Ride a trishaw upholstered in Hello Kitty with a sound system
Plastic flowers, LEDs and 1980s pop
Decorated cycle trishaws touting from ranks at Dutch Square and Jalan Merdeka, each one covered in artificial flowers, soft toys and lights, with a sound system. A circuit runs about half an hour.
Why it's unique
Melaka's beca are unlike any other trishaws in Asia: towers of plastic flowers, LED strings, disco balls, soft toys, Hello Kitty and Pikachu and Minions and Doraemon, and a speaker system playing 1980s pop at a volume you can hear four streets away. Each rider decorates his own machine and they compete with one another over it. The trishaw is recognised as an element of the city's living heritage.
Trishaws are common across Southeast Asia, so the ride is not the unusual part; the decorated and amplified local form is, and it exists only here. Walking the rank and choosing which one to get into is the closest thing to judging a competition you will do on a holiday.
Before you go
Agree the price and the route before you get in. The standard is around RM40 to RM60 for a circuit of about half an hour, and the rate is per trishaw rather than per person.
Riders will let you pick from the rank, so walk the line first: the decoration is the product and they know it. Evening is better than midday, both for the heat and because the lights are the point. Many now have a small electric assist motor for the bridge climbs.