Melaka River Cruise

  Introduction:

Melaka River was once dubbed the ‘Venice of the East’ by European seafarers. These days, it is a popular tourist attraction primarily because of the 45-minute River Cruise that takes you all the way to Kampung Morten, past Malacca town and the settlements and bridges along the riverbank. All in all, the Melaka River spans a distance of ten km. It is said to be the birthplace of Melaka because the Sumatran prince Parameswara founded Malacca sultanate here and built his palace on the east-bank of the river (at the foot of St. Paul’s Hill) in the 1400s.
  
River Of Bridges
The Melaka River winds its way from Dutch Square and goes past Tan Boon Seng Bridge. During the Portuguese invasion of Malacca, they seized this bridge and cut off communications between both sides of the river, effectively dividing Malacca into two and leading to Malacca’s defeat. There are a few other bridges along the Melaka River worth mentioning.
 
Besides the Tan boon Seng Bridge, there is the ‘Ghostbridge of Malacca’ (a pedestrian bridge which links Kampung Pantai to Kampung Jawa) and the Old Market Bridge (which links Kampung Hulu to Jalan Kee Ann and the old Central Market). It used to be a picturesque scene of fishing boats berthed along the riverbanks here but now it is mostly rows of Chinese restaurants. Fun fact: one of these restaurants was featured in the Hollywood blockbuster ‘Entrapment’ starring Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones.