Hey there everyone! I hope your adventures from today were as great as mine. If yesterday was all about random weirdness, today was mostly a perfect combination of storybook tourism.
Everything started at 8:30 AM when we left the hotel in search of breakfast. With just a quick walk over the bridge, by 8:45 AM we found ourselves at Heart and Lova Cafe.
While the outside dining experience was “okay,” this is probably not the spot I would recommend for most travelers. Our meal of 44 RM ($9.32 USD) consisted of a Hershey’s chocolate drink, a liquid egg, canned baked beans, a slightly stale croissant with a single slice of cold cut chicken garnished with spray can cheese and a medicinal tasting “juice”. Yes, or could have been worse, but there are clearly many better options available.
On the plus side, when we exited at 9:18 AM, we were able to walk immediately into the Malaysian Architecture Museum which was right next door. The cost per foreign adult was 5 RM ($1.06 USD).
The building itself, built sometime in the 1700’s was well cared for and there was abundant air conditioning throughout despite the doors remaining wide open and there being no attempt to close obvious open spaces around the windows. Separately, the exhibits themselves, while “attractive,” primarily consisted of well lit cardboard cutouts and models. It was of course incredibly educational.
At 10:24 AM we exited and walked up to the ruins of St. Paul’s church.
The views were nice, and there were various grave markers which were lining the walls, thus giving a bit of insight to the Dutch and English colonists who had been here before. Mostly, visitors treated this as a favorite site to get a good Instagram pic. Next walked over to the nearby, still fully functional Christ Church.
The seating design was very practical for this climate. It was comfortable and had good air flow.
Right next door was the Melaka Art Gallery, which had a cost of 10 RM ($2.11 USD) per adult when we entered at 11:26 AM.
Fortunately, at 2:35 PM we found ourselves entering the non pretentiously named Jonker Street Chicken Rice Ball restaurant.
The ground floor was this very informative, but perhaps overly detailed chronicle of youth movements in Malaysia since the time of independence. Would the next floor be the same?
Woohoo, this was more along the lines of what we had expected.
This Allen Tan was clearly considered a big deal, with this entire hall dedicated to him. The temperature inside was very comfortable, and the polished parquet flooring was gorgeous. Yes, the dusty plastic flower arrangement in the corner seemed a bit out of place, but maybe that was intentional . . . some sort of contrast point to the paintings and polished wooden floor? No doubt they didn’t want to encourage sitting, so there were no benches here.
I noticed that much of the art was for sale, so why do they charge admission? I was just wondering . . . Anyways, onto other rooms.
Now this group of artists had the same parquet flooring, but in stark contrast to the previous room, a single simple wooden bench was right in the center of the room. Perhaps I was being overly analytical, but I once again found myself asking if there was some special artistic intention here?
While not everyone will find this relevant, I think it’s sometimes also worthwhile to report on the state of the restrooms.
No, there was no water on the floor. Rather, this seemed to be some sort of special flooring which at first glance always looks wet. My hotel room actually had the same thing, but with a different color.
A lot of the paintings seemed to be student work from the last twenty years. Maybe high schools could do this with really good work? I mean anyone who works in a school knows that lots of times students don’t want their creations at the end of the school year. However, I thought it was odd that none of the works by UTIM students listed the name of the creator; whereas, Koleksi Tetap which also had a lot of representation, always put the student names. Also none of the sculptures had any sort of information: creator, year, title?
At 12:46 we exited the museum, once more on our way to gather further cultural enlightenment.
The Cheng Ho cultural museum was high on the list of must-see sites, and we arrived at 1:09 PM. Some of you will already know about him since he’s a big deal explorer and cultural ambassador from China, but this was my first exposure. While I attempted to treat the visit with the solemnity and respect it deserved, I may at times have failed.
Don’t be fooled though. I did learn a lot. It turns out that in this part of the world, a lot of older mosques have strong Chinese architectural influences, and that’s because of the influence of Chinese Muslims. However, the model of Guamchang was at times incredibly comical with all the different sized figures and the inclusion of different artistic styles. It reminded me of Christmas nativity scene in Latin America when little kids help set things up with their toys.
The last exhibit hall was very eclectic. It seemed almost like a random collection of stuff from various grandmas. Many items weren’t even labeled.
Really, it was a bit of a marathon of learning, but at 2:35 PM we finally exited in search of something to eat for lunch.
Our meal for two was 70.9 RM ($14.99 USD). The food at Jonker street chicken rice ball restaurant was decent, but not amazing. Still, I would feel comfortable recommending it to fellow travelers.
We continued here until 3:07 PM and then trekked off to our next obligatory Melaka destination, arriving at the nearby Baba & Nyonya heritage museum at 3:17 PM. Here the per adult entrance fee was 18 RM ($3.80 USD).
I wasn’t really sure why it was precisely 3 more RM than the last one, but I was sure there was a logical reason. Maybe it was the cost of the “self guide book” we were given to read while visiting?
The book actually did a very good job explaining things. But, I figured this out without the guidebook, the people who used to live in this house were seriously rich. This is just a family home which is no longer lived in by the younger family members. . . Presumably they prefer big city life. If you want the details of everything, you will have to visit on your own, or alternatively just read their website. Next we went upstairs.
Again, everything was very well laid out and very beautiful. It turns out that being super rich means that you have a beautiful home. Let’s see if it still continues like that when we go downstairs again.
So honestly, I really found this place to be very informative and even enjoyable. I learned so much about the Chinese immigrant community in Malaysia, or more precisely, the rich Chinese community. If in Melaka, go ahead and take the time to visit this place. Finally at 4:25 PM we were ready to head over to the Geographer’s cafe.
After a relaxing snack and coffee, at 6:00 PM it was time to once again check out sites on the street.
We wandered beyond the tourist district.
And then at 7:22 PM, down a wide side alley, we came across the amazing Capital Seafood food stall.
Our amazing food had a total cost of 62 RM ($13.10 USD) for two people and I was so satisfied with the entire delicious experience. Unless you are a vegetarian, if you only eat one place in Melaka, eat here. We finished up here at 8:23 PM and walked back towards the hotel.
Right in front of the hotel I decided to get one of these absurdly tall soft-serve ice cream cones for only 10 RM ($2.11 USD). The ice cream itself really wasn’t that tasty, but the whole idea of eating such a tall ice-cream cone was irresistible.
Despite the heat, there was so much water in it, the ice cream actually held up fairly well, but it was still a bit of a rush to finish it before it melted or worse, fell over. Still, I’m happy to report that I finished the whole thing, and no doubt because of the high water content did not even feel bad later on as a result of eating so much ice cream.
By 9:00 PM we were back in the room, but the nearby off key karaoke continued until 12:15 AM. The singing from the previous evening had been quite nice, but that was not so much the case this evening.
So friends, that was my first mega museum and culture day in Melaka. Let me know which part you liked the most in the comment section below.
Travels with Jay 