CASA DEL RIO

Hello all,
Sorry it took so long to do a post. Busy as usual, nothing new but missing everyone for sure. I am doing a post on this wonderful boutique hotel I stayed 2 months ago in Melaka. I love Melaka as it's very historical and it's joy walking along Jonker Street. Melaka has also been listed in the UNESCO World Heritage.  Here's the place we stayed, Casa Del Rio which is situated just by the Melaka river.

This lovely reception greeted us.

Everyone was given shaved lemongrass ice, absolutely refreshing! I've never tried this before but it was perfect for a hot day :)

With all five of us, we took a 2 bedroom suite and this was our entrance.  The suite was like an apartment, but no cooking facilities.

 The living hall.

With onde-onde dessert to greet us. Onde-onde a favourite local Nyonya dessert with palm sugar as fillings covered with freshly grated coconut. Yummy!!

2 bathrooms for 2 rooms, both equally spacious. I would stay here again in the future for sure.

A 555 mini notebook. It was interesting and thoughtful to have this mini book which is handy. 555 books were widely used before the internet days where people carry them to jot down reminders, or when one have a 555 book with a local grocery store, it was used to record buying stuff on credit and to be paid at the end of the month. 

The hotel architecture has Portugese design everywhere, a tribute to its heritage.

I adore similar paintings all over the hotel lobby depicting Peranakan culture. Here a scene showing a traditional Chinese wedding in front of Melaka old shophouses, many still look exactly like in the picture.

Of course, no visit to Melaka is complete until we make a trip to Jonker Street. Lots of curiosity shops with vintage items.  Here's a peek of what's there...more to blog about in the future.

I'd also like to share these photos with you. Totally unrelated to my Melaka post and I will let you know why at the end.....

They are beautiful with great bodies, sexy and charming!

They are the performers of Calypso, Bangkok. I was there last weekend for a short business trip, going to Calypso again for the 3rd time, and this is actually my second post here. 

Biologically born male, they have undergone massive surgery to be female. Here, they perform nightly :)

Though it was  a busy business trip, I manage to finally go to a place I wanted to go for the longest time in Thailand.

Ayutthaya. The old capital of Siam. Here's a peek of the next post. I know, I have a lot of follow up posts after this....and I know, you are going to scroll up and have a look at those lady-boys again hehe :)

Happy blogging everyone :)

Hugs...MK

I am back...

Err....you know that you have been way too long from your own blog when blogger has a new format and you are not sure how to use it hehe!

I have been busy, as usual, nothing new, but also holidaying around, with tons of photos to post.  

Will be back soon with more travel post soon!

THE KEBAYA BOOK

My late grandmother was a nyonya. She used to wear kebaya, a traditonal Malay costume, on special occasions. I love this book about Kebaya, so I am sharing some of the wonderful images from the book. Nyonyas and Babas are Chinese descendants originally from China. When arrived here in Malaya (then the old name for Malaysia), they created this marriage of of Malay-Chinese customs, thus creating whole new fusion of  food and culture.

I just love old black + white pictures, very nostalgic.

A peek into a traditonal Nyonya house.

Beautiful kebayas.

Love this kebaya..wish I could fit into it :)

Spiral stairs common in Nyonya houses.

Chinese lantern, very common.

More kebayas..

Have a great weekend everyone!

WHIMSICAL WINDOWS, DELIRIOUS DOORS - MEME

Still playing the meme, Whimsical windows, delirious doors #11. Going through all my all photos and there's thousands of them...and found another favourite photo.

Taken in Siem Reap, Cambodia.  A cultural night performance. Simple doors and windows but love what's performing.

Cheers :)

WHIMSICAL WINDOWS, DELIRIOUS DOORS - MEME

I saw my blog buddy, Willow posting and linking on this meme Whimsical windows, delirious doors, and thought I have this perfect door picture I took years ago in Kuching. It's the door to a Chinese temple.

Have a great day ahead :)

Hanoi Cultural Centre. VIETNAM

My laptop has been breaking down lately. Every time, our IT guy will say that despite all the upgrading, there's just way too much photos in it, choking and slowing down the system. So, when I went through the old photos, I thought rather than cleaning up and deleting some of the photos which I do not need, I'd post them here before it goes to the bin. I have an external hard disk but am always too lazy to save them there. At times, I wondered why I had to take so many photos of the same items...I really had no idea.

We had a long holiday here and went up to Cameron Highlands for the cool air. Big mistake.
Too crowded and we left the next day. More of that later.

Meanwhile, here are the photos from the previous trip to Hanoi, Vietnam, at their Cultural Centre.
A long list of instructions awaited us at the entrance. See item no. 6.

At entrance. By the way, we had a personal guide during this trip. Lousiest ever, he kept asking where we wanted to go and I told him, if I did know where to go, I'd be his guide. Cost us a lot of money and not worth  it.

We saw this artist sketching the views inside. He was amazing!

Bonsai everywhere. Over here, they are expensive and sought after.

A shop inside selling puppets or dolls. Some are quite eerie looking.

There was a Chinese temple with a deity inside.

I was interested in these scallop-inspired tiles. We have similar brown tiles here but not in such shape.

Finally, back to the chaotic jam in Hanoi. There was really no rules there. Anything goes. Cross or walk at your own risk and if you sat on any of those rickshaws, you just need to put you hand out and touch the next vehichle and that could be the bus. When we went to Halong Bay, there were 8 of us visitors in one van. The journey was 3.5 hours and horrifying. Busses would toot their horn miles away, warning of their approach and smaller cars or vans would make way for them. It was a blessing that we even arrived safely at Halong!  More of Halong later...

Have a great week ahead.

THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON

Hello everyone :)  I have missed everyone and have been off blog land for the longest time. For the whole month of December till mid January 2012, I did nothing but lazed at home. A minor knee surgery forced me to be on the sofa, practically a couch potato forever. I was back to work mid January and then, work got busy, as usual and before long, it's Chinese New Year. So, I thought I'd post this before Chinese New Year is over..which is soon.

I was at the mall recently and thought these words explained clearly the meaning of Chinese New Year, so hope you enjoy it.

When I met some Chinese in the past, at times, they will ask me what year I was born. Maybe a polite way of asking the age. If one is familiar with the zodiac cycles, one can guess accurately the person's age. You can find your zodiac easily from the following chart.

This is the year of the Dragon and I already know a few people keen on having babies, so I wish them good luck. I personally don't think the zodiac year has anything to do with their future or anything else, but there are people have a special or specific preference for this.

Everywhere, there's red. The colour of celebration for the Chinese and when come to Chinese New Year, streets, shops, home and shopping malls are are heavily decorated in red and Chinese themes.

Here's a moongate.

These bonsais should really be at my home :)

More dragon and here is a huge one.

As expected Chinese lanterns everywhere with lots of activities.

Booths featuring many Chinese artists from China. I popped over to check the prices of this one and it was way, way, way over priced!! Think 200 - 300% more than what I would normally pay.

Love this Chinese artist hand painting a child, the details were amazing and so accurate. I wanted to have the girls painted but there was a long waiting list.

More dragons..

Of course Chinese New Year would not be complete unless, one is in a traditional clothing...here are the girls with their cheong sam. One does have to be quite slim to fit into it and look nice...something I'd wish I can too. For me, i love all the details in a cheong sam!

Here's Eli trying on a traditional Chinese dress, complete with head gear. Not free, but I thought it was fun for them to have their pictures taken.

Another dragon, this time made with cane..or wicker..

And, my favourite dragon of all is this calligraphy Dragon!

Have a good day everyone..time to go visiting all my friends now.

Cheers :)