Fran here folks - hello! We had a fantastic two hour journey to Melaka from Kuala Lumpur on a lovely coach. The coach company was catchily (or confusingly, if you want a nice coach to travel in) named “Nice”. We had stumbled across their offices at the old railway station in KL and booked our tickets based on the name. We were not disappointed, the coach only had three seats in each row which meant they were extra wide and cushioned, similar to a first class plane seat. We were even more impressed (and sadly quite excitable) when we were given little cushions, iced tea, water and cakes! The journey was smooth and we arrived in Melaka bang on time! We were so thrilled to find a good clean bus service that we immediately went to the Nice counter and booked our onward tickets to Singapore!
All aboard our lovely coach
Not quite Business Class on BA but as close as we are going to get!
Our good luck continued when we arrived at our guesthouse. The Riverview Guesthouse was lovely. It was situated in a row of terraced trading buildings built in the 1930s backing onto the river. The guesthouse was home to Raymond and Mani who had converted 8 other rooms in their house for guests. We were greeted by Raymond with a nice cold lychee juice drink and a highly informative rundown of what to see, do and eat in Melaka. It was useful to have suggestions of what to do and where to eat from two locals and everything lived up to their recommendations. Our room was on the second floor adjacent to the open air, plant filled ornate balcony overlooking the river. The view was beautiful and we became accustomed to gazing down on the river boats passing by. This guesthouse is definitely our favourite and Rich assures me it has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that Mani made home-baked chocolate and banana cakes for the guests to enjoy! Hopefully she did not have to cook more than usual because we kept guzzling them up!
The road where our guesthouse was situated
View from the balcony one way…
and the other.
Looking up at the balcony
Our road impressively lit up at night with red state-sponsored spotlights
Melaka itself was spectacular. The influences from Portuguese, Dutch and British rule, coupled with the usual Malaysian mix of Indian, Chinese and Malay peoples and culture, all unexpectedly blended together to create a fascinating and beautiful place. The variety of architecture was astounding from old Christian cathedrals to tightly packed Chinese style homes of the Baba- Nyonya community to the Dutch style red roof buildings and the odd bit of art deco thrown in for good measure! The Baba-Nyonya community evolved from the sixteenth-century Chinese merchants who settled in Melaka and married Malay women. The Baba-Nyonya’s homes are now known as Chinatown and the narrow winding streets with elegant town houses were great for wandering aimlessly around (as long as you kept one eye on the traffic as there were no pavements!) These streets looked particularly striking at night when they were lit up by red lanterns.
Just enough room for me and the cars
Rows of Chinese influence homes in the Baba-Nyonya district
Beautiful window sills
Elegant town houses
Our first night we went to an awesome Indian restaurant where they cooked tandoori chicken and naans out on the street side in large clay ovens. It was the best tandoori either of us had ever had and we stuffed our faces! The next day we decided to take the 40 minute tourist boat trip up the Sungai Melaka river as an introduction to the town. We were fortunate to arrive just as the boat with the only English speaking tour guide was departing. The Malay gentleman called Bernard was a fantastic guide who gave us a wealth of information about various sights along the river as well as spotting monitor lizards in the water for us to snap with our cameras. At the end of the trip he impressively reeled off “Goodbye” in every language imaginable! The trip took us up to Village Morton; a small collection of traditional stilted houses. These are constructed in a Malaysian style with sharply angled tin roofs and stilts to provide for good ventilation (and flood defence).
Loving some good food!
Rich and the tandoori chef
View of Red Dutch Square from the boat trip
The Malaysian tourist board want this to be a little Venice (its not quite there yet!)
Morton Village in amongst some high rises
Friendly monitor lizard swimming alongside the boat
At the centre of Malaka is the Red Dutch Square named after the Dutch style buildings which apparently the British painted red! Here you could go on cyclo tours in some pretty over the top flower decorated bikes. Bizarrely, quite a few had sound systems strapped underneath so you could be taken around to the sound of some banging hip-hop! Didn’t quite fit with the serene relaxed atmosphere! In the middle of Red Dutch Square was a water fountain dedicated to our Queen Vic erected in her memory in 1904, three years after her death. Just beyond the square was the roofless and dilapidated St Paul’s Cathedral. The Cathedral was constructed in 1521 by the Portuguese and visited by the Jesuit missionary, St Francis Xavier. The Cathedral now houses his body. Perched on a small hill it looks down over the river and out to the Melaka Straits.
A church on Red Dutch Square looking almost Spanish against the blue sky
Cyclo adorned in fake flowers
Fountain dedicated to Queen Victoria
St Paul’s Cathedral and a jumping vagabond
Tombstones inside the roofless cathedral
On our final day we visited the dark timber palace of Istana Ke Sultanan. Well, it was actually a reconstruction of the original fifteenth-century palace which burned down in a fire. The original was apparently built without the use of any nails but we definitely spotted a few in the reconstruction. The interior of the palace housed lots of mannequins depicting various scenes of ancient Malay court life- a bit bizarre especially as they all looked related!
The Istana (well, the reconstruction)
Some old skool traders (or pirates as we liked to think)
These guys haven’t been out much and were a bit confused by the sight of us
Rich contemplating Malay court life
We really liked Melaka – it had a great mix of culture and history but also a relaxed and friendly vibe. Our next and final port of call en route to Australia is Singapore which Rich will be blogging about next. Until then I’ll leave you with a few pictures of the wonderful Melaka by night and a stunning picture of “the beard” at its best!
Beautiful river scene
Funky rouge lit street
Hairy but handsome!?!
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