Hidden Gems and Local Secrets in Malacca
Part of the Malacca travel guide — see every topic in All Malacca Guides.
Malacca's visitors concentrate almost entirely on a few hundred metres of Jonker Street and the Dutch square, and step outside that and the city empties immediately. What is out there: the Chitty community's village, largely unknown even to Malaysians; Bukit China, one of the largest Chinese cemeteries outside China; the Malay kampung on the river; and the food streets in the newer parts of town where locals actually eat, which are consistently better and half the price of Jonker Street.
Kampung Chitty
The Chitty are Tamil traders who settled in Malacca from the fifteenth century, married locally and, like the Peranakan Chinese, developed a hybrid culture — Hindu in religion, Malay in language and dress, with their own cuisine and festivals. Their village at Gajah Berang, a few kilometres from the centre, has a small museum, temples and around a hundred families remaining, and it is one of the least-known distinct communities in Malaysia. The Chitty museum is small, cheap and almost never visited.
Bukit China
A hill of about twenty-five hectares north-east of the centre, holding over twelve thousand Chinese graves, some dating to the Ming period, and reputedly the largest Chinese cemetery outside China. It was granted to the Chinese community in the fifteenth century according to tradition, and it has survived repeated development pressure. Locals walk and exercise on it at dawn. At its foot is the Poh San Teng temple and the Sultan's Well, said to date from the sultanate period. It is free, quiet and genuinely atmospheric in early morning light.
Where locals eat
Jonker Street is the visitor food street; Malaysians eat elsewhere. Jalan Bunga Raya and the Bachang area have long-running Chinese coffee shops. Ujong Pasir and the Portuguese Settlement do seafood. The satay celup places on Jalan Ong Kim Wee are the local originals. Klebang's coconut shake stall generates queues of Malaysian day trippers. And Muar, forty-five minutes south, is a food pilgrimage in its own right for otak-otak and satay. All are cheaper and better than the equivalent on Jonker.
Other overlooked things
The Villa Sentosa house museum at Kampung Morten, run by the family that lives in it, is a warm and personal introduction to Malay domestic life and is nothing like a state museum. St John's Fort, a small Dutch redoubt on a hill east of the centre, has a view and no visitors. The Hang Tuah mausoleum and the Malay villages inland. And the fireflies at Kampung Kuala Linggi, forty-five minutes north-west, which are the best natural spectacle near Malacca and which almost no foreign visitor does.
Hidden Gems and Local Secrets at a glance
| Least-known community | Kampung Chitty — Tamil Peranakan, Gajah Berang |
|---|---|
| Biggest Chinese cemetery outside China | Bukit China, ~25 ha, 12,000+ graves |
| Where locals eat | Jalan Bunga Raya, Bachang, Ujong Pasir |
| Best house museum | Villa Sentosa, Kampung Morten — family-run |
| Empty fort | St John's Fort, on a hill east of the centre |
| Best evening trip | Fireflies at Kampung Kuala Linggi |