As familiar as Melaka is to me, so unknown is Machap. Aric suggested a mini-trip to both places with our UK friend Rodney, staying overnight in Melaka. He had booked rooms in the Puri Hotel, where we arrived late afternoon on Friday, 17 January. The hotel is located in Heeren Street, now unfortunately renamed after a Malaysian politician. . In Dutch colonial times, the Heerenstraat was the most important street, where the rich people lived. Opposite the hotel the impressive Chee ancestral mansion (not open to the public).
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The Puri Hotel is a nice Peranakan house, much extended and more expensive than when we stayed there the first time, more than 10 years ago.
After a short rest, we went out for dinner to the Kapitol Satay Chelup restaurant, no longer in the town center, we took a Grab car. Still has nice food, but not many customers, I hope they can survive.
We took another Grab back to Jonker Street. The famous Jonker Walk is not so interesting anymore, but of course you have to visit it when you are in Melaka.
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The (food) stalls are quite mediocre, but Jonker Street was almost as important in Dutch times as Heeren Street, so there are nice facades and clan houses to admire.
We passed a small square with a very strange statue of a bodybuilder. Actually, it is a memorial statue for Dr Gan Boon Leong, a Malaysian politician, and native of Melaka, instrumental in the creation of the Jonker Walk, but in his younger years also a bodybuilding Mr Universe!
We stopped at Koong Woh Tong for a refreshing Herbal Jelly. One of my favourite desserts, not sure if Rodney really liked it.
Arriving at the main square, also called the Dutch Square, we admired the many trishaws decorated with colorful LED lights and loud music.
We walked for a short distance along the Melaka river. Left a view from the bridge, right many of the bars on the left bank.
Before going back to our hotel we had a few drinks in the Geographer, a landmark bar in Jonker Street.
The next morning, we had a pleasant breakfast in the hotel garden and admired the interior.
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We checked out and walked around the town. Here are two photos of the Eng Choon Association in Heeren Street.
More buildings, some beautifully restored, others still waiting for an upgrade.
We entered Goldsmith Street, now often called Harmony Street because along the street many houses of worship are located. Here is a view of the street, In the foreground a Chinese temple, further on a mosque. The Indian temple, a bit further down the street , is not visible.
The Cheng Hoon Teng Temple is the oldest functioning Chinese temple in Malaysia, founded in 1645 during the Dutch era.The main prayer hall is dedicated to Guan Yin, the goddess of mercy.
The Kampung Kling Mosque was originally built in 1748 by Indian Muslim traders. The Sri Poyatha Moorthi Temple was built in 1781 and is dedicated to Ganesha. It is one of the oldest functioning Hindu temples in Maritime Southeast Asia. Pity that it seems to be closed all the time.
We didn’t see many murals in Melaka, which makes me happy, but of course, we spent only a little time in the town. The first mural is nice but nothing special. The second one is bizarre. It depicts the Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, famous but no connection at all with Malaysia. Why her? Because she has been appointed Melaka’s tourism ambassador. Apparently, to attract more mainland Chinese tourists. Melaka boleh haha.
You don’t see Buddhist monks often in Malaysia. On the facade of the shop there is a mural of an orang utan, a bit faded as murals should be. And the other pic shows Rodney and me in front of the Dutch windmill.
Melaka is a “museum” town with artifacts from the past everywhere.
We had Chendol near the river. And then climbed up the St Paul’s hill for a view. The straits of Melaka far away.
The Church of Saint Paul with the statue of St Francis Xavier. The hill has an extended cemetery with Dutch and British graves.
The remains of the church contain many tombstones.
We climbed down the hill to the Porta de Santiago, one of the few remains of the A Famosa fortress, built by the Portuguese in 1512. The other pic shows Rodney and a dinosaur.
We were planning to have lunch in the famous Kedai Kopi Chung Wah near the bridge, but it was closed. So we went to another one. Also nice Hainanese Chicken Rice.
It was already getting a bit late in the afternoon when we arrived in Machap. Here is a Google Earth map of the region. There are two villages, about 6 km apart, Machap Baru and Machap Umboo. Machap Baru is a “New Village” created during the Malayan Emergency as part of the Briggs plan. I am very interested in these new villages, but it was not our target this time. We went to Machap Umboo, an even newer village but in a different way! In the 1970s the Durian Tunggal reservoir was created, one of the main water supplies for Melaka, and the original Machap had to be relocated. I guess that its original location was near the Old Mosque of Machap, not far from Machap Baru.
The villagers of Machap Umboo decorate their village during the Chinese New Year and are so successful that it generates publicity and attracts visitors. Leaflets with the various attractions are freely available. In the other picture I am taking a phoyo of Aric admiring a persimmon tree.
It’s a fake tree, as are all the flowers and trees used as decoration. Very colorful,
This year will be the year of the Snake, so you can see (fake) snakes all over the place.
The villagers have used as much as possible recycled items for the decorations. Empty cans, old tires etc .
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Maybe the Dutch square in Melaka has inspired them to create this attraction. And yes, the tulips are also artificial. The drizzle had become rain, time to go home.
At the entrance of the village a Snake Kung Fu master invited us to a fight.
In spite of the rain we decided to have a look at the Old Mosque. In 2019 Aric and I had made a Trip down South, and one target was this mosque. But it was closed and now it was closed again. It was raining so heavily that I didn’t even take a picture. Here is a drone picture, taken by Aric during our 2019 visit. Looks interesting, we have to come back another time.
It was a nice, short trip. Want to see more pictures of Melaka? Have a look at my report Revisiting Melaka, August 2023.
The last time that Aric and I have been on a touristic overnight trip, was in 2020. The Covid Lockdown started in Malaysia on 18 March 2020, but there were still limited options to travel. In July we made a trip to the Cameron Highlands and in August we visited Taiping.
In 2022 traveling became possible again, but Aric was busy with his laundry shop and could not take leave easily. Last week we finally managed to make a short 2D1N trip to Melaka. We have visited Melaka often, the last time was with our Chinese friend Dong Dong, in January 2020, before the pandemic started. So it was time to go again.
We left home on Friday 25 August at 5 pm, got caught on our way in a huge traffic jam and arrived in Melaka at 9 pm only. Not a very auspicious start 😉 . We had booked a room in the Cheng Ho Residence and that was a very good decision, as the hotel was located in the center of the old town.
After dropping our luggage, we went out again to explore the Jonker Walk, the popular weekend market of Melaka. Not crowded, more pleasant than I expected.
Looking for a place to eat, we first had a snack,; Baked fried cuttlefish. Not everybody will like it, it’s an acquired taste 😉
The tomb of Hang Kasturi is located along the Jonker street. He is one of the famous five Malay warriors, who lived in the 15th century and served the Sultan of Melaka. See below for the tomb of Hang Tuah, the most famous of them.
The entrance of the Jonker Walk, with the big stage, where often karaoke singing is performed.
There were still many hawker stalls open, although it was already past 10 pm. Aric selected a variety of dishes, stingray, scallops, oyster omelet and fried rice cake.
After our dinner we walked back, the pasar was starting to close. We passed the well-known Geographer bar (right picture), where I have enjoyed a beer several times in the past.
Melaka has a huge number of trishaws, their bright colors are almost painful to the eyes 😉
River views from the bridge, in both directions, also an orgy of colors.
Before going back to our hotel, we had a dessert of “smelly tofu“, another acquired taste.
The restaurant where we wanted to have our breakfast the next morning was on walking distance from our hotel. On our way we passed the Kampung Kling Mosque. As I had visited Melaka so often, I had numerous photos of all the heritage buildings, so I was lazy and hardly took pictures this time.
We had our breakfast in the Pin Pin Hiong Restaurant with oyster mee sua and a prawn omelet. Nice food, friendly service.
The mural art tsunami has not yet reached Melaka, as far as I have noticed this time. Here is a nice one, quite unusual.
After our breakfast we walked back to the town center with the church and the Stadthuys.
Of course I had also my picture taken with a Dutch windmill and a not very Dutch cow. The other picture shows the Chung Wah restaurant, famous for its Hainanese Chicken Rice. We have queued there often, but now we have discovered an even better place, see below.
The Heeren House looks very attractive and has always been on my list of Melaka hotels to try out , but it seems that it is now mainly a restaurant, with negative reviews about the hotel.
Back to our hotel, where we checked out. We stayed on the second floor and our windows opened to the air well. The interiors of the Baba House and the Puri hotel, where we have stayed before, is more interesting, but the location of Cheng Ho is perfect.
Arc had brought his drone and we decided to visit Bukit Cina to take drone videos and pictures, Before we climbed up the hill we had a look at the cenotaph, a memorial for the Japanese occupation. The other picture shows the Hang Li Poh well (the King’s well), with an intriguing history.
A few details of the Sam Po Kong Temple at the foot of Bukit Cina. The right picture shows a statue of admiral Cheng Ho who visited Melaka many times in the 15th century.
Finally we climbed up to Bukit Cina. A Chinese cemetery, very quiet during our visit, maybe because it was the month of the Hungry Ghosts ;-). On the top of the hill a monumental, symbolic grave is well kept
Many other graves are in disrepair. It adds to the atmosphere of the cemetery.
While Aric was “droning”, I enjoyed an (alcohol-free) Heineken beer.
Here is a drone picture of the old town center, with the Christ Church and the Stadthuys..
And this is the old town, surrounded by modern buildings.
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Before driving back home we visited the Makam Hang Tuah, in Tanjung Kling, about 10 km west of Melaka town.
Located inside a nice Muslim cemetery and well kept.
A giant grave. The signboards around the tomb tell the story of Hang Tuah .
On our way back home we had no real traffic jam. Hopefully many similar trips will follow, preferably a bit longer and better not during weekends.
Last year we came in contact, through WeChat, with Dong Dong, a Chinese from Guangzhou. This resulted in inviting him to visit us in Malaysia, from 8-14 January. How to communicate? For Aric of course no problem, either in Mandarin or in Teochew. I had to use Google Translate, because I don’t speak Chinese and Dong Dong only a little bit of English :-).
On 8 January afternoon we picked him up from the airport. Our plan was to show him, during his short stay, as many tourist attractions as possible. And also to introduce him to as many Malaysian food specialities as we could 🙂
We decided for Hokkien Mee, the first evening. There are two famous Hokkien Mee restaurants in Damansara Uptown, almost next to each other. Tiong was full, so we chose the other one.
Arrival at KLIA2
Damansara Uptown Hokkien Mee
We ordered four dishes, all very nice, huge serving of mee, we could not finish it 🙂 . A good introduction to Chinese Malaysian cuisine.
Hokkien Mee
Lala
Chicken legs
Veggie
In our chats I had told Dong Dong that I often went to IKEA for my RM 1 breakfast and to meet friends. He was interested , so the next morning we first went to IKEA.
Meeting friends in IKEA
More friends
After our breakfast I showed him the Curve shopping center. As CNY was approaching, there was already a festive atmosphere.
IKEA
CNY decorations
Part of the Curve
I am still not very experienced with taking selfies, but I am making progress.
One for the album
Back home we waited for Aric, who had been busy in his shop. We had asked Rodney, a UK friends, to join us for a visit to KL. First we had lunch in restaurant Kin Kin, supposedly serving the best Pan Mee in KL. Spicy!
After our lunch we walked in the colonial district of Kuala Lumpur. In my blog KL Heritage I have written extensively about the many gems of architecture that can be found here. During this short walk we only had a look at a few.
Former Government Offices (1897)
Old Supreme Court (1915)
Masjid Jamek (1909)
Central Market (1937
Contrasts: from left to right an Art Deco detail of the Central Market, the beautiful “Islamic” Dayabumi building, and the Merdeka 118 tower, the world 2nd largest building when completed.
Detail Central Market
Dayabumi
Merdeka 118 (unfinished)
We visited the Kuala Lumpur gallery and this time were disappointed. The light show at the scale model of Kuala Lumpur was quite boring.
Scale model of Kuala Lumpur
Getting more and more touristic. But there is a nice cafe with delicious (and expensive) durian cream puffs. In the left picture you can see how the future Merdeka 118 building will dwarf the Petronas twin towers.
Scale models of skyscrapers
Aric (a dragon) here as an eagle
Nice cafe
Durian cream puff
In the afternoon we went to Ampang and from there we took the road to Ulu Langat. This road crosses the hills and has a viewpoint from where you have a beautiful view of the KL skyline.
Heavy rain at the horizon, but we kept it dry.
Rain far away
Enjoying the view
A bit farther than this viewpoint a side road leads to the Veg Fish Farm Thai Restaurant, where we had our dinner. Aric and I have been to this romantic place several times, the food is always nice and fresh, the restaurant is surrounded by fishponds.
Here some of the dishes we ordered. Left Thai mango salad, tilapia and lamb. Right sotong (cuttlefish).
There was toddy, one of my favourite drinks. A rewarding end of a successful day!
Cheers !
The next day we left for Melaka, where we arrived around lunchtime. One of the food specialties of Melaka is Hainanese Chicken Rice Balls. The famous shop in the center of town was closed during our last visit, but Aric had found a hidden gem in the outskirts of Melaka, Huang Chang.
We had booked rooms in the Puri Hotel, a Peranakan house in Heeren Street. The interior looks like a museum.
Lobby of Puri
Waiting to check in
The Puri Hotel has a beautiful facade, and opposite is the even more posh Chee Ancestral Mansion, unfortunately not open to the public.
Facade of Puri
Chee Ancestral Mansion
After checking in, we walked around in the historical center of Melaka, now a Unesco World Heritage site. First we had Cendol at the popular Jonker 88 shop.
Jonker 88
Famous Cendol
Here are two tombs, the left one of Hang Kasturi, the right one of Syamsuddin Al-Sumatrani. Even many locals will not know where this second tomb is located 🙂 .
This is the ruin of Saint Paul’s Church, originally built in 1521 by the Portuguese, the oldest church of Malaysia. Many tombstones, some of them dating back to the time that Melaka was a Dutch colony.
Saint Paul’s church
The nave of the church
Many tombstones
Statue of St Francis Xavier
Christ Church and the Stadthuys are the center of the town. The gaudy trishaws are characteristic for Melaka. Always crowded with tourists.
Christchurch (1753) and Stadthuys
Colorful trishaws
Another food specialty of Melaka is the Satay Celup (Steamboat Satay) and the most famous restaurant for it is Capitol. Often we have been queueing here, waiting for a table. Therefore we decided to have an early dinner and that worked out well 🙂 . You select your sticks from a buffet and dip them in the boiling satay sauce. You pay for the number of sticks used.
After our dinner we walked along the Melaka River. In the past the river was quite dirty and unkept, now it has been cleaned, promenades have been created at both banks of the river. Beautiful led lighting in the evening.
It was Friday evening, the popular Jonker Walk night market was busy with tourist. And, sad to say, getting less interesting every time we visit it. Being a Unesco WHS has its disadvantages. Blacksmith street used to be a street full of old-fashioned workshops. Rent increased, they had to leave and instead came boutique hotels and nyonya restaurants. You can see this all over the town. Pity.
Blacksmith Street
Jonker Walk
A Dutch windmill and a cow
Trishaws at night
The next morning we enjoyed our buffet breakfast in Puri and checked out.
Before leaving Melaka we visited a number of places of worship. Buddhist temples, a Hindu shrine and a Mosque are all located near each other in what is sometimes called Harmony street (mistakenly suggesting that there are no conflicts between the various religions in Malaysia).
Cheng Hoon Teng Temple, as seen from the Xiang Lin Si Temple
Main hall Cheng Hoon Teng temple
Interior
Kampung Kling Mosque
Sri Poyatha Moorthi temple
San Duo temple
The Straits of Melaka mosque is located a bit outside the historical center, you have to go by car, but it is worth the effort. Another example of what is called a floating mosque. A modern building, the opening ceremony was in 2006.
Then it was time to go back to Kuala Lumpur. It was a very short visit, I have written several times about Melaka, here is an earlier report: Melaka Minitrip March 2013.
We arrived back in KL around 3 pm, Aric was busy that afternoon, he dropped us at the Kelana Jaya LRT station, from where we took a train to KLCC.
LRT
MRT
A visit to Malaysia is not complete without the Petronas Twin Towers 🙂 . I chose the most impressive approach, walking through the shopping center, taking the exit to the park and the lake, then asking Dong Dong to turn around and look up.
The towers are so high that from that location it is difficult to take good pictures. We walked around the lake to take better shots
We walked to the wading pool, only for children, but refreshing to watch.
Of course everything was already in Chinese New Year mood. In front of KLCC a Chinese pagoda was constructed with the signs of the Chinese zodiac. We are both Monkeys and asked a friendly gentleman to take our picture with our sign 🙂
CNY pagoda
Three Monkeys
Lots of decorations inside the shopping center, of course with images of the Rat (Mouse) everywhere, the sign of the coming New Year.
From the top floor you have a beautiful view of the park, the lake and the skyline of Kuala Lumpur.
We did not stay long, as we were both tired, and took public transport back, first the LRT, then the MRT and finally a feeder bus to our condo. Dong Dong was happy to experience the various forms of transport.
That evening we had Claypot Chicken Rice in a food court near our condo, and the next morning Roti Canai, both Malaysian specialties.
Claypot Chicken Rice
Roti Canai
The next day, after our breakfast, we drove to Penang. With a short stop for a light lunch, we arrived at 2:30 pm at the Airbnb Aric had booked for two nights. And what an Airbnb it was! A complete house, two floors, on each floor a bedroom, lots of antique stuff. One of the best Airbnb’s we have ever stayed in.
The living room
One of the bedrooms
Stairs to the upper floor
After a small rest we went out for a first exploration. Same as in Melaka, the three major religions of Malaysia have their houses of worship in the same street, but the name of the street is here not Harmony Street, but  Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling, which may be more appropriate for the actual relation between the three religions 🙂 . By the way, Keling (Kling) is the old-fashioned name for an Indian Muslim and nowadays considered derogatory 🙂 .
Guan Yin temple
Sri Mahamariamman Temple
Detail Mahamariamman temple
Kapitan Keling Mosque
One of the major tourist attractions in Penang are the murals created in 2012 by Zacharevic, see my report Penang Street Art. With our limited time we could only visit a few.
A major tourist attraction
Kids on a bicycle
Boy on a bike
I want bao
Before taking our dinner we visited the Tan Jetty, one of our favourites.
Tan Jetty
At the end of the jetty
We had dinner in the Jetty Food Court, a popular place with a large variety of food.
Popiah
Oyster Omelet
Stingray
Dumplings
We continued after our dinner and visited the modern Hean Boo Thean temple, another temple dedicated to Guan Yin, the goddess of mercy. If the access route to the temple was not so clearly signposted, it would have been difficult to find.
Entrance during daylight
Same during night
Views of the waterfront are spectacular and unobstructed. We stayed a considerable time, relaxing and enjoying the views
After sunset everything becomes even more scenic. It was the first time we visited this temple, it was opened only in 2012. We will promote it to our friends and guests.
The main buildings
Inside the main hall
Walking back to our Airbnb, we passed a few colonial buildings. For more info about Penang’s colonial heritage, see my report Penang Colonial Architecture.
City Hall (1903)
St George’s Church (1818)
The next day we had breakfast at the Roti Bakar in Hutton Lane. I had Roti Goyang which translates as shaking toast (because of the half-boiled eggs on top of the toast)
Friendly police officers
Roti Goyang
The weather was perfect, we walked around a bit. The KOMTAR tower is still the highest skyscraper in Penang. The minaret of the Lebuh Aceh mosque looks even more beautiful with the surrounding Chinese New Year decorations.
KOMTAR tower (1986)
Lebuh Aceh Mosque (1808)
We passed another Zacharevic mural and decided to visit the Khoo Kongsi, the most elaborate and grand Chinese clan house of Georgetown. I have been there many times, my last visit was in July 2019, here is a report.
Boy on a chair
Khoo Kongsi
Decorated Roof
Beautiful reliefs
For lunch we went to Hong Xiang, where we had Bak Kut Teh. Another famous Malaysian dish. Usually the different pork parts are put together in the herbal soup, but here your order the ingredients separately. Not a bad idea. We took pork ribs, pork soft bone, tofu, two kinds of mushrooms and veggie. All very tasty.
In the afternoon we drove around the island, stopping for a while at the beach near Batu Ferringhi.
We skipped some other locations we had in mind. Not enough time, winding roads, and we wanted to visit the Kek Lok Si temple before it closed at 5:30 pm. This main Guan Yin temple of Penang is a huge complex of halls, gardens, pagodas etc.
We walked up as high as we could.
Georgetown at the horizon
Looking down
A few more pictures.
We climbed the pagoda (right picture), I counted the steps, ~ 190 .
We climbed the pagoda
I kept taking pictures 🙂
A moon gate
We stayed until closing time and then drove to the Super Tanker food court in Bayan Lepas for our dinner.
Super Tanker, a huge food court
Char kway teow , my favourite
The next day we drove back. In the afternoon Dong Dong was flying back from KLIA, we didn’t want to take risks with traffic jams on the Penang bridges, so we woke up early and started before the rush hour.
Good plan, traffic was smooth. It gave us enough spare time to have breakfast in Taiping, my 2nd hometown :-). I showed Dong Dong the Lake Gardens and he liked the atmosphere very much.
We arrived at KLIA 2 in time, he checked in for his flight back to Guangzhou and we had a farewell lunch at Nando’s. More South African than Malaysian, but the alternative would have been McDonalds 🙂 .
A very successful visit, only too short. Hopefully we will meet again in the future, for example in Guangzhou!
