Malacca

I got confuse at first between the English and Malay name of Malacca. In Malay it is Melaka, but anyhow, I’ve a great time exploring those historical sites.

We have checked-in early and chit-chatting away in the waiting room, got ourselves seats near to the wings.

Upon reaching KLIA, straight took a taxi down to Malacca and checked ourselves in to Renaissance and started off our exploration right away. But found ourselves walking into a restaurant nearby for some local Chicken rice.

First attraction that we saw was St Francis Xavier’s Church on our left while we were walking on Jalan Laksamana.

Then the Melaka River is just nearby show casting its old buildings and it was being called “Venice of the East” .

Next come into view is the Christ Church. “The Christ Church was built in 1753 by the Dutch to commemorate a century of their rule. It still stands today in Malacca city, a landmark of fine Dutch architecture.” – Malacca.wc

Look at those tri-cycles!

Next to Christ Church is the Stadhuys. “The Stadhuys is one of Malacca’s most recognisable landmarks – Built in 1650, it was the Dutch administrative centre with a clock tower and painted in bright red.” – Malacca.ws

We walked right up the hill from the side of Stadhuys and got to St John’s Fort. “The Fort was originally built as a chapel by the Portuguese but it was eventually renovated into a fort by the Dutch. Sitting on top a hill, the fort is unique in the sense that it was built to defend from inland invaders, rather than the sea. Hence, the canons are faced rather awkwardly towards inland as visitors shall see.” – Malacca.ws

Visited all these places all within 2 hours time. After these we found ourselves a nice place to satisfy our taste bud with all those local food, with limited stomach space, I’ve tried the herbal eggs and red bean soup, good choice actually. After that it started raining and we got lost, fortunately with a few questions asked, we found our way back to the hotel.

Indeed an interesting afternoon for me to finally see all these sites that I’ve been hearing about. One place that I would love to go is the Hang Li Poh Well. “Hang Li Poh was a princess who was sent from the emperor of China to marry the reigning Malaccan Sultan Mansur Shah as a sign of good diplomatic relations, in mid-15th century.Her entourage built the well in 1459 which became the main source of water for much of the town. It is believed that the well has never dried up, even in the most extreme of drought.” – Malacca.ws

That’s about it for my trip. Trip on the next day was to do a study tour which I’m not going to talk about here. But I did get to meet Valerie from Scrap-n-crop and got myself some scrapbook stuff from her.

One thing just want to mentioned here is that one of the taxi that we used to get to Kuala Lumpur broke down in Kajang because it can’t change from gas to petrol mode. Bummer, and all of us have to jam into one taxi from there to get to Valerie’s place. Probably that taxi is in the workshop now and being put on the automotive lifts for inspection. But next time, I’ll be sure to get a better taxi for long distance.