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When you are thinking of a short trip to Malacca, either to visit historical sites or to get your fill of Sate Celup, you may want to consider renting a house. ‘What?’, I hear you asked, ‘A house for a one day trip?’. Well, yeah… especially if it’s a family-style trip.

Forget about getting multiple rooms with connecting door and meeting up at the lobby or reception area; get comfy at One Residence. It’s basically a row of double-storey linked houses that you can rent for short periods or long durations.

And what you get is a fully-furnished house with four rooms, four bathrooms, a living room, dining area and a small kitchen. Just move in with your luggage and you are set to tour Malacca. You can bring along food supplies if you fancy cooking your own meals or do like we did, walk and eat around Malacca.

The master bedroom, living room and dining area

Upon arrival, we first headed to Hang Li Po’s well for a taste of history. A short recap – Hang Li Po was allegedly the Chinese princess sent to marry the Malaccan sultan as a sign of friendship between China and the Malaccan sultanate. And being a princess, she comes prepared with her own royal entourage (hand-maidens, guards, hairdresser, makeup artist – I made up the last two). The whole lot of them settled in Bukit Cina (hence, the name) and assimilated into the local population resulting in the Peranakan culture.

The Hang Li Po well with a sign explaining its significance

The well was built by the Sultan (Sultan Mansur Shah) for his wife and legend has it that it has never dried up.  Sadly, the well fell into disrepair during the British colonial period. Today, when you visit the well, you will find it covered up with a steel grill. Perhaps to avoid litterbugs from chucking their rubbish down a piece of history.

After that, we made our way to lunch. Deciding on Famose Chicken Rice ball, we had to park some distance away and walked towards Jonker Street where it’s located. We passed by the Malacca River and if only it wasn’t so hot then, we would have hopped on the boat for a cruise. Priced at RM10, I have been told by my colleague that it’s quite enjoyable.

The view along the Malacca River

The boat for the River Cruise

We also passed by Stadhuys House where there are tons of tourists taking pictures and buying souvenirs.  Then, we have arrived.

The main dining area with the drinks counter, courtyard of the restaurant with bamboo plants


What the restaurant offers
Costumes and the throne

We ordered bean sprouts, roast pork, roast chicken, boay chai and of course, the rice balls. For refreshments, I had a bowl of menthol jelly and I really enjoyed that. It was refreshing and cooling although I hope it’s not guilinggao made of an actual tortoise or turtle.

The meal was enjoyable enough and not too pricey but perhaps the food was not enough to pull in the crowd. The restaurant also has a throne and for RM5, you can rent costumes so that you can pretend to be an emperor or a concubine.

Feeling refreshed after the meal, we explored Jonker Street where we found an old man selling nunchucks and other replicas made of wood like samurai sword and broadsword. I find the old man friendly as he cheerfully asked passersby to look at his wares and pose for pictures with a ‘weapon’ of their choice. There was even one modelled after the sword carried by the anime character ‘Bleach’.

We stumbled upon  Kampung Ketek where old wooden houses were restored by the government and then opened to public even as the owners continue staying in them. A chat with the owner, a friendly makcik, revealed that the houses there were quite old and worn before the restoration. Now, the houses look spanking new and the families continue to take good care of them while welcoming tourists in.

Kampung house at Kampung Ketek

Then it was time for a little siesta so we headed back to our house for the weekend.

Come dinnertime, we set out and this time headed to the Portuguese Settlement where we dined at Restaurante San Pedro.  Located in Aranjo Road, I find the facade quite eye-catching but was a bit perplexed to find that our group were the only diners there.

Luckily, this was not because the food was awful but being Saturday night, I was expecting more people. We had baked fish, fried sotong, honey fried chicken, fried brinjal, devil curry, Portuguese style prawns and prawns in assam sauce.

Dinner at San Pedro

Although a hearty meal, I guess I expected a bit more since a few bloggers mentioned the food being yummy and all. Overall, it was ok but I would want the curry to be spicier, the honey fried chicken sweeter and the assam prawns a tad more ‘assam-ish’.

Then it’s off to Jonker Street again where it gets a new lease of life as stalls set up along the roads and you have the street performers doing their thing. There was a French guy blowing a didgeridoo to fund his trip around Asia and singers belting out golden oldies for small change.

Not sure if it’s a weekly event but there was also a big stage with people going up to sing. It could be a singing competition for the senior citizens but we didn’t stick around to see. Mission then was to shop in the cool night air.

Jonker Street at night with all kinds of items for sale

So what did we get? T-shirts galore, a magic wallet (which I now find out is also available in Kulim), jam tarts, packs of sotong bakar, kuihs and other food stuff.

The next day, after another visit to Jonker Street for breakfast and more cendol, we headed back.

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