We boarded the 10:30 am bus from KL to Malacca at platform 18 of Pudu bus station of Kuala Lumpur.
Adult Rm.9.40
Child Rm 4.7

At 2:00 PM we ended our bus journeys at Malacca City's Melaka Sentral bus terminal. This new bus terminal located in the suburb of Bandar Peringgit 3km (15 minutes) from old Malacca town. This terminal is Melaka’s transportation hub connecting interstate buses and taxis services.

This new terminal is beautiful.

In this photo at left, the indoor is brightly lighted blue color by abundant of natural sunlight from the roof top. A great contrary to the dark dull (and dirty) bus terminals in other Malaysian towns.

And it is fully air-conditioned !!!!!

This new Malacca Sentral Bus Terminal cost RM28.4 million completed only in 2004. This is the First Air-conditioned bus terminal in Malaysia.
Opposite the terminal is the famous hypermarket Tesco store located in Jalan Tun Razak.

This terminal unique design is a spacious single-storey building with high roof and skylights, which let in plenty of light and air as you can see in above photo.

There are 2 separate wings, one is for taxis services and the other is for buses. Each wing has a central courtyard, with a tropical, landscaped garden. You can also find plenty of cafes, restaurants and fast food outlets as well as retail outlets for the convenience of travelers. An Information Counter is located between the wings.

Melaka Sentral is made up of three main components:
1) the bus and taxi terminals in the main building,
2) a wet and dry market, and
3) a bazaar outside the building.

After paying a brief visit to the clean and cool public toilet, We picked a local Malay taxi driver and get to Heritage Hotel.

We put up at EASTERN HERITAGE, a guest house operated for almost 20 years, in Jalan Bukit China. A quiet place, shared bathroom and shared toilet is clean.

In a quiet corner in Little India. A rundown shop building. Bare bedrooms with a fan. Shared bathroom . But fine for the money.
Wooden floors and high rooms. Toilet, shower and other facilities are basic
As soon as we put down our luggage we started to explore Malacca. I am not familiar with Malacca, the last time I came was a day trip in 1985 following a few friends.

As we walked through the old streets and back lane of Malacca, old memories of Kuching Town came afresh to my mind.
 

Red buildings from the Dutch era

31 Jalan Temenggong, Melaka

On the way to Christ Church the rickshaw driver drove us pass a row of red shop buildings along Jalan Laksamana.

These red buildings here are from the Dutch era. Malacca is in many ways the birthplace of Malaysia. It has been preserved in a way that its ancient past co-exists with today's modernity.

This older part of the city proper area has the old palace and the large buildings left by the Europeans, many private houses and shops from nearly 100 years or more ago put up by Chinese traders.

Many of these have beautiful details such as molded porcelain tiles and painted plaster on the front. Unfortunately, these old building tend to be not well preserved in its original form.

Red

The local authority decided to paint all the buildings in the historical district a bright brick red in the earlt 2000's  just to match with the color of Christ Church and The Stadthuys.

The historic red-colored shop houses along Jalan Laksamana and the Melaka River runs parallel to this road.

These red buildings are a reminder of the Dutch influence. Most of the buildings in the historic quarters dated from the Dutch period, 1641-1795 including the Christ Church and the Stadthuys.

Note, however, that the red-color so synonymous with the Dutch buildings was not commonplace until much later, during the 20th century, when the Dutch had long left Malacca.

Not far from these red-shop houses is the St. Francis Xavier church, another historical building built by a Spanish missionary in 1849.
 

Christ Church
One of the sought after tourist destinations.

This oldest church and the Stadhuys next to each other are two of the most prominent structures still functional today in Malacca.

Christ Church was built in 1753 by Dutch as the oldest Protestant church in Malaysia.

Last Supper painting made of glazed tiles is visibly over the altar inside the church. The ceiling in the church is the most notable feature, whereby the beams over 15 meters long each was made from a single tree!

On the right hand side of Christ Church is the Stadthuys.

On the left hand side of Christ Church (view blocked by the big tree) is Malaysia Youth Museum & Art Gallery. Built in 1784 as Dutch Administrative Complex. In 1826, it was turned into a school (Malacca Free School). In 1920s, the building was renovated to be double-storey building and later used as a post office before converting into museum as what we see today.

On the left side of Youth Museum & Art Gallery is Laksamana Road where we came with the Rickshaw.

More on Christ Church