Malacca Part 2 - Christ Church, Fort, Cheng Ho replica museum, Navy museum

Part 2 of our short getaway to Malacca in August 2012.

The town of Malacca, Malaysia, is a UNESCO Heritage Site.  It has a very rich history.  In fact, the Straits of Malacca, one of the busiest narrow bodies of water in the world, was named after Malacca.   The Straits of Malacca is a narrow, 805km (abt 500miles) stretch of water between Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra (Indonesian island).

The hotel (Casa Del Rio) we stayed in was very convenient, just a short walk away from Jonker street and all the other major tourist sights.  So we first headed to the famous Malacca church, called Christ Church.

Yes, we were in Malacca, or Melaka as how it is spelt in Malaysia.

There were other tourists.  Looked like they came here on tour coaches.

A fountain, where many tourists stopped to take photographs.

See the tourists taking photos.

Flowers blooming.

This sign is instructive.  This Church was originally built by the Dutch in 1753 as the Dutch Reformed Church.  It became Christ Church Malacca in 1838.   The Dutch ruled Malacca from 1641 to 1825, almost 183 years.  Malacca was once a very important port, however, her importance declined from the 17th Century.

Built by the Dutch in 1753 to commemorate the centenary of their occupation of Malacca!!  Wow.

After visiting the Church (couldn't take photos inside), we walked on to the nearby fort.

It wasn't much of a fort, by European standards.  Nevertheless, worth a brief look.

There's an old cannon.  Boom!

A description of the Malacca Fort.

As I said, not much of a fort.

That's Casa Del Rio, from across the river.  Very convenient location.

Another angle of Casa Del Rio.

These were our tickets to enter the Chang Ho replica ship.  Not expensive and worth a visit.

There she is.  Remember, this is a replica.

We had to walk up the stairs to get to the ship.

And we are on our way.

No Smoking.

There were many exhibits and descriptions inside the ship.  Also, they put an air-conditioning system.  So that was good.  It was getting rather hot.

Nice layout within the ship.  It was actually quite big inside.

Deck 2 plan.

Very rich in history, Malacca.

Other ships that sailed to this region.

Oooh, the Dutch?

Muskets, pistols.

Alright, we are out again.

Next, we visited this military musesum, I think it was a Navy museum. It was located within 50 to 100 M of the ship.  Might as well visit.....

A lot of weapons.

The ships of the Malaysian Navy, I think.

I liked this exhibit.  All the knots.

An exhibit showing the former Navy Chiefs.

There was this patrol boat exhibit that we could visit too.

Here we are, on the deck of this patrol craft.  The main gun looked rather menacing.

We couldn't go in.  Safer that way.

Three were these gun exhibits, but no good descriptions, so I wasn't sure where they came from or which ship they belonged to.

That was a sea mine.  Not live, I hope.

Looks like a machine gun.

To be continued in Part 3....