Malacca, Malaysia (UNESCO Heritage Site)

[Iluvcruising2]

I am posting some information about Malacca. Some of the cruises do stop at Malacca. There is no cruise ship dock. It is a tender process and I am told that the tender boats bring you right up to near the city center. So this information about what to see near the city center should serve as a useful reference.

 

The town of Malacca, Malaysia, is a UNESCO Heritage Site. It has a very rich history. In fact, the Straits of Malacca, one of the busiest narrow bodies of water in the world, was named after Malacca. The Straits of Malacca is a narrow, 805km (abt 500miles) stretch of water between Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra (Indonesian island).

 

This graphic shows you the location of the Straits of Malacca.

 

Did you know that Malacca was first invaded and conquered by the Portugese in 1511? In 1641, it became a Dutch possession, and in 1824, the British.

 

We live in the sunny island of Singapore, which is on the Southern tip of the Malaysian peninsular. The distance by road is approximately 260km. Malaysia has a very good Highway (called the North-South Highway) that runs from the State of Johore (which is the southern most state) all the way north to the Thai border.

 

The N-S Highway makes driving a breeze and therefore it has become a fairly common family getaway for Singaporeans (who own cars) to drive to Malaysia for short holiday trips.

 

In our case, we took a short trip to Malacca to visit the historic old town. The leisurely drive took about 3.5 hours, with a break at a HIghway stop. Note that once you leave the N-S Highway, the roads into Malacca city center can get rather jammed. The distance is only 10 to 15km from the exit of the NS Highway to city center, however, this journey can take up to 1 hour.

 

After a smooth drive, we arrived at our boutique hotel, called Casa Del Rio.

 

The hotel provided a welcome snack, a local delicacy called Onde Onde. See the picture for the description. This snack is also available in Singapore.

 

The hotel had a decent Infinity pool.

 

We stayed at this hotel for 2 Nights. It was centrally located so we could get to most places on foot. We parked our car at the secured parking garage, so we didn't have to worry about the car being stolen. Yes, Malaysia does have a reputation for car theft, especially for newer cars from Singapore!

 

Some of the sites we visited included Christ Church Malacca.

 

 

I have put up the rest of my photos and descriptions of the hotel Casa Del Rio and our short visit in a 3 part blog post starting here:

 

http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/2013/12/malacca-casa-del-rio-hotel-part-1.html