Malaysia: Malacca (Melaka) City – A guide to visiting
Contents
1. About Melaka
2. Our visit
– The Dutch Square
– The Maritime Museum
– St Paul’s Church
– A Formosa
– The Malacca River
– Check out the Street Art
– Visit the Malacca Straits Mosque
– Explore the churches and temples of Harmony Street
– Wander through the Jonker Street Night Market
– Take a cooking class
About Melaka
Melaka is unlike anywhere else in Malaysia. Founded in the early 15th century by the Malay prince Parameswara, it swiftly became one of the most powerful trading ports in the world, drawing merchants from Arabia, India, China and beyond. That golden era of commerce left an indelible mark, and today the city wears its layered past proudly — from the crumbling Portuguese fortress of A Famosa to the terracotta-red Dutch Stadthuys that dominates the town square.
Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008 alongside Penang, Melaka’s historic core is a remarkable open-air museum. Narrow lanes are lined with Peranakan shophouses painted in bold pastels, ornate Chinese temples sit beside centuries-old mosques, and colonial-era buildings house independent boutiques and galleries. The famous Jonker Street transforms each weekend into a lively night market, drawing visitors into its colourful heart.
Beyond the monuments, it is Melaka’s food and people that leave the deepest impression. Nyonya cuisine — a sublime fusion of Chinese and Malay culinary traditions — is the city’s proudest offering, best savoured slowly in a heritage shophouse. Chicken rice balls, asam pedas and cendol are must-try staples. Warm, welcoming and endlessly fascinating, Melaka rewards every curious traveller who chooses to linger.
Our Visit
Throughout all our previous travels across Malaysia — and there have been a fair few — we had somehow never managed to get ourselves to Malacca. It was one of those places that always ended up bumped down the list in favour of somewhere else, which, looking back, was a bit daft given how historically significant and genuinely fascinating it is. So this time around, I made sure to actually book it in rather than just talk about it. We secured a morning bus from Singapore to Malacca — or Melaka, as it’s officially known these days, the Malaysian government having reverted to the original spelling back in the 1980s — and a couple of hours later, after a brief but bureaucratically thorough stop at the Singapore-Malaysia border crossing at the Causeway in Johor Bahru, we rolled into the city. The border crossing itself is one of those great levellers — doesn’t matter if you’re a seasoned traveller or a first-timer, everyone shuffles through immigration in the same slow queue. We caught a taxi from the bus terminal to our hotel, the Gingerflower Boutique, which sounded rather lovely. However, on arrival we were politely informed that they were moving us to their sister property, the Heeren Palm Suites, just a short stroll down the road. We weren’t entirely sure what to make of that, but as it turned out, we needn’t have worried in the slightest. Our room was genuinely impressive — spacious, beautifully laid out with real thought given to the décor, and a bathroom that was properly modern rather than the sort that makes you wonder when it was last refurbished. And crucially — this is not a small thing in Malaysia in January — the air conditioning actually worked. Full marks.
After a bit of a rest, because the humidity alone is enough to make you want to lie down, we decided to head out and explore. We’d found a vegetarian restaurant on Happy Cow that was about a twenty-minute walk away, so we thought we’d give it a go. From the Heeren Palm, we cut across to Jonker Street, which runs more or less parallel to the road where we were staying. Jonker Street is the main tourist drag in Malacca — it’s lined with boutique shops, cafés, galleries, and restaurants of every description, and at the weekend it transforms into a lively and rather chaotic street market. During the week it’s considerably calmer, which suited us just fine. At either end of the street there’s a rather grand archway letting you know you’ve arrived at the right place, which is helpful because in an unfamiliar city you’d rather have a large sign than spend twenty minutes wandering around wondering if you’ve taken a wrong turn. We ambled down Jonker Street, popping into a few of the shops and having a good look at the menus outside the restaurants without committing to anything just yet.
At the top of Jonker Street, we crossed the bridge over the Malacca River. The river has a proper riverside walkway running along both banks, lined with bars, restaurants, and the sort of fairy lights that make everything look rather more glamorous after dark. We made a mental note — and unusually for us, actually remembered it — to come back and explore properly the following evening. Just across the road from the river sits Dutch Square, which was top of our list for the morning.
1. The Dutch Square
Dutch Square — or Dataran Merah as it’s known locally, which translates simply as Red Square — sits in the Bandar Hilir area of Melaka and is without question the city’s most recognisable landmark. The whole ensemble of buildings is painted in a striking terracotta red, which is where the popular nickname comes from, and on a bright day it makes for a genuinely impressive sight. The square is dominated by two principal structures: the Christ Church and the Stadthuys, both of which date from the Dutch colonial period and have, remarkably, survived several centuries of political upheaval in pretty decent nick.
The Stadthuys itself — the name derives from the Dutch word for town hall — was constructed between the 1650s and 1660s and is considered the oldest surviving Dutch colonial building in the East. It served as the official residence of the Dutch governors of Melaka for well over a century, from 1641 when the Dutch wrested control of the city from the Portuguese, all the way through to 1824 when the British took over under the terms of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty. Today it houses the History and Ethnography Museum, which is well worth a look if you want to get properly under the skin of the city’s extraordinary layered past. The buildings surrounding the square are characterised by thick walls, large windows, and heavy wrought-iron hinges — classic Dutch colonial architecture, which is simultaneously sturdy and rather handsome. The whole area is almost always buzzing with tourists, trishaws, and hawkers, and there’s a lively, good-natured energy to the place that we rather enjoyed.
The Christ Church Melaka is a particularly impressive building and holds the distinction of being the oldest functioning Protestant church in Malaysia. It was built by the Dutch between 1741 and 1753 to commemorate the centenary of their capture of Melaka from the Portuguese in 1641, though — in a detail that seems rather fitting for an institution not known for rushing things — it wasn’t actually consecrated until 1838. We decided to pop inside for a look around. The interior is, as you might expect from a Reformed Protestant church, fairly plain and unadorned — none of the theatrical baroque excess you’d find in a Portuguese or Spanish Catholic church — but there were some genuinely interesting information panels dotted around that filled in a great deal of the church’s history, including the fact that the pews are made from single planks of timber, each reportedly carved from single trees. The ceiling has exposed wooden beams which are a lovely bit of craftsmanship, and the floor is laid with old Dutch tombstones, which gives the place a slightly eerie but undeniably atmospheric quality. Well worth ten minutes of your time.
Standing rather proudly at the centre of the square is the Queen Victoria Fountain, a cast-iron Victorian confection that was erected in 1901 to mark the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria — albeit a touch late, given that Her Majesty had actually been dead for the better part of a year by the time it was installed. These things happen. It’s a charming piece of civic art and makes for a good landmark when you’re trying to orientate yourself in the square.
2. The Maritime Museum
Malacca has a remarkable number of museums for a city of its size, which makes sense when you consider the sheer density of history that has been layered onto this place over the past six centuries. The most visually distinctive of the lot is undoubtedly the Maritime Museum, which sits close to Red Square and is absolutely impossible to miss. Right outside it is a full-scale replica of a Portuguese galleon — specifically, the Flor de la Mar, a vessel with one of the more dramatic back stories in the history of the Strait of Malacca.
The Flor de la Mar — which translates as Flower of the Sea — was a 400-tonne Portuguese carrack, one of the largest and most heavily armed ships of her era, and she came to grief in 1511 under circumstances that remain the stuff of maritime legend. She had been loaded, according to historical accounts, with an almost inconceivable quantity of treasure plundered from the Malacca Sultanate following the Portuguese conquest of the city — gold, jewels, and artefacts accumulated by the Malay sultans over the course of more than a century of trade. The ship sank during a violent storm somewhere in the Strait of Malacca, taking her entire cargo to the bottom. The exact location has never been definitively established, and the wreck — if it still exists in recognisable form — remains one of the great unclaimed prizes of underwater archaeology. The replica outside the museum is a lovely piece of work and gives you a genuine sense of the scale of these vessels.
3. St Paul’s Church
One of the finest vantage points in the whole of Melaka is the top of St Paul’s Hill, and it’s well worth the climb — which, we should warn you, is steeper than it looks and considerably more sweaty than you’d expect, even by Malaysian standards. The hill has had several names over the centuries, reflecting the successive powers that have controlled it. During the Malacca Sultanate period it was known simply as Malacca Hill, and it served as a strategic defensive position overlooking the strait. The Portuguese called it Mary’s Hill after they built their chapel up there, and it remained under successive colonial administrations for the next three centuries or so.
Atop the hill are the ruins of the Church of St Paul — or Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Annunciada, to give it its original Portuguese name — which was first constructed in 1521 by a Portuguese nobleman named Duarte Coelho as a private chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Annunciation. That makes it the oldest church in Malaysia and, by extension, one of the oldest in the whole of Southeast Asia. The building was expanded and modified over the subsequent decades, and by the time the Dutch took over in the mid-seventeenth century it had become a fairly substantial structure. The Dutch converted it for use as a lecture hall and for storing munitions — which is perhaps not the most reverent use of a house of worship, but the Dutch were pragmatic above all else. Once the Dutch had completed their own Christ Church down the hill in 1753, St Paul’s was essentially abandoned and left to fall into its current ruined state. There’s not a great deal left of the original structure — the roof is long gone, the walls have crumbled in places, and several of the old Portuguese tombstones that line the interior have been moved to the Stadthuys Museum — but it is genuinely fascinating to walk around. There are still a number of old inscribed tombstones embedded in the floor and walls, and the views from the top of the hill out over the city and towards the strait are absolutely worth the exertion of getting up there.
4. A Formosa
Coming down the other side of St Paul’s Hill, we arrived at the remains of what was once one of the most formidable fortifications in all of Asia — A Famosa, or the Fortaleza de Malaca, as it was known to its builders. The story of how it came to be built is rather a grim one. The Portuguese seized the city of Malacca in July 1511 under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque, the Governor-General of Portuguese India, routing the forces of Sultan Mahmud Shah in a campaign that lasted roughly six weeks. It was a pivotal moment in the history of the region — Malacca at that point was probably the wealthiest and most cosmopolitan port city in the world, handling an estimated eighty-four languages’ worth of trade, and its capture gave Portugal control over the most strategically important chokepoint in Asian maritime commerce.
Knowing full well that the deposed Malaccan sultanate would not take this lying down — and they were absolutely right about that — Albuquerque immediately set about constructing a defensive fortress to secure their new acquisition. The initial construction took around five months to complete, which is astonishingly fast given the scale of the undertaking, and it was achieved at considerable human cost. Many of the labourers who built the fort — a substantial number of whom were local workers and enslaved captives — died during construction from a combination of the punishing heat, inadequate food, and the sheer brutality of the conditions. The completed fortress was a formidable structure with thick stone walls, towers at each corner, and enough artillery to give any attacking force a very nasty morning indeed.
The fortress withstood numerous attacks by the Malaccan sultans and their allies over the following decades, and it remained in Portuguese hands until 1641, when the Dutch East India Company — the VOC — besieged the city with the assistance of the Johor Sultanate and eventually captured it after a protracted siege. The Dutch maintained and expanded the fort for the next century and a half, but when they handed Melaka over to the British in 1795 (as part of the complex diplomatic reshuffling of the Napoleonic period), the British East India Company made the rather short-sighted decision to demolish most of the fortifications in 1806, partly to deny any potential future rival the use of the facility and partly out of sheer administrative indifference. There was an outcry from the locals and from some quarters in London, and one of the main gates — the Porta de Santiago — was saved from demolition by the personal intervention of Sir Stamford Raffles, who happened to be passing through at the opportune moment. That surviving gateway, modest as it is, is what we were looking at as we came down the hill: a single arched gateway bearing the arms of the VOC, sitting rather forlornly in what is now a pleasant open park area. It’s remarkable to think that this small remnant is essentially all that’s left of one of the most strategically significant fortifications in the history of Asia.
We had also wanted to visit the Malacca Malay Sultanate Palace Museum nearby — a full-scale reconstruction of the fifteenth-century palace of Sultan Mansur Shah, built without a single nail using traditional Malay construction methods — but it was, unfortunately, closed for renovation during our visit. Typical. We’ll have to go back.
5. Malacca River
In the late afternoon, once the worst of the day’s heat had begun to ease off a bit — though I use the word “ease” loosely, because Malacca in January is still roughly as humid as the inside of a greenhouse — we decided to head out for a walk along the river. We’d spotted it the previous evening and liked the look of it, and now seemed as good a time as any to explore it properly.
The Malacca River has a history that goes back to the very founding of the city. It was the original reason for Malacca’s existence as a port — ships would anchor in the strait and transfer their goods via smaller boats up the river into the city, and the riverbanks were lined with warehouses, godowns, and the residences of wealthy merchants from across the known world. Today the river has been cleaned up and redeveloped into a rather pleasant riverside promenade, though the stretch immediately around the tourist centre does its level best to position itself as a sort of Southeast Asian Ibiza, which felt like something of an overreach given that the average punter appeared to be, like us, a middle-aged tourist looking for a cold drink rather than a rave. There were lots of bars pumping out music at a volume that suggested the proprietors were hoping enthusiasm might compensate for atmosphere. The river cruise boats zipped past at quite a clip, generating bow waves that were genuinely impressive and probably not doing the restaurant boats moored along the bank any favours.
After about ten minutes of walking, however, we cleared the busier section and things became considerably more pleasant. The path along the riverbank continued further upstream through quieter residential neighbourhoods, where the old shophouses backing onto the river still have their original rear facades intact — a much more authentic view of the city than the tourist-facing frontages along Jonker Street. We crossed a bridge and followed the river along the opposite bank, and it was here that we had one of those genuinely charming encounters that make travel worthwhile. We came across a woman who was taking her tortoise for a walk. Yes, you read that correctly. A tortoise. On a lead. Karen, who is extremely fond of tortoises and has been ever since we visited the Seychelles, immediately went over for a chat and to make friends with the tortoise. She asked the owner how old it was — about five years, apparently — and what it was called. The answer was that it didn’t have a name, which Karen found faintly scandalous. She was still talking about it at dinner.
6. Street Art
One of our absolute favourite things to do when we arrive somewhere new is to hunt out the street art. We’ve seen some extraordinary stuff over the years, from the famous murals in Penang to some wonderful work in Lisbon and beyond, and Malacca more than held its own. We found some really impressive examples scattered across the city, with the majority concentrated along the river walk, which makes sense given that it’s a long stretch of wall that essentially acts as a blank canvas. The quality was genuinely high — some of it was proper commissioned work by skilled artists rather than just enthusiastic amateurs with a spray can — and the subjects ranged from historical scenes depicting Malacca’s trading past to fantastical imagery and local wildlife. It’s one of those things that adds real character to a place and rewards slow, attentive walking rather than rushing from one sight to the next.
7. Malacca Straits Mosque
After another rather leisurely late breakfast — one of the genuine pleasures of travelling without a packed itinerary — we decided to venture a bit further afield than we had on previous days. I’d read about a mosque called the Melaka Straits Mosque, known in Malay as Masjid Selat Melaka, and it had sounded interesting enough to make the effort to get to it.
The mosque was constructed on the forty-hectare man-made Malacca Island — or Pulau Melaka — which was reclaimed from the sea as part of a broader development project for the area. It sits out over the waters of the Malacca Strait, one of the busiest and most historically significant waterways in the world — at its narrowest point, between the Malaysian peninsula and Sumatra, it’s only about sixty-five kilometres wide, and it has been the principal sea route between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea for well over a thousand years. The mosque has been open to visitors since 24th November 2006, when the opening ceremony was performed by Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong — the Supreme Head of State of Malaysia. The total cost of construction was around MYR 10 million, which seems remarkably modest for such an ambitious and striking building.
The overall architectural design blends modern Islamic elements with influences from the Middle East and local traditions. The main dome has a distinctly Middle Eastern character, finished in a brilliant gold that catches the light from across the water. The façade is adorned with stained-glass windows featuring traditional Islamic geometric motifs, and the minaret — which is perhaps the most distinctive element of the whole building — is an unusual design that bears more than a passing resemblance to a lighthouse, which given the mosque’s location sticking out into the strait, seems entirely appropriate.
Now, the mosque is located a couple of kilometres from the hotel, and — displaying the kind of optimism that only people who haven’t yet been outside in the Malaysian midday heat tend to exhibit — we decided to walk. The first part of the route was familiar from our earlier wanderings, but we then had to cross some fairly major roads, which is always something of an adventure in Malaysia, where the relationship between pedestrian crossings and actual traffic appears to be largely theoretical. We then found ourselves passing through a large commercial development area that was, to put it diplomatically, not quite what the architects had envisioned. In the United States, we would absolutely have thought twice — or possibly three or four times — about walking through somewhere like this. But Malaysia is generally a safe country, and so we pressed on, slightly baffled by the rows of empty shopfronts and silent car parks.
By this point it was getting seriously hot and we were beginning to question our decision with some vigour. Eventually, we made our way onto the causeway that connects the mainland to Malacca Island, and there, at the entrance to the island, was a large hoarding showing the grand vision for what the development was supposed to look like: high-end apartment towers, exclusive resorts, a cruise ship terminal, the works. Sadly, the reality on the ground was rather different. Right in front of us was the skeletal frame of a partially constructed apartment tower that had clearly been abandoned mid-build — a slightly melancholy sight. There was one completed development in a vaguely European style that looked perfectly pleasant, but there were barely any signs of life in it, and the ground-floor retail units were almost uniformly shuttered. We did hear later that some of them open in the evenings, which suggests the whole thing hasn’t been entirely given up on, but it certainly had a ghost-town quality about it in the middle of the day.
We continued through the island, past rows of empty buildings, and I’ll be honest — it had a genuine Zombie apocalypse movie quality to it. You kept expecting something to shuffle out from behind a pillar. Nothing did, thankfully.
We finally reached the mosque and, with it, our first signs of life for quite some time. The security guard at the gate was cheerful and welcoming, and ushered us towards a room where we were issued with the appropriate clothing. This is a conservative mosque, so Karen was required to wear both a headscarf and a full-length gown, and I was provided with what can only be described as Aladdin-style trousers — very wide in the leg, gathered at the ankle, in a shade of blue that I would not have selected myself. They were not the easiest things to walk in, particularly for someone who is used to a fairly normal stride, but we managed.
The mosque itself is a genuinely impressive structure. It sits on concrete piles driven into the seabed and extends out over the water of the Straits, which gives it a dramatic floating quality — particularly at high tide. It’s built on a square plan with entrances on all four sides, each topped by a large semi-circular stained-glass window. You’re not permitted to enter the main prayer hall, but you can walk all the way around the perimeter of the building on the external walkways, which gives you good views in every direction across the Straits. The minaret, painted gold with blue trim, is a genuinely striking thing — you can see it from a considerable distance across the water. Being in such an exposed position, the building does show some signs of weathering and wear, but it remains an interesting and worthwhile visit.
Before we set off back, we had a look around the small shop on the mosque grounds and were delighted to discover that they sold ice cream. In that heat, it was genuinely one of the better things that had happened all day.
Having summoned sufficient fortitude to walk all the way to the mosque, we took one look at the route back and sensibly decided to get a taxi. The security guard — who was both chatty and what you might generously describe as entrepreneurially minded — organised one for us (we are fairly confident he received some manner of commission for this service) and when it arrived, we were mildly surprised to find the driver was a woman. Perfectly pleasant she was too, and got us back to the hotel without incident.
8. Harmony Street (Jalan Tokong Besi)
After our rather energetic morning outing to the Straits Mosque, we decided that the afternoon called for something a bit more manageable in terms of distance. So we took a short walk to Jalan Tokong Besi — a street that is far better known to visitors under its English nicknames of Temple Street or Harmony Street — both of which refer to the remarkable fact that the street is home to three houses of worship from three entirely different faiths, sitting within a few dozen metres of each other and apparently coexisting without any particular difficulty. In a world where religious tension seems to be pretty much a permanent feature of the news, there’s something quietly lovely about that.
The undisputed centrepiece of the street is the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple — also known as the Temple of the Green Clouds — which is the largest, the most richly decorated, and quite simply the most visually stunning of the three. It holds the distinction of being the oldest and finest traditional Chinese temple in Malaysia, a status that was formally recognised by UNESCO with an award for outstanding architectural restoration. The temple was founded in the early 1600s — the exact date is somewhat debated, but it was certainly established during the Dutch colonial period — by a Chinese community leader named Tay Kie Ki, also known as Tay Hong Yong, who held the title of Kapitan. During both the Portuguese and Dutch eras, Kapitans were appointed by the colonial authorities as headmen or chiefs of the various ethnic communities within the city, responsible for maintaining order and administering justice within their own populations. In its early years, Cheng Hoon Teng served not only as a religious centre but also as the effective administrative headquarters and court of justice for the Chinese Kapitan and his community — a dual role that underlines just how central the temple was to civic life.
The temple practices the Three Doctrinal Systems — Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism — and was historically the primary place of worship for the Hoklo, or Hokkien, population of Melaka, who had been among the earliest and most numerous of the Chinese settlers in the city. The building itself is an extraordinary piece of craftsmanship, featuring elaborately carved roof ridges decorated with intricate ceramic figurines depicting scenes from Chinese mythology and history, lacquered woodwork in deep reds and golds, and a courtyard that manages to feel both solemn and welcoming at the same time. We walked around and admired everything at leisure. There were no ceremonies taking place during our visit, which was slightly disappointing as the temple would be even more spectacular with incense burning and prayers underway, but it was still a thoroughly enjoyable hour.
Just across the road from Cheng Hoon Teng is the Xiang Lin Si Temple, a Chinese Buddhist temple that follows the Mahāyāna tradition. It’s a considerably more modest building — a double-storey brick structure that was rebuilt in its current form in 1985, having started life in 1958 as a much simpler wooden building. The temple is named after a Chinese monk, and while it lacks the elaborate ornamentation of its famous neighbour across the street, it has a quiet, unassuming atmosphere that is rather pleasant. It attracts considerably fewer visitors than Cheng Hoon Teng, which means that if you want a moment of genuine peace and quiet in what can be a rather busy part of the city, this is a good option.
A short distance further along the street is the Kampung Kling Mosque, which is one of the oldest mosques in Southeast Asia and has a history every bit as layered and interesting as the city itself. The mosque was originally constructed in 1748 — though there may have been an earlier structure on the site — by the Muslim Indian community of Melaka, who were known as the Kling. The word Kampung means “village” in Malay, and the Kling were Muslim traders and settlers who had migrated to Melaka from the Coromandel Coast of South India over the preceding centuries, drawn by the city’s extraordinary commercial opportunities. Today the mosque is almost hidden behind a later-added perimeter wall, but the towering minaret gives the game away — and it’s a most unusual minaret, closely resembling a traditional Chinese pagoda in its tiered, tapering form, which tells you a great deal about the cultural mixing that characterises Melaka’s architectural heritage.
The mosque itself is built on a square plan — unusual for Islamic religious architecture, which more commonly favours hexagonal or rectangular layouts — and is covered by a striking triple-tiered roof, a form that owes much more to Javanese and Sumatran architectural tradition than to anything you’d find in the Middle East. The central section of the roof is supported by four primary columns, with a further set of four columns supporting the lower two tiers. The porch area features a short colonnade with Corinthian capitals — a little piece of classical European architecture sitting quite cheerfully in a Muslim Indian mosque in Malaysia. Chinese ceramic tiles decorate the roof and parts of the walls and floor, and the eaves of the roofs curve upwards in the manner of traditional Chinese buildings. It is, in short, one of the most wonderful and unexpected architectural confections we’ve ever come across, and it tells the story of Melaka’s multicultural heritage more eloquently than any museum exhibit.
Just beyond the mosque sits the Sri Poyyatha Vinayagar Moorthi Temple, which is one of the oldest functioning Hindu temples in Maritime Southeast Asia. It was built in the eighteenth century in honour of Vinayagar — better known outside South Asia as Ganesha, the elephant-headed deity who is venerated as the remover of obstacles — and it represents the continued presence of the South Indian Tamil community in Melaka that stretches back to the earliest days of the city. Sadly it was closed when we visited, so we couldn’t go inside, but the exterior is colourful and well worth a look even from the street.
9. Jonker Street Night Market
Jonker Street runs straight through the heart of Melaka’s old town and is, in effect, the city’s main Chinatown thoroughfare. It occupies a stretch of beautifully preserved shophouses — the characteristic two- or three-storey buildings with covered walkways at street level that you see right across the urban landscapes of Malaysia and Singapore — many of which date back to the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The street was once genuinely famous among serious collectors for its antique shops, which apparently used to stock all manner of interesting pieces from across the Peranakan, Portuguese, Dutch, and British colonial periods. These days, if we’re being straightforward about it, the antique shops have largely given way to tourist shops selling the sort of things that are probably made somewhere in China rather than actually being artefacts of Malaccan heritage, and the usual multinational chains like 7-Eleven have moved in to fill whatever gaps remain. But the buildings themselves are still wonderful, and there’s enough genuine character left to make it a thoroughly enjoyable wander.
During the week, Jonker Street is open to traffic and has a good variety of shops and restaurants operating in a fairly relaxed atmosphere. Our visit happened to coincide with the run-up to Chinese New Year — which in 2023 fell on 22nd January — so the street was considerably more animated than it might otherwise have been at that time of year, with a stage set up at one end for live performances and red lanterns strung between the buildings in considerable quantities. It was rather festive.
At the weekend, however — from Friday evening through to Sunday night — Jonker Street is where things really get going. The road is closed to traffic, and around four hundred stalls set up along its length, selling traditional handicrafts, locally made souvenirs, street food of every description, and the specialities of Nyonya cuisine. Nyonya food — also known as Peranakan cuisine — is the extraordinary culinary tradition that developed among the Peranakan Chinese community of Melaka: the descendants of Chinese merchants who settled in the city from the fifteenth century onwards and intermarried with the local Malay population, creating a hybrid culture with its own distinct language, dress, customs, and above all food. Nyonya cooking blends Chinese ingredients and techniques with the spices, aromatics, and flavour profiles of Malay cooking, producing dishes like laksa, ayam pongteh, and kueh that you won’t find quite like this anywhere else. If you’re there at the weekend, make absolutely sure you eat your way along the market — it is one of the genuine highlights of visiting Melaka.
10. Take a Cooking Class
Since we’re talking about Nyonya food, it would be remiss not to mention the fact that Malacca is an excellent place to learn how to actually cook some of it yourself. There are plenty of options available across the city — everything from well-organised commercial cooking schools to more intimate private classes run out of people’s homes, which is the sort of experience we tend to prefer when we can find it.
As it happened, we came across exactly that sort of opportunity during our wanderings along Harmony Street — a lady who was running small-group cooking classes from her own home, teaching traditional Malay and Peranakan recipes in a domestic kitchen setting. That kind of personal, informal arrangement tends to produce a much richer experience than a slick commercial operation, in our view. You learn not just the recipes but the context — the stories behind the dishes, the family traditions, the tricks and shortcuts that only come from decades of actually cooking the food rather than teaching it from a manual.
If you keep your eyes open as you walk around the city, you’ll find no shortage of cooking class options at various price points and levels of formality. It’s genuinely one of the best ways to take something of Melaka home with you that isn’t a fridge magnet.
Planning your visit to Malacca
🚌 Getting There
Bus from KL to Melaka (Malacca)
The most practical and economical way to get yourself to Melaka from Kuala Lumpur is by bus. It’s cheap, reasonably comfortable, and there are departures throughout the day. Bus tickets from KL to Melaka typically cost around RM 10 or more depending on which operator you go with, and the journey takes approximately two and a half hours from start to finish. Buses depart from very early in the morning — the first one rolls out at 3 a.m. for those who like to get a very early start indeed — through to 10 p.m. in the evening, with departures roughly every fifteen minutes during the busier parts of the day.
CHECK BUS SCHEDULE AND PRICES HERE
To catch the bus from KL, you need to get yourself to Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (TBS), which is the main long-distance bus terminal for routes heading south. The easiest way to get there is as follows:
First, make your way to KL Sentral, which is the main transport hub in Kuala Lumpur and is accessible by every major form of public transport in the city.
From KL Sentral, take the KLIA Transit train — not the KLIA Ekspres, note — to Bandar Tasik Selatan station, which takes around ten minutes.
From Bandar Tasik Selatan, it’s roughly a ten to fifteen-minute walk to Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (TBS). Follow the signs and you’ll be fine.
KL to Melaka by Train
There is technically a train option, though we’d be doing you a disservice if we presented it as a particularly good one. There’s no direct train from KL to Melaka, which rather undermines its appeal from the outset. You’d board at KL Sentral and the nearest you’d get is Batang Melaka station, which is approximately an hour’s drive from the city centre. By the time you’ve factored in the onward journey, you’ve almost certainly taken longer than the bus and spent more for the privilege.
Bus from Singapore to Melaka (Malacca)
There’s no direct flight between Singapore and Melaka — the distance is far too short to make that viable — so the bus is really your only sensible option. Several operators serve the route, including Delima Express, 707Inc, Luxury Coach, and Golden Coach Express, and the journey takes roughly four to five hours depending on how long you spend at the border crossing, which varies considerably.
🚖 Getting Around
If you’re staying anywhere near the historic centre of Malacca — and we’d strongly recommend that you do — then the majority of the main sights are comfortably within walking distance, which is both convenient and free, though you will want to plan your walking for the cooler parts of the day if you don’t want to arrive at every destination looking like you’ve just completed a sponsored swim.
For anything that’s a bit further afield, you’ve got the option of local buses or taxis. The ride-sharing app Grab is by far the most convenient way to order a taxi or private car — it works just like Uber, gives you the price upfront, and is generally reliable. We used it several times during our stay without any issues at all.
And then there are the trishaws. These are the cycle rickshaws — pedal-powered three-wheelers with a covered passenger seat — that you’ll find clustered around Dutch Square and at various other spots in the centre of town. Now, here’s the thing about Malacca’s trishaws: they are not the understated, dignified mode of transport you might find in other Asian cities. They are, to put it plainly, completely over the top. Each one is decorated with an absolute riot of artificial flowers, fairy lights, plastic decorations, tinsel, and whatever other embellishments the owner has felt moved to attach. Underneath the passenger seat there’s invariably a large speaker system — the boom box to end all boom boxes — playing music at a volume that suggests the driver’s hearing gave up the fight some years ago. It’s gloriously, magnificently daft, and you should absolutely do it at least once.
The Best Time to Visit Melaka
Melaka (also spelt Malacca) sits close to the equator on Malaysia’s southwestern coast, which means it experiences a tropical climate throughout the year — warm, humid, and punctuated by two distinct monsoon seasons. Understanding the rhythm of the seasons helps you plan around the rain, heat, and crowds to get the most from this UNESCO World Heritage city.
🌤️ November to February — Northeast Monsoon Season
This is Melaka’s wettest period. The northeast monsoon sweeps across the South China Sea and brings heavy downpours, particularly from November through January. Rainfall tends to arrive in intense afternoon bursts rather than all-day drizzles, so mornings are often clear enough for sightseeing. Temperatures remain warm at around 25–32°C. December and January also coincide with the school holiday period in Malaysia and the festive season, so expect more visitors and slightly higher hotel rates, particularly around Jonker Street and the heritage quarter.
What to pack: Lightweight, breathable clothing; a compact travel umbrella or packable rain poncho; waterproof sandals or quick-dry footwear; a small dry bag for your electronics; sunscreen; insect repellent; and a light cardigan for air-conditioned museums and restaurants.
☀️ March to May — Dry Season (Shoulder Period)
This is one of the most pleasant windows to visit Melaka. Rainfall eases considerably, humidity becomes more manageable, and temperatures hover between 28–35°C. March and April in particular offer bright, sunny days ideal for exploring Jonker Street, Christ Church, A Famosa, and the river cruise. This period falls before the main school holidays and avoids the peak festive crowds, making it a sweet spot for travellers who want good weather without fighting the queues.
What to pack: Light summer clothing in natural fabrics such as linen or cotton; comfortable walking shoes; a wide-brimmed hat; high-SPF sunscreen; sunglasses; a reusable water bottle; a light day bag; and flip-flops for the river walk and beach areas.
🌧️ June to August — Inter-monsoon / Southwest Monsoon Transition
Melaka experiences relatively moderate rainfall during these months compared to the northeast monsoon. The southwest monsoon affects mainly Malaysia’s east coast and Borneo, leaving Melaka in a more sheltered position. June and July can still see occasional afternoon showers, but long dry spells are common. This is school holiday season in Malaysia (June–July) and internationally (July–August), so Melaka’s heritage sites and Jonker Street Night Market are busier than usual. Despite the crowds, the weather is generally reliable enough for outdoor exploration.
What to pack: Breathable summer clothes; a lightweight rain layer or travel jacket; comfortable walking shoes with good grip; sunscreen and a hat; a portable fan or cooling towel for the humidity; and a power bank — street markets and long sightseeing days drain batteries quickly.
🌦️ September to October — Second Dry Spell
September and October represent a quieter, often overlooked window that offers a reasonable balance of drier weather and fewer tourists. Rainfall is moderate and interspersed with long sunny periods. Temperatures remain consistently warm. The crowds from the summer school holidays have thinned, and accommodation rates tend to dip slightly. This is an excellent time for those who prefer a more relaxed pace when wandering the Dutch Square, the Baba Nyonya Heritage Museum, or taking a leisurely trishaw ride through the old town.
What to pack: Light, breathable clothing; a small umbrella or packable rain jacket; comfortable walking shoes; sunscreen; a hat; insect repellent for evening outings; and a light scarf or shawl useful for visiting temples and mosques.
🎊 Festival Seasons — Worth Planning Around
Melaka’s multicultural heritage means it celebrates a remarkable range of festivals. Chinese New Year (January or February) transforms Jonker Street with red lanterns, lion dances, and food stalls — a vibrant spectacle but a very busy time. Hari Raya Aidilfitri (date varies by Islamic calendar) brings warmth and open-house traditions across the city. Deepavali illuminates the city with colour. The Melaka River Festival, held periodically, showcases decorated boats and cultural performances along the riverbank. If you time your visit around a major festival, book accommodation well in advance.
📊 Summary Table
🧳 Overall Best Time to Visit
The best time to visit Melaka is between March and May, during the dry season shoulder period. The weather is at its most cooperative — reliably sunny with manageable humidity, lower rainfall, and comfortable temperatures. Crucially, this window falls outside Malaysia’s peak school holiday periods, meaning the heritage sites are enjoyably busy without feeling overcrowded. For those happy to work around occasional showers in exchange for lower hotel rates and a livelier street atmosphere, September and October offer a very worthwhile alternative. Whatever time of year you choose, Melaka’s compact old town, extraordinary street food scene, and layered cultural history make it a rewarding destination in every season.
Where to stay?
1. Mid-Range: Heeren Palm Suites
Heeren Palm Suites is located in Melaka. Free WiFi access is available. Each room provides you with air-conditioning, a minibar, electric kettle and a seating area. The private bathroom comes with a shower and hairdryer. The Parameswara Suite also includes a bathtub. Extras include a sofa, desk and a safety deposit box.
At Heeren Palm Suites, you will find a 24-hour front desk and two well-restored air wells. Other facilities offered at the property include a library and luggage storage. The property offers limited free parking.
The hotel is a mere 5-minute walk from Jonker Street, 600 metres from Christ Church, 900 metres from Porta de Santiago and 1.2 km from Sam Po Kong Temple.
2. Luxury – Liu Men Hotel
Situated in the heart of Melaka, the Liu Men Hotel is a charming 30-room boutique hotel that blends 1930s colonial art deco and Peranakan accents.
Years before World War 2 in Jalan Tokong, six shop-houses stood where once 6 families resided. After the end of the Japanese Occupation in 1945, the 6 families left and these shop-houses were transformed into a new home for a single large family.
Fast forward to the 21st century, the pre-war structure was given a new life. Liu Men stands proudly now as a restored heritage project, retaining colonial and heritage elements, and introducing influences of art deco & Peranakan designs.
3. Budget: Good2Stay Hotel
Located about a 15-minute walk of the captivating museum “Baba and Nyonya House”, this 2-star Good2Stay Budget Hotel Malacca offers Wi-Fi throughout the property and a car park. The hotel is a short walk from the red-hued Dutch Stadthuys City Hall.
A bidet and a bathtub together with amenities like toiletries are also at guests’ disposal.
The property is in 15 minutes’ stroll of The Shore Oceanarium. You can reach the centre of Malacca in 10 minutes on foot. This Malacca hotel is situated 15 minutes’ walk from the air Jonker Street Night Market.
