Once I saw the tagline, my expectation of Malacca highly increased. I knew that term from my friends. There is Malacca river that separated Malacca just like Venice had. My imagination goes through to the place, where there would be many singers on the boat to entertain tourists.
I came here twice. First, before I resigned from my first job, and the latest one, a month ago. Malacca is the comfy place, where so many tourist destination available there. Malacca itself is the name of a tree grown there told by local. Malacca is one of small town but affordable. I think we can compare to Bandung, in Indonesia.
There are some places worth to visit there :
- Jonker Street.
Jonker Street is a Chinatown of Malacca. There are so many tourism object that worth to visit. This street was built by one of body builder there, that finally make the street become one of UNESCO heritage. I really love walking on the street because of so many local food. The street reminded me of Braga Street in Bandung.
- Malacca River Cruise
Malacca is not as wide as we might think. My friends and I were walking from our apartment to visit place there because the road is not so crowded by cars. We are saved on walking. If you want to sight seeing entire town of Malacca, the best way is using boat. With the entrance ticket 20 RM for international tourist, you can see the best of Malacca for 40 minutes. I recommend to use boat at night because of the beautiful view from the lights. In 2015, I was taking boat at afternoon, but at this year, I did on the night, But, there are no singers on the boat. Boat will play some good songs and tell us the story of places that we passed by when cruising this Asian Venice.
- Stadhuys
Malacca had been colonized by Portuguese. So, there are many building relics at Portuguese period. At the area, there are church with Portuguese style, mini windmill with flower garden upfront, museum, and fortress. All the buildings are red painted. So, it make all the building one of the picture taking spot.
- Flor de la Mar
Near the Malacca River, there the ship owned by Portuguese that sink at Malacca Strait. Nowadays, the ship is adapted into museum. You need to pay 5 RMÂ to enter the museum.
When visiting Malacca, we were renting apartment near to Jonker Street. The price was really affordable since we were booking via airbnb and got discount too. When you just left Singapore and visited Malacca, you must be think that Singapore was crazy expensive starting from accommodation, food, and tourism services. I wish someday, the transportation between Indonesia and Singapore as affordable as transportation from Singapore to Malaysia to increase the value of Indonesian tourism. Maybe Indonesia think to build the bridge that connect Singapore to Batam to attract tourism. Currently, if I visit Batam from Singapore, I must pay $30. It is opposed to when I want to visit Malaysia from Singapore, I just need to pay $3.5. It is almost 10 times.
Ria Ratna Sari 