Second day itinerary- Melaka Sultanate Palace Museum, Hainan Chicken Rice for lunch, shopping at Jonker Street, followed by Melaka River Cruise, Melaka History and Ethnography Museum in the Stadthuys, and A' Famosa Fort. We left our hotel at 9 am, and went straight to Melaka Sultanate Palace Museum. The museum is located just beside A' Famosa fort (right side if you face the front side of the fort) at Kota Road. The museum portrays some history of Melaka, especially on the history of Hang Tuah. Besides, the models of traders, and the artifacts of tools and weapons used in the past were exhibited as well. However, the most fascinating part of this museum is the architecture of the building itself. The museum was a replica to the Sultan Mansur Shah's palace, which no single nail was used to build the building! Must visit? Sure!
For Melaka Sultanate Palace Museum, the entrance fees for adult and child are RM 2 and RM 1 respectively. Operation hour is 9 am - 6 pm. One thing to remind, no shoe is allowed in the palace museum, so we need to leave ours outside. Although special "royal racks" are prepared for the shoes, there was no "royal guard" assigned to look after them. So, the safety of our shoes is under our own responsibility.
For Melaka Sultanate Palace Museum, the entrance fees for adult and child are RM 2 and RM 1 respectively. Operation hour is 9 am - 6 pm. One thing to remind, no shoe is allowed in the palace museum, so we need to leave ours outside. Although special "royal racks" are prepared for the shoes, there was no "royal guard" assigned to look after them. So, the safety of our shoes is under our own responsibility.
Entering the replica of the old sultanate palace, with not a single nail applied is awesome! This is a must visit site in Melaka.
Kamar diraja, or royal bedroom for Sultan (upper left), the model shows the attires of the traders and the goods (upper right), and a scene of balai menghadap, the place where the sultan meet the delegates from other countries (lower right). Other artifacts showing tools, eqiupments, weapons, clothes, etc. are exhibited as well.
Then, we went to take Hainan Chicken Rice for lunch. Previous experience brought us to Kedai Kopi Chung Wah, the one that is situated on the other side of Melaka River, opposite of the Stadthuys (at the crossroad between Hang Jebat Rd. and Tun Tan Cheng Lock Rd.). The chicken rice there was still the best we could get in Melaka, queue was forming under the hot sun as early as 11:15 am. In contrast, other Hainan Chicken Rice shops were not so crowded.
Kedai Kopi Chung Hua (Chung Hua Coffee Shop) is still a choice by many. To taste the nice traditional Melaka Hainan Chicken Rice, you need to be early to avoid long queue. Chop Chung Hua from the outside (upper left), inside (upper right) and the chicken rice ball served (lower left). Hoe Kee is another Hainan chicken rice shop, which offers up-to-the-standard chicken rice. Hoe Kee is well decorated, with more tables for larger crowd.
The hot sunny day was good for a walk around Jonker Street (Hang Jebat Road). The street has two different appearances, day and night. Under the hot sun, the street is full with vehicles. The crowd mostly gathered at souvenirs shops, eateries, bakeries, and fashion boutiques. Again, we found the things sold there were not attractive to us (as Malaysian). However, a walk there was not totally in vain. We got some really nice durian chendol there. In addition, we took our opportunities to visit several temples, mausoleums, and Kampung Kling Mosque.
A scene at Jonker Street. It is not shaded and the pedestrian walkway is exposed right under the blazing sun (left). An umbrella or SPF 50++ sunblock might be a good idea to avoid sun burn.
Temples (upper left), renovated shops and eateries (upper right), the office for Hainan Association (lower left) and other shops, such as the souvenirs shops are the key components of Jonker Street. Majority (if not all of them) of the shops are ran by Chinese (or Baba and Nyonya). From there, we could deeply feel the influence of China on Melaka many years down the passage of history.
Kampung Kling Mosque is one of the oldest mosque in Malaysia. Built in 1728, the minaret of the building resembles a pagoda. Sumatran, British, Portuguese and Hindu influenced architechtures can be found too.
Afternoon, we took Melaka River Cruise at Quayside. That was a surprise for us, as the experience for the ride was fantabulous. The 40 minutes ride through the historical and modern part of Melaka was unforgetable. The effort to beautify once heavily polluted Melaka river astonished us. Melaka River Cruise is the attraction which you should never miss, with little price to pay- RM 10 for adult and RM 5 for child. The operation hour is 9:30 am - 12 am, with a break on 5-6 pm. The frequency, 30 minutes per cruise. Although we took the ride around 2 pm in the afternoon, the hot sun didn't affect us much, as the motorboat was well-covered with canvas.
Different views on Melaka River Cruise, from the heritage site to the modern city.
The cruise is well-shaded with canvas.
Quayside and the ticket counter of Melaka River Cruise from the motorboat.
The 40 minutes relaxing on the cruise was followed by 3 solid hours of "marathon" through the Stadthuys, which houses Melaka History and Ethnography Museum, and A' Famosa Fort. That was our first time at Melaka History and Ethnography Museum. We spent more than 2 hours there. The history of Melaka is really stated in detail there, and if we could find chairs for our laden feet, we might had stayed longer in the museum. The entrance fees are RM 5 for adult and RM 2 for child. The original structure of Stadthuys is well preserved. Therefore, it is quite worthy to pay the fee and get into the building to take a look.
Stadthuys (right), the clock tower, and the Church of Melaka (behind the clock tower) in red lure the visitors from all around the world. Built more than 350 years ago, the structures exhibits the architecture of Dutch.
Road signs in front of the Stadthuys with two statues of kancil (mouse deers). The kancil is believed had influenced the founder of Melaka to settle down at this area.
The square in front of the Stadthuys. A line of well decorated trishaws can be rented at RM 40 per hour, negotiable (lower left). Crowd can be seen in front of Victoria Fountain.
Inner part of the Stadthuys. We need to pay the ticket for Melaka History and Ethnography Museum to access to these area.
The stucture inside the Stadthuys. The well used by the Dutch can still be seen (upper right).
The exhibition in the first room, just after the ticket counter.
The Tourist Information Center is located just opposite of the Stadthuys, on the other side of the road. Instead of providing information to the tourists, there is a nice clean toilet available in the center. Btw, we can't find any other public toilet around the heritage site instead of the one available in the center. Of course, we could always use the toilets available in the shopping malls and the eateries (some of the eateries put a fee on the non-customer for using their toilet).
A' Famosa Fort is the center of the heritage site of Melaka. Once the most symbolic icon of the grip of Portuguese is now barely a surviving gate, in the middle of a modern city. Built by Alfonso de Albuquerque in 1511, the fort was destroyed by British on 1806. The wall of the fort is not high, nor thick. But with guns and canons on the Portuguese side, that's more than enough to hold the ground against spears, keris, elephants and horses.
The surviving gate of A' Famosa fort. Built by the Portuguese, the fort changed hand many times before it finally lays in peace to serve the tourists. The chapel can be seen far right on the top of the St. Paul Hill :)
Once been called Nosa Senhora Chapel by Portuguese, then St. Paul's Church by the Dutch, and ended the service on the hand of British, who make the church a store for gunpowder, the old structure on the top of St. Paul Hill witnessed the rise and fall of many rulers of Melaka.
The tombstone left by the Dutch and Portuguese nationals.
Panoramic scenery on the top of St. Paul Hill. Taming Sari Tower and Holiday Inn can be seen afar.
We spent the night at Pahlawan Square, and took a ride on Taming Sari Tower beside the shopping centre. The tower is really close to the square, around 3 minutes walk from the McD side of the square. From 80 meters above the ground, we saw more than what we had expected. Click here for our day-3 trip now.
Take a look on all our sharing about Melaka:
[Top 10 Must-Do in Melaka] [All our Destinations]
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