Follow Up to Melaka

Go, Be MyWitnesses by williamnyk
Go, Be MyWitnesses, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

As a follow up to the previous day's migration exercise into the production environment, I went into my client's data centre at 4:30 am on Saturday to ensure that the previous day's migration didn't screw things up. Well, it didn't, so this post will be on a pleasant note. :D. Left about an hour later. Felt terribly hungry so stopped at Restoran Rishadh for a tosai garing and teh tarik. Didn't sleep when I got home as I was supposed to leave for a day trip to Melaka at 7:30 am. The whole thing was organized by my BEC as part of our yearly activities cum pilgrimage. Met up at Seri Petaling where the bus was already waiting for us. Been ages since I took a bus and that old school bus was quite rickety. Hin. Handled the registration while the bus was moving, going from seat to seat getting names and NRIC numbers. Felt like a steward training for turbulence. For MYR25 per pax, we also got two bottles of mineral water and some snacky buns. During the journey, we sang some hymns and played some games. Felt like a short trip.

St. Therese of Lisieux

Arrived at the Church of St. Theresa (St. Therese of Lisieux) some time after 10:00 am. Since it was an official visit, a whole bunch of people were there to welcome us. At first, we went looking around the church compound. So ngam a pair of newly-weds were having their wedding photos taken. Later they invited us out to a big gathering outside the church. The chairs were arranged in such a way that it looked like a giant musical chairs session. Some ice-breaking and information exchange about the BEC formation at their church and mine. Interestingly, the Church of St. Theresa is the mother church to eight chapels and their BEC groups go by chapels. Every week they would come to church to have their gatherings. The parish priest also explained the history of the church. Turns out that the Church of St. Theresa is predominantly for the Chinese-speaking and he pointed out the oriental influence in the church's architecture. Interestingly, there are eighteen crosses high on the walls. Nine on each side. And each cross is upon a circle, where the intersection of the cross is a square in the middle of that circle. Does that sound like an ancient Chinese coin to you? Haha. Had a bit of fellowship with nyonya kueh and cakes. Crazy combinations of glutinous rice, black eyed peas, grated coconut, sago and blue colouring. The Mustard Seed Society also recently introduced a pilgrimage passport, so some were busy getting their passports stamped. Very Taiwanese. Then we did a prayer session and quiet reflection before leaving for lunch.

Nyonya Kuih

The restaurant was quite close to the church. Apparently one of the regular haunts of parishioners there. The place was called Zong Hua Sharksfin Restaurant , but alas, we had no sharksfin soup that afternoon. The food wasn't good. The steamed tilapia tasted VERY earthy and the lemon chicken tasted, well not quite lemon-y. Next up was Malim Hill, the site of the Chapel of Santa Cruz, in between the Hainanese Chinese Cemetery and an old rubber estate. The chapel was built some time in 1880 and attracts thousands of devotees each year during the Feast of the Holy Cross (2nd Sunday of September). Didn't stay there for long as it was mostly locked up. What's a visit to Melaka without stopping at Jonker Walk right? Spent ninety minutes there, but I wasn't very keen to walk around there in high noon. Just bought a box of pineapple tarts for KH (he doesn't eat the roll type) and skedaddled into the closest cafe for some Illy. The latte at Bistro Year 1673 came looking like three layer tea. Gave me the necessary kick. And best of all, they gave us complimentary fruit cake. Due to the Christmas season perhaps. On our way back to KL, we stopped at Krubong to visit the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe which actually used to be one of the chapels under the Church of St. Theresa.

Our Lady of Grace

Clogged

In the compound of the church is actually the ruins of an old Portugese Catholic church that had been forgotten and fallen into obscurity during the Dutch occupation. Only some laterite stones and bricks are left standing after some four hundred years. Outside the church were large marble slabs hewn with scenes from the Via Dolorosa. Different from other churches, the scenes featured Our Lady of Guadalupe. Although they were busy with a huge healing session, the parishioners from OLOG still managed to spare some time to attend to us. Similarly, we looked around, cam-whored and did our prayer session before proceeding to head back to KL. Managed to sleep on the way back to KL. My 3:30 am wake up call was starting to take its toll. Ate dinner at Sri Petaling before going home for a much needed bath. Knowing that KH would be missing me, I went out at 9:00 pm to yumcha with him at Station One. He was quite horny judging from the way his hands were trying to sneak into my shorts. The benefits of exercise, gets the blood flowing to the right places (he swam in the evening). Although I was so tired that night, I still found the energy to coax my swimmers out for a pilgrimage. LOL.

Grave

The Deposition

Comments

You always have so many activities planned for a day. How do you get all these energy?
William said…
@UntoldS:
I surprise myself too at times :P
Twilight Man said…
It has been ages I have not visited Melaka. A nice getaway nearby for me.
William said…
@JJ:
Tak sedap le

@Twi:
After so long, it would be a fresh experience
Derek said…
Always my pleasure to give you pleasure!

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