MALAYSIA
PENINSULAR MALAYSIA – WEST COAST •• Melaka lonelyplanet.comMONEY
Money changers are scattered about town,
especially near the guest houses off Jln TMR
and Chinatown.
HSBC (Jln Hang Tuah) With 24-hour ATMs that accept
international cards.POST & TELEPHONE
Post office (Jln Laksamana) This small post office can be
found off Town Sq.TOURIST INFORMATION
Tourism Malaysia (%283 6220; h9am-10pm) At the
Menara Taming Sari; has very knowledgeable, helpful staff.
Tourism Melaka (%281 4803, 1800 889 483; www
.melaka.gov.my; Jln Kota; h9am-1pm & 2-5.30pm)Sights
TOWN SQUARE & BUKIT ST PAUL
The most imposing relic of the Dutch period
in Melaka is Stadthuys ( Town Sq; adult RM5; h9am-
5.30pm Sat-Thu, 9am-12.15pm & 2.45-5.30pm Fri), the mas-
sive red town hall and governors’ residence.
Believed to be the oldest Dutch building in the
East, it now houses the Historical, Ethnographic
& Literature Museums, which are included in the
price of admission and exhaustively recounts
Malaysian history and literary development.
Facing the square is the bright-red Christ
Church (1753).
From Stadthuys, steps lead up Bukit St
Paul, which is a hill topped by the ruins of St
Paul’s Church, built in 1521 by a Portuguese sea
captain, and overlooking the famous Straits
of Melaka.
A quick photo stop, Porta de Santiago was
built by the Portuguese as a fortress in 1511.
The Dutch were busy destroying the majority
of the fort when Sir Stamford Raffles came byin 1810 and saved what remains today. Look
for the ‘VOC’ inscription of the Dutch East
India Company on the arch.
Within the park across from Jln Kota you
won’t be able to miss the 80m-high Menara
Taming Sari (adult/child RM20/10; h10am-10pm), a
revolving tower that’s a bit tourist-tacky, but
is the most fun way to get great views over
the city.
Way out at the Sungai Melaka river
mouth is yet another means to check out the
view, Eye on Malaysia, Melaka (adult/child RM20/10;
h10am-11pm Mon-Thu, 10am-midnight Fri & Sat), a giant
gondola-style Ferris wheel that spins very
slowly for about 20 minutes. At the time of
writing several very big cinema and perform-
ance attractions, to be housed next the Ferris
wheel, were in the planning stages.CHINATOWN
Chinatown is the heart of Melaka. Stroll along
Jln Tun Tan Cheng Lock, formerly called Heeren St,
which was the preferred address for wealthy
Baba (Straits-born Chinese) traders who were
most active during the early 20th century. The
centre street of Chinatown is Jln Hang Jebat, for-
merly known as Jonker St (or Junk St Melaka),
which was once famed for its antique shops
but is now more of a collection of clothing
and crafts outlets and restaurants. On Friday
and Saturday nights the street is transformed
into the Jonker’s Night Market, a lively market of
food and trinket stalls. The northern section
of quiet Jln Tukang (also known as Harmony St)
has a handful of authentic Chinese shops.
The 18th-century Dutch-period 8 Heeren
Street (admission free; h11am-4pm Tue-Sat) was re-
stored as a model conservation project and
exploring the house lets you imagine what life
would have been like inside its walls over the
centuries. You can also pick up an Endangered
Trades: A Walking Tour of Malacca’s Living
Heritage (RM5) booklet and map for an excel-
lent self-guided tour of the city centre.
Just down the street is the Baba-Nonya
Heritage Museum (%283 1273; 48-50 Jln Tun Tan Cheng
Lock; adult RM8; h10am-12.30pm & 2-4.30pm Wed-Mon),
a captivating museum of the Nonya culture
set in a traditional Peranakan town house
in Chinatown.
Cheng Hoon Teng (Qing Yun Ting, Green Clouds Temple;
Jln Tukang) is Chinatown’s most famous tem-
ple, dating back to 1646. It’s Malaysia’s oldest
Chinese temple and all materials used in its
building were imported from China.PAINTING THE TOWN RED
We can thank the British for Town Sq’s
Golden Gate Bridge–red paint job; they
brightened it up from a sombre Dutch white
in 1911. Lots of theories have been pro-
posed as to why the buildings were painted
this colour; the most likely is that the red la-
terite stone used to build Stadthuys showed
through the whitewashed plastering, and/
or heavy tropical rain splashed red soil up
the white walls – the thrifty Brits decided
to paint it all red to save on maintenance
costs.452