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Jonker Walk, Melaka(Malacca)
Information
A definite haven for antique collectors and bargain hunters. Authentic artifacts and relics, some dating as far back as 300 years, can be found among a host of interesting collectibles, each with its own history and mystery.
Jalan Hang Jebat, formerly known as Jonker Street, is known worldwide among serious antique collectors as one of the best places to hunt and bargain for antiques.
Recently, a new wave of cafes and craft shops have sprouted on this street, lending it a cultured air of old-meets-new.
How to get there
By Foot or Taxi
Because of Jonker Street’s very central location, it is very easy to get to and from if you are staying in Melaka.
Who to contact
For more information, please contact Jonker Walk Committee +606 � 2848282 or Tourism Malaysia Melaka Office at +606 � 288 3304 / 1549.
Accommodation Overview
Melaka has a wide range of accommodation available, from basic backpacker’s hostels to 5-star hotels.
Nearby Attractions
Travellers Review
- Traveller Reviews for Jonker Street
- Jonker Street
- TripAdvisor Traveller Rating:
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Based on 18 traveller reviews
- Most Recent Traveller Reviews:
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- 15 Jun 2011: “Buying traditional stuff for my marriage near…”
- 14 Jun 2011: “Must visit when you at Melaka”
- 13 Jun 2011: “A must go place”
- 5 Jun 2011: “enjoy the food here”
- 1 Jun 2011: “Not really special”
10 great outdoor adventures in Malaysia
- Paul Bloomfield
- Lonely Planet Author
There’s more than one Malaysia. There’s the modern, well-ordered state boasting the Petronas Towers, those twin rocket-ship behemoths in capital Kuala Lumpur. There’s bustling multicultural Malaysia, an ethnic and culinary mélange into which Malays, Chinese, Tamils and numerous indigenous groups contribute cuisines and customs. But there’s still – thankfully – wild, untamed Malaysia: jungle and reef, mountain and rainforest, river and ridge. Few countries in South-East Asia – or anywhere – match the range of opportunities for getting adventurous outdoors.
1. Dive the Semporna Archipelago, Sabah
Any spot described by scuba supremo Jacques Cousteau as ‘an untouched piece of art’ is pretty special. A submarine adventure around Sipadan – an elliptical island atop an oceanic pinnacle – takes the breath away: whale, hammerhead and reef sharks, manta rays, barracuda and turtles are regular dive buddies.
2. Surf the breaks of Cherating and Tioman Island
The swells of Indonesia to the south grab the headlines, but there’s ample action on Peninsula Malaysia’s east coast, too. Breaks around Cherating and off eastern Tioman see waves from across the South China hold five or six feet – plenty for both beginners and more-ambitious surfers.
3. Go batty in the caves of Gunung Mulu National Park, Sarawak
It’s a fine three-day trek through rainforest to the pinnacles, but the showpieces of the park are subterranean: the vast caverns, including the largest open to tourists – 2km-long Deer Cave. Come to discover what two million bats look (and smell) like.
4. Hike through the jungle of Endau-Rompin National Park
Tigers. Elephants. Tapirs. Leopards. Endangered Sumatran rhinos. They’re all here – though admittedly tricky to spot among the 870 sq km of lush lowland forest. A hike isn’t about ticking off species but, rather, camping in the primordial woodland, ducking under remote waterfalls, and watching for birdlife and monkeys.
5. Raft the Sungai Padas, Sabah
The Class I-II rapids of the Kiulu River are a mere nursery for the big adrenalin-pumper: Padas, with whitewater pushing III-IV over the 30km course. During breathers, grab the chance to gaze into the rainforest lining the river.
6. Wander among the tea plantations of Cameron Highlands
For a very English adventure – tea and strawberries: it could almost be Wimbledon – take to the trails around the hill station of Cameron Highlands. Amid the pleasingly geometric forms of the bushes of the tea plantations, stretch your legs in the cool high-level air for views of peaks and waterfalls.
7. Spot orang-utan from boat level on the Sungai Kinabatangan, Sabah
You could spot your ginger-mopped primate cousins at the rehabilitation centres of Sepilok or Semenggoh – but there’s nothing like delving into the jungle for some real wildlife-watching. Take an early morning boat ride on the Kinabatangan River for the chance of spotting shy pygmy elephants, proboscis monkeys and vivid birdlife.
8. Hike to the longhouses of the Kelabit Highlands, Sarawak
The chance to meet the indigenous inhabitants of Borneo and stay in their traditional longhouses is one of the key reasons for trekking into the steamy interior. Headhunters they may no longer be, but meetings with Borneo’s tribespeople still offer unique insights into fast-eroding cultures.
9. Snorkel the reefs of the Perhentian Islands
These almost stereotypically tropical-paradise islands off the peninsula’s north-eastern coast tempt with sand and snorkelling. From the fine beaches it’s the work of a moment to don mask, snorkel and flippers and drift over colourful coral. The islands are also a great place to learn to scuba dive, with varied sites and reasonable prices.
10. Summit Mt Kinabalu, Sabah
This huge grey lump of granite, soaring to a sharp 4,095m peak, looms large over northern Borneo; the two-day climb requires steely determination to tackle hours of solid uphill – but dawn views across to the Philippines on a clear morning offset even the most burning thighs.
Pleasures of Penang Part 1
Pleasures of Penang
Photo: Mikkel VangGuide to Penang
When to Go
Aside from the rainy season, which runs from May to September, weather in Penang is consistently sunny, with daily temperatures often around 85 degrees.
Getting There
Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific offer daily flights from New York and Los Angeles, with connections through Singapore and Hong Kong, respectively.
Stay
Great Value Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion 14 Lebuh Leith; 60-4/262-0006; cheongfatttzemansion.com; doubles from $125.
China Tiger A 19th-century merchant house and a Deco-style shop-house make up the four comfortable suites and apartments. 25 and 29 Lebuh China; 60-4/264-3580; chinatiger.info; suites from $313.
Great Value Clove Hall Edwardian bungalow with six suites that have vaulted ceilings and colonial antiques. 11 Jalan Clove Hall; 60-4/229-0818; clovehall.com; suites from $182.
Great Value Eastern & Oriental Hotel 10 Lebuh Farquhar; 60-4/222-2000; e-o-hotel.com; doubles from $217.
Great Value Shangri-La’s Rasa Syang Resort & Spa This oceanside retreat on Batu Feringghi beach, half an hour from Georgetown, is also near the Teluk Bahang Forest Reserve. Batu Feringghi; 60-4/888-8888; shangri-la.com; doubles from $248.
Great Value Straits Collection 47-55 Lorong Stewart; 60-4/263-7299; straitscollection.com.my; suites from $139.
Eat
Kopi Cine 55 Lorong Stewart; 60-4/263-7299; lunch for two $35.
Pasar Air Itam Jalan Pasar Hawker Center, Air Itam; lunch for two $5.
Perut Rumah Nyonya Cuisine Try traditional Peranakan dishes such as marinated fish in banana leaves and pork stew. 17 Jalan Kelawei; 60-4/227-9917; dinner for two $30.
See and Do
Goddess of Mercy Temple (Kuan Yin Teng) Lorong Stewart.
Khoo Kongsi 18 Medan Cannon; 60-4/261-4609; khookongsi.com.my; admission $1.60.
Pinang Peranakan Mansion 29 Lebuh Gereja; 60-4/264-2929; pinangperanakanmansion.com.my; admission $3.30.
St. George’s Church Lebuh Farquhar; 60-4/262-0202.
Penang, Malaysia has stylish hotels and some of Southeast Asia’s best street food.
From May 2011 By Guy Trebay
I had money to burn, thick wads of it, funny money colored bright orange and flaked with gold leaf.
Angling myself upwind of a ritual furnace at the gateway to the Goddess of Mercy Temple, banked in incense as thick as Newfoundland fog, I joined the crowd feeding fake loot to the tongues of flame. The offerings were, in my case, all-purpose: something for the ancestors, for living family and friends, for luck and prosperity and health, the usual stuff. But to the customary human importuning I also sneaked a silent request to the travel gods: “How soon can you get me back here?”
I was in Penang, a small island off the northwestern coast of Malaysia, half a world away from my front door. Few people of my acquaintance have heard of this lovely flyspeck, and the omission seemed more confounding the more time I spent there. Not only is Penang—or, anyway, its capital, Georgetown—so lightly touched by 21st-century modernity that you occasionally feel as if you have wandered onto a period film set, but its dense mesh of streets and cultures, its polyglot population, its infrastructure and sophisticated fusion cooking also call to mind another more celebrated island, the one I call home.
In certain ways Penang is like a Toytown version of Manhattan. An outpost of trade in an earlier era of globalization, the island leased by the British from the Sultan of Kedah—in an agreement forged by Captain Francis Light on behalf of the East India Company in 1786—once lay at the eastern extent of Britain’s imperial expansion. Briefly the most important of the British Straits Settlements, it eventually ceded that distinction to Singapore, which went on to claim an important place on the regional and world stages while Penang lapsed into a prolonged subtropical slumber.
In recent years this tiny Malaysian state has powered back into view, its fortunes revived as it transformed itself into Malaysia’s Silicon Valley. Though tourism lagged behind the boom, it is increasingly possible to find chic boutique hotels, the first stirrings of a culinary movement, and enlightened restoration projects that signal the end of Penang’s status as a secret shared only by backpackers and Malaysians who make pilgrimages there for the justifiably famous street food. But you would not necessarily notice these shifts if you happened to arrive by night, as I did, taxiing past the shadowed industrial campuses to fetch up in Georgetown beneath the porte cochère of the great white slab cake that is the venerable and deeply anachronistic Eastern & Oriental Hotel.
In the days when Penang was still an important port along global shipping lanes—a status predicated on its deep-water harbors and position in the Strait of Malacca—banking thrived there. So did trade of all kinds, most importantly in spices. One version of the origins of Penang’s name holds that it is a Malay (or possibly Tamil) word for betel nut, and starting as early as the 15th century, traders dropped anchor here to buy and sell cloves, nutmeg, star anise, bird’s nest, tin, pepper, and rubber and also, very profitably and for quite a long time, opium.
Immigrants followed, naturally, in flight from peonage and in pursuit of fortune. By the early 19th century Penang was already a mercantile, shipping, and banking center—the London–based banking powerhouse HSBC opened its first branch there in 1884—and the island’s lieutenant governor, Sir George Leith, could observe that there was probably not “any part of the world where, in so small a space, so many different people are assembled together, or so great a variety of languages spoken.”
As I read this an image rose to mind of the New York City subway, specifically the No. 7 train entering Manhattan carrying 21st-century immigrants from China, Cambodia, India, Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka—spiritual cousins of the industrious voyagers from those selfsame places who once arrived by boat in Georgetown and slowly grafted their customs, architecture, language, styles of worship and, equally important, of cooking onto the tidy little hive of a town.
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