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48 HOURS PM: Melaka is renowned for its “hawker” street food
IN MELAKA culture, with the most famous dish being the “World-
Famous Chicken Rice Ball”. Fish wrapped in pandanus
Louise Sneddon of Explore magazine finds that the historic city leaves and of course the renowned satay dishes are
of Melaka is the stuff that legends are made of. also great, and incredibly cheap. Jonker Street is the
starting-point for a street food and cultural experience
DAY ONE but do venture a little into the side streets where you
AM: Once one of the most important ports in the will find many family-owned restaurants and cafes
world and now extensively protected as a UNESCO which are great places to watch the world go by.
World Heritage Site, the Malaysian city of Melaka has Although everything is within an easy walk, we took
a fabulous collection of architecture, monuments, a super-fun, albeit garishly-decorated “Hello Kitty”
churches and stories from its centuries of trading trishaw to get to Jonker Street, which added to the
activity on the Straits of Malacca. experience. Our trishaw driver, who has been pedalling
On an early-morning walk along the riverside I was for nearly four decades, also took us to points of
thrilled by the eclectic mix of European and Chinese interest that included Malaysia’s oldest mosque, and
influences. Once dubbed the “Venice of the East”, a Chinese temple which was in all its glory during the
the main river canal is flanked by muralled houses, Chinese New Year celebrations.
boutique hotels, bars and eateries. It is a great place for In the evening I attended a corporate function at
getting the measure of the town and planning where to The Shore Sky Tower Melaka, adjacent to the Shore
go next. Shopping Centre and the Swiss Gardens Hotel and
Residences. The function venue was 42 floors up on an
open rooftop with panoramic views across the city to
the Straits of Melaka. The glass-bottomed Sky Walk is
not for the faint-hearted but it is exhilarating and makes
for the best selfies in the region!
On the floor beneath is the Sky Deli and Bar which
serves great cocktails and a locally-inspired à la carte
menu alongside Western options and bar snacks.
Decorated in contemporary plantation style, the Sky
Deli and Bar is a must-do!
DAY TWO PM: The sight of the riverboat cruises going up and
AM: I enjoyed morning coffee at a Spanish-style tapas bar down the river was too much to resist so we boarded
next to the Swiss Garden Hotel, then joined a walking a riverboat cruise for a different perspective and more
tour of the UNESCO World Heritage part of the city. We stories about this town which comes alive at night. The
met our guide in the town square, also known as Dutch old murals on the side of the houses and restaurants
Square. From here we proceeded to see the “oldest” of are floodlit after dark and the trishaws are resplendent
everything in Malaysia and many incredibly preserved and no doubt traffic-safe in their night lights of fluoro-
buildings and churches that are testimony to those who pinks, greens and blues.
came before. We ended the evening by wandering along the
St Paul’s Hill and the statue of St Francis Xavier added riverbanks and popping in and out of the many small
another dimension to this historic walk, with even the bars and eateries along the way. And we stopped for
hill itself hiding some secrets and many, many stories. one of the great pleasures of this place: watching the
Portugese tombstones revealed more of the history of world cruise by.
the region, while others were legacies of great explorers
and persons of note who travelled from the farthest
corners of the globe to seek their fortune in this mecca
of trading. This place really does evoke a sense of
stepping back in time to the era of galleons, pirates and
yes, much treasure!
HELLOWORLD : EXPLORE : WINTER EDITION
