Melaka (Malacca), Malaysia

This weekend, Gitt, Nicole and I decided to take a last minute trip to Melaka, Malaysia. Melaka is a city in Southwestern Malaysia which is about 3 hours North of Singapore by bus. The city has really interesting architecuture from it’s Portugues, Dutch, British and Chinese influences. It was a little too far for a single day trip, so we took the 7:15pm bus from Singapore on Friday 07/08/2011, went site seeing during day on Saturday, then took the 5:30pm bus back to Singapore.

Melaka has so many attactions for the tourist interested in history and art. The first site we saw was the Porte de Santiago (A Famousa Fort)—built by the Portugues in 1511 and was heavily damaged by the invasion of the dutch. A short walk up the hill behind the fort was St. Paul’s church, which was origially built by the Portugues, taken over by the Dutch and finally taken by the British who turned it into an arsenal. Directly next to A Famousa Fort was Melaka’s Saltanate Palace which is now a Malaysian Cultural Museum. I particularly liked seeing the authentic malaysian costumes here as well as the weapon display—I particularly liked the Kris—a distinctly Malaysian dagger with a curvy blade because of it’s name. Once I saw this I was on the hunt to find one of these to bring back for my brother Kris.

From the St. Paul’s hill area, we walked along the Melaka River to see some of the city’s other major sites including Christs Church (built in 1753), St. Francis Xavier’s Church ( twin tower Gothic Church built in 1849), and Cheng Hoon Teng Temple (the oldest Chinese temple in Malaysia). The buildings along the Melaka River reminded me of a European City—you could really distinguish the Portugues and Dutch influence. We continued our treck across the city on Jonker street—which had lots of shops and restaurants. Very area that was a great place to buy sourveniers and pineapple tarts.

The food we had of note in Melaka includes Chicken Rice Balls (we apparantely found a restaurant which had the best rice balls in all of Malaysia), Nyonya Asam and Nyonya Laksa (a noodle dish with a thin curry broth), and Cendol (shaved ice dessert that had coconut milk, jelly bits and a mango puree on top).

One of the Newspaper articles about the Restaurant with the Best Chicken Rice Balls in Malaysia

Officially the best chicken rice balls in malaysia...quite delicious but it was more of a kid sized portion for me

Port of Santiago (A Famosa)

Walls at A Famosa are 3 meters thick!

St. Paul's Church

Melaka's Sultanate Palace

Audience Room in the Sultanate Palace

Traditional Malysian Costume--I think this one is from the prince and princess of Melaka

Kris--A traditional Malaysian Dagger--it has a cool curvy blade

Melaka Water Wheel--serves as a gateway of trading between the east and west

Christ's Church

Melaka River--reminded me of a European City like Florence

St. Xavier's Church

 Cheng Hoon Teng Temple--the oldest Chinese temple in Malaysia.

 Shrine in the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple

Beginning of Jonker Street

Nyonya Asam and Nyonya Laksa

Cendol-shaved ice dessert with unusual toppings

Gitt and me posing in the Tri-shaw with the cool hats we bought