We are spending the night in Melaka. This is just a transit point for our yearly trip to Dumai, Indonesia. Travelling on a tight budget, M Motel has become our choice again. This is our second time here. This is really a no frill, dirt cheap and yet very clean place to stay in Melaka. It’s location that is in the vicinity of the Melaka jetty, makes it an ideal stopover spot for us.

Tomorrow morning, we will be boarding an Indomal ferry that will take us to Dumai. We will be celebrating Mama Pasha’s dad aka Pasha’s granddad aka Papa Bear’s father in law’s birthday.

Pasha was already very excited earlier this evening. By the time I got home, he was already mentioning something about going to see his grandpa in Dumai. Well, I could only understand the grandpa and Dumai parts…

He knows that there will be a candle blowing session and he knows that he will be entrusted with the most fun task of the event, i.e. to blow the candles… Must be the most exciting job in the world for a 3 year old…

Since internet connection is a luxury in Dumai, we will not be able to actively blog while we are there. So we, especially Papa Bear, will be missing from the blogosphere for a few of days.

See you later folks!

People who arrived at this page were looking for:

We left for Dumai on the 3rd around noon. The thought of having to go through the roads again was enough to make us feel tired even before the journey started… Banyak lobang dan lama dalam kereta….

Anyway, we stopped for lunch in Kandis, at a roadside restaurant called Bersama. They served nasi padang and some of the gulai were spicier than the nasi padang that we are used to but tasty enough for me.  I loved it. Maybe lapar punya pasal kot…

On the 4th, we left Dumai for Melaka. Nothing much about the ferry ride home but when I tried to start my car that was left at the jetty for 5 days, the battery just went flat.

I called up Etiqa Auto Assist and rescue came in less than 1 hour. That was the second time I used their services and so far they had been quick in coming to the rescue. I used to subscribe to AAM but not only I had to pay for the membership but also the time that they took to attend to my problems were always more than 1 hour.

Why should I pay for late service when I could get better service from Etiqa and it came free with the car insurance? Promosi sket…. No lah… saja lepas geram kat AAM… sombong…

Anyway, we got home safely and now looking forward for our next mini vacation… Bila ada budget la….

People who arrived at this page were looking for:

We decided to sleep in Melaka before the trip to Dumai. Well, the trip was originally planned to be today but then since I just found my car key, we missed the ferry… Anyway, instead of having to wake up very early and drive to Melaka tomorrow, the better thing to do is to just go to Melaka now and get a hotel and take our own sweet time tomorrow morning.

After surfing for a budget hotel, yup, budget tak cukup so sebelum budget lain lari, kena la cari budget hotel kan kan kan…, Diah found RS Park Hotel. I called up the hotel and one Miss Hanim told us that the hotel is just at the back of Mahkota Parade. Sounds easy enough to find… Tetapi…

Pasha took a long nap after lunch and we only left Shah Alam after 5 pm. By the time we got there, it was already 8 something at night. I am not a fast driver and I like to make a few stops here and there hence the 3 hour drive… 90kmh tu dah kira laju dah tu…. We went to the back of Mahkota Parade and look for RS Park. Tak nampak pun? We could not find it and that one Miss Hanim did not pick up my call and out of over confidence, we did not copy its address and by this time…..

Pasha: “Papa…”

Papa: “Ya Pasha.”

Pasha: “Ni udah mayam…” (it’s already night)

Papa: “Ok…”

He repeated the above for about 20 times with a 10 second break before he went “Papa…” again. Imagine that while you were frantically trying to locate a building in the middle of an unfamiliar territory…

Tried to locate using Gamin GPS… That place was not even in the list… Cap ayam ke tempat tuh?

Tired, disoriented and unable to focus in between “Ni udah mayam…”, we found a little hotel called The Motel. At RM68, we settled in for the night…

In the morning we saw the hotel and it was not really behind Mahkota Parade… It was just across the street from where we stayed… Cis…. Banyakla dia punya belakang Parade…

This is one of the hottest news in Malaysia at the moment. It is about a Bollywood actor that was awarded the title of Datuk by the state of Malacca, which is equivalent to a knighthood in Britain.

Most people in Malaysia based on news and blogs, do not agree with the award and many feel that the award should have been given to Malaysians that are more deserving than him. To make the matter worse, which many feel and I agree, it was an insult to the country when Shah Rukh Khan himself, could not be bothered to turn up and receive the award.

He also named Azean Irdawaty, M. Nasir, Kuswadinata and Ruminah Sidek as artistes deserving to receive the Datukship. He added it was an insult to Malaysians that Shah Rukh Khan did not turn up to accept the award. — Datuk Mustapha Maarof in ‘Malaysians more deserving of Datukship than Shah Rukh Khan’

Even Lim Kit Siang, the opposition leader, could not resist in taking part in condemning the presentation of this award as quoted from Khan award upsets Malaysian locals;

If Shahrukh Khan deserves the award, then other foreign stars including Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones who shot the Hollywood movie “Entrapment” in Kuala Lumpur in 1999 should also be given similar recognition, he said.

I made a search at Negaraku! (at 11:00 am) to see how many bloggers have blogged about this topic and these are what I found:

1. Lagu Inikah yang Membawa Shahrukh Khan Mendapat Gelaran Datuk? by Hasbullah Pit
2. Datuk Shah Rukh Khan kempen untuk Ali Rustam? by Tok Mudin
3. Shah Rukh Khan Terima Anugerah Datuk dari Yang Dipertua Negeri Melaka? by Oh Bulan
4. Datuk Shah Rukh Khan, WTF? by Noktah Hitam
5. Bila Masa Pula PAS Melaka, Selangor, Perak Kurniakan Datuk Pada Shahrukh Khan? by Hasbullah Pit
6. Kecek-kecek tentang Datuk Shah Rukh Khan by Tok Mudin
7. Datuk Shah Rukh Khan, WTF? by Cekik Darah
8. Datuk Shah Rukh Khan.. the most ridiculous thing of 2008 by Kwong Fei

So what is your opinion on this? Any die hard fan out there?