High Tea at the Hotel Majestic Melaka

On the way back to KL, we drove to the Portuguese Settlement at Bandar Hilir. Pakdokter must say that the road-signage to the place was poor and we had a lot of difficulty locating the place. And having found the place - it was quite a disappointment actually - for there was nothing unique or special about the place. It could easily just be like in any corner of 'old PJ' or 'old Pasar Road' of KL. Perhaps only if one visited the place during one of the Portuguese's festivals that one would witness something different about this settlement.

In the end we decided to make a stop at the YTL Hotel Majestic on our way out of Melaka. This high end hotel was indeed 'majestic'. We decided to treat ourselves to its 'high tea' which turned out to be an 'over-indulgence'........

Chicken Rice Lunch

The 'locals' we asked recommended 2 shops along Jonker Street famous for their chicken rice - but the queues were so long that we gave up our plans to try them out. Instead we settled for the Famosa Chicken Rice shop - another chicken rice shop which was big and had no queue to join as it had so many tables in the big space of the shop.

succulent steamed chicken...

rice balls ( white) and yam balls ( brown)..

ice kacang is great on a hot and humid day...

kailan with kicap and garlic...

The Badan Warisan Malaysia Restored Shophouse

The Badan Warisan Malaysia was donated this old shophouse which belonged to the Cheng Hoong Teng Temple. The organistation carried out a restoration project and research into this shophouse and a visit to this show-case site is highly recommended. The guide on-site, Mr Colin Goh, was a retired governement clerk - and listening to him during the tour - pakdokter could not help being extremely impressed and proud at his passion on the history of his 'hometown'. He spoke excellent English - and pakdokter learnt so much from him about the designs of the Dutch buildings, of how the folks on those days lived etc etc.

This shophouse could be visited for free - any amount of donation would be welcomed to support the works of the Badan Warisan. Pakdokter also bought 5 books on Melaka there - books that have escaped pakdokter's notice at the bookshops - but of course have now become very significant after this visit to Melaka.

the building may look bare...

but with Mr Colin Goh, history became 'alive' in this house....

The Jonker Bird House

We saw the Jonker Bird House on the first day and found time that last day ( Sunday morning) to visit and tour the house. It was just opened about a month or so ago. It used to be a dilapidated and neglected old shophouse which became the home of swiflets which nest there. An enterprising 'Pepper King' from Sarawak saw the potential and pakdokter was told that he bought the property for about RM2 million - spent another RM4 million to renovate and rehabilitate the place and has now opened the site as a tourist attraction as well as running the shop as a lucrative 'bird-house' which gave him regular supplies of the expensive 'bird's nests' which to many people is a delicacy and a health-food.

The Jonker Bird House is open to visitors for a fee of RM10 each person.

this old Portuguese dug-out well inside the shop is rectangular in shape

in comparison, the Dutch well is rounded....

the Dutch well was seen in the Badan Warisan restored shophouse..

this "bird-house" has about 160 swiflets nesting there..

various stages of the bird's nests on display...

a small workshop cum factory where a dozen or so

girls cleaned the birds' nests.....

a packet of 2 nests costs RM160.....

artisans from China were employed to restore some of these walls...

roof-top view of Hereen and Jonker Streets from the Bird Shop...

Jonkers Street by Night

Come weekends - Jonker Street would be closed to traffic and turned into a 'pasar malam'. What a difference it was compared to the first ( Thursday) night when pakdokter first arrived here.

alfresco dining...

Dinner at the Diana's Cafe

For dinner, we tried out a restaurant recommended by some friends from Melaka. Diana's Cafe was a Nyonya Restaurant - and we tried out some different Nyonya dishes which included a chicken buah keluak curry, prawns sambal with petai etc. For some reasons, pakdokter did not have photographs of the dishes. The chicken curry with buah keluak was a first for pakdokter. The buah keluak was a fruit with a very hard black shell and its content was of a soft black flesh with a sour taste.

Melaka 16 : Makam Hang Kasturi

Hang Kasturi - one of the 5 famed warriors of historical Melaka - was buried on a small plot along Jonker Street.

Melaka 15 : Kampong Melayu and the Cheng Hong Teng Temple

Further up the street where the Masjid kampong Keling was located - there was this restored little Malay kampong with a few typical Melaka Malay house. And next to this village was the oldest Chinese Temple in Melaka - the Cheng Hoong Teng Temple.

the Cheng Hoong Teng temple

a newer temple in front of the Cheng Hoong Teng temple

Melaka 14 : Masjid Kampung Keling

Just off the middle of Jonker Street - pakdokter came across this old mosque dating back to the 17th Century. As pakdokter was not properly attired - pakdokter could only take some photographs from the outside.

Melaka 13 : Jonker Street in the Day

Having done the two museums with Rastam, pakdokter decided to go back and walk up the Jonker Street. There was more 'life' and activities compared to what it was like at 9pm the night before.

Jonker Street seen from the top floor of the Cheng Ho Museum

the southern end of Jonker Street

and the opposite end of Jonker Street...

this old shop now housed a cafe....