jolly christmas...

Its been awhile since I actually went somewhere for Christmas. Usually its just lazing about at home and watching TV. This year however we were invited for 2 open houses. Guess where? Malacca of course. Damn its practically our 2nd home now. LOL. Anyways it was a single day trip. Drive up, eat up and drive back. A simple plan.

About 4 of us headed out in the wee hours (if you count 10am wee) of the morning. Had some breakfast at Bangsar and we shot off. We managed to skip the jam by about 30 minutes or so and reached Malacca within 1.5 hours. Just in time for the 1st invitation which was Devan's crib. His mom prepared for us a scrumptious spread of wonderful curries (chicken and mutton) and briyani rice. Yummy. We also managed to indulge in a few pecs of JD with coke. Do note that this was forced upon us by the host. We were just obliging. Can't be rude now right? Especially being Christmas and all.

After the meal it was already close to 4pm. We proceeded straight to the 2nd destination (Maria's place) which was at the Portugese Settlement. I was excited as after all the trips to Malacca, I still have not stepped foot into the settlement. Somehow we never really had a reason to go in. As we drove in we saw all the interestingly decorated houses. They seem to take much more pride in the decorations. Reminded me of when I was in US. Where you could drive down almost every street and see the decorations up. Sadly it wasn't at nite so we couldn't see all the wonderful lights and colors. The roads were kinda tight though and our designated driver had trouble maneuvering the car around. We did however manage to find a spot to park and headed down to her house. We were greated again with food. Sigh. The torture. Don't these people understand that I need to lose weight! First it was the yummy sweets like jam tarts, portuguese sweet bread (very tasty stuff with a hint of cinnamon) and cookies. Then I was expecting tea as discussed but somehow a can of Tiger (beer) popped up. Once again I was forced our of obligation to drink it. HeHe. We were then invited to try our some food which were their specialty. Something I was dying to try as I have been told were spicy and heavenly. Yup you guessed it, Devil's Curry. As bonus we also got to try some mutton curry as well which was really good. Tasted very much like rendang and the meat was nice and tender. *Drool*. After that we had to head back to Devan's place and crash. Our tummies were too stuffed to even move properly.

Now let me rant about the Portugese Settlement for a bit. Please note this is my opinion ya, don't get your knickers in a knot or all hot and bothered about it. Just giving my honest opinion. Firstly I have to say that most women there are beautiful. No matter what the age. They have very nice features and a wonderful skin tone. Must be the mixture in their lineage. The men however have rough features and somehow don't seem compatible with the women (in terms of looks that is). Next is how outsiders aren't really welcomed. Now I don't blame them for this because I wouldn't like idiots driving around checking out my house during Christmas and causing a ruckus. I was even told by Maria that some tourists actually stopped by and asked if they could borrow their toilet. Jeezz. The cheek of some people. Anyways it did give us a scary feeling. I wouldn't be surprised if we accidently hit a car we would have been chopped up and served for dinner. LOL. I know I know I'm exaggerating but it sure felt like it. I think its most probably of the closeness of the community. I was told most there don't really leave the settlement much. I guess that is a good thing as the community is well guarded and it preserves their culture. Alright enuff ranting about the settlement. Back to the trip.

At Devan's place we were practically knocked out. Two of us were bumming watching the telly while 2 others fell asleep. By the time we were energetic enuff to do anything it was already 11pm. And as expected we were hungry again. We headed down to a nearby mamak and had our dinner. We were actually supposed to head to Umbai again but were too lazy to drive down (takes about 30 minutes or so). After dinner we were to drive back but Devan managed to convince us to head to Ringo. Our favourite hangout joint in Malacca, located along Jonker's Street. There we had about 3 buckets of beer. Chilled and enjoyed the music. If only there was a place like that in KL or PJ. Would have been a really nice place to hang with some mates. Around 2ish in the mornin' we decided to head back home. We said our goodbyes and shot off. The roads being clear we managed to reach home by around 330am. Damn were we tired. Knocked out till about noon the next day.

Overall it was a great way to spend Christmas. Hanging out with mates, eating wonderful food and having drinks. Now what more could I ask for. =)