After a hectic two-day tour of Melaka, I “lepak” at my friend’s house this morning while she ran some errands. We left for Masjid Tanah to visit her friend after lunch. It’s just a 30-minute drive. The weather was great; windy and cooling.
We picked up her friend and went for a nice cuppa at a 3-in-1 restaurant-cum-bakery-cum-tuck shop. I thought it’s so cool to sit in the shop sipping our teh-c in such unique setting. Being a tau-sar (red bean) freak, I tasted the tau-sar bun and it’s comforting to know that it tastes the same like those back home and in KL.
We took off for the Turtle Management Centre in Pengkalan Balak. No, it’s not a timber town – maybe years ago. 30 minutes later and after a nice cool drive along the coast, we reached the Centre. It was closed for renovation but the lady there was nice enough to let us in. She explained that they needed to upgrade some of the equipment and exhibition hall. We stayed on the grounds and saw some green turtles (from Straits of Melaka), penyu “karak” from Perak and another species from Penang.
The pool that housed the turtles was a bit dirty and it’s due to be cleaned tomorrow. The Centre will reopen to the public on 30 Dec 2010.
Besides the turtles, one can also find some terrapins and tortoises. The pool for the terrapins and tortoises is much cleaner and they swim happily in the water.
About two weeks ago, the lady at the Centre rescued two wee kittens in the vicinity. Some unkind soul had put them in a plastic bag and left them for death.
The hatchling nursery is just across the road from the Centre and each hole is about an arm’s length deep. After incubating between 50 – 60 days, the eggs will hatch and the personnel from the Centre will bring these beautiful and graceful creatures back to the sea.
It is strange that one can rarely find a good long stretch of beach in Melaka. Luckily, the stretch of beach here in Pengkalan Balak is still untouched and relatively clean.
We were at the Centre for almost 2 hours and on the way to drop the friend, I happened to notice a signboard for a telco shop. Intelligent lemon anyone?
And here I thought that “lemon” is a term to mean “lame”.
By the time we got back to the historic city, it was was already nearly 6pm. The kuih teow fried with sweet sauce is no longer available and neither could we find any pisang goreng. Luckily, my friend’s mom has some soup, chicken and veg for us.
In the evening, we went for some grilled fish; Alaa… Kassim Ikan Bakar in Sungei Duyong (Mermaid River). Unlike those found in KL/PJ, most grilled fish in Melaka is served with nasi lemak. If I had known, I’d have gone easy on the rice and soup at my friend’s place! It was just fantastic. I finished the whole pack of rice and lots of other dishes.
Tomorrow, I still want to try the kuih teow fried with sweet sauce before we leave for KL. Or maybe during my next trip to Melaka.
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