Magical Melaka: Melting of Cultures

By Jason Rupp and Carla Marie Rupp

Melaka is a city in Malaysia full of history which has earned its distinction of being a UNESCO heritage site. We’ve been here many times over the years and never get tired of it. It’s a lovely city of almost endless places to see special museums and delicious food everywhere! So we boarded the Pattaya airport bus to Suvanabhumi to catch a plane to Kuala Lumpur and from KL airport to Melaka, it took just two hours and cost about $6 USD on a VIP bus with big comfy seats. At about 10 pm, we arrived at a dark bus station in Melaka, where our close friend’s son Auston met us and took us to the historic Jonker Street zone, where we stayed with our friends Kim and Kong. We dropped off our suitcases at their house and proceeded to the brightly-lit and famous weekend Jonker Street Walk nearby. Here we walked the night market and ate a lot of the treats offered in each block, at the almost endless stalls.

Malaysia has three main ethnic communities: the Chinese, Indians, and the Malays and almost all of them can communicate in English. Our friends are Chinese Malaysian and took us to a lot of large Chinese food courts where you see a huge variety of ethnic foods. One we liked was Golden Food Circle. Kim and Kong also took us to late-night Chinese restaurants.Melaka offers so much great food. Several nights we even ended up at the popular Mamasita’s, located just a few steps off of Jonker Street, for Mexican food and margaritas. Also a Saturday food market near our friends’ house was a highlight of our short stay. We can also recommend a friend Pak’s restaurant near the river walk called Mumway Kitchen, with very creative, but traditional dishes. Food choices are almost endless in Melaka.

While it’s enjoyable to do a lot of walking around Melaka, our friends have a lot of bicycles so each day we cycled on long fun rides, taking a different route each evening. We would consider it one of the best cycling cities around and declared that biking was our preferred mode of transportation there.

Several evenings we parked our bicycles and got outdoor foot and leg massages, in the historic zone near the river, which start at sunset-time. Jason filmed massages here at Quayside Foot Massages for his YouTube channel Jason Rupp – Travel & Pamper. He still talks about these strong massages, and how we should have them everyday. Absolutely recommended. We both had them, and feel better for doing so. .

The Malacca River is picturesque and runs through the city, and because it can be hot during the day, it’s good to head to the river and “chill” at one of the riverside bars and cafes. The river plays an important role in Melaka’s history, used by traders who came from all over the world. We recommend travelers take a river cruise, which is well worth the $5 USD approximate price. It’s lined with little shops, cafes, restaurants, and street musicians and street art murals. This area is also surrounded by colorful “trishaws,” (the pretty buggies) with lavish ornaments, decorated kitschy by the drivers, to take tourists for rides. You can request whatever music you like from the driver when you take a ride around Melaka. 

We will also never forget doing all night outside karaoke near the historic clock tower in the Dutch museum complex area. There’s a man who actually brings all his equipment to the street and has a big following. We each got up and sang songs, three songs cost about $1. The karaoke in the midst of the old Dutch which dates back to the 1600s. You’ll find Stadthuys, known to be the oldest building in Asia, among the collection of Dutch buildings in the square. Christ Church Melaka is here along with the iconic Melaka Clock Tower.

Our friend Kong took us on our bikes to the beautiful Maritime Museum which pays homage to the city’s maritime heritage. There are a host of museums in the city. Melaka (sometimes spelled Malacca) is an historic trading port of the Dutch, Chinese, British and Portuguese.The city was occupied by the Portuguese for 130 years (1511-1641); then by the Dutch for 145 years (1641-1786); and by the British for 171 years (1786-1957). The architecture is well-preserved in the downtown area. One cannot tear these historic buildings down, but they can be modernized.This historic center is where we recommend you stay, since Melaka is a very walkable city, with lodging of every kind, and even a beautiful riverwalk promenade.

Melaka offers a vibrant multi-cultural heritage. You can still see historical influences from various cultures, not just the Dutch, British and Portuguese but also from the Chinese with many temples which can also be found in the historic old city zone.also St. Paul’s Church on the hill, where you have to be willing to walk up a lot of stairs. We have so many memories of Melaka, and we hope you like the ones we shared here. We recommend Melaka as a great getaway from Pattaya, especially since it was so easy to get to. We flew from Bangkok on Air Asia, which took about 2hrs and then another 2 hours by bus from the Kuala Lumpur airport.

Jason Rupp and Carla Marie Rupp are freelance travel journalists who enjoy sharing adventures and writing about their trips in Discover Pattaya magazine. Previous articles can still be read on the website pattayatrader.com and they enjoy getting feedback so please write to them at [email protected] and [email protected].