DIY Walking Tour Around Melaka UNESCO World Heritage Site

 

On our second day in Melaka, we decided to make use of our remaining time before our taxi picks us up at 10:30 in the morning in the hostel. We had breakfast at the Ola Lavanderia Cafe. We decided to have big breakfast because we knew we would not be eating inside the bus during the 4-hour trip. It was also a good thing that we ate a lot because we did not expect to get stranded at the Tuas Immigration for a good four hours.

Shopping, Eats, and Night Life in Modern Melaka

I only know of Melaka (or Malacca) in my history classes as one of the most important straits for commerce. Melaka is an ancient city and my reason for visiting is it because it has been named one of UNESCO's World Heritage sites. Before stepping foot into Melaka, I envisioned old buildings, Chinese-style shophouses, and wooden houses. What I didn't realize, but later learned after an hour of reading a book on the city in the guest house where we stayed, was that Melaka is one of the states of Malaysia, and its capital city is Melaka City. So, I was quite surprised to find shopping malls selling international brands. Despite the many books, websites and blogs we can access these days, nothing can really replace real-life experience of traveling. We learn a lot.

DIY Walking Tour of Melaka's Dutch Square

Photo by Joel Lopez.

The historical portion of Melaka lies in parallel with its river. It is a small portion of Melaka City, and an even smaller portion of Melaka, the state. Melaka, according to Malaysia's tourism website, is the heart of the nation. We were in Melaka for its heritage and culture, and taking a DIY walking tour was an easy feat as it is very doable. When we arrived at Layang-Layang Hostel, the attendant gave us a "welcome kit." The welcome kit was a printed map of all the places to eat in Melaka, keys to the hostel, instructions on how to rent their bikes, and tidbit that there is a free walking tour in the city every Thursdays every Thursday at 9AM and 1PM, which will run for at least 3 hours each tour. All you need to do is show up at the tourism office, at the Red Square, before the designated time and sign up for the tour. If you can't avail of the tour, a DIY tour is easy to achieve because the historical portion of the city is not that big but I think a more knowledgeable tour guide would have made our tour fun, interesting, and insightful.

Where to Stay in Melaka: Layang-Layang Guesthouse

Layang-layang Guesthouse was one of the many gems I found in Melaka. This was my first time to book with AirBnB, and my first time was great! The search in AirBnB started when I could not find a good hotel in the city that was within our budget, which was P500 to P600 per night per person. I settled with Layang-layang among the numerous options because I liked their photographs in the AirBnB web site.

How to Get There: Bus Ride to Melaka

Our side-trip to Melaka started early on our third day. We left Pasir Ris at 6AM, which in Singapore time, is still dark, and arrived at the Golden Mile Tower at about 6:30AM. There are two buildings there. The more popular one is the Golden Mile Complex, which was where our taxi driver brought us. The Golden Mile Tower is just next to the complex. When we arrived, there were a few people waiting for buses. I thought Golden Mile Tower was a bus station. It isn't. It's just a building and passengers just wait outside for their buses. There are no seats. When we arrived, I went inside to the Starmart Express office to have our tickets validated. It is easy to spot your bus because there is a name + number. While waiting for our bus, we decided to buy breakfast at Coco Eatery, which was the only stall opened that time.

8 Days in Singapore + Melaka for P34,000

2016 was a good year for me. It was the year my husband and I went on our first international flight and the first time my siblings, my husband and I went on a trip together. How did it go? It was fun with a lot of walks. I joked that the Singapore trip will cripple me. Hahaha. Our trip was not budget travelling nor was it a luxury trip. It was what I call an affordable trip. So, I’m going to share our expenses, planning, and itinerary, some tips and tricks we did to save few pesos (and SG dollars and ringgits), and a few lessons learned from the trip.