Melaka

WHERE IS MELAKA?

Melaka is a coastal city in Malaysia. It is located on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is just south of the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. Melaka is a UNESCO World Heritage site due to its history, multicultural influences, and colonial architecture. Melaka is the Malaysian spelling, but you may sometimes see Malacca, the English spelling.

TRAVEL COMPANION

Laura 😊

MY FAVORITES

Jonker Street Night Market – Mamasita – BLISS 聽 Livehouse

CURRENCY

Upon exiting the airport immigration in Kuala Lumpur, I withdrew 400MYR from the nearest ATM. Currently, one USD is 4.46MYR. Here is a link to see the current conversion ratio. I used cash to pay for street food, but almost every place we visited had card machines so I never felt stressed about having enough cash on hand. I never had to take out more cash and this lasted me through Kuala Lumpur and Melaka.

BUDGET

I spent 50 USD or less a day.

TIME OF VISIT

End of December

WEATHER

77 °F - 88 °F or 25 °C - 31 °C

We felt much hotter in Melaka than in Kuala Lumpur. It was definitely more humid here.

CLOSEST MAJOR AIRPORT Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) or Melaka Airport (MKZ)

The further away you are traveling from, the more likely it is that you will arrive to Malaysia through KLIA. If you are coming from another Southeast Asian country, you may be able to fly into MKZ. If you are planning to visit Kuala Lumpur anyway, I would recommend flying in and out of KLIA. It is a much bigger airport and it is very easy to travel to and from Melaka from Kuala Lumpur.

VISA REQUIREMENTS

It is not required for United States citizens to get a tourist visa if your stay in Malaysia is under 90 days. This requirement may have changed since I have written this post, so always double check the U.S. Department of State website for the most up to date information. You will however need to complete a Malaysia Digital Arrival Card (MDAC) prior to your arrival into the country. If you are entering Malaysia via an airplane, your airline should send you a link to complete the MDAC about 3 days before your scheduled flight. If you are arriving through other transport means, you can access the link here.

TRANSPORT

Bus – Grab taxi

PACKING LIST

light and loose clothing – sunscreen – umbrella / rain jacket – swimsuit – sandals

ACCOMMODATION Ringo’s Hostel

We stayed in one of the private rooms at Ringo’s Hostel. Our favorite parts of the room were the air conditioning and the amount of space we had to spread out all of our things. The hostel did a great job of organizing events through the entire day and night. We participated in their trivia night and had a great time. They have a movie room and a rooftop space making it sociable but not disruptive to your sleep. We also appreciated the hostel’s proximity to Jonker Street as this was where we spent most of our time.

FOOD

Jonker Street Night Market – Mamasita – Family Mart

SHOPPING

Jonker Street

LANGUAGE Malay & English

Malay is spoken in Malaysia, but English is commonly understood and spoken within Melaka.

GOOGLE MAPS PINS

Here is my Google Maps link for all of Malaysia and Singapore. You can zoom in to Melaka to see only the locations around this area.

DAILY ACTIVITY BLOG

Day 1 (THURSDAY)

Laura and I arrived in Melaka from Kuala Lumpur via a two-hour bus ride. We pulled into the Melaka bus station around lunchtime, so we enjoyed a quick snack of ice cream and fries at the bus station McDonalds.

We then took a bus to go further into town so it was a quicker walk to our hostel. The bus was very easy to use and it was on time. It took us about twelve minutes to walk from where the bus dropped us off to Ringo’s Hostel. We checked in to our private room 😊 It is always a nice treat to have a private room after staying in a bunkbed hostel room for a few nights. We settled into the space and enjoyed the air conditioning for a little bit before heading back out to window shop on Jonker Street.

When it was time for dinner, we went to Mamasita, a Mexican restaurant. This meal was delicious. One of the most memorable of our entire trip. I ordered chicken nachos and Laura and I split jalapeno poppers.

After our meal, we continued our site seeing to the Dutch Square (aka Red Square) and Bastion Middleburg.

We continued walking past Bukit Melaka to Uptown Pahlawan Walk Banda Hilir for more window shopping. Around 10PM, we were exhausted, so we walked back to the hostel.

I picked up a 7/11 slurpee on the way and it was a great way to end our first day in Melaka.

Day 2 (FRIDAY)

We allowed ourselves to sleep in before heading to Family Mart for breakfast. Family Mart is a convenience store that is very well known for its snacks that you can purchase and eat inside of the establishment. I enjoyed an iced mocha coffee and a blueberry cream cheese bagel.

From here, we walked down Jalan Tukang Besi Street to visit the Cheng Hoon Teng Chinese / Buddhist temple.

We continued down this street until we reached the river. We walked along the river until we got to The Shore Sky Tower building. We took a break at the mall because we needed to cool down in the air conditioning. We found it much hotter here than in Kuala Lumpur.

After our rest, we took a bus to the Malaysia Prison Museum. Our visit here was very quick and Laura and I have been calling it “the scary museum” ever since our visit. This is mainly because of how graphic the images and videos were throughout the museum with absolutely no warning. We did not stay here very long because we were overwhelmed in a bad way.

From here, we took the bus back across town to enjoy another meal at Mamasita 😊 It was again delicious. After lunch, I went to Vanilla Crepe and enjoyed a slice of tiramisu crepe cake while Laura went back to a few places on Jonker Street to purchase some items.

We then did a few hours of shopping at the mall before going to the Jonker Street Night Market. This was the first night of the night market during the week and I am very happy we were able to experience it. I would not visit Melaka if you come on a weekday that doesn’t have the night market.

The night market was the best part of the city. Laura and I tried so many things: fried mushroom, walking tacos, loaded baked potatoes, tamulu, and mango juice. We also found a mini uno card game that is the size of my pinky finger. We each purchased one.

After filling up at the night market, we went back to the hostel to participate in trivia night. Although our team came in second place, I learned I am strangely good at identifying movie titles from scene pictures, even if I’ve never watched the movie in question.

At around midnight, Laura and I walked to BLISS 聽 Livehouse. We had the best time here! When we arrived, they had a live band playing in a language we didn’t understand, but it was fun to see how excited all of the people around us were about this group. From 1AM-3AM, the DJ played. This was my favorite part and Laura and I danced our hearts out. We even made it onto the stage at the end which was a bucket list item for me 😊 We shut the club down then took a Grab taxi back to the hostel.

Day 3 (SATURDAY)

We slept in today then packed up all of our items so we could check out of the hostel by 11AM. We again got breakfast at Family Mart. I enjoyed a white coffee and a ham and cheese croissant for breakfast. I also picked up water, Pringles, and sour Mentos (they were actually delicious) for our bus ride. Around noon, we took a taxi to the bus station and boarded our bus for Singapore at 2PM.

WHAT I DID NOT HAVE TIME / $ FOR BUT WISH I DID

Masjid Selat Melaka – The Huskitory – Encore Melaka – Kelbang Beach – Portuguese Square Restaurant