Beautiful Qi Pao

These 3 ladies performed a Chinese New Year song during the launch of Jonker Walk's Chinese New Year celebration. Love their qi pao (Chinese traditional costume).

We have a long weekend break, with Thursday being a public holiday for the celebration of Prophet Mohammad's Birthday and Monday for Thaipusam.  We took the opportunity to spend time in Melaka and enjoy the festive Chinese New Year decorations put up on the streets where my family lives.

There was even a launch for the lighting up of the Chinese New Year decorations on Jonker Walk.  This photo showed the crowd and also the lanterns hung up for this year's celebration.  It's really festive atmosphere to it. The organizer also held a street concert and we had a good time swaying to the music on the street.

Chinese New Year is about 2-week away. I will be posting more photos of preparation for Chinese New Year before the festival arrives. I am already in the festive mood.....Gong Xi...Gong Xi....Gong Xi Ni......

Uncle at Jonker Walk

I love visiting Danny Santos's blog and enjoy his street photography adventures that happened frequently on Orchard Street, Singapore.  Danny's blog was featured in Eric Kim's (also a street photographer) blog.

Both Danny's & Eric's photos inspire me to approach this Uncle and ask his permission to take a photo of him when I was in Jonker Walk, Melaka last weekend.  He happily smiled for me.  I had a fun time using my friend's Canon EOS 350D camera to roam along Jonker Walk with my two little nieces. I loaned the camera to photograph my newborn niece.  Didn't want to miss capturing the first few days of arrival.

My Fujifilm Finepix S6500fd is now in the workshop.  Got a call from Fujifilm's technician today.  My camera lens need a replacement.  That would cost me RM450.  Ouch! That really hurt. Considering the camera is a good one and gave a lot of good shots for my job, I decided to go for the repair. At the same time, I have my heart on a Canon EOS 60D.  Should I get it?  Mmmm........that will burn a big hole in my pocket.  Read some reviews and most of them gave positive remarks about this camera.  Mmmm........tempting, very tempting.............

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Today is the eve of Malaysia's 55th National Day celebration.  There are plans made for 'Janji Demokrasi' gatherings for public to seek electoral reform from our government.  I hope the police will not act violently and assault public who join the gathering tonight, like what they did during Bersih 3.0.  The main one in the city will be held in Dataran Merdeka.  Personally, I have not felt patriotic in the past 3 years. I have not bothered to fly our Malaysian flag. Our government has not done much to garner support from me.  Dirty news of corruption, cronyism, injustice, high crime rates have been making headlines in our local dailies.  What have our current government done to improve on situation?  And our past Prime Minister has the cheek to make a remark "better the devil you know (the ruling party) than the angel you don't (the opposition) when it comes to casting our votes in the upcoming election. Sigh....Malaysia, where are you heading?  Would I still be smiling happily like this Uncle in today's photo if I do not stand up for my beliefs & rights?

Your Face is Your Fortune

Ever had a fortune teller give you a face reading?  The Chinese believes the signs of success and good fortune of a person can be read from the face.  If you ever passed by Jonker Walk in Melaka, you may want to get your fortune read by this stall owner.

Tok-Tok Candy Man

During my student days, I used to buy this candy while waiting for my school bus to fetch me home. The 'tok-tok' sound produced from the sound of the seller knocking on the candy to break it into tiny pieces is how we learnt that the tok-tok candy man is just around the corner. It's hard to find such candy these days. Fortunately we met this old man selling it at the corner end of Jonker Street. We bought a packet of the mint-flavoured candy and the taste brought me back to those school days!

Flying Red

Red flags are hung all along the street of my neighbourhood in conjunction of Chinese New Year Festival. Even though the celebration ended on the 15th day of Chinese Lunar Calendar (6th Feb 2012), buy the decorations are still up. Probably it's because Lap Chun for this year falls on 4th Feb. Read more about Lap Chun in the given link as my knowledge of it is very little. 

To me, Chinese New Year will not be over till the end of Feb! I can still hear the rhythm of drums from the lion dance and the songs of Chinese New Year playing in my mind. So, the festive spirit is still on-going!!

Flying with the Dragon

This is the dragon found decorating the street of Jonker Walk this year. It sprouts water every 30 minutes instead of fire as this is the year of Water Dragon.

It is said that Dragon brings good fortune and luck. Being a Water element year, thing will move swiftly. Ideas flow, creativity abound, economies bloom and love blossoms in the air. In short, a very exciting year!


So, are you ready to fly with the Dragon?

Supper by the Street

This may look like a scene from a movie set in the 60s but...this is what you will see outside my mom's place in Melaka on a weekend. It's fun to have a hot, steamy bowl of noodle as you watch people passing by. This is Jonker Walk, the weekend pedestrian mall in my hometown.

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Today Malaysians will be celebrating our country's 53rd Independence Day! I wish everyone a Happy Merdeka!! May our country continue to be blessed with abundance ~ harmony, wealth and peace! Let's do it together, my fellow Malaysians!

Rehearsal of ASTRO Singing Competition

A rehearsal of the cable TV, ASTRO's 2010 Golden Melody Classic Singing Competition was held at Melaka's Jonker Walk last nite. We were lucky to reach Melaka early enough to watch the rehearsal. This competition will be aired live from Jonker Walk tonite. Here is a contestant in his best performance during the rehearsal.

Camera crew at work and the beautiful stage at Jonker Walk street.

Cold Inside, Hot Outside

Fried ice cream, anyone? This is ice cream wrapped with bread dipped into egg and then frozen. Upon order, it will be deep fried. It's hot on the outside & cold on the inside. Very yummy and a must-have for me whenever I go to the Jonker Walk's weekend night market in Melaka.

Bed & Breakfast

More & more backpackers hostel and B&B are established in Melaka's Jonker & Temple Street area. And this is good as they make accommodation in the touristy part of Melaka town affordable!

This is a mural taken from one of the budget accommodation. It is located just in front of the Jonker Walk stage where karaoke session is held on every weekend. But wonder if one can sleep through the loud noise coming from the speakers?

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Heineken staged a fake classical music concert at the same time as a crucial Real Madrid vs. AC Milan game on October 21, there was no chance that any real soccer fan would be there…except if their girlfriends, professors and bosses convinced them (by any means necessary) to attend.

What happens next is sheer hilarity, and a nice example of a high-budget guerrilla marketing campaign from Heineken. Suffice to say that more than 1,100 soccer fans got swindled, 1.5 million people saw their reactions on live TV, and Heineken received five million visitors to the site devoted to the event — and a great deal of news coverage for their troubles.

Watch the video here!

Night Market Dim Sum

Hot, steaming dim sums at the Jonker Walk weekend market in Melaka. It is nice to eat this as you stroll through the market! Try this when you visit Jonker Walk! Pick 3 pieces for only RM1.50 (about USD0.30)! Cheap, right?

Saturday's Line Dancing

Come to Jonker Walk in Melaka on a Saturday evening and you may see a group of line dancers gathering near the stage of this pedestrian night market dancing the night away.

That's My World Tues - Night Hawkers at Jonker Walk

Jonker Walk is a night market located in the old part of Melaka town and held only on weekend. My family lives on the street where the night market is held. It is always fun to go home and join the tourists who visit Melaka and savour the local Melaka delicacies at this night market.

That's My World Tuesday posting features stories and photos about lives across the globe. Hope over to be a virtual traveller around the world!

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A video of Melaka's Night Life, courtesy of Malaysia Truly Asia TV website.

My World Tuesday - Street Medicine Man

The street medicine man was drawing lots of attention from the tourists that visited Jonker Walk last Saturday. There were a huge crowd circling him as he performed the act of breaking a hole into each coconut with his forefinger and threw in a lot of humour as he went on. He will then use the ointment he sells to soothe his forefinger to prevent it from swelling. It was so impressive that he was able to sell to many of these spectators.

Don't miss him out if you ever come to visit Jonker Walk!

Visit That's My World Tuesday portal for a quick glimpse of what is happening around our world!

Satay Celup at Jonker Walk

An evening on the night market at Melaka's Jonker Walk. Tables are set by the street for visitors to enjoy the locally well-known steamboat, called Satay Celup. Satay Celup are skewers of food e.g. meat, prawns, vegetables on skewers and they are dip into a pot of spicy peanut sauce to cook. This is indeed a great place to hang out for good food and people-watching.

Wonder what steamboat is? Well, check out my previous posting entitled 'Lok-Lok at SS13 Night Market'.