, there was even McD. At least nobody would starve to death in this Melaka trip. And it was really quite impossible for that to happen because Melaka was one of the food paradises in Malaysia.
After parking the cars at Jonker RM3.00 parking lot, famiglia walked along Jonker Street. Their first stop was at Cheng Hoon Teng temple which main theme for the building structure was Dragon. Before stepping in, the Dragons carved on the doors and windows stared at them, as if warning them the holiness inside. But ironically, an old man sat in front of it to sell expensive tissues. Since they need to pay to pray, famiglia left the temple without praying.
Along the road they walked pass Masjid Keling. This is a Mamak's masjid. Therefore, its building structure contains mixed elements of Malay and Indian culture. Then they reached 'sam sok gong'. Mio spent the most there buying her family's favourite snacks. Then, before everyone got broke on the first day, they moved to Restaurant Famosa Chicken Rice Ball to have lunch. Actually they were supposed to try those chicken rice balls at the shop opposite to 'sam sok gong' but they were so hungry that they could eat a horse already. So, no choice, they had to eat at the less tasty shop.
Inside it was well decorated with Melaka's nyonya style. The walls were painted red adorned with framed 3D arts and wall paintings. The ceiling was high and was hung with red chinese lanterns. There were three sections inside the shop. In the second section, a small wishing pond laid there, waiting for the coins travelers were deemed toss into its belly just to make a simple wish, an abstract imagined hope paid with Malaysian cents. And inside the last section, a fake throne stood at a photo-shooting corner. Beside it hung emperor and servants clothing in a small glassed cupboard, for renting purposes if one wants to take photo with it. The whole shop was carefully designed for travelers to visit. It did not only sell chicken rice balls, it sold memories.
After their lunch, famiglia stopped at some souvenir shops. Swords and hats were for sale at cheap price. Kaichou bought the most for souvenirs, key chains, keris and etc.
Then each member bought a fruit juice branded 60's. Its main flavour is apple juice and is combined with either lemon, passion, peach or guava. With these glass bottles in their hand, famiglia visited the Memorial of Datuk Wira Gan Boon Leong. He earned many titles revolving about 'the Best Bodybuilder in Malaysia'. Beside all the bronze statues was a mini chinese grave where a Malay guy innocently sat right in front of it. Not to be racist but when people when to pay respect at the grave, that Malay guy actually did not even care to sit further aside. His butt was stuck in front of the grave with his back facing the dead. How respectful can he be as a caring Malaysian brought up in a multi-racial country?
Famiglia shot a few crazy photos with the fountain there. One of them was Simon pretending to pee with Feito drinking it from below. And then, a group of young girls went to Simon and asked him to take photos for them. Kamio quickly stalked that moment when Simon pressed the shutter, shooting the group of girls. Perceptively, they looked like a group of cheer leaders. Before famiglia left the place, those girls even stretched their flexible body to take photos.
Malacca was entitled as one of the World's Heritage Site by UNESCO. Before going to sight-seeing at these historical places, famiglia enjoyed icy cold Durian Cendol inside sam sok gong in this hot weather. Feito, Hope and Kyo must felt like being in an oven because they wore black shirts. On the way to historical views, they passed by the Malacca river that Hisana desperately wanted to see. She wanted to throw the boys in there if they did anything naughty. Then they reached Melaka Red Church PlazaChrist Church, built in 1753 by Dutch and Stadthuys, built in 1650 also by Dutch. After taking a few photos, they walked up St. Paul's Hill. Luckily some of them wore sports shoes because the whole journey up and down the hill requires a lot of walking and sports shoes also provide better gripping of the stony stairs. Hisana was so afraid of the height that she asked "Got lift arh?" when she reached the summit.
At the middle of the hill was Cheng Ho's museum. A Proton Saga parked inside the museum compound. Kyo was jumping excitedly in front of the gate because Cheng Ho was actually her favourite historical hero. She admired Cheng Ho's adventures during the exploration of the sea around China as the commander of Treasure Fleet. With his help, the seven voyage of the Treasure Fleet successfully explored the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific which caused China to solidify its control over nearly the whole Asia in the 15th century. In the first voyage, the Treasure Fleet's final destination Calicut, the major trading center on the southeastern coast of India. Melaka was one of its stop before arriving there. But famiglia did not go into the museum and continued to move on.
On the summit of the hill, a statue of St. Francis Xavier surveyed his foreign visitors coming from different countries and different period of time as he once lived. Behind him was a ruined church, called St. Paul's Church built 1521, by the Portuguese. It was roofless. Once upon a time, St. Francis Xavier used this church as a base for his missionary journeys to China and Japan. Famiglia took photos with the tombstones aligned along the inside of the church. Those carvings on them were beautiful. But someone actually vandalized one of them by writing his name there. That was not funny. St. Paul's hill was also like a cats' heaven. So far, famiglia had spotted four cats straying - some lazily some playfully - there. Luckily, the tourists loved them and even patted their heads when they were near.
On the way down, famiglia passed by Dutch's graveyard. There was nothing to see there.
Directly at the foot of the hill was A Famosa, a Portuguese fortress. It once consists of a long rampart and four towers. Most of the village clustered in the fortress wall as townhouses. And now, all that was left was the gate and a few sealed cannons together with its glory written in texts and books all around the world. If it was not for intervention of Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore in 1810, the whole fortress gate would also be demolished by the British. Famiglia took a few shots there. Feito and Simon posed an XE photo for the girls to shoot. And the boys and girls each took a group photo. Actually the girls made the boys pose longer by taking their own 'sweet' time to capture. They did not notice because their backs were facing the camera.
They stopped by in Dataran Pahlawan for toilet break. After that, they walked for a long distance to queue up for satay celup at 5.00pm. The shop only opens at 5.30pm but the queue was already a few shops away. Mio-sama could not bare the heat and shouted for a pen to tie her hair. But Hisana had only a name tag string... And she used it!!
The name of the shop is Capitol Satay. It is the best shop for satay celup in Malacca and it earned its reputation. Quite interestingly, right before the line there was a huge sign written 'Please be informed that Capitol Satay DO NOT have any sisters, brothers or braches in Malacca or anywhere else. DO NOT BE MISLED! Thank you' and also another one written 'We aim for ORIGINALITY. QUALITY over QUANTITY.' Only after waiting for an hour and forty five minutes, they were rewarded to be seated.
Satay celup was served like celup but dipped in satay peanut sauce. Famiglia were free to choose their own food and then dunk them into the mini pot in the middle of the table. There were a lot of mosquitoes despite of the smoke and heat coming out from the pot. The sauce was constantly being added to make sure that it won't turn too thick. Every time the waiter adds the sauce, he would stir it with a ladder. That was when all of the famiglia's sticks got messed up. They had to dig for their own sticks again because each stick costs RM0.90. After the meal, Kyo felt very tired and slept on Hope's shoulder. It took some time for everyone to finish the food on the table but one problem popped up. There were two sticks unclaimed, still swimming in the pot. One was still poked with tofu and another one still poked with ladies finger. Not only that a few strips of vegetable floated on the surface when Feito spooned up the sauce. Nobody knew whose those remains belonged to. In the end, famiglia had to pay for them equally.
It was a long way back to the parking lot. Hisana sang her sorrow out like a drunker on the street. She had to give up on that boy she wanted. Around 8.30pm, famiglia began to drive home (safe house). [Actually, throughout the whole day, Feito and Simon had been reporting to you-know-who.]
In the safe house, everyone took turns to take bath with Mio as the last person. Kamio dragged Simon to have a look at her novel. He is an editor and at the same time a photographer or videographer when there are events in his magazine company. On the other side of the room, Feito joined in the girls for a little pillow talk. They shared a little snacks around the room. At 1.00am, Mio the QM began to shoo everyone to bed.
by,
Kamio Chikage
(Secretary of HEY!? Committee)
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