JB, Malacca and KL
6:00AM. 10 November 2006.
I’m up and showered, get dressed. Took a bus down to school. And I’m still on a sleepy mode, as I slept late the night before. Service no 190 seems so empty in the early morning. Orchard road in the early morning seems so peaceful and clean. Timing just right, reached the school at about 7:00am. Perfect! Lovely! Great got a few minutes to close my eyes, before waiting for SL to turn up.
This trip was planned by the Masters gang. JS and H turned to us for suggestions, and we volunteered to plan for this to ease the workload of the Pathway Leaders. SL called me to gather the students, while she rushed home to get her files.
Majority of the students and the lecturers arrived at 7:30am sharp. That leaves us with an advantage of leaving early. I was quite delighted at this sight. However, my joy was a short-lived one. We didn’t manage to leave the academy’s compound till 8:30am. Journey to the Tuas Checkpoint was a smooth one, no traffic jams along the way. Lovely! Great!
Our guide, Mr. Choo picked us up at the Malaysian’s checkpoint. We stopped for a short meeting, discussing the route for the day. Our first stop, rest and breakfast break at a small town of Johor Bahru. Nice small little town, slow pace of life. K, KC, C, SL, D and I settled down for a bowl of Wan Tan Mee while SL and D settled for a Tua Bao. Nice food, it’s cheap, due to the currency rate.
It’s on the road again, time now it’s about 10:30. I looked at the time again and again. Things start to run on my mind.
“What shall we do now; do you think we can get there by 11?” “Do you know the way there?” “Do you have the address and the point of contact’s info?”
Took out my mobile and started to dial for help. JS gave me the number in which I passed it to Mr. Choo. Thank goodness, Mr. Chew, our driver was a Malaysian and the guide knew the way there rather well. However, we didn’t manage to reach there on time. It was slightly after quarter to 11 while we were there. Factory visit sounds interesting to the young designers and the degree students. Many of us get to see how the flooring materials are been fabricated. Well, we started off with the usual formalities and the greetings with the management. Presentations by them lasted half an hour, while the tour lasted about 90mins. It was a huge factory, where we need to travel for another 10mins by coach to reach their new factory. Finally ended with a photo taking at their reception area.
Leave JB for Malacca. Things start to run in my mind again. I guess this happens to every event organisers. Time management is always the key factors to all travel. Our travel patterns were rather usual and common, travel, rest and travel. We stopped at Yong Peng for a little R & R. Before hitting the road to Malacca.
Sky’s turning dark. I looked at my mobile. It’s about 3:30pm. We are still on the expressway. I steal a peep at Mr. Chew’s speedometer. It clocked 150km constantly. He’s a skilled driver. Taking care of the safety of his passengers. Rain. It’s raining heavily. Road’s wet and we were delayed slightly due to the wet weather. Traffic accident along the highway, got us slowed down.
“What’s your plan now? Any wet weather program?” “What time can we reached?” “Don’t you think we have spent quite a bit on the road?”
I smiled back and still working out the programs in my head. I consulted Mr. Choo on the programs for the night. And decided that if everything’s fine, no wet weather, Jonker Street would be a good program. Yeah, I hope so, too.
We reached our hotel, Orkid Hotel in Malacca, at about 6pm. Ok, this is the time roll. We hit the road at about 2pm, stopped at Yong Peng at about 3pm, hit the road again at about 3:30pm. Reached Malacca at about 6pm.
Checked in. The students and the lecturers rested for a while, while I explored the entire hotel hoping to find a lounge to do my work later. Sadly no such area. Just a dinning area and a spa. Check out the spa, found nothing interesting. Decided to return to my room and rest till 6:45pm before hitting for the Portuguese restaurant for dinner. Dinner’s great and lovely. And we were entertained by Papa Joe, owner of the restaurant, and he’s an icon of Malacca. He sang us a few numbers, wow! He sure can sing! 
We decided to hit for Jonker. Sigh! It’s raining still, so got Mr. Choo to change it to a shopping trip instead.
We returned back to our hotel slightly after 10pm, while K and C stopped for lok lok. A local food where items like fish balls and others were poked into sticks and you dipped it in a sauce. I turned in early that night. As it’s going to be a long day at KL.
We visited the Fort, Jalan Tokong, went to search for House at Hereen Street, the next day but we can’t find it. And so we have our last meal for the day at a Pernakan restaurant.
We hit the road again for KL.
Reached KL quite early and again been hampered by the rain, we decided to skip some areas due to that. We toured the Performing Art Centre and the Koi Centre instead. PAC in KL was built over an old railway station where the architect salvages the old columns which is about 130 years old for the entire site! Nice place. Nice surroundings! We toured for a while and went to Time Square. Part of the trip is planned to allow the Diploma students to conduct a study trip on how retail outlets were designed and conceptualised. While the degree students did their travelogue. As for C and me, it’s our rest and recreation trip. 
KL changed a lot! Thought of going out for a drink that night, but I was so tired. So I decided to hit the sack after dinner. My friends and M called me. They were in KL. So I waited for them at the lobby to pick me up. Went for some drink and food. They send me back to the hotel, while I choose to roam around for a while before deciding visiting the hotel’s spa for a nice chill out. Saw lots of people playing pool and watching movie, so I decided to sit down and watch. I order a pint and some nuts to go along with the movie. Finished the movie at about 11pm went to have my long nice bath. Soaked myself in it. I believe I fell asleep there. It’s a nice room compared to the one in Malacca.
Woke up at about 6 to shower. Have my nice long breakfast. And to conclude that day at KL, we visited Chen Si Shu Yuan and some architecture there.
The KL trip ended with a lunch and a shopping trip at Yong Peng. We reached Singapore at about 8pm. Thank goodness, though it’s a working day the next day, C and I choose to rest at home before hitting right back at work on Tuesday for a gruesome month of post graduate diploma assessment.
