I don’t know why I never considered going on a day trip to Malacca before. Well, actually I had, back in 2010 but I was trying to find the best Saturday to visit and somehow the plan never materialised. It had been simply ages since I was last in Malacca, I was definitely in primary school when I last visited. It’s been too long, much too long.
So last Saturday, I finally thought the time had come to put this right. After the usual weekend exercise around the house, I left and made my way to the South Integrated Terminal at Bandar Tasik Selatan. I arrived at 10.20 am (for once, the komuter train behaved itself and was on time that day) and immediately went to the ticket counter. There was a bus out at 10.25 but it was full and two buses out at 10.30 am. I chose Mayang Sari because it had single seating on the left and bought the last seat for RM10 (seats on the other bus cost RM9.80). You can’t buy a return ticket here though.
I went down to the boarding area at the second floor and waited to board the bus. The bus came at 10.35 but as it was an executive coach seating only 27 passengers, we were already moving by 10.40 am. I read most of the way until I got sleepy and took a short nap.
We arrived at Melaka Sentral at a quarter to 12 noon and upon arrival, I went to buy the ticket back to KL as I feared the tickets would be sold out. To my surprise, I found the tickets back to KL varied from RM10 to RM12; there was even one bus bound for KL Sentral costing RM22++ (if I heard correctly). I bought a ticket from the Mayang Sari counter for the last bus at 7.30 pm.
I had read that bus no.17 goes from Melaka Sentral to the city centre so went to find it at the local bus terminal. I was quite shocked to see that the bus was old, dilapidated and not air-conditioned. Thank God it was an overcast day so it wasn’t that humid otherwise the ride would be a torture indeed. One seat’s cushion had disappeared leaving behind the steel frame. Such an eye-sore and I felt angry, annoyed and ashamed that we couldn’t even maintain the standard of our public transportation; that bus operators couldn’t afford to offer a more comfortable ride to passengers who have to rely on bus services; that in the city recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the public transportation falls short. And just because the fare was RM1 doesn’t mean that the operator has to cut corners and sacrifice on passengers’ comfort. I really don’t know why we have to put up with sub-standard products and services and think everything is all right and let all these unscrupulous providers get away with it. I don’t think it’s right for us to just grin and bear with it when we are inconvenienced such that we feel like gritting our teeth instead.
Anyway, I digress.
The ride took about 15 minutes and I got down at Dutch Square. I walked back along Jalan Laksamana to the row of shops I sighted while hanging on for dear life on the bus before returning to the Dutch Square aka Red Square. No, nothing like the Red Square in Moscow but so named because of the buildings in the square are painted red. There’s the Christ Church, the oldest Protestant church in Malaysia; the Youth Museum & Art Gallery (built in 1784 as Dutch Administrative Complex before being turned into a school (Malacca Free School). It was then renovated to be double-storey building in 1920s and later used as a post office before converted into a museum); Queen Victoria’s Fountain (built in 1901 by British to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee); the Clock Tower; and up a flight of stairs, the Stadthuys (State House in Dutch). There were many people at the square, hardly surprising as the area is one of the most picturesque spot for photo-taking. There were also the trishaws with their tacky and tasteless decorations.
I walked across to the Tourist Information Centre to ask for some directions before making my way up St Paul’s Hill to the remains of the St Paul’s Church. It started drizzling and there were quite a few tourists up there seeking shelter. Good thing I came armed with my brolly. I didn’t mind the rain as it would be unbearably hot, humid and sweltering otherwise. I spent some time at the remains of the church before making my way down to Porta de Santiago, the only part of the fortress A Famosa which still stands today. The Proclamation of Independence Memorial is just across the gate house.
After some time there, I decided to seek shelter at Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall and to perform prayers. Lunch was had at Mahkota Parade where the dining options exceeded that at the Megamall.
After all that, I walked over to Chinatown. First, I took a walk along Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock. I love old buildings, colonial buildings and ruins so I was in my elements there. I love that old buildings are cared for and preserved there instead of being torn down all in the name of development. I love that the old and the new can coexist side by side. Unfortunately the small one-way street (it isn’t a road by size, only by name) is a busy street so we had to walk either in the corridors (and risked encroaching on the occupants’ privacy) or on the road where we had to walk very close to the cars parked on either side of the road. I walked to where the street meets Jalan Kubu before turning back. I then took a side road to Jalan Hang Jebat or more famously known as Jonker Walk then took another side road to Kampong Kling Mosque and Cheng Hoon Temple, the oldest Chinese temple in Malaysia. I also sighted a lovely example of a traditional Malaccan Malay house with its colourful stairs nearby. Really, Malacca city centre really does offer fantastic photo opportunities.
I returned back to Jonker Walk and joined the evening crowd. It was not yet 6 pm so there will still vehicles on the road. I also took some other side roads and another before coming upon Hang Jebat’s tomb. This part was quieter with hardly any tourist and I was surprised when someone called out to me, ‘1Malaysia’. I gave him a weak smile before moving on.
Back at Jonker Street, I gazed into a shop selling nyonya kebaya tops and sarong and my, the prices advertised! I walked on and came upon another store. I went in and twenty minutes later found myself with not one, but two nyonya kebaya tops (!) and a brooch set. They are all hand-embroidered so they don’t come cheap. Now I had barely enough money to buy a pair of wooden clogs let alone the expensive Chinese tiffin set. By the way, in case you don’t know, nyonya kebaya are made of sheer kasa rubiah material (cotton and linen). I had worn it once before, a friend’s actually, and had the wardrobe malfunction moment. It had slipped my mind that the nyonya kebaya doesn’t have buttons and is only held in place by a set of three brooches...
Before leaving the area, I had durian cendol. I had observed that this seemed to be a specialty there (some shops had only this while other had various other types of cendol), besides Nyonya fare.
I finally left Jonker Walk and decided to check out the shops along Jalan Laksamana, entering one of the shops. To my dismay, I found that the shop that sold nyonya kebaya top at a much lower price compared to what I paid. I also discovered that the return bus ride to Melaka Sentral would take anywhere between 45-60 minutes as it would pass other parts of the city. Oh no! It was already 6.30 pm and my bus would leave in an hour.
I hurried back to the Dutch Square and asked a lady there who was also waiting for the bus. She told me the bus service is not regular, that the bus ride would take an hour and I would not be able to make my bus and suggested I asked a taxi driver across the street how much it would cost me to get to Melaka Sentral.
The bus finally came and the driver confirmed what the others had told me: the bus would take an hour before it’d reach Melaka Sentral so I had no choice but to run across the street again and take the cab. It cost RM13 after haggling.
And guess what? My bus didn’t leave on time. It only left at 7.45 pm and even then, it stopped at a Petronas station. It was a while before the driver returned – I think he went to perform prayers first. Well, I would have liked to perform prayers too had I known he would stop that long. We only finally moved at 8 and reached the South Integrated Terminal at 9.40 pm. I performed prayers there before hurrying to catch my train.
And that was my barely-half-day trip to Malacca. I have a good mind to return again although the thought of the return bus ride and riding the bus no.17 doesn’t exactly thrill me.
So last Saturday, I finally thought the time had come to put this right. After the usual weekend exercise around the house, I left and made my way to the South Integrated Terminal at Bandar Tasik Selatan. I arrived at 10.20 am (for once, the komuter train behaved itself and was on time that day) and immediately went to the ticket counter. There was a bus out at 10.25 but it was full and two buses out at 10.30 am. I chose Mayang Sari because it had single seating on the left and bought the last seat for RM10 (seats on the other bus cost RM9.80). You can’t buy a return ticket here though.
I went down to the boarding area at the second floor and waited to board the bus. The bus came at 10.35 but as it was an executive coach seating only 27 passengers, we were already moving by 10.40 am. I read most of the way until I got sleepy and took a short nap.
We arrived at Melaka Sentral at a quarter to 12 noon and upon arrival, I went to buy the ticket back to KL as I feared the tickets would be sold out. To my surprise, I found the tickets back to KL varied from RM10 to RM12; there was even one bus bound for KL Sentral costing RM22++ (if I heard correctly). I bought a ticket from the Mayang Sari counter for the last bus at 7.30 pm.
I had read that bus no.17 goes from Melaka Sentral to the city centre so went to find it at the local bus terminal. I was quite shocked to see that the bus was old, dilapidated and not air-conditioned. Thank God it was an overcast day so it wasn’t that humid otherwise the ride would be a torture indeed. One seat’s cushion had disappeared leaving behind the steel frame. Such an eye-sore and I felt angry, annoyed and ashamed that we couldn’t even maintain the standard of our public transportation; that bus operators couldn’t afford to offer a more comfortable ride to passengers who have to rely on bus services; that in the city recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the public transportation falls short. And just because the fare was RM1 doesn’t mean that the operator has to cut corners and sacrifice on passengers’ comfort. I really don’t know why we have to put up with sub-standard products and services and think everything is all right and let all these unscrupulous providers get away with it. I don’t think it’s right for us to just grin and bear with it when we are inconvenienced such that we feel like gritting our teeth instead.
Anyway, I digress.
The ride took about 15 minutes and I got down at Dutch Square. I walked back along Jalan Laksamana to the row of shops I sighted while hanging on for dear life on the bus before returning to the Dutch Square aka Red Square. No, nothing like the Red Square in Moscow but so named because of the buildings in the square are painted red. There’s the Christ Church, the oldest Protestant church in Malaysia; the Youth Museum & Art Gallery (built in 1784 as Dutch Administrative Complex before being turned into a school (Malacca Free School). It was then renovated to be double-storey building in 1920s and later used as a post office before converted into a museum); Queen Victoria’s Fountain (built in 1901 by British to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee); the Clock Tower; and up a flight of stairs, the Stadthuys (State House in Dutch). There were many people at the square, hardly surprising as the area is one of the most picturesque spot for photo-taking. There were also the trishaws with their tacky and tasteless decorations.
I walked across to the Tourist Information Centre to ask for some directions before making my way up St Paul’s Hill to the remains of the St Paul’s Church. It started drizzling and there were quite a few tourists up there seeking shelter. Good thing I came armed with my brolly. I didn’t mind the rain as it would be unbearably hot, humid and sweltering otherwise. I spent some time at the remains of the church before making my way down to Porta de Santiago, the only part of the fortress A Famosa which still stands today. The Proclamation of Independence Memorial is just across the gate house.
After some time there, I decided to seek shelter at Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall and to perform prayers. Lunch was had at Mahkota Parade where the dining options exceeded that at the Megamall.
After all that, I walked over to Chinatown. First, I took a walk along Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock. I love old buildings, colonial buildings and ruins so I was in my elements there. I love that old buildings are cared for and preserved there instead of being torn down all in the name of development. I love that the old and the new can coexist side by side. Unfortunately the small one-way street (it isn’t a road by size, only by name) is a busy street so we had to walk either in the corridors (and risked encroaching on the occupants’ privacy) or on the road where we had to walk very close to the cars parked on either side of the road. I walked to where the street meets Jalan Kubu before turning back. I then took a side road to Jalan Hang Jebat or more famously known as Jonker Walk then took another side road to Kampong Kling Mosque and Cheng Hoon Temple, the oldest Chinese temple in Malaysia. I also sighted a lovely example of a traditional Malaccan Malay house with its colourful stairs nearby. Really, Malacca city centre really does offer fantastic photo opportunities.
I returned back to Jonker Walk and joined the evening crowd. It was not yet 6 pm so there will still vehicles on the road. I also took some other side roads and another before coming upon Hang Jebat’s tomb. This part was quieter with hardly any tourist and I was surprised when someone called out to me, ‘1Malaysia’. I gave him a weak smile before moving on.
Back at Jonker Street, I gazed into a shop selling nyonya kebaya tops and sarong and my, the prices advertised! I walked on and came upon another store. I went in and twenty minutes later found myself with not one, but two nyonya kebaya tops (!) and a brooch set. They are all hand-embroidered so they don’t come cheap. Now I had barely enough money to buy a pair of wooden clogs let alone the expensive Chinese tiffin set. By the way, in case you don’t know, nyonya kebaya are made of sheer kasa rubiah material (cotton and linen). I had worn it once before, a friend’s actually, and had the wardrobe malfunction moment. It had slipped my mind that the nyonya kebaya doesn’t have buttons and is only held in place by a set of three brooches...
Before leaving the area, I had durian cendol. I had observed that this seemed to be a specialty there (some shops had only this while other had various other types of cendol), besides Nyonya fare.
I finally left Jonker Walk and decided to check out the shops along Jalan Laksamana, entering one of the shops. To my dismay, I found that the shop that sold nyonya kebaya top at a much lower price compared to what I paid. I also discovered that the return bus ride to Melaka Sentral would take anywhere between 45-60 minutes as it would pass other parts of the city. Oh no! It was already 6.30 pm and my bus would leave in an hour.
I hurried back to the Dutch Square and asked a lady there who was also waiting for the bus. She told me the bus service is not regular, that the bus ride would take an hour and I would not be able to make my bus and suggested I asked a taxi driver across the street how much it would cost me to get to Melaka Sentral.
The bus finally came and the driver confirmed what the others had told me: the bus would take an hour before it’d reach Melaka Sentral so I had no choice but to run across the street again and take the cab. It cost RM13 after haggling.
And guess what? My bus didn’t leave on time. It only left at 7.45 pm and even then, it stopped at a Petronas station. It was a while before the driver returned – I think he went to perform prayers first. Well, I would have liked to perform prayers too had I known he would stop that long. We only finally moved at 8 and reached the South Integrated Terminal at 9.40 pm. I performed prayers there before hurrying to catch my train.
And that was my barely-half-day trip to Malacca. I have a good mind to return again although the thought of the return bus ride and riding the bus no.17 doesn’t exactly thrill me.
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