Weekend at Rosa Malacca, Mamee Jonker House & Muar

DAY 1

We decided to join the Hubby's 2nd brother and family on a road trip to Malacca during the June school holidays. We headed to Malacca separately as they wanted a longer trip whereas we'd only wanted to stay for 2 nights.

We crossed customs at around 8am and had breakfast at one of our favourite restaurants, Restoran Tong.

The restaurant's first customers for the day!

Gotta have two pots of their famous bak kut teh!

We continued on our journey after breakfast and experienced slow traffic to Malacca. The journey was longer than expected and we only arrived at our accommodation after travelling for almost 3 hours! 😓

We expected that our room would not be ready so we left our luggage at the Front Desk. We also left our car at the carpark and took a Grab to Jonker Street as it was difficult to find parking at Jonker and Grab was convenient and affordable. 

We met up with the rest of the family at Peranakan Mansion for lunch.

Peranakan Mansion
(Address: 108, Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock, 75200 Melaka, Malaysia)

The restaurant was well-decorated

We experienced the feeling of dining in a rich Peranakan's home

Blue butterfly pea tea, spring rolls and fried sambal squid

Kueh Pie Tee

Chendol, otah and fried egg

You can't really travel to the 'Land of Peranakan' and without eating Peranakan food! 😆 It's a must to try their chendol! 

We walked to MAMEE Jonker House to check out their new MAMEE Factory where the kids personalised their own cup noodles. The exterior looked the same as the last time we had visited in 2016 but the interior had been completely revamped!

Due to space constraints, only participants with a purchased cup each can enter the Noodle Doodle area. We got the kids a cup at MYR 15 each so the Eldest had to take care of the Littlest (I decided to wait for them outside).

MAMEE cup noodle container

Colouring and designing their cups

They were fortunately able to sit together despite the packed room!

Watching their cup noodles being made!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Madeline Heng (@madpsychmum)

It reminded me of a smaller version of the Nissin Instant Ramen Museum we'd visited in Osaka! It's worth a visit, though I would suggest to avoid peak periods (it's just too crowded)!

We explored the rest of Jonker Street, which looked the same but different than we had remembered! 😅

Jonker Street and Christ Church Melaka

Malacca River

We took a Grab back to our accommodation, Rosa Malacca, the same hotel as our last trip in 2022.

We enjoyed our previous experience with the Family Suite and booked it again this time at $268 per room per night (inclusive of breakfast for 6 adults).

More details of Rosa Malacca and our Family Suite in my previous post

We relaxed in the hotel until it was time for dinner. The family decided to return to Jonker Walk to explore the night markets.

At the other end of Jonker Walk

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Madeline Heng (@madpsychmum)

We had dinner at Sumika, a Japanese restaurant in the area.

Noodles at Sumika

Various yakitori and small dishes

Family photo (missing one nephew)

I don't have a good experience with Japanese food in Malaysia in general and this restaurant was 

We got so much done on just the first day! 😆

DAY 2

We had our breakfast at the restaurant of our hotel. It was simple but good enough for our large family.

Small spread of breakfast food

Noodles and porridge station

We spent some time after breakfast relaxing in our room. After all, it is a vacation! 😄

At around 11am, we headed to Cottage Spices as the popular restaurant tends to get very crowded during lunchtime.

Cottage Spices Nyonya Restaurant
(Address: 171, Jln Merdeka, Taman Melaka Raya, 75000 Melaka, Malaysia)

We ordered a whole table of Peranakan food! 😋
We definitely may have over-ordered... 😅

More Peranakan food, especially the Chendol!

The food was good! We all enjoyed it a lot! 😄

After lunch, the family returned to Jonker Walk via Grab. While the rest of the family did whatever their hearts desired, I brought my girls to a nail salon so that we can get our pedicures. There were only two manicurists available so while they worked on my girls, I got a massage for my legs and back!

Getting our pedicures

Littlest likes getting pedicures but she couldn't sit still long enough for the nails to dry! The poor manicurist had to keep reapplying! She was so patient! 😬

When we were done, we took a Grab to Mahkota Parade to meet up with the family. Before we can do any shopping, the family decided to walk over to Restoran Tong Sheng early to start queuing for dinner. The restaurant was still as popular as the last time we visited! 

There was already a snaking queue by the time we arrived at around 6pm! We queued for more than an hour before we finally got a table at 7.15pm. We then waited for 40 minutes before we were finally served our food! ☹️😖 It was 8pm by then and we were all starving! 😮‍💨

Restoran Tong Sheng
(Address: 171, Jln Merdeka, Taman Melaka Raya, 75000 Melaka, Malaysia)

The restaurant's most famous dish: Crab beehoon! 😋

The fish was large and fresh! Very yummy!

Various other dishes we ordered

Honestly, the food was good but definitely not good enough for us to wait for almost 2 hours! Our time would have been much better spent elsewhere! 😕 It's unlikely that we'll return.

By the time we were done with dinner, it was about 8.40pm. The Eldest and I decided to make one last dash to Mahkota Parade to do some last minute shopping at Oh!Some.

This store reminded me of KKV in Batam! We bought loads of cute stuff!

The Eldest and I wanted to hit 10k steps so we decided to walk back to the hotel instead of taking a Grab. It wasn't the distance so much as we were 2 females walking at night that concerned me a bit! But we did it! It was a good workout! 💪🏻 

DAY 3

After breakfast, we relaxed in our room until it was time to check out. On the way back to Singapore, we made a stop at Muar for our favourite Cheng Boi Otah! We would always get our otah from here whenever we get to stop by Muar! 

Visiting Muar just for our favourite Cheng Boi Otah! 😋😅

Just as we had done the last trip, we had lunch at Xin Yang Seafood Restaurant. Food was amazing!

A special dish of prawn dips and crispy shells

Yummy food we ate! 😋 

With our stomachs full, we headed back to Singapore via Johor Bahru. There was a slight delay due to heavy traffic so by the time we arrived at Restoran Uncle Pou Wok, it was 6.40pm and we were just in time for dinner! 😅 We usually visit the outlet at Bukit Indah so it's our first time at the Taman Pelangi outlet.

Restoran Uncle Pou Wok Taman Pelangi 
(Address: 26, Jalan Abiad, Taman Pelangi, 80400 Johor Bahru, Johor Darul Ta'zim)

Their famous charcoal boiled steamboat and fried noodles 😋

It was a great way to end our short road trip! 😃 

~~~~~~

P.S: Here're our experiences with accommodations in Malacca:

• 2014: Hatten Hotel
• 2015: Hallmark Crown Hotel
• 2017: Estadia Hotel
• 2018: Imperial Heritage Hotel
• 2022: Rosa Malacca

~~~~~~

Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on Malacca, Malaysia 

as well as other travel itineraries!

Do also check out my recommendations on kid-friendly activities in Malaysia!

Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!

Ipoh-Cherating Day 9-10: Sunway Hotel Big Box, Johor Bahru

DAY 9

We couldn't wait to check out of our less-than-pleasant accommodation early in the morning! We didn't even bother to have a proper breakfast before making our way to JB (though I managed to finish the fruits from Desaru Fruit Farm in the car).

Johor River Bridge

We arrived at Hai Kah Lang JB, which was famous for their fish / seafood noodles. Thumbs up from the foodie Lee Family! 🤭👍🏻

Managed to get a private room with a huge table!
(Address: 173, Jalan Sutera, Taman Sentosa, 80150 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia)

The clams were so big and fresh!

The soup broth was so sweet and yummy! Love it!

After lunch, we headed to Johor Premium Outlet for shopping. There weren't a lot of sales this time hence we left earlier than expected. 

We drove to Sunway Hotel Big Box, our last hotel for this trip to check in.

Sunway Big Box Retail Park

View of Sunway Hotel Big Box from the carpark

We had booked 2 Deluxe Plus King rooms at $115 per room per night (inclusive of breakfast). It was a very comfortable stay for the price!

King-size bed

Simple but clean room

Personalised greeting

Amenities like fridge, proper luggage rack and wardrobe

Good size toilet

Shower and toiletries

As part of sustainability efforts, bottled water was not provided. Instead, you'd have to fill the metal bottles in your room at the water dispenser located next to the lifts.
Small inconvenience for a better tomorrow, I'd say! 😊

We headed out for shopping at NSK, the nearest supermarket, and had tea break at our favourite fried chicken fast food restaurant Marybrown!

Marybrown at Sunway Big Box

Enjoying our tea break (as it's too late for lunch but too early for dinner..)

After eating, we went swimming at our hotel's pool.

Decent size pool that the kids loved!

Smaller pool for little kids

You can see the hotel's restaurant serving dinner

Happy kids in the pool!

At around 8.30pm, the Hubby, Eldest and I headed to Eco Botanic for our massages that we had pre-booked with Meet Wellness (the 2 younger kids and Mum-in-law stayed in the room). The sister-in-law and I previously enjoyed our foot massages during last year's JB trip in December. This time, we booked the 60-minute aromatherapy massage to try something different.

Meet Wellness

Looking forward to our massages, held in the very nicely decorated upper floor.

My massage was very painful as my masseuse used a lot of force despite me telling her to ease up on her pressure 😮‍💨 The hubby experienced something similar while the Eldest was spared the pain (maybe they pitied her low pain threshold! 😅).

Drinks and snacks provided after our massages!

I'll probably stick to foot massages after this experience!

DAY 10 

We woke up after a good night's sleep and had breakfast at Pandas Cafe. There was a long queue at the restaurant and we waited for about 30 minutes before we got a table.

Pandas Cafe

Food was ordinary but to be expected as we didn't pay a lot.
We decided not to pay for breakfast in future.

As usual, we headed to the pool for our morning swim before we checked out!

Siblings enjoying the pool together

Love this shot! 😍

After checking out, we loaded the car and drove to Eco Botanic for lunch at Makanan Ramen Champion.

Makanan Ramen address:
67, Jalan Eko Botani 3/5, 79100 Iskandar Puteri, Johor, Malaysia

Ramen Champion

My yummy spicy ramen 🍜 🤤 

We did some final shopping at Jay's Grocer and returned to Singapore before the start of the traffic jam in the late afternoon. The queue was super short when we crossed customs so it was the right decision! 

It was another great road trip to Malaysia! Look forward to our next one! 😊

<< Back to Ipoh-Cherating Day 7-8: Desaru Homestay, Ostrich & Fruit Farms

~~~~~~

Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on road trips in Malaysia 
as well as other travel itineraries! 

Do also check out my recommendations on kid-friendly activities in Malaysia!

You can also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels! =)