Today , you will be able to see a progressive and clean city with a mix of old and the new. You will see the colonial influence in some older parts of the city like the particularly narrow width town houses along Tun Tan Cheng Lock road. The new includes the Malacca Tower.
During the Portuguese reign, it was the rule to exact taxes on houses in accordance with the widths of the building. In order not to be heavily taxed (even then) houses were built with as narrow a width as possible. The length of those houses was built relatively long to compensate for space. Most of them have high ceilings as well.
As Malacca grew bigger, there was a distinct shortage of land for expansion. There was a suggestion to acquire the Bukit Cina for a new township. The centuries old graves on it was to be relocated to the outskirts. However, the plan had to be abandoned due to Chinese protest, and instead, a new plan was hatched.
The new idea is to reclaim parts of the shoreline and built a new commercial annex over it. There are now many rows of new buildings on top of the reclaimed areas, a testimony to the ingenuity of the people of this century old city.
Here in Malacca, you will be able to walk from the present to the past in just twenty minutes! Malacca today is a city that never rest, with tourists mingling with the locals, from dawn to dusk. In the day time, you can spend your leisure time at the many historical sites, and at night, you will find all sorts of entertainments available.
When night falls, it is normal for tourists to stroll leisurely along the sea front in search of the many different types of food and cooking, both east and west. If you like, you can partake in the many karaoke cafes and pubs where sipping that glass of cool beer in front of guitar strumming singer are the norm.
There are also many outlets that offer good massages and you should try the foot massage therapy that can restore vitality after a full day of walking around! The main languages spoken here are English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil, with a little bit of others. As the residents here have experienced over five hundred years of exposures to foreigners, their attitudes to tourist can only be friendly. If your mastery of the local languages is not so good, do not despair as they will somehow be able to understand you and will show you the way. You can therefore assure yourself of a very memorable time in this historical city state. There are no rip offs here as the residents here believed they are a part of a global community and will welcome you sincerely.