Ring the wishing gong at Villa Sentosa, where the family still lives in the museum
The owners are the docents
A 1920s Malay stilt house on Lorong Tun Mamat 1 in Kampung Morten, across the river about 1.5 km north of Dutch Square, opened as a living museum by the family who live in it.
Why it's unique
Villa Sentosa is a 1920s Malay stilt house in Kampung Morten, opened as a living museum by the family who own it and who are still in residence. A family member gives the tour, showing you their own heirlooms, a Qing dynasty vase, a Quran from the 1800s, family photographs, and then invites you to strike the old brass gong three times and make a wish.
Malaysia has plenty of reconstructed traditional houses in open-air museums. A listed kampung house where the owners are the docents and the exhibits are their possessions is a different thing, and it is why the answer to a question here is a family story rather than a caption.
Before you go
There is no ticket desk. You take your shoes off, someone appears, and a donation goes in the box at the end; RM10 is normal and expected.
Ask about the Japanese occupation, which the family lived through in that house. Kampung Morten is the last traditional Malay village inside the city and the walk in over the river bridge is half the experience, so go late afternoon rather than when it is thirty-four degrees. It opens daily, roughly 9am to 5pm, but it is a house: if the family is out, it is shut.