Malacca: The must-see historical sites

Day 2

We had our breakfast at our Aldy Hotel Stadthuys, which was included in our stay. They have a few breakfast sets to choose from, ranging from local Nasi Lemak, Roti Prata to American breakfast with toast bread, egg and sausages. The breakfast was good and the portion was just nice for us. The service of the staff was also great, as they constantly refill our hot tea and coffee. After the breakfast, we were ready for the day.


St. Paul's Church

Our first stop is the St. Paul's Church, located on top of the St. Paul's Hill just in front of our hotel.

View of Aldy Hotel Stadthuys enroute to St. Paul's Church

View of Maritime Museum in the shape a ship, the Flora de Lamar

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The church was originally built by the Portuguese in 1521, which makes it the oldest church in South East Asia. Given its historical value, it is considered as a must-visit attraction in Malacca today. What visitors could see today is only the 4 walls, as the roof of the church had long collapsed.

Interior of St. Paul's Church

Introduction to the St. Paul's Church

There were many old Portuguese tombstones in the church too, which were discovered in the last excavation around the vicinity and later fixed to the church walls.

Tombstones attached along the wall

One could also see the statue of St. Francis Xavier in front of the church, who established a school in the church in 1548. Other than the church itself, the summit of St. Paul's Hill also serves as a good spot to enjoy the view of the Straits of Malacca and the historical city.

Statue of St. Francis Xavier

View of Straits of Malacca from St. Paul's Hill

Stairways towards Porta de Santiago

Porta de Santiago

After the church visit, we made our way down the stairs on the eastern side, which led us to the Porta de Santiago (also known as A Famosa). It is a small gate house and the only remaining part of the fortress that used to surround the St. Paul's Hill. It was built by the Portuguese in 1512, making it one of the oldest surviving colonial architectural remains in South East Asia. During the British colonial period, the fortress was almost entirely demolished, only to be stopped by Sir Stamford Raffles and Lord Minto, saving the small gate house that we see today. Other than the gate house, we could also see several replicas of the old fortress cannons around it.

Porta de Santiago

Introduction to Porta de Santiago

Today, Porta de Santiago and the St. Paul's Church are very popular wedding photography sites in Malacca.


Malacca Sultanate Palace Museum

From Porta de Santiago, we took a short walk to the nearby Malacca Sultanate Palace Museum. The structure of the museum is entirely made of wood and is a replica of the actual palace for the ruler of the Malacca Sultanate that existed before the arrival of the Portuguese.

Malacca Sultanate Palace Museum

The museum has 3 storey, and it features the history and cultural heritage of the Malacca Sultanate, the royal court, exhibits of various accessories, costumes, weapons, and musical instruments used by the royal members.

Models depicting the famous legend on the founding of the Malacca Sultanate by Parameswara, which a mouse deer kicked his hunting dog into the river

Scene of a state assembly

Exhibits of jewelleries used by the royal members

Exhibits on the Javanese traders

There's a park in front of the museum, which visitors could enjoy the greenery and flowers.


Lunch at A&W in Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall

After the long morning tour, we went to the nearby Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall to have our lunch at A&W fast food restaurant. Everyone was looking forward to the meal, as most of us had not eaten A&W for a long time, since it is not available in Singapore. We ordered the all-time favourites like Chicken Coney, Curly Fries, Root Beer Float and Waffle with Ice-cream.

A&W Mascot

A&W Meal

Maritime Museum

We continued our tour in the afternoon to the Maritime Museum located by the Malacca River. The museum is in a shape of a 34m tall and 8m wide ship, a replica of the Portuguese ship known as Flora de Lamar, which visitors in Malacca could not have missed it.

Maritime Museum

The museum focus on the maritime history of Malacca, dating from the Malacca Sultanate to the colonial periods of the Portuguese, Dutch and British. The museum also exhibits the various goods traded in the region, such as porcelain, silk, textiles and spices etc, as well as various models of ships that used to trade along the Straits of Malacca. To our disappointment when we arrived at the museum, it was closed for renovation. We could only take photos of the "ship" from outside, before we head to our next attraction.

Malacca River Cruise

The Malacca River Cruise ticketing and departure point is just a short walk from the Maritime Museum. We bought the cruise tickets and waited for a while before we board the boat, which could accommodate a maximum of 40 passengers. The boat ride last about 45 min, starting from the Maritime Museum and then upstream to the Spice Garden before turning back to the start point. The whole journey is around 5.5km long, passing by the several historical buildings, shop houses converted restaurants and cafes, mangroves, and more modern buildings further upstream of the river.

Giant Water Wheel

Christ Church seen from the river cruise

Murals of Zheng He and trading scenes during the Malacca Sultanate

A small theme park by the river

Dutch Square

After the river cruise, we made our way to the Dutch Square for some photo taking, which is the most picturesque landmark in Malacca. The surrounding buildings are all uniquely painted in red and primarily built during the Dutch colonial period as their government administrative centre. The famous infrastructures consist of the Christ Church, The Stadthuys, Clock Tower and the fountain.

Christ Church

The Stadthuys at the background

Clock Tower

Fountain

After the photo taking, part of the group returned to the hotel for rest, while the younger ones continued with another round of shopping at Jonker Street .

Dinner at Tang Shifu in Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall

Our last meal of the day is with the Tang Shifu (汤师父) located in the Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall. Tang Shifu is a popular restaurant chain in Malaysia, which specialise in Chinese soups and cuisines. We ordered different types of soups, such as their Souper Tang Signature Soup, Ginseng Chicken Soup, Scholar Excellence Soup, along with other dishes like Claypot Beancurd, Braised Pork Belly, Stired Fried French Bean etc.

Tang Shifu (Source: Photo from Soupertang.com)

Souper Tang Signature Soup (Source: Photo from Soupertang.com)

After the dinner, we spent some timing roaming around the shopping mall before calling it a day.

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

Malacca: The best attractions along Jonker Street

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.

Dutch Square, famous landmark of Malacca City

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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.

Entrance to Aldy Hotel Stadthuys

Bedroom

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

We walked out of the hotel and soon we reached the Dutch Square, which is the most picturesque place in Malacca. There were many tourists around the area and we could also see many colourful decorated trishaws with various cartoon themes meant to bring the tourists around the area. After some photo taking of the area, we crossed the short bridge that spans across the Malacca River and reached another famous attraction, the Jonker Street (Jalan Hang Jebat).

Old Fort

Malacca River

Jonker Street

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.

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.

Hainanese chicken with rice balls

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).

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.

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.

Cheng Hoon Teng Temple

Introduction to Cheng Hoon Teng Temple

After the temple tour, we were on a free and easy mode. Some of members went back to the hotel to have a rest, while the younger ones continued to roamed the streets.

Malacca Mamee Jonker House

Malacca Jonker Walk Heritage Park

Stage near western end of Jonker Walk

Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall

When it's dinner time, we left the hotel and made a short walk around the foot of St. Paul's Hill to the west entrance of the Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall. Along the way, we could see train and aeroplane displays in the park.

Train display

Plane display

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

The must-see celebrities of Madame Tussauds Singapore

Day 3

Exploring Sentosa Island

It was our last day on Sentosa. We started packing our belongings ready for check-out of the hotel later. We went to the MacDonald's at the basement of the Resorts World Sentosa to have the breakfast first, before we headed towards the Merlion Plaza.


Merlion Plaza

The Merlion Plaza is located just beside the Sentosa Express Imbiah Station. The most iconic feature over here is no other than the 37m tall Sentosa Merlion statue, also the tallest Merlion statue in Singapore.

Sentosa Merlion

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The Sentosa Merlion is a ticketed attraction, which visitors could watch a video about the origin and history of the Merlion and the Lion City, as well as taking an internal lift to the viewing platform to enjoy the 360 deg panoramic view of the island. We did not enter the attraction, only taking photos against the majestic Merlion.


Madame Tussauds Singapore & Images of Singapore LIVE

After the photo taking at Merlion Plaza, we took a series of escalator up to the Imbiah Lookout. We headed to the Madame Tussauds Singapore & Images of Singapore LIVE and bought the entrance tickets, which allows visit to both the attractions.

Entrance to Madame Tussauds Singapore & Images of Singapore LIVE (Source: Photo from Sentosa.com)

We had to visit the Images of Singapore LIVE first, which we waited for a while to enter in groups. We were brought into the room, where the official 'tour' began. Unlike the typical museum which you could roam around to visit the stationary exhibits, Images of Singapore LIVE features a very different concept which real life actors and actresses would lead the visitors through various scenes with special lighting and sound effects within the area, introducing the different era of Singapore's 200 years of history. Some of the themed area includes the Malay Fishing Village, Chinatown, Quayside Walk and Jubilee Cinema etc.

Scene at the Chinatown (Source: Photo from Tripadvisor)

At the end of the tour, we had to board The Spirit of Singapore Boat Ride, which took us through various famous Singapore's landmarks and different heritage themes, such as Marina Bay, Gardens by the Bay, Singapore Flyer etc. At the end of the boat ride, we were led to the entrance to the Madame Tussauds Singapore.

The Spirit of Singapore Boat Ride (Source: Photo from Tripadvisor)

Similar to many other Madame Tussauds museums worldwide, the Singapore branch features life sized wax figurines of famous people categorised in various zones such as politicians, sportsman, singers, actors/actresses etc. The popular ones include US President Obama, UK Queen Elizabeth, Tiger Woods, David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, Michael Jackson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, Angeline Jolie, ABBA pop group etc. The Singapore branch also focus a lot on Singapore based and Asian famous people, such as Lee Kuan Yew, Lee Hsien Loong, Fandi Ahmad, Stephanie Sun, Zoey Tay, Yao Ming, Jackie Chan, Andy Lau etc.

Lee Kuan Yew and his wife

Yao Ming - NBA Star

Jack Neo - Singapore Movie Director

Bruce Lee - International Movie Star

In the middle section, there's a series of displays on how the wax figurines were made, starting from the small details on the facial expression, to the hair style and the eye colour etc.

Steps in making the wax figurine

Mould of Stephanie Sun (Singapore Singer)

Making of Stephanie Sun in progress

The whole tour is mainly queuing up to take photos with various "celebrities". The whole area is smaller than the London main branch that I had visited previously, but the Singapore version is more interactive, where there're props that you can play with. For example, you could pick up a golf club and pretend playing golf with Tiger Woods.


Sentosa Nature Discovery

After the fanatic photo shooting session, we exited Madame Tussauds museum and headed to our last attraction, the Sentosa Nature Discovery. Sentosa Nature Discovery is located at Imbiah Lookout area too, and within short walking distance from Madame Tussauds Singapore. This place was relatively quiet, away from the tourist crowd, which presents a totally different side of Sentosa that we know of. There's a static exhibition that showcase the island's natural geology and ecosystem. This is also the start point of the Imbiah Canopy Walk, which visitors could get close to the canopy ecosystem. We did not see many birds, although we saw two squirrels running across the walkway.

Entrance to Sentosa Nature Discovery (Source: Photo from Sentosa.com)

Exhibition at Sentosa Nature Discovery (Source: Photo from Sentosa.com)

After walking for a while on the canopy walk, we returned by the same route back to our hotel and check-out the room. It's time for us to bid farewell to Sentosa after 3 days of fun-filled staycation.



Follow the links below to the other days of my Sentosa staycation:

Day 1: Resorts World Sentosa (Festive Hotel, The Maritime Experiential Museum, S.E.A Aquarium, Hard Rock Hotel Swimming Pool, Crane Dance)

Day 2: Sentosa (Palawan Beach, Fort Siloso, Starz Restaurant, Lake of Dreams)

Day 3: Sentosa (Merlion Plaza, Madame Tussuads Singapore, Images of Singapore LIVE, Sentosa Nature Discovery)