Come in the day, and chances are you’ll love the Malaysian city of Melaka. Come at night? Not so much…
The colourful trishaws of Melaka
The trishaw weaves through the narrow streets, adorned with as many flowers and spinning windmill contraptions as the driver can carry. But I hear it before I see it – the opening bars of Wind of Change by the Scorpions are blasting out at an ear-splitting level.
Melaka in Malaysia is like the pimped-upped trishaws that blunder through it – it’s a city that raises an instant smile. Within minutes of ambling through the streets of Chinatown, I’d already decided it was my favourite Asian city. Granted, that’s largely because I’ve only ever been to the huge metropoles that I can respect rather than love, but Malaysia’s historic port city has an immediate charm that only grows as you begin to explore it.
Melaka’s colonial architecture
Part of this is about preservation. Melaka has done an incredible job of keeping its colonial-era buildings alive. Portuguese, Dutch and British influences come through as much as Chinese, Indian and Malay. The pink-painted buildings around the Stadthuys carry off a complimentary uniformity that makes the sum of the parts more valuable than any one set piece. Elsewhere, it’s a glorious hodge-podge. Teak porches, pagoda-style roofs and riverfront teahouses blur into each other around religious buildings of virtually every denomination. The mosques look like temples, and the temples look like workshops until you stroll through the entrance and encounter intricate carvings and dragon overloads.
A Melaka river cruise
But another part of Melaka’s appeal comes from what has been added. The cruise up the river is well worth taking – it passes the traditional-style village of Kampung Morten, which blurs the line between genuine housing project and tourist attraction. It’s worth keeping an eye on the boardwalk running alongside the river bank too – it’s beautifully lit up at night while monitor lizards can be found taking a break from hunting during the day.
Then there’s the creative spirit. Among the long, narrow houses you never quite know what you’re going to encounter next. Peep into some and you’ll find shoemakers or woodworkers stitching and carving away, nosy through the doorway of others, and you’ll find brightly coloured fabrics and art galleries then specialists selling just honey, or pineapple tarts.
The disappointment of Melaka by night
Also present, I noted, were a healthy selection of cafés, restaurants and bars. This, I thought, was going to be the perfect place for a bar-hop later on.
But then the sun went down, and the lights went out. Melaka’s charm faded fast as it slipped under the blankets.
Some cities are day cities – Toledo, Adelaide and Vancouver spring to mind – whilst others spring to their full glory at night (Madrid, Berlin, Bangkok). Melaka, I found to my dismay whilst trying to find one of those lovely cafés from earlier that was still open, is a classic day city. I trawled for something good, and settled for something available. A bar hunt for a few post-dinner beers was similarly unsuccessful – drinking on your own at a table in an empty pub is no fun. I had, to be fair, missed the supposed ‘food street’, but that’s basically just a lane with a few restaurants along it.
I went to bed early, disheartened.
The next day, I peered out of the window at the old water wheel by the river, the huge replica wooden ship in the distance and the streets containing a wealth of curiosities. The city looked magical again. All was forgiven. But it would have been nice to not have something to forgive.
More Malaysia travel
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