historical Melaka

Coming from Holland, I was curious to go to Melaka to find traces from Dutch colonial history. Right in the center there is a museum, called the Stadthuys (Dutch for town hall) which illustrates the history of Melaka, a church, a cemetary and even a small windmill. Just outside the center you can find the oldest and largest Chinese cemetary outside China, located on a hill, the Bukit China. When I was there, there were no other visitors to see and I felt quite impressed walking between the hundreds of monumental tombs.

The part I liked best was Chinatown with its antique shops, temples, restaurants and karaoke bars. The day I arrived I was lucky because I walked into a film set where Indian actors were filming a dance scene on a large square. I watched them for about an hour and enjoyed their activities.

But besides its historical scenes, Melaka is a modern Asian town with a lot of activity.

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Since Melaka is not a very big town, all the places of interest can be reached easily by foot.

Melaka itself is a center of tansportation with direct bus connections to Singapore in the south, Kuala Lumpur in the north and the east coast.

Chinatown was my favourite part in Melaka. The main street here is called Jonkers walk and it is littered with antique shops. Besides the tourist souvenirs that you can find everwhere, you'll be able to find more original objects and antiques, but be sure to bring some money. I bought a nice, small Chinese porcelain figure.

There are also some shops where you can find Chinese paperware. All this paperware is normally used to sacrifice to the dead.

Besides shops, there are many temples to be found, not only Chinese, but hindu and a mosque as well.

Bukit St. Paul (St. Paul's hill) is the place where you can find Melaka's main attractions. The top of the hill is easy to reach, and from it you have a nice view of the town and the sea. At the top lie the ruins of a Portugese church which dates from the 16th century. Inside it, there are tombstones from Dutch graves. Located at the foot of the hill is, amongst others, a 17th century Dutch graveyard and the so-called Dutch square. Around this square lies a church from the 18th century, the former town hall(called Stadhuys, which nowadays houses a museum dedicated to the history of Melaka), and even a replica of a Dutch windmill. All of the buildings are painted in a brown-red colour to resemble the colour of brickstone, because most buildings in Holland are constructed of brickstone.