Melaka and George Town

In my opinion, the twinning of these two places into one WHS was brilliant as together, they present a coherent historical narrative of colonial development in the region. The architecture and artefacts in both cities are testament to a culture and townscape resulting from a blend of external influences (European and Asian) on local conditions. Each site has its own lovely ensemble of fabled historical buildings and old streets, telling the story of colonialism in this part of the world.

I had been asked which one would I recommend a tourist short on time to visit; honestly, I am incapable of answering the question. Once there, both cities are lovely and easy, comfortable places to visit, with their respective WHS zones conveniently covered on foot. They also have no shortage of amenities for tourists and visitors. In both George Town and Melaka, I would recommend at least an overnight stay to get a good feel of both places over the course of a day.

This site hasn’t been reviewed in 10 years, so it can use a refreshment. Not that I think that it has changed much over the past years. I visited Melaka already in 2009 but left it til 2023 to add George Town. After having just arrived from bustling Thailand, George Town seemed to be in a post-Covid tourism dip and there wasn’t a lot going on (it also was a Malaysian school holiday period). Still, it grew on me and it is worth a day or two.

I stayed in the heart of Little India – it might as well be called ‘Very India’, for the numerous shabby-looking (but excellently tasting) Indian restaurants, the sari- and gold bangle shops. My hotel – the Ren I Tang Heritage Inn – was a wonderful 19th-century townhouse in the “Early Straits Eclectic Style”, and a former Chinese Medical Hall.

My explorations (all done on foot) brought me first to the monuments from the British colonial period. This still seems to be the business and political center of the city. Several historic buildings remain, most of them stark white in colour. ‘Around the corner’ there are the remains of the British East India Company’s Fort Cornwallis; I didn’t go in as I found the entrance fee of 40 ringgit too high.

I then followed the coastline, with good views of the Penang Strait and the city of Butterworth, at which I had arrived by train on my way down from …

As much as there isn't much noise being made about George Town, and that unanimous praises are given to Melaka, I was surprised to find out that the former component would be the highlight of this inscription. The character of George Town is more presentable, in my opinion. I visited the two historic cities last May to finish off the list of current Malaysian WHS.

Melaka has a rich history, its role in regional trade cannot be underestimated. Sadly, I think that its current condition, however, does not live up to it anymore. Without knowing its past, the town simply looks like any other Chinese-Malay town (can be akin to Hat Yai, in fact). The city's important monuments - representing various cultures and periods in its colonial era - can easily be explored in a day, on foot. We started off in the residential/commercial portion of the inscribed site, across the bridge over Melaka River, and nothing really stood out. The Street of Harmony is nice, but is not as spectacular compared to that of George Town. Jonker Street was a bit sober and empty then as it was post-election time and most shops were closed, in protest against the recent results. The spirit of Jonker Street, nevertheless, went to life when I visited some of the shop houses, learning some few things from store-keepers about the items that they sell - that made me feel that I was truly in a multi-cultural trading town.

The Red Square is small, …

I visited Penang this March. My best impression actually is about two Buddhist temples within the urban area but probably even outside the buffer zone -- the Burmese and Thai Buddhist temples just facing each other across a narrow street. They especially endear me because their presence in Penang add significant claims to this place being a crossroad, not just for the main ethnic groups in today's Malaysia and the country's former colonial rulers, but show Penang as the meeting point of continental and archipelago South East Asia, as where the majority Buddhist and majority Islam zones touch.

Melaka has been compared to Macao, Hoi An and Galle. But I would like to throw in another comparison: Ping Yao. Melaka's contemporary feel is very Chinese. And the hundreds of shops, residences and temples did remind me of the Chinese WH town. It also seems to attract a lot of Chinese tourists (though they might be native to Malaysia or Singapore).

The best-known view of Melaka however is that of "Dutch Square", with its Town Hall (Stadthuys), Clock Tower and Church. They don't look very Dutch to me, probably because they (the Brits, the Malaysians) have repainted them with red paint. No sober Dutch would ever do that.

A couple more Dutch remnants can be found a little uphill, at St. Paul's Church. They are mostly tombstones of 17th-century Dutch citizens.

So what's the verdict on Melaka? In general, it's nice enough. But there's no real highlight here. During my 1.5-day stay, I strolled through town a couple of times and spent half a day on a recommended bike tour to the surrounding countryside.

Melaka historic centre is basically a very small area covering with many redish buildings in one part before crossing the bridge, and more 'historic - old' buildings on the other side of the bridge.

The combination of west vs east culture is very pronounce. And some holy places from different believes standing side by side tells us even more on how rich the combined culture is...

The first cultural world heritage site of Malaysia is the historic areas of two port cities in the famous straits of Malacca, Melaka and George Town, in my opinion, these two cities are the true examples of global cities influenced by almost every great maritime country in the history: Malay, Indian, Portuguese, Dutch, Chinese and English. I only visited George Town, the capital city of the State of Penang, in October 2008 as a day trip from Kuala Lumpur by plane. At first glance, Penang Island was very busy island with lots of traffic, high rise buildings which was a typical image of normal large Asian city, but in the historic quarter, the atmosphere was totally different.

The old area of George Town can easily be divided into two parts, the small colonial district and the very large shop houses area that include China town and little India districts. For the colonial area, there are some nice British colonial buildings, but to be honest, these buildings cannot be considered to be outstanding especially if you compared with Singapore's colonial area or other beautiful colonial building of French Hanoi or Thai-adopt colonial style in Bangkok. The real major draw card for George Town is the shop house area; the shop house buildings can be considered a unique style of architecture in Southern China and Southeast Asia with interesting mix of Portuguese and Chinese and using typical European and Malay arts as decorative motif. For me this is not my first …

I'm born around this new World Heritage Site, GeorgeTown, Penang, Malaysia. This place is full our cultural sites, being Chinese, Indian or Malay. We have side by side Chinese & Malay place of worship and had live peacefully for ages. There are historical stroll or trails which is helpful and well plan for vistors. I'm not ashame to let you know that even though we are born around the site there are plenty of places still not explore my me. I love to take photos around this hitorical & cultural site and had being doing it most weekend, just to show you how much to see inj GeogeTown ( we called it Old GeorgeTown )