St. Paul's Church (Ruins)

Okay, I hope you've got your walking legs on because we're climbing St. Paul's Hill — and trust me, the view from the top is absolutely worth every step lah! What you'll find up here are the beautiful, haunting ruins of St. Paul's Church, and this one holds a very special record — it's the oldest church building in all of Southeast Asia. The Portuguese sea captain Duarte Coelho built a small chapel here in 1521, just ten years after the Portuguese conquered Malacca. He called it Nossa Senhora da Annunciada — Our Lady of the Annunciation. Later, when the Jesuits arrived, they renamed it Our Lady of the Hill. And here's where the story gets really interesting, kan? The most famous Jesuit of all, Saint Francis Xavier, actually used this very church as his base when he was in Malacca between 1545 and 1552. After he died on Shangchuan Island off the coast of China in 1552, his body was temporarily buried right here in this church before being shipped to Goa, India, where it remains today. You'll see a marble statue of him right at the entrance — and if you look closely, you'll notice the statue is...