Melaka: One weekend in the First City of Malaysia
While In Malaysia, we took advantage to spend our weekends away from KL. For our first weekend, we went to Melaka, probably the most known city of the country as it gave its name to the Malacca strait, the most used natural strait in the world. Most of the maritime traffic in the world goes through it there.
As such, I was expecting to see a very old city, with a long history, and a long history of piracy. Indeed, the Malacca strait has been known in history for the high amount of pirates it hosted, and the fact that most companies were preferring to pay in advance the pirates for a passage right. It is not true anymore since the 2000s decade, during which several countries decided to patrol the strait in order to terminate the piracy era.
How we travelled?
We went from Kuala Lumpur to Melaka by bus. We used the LRT system to go to TBS(insert link), the main terminal in Kuala Lumpur for buses. It does look like a large airport, waiting room and all. We decided not to buy tickets ahead, since we were not yet really adapted to the hours and transport time within Kuala Lumpur, and there are a lot of options of buses to go to Melaka. You can buy your tickets online here if you prefer to buy ahead . We bought our tickets on the machines, and the line to be attended by a person was quite long. The machines offer buses from all companies, and are quite easily operated. Yet, you need to be quick, else it will come back to the start menu. We had to wait about 1h to catch the next bus. All the buses say they take 1h30 to make the 135km to Melaka, but in reality, it takes 3h… The traffic seems to be everheavy, all along the motorway. If you want, you can buy your tickets online too.
We left around the middle of the day, so we arrived around 3pm and decided to walk from the Melaka Sentral bus station to the town center. We did not get out by the main entrance, so the first sequence was not so easy… There was no way for walkers along the road, but the road was large and the right side of the road was quite calm as many people use it to park. Then, we crossed a large peatonal bridge, and we went on Jalan Panglima Awang, and it didn’t get much better. Yet, we always found some space to walk, and it did not feel so unsafe, until Google Maps told us to cross a bridge with obviously no space for people. So, we chose the alternative way through Kampung Pengkalan, going through the small streets in the middle of the longhouses that compose this area. And we arrived in Little India, crossed it and made it to the central area.
Here we are, how did we spend the end of the afternoon?
We decided to look for food, and Jera wanted to go to a Peranakan Restaurant, so she picked the best option by Jonker Street, the main street in old Melaka, Jonker 88. Since there was a lot of waiting time, and we were already quite hungry, we moved and went to Peranakan Place. It was busy, but they had some places. For the first time, we experienced ordering through a web app. The waiters don’t come to take your order. We tried the Nyonya Laksa, a fish soup made with coco milk traditionally made by the Peranakan (Descendants of the first Chinese to come in Malaysia), and Asam Laksa, a spicy fish soup. Jera finished with a Cendol, the traditional Malaysian dessert that originates from Melaka. It’s made of coco milk, ice, some green gelatinous noodles and palm sugar, called gula Melaka (Melaka sugar) in Malaysia. It was delicious.
Then, we walked around the city, taking some time to feel the flow of it and going towards the maritime museum and its model of a caravel boat as used by the Portuguese the first time they came here. Since the museums were all closed as most close around 4 or 5 pm, we kept on walking, across the lively park placed under A Famosa, and made our way to A Famosa, the door of the fort that was used by the Portuguese. All this area was full of people, kids playing in the park, rickshaws and their flashy colors and loud music, and tourists, of course. We went up the Fort Hill, to see the remnants of the fort that had been transformed as a cemetery by the Ducth during their short occupation. As such, most of inscriptions inside are still in Dutch.
Then, we went to look for the sea. Many cities in South East Asia, as we found out, even maritime cities, are still built a few kilometers within the lands. Even the center of Melaka is inland, and if you didn’t know it, could not imagine it was a maritime city. So, it was not so easy to find a way to the sea, and we needed to walk some more. After adventuring away from the center, we found a “beach”, although it didn’t really feel like a beach to sunbathe and play. The look around was very industrious, and the sand looked not like normal sand, and too flat for it to have been set here naturally.
A few kids were playing, and we could see, looking towards the city, all the modern towers that are being built now. On the horizon, we saw one large cargo, but we never had the feel of a city that dominated the most concurred straight of the world. Much less than in Singapore. The port is far away from the center of the city, and what you can see in the center is not so impressive to this extent. So, it does not really feel like a city to name the most used strait in the World.
As the night approached, we decided to go to the hostel, a cube hostel, to drop our things, and rest some time before going back towards Jonker Street later for the Night Market.
The Jonker Street Night market is a market occupying the whole street, and some smaller streets around too. You can find anything, from food to gadgets and sellers that are making their demonstration for a new kind of shower pommel. We wandered through the market, without being able to choose what to eat, and we finally decided on something. We went back to the hostel after eating, after a long day during which we walked a lot.
To be honest, I had the worst possible night at this hostel. The boxes were too small for me to be fully extended, and the noise from the aircon or the fan was extremely loud. It was very cheap, under 15 USD, and the cheapest we found, but… It was not worth its price.
Sunday morning, now, the museums are open!
On Sunday, we decided to go and see all the museums we couldn’t see on Saturday. Everything tends to be closed after 4 or 5pm. We visited the Baba and Nyonya Heritage House, a house that has been preserved to show the lifestyle of the Peranakan families. Then, we walked around the city, willing to visit the Sultan’s Palace, still in use since Malaysia is still split into several Sultanates, and the Sultans turn to govern the country. Yet, it was closed for the moment, so we went back and went to the History and Ethnography museum to learn a bit more about the history of the city. As such, the museum is hosted by the Stadthuys, the most ancient building built by the Ducth in Asia. So, why the Dutch if Malaysia was an English Colony and is part of the Commonwealth, and the Dutch ruled modern Indonesia?
Melaka was founded at the end of the 14th century by the future Iskandar, who, fleeing the advances of the Javanese and Hindu Majapahit Empire, left Sumatra to found Singapura, and then settled in Melaka where he finally established. About one century later, the Portuguese arrived, and took the city. And, about one century later, they lost the city to the Dutch, who finally ceded the city to the British about 2 centuries later.
We went to try another Melaka special, the chicken rice balls. It is similar to the rice chicken you find everywhere in Singapore, but making some balls with the sticky rice. Jera really liked it, I was… less convinced by this one. It is a better option for people who prefer less spicy food than what we tried before. You can try it here.
So, we went through the museum and learned some things about the history of Melaka, and decided to go back, going to another Peranakan House, the Villa Sentosa. It was closed. So, we walked back to the Central, through the kampung, and the long road.
We bought the tickets from the machines in the Central, and sat in a small Malaysian restaurant in the central to drink something, talking with the owner who was passionate that we came from Mexico.
And, we made our 3h in the bus back, got back in the LRT to close these 24h hours spent in Melaka, and back to our suite in KL for one week of work.
My feelings about Melaka
Overall, I loved the cool vibe of Melaka, at least its city center. It feels easy going, colorful, and people seem happy. The city was very different from what I had imagined, and it was for the better. There is a lot of street art all around, especially along the riverwalk, and a lot of things to learn. It does feel like a nice place to stay a little longer although as a full time tourist, I think we saw most of the stuff during the 24h we spent there. And, very important, food was great. Malaysia is a hidden gem if you like to eat, and Melaka is its origin.
