Day 1
We had a 3D2N short holiday at the historical city of Malacca, an UNESCO World Heritage Site listed since 2008. Malacca has a long and rich history, more famously starting with the Malacca Sultanate, the colonial era ruled by the Portuguese, Dutch and British, brief occupation by the Japanese during the World War II and now as part of Malaysia. Today, it is a very popular tourist attraction, where visitors from Singapore, China, Korea and other parts of Malaysia come here for its heritage buildings, Peranakan culture and tasty local food.
This was a family trip and we had more than 20 people, which we traveled to Malacca from Singapore by a coach from Konsortium. We left early in the morning to avoid the traffic jam. Clearance at both the Singapore and Malaysia immigration at the 2nd Link were relatively smooth and fast. We had a rest stop at Yong Peng, Johor before reaching Malacca City past 11am.
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| Dutch Square, famous landmark of Malacca City |
Aldy Hotel Stadthuys
We disembarked directly at our hotel,
Aldy Hotel Stadthuys, which we would be staying for the next 2 nights. We had selected this hotel mainly because it is centrally located and within short walking distances to key attractions within the city, such as Christ Church, Jonker Street, St Paul's Church, Porta de Santiago and Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall etc. The room rate is also cheaper and falls within our budget, as compared to other more established hotels around the same area, such as
Casa del Rio,
Holiday Inn, and
Hatten. Aldy Hotel Stadthuys is not a big hotel, but they do have the basic facilities and services that we need. The room is clean and the size of a double room is reasonably big. The service of the staff was very good. We had some requests and they were very quick to send someone to the room to attend to it.
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| Entrance to Aldy Hotel Stadthuys |
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| Bedroom |
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| Bathroom |
After everyone settled down in their respective rooms, we were ready to leave the hotel to kick-off our tour.
Lunch @ Hoe Kee Chicken Rice
As it was already lunch time, we went straight to Hoe Kee Chicken Rice store located not too away from the bridge. Hoe Kee (和記) is one of the 3 very popular chicken rice stores in the area, which the other stores are Chung Wah (中華) located just beside the bridge and Famosa (古城) located further inside the street. As we anticipated that there will a long queue, we had already made reservation with Hoe Kee, thus we did not have to wait too long.
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| Hoe Kee Chicken Rice Store |
The signature dish here is of course the Hainanese chicken served with rice balls. Other than the chicken, they also serve other dishes, which we ordered Asam fish, cabbage and black bean soup.
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| Hainanese chicken with rice balls |
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| Zoom in view of the chicken |
In my opinion, the rice balls are unique and the chopped chicken served in light soya sauce is nice. The chili sauce also tastes good. However being from Singapore (which hosts numerous Hainanese chicken rice stalls and restaurants too), the expectation of chicken rice quality is high and Hoe Kee still pales in comparison to some of the famous stalls in Singapore, in terms of fragrance of the rice and tenderness of the chicken meat. Nevertheless, the Hainanese chicken with rice balls is still a must-try dish when in Malacca.
Baba and Nyonya Heritage Museum
After lunch, we strolled along Jonker Street, occasionally stopping by various shops selling Nyonya snacks, deserts, apparels and antiques etc. We made the slow walk to our next attraction, the Baba and Nyonya Heritage Museum. This is a highly recommended attraction for visitors in Malacca, to understand and immerse yourself in the Peranakan culture. In fact, this place was made famous when former China's President Hu Jintao and Singapore's President Dr Tony Tan visited the museum when they were here in Malacca previously. In addition, the museum was also the filming site of the very popular Singapore Mediacorp Chinese drama serial, The Little Nyonya (小娘惹).
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| Baba and Nyonya Heritage Museum (Source: Photo from weekendnotes) |
The museum is a converted 2-storey terrace house owned by the Chan family, starting with their first generation Baba Chan Cheng Siew in the 19th century. Today, the museum is still managed by the descendants of the Chan family.
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| Entrance of the museum (Source: Photo from attractioninmalaysia.com) |
All visitors must join the guided tour that starts every half hourly. The tour itself is 45 min long, which the guide will bring the visitors through various parts of the house, such as the Reception Hall, Ancestral Hall, Airwell, Wedding Chamber, Birthday and Funeral showcase, Dining Room and Kitchen. Along the way, the tour guide will introduce the Peranakan's way of life, tradition and customary, the interior designs and furniture employed, and traditional accessories and tools they used. Other than the blend of Chinese and Malay culture, we can also observe the strong sense of Western influence in many parts of the house. We ended the tour at the small souvenir shop, which sells Peranakan handicrafts, accessories and related books. (Note that photography and videography are not allowed within the museum).
Cheng Hoon Teng Temple (青云亭)
After the educational tour of the Baba and Nyonya Heritage Museum, we made our way to the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple (青云亭), located several streets away. Cheng Hoon Teng Temple (青云亭) is a Chinese temple completed in the year 1673, which is the oldest Chinese temple in Malaysia. The temple is mainly dedicated to the Goddess of Mercy (Guan Yin). The architecture of the temple resembles the style from southern China, where most of the builders and craftsmen came from back then. We walked around the temple to admire the decorations and carvings on the pillars and roof, while some of us went inside to offer their prayers.
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| Cheng Hoon Teng Temple |
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| Introduction to Cheng Hoon Teng Temple |
Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall
This is one of the 2 major shopping centres in the region, which the other one is the Mahkota Parade located across the road. Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall is a very big shopping centre, which comprises of 3 segments. The west zone is filled with cafes, restaurants, fast food shops and fashion apparel etc. The ground level of the centre zone is a big open grass field, but beneath it, the basement is filled with numerous trendy boutique shops. The east zone is a multi-storey building linked to the
Hatten Hotel via the bridge. There are restaurants, fashion apparel shops, Toys "R" Us, cinema and KTV etc. We went to the Restoran Black Canyon to have our dinner. After dinner, we went shopping around the mall, before we called it a day and returned to the hotel.
Follow the links below to the other days of my Malacca tour:
Day 1: Aldy Hotel Stadthuys, Jonker Street, Hoe Kee Chicken Rice, Baba and Nyonya Heritage Museum, Cheng Hoon Teng Temple, Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall
Day 2: St. Paul's Church, Porta de Santiago, Malacca Sultanate Palace Museum, A&W, Maritime Museum, Malacca River Cruise, Dutch Square, Tang Shifu
Day 3: History and Ethnography Museum (The Stadthuys), Jonker 88
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