Travelogue: Malacca ( Tourist attraction I)
In case you have missed out, clicked on the link below:
Back with another post of the itinerary that we have planned before this trip. Since it was our first Malacca trip, its a must to explore around all the tourist attraction. I did a tedious research on where to bring Stella, which are the must-go attraction as there are too many places to cover in the list.
Given only for 2 days 1 nights, its difficult for us to cover all but at least we ticked off those popular places.
All the tourist attraction are walkable, all side by side with one another. Some may have to travel abit further but lets think that this can be a good way to digest your food, especially indulging all the good food from Jonker street.
Our first stop, we ticked off Christ Church. It is located near to Malacca’s Chinatown centre. It is the oldest functioning Protestant church in Malaysia.
The area is stepped in Baba Nyonya culture with opulent ‘Baba merchants’ houses and elegantly-conserved Nyonya restaurants that line the constricted roads. Christ Church is small – once inside, right beside the front doors there is a long table with brochures and religious paraphernalia for sale set up. There are about ten rows of pews before the main altar and the whole place has old light fixtures and plenty of worn-but-well-kept tiles.
The sun was mercilessly killing us! But thankful that it didn't rain as what the weather forecast stated, You can choose to enter in to the Christ Church but we didnt because we would like to save time for other places. Admission fee is needed to enter in and also no photograph is allowed inside the premises.
Address: Jalan Kota Melaka, Melaka
Just side by side you can find another attraction, the stadhuys. The Stadthuys is believed to be the oldest-surviving Dutch building in the East. Part of Malacca town square’s prominent Dutch colonial architecture it is a massive bright terracotta-red riverfront building that was once the official residence of Dutch governors and officers.
These two photos could simply explained and shown that we were here at the stadhuys house.
Most of the bloggers mentioned that you should hop on to one of the Trishaw in Malacca. If you haven't, its means that its meaningless for you to travel to that country. Now I knew why they said that! Just checked out on their trishaw. Different cartoon characters for you to ride on. We spotted Ironman, Batman, Spiderman, Frozen, Doremon and the most common trishaw on the streets would be HELLO KITTY!
Stella and I were approached by the trishaw man with his Doremon theme Trishaw! Instead of getting Hello kitty, we accepted his offer and didn't expect that his service is far-fetched more than what I have expected. This trishaw man explained all the tourist attractions carefully and specifically. He definitely has done well on his homework and we were very pleased to be his customers. Good service!
Oh I forgot to state down how much we paid for this ride. With a loan of 1 trishaw, we burnt RM50 on our pocket hole. Yes, RM50 may seems to be a big amount but let me finish it. This RM50 brought you to all the tourist attraction, covered everything that we want to explore at that area.
So basically, we spent more but in return we saved our precious time!
Before we leave to explore the whole area, the trishaw man volunteer to help us to snap a picture of us in the trishaw, He's really a committed driver and really know how to use camera well. Most of the people that we asked would probably have no idea on how to operate my DSLR or took blur pictures but he effortlessly tried every angle to ensure that all pictures were well taken,
Our first stop would be the Melaka River where one could ride on the ferry to enjoy the scenery. We were given 15 mins to walk around to take pictures and there again, he volunteered to help us with the pictures. "Come, let me take picture of both of you." "Stand there, that angle looks nicer". For once, he was our part-time photographer.
He explained the history of the Melaka river to us and prompted us to come during night because of the lightning and the breeze but both Stella and I thought that morning scenery is nicer to view at so we are coming here on the second day!
Right behind us, you can see a big SHIP! Its one of the tourist attraction icon, Maritime Musuem. There's a gallery inside this big ship that you have to pay RM8 to enter in. Stella and I went in on the second day! More information will be up!
The driver allowed us to ride on the driver seat! He's like "feel free to sit'', ''I will help you take pictures''. LOL
He continued to cycle us around and we drove past this Revolving Observation Tower. Its not a must to ride on it but if you want to witness the whole landscape of Melaka, then please spend RM38 on this. Its expensive to me so I urged you not to ride on.
We stopped by this random place to look around and was attracted to this old railway train. Inside the train cabin lies some shop houses which sells shirt that you can customise and bring it back home.
Awkwardly using monopod infront of the local people. Caught many stares from them but who cares? We are Singaporean! Not Malaysian Boleh! Everything also kiasu.
Our very last stop was at A FAMOSA-PORTE DE SANTIAGO. This is probably the most exhausting walk ever at Malacca. With inter-link to St.Paul's Church, we have to walk up to a fleet of stair in order to reach our destination. The steps aren't gentle you know? Its a whole steep of stairs. So if families who are coming with elderly, try not to let them climb up the stairs.
The Porta De Santiago (A Famosa) is one of the most popular sites that you can find when visiting Malacca. It is a major historical landmark and is probably the most photographed structure in Malacca. The A Famosa is located just next to the Stadthuys building. The fort of Porta De Santiago (A Famosa) is one of the oldest surviving European architectural remains in the whole of Asia. This tiny gate which we call A Famosa or Porta de Santiago is the last remains of what used to be a mighty fortress.
They do sell souvenirs while we were climbing up the stairs. But everything that they have were sold at Jonker market so there's nothing much for us to buy.
The St Paul's Church is the church ruins that sit on the top of the St Paul's Hill. The hill was originally named as Malacca Hill. It was then changed to Monti Ali Maria or Mary's Hill after the Portuguese took over the hill. The St Paul's Church was originally a chapel and was known to the Portuguese in Malacca as the Chapel of Mother of God (Madre de Deus) or Our Lady of the Hill (Nossa Senhora do Oiteiro).
Happy faces when we finally reached our destination! HEN TIRED LEHHHHHH! Over here, you get to see an overview of the whole Malacca Port. Beautiful scene to mark down the end of our tour!
I think our whole journey ride lasted us one hour? It was pretty fun enjoying the breeze while the trishaw man pushed himself to ride us around. Along the way, he blasted out songs. So we have Óppa Gangnam Style", Hey soul sister and Doremon theme songs! It was cute when people start singing Doremon song while we rode past them. Some were fascinated by it!
We forgot to take picture with the trishaw man if not I would have shown his face to recommend all of you to find him when you are planning to go for a short Malacca trip.
Till then for Day 2 itinerary post.
