It is seldom that Jon wants to travel outstation on long weekends so when he suddenly suggested we go to Melaka for a short trip, I did not hesitate. We spent quite a lot of time looking for cheaper hotel but the prices were crazy on long weekends especially since it was Merdeka weekend. Since Air bnb price was at RM 285 including all those cleaning fees, we decided to stay in Double Tree by Hilton which faces the sea.
Thank god there was no traffic jam going into Melaka town. When we arrived we had lunch at Nancy's Kitchen peranakan restaurant which thankfully we arrived early otherwise we would have had to queue up.
After lunch, it was too early to check in at 2 pm so we went to the nearby Portuguese Settlement, which looks good during Christmas, but it seems that in the day time, it was quite disappointing and run down for the eateries.
Double Tree by Hilton is located in Hatten City development which consists of Hilton hotel, Hatten City Hotel, Silverscape Residences and Elements Mall (which was quite dilapidated with very few shops).
When we arrived at Double Tree by Hilton at 3.30 pm, the room was not ready yet. But all guests were given 2 WARM giant chocolate macadaemia cookies to enjoy, which was clever thing to do to distract tired and hungry guests.
Since my room was not ready by 3.45 pm, the front desk counter offered to serve us coffee or tea at the lounge. Jon ordered premium fruit tea whereas I had double shot cappuccino which was served with dusk of chocolate powder and sugar stick which looks so cool.
When we went into our Standard Room, I had a pleasant surprise and connected the dots on why I was offered the coffee and tea probably because the arrangement was not ready yet.
I guess Hilton series is the only hotel in Malaysia which has Crabtree and Evelyn toiletries in the standard rooms compared to other 5 Star Hotels like Le Meridien. The only thing we didn't have was a bath tub.
A tour round the facilities area and found the swimming pool doesn't have the sea view like Silverscape Residences and it was just a plain square pool.
Double Tree by Hilton is famous for the Kids Club whereby parents can leave their children here for a few hours to play things like Playstation!
After that, like all tourists, we ventured out to Jonker Walk, whereby we had a hard time getting a grabcar as the town was full of tourists. We waited for about 10-15 mins before finally getting a grabtaxi for RM 16. The female taxi driver was so clever with bypassing the traffic till we reached the river area from the back.
This is the 5 Star Casa De Rio whereby all the washrooms were locked unlike normal 5 Star Hotels so I could not borrow the washroom. The waiter even made me angry when he told me to talk along Jonker Walk to find the washroom and refused to let me use the washroom. The problem about Jonker Walk is the washroom facility!
Satay Time & Chicken Rice at Melaka Chicken Rice Ball Shop
I guess eating chicken rice in Jonker Walk is not the right thing to do as the rice was so normal and not fragrant, we can get better ones in KL. The chicken is breast meat and so dry.
We didn't know the pork satay and chicken rice ball shops are owned by the same management. The pork satay is just normal, nothing special.
Saturday Night Market along Jonker Walk
The food sold from stall to stall are similar and all are super expensive catered for tourists. Simple watermelon juice from the fruit itself costs RM 10.
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| Chawanmushi |
After walking through the entire stretch of night market, we finally ate grilled scallops and most expensive and hard fried chicken wings for a whopping RM 4 per piece! The scallop was too small, and just looks more with the glass noodles. Nothing great but expensive at RM 25 for 2 pieces!
The next morning, after a hearty breakfast at Makan Kitchen Buffet, we went to Sky Deck 360 at the 44th Floor, which is accessible through Elements Mall, and being hotel guests, we could go up for free instead of paying for RM 15 tickets. The view would have been awesome had it been night when we went up but yesterday, we came back too late after dinner and traffic jam.
After much coaxing, these photos were produced! Unfortunately, I lost the photos of me inside the tower bistro.
