We were back since Sunday evening but I was too busy to blog about my trip. I’m busy at the moment, both with work and with my final exam preparation. Exams are due in 2 weeks and we still have a written video assignment to submit by this Friday and a practical exam to study for tomorrow! Time is so precious.

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Dar and I went on a family retreat @ Malacca during the weekend. It’s a trip organized by the Swift Athletes Association in conjunction with the club’s 60th Anniversary (1947-2007). Dear has been a Swift member since years ago when he was a runner and now he’s part of the committee team, while I’m the webmistress.

We were the youngest couple in this trip as most of the other couples were in their 40s. There were 4 generation of runners, the oldest being a man in the 70s or 80s I think! It was kind of touching to see old couples, whom I believe used to be runners when they were young. It made me thought of our future. Will we still be alive 60 years from now and will we be able to go on a family retreat like this? How will we look like when we are 60 / 70 years old?

Despite the age gap, I did not feel left out. Instead, we had a great time! These aunties and uncles are a bunch of very fun and warm people. They joke till your stomach aches. Their laughs are contagious too! I found myself laughing with them several times, without even knowing what they were talking about!

This was my first time visiting Malacca. I can’t really tell much about this place because I only spent 2 days there. However, the only thing that I can say is that their food is yummy! We went to a Nonya restaurant on Sunday and it was one of the best meals I ever had.

Following are some photos of our trip.

Saturday

We all met up at Toa Payoh Stadium. At 8am the journey began.

Our first stop was somewhere in JB for breakfast. The Roti Prata was quite nice.

With Glory Barnabas & her husband

An hour later it was lunch at a restaurant. The food we had for breakfast was still in our stomach!

I brought some books along and manged to revise a few things inside the bus. Well this was the only time during the trip that I opened my books

We reached Malacca at around 2pm and checked into The Emperor Hotel soon after.

There’s a big map beside the hotel showing various places of interest nearby

At the hotel lobby

Taking the lift

Inside the room

A view from our hotel room

At 4pm we all went to “Makhoto” for shopping

We also did some sightseeing. This is us and me holding a real iguana. About $1 just to hold that iguana haa. Nahh it wasn’t scary. Luckily he didn’t bite deary’s face aha.

In front of a Bazar

The stuffs that they were selling at the Bazar

Dear buying a hot dog

Other stuffs in Malacca

Dinner was by the swimming pool

Group photos of all Swift family members

After dinner we went to “Jonker” street night market

This is a real pineapple tart. The shop owner won a Guinness World Record in 2004 for the biggest pineapple tart ever baked. So every year the owner bakes a huge pineapple tart just for display. It’s 82cm wide and weighs 22kg. It can last for 6 months after which they bake another huge one to replace the old one.

I bought 3 boxes of pineapple tarts from them. This type is the best.

Sunday

The next morning, dear and I woke up at 6.30am and went for a jog at “Bukit China” - 5 mins walk from our hotel. Yusoff also joined us. “Bukit China” is a cemetery but a number of people jog and exercise there.

Kind of creepy running through a cemetery huh!

With Yusoff, after an hour run

With darling

We took a group photo after checking out of the hotel

Lunch was at “Nyonya Manis Sayang” restaurant

After our delicious lunch, they brought us to “Tan Kim Hock” to eat some famous durian chendol. I didn’t eat because I don’t like durian.

Eating their chendol

On the way back to Singapore, we stopped at a fruit market and bought some goodies

We reached Singaopore at 6pm. The coach brought us back to Toa Payoh. It was a nice trip!