Shouts of "Merdeka", which is freedom or independence in the Malay language, was heard throughout Malaysia on 31 August 1957 after Malaysia's first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra al-Haj declared the independence of the Federation of Malaya from the British rule.



So, 55 years from then, Malaysia will be celebrating its 55th National Day tomorrow. The theme varies from year to year. This year, it's "Janji Ditepati", which translates into "promises kept". I won't be discussing Malaysian politics because it is such a sad case.



Anyway, there are some freebies and promotions on for the National Day (and some not-too-related ones). For example,



RapidKL will extend monorail and LRT rides' operating hours to 1am for 30 and 31 August for selected stations: Bandaraya, Hang Tuah, Titiwangsa, Kelana Jaya, KL Sentral, Masjid Jamek, Dang Wangi and KLCC.
Free rides would also be given to those who attend the Merdeka Day gathering in Bukit Jalil. You could get a token from various LRT or monorail stations to get to the Bukit Jalil LRT station and a similar token back from the Bukit Jalil LRT station.
(more information here)



Several highways and expressways will offer discounts and rebates for the National Day celebration tomorrow. And the LDP expressway is FREE to all motorists.
(more information here)



Taiwan based Hot-Star Large Fried Chicken will be having a Merdeka Day Buy 1 Free 1 promo at Pavilion Mall and SS15 tomorrow. I've tried the one in Taiwan and it was worth the queue!



And since it's the 31st, drop by at Baskin Robbins to get 31% off on handpacked ice-cream.



And if you are a huge fan of Paul Frank, make use of this opportunity to get a 50% discount on the 2nd item.



Drop by at Uniqlo from 29th August till 6th September 2012 to grab an item or two for RM12.90 – RM39.90. Items available for the promotion are shown here.



FREE RM50 voucher for any purchase of RM550 from Sasa, 24 Aug - 2 Sept 2012.
Well, honestly, I'd get something else because I don't think I'll spend RM550 on this.



Looking for a book? Popular Malaysia will be giving out RM5 vouchers for every RM100 spent (members) and RM120 spent (non-members) in a single receipt.



Get 31% off for items purchased in Elianto from 31 Aug - 2 Sept 2012. Nail care products excluded.



55% off for Bonita items storewide from 31 Aug - 2 Sept 2012.



50% off storewide for Tiamo items too.



Purchase RM150 worth of items and get a RM10 discount voucher at Parkson outlets.



Robinsons will also be having a 3-hour early bird promotion. Be there at 9am - 12pm tomorrow to get the items here.

There's only 10 minutes left until National day.
Happy Merdeka my dear Malaysians!

I've been watching the Sherlock Holmes television programme for the last few days. It brought me back to the days when used to I read the Sherlock Holmes stories for a few hours at a time. I'm kinda obsessed with mystery stories, example blogged: Nancy Drew



Here's my copy of Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Stories. Bought this at a warehouse sale for a cheap price. Believe me, the book is about 1,400 pages and it cost me around RM50.

The original Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was first published in 1887. He is a master at deduction and likes to play around with his violin. He shared a room with Dr. John Watson at 221B Baker Street in England and the latter recorded most of Holmes' adventures and his cases. His landlady, Mrs Hudson is a kind and dear lady. Sherlock's brother, Mycroft, who is a government official, made several appearances in his many adventures. He also has an enemy who is an evil mastermind, Jim Moriarty.


There are four original Sherlock Holmes novels: A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Valley of Fear. Finished all four of them and planning to reread them sometime soon.



I also happen to have this, The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr. This is one of the Sherlock Holmes book which was approved by the Doyle estate.



House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz. Havn't had the chance to read this.



There's also some books which portray a more modern kind of Sherlock Holmes. These are some adventures of the young Sherlock Holmes by Andrew Lane. I havn't got a chance with these too. Perhaps I should persuade my mom...





Now, the movies. There are quite a number of movies featuring Sherlock Holmes. These two are somehow connected and quite new, released in 2009 and 2011 respectively: Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. I've watch the second one but couldn't find time to watch the first.
The second one was awesome and there some funny scenes in it, including Robert Downey Jr. wearing makeup and pretending to be a lady. Laughed my head off during that part of the movie.



This is what I've been watching for the past few days: BBC's Sherlock Holmes television programme. With Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as Dr. John Watson, this television programme is one of my favorites. Unfortunately, there aren't many episodes to it. 3 for the first series and another 3 for the second.
This is a Sherlock Holmes with iPhones, time bombs and stuff. It is quite modernised and I just love the English accent. Yes, he's an arrogant and annoying guy but it is quite fun to watch. He also makes brilliant deductions. Watson, in this case, blogs about Holmes' adventures and his blog gained quite a lot of viewers. To be frank, I really like this TV programme. Hope that there'll be more to it.

Any Sherlock fans out there? x)

Yes, satay celup is a must if you ever visit Malacca. It's not quite satay but in fact satay celup just uses satay sauce for its soup base. It is similar to steamboat but better.



Located at Jalan Ong Kim Wee, Ban Lee Siang's satay celup is quite favorable by locals and tourists alike.
As I mentioned in earlier posts, there are too many people in Malacca because of the clashing of school holidays and Hari Raya holidays. So it was no wonder that there were so many people queuing up for satay celup there. In fact, both shops were full of people. Yes, there are two shops next to each other.





So, basically, what you have to do after securing yourselves a seat is pick some ingredients for your satay celup meal. There are fridges stocked with ingredients. Pick them yourselves. They're of the same price so guess you'll just have to get whatever that is worth the price.



Here's the price list. Each stick of ingredient costs RM0.60. And I'd recommend the bread too.



Why the bread? Easy. It tastes nice in satay sauce.



Here's my deformed bread after soaking it in satay sauce.



So this is what we've got for the first round of ingredients:
Prawns, fishballs, crabsticks, clams, sausages, etc.



The satay celup pot started out like this. Quite normal and gentle. After a few seconds..



.. It turned out to be a violent struggle for food. As though we wouldn't get more than 10 minutes to finish the food.



And here comes the veggies and chicken. Adding some green to the pot.



Here are my two uncles posing with the bamboo sticks that once held the satay celup ingredients. And the fishballs are just props for them. We actually finished everything. So we had to get 3 more sticks of fishballs down our stomachs. We were quite full by the time we finished everything taken.



Here's a group photo. My uncle was still busy eating. mwahahaha



And here's how they count how many sticks we've had. Guess how many sticks are there in the picture? Highlight the characters inside the brackets to find out! (189)

It's my first time having satay celup. Ironically, Malacca is my mom's hometown and I go there a few times each year.
However, my uncle mentioned that there's another satay celup place called The Capitol so I'm so going there to try them the next time I visit Malacca.

Sorry if this post made you want to eat something and caused you hungriness. :X


Ban Lee Siang Satay Celup

After a while we decided to get some cendol, Malacca style! So, we went to Tan Kim Hock Product Centre which is located in Jalan Laksamana Cheng Ho. The cendol there is awesome!
and of course, lots of people queueing for it.



While my aunt queued for the cendol, we went inside the centre to browse whatever Malacca specialty that is inside.



Yes, I did mention that we're so tourist-like in this trip. Mom went shopping for some dodols and other stuff for her colleagues, especially for Malay colleagues who are celebrating Hari Raya. I think she plans to give them the dodols when we visit their houses.



Ta-Da! Durian-flavored dodols. In case you're wondering what is a dodol...
Dodol is a toffee-like, sweet food delicacy popular in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines (especially in the Ilocos Region in Luzon), the Lanao provinces of Mindanao, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Burma. -WIKIPEDIA.org



And here's one of my cousins posing for the camera with a huge lolly she found. Nope, we didn't buy that.



Here's a blurry picture of the trolley and the stuff we wanted to buy. Yep, super tourist-like. and ignore my self-obsessed sister.



Halfway through the shopping, the cendol was ready so we went out for cendol. I mean, that's the main reason we were there. There's two kinds of cendol: Durian flavored ones and the normal Malacca brown sugar ones. The picture above was the Malacca brown sugar cendol. We ordered durian ones too but when we got out they were half eaten so I didn't bother with a picture.



I got one from faithful ol' Google instead.
I prefer the durian flavored one because it's something special and I don't know why I was craving for durian that particular day.

Durian or no durian, Malacca cendol is nice and refreshing, especially after having satay.

I felt like a tourist in Malacca on this trip. I mean, what I usually do in Malacca is watch movies and slack at my aunt's or grandma's house. I think I accomplished much this trip. :D



We went to a satay house called Sun May Hiong in Jalan Kota Laksamana, Melaka. They serve satay which are not too bad. And boy, full house! My aunt was surprised to see so many people there.
Must be because of the school holidays clashing with the Hari Raya holidays.



Had to wait for sometime before the satays are served. Tried those "ketupat rice" with the satay sauce as appetizers.



There are both pork and chicken satay. It costs about RM0.70 each. I like the pork one better because of its crispiness whilst the chicken was like, quite normal.



They had so much business that this worker of theirs was sitting there and ready the satays to be grilled. I think she spent most of her day there.



As usual, we were divided into two tables. Let's see, our table [which consists of 5 kids and an adult, I'm a kid :D ] had about 64 sticks of satay in total whilst the other one had around 50. Kids for the win! Hahas.

Speaking of satays, I'll have another post about Malacca's satay celup sometime soon. Brace yourselves! xD

I've heard my aunt talking about "Duck Tours" in Malacca and decided to try it out. My cousins who lives in Malacca never tried it too so we went there one sunny morning.



The pricing is shown below:

For locals,
Adult: RM38
Children (aged 2-12): RM22
Students (aged 13-18): RM27
Senior Citizens (aged 55 and above): RM 27
Disabled / Under Privileged Adult (aged 13 and above): RM20
Disabled / Under Privileged Child (aged 12 and below): RM10

For foreigners,
Adult (aged 13 and above): RM47
Children (aged 2-12): RM27

Yes, it is a little too expensive, even for locals. But we decided to have a go at it anyway.



While waiting for the ride, we walked around the area.. Oh wait, I havn't mention where the tour is.
It is somewhere around Menara Taming Sari on Jalan Merdeka, Melaka. [Melaka, Malacca, it's the same. One is the local name whilst the latter is its English name]



Yes, my brother, again. With his Ben 10 sunglasses and Optimus Prime T-shirt.
And my cousin behind him is playing with my aunt's Samsung Galaxy S3. *I'm getting envious



Here's the Menara Taming Sari, or Taming Sari Tower. I'm not sure of its ticket prices because I've never been on it before. The seats rotate so that you get a 360-degree view of the historical town of Malacca. My aunt and cousins tried it once and they said its not so worth it.



There's a shed for passengers to wait for the ride so you don't have to be directly under the sun. Or you could always get a pair of sunshades and a hat to go with your sundress.



Our duck has arrived! This is an amphibious vehicle, meaning it could go both on land and in water. According to the guide [yes, there's a guide on the vehicle but I didn't listen much to what was being said as Malacca is like my second home], amphibious vehicles were used in WWII and are now used in tourism.



Also, there are life jackets on the vehicle so you don't have to be able to swim to get on the vehicle.

To be frank, the main attraction of this tour is its amphibious vehicle. The places that we drove through are not so special. There are only those half-completed buildings on the Pulau Melaka.







Seriously, there's nothing much. Well, I kinda like a mosque which is by the sea. I love the architecture so much!



It is quite modernized and different from the average mosques. I think those are mosaic windows?



As promised, the vehicle is moving towards the sea, the shallow parts of the Straits of Malacca.



You can see the sea water splish splash-ing and mini waves. After a few minutes, we headed back to land.



We saw some mangrove trees on the way. It was an eye-opener for me. I mean, I've heard of mangrove trees and its usefulness in protecting the soil from being washed out into the water and stuff but I've never actually get close to one of them.



Here's the Malacca River. There's a river cruise there. I've tried it once but it was quite late and I felt sleepy so it was quite a bore for me.



After 40 minutes, we arrived at where we started the tour and got off the vehicle.
For me, it was a waste of money but at least I could now say that I've been on an amphibious vehicle and how the trip was.

If you're interested in the tour, just go to the Malacca Duck Tours Official Site. See you guys next time!