Nanda & Nathan The Travellers: Malacca, Malaysia

December 23-24, 2014 ---- After a short time in Penang, we boarded a long-distance bus from Komtar Bus Terminal to Melaka Sentral. It took a lot longer than I had expected; we got on the bus around 9 a.m. and arrived Melaka after 6 p.m. The ride was really long, and the driver stopped for a restroom only once! No lunch stop, so you had better prepare your lunch before boarding the bus. A taxi ride between Melaka Sentral and the city center has a set price of RM20.

In Malacca we stayed very close to Jonker Walk. The day we were there was my mom's birthday, so we went to a special Baba and Nyonya restaurant located at the end of Jonker Walk. The food was fabulous, and my mom was inspired to try to make one of the dishes once she got back home. Thai and Malay food aren't much different. If you know how to cook Thai food, you can figure out the ingredients in the Malay food after a few bites. After dinner we went on a walk along Jonker Walk and at Dutch Square.

Melaka or Malacca has a long colonial history. It was just a small fishing village before the first Sultan from Singapore arrived and built the empire around 1400. In 1511 it was conquered by the Portuguese for over a hundred years. Later the Dutch defeated the Portuguese and ruled Malacca till 1798. Then the British took Melaka from the Dutch and ruled it from 1826-1946. Finally, during WWII, the Japanese controlled Melaka shortly while spreading their power through South East Asia. Because Malacca was colonized by many countries for many hundreds of years, its charm and beauty are centered around the diverse historical sites from the colonial period, and it has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008.

The next morning we had a full day to explore the city before heading to Kuala Lumpur at night. There are plenty to do and many museums to visit in Malacca, but we couldn't do everything in a single day, so we picked to visit places that we were most interested in and that were within walking distance. We visited almost every major historical site, such as Dutch Square, St. John's Fort, St. Peter's Church, Fort A Famosa and many more, but for museums, we could only go into a few.

I surprisingly enjoyed the exhibits in the Proclamation of Independence Memorial and felt like I learned a lot about Malaysia there. We also liked walking through the beautiful Sultanate Palace seeing exhibits about Sultans' lives and Malaysian dresses in different part of the country. Nathan also went to Baba Nyonya Heritage Museum while my mom and I went to Jonker Walk and did our last-minute souvenir shopping; he loved it so much that it made me regret not going in with him.

Our time in Malacca was very enjoyable and I wish I had spent more time there. If you ever make a plan to go to Malaysia, I highly recommend you to put Malacca in your must-visit list. :-)