We started our visit of the town by the historical centre. From our hotel it was only a short walk to the Porta de Santiago, the only part remaining of the famous fortress A Famosa built by the Portuguese in 1512. The Deutch that took over the city later on kept it but the English that came after destoyed the fortress and only this door was left. Next to this door two very nice buildings can be visited: the Proclamation of Independence Memorial Building (built by the British in 1912) and the Malacca Sultanate Palace (this is a reconstitution of the original palace). After taking some pictures of those nice buildings we climbed the hill towards Saint Paul's Church. There is not much left of the church, just the walls no more roof, but we liked the view on Malacca. We then walked towards the Red Place on the other side of the hill. As we visited this part of the town yesterday we quickly went to a nearby restaurant on the riverside to have breakfast. Afterwards we walked up Jalan Bunga Raya, a very busy street, when it reaches the river you can see on the other side of the river very colourful wooden houses. One of them the Villa Sentosa is a private house that can be visited. We crossed the river at the nearby pedestrian bridge but found the Villa Sentosa closed. We took some time to visit the area and just behind the Villa Sentosa we saw other very nice houses and looking closely at the river bank we saw strange fishes (see picture). In Chinatown, all decorated for the coming Chinese New Year celebration, we visited a few Chinese temples and mosques. We really liked exploring Cheng Hoon Teng temple, the oldest Chinese temple in Malaysia, that was built in 1646. We found very interesting to discover the rituals done by the fidels. We also saw the oldest mosque in Malaysia called Kampong Hulu and visited the mosque Kampong Kling, but the highlight of our visit in Chinatown was definitely the visit of Cheng Hoon Teng. Walking around in Chinatown was nice as there are plenty of pretty streets however the heavy traffic on the two main streets Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock and Jalan Hang Jebat was tiring. Walking back to our hotel after lunch we stopped at a shopping centre to enjoy the air con, it was such a relief as the weather was very hot outside. Lucky us we left on time to arrive at our hotel just before it started raining. We had a relaxing evening and went for dinner to the Newtown Chinese food court 10min from our hotel. We had a nice cheap meal in this busy place full of locals.
Malacca is described as a must do in Malaysia for its historical buildings but to be honest it is not that impressive. We spent 3 days in Malacca as we had to organise the rest of our trip in Malaysia but we think that a day will be good enough to see the main places of interest.
Malacca is described as a must do in Malaysia for its historical buildings but to be honest it is not that impressive. We spent 3 days in Malacca as we had to organise the rest of our trip in Malaysia but we think that a day will be good enough to see the main places of interest.
