Trip To Malaysia - A Famosa Resort

A Famosa is a resort located in the historical city of Melaka - A UNESCO Heritage.

But I believe the British callously destroyed the entire fort built by the Portuguese in 1511. Only the gate “Porta de Santiago” is left. Melaka was a trading post of the Potuguese connecting the other ports of Goa and Macao. Sir Stamford Raffles, the creator of modern Singapore is credited with saving of the Porta de Santiago.

But did we visit the historical city of Melaka. No we did not. The modern tourist has little time to spare for historical ruins and small hutments and areattracted only to the bright lights and entertainment.

A Famosa resort has a wonderful golf course and club house. The club house was where we disembarked from the bus that brought us to the place from KL. A did a bit of putting at the greens. Got 20 balls for about Ringet 2/= only. They had a driving range as well. Radhika said I was showing off.

We had a very early lunch as the rooms were to be allotted to us only after 3 PM, our tour operators had thoughtfully advanced the lunch timings so we had lunch just about three hours after breakfast.

We were then bundled into the banana bus (the transport system at the resort called so because of its yellow color and shape) and taken to the water park. The water park has just a few slides and a wave pool. Nothing great.

We came back to the resort and got into our rooms. The rooms are good. They are not small and cramped as in Genting and also bigger- much bigger than what we had in KL. However th furniture doesnot appear to have been dusted for some time.

We take an early dinner as well but this is Ok as the break between lunch and dinner and the trip to the water park has us hungry. The late night entertainment see us get into a carnival mood with Malasian Red Indians, Malaysian Cowboys and Malayasian birds and animals putting up a show that was entertaining as it was well conducted.

The carnival site also has a four D theatre and we watch a movie in it. This was a good experience. We had water being sprayed, chair getting rocked and cool winds hitting our face as we explore a haunted office building.

Mayank and I then spend some time at the bowling alley. We have a couple of strikes and spares and in general a good father and son bonding.

By now the other members in the tour are quite familiar and friendly. We have two doctor families from Patna. Both the couples are doctors and are quite friendly. We have the Jains and the Tanwars who have links with Rajasthan and we have another couple from Mumbai - the gentleman is from HDFC. With common issues we are now talking to each other and as a result there is a lot of friendly banter and leg pulling especially of Mr. Homi.

The A Famosa trip ends with breakfast next morning and as we wait for the bus to arrive we take rides on a three rider cycle.

Needless to add, the vegetarian stuff at A Famosa is pedestrian.

Best wishes,

Manoj

To be continued...