Before the Storm
The last weekend we made an officially sanctioned work excursion to Melaka.
Gray of KakiTabletop initiated a communication with Pay Fong Middle School in Melaka. From there the school sent me a formal invitation via the workplace. I had been invited to run some TTRPG sessions for the secondary school students for their English Language Week. And Saturday Morning, I was slated to give a talk about the benefits of TTRPGs in language education.
Melaka is even further south than Kuala Lumpur, which gave me pause. After a quick discussion with the home team, we figured that we could pull it off. Plus it would be a new experience for me. The last time I ran games for secondary school students was back in the 1990s.
However, because of personal reasons Gray was not able to make it with me, so it would just be Irfan, Ain and I..
Heading South
Heading south, we stopped overnight in Sitiawan to rest before continuing the next day. We bought lunch at a Family Mart (our favourite new convenience store) in Kuala Selangor, although we consumed it at the nearest R&R Irfan along the LATAR Highway. Irfan took the helm there, cutting south via the Guthrie Expressway, jumping onto the ELITE Highway… and I don’t remember what happened next. I fell asleep and woke up with 30 klicks remaining to Melaka city centre. We stopped at a 99 Speedmart for supplies for the hotel, then I took over from Irfan for our final approach.
Before going to our hotel, we looked for the school. To be honest the traffic towards the school at the time was a bit daunting It was pretty jammed up because parents were driving in to pick up their children from school. Not just one school, but there must have been two thousand other schools in the vicinity.
Settling In
Our hotel was not too far away. A day or two later, after we got our bearings it was easy to travel from one location to the other and back. Also, most streets in central Melaka town were one way streets. The Imperio Residence was a double tower beachfront hotel, but our windows were facing the other tower. It was quite comfortable for the three of us.
After getting the hang of the traffic flow around the hotel, we headed for a night on the town. Ain desired to sample a local cuisine: the Asam Pedas Melaka. We had the asam pedas with stingrays that night before exploring the town centre. The next day, I would be doing my work at Pay Fong Middle School.
Click on the images below to see photos of the last couple of days.
