Here's My Story

Recently Ban and I went on a 4D 3N vacation in Singapore, just to relax and visit friends. This time, unlike previously, I restricted to only one social outing per day. Age catching up with me :D Ban naturally can't socialise much and so previous times he was just going along with my plans. I'm a member of IHG and I've been pleased with the stay at their various hotels so far and so usually I scout whether there's suitable hotel at our destination when we need one. My main criteria for Singapore trip is that it has to be within short walking distance of an MRT station so that I can arrange to meet friends anywhere near an MRT station. After checking locations and reviews, I settled on Hotel Indigo Katong Singapore. This time, I paid extra to include breakfast and the for free cancellation up to a few days (think it was two?) before the arrival date. These are the photos of the room: Clearly, they are going for the Peranakan theme. It really made this a unique experience...

Just before Chinese New Year, as usual Ban's ex-high school mates organised a get-together in Melaka and this time it was for a game of pickle ball at 8 am. Usually, Ban couldn't join in because of the need to attend the New Year's eve reunion dinner with his family in PJ. However, due to fortunate timing (CNY being two days after a weekend), he could make it this time. I didn't want him to drive alone by himself and so I volunteered to accompany him. He had already googled and booked a room at K-Star Hotel, as it is the nearest hotel to the pickle ball venue. It turned out to be a budget hotel, with limited counter front desk service. Entrance to its small lobby was via a PIN keyed into a pad and another set of PIN for the room itself. It had two floors of rooms. No lifts, only stairs. To me, the most important features of any hotel is a clean room, with clean bathroom, comfortable bed and an environment that allows comfortable sleep. This hotel checked all of these. I...

After the trip to Peranakan Mansion , we didn't really want to dine at another peranakan restaurant the next day but  we were sort of clueless on what to have. Fortunately, later, I remember that Ban wanted pie ti and so we searched online for restaurants that served pie ti. After some discussion, we settled on Nancy's Kitchen.   Pie ti was beautifully plated. Visually attractive. It was delicious and crunchy. The unusual addition of a tiny bit of tomato puree enhanced its flavour. Highly recommended. I passed my commendation to the staff manning the cashier. Chap chai was good. Tasted similar Peranakan Mansion's but the latter was better plated. Chak Bek was quite nice. Salty sourish. We were surprised at its servicing size (there was only one size): it was about two third the size of the chap chai. Fyi the chap chai was of small serving too.   For one dinner outing, I wanted something that had substantial amount of vegetables. So, we asked for recommendation from the ho...

Huang Chang Chicken Rice Restaurant. Best chicken rice ball ever! Probably best chicken rice too. The ginger taste was a little more distinctive compared to normal chicken rice. Unfortunately, its chicken was a little dry but compensated somewhat with delicious sauce.  10 Kopitiam @ Melaka. Best chai tau kuay (fried radish/carrot cake) in decades. Slightly crispy on the outside. Dark coloured. Two big prawns and appropriate amount of beansprout and spring onion. Their pandan egg tart was pretty good too. When we were first there just before 7pm, it was already sold out. Upon enquiry, I was told that it's typically sold out by 5pm. We dropped by the next day, just before 12 noon and there were only 4 left!

Recently, Ban made a short trip to Melaka to attend a pre-CNY gathering organised by his ex-high schoolmates. I followed him mainly because I was a bit concerned about him driving by himself. I thought of where to have our meals and planned out accordingly a few spots. One of them was Peranakan Mansion. Chap chai was quite flavourful and the plating was pretty good. The ayam ponteh was quite disappointing: sauce was mild and the chicken meat didn't absorb any of it. The otak-otak was the best dish of the night: soft and deliciously flavourful. The bunga telang tea was quite light and refreshing. It had pandan and a slice of lime in it. Cendol was good but too much coconut milk for me. Food was pricey but appropriate if one considers the good service rendered by waiters and waitresses who were in elegant uniform, and the environment/decoration (some shown in the photos below). Definitely a worthwhile experience.