MELAKA TENGAH

 

Overview

Central Malacca District, known in Malay as Melaka Tengah, is a district of Malacca state situated along the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia facing the Straits of Malacca. It houses the capital of the state, Malacca City. Along with the capital Ayer Keroh and Besar Island hold all the major tourist attractions.

Its administrative divisions include 29 subdivisions (mukim), 44 towns and 95 villages. The main contributor towards its economy are industries in the ten industrial areas followed by tourism and agriculture of rubber, palm oil and rice.

Places of Attraction

Every major city in the world has a museum to display their respective history and heritage. But aside from the astoundingly high number of museums what truly makes Malaccan museums special is that it is an eclectic assemblage of unusual museums that include Aborigines Museum, Baba Nyonya Heritage Museum, Beauty Museum, Malacca Al-Qur'an Museum, Kite Museum, Malacca Stamp Museum, Royal Malaysian Navy Museum, Toy Museum and World's Bees Museum.

The Aborigines Museum building itself is designed as a replica of natives houses and showcases the heritage and lifestyle of native Malaysians. Beauty Museum exhibits the various concepts accepted as beauty and methods used around the world to enhance physical beauty such as lip stretching and head molding. Kite Museum displays the various uses of kites throughout history, variations of kite making in different countries and a Wau Gallery. Royal Malaysian Navy Museum displays salvaged remains of capsized ships and various military equipment. World's Bees Museum displays 250 different specimens of bee hives and hornet nests, a bee man show and bee keeping.

Coral Wonderland Malacca has the country's longest coral aquarium and Asia's longest interactive touch pool housing over a 1,000 species of marine fish and corals, including clown fish, star fish, sea anemone, sea horses and sharks. Melaka Bird Park is a massive open aviary bird park hosting about 700 native bird species that can be observed from a canopy walk in a setting of natural greens. The Stadthuys is a massive terracotta red building that was once the official residence of Dutch governors and is today believed to be the oldest Dutch building in the East. It features Dutch colonial architecture and exhibits the city's rich history throughout various occupations. A'Famosa is a 16^th century fort built by the Portuguese and captured by Dutch and British as well. Jonker Street is best experienced as the vibrant weekend night market which offers all manner of goods spread over many stalls.

Accessibility and Transportation

Melaka Tengah is accessible via Federal Route 19 and Federal Route 5. From Kuala Lumpur it takes a little over an hour and a half to reach Malacca via North-South Expressway Northern Route.