{"id":31330,"date":"2025-01-26T14:13:30","date_gmt":"2025-01-26T06:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/?p=31330"},"modified":"2025-01-26T14:13:32","modified_gmt":"2025-01-26T06:13:32","slug":"melaka-machap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/?p=31330","title":{"rendered":"Melaka & Machap"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Puri Hotel <\/a>is a nice Peranakan house, much extended and more expensive than when we stayed there the first time, more than 10 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After a short rest, we went out for dinner to the Kapitol Satay Chelup<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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>, 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!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We stopped at Koong Woh Tong<\/a> for a refreshing Herbal Jelly. One of my favourite desserts, not sure if Rodney really liked it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arriving at the main square, also called the Dutch Square, we admired the many trishaws decorated with colorful LED lights and loud music. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Before going back to our hotel we had a few drinks in the Geographer, a landmark bar in Jonker Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The next morning, we had a pleasant breakfast in the hotel garden and admired the interior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We checked out and walked around the town. Here are two photos of the Eng Choon Association in Heeren Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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More buildings, some beautifully restored, others still waiting for an upgrade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Cheng Hoon Teng Temple<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Kampung Kling Mosque was originally built in 1748 by Indian Muslim traders. The Sri Poyatha Moorthi Temple<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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<\/a>, famous but no connection at all with Malaysia. Why her? Because she has been appointed Melaka’s tourism ambassador<\/a>. Apparently, to attract more mainland Chinese tourists. Melaka boleh haha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Melaka is a “museum” town with artifacts from the past everywhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We had Chendol near the river. And then climbed up the St Paul’s hill for a view. The straits of Melaka far away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Church of Saint Paul<\/a> with the statue of St Francis Xavier. The hill has an extended cemetery with Dutch and British graves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The remains of the church contain many tombstones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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<\/a>” 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The villagers of Machap Umboo decorate their village during the Chinese New Year and are so successful that it generates publicity<\/a> 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It’s a fake tree, as are all the flowers and trees used as decoration. Very colorful,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This year will be the year of the Snake, so you can see (fake) snakes all over the place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The villagers have used as much as possible recycled items for the decorations. Empty cans, old tires etc . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the entrance of the village a Snake Kung Fu<\/a> master invited us to a fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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<\/a>, 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It was a nice, short trip. Want to see more pictures of Melaka? Have a look at my report Revisiting Melaka, August 2023<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-friends","category-melaka"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/2025-01-17-21.06.04.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2LqIR-89k","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31330"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31401,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31330\/revisions\/31401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}