VIDEO DESCRIPTION:
The feeling of FREEDOM is back! After months apart, I’m finally reunited with my touring bicycle in Port Dickson, Malaysia. In this episode, I pick it up from storage (will it even work?), reassemble my gear, and take that first glorious ride.
The day starts with a pit stop at a local “Shannar Curry House” for a mysterious and spicy breakfast buffet, where paying the bill requires showing a photo of my meal! Then, it’s onto the bike mechanics and a test ride that just feels right.
After checking into the Gemilang Star Hotel (which involves an inevitable battle over the Malaysian tourism tax—again), I explore the beachfront, sneak a peek at the famous Lexis resort, and stumble upon an intriguing temple ceremony with giant, smoking incense sticks.
A huge thank you to my friend KY for all his help with logistics and even an electric air pump!
#PlanetDoug #MalaysiaTravel #PortDickson #BicycleTouring #TravelVlog #Malaysia2026 #SoloTravel #TravelDrama #Malaysiantourismtax
EVENTS
The Plan: Pick Up My Bike in Port Dickson!
Pit Stop at a Local Malaysian Breakfast Buffet
The Bill Paying Photo Solution
Arriving at KY’s Family Home
First Look at My Bike After Months
Test Ride & That Feeling of Freedom
Checking into the Hotel & Tourism Tax Drama
Assembling My Bike & Broomstick Cam Mount
Walking Tour: Port Dickson Beaches & Resorts
Inside the Lexis Hotel Compound
Giant Incense Sticks at a Temple Ceremony
Wrap Up & Thank You KY!
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Oh, that feels so good. Oh, I can’t tell you. Just to be on the bike again and you just you feel this sense of freedom, you know, that you don’t feel quite as constrained by always needing to find transportation of one kind or another.
Yeah, just a I’m going to record today a little bit. So, welcome back to Planet Doug. You can see the Raja Bot Hotel behind me. Big day for me today on Planet Doug because my friend KY is here. Hi. There’s KY. And yeah, he came to pick me up because we’re heading to Port Dickson. My bicycle has been stored at his family’s home in Port Dickson. So, we’re on the road heading to Port Dickson, and I’m going to pick up my bicycle, assemble it, get it roadworthy, and then ride to a hotel in Port Dickson, check into that hotel, and then work on the bicycle for a couple of days. So, that’s the yeah, that’s what’s happening right now. I’m not going to record the whole ride to Port Dickson. I’ve done that in the past. So, I’m probably going to pick up this video once we arrive in Port Dickson and I’m working on my bicycle. So, see you in Port Dickson in a couple of minutes for you.
I said I wouldn’t film anything until we got to Port Dickson, but we made a pit stop. KY has some family stuff to take care of, and he’s dropped me off at a restaurant in his neighborhood, the Shannar Curry House, which looks really good. And I’m just maybe I’ll grab something to eat here. A little light breakfast or a drink and then when KY is done with all his errands, he’ll come back and pick me up. Yeah, it looks like an interesting place. I already went for a walk around and they have yeah, nice buffet over here. Yeah, like they have a lot of stuff that you can just pick up and take away like a fruit out on display and cooking here.
So, they have this yeah, kind of a breakfast buffet, some curry puffs, things like that. And it looks like they have a lot of local products for sale here.
Crispy Ikan Bilis
Auntie Sushee’s Brinjal Pickle and then cakes and nuts and things like that. Yeah, kind of a cool place.
Anyway,
bit of an unusual breakfast, but I just grabbed a few things at random and I don’t even like this one. I have no idea what it is, so I’m I’m kind of curious about that. And I didn’t get any sauces or anything, so not exactly a gourmet selection here, but wanted to get some tofu, some noodles, a little curry puff, little snack, and I got some hot tea as well. Let’s see if I can figure out what this is.
Don’t really know. Could be like a ground up grain of some kind. Lo, what is this? Bumba.
Okay.
Well, that’s a surprise. The noodles really spicy. Really, really spicy. And a waiter came by, brought me a teh tarik and I asked him what this is and he told me like the local name for it, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying. And even if I understood the words, they would just be local words. There you are. Nice little breakfast. Not bad at all. Don’t know what Oh. I have a photo.
Oh, yeah.
That was an interesting experience. I don’t think I’ve ever done that in the past. I mean, I take pictures of everything that I eat, of course, but I don’t think I’ve ever shown the photo of my meal at a restaurant for them to calculate the price because like again, I don’t know the system here. I don’t know whether I was supposed to pay in advance after I get the food, show my food to someone. I just got the food, sat down, and started eating. and they thought they whatever their system is, they’ll probably come over to my table and look and then give me a bill. Who knows what their system is? But nothing happened. So when I went up to the cash register, as always, it’s just like like why are you here and what what did you have? And I’m like, I don’t know. I just grabbed things at random. I don’t know the names of the dishes. I I don’t know. That’s that’s always the thing when you’re overseas. You just never know what’s going on. But in this case, he was shouting to some of the waiters like, “What did this guy have? Does anybody know what he like?” Nobody knew. And then I went, “Ah, I took a picture.” So I just showed him the photo of my meal. And then he could see everything on the table. Oh, okay. Cup of tea, one curry puff, those three veggie dishes. Okay. And then he 10 ringgit. 10 ringgit 70. 10 ringgit 70.
So it’s now a couple hours after breakfast. Yeah, it’s 12:00. It’s exactly noon right now and we just arrived in Port Dickson. Dropped my bags off at the hotel, but I can’t check in until 2:00, but we are at KY’s house, his family house, cuz this is where he was born and where he grew up. And family members still live here. And my bicycle and my trailer and all of my camping gear, all of my cycling gear is all still here in his house. But my bicycle has been sitting outside for the last oh man. It was only supposed to be here a very short time, but plans kept changing. So, it’s actually been here for months. And hopefully it’s still in ridable condition. We’re about to find out. So, here we are. Port Dickson. Yeah, I know this area well. I know this neighborhood very, very well. I’m always amazed by this giant structure over there. Beautiful building. They’ve got some nice old houses here. a lot of history in Port Dickson and look at and uh yeah, here’s the home. And there is my bicycle where it’s been for months and months waiting for me. At least it’s covered from the rain. And I chatted with KY and just asked him if he’s ever here in Port Dickson, could he just throw some oil on the chain just to keep the chain from rusting? But you know
that feels a little stiff but little dusty. A little little dusty my poor bike. But looks ridable. There’s even air in the tires. Yeah. You didn’t pump them up or anything? No. No. So yeah, my my pump and tools are all inside. There’s that horrible horrible horrible kickstand. Sure would be nice to have a new kickstand, but I’ll try to get by with that one. You can see how cheap it is. It’s all just rusting away. Pedals are still turning.
So, I said KY’s been keeping the chain oiled for me. And let’s look at that. What a reliable machine. though the the brakes are rubbing.
Yeah, this going to make the whole trip. Yeah, it it’s going to do that. Need the proper broomstick and everything. Yeah, you’re ready to go. Yeah, I’ve got the uh these are the the hose clamps, the famous hose clamps for the broomstick to go on here. Mount the GoPro. Oh, yeah. Just before I left from Indonesia, I forgot about that. Broke my mirror. Did they sell a bicycle mirror like this? They’re hard to find. Like this particular kind is hard to locate. I always end up I always end up ordering them from overseas and having them shipped in. I forgot that this was still here. Yeah. A little light.
So, I’m going to hop on the bike and just ride up and down the hill. Yep. Just for fun. Don’t really need to, but we’ll see whether it changes gears. There’s even water in the water bottle.
All right. Ah, go ahead. Feels so natural. Feels so good. I missed it.
Oh, gears are changing.
Yeah, the back. Yeah, I don’t want to go very far. You can tell. Yeah, I can’t really ride it with the the back tire like that. There just isn’t enough air. But
there we go. It’s actually the front gears are changing just fine.
Yeah. All through all all the gears. No problem. So yeah, KY has this Look at that. It’s not even that heavy. I was expecting it to be really really heavy, but that’s quite lightweight. Oh, right there. Okay, so there’s a little power button.
Wow, it goes so fast. Is it hard? It’s quite a bit of air in there already. Let’s see. It should cuz it’s designed for a car. Yeah. So it probably puts out a lot more pressure than the bike would need. Bust it if you overfill. Yeah. How about your friendly? Who knows? Who knew my bike was going to get such premium service?
Oh, that feels so good. Oh, I can’t tell you. just to be on the bike again. And you just you feel this sense of freedom, you know, that you don’t feel quite as constrained by always needing to find transportation of one kind or another. Just for short distances around the city, just head out exploring. Go anywhere you want.
Yeah. Bike seems in surprisingly good condition. Everything I don’t even have to adjust the gears.
Very successful test ride. No, no issues at all that I could make out. Malaysia’s calling you. Yeah, Malaysia’s calling me. Visit Malaysia year 2026. Yes. So, though I was just talking with KY about my reception at the new hotel. What’s it called again? The Gimilang Star. Yeah, Gimilang Star Hotel. And before we went in, I was sort of crossing my fingers cuz I’m such a wimp. I really like a warm, friendly greeting. It makes me feel good. And but yeah, you walked into that hotel and the front desk clerk was just not interested at all. It’s just like he’s busy sitting on his chair. No warm greeting, no welcome to our hotel. What can I do for you, sir? No friendliness at all. But hey, I’m sure the room is fine.
And I had my pannier bags and my bicycle trailer here. So, the these are my pannier bags. If you haven’t seen them before, they’re made by a company in Canada called Arkel. And they’re very different from almost all the bags that people use. Like most people use Ortlieb pannier bags. And they’re very wise to do so because the Ortlieb pannier bags are durable, very well made, completely waterproof. And very simple. They’re basically one big bag, top loading. You open the unroll the top and then you just stuff everything in and roll it back down again. And if you can live that way, they they’re they’re very convenient and very lightweight. The Arkel bags have a completely different philosophy where they’re not waterproof. So to make them waterproof is pretty complicated. I have like a waterproof cover. So if it does rain, you take out the cover and then you put the cover over the top. But to be honest, it doesn’t really work. You can’t really just keep riding with the rain thundering down. that rain cover will add will offer some protection but not full protection like an Ortlieb. So they’re not these aren’t really as adventurous. And these bags are designed with pockets. So that’s the whole idea. It’s front loading, not top loading. So the whole front opens up like a suitcase. See what I mean? So, it’s like front loading, which is convenient, but it’s also harder to fill it to capacity to use all of the volume, but it has the advantage of all these pockets, right? So, there’s a pocket here on the outside, which is very, very handy. There’s nothing in the bags right now. They’re pretty much empty. So, there’s a pocket here, and there’s a zippered pocket here. A zippered pocket up here on the top. And then another zippered pocket here on the side. So here on the side I keep all of my tools, flat tire repair kit, you know, tire pump, things like that. So these go with me all the time. And what I’ve done with this particular bag is I’ve converted it into a knapsack. So I built my own straps. So, these are like backpack straps, and they’re designed to lock to click into here. And then down here, I drilled holes down here and put in these rings. So, these backpack straps click into these, too. And then I can wear this like a backpack. It’s not the most comfortable backpack in the world, but it does work. And I also have a trailer. I’ll show you the trailer in a minute, but the first thing I need to do is pump up the tires on the trailer because the the tires have lost all their air as well. So, these are the wheels for the trailer to it’s a two wheel trailer and yeah, they they need some air. There we go. If I had KY’s electric pump, it would be a lot easier, but these are pretty small tires. The tubes fill up with air pretty fast.
31.5. So, I called it pretty well. That’s as much as I’d want to go. 31.5.
31. I am the master. So, 31 lb each. That feels about right to me. I guess I could push it up to 35, but I don’t think I really need to. And there you have it. Two trailer wheels ready to go. There is the famous Planet Doug Radical Design Cyclone 4 trekking trailer. So, these are the wheels for the trailer. It’s a 100 L of volume and I forget the weight that it can carry. I mean, it’s rated for so much weight that you would never It’d be pretty hard to reach that limit to be honest. If you’re carrying as much weight as this trailer is rated for, well, you’re carrying a lot. Most people wouldn’t really approach that limit, I don’t think. But I mentioned these have a locking device on the axles. So, there’s a hole here at the side. Push the button and then you slide it in.
And then they lock into place. So you can see this side has another there’s two holes here. There’s one in the middle. That’s where you put the wheels when you’re touring. But if you’re like pulling the trailer by hand, then you move the wheels to the back and then and then it works like works like luggage. So there you are. There’s the wheels. And because the wheels are in the middle, the trailer is perfectly balanced. All the weight is on the trailer. None of it gets transferred to the bike. So, there’s a trailer hitch here, and there’s a connecting trailer hitch here, and you just line those up, and it locks into place. And that’s that’s it. So, there you have the the trailer. So, my pannier bags, as I said, are pretty much empty right now. There’s nothing in them, but I mount them on the rear rack anyway. Takes a little bit of dexterity to do it properly with this complicated attachment system, especially with a trailer already attached, but I think I know how to do it. You just hook the bottom hook, lift it up there, and you’re done. I was saying how complicated it was, and it was that easy. But there is a locking mechanism as well. And I always use the locking mechanism. And so you got to put your hands back here and turn that. It’s just a physical. So now it can’t come off. Pannier number two. So this one goes on the other side, of course. Same basic idea. It’s got a bottom hook. So you hook it on, drop the hooks there, and that’s it. But then if you want the lock, got to stick my hand back in here. And then So yeah. So one thing I haven’t done yet, of course, is I haven’t put my GoPro mounting apparatus on yet. That goes here. The the broomstick is back in the trailer, but I I’ll put that on when I get back to the hotel. I don’t want to spend any more time here working on it. I’ll just leave that for now because I don’t really need it. And the other day, I think in a video, a behind-the-scenes video, I was talking about RAM mounts. How if you’re going to mount a camera on a motorcycle or a bicycle, you have to use RAM mounts. They’re the only things that are strong enough. And this is what I’m talking about. This is a RAM mount with this giant lock. I mean, that clamp is not going anywhere. And when you tighten this down, this ball head, it just does not move. It’s permanently locked. So, I have the TeleSync quick release mechanism on all of these mounts. So, I can mount the camera here. I can mount it here. This is another RAM mount. And I have another one here on the back. So, anywhere you have one of these balls, you can attach the RAM mount system to there. So, and here we go. I have the GoPro mounted on the handlebars right now on the RAM mount that I just showed you. So, you don’t see the handlebars or anything like that, but I can move I’ll move it in a minute. You can see a different point of view.
Yeah, it’s about 20 to 2 by the time I get to the hotel. Should be just about check-in time. 2:00. I said it’s about seven kilometers up the highway
and away we go.
I think you tend to think of Port Dickson as a sleepy little town, but that reputation doesn’t hold up once you come down to the roads. A road like this that goes through Port Dickson. Surprisingly busy. A lot of traffic.
I moved the GoPro to my neck harness, neck mount, whatever you want to call it. I’m not quite sure what angle you’re getting, but I just tried to sort of point it ahead. Yeah, the hotel is right off this highway just on the left up ahead here. Got here a lot faster than I expected. The hotel or the Gimilang Star Hotel, something like that. Yes, Gimilang. Gimilang. There’s a lot of pretty nice beach resorts here. At least they like this one here. the sign Glory Beach Resort. There’s a turtle hatchery center and there’s a very famous or somewhat famous resort here. What’s it called? Lexis or something like that where they have all these cottages out on docks like the the the rooms are on stilts. So cuz this Port Dickson is sort of a weekend holiday town for people from Kuala Lumpur and from all over. They come here for the weekend, go down to the beaches. So that does tend to drive prices up when it comes to accommodation.
They’re not exactly they may be swimming at the beach, but they’re not exactly swimming in low-budget accommodation.
30 ringgit right? Yeah. 30 ringgit per night 10 ring. No, I already paid no. No, you should not pay for water. Yeah, it’s already paid for. No, no, no. If you come pay pay at water, you can see here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s it’s included in the Agoda price. Agoda one. The water one. It’s included. Trust me, I fight with the hotel every time about this. Why? Why can’t you figure it out? I will show you it per night. It’s included in Agoda. No, you need to pay at the hotel, sir. You can see the price tag also. But whenever you go, you need to pay pay also. I already I already paid it. No, you pay for Agoda not for us. No, it’s the 30 ringgit tourism tax for Agoda. It goes to the government. They charge it through Agoda. No sir, you need to pay 30 ringgit for our hotel. If not, we cannot skip the room. Sir, it’s our management policy. Malaysian tourism tax receipt already. I cannot do anything. I give you my manager number. You handle with with her. We already put our price price tag also. You can read there. We put in English also. Want to pay per night 10 ringgit. So you book for three night you need to pay 30 ringgit. I already did. I already paid the hotel. No, I do not have to pay at the hotel. Absolutely not. There it is.
There it is. Malaysian tourism tax receipt 30 ringgit. I already paid. No, I cannot do anything. You just you I give I give my manager number. You handle with I cannot do anything. I am just working here for my salary also. Then you Hello. Hi. How are you?
No, you’re wrong. I already paid the tourism tax. It goes through. I already paid 30 ringgit of the tourism tax. It’s finished. I don’t pay it again. I don’t pay it two times.
No, I don’t. I only pay it one time to Agoda. It pays 10 ringgit per night. Is included in the payment online and it goes to the government. Malaysian tourism tax. The tourism tax is already paid.
No, no, I must not. I already paid it. It’s already finished. I paid 30 ringgit Malaysian tourism tax already. I won’t pay two times. I’m sorry. Yes, I have the receipt. I already have the receipt. It goes from Agoda to the Malaysian government for the tourism tax. Your policy is not correct. I know cuz I’ve been in Malaysia for many years. I always stay in hotels and this is how it works. Trust me, I I know the policy better than you do. Your management policy is not correct.
No, I already paid 10 ringgit per day. Already finished. Already paid. I have the receipt. I can send you the receipt. You can copy the receipt. It’s already finished.
No, no, no, no, no. No, absolutely not. Every hotel is the same.
I cannot do anything.
Oh, what a nightmare. An absolute nightmare. I went to the neighboring 7-Eleven to get myself a liter of milk to reward me to compensate me for the trauma of again checking into a hotel in Malaysia. I mean, visit Malaysia 2026 this year, still got a lot of work to do. Oh, I couldn’t believe it. that tourism tax. You’ve got to get rid of that tourism tax. You’ve got to implement it in a different way. You’ve got to at least communicate to the hotels, the hotel clerks, the hotel management, the staff how the tourism tax works. I mean, I find it, of course, I’m annoyed endlessly by this 10 ringgit per night tourism tax. It just bothers me on the face of it. But I don’t like it. So I walk into these situations pre-annoyed. And then finally he hands over the key and then he says the magic words. Oh. And I couldn’t understand a word what he was saying. He was speaking so low and he was mumbling so much I couldn’t make out anything he was saying. So that was the fourth reason I was annoyed. And I’m like, “Oh, here we go. He wants 30 ringgit for the Malaysian tourism tax.” And they have a sign on the on the counter that’s they print it at the bottom. All foreign guests must pay 10 ringgit per night tourism tax. So they and he he keeps pointing at the sign. See see we our policy our policy there there. And I said yes I know trust me I know all about the 10 ringgit per night tourism tax. It’s been haunting me for years. I know about it, but what I’m saying is I’ve already paid the tax and uh just said, “No, I’m not going to pay you the tour tax, tourism tax two times. That’s not how it works. I’ve already paid the tourism tax and I got the receipt from Agoda on my phone and I showed it to him.” Like, here’s my reservation two re there’s the booking confirmation. Here’s the tour. It says Malaysian tourism tax receipt. You download it. It’s on my phone. I show it to him. He says, “Oh, you paid Agoda, but you also have to pay us.” And I says, “No, no, trust me. I know the policy better than you do. Trust me, I’m very familiar with how this works. I do not have to pay you. I’ve already paid the tourism tax.” And he he just wasn’t going for it. Poor guy. He had to meet me as a customer, as a guest. Oh, I haven’t even had a drink yet. I’m so upset.
So, I’m outside the hotel. This is the location. Not exactly the most scenic, but I’m not looking for scenery in my hotels for the most part. In my hotels, all I’m looking for is simplicity and no tourism tax drama. That That’s all I That’s all That’s all I’m looking for. But yeah, I’ve got my bike sort of locked up out here. Yeah, there’s really I could take it in myself easily, pick it up and carry it up the stairs, but I’m pretty sure the hotel won’t like it if I do that. But anyway, might have to leave it out here. But anyway, I came out here because I don’t have my Planet Doug patented broomstick in place. So, just to end the bicycle portion of the day, I thought I’d take my little broomstick here and I mount it right there. And that’s where I mount my GoPro. The broomstick used to be longer, but then I cut it shorter. I wanted to see if I could get it as short as possible. So, anyway, I’m going to have to attach it using those those hose clamps right there. Not a lot of room to work here, but should be okay. All I really need is a flathead screwdriver, which I have in my Leatherman. And the key to my broomstick system is that I put the base of the broomstick through these hose clamps. So that holds the base and then this part, the upper part of the broomstick is resting on the handlebars. So that gives it a lot of support.
But yeah, I got to make sure the broomstick is straight up and down like that. Yeah, everything looks good. Yeah, nothing could be easier. All you have to do is tighten this up. And there you go. That is it. It’s all there is to it. And then I can mount this GoPro up here facing forward like backwards or forwards. And I can I can put a second GoPro hanging underneath from here. And this gizmo at the top, of course, this is another RAM mount. Yeah, that’s it. Nice and tight. There we go. Yeah, essentially the bike is ready to go. Mentally, I’m a wreck, but the bike is ready to go.
So, I’m checked in. I moved my gear up to the room. I didn’t really unpack or get organized. All of my cycling gear and backpacking stuff. Everything is all mixed up in a big jumble. So, I’m going to have to sort through it. But yeah, there’s where my hotel is located. Yeah. Right back there. Cendol Place right beside it. 7-Eleven. And then a corner restaurant here. Tanjung Express Bakar. And I thought I’d just head out for a bit of a walk. I’m not on my bike because there’s a like a beach area right over here with a very fancy sort of hotel. The Lexis or something Lexis. Yeah, something like that. And I think it’s close enough I can just walk there and then I can walk down to the water. Give you a a sense of why Port Dickson is popular. They aren’t the greatest beaches in the world, but they are beaches and they’re within a very easy driving distance of Kuala Lumpur. So, people come down here and they stay at these places. Like right up ahead, you see the Glory Beach Resort, those two big or three big beige buildings with a red roof. And then you’ve got the Hotel Paradise Spa and they are all quite close to the water waterfront which is right down here. And here we are, the water. Yeah, like I said, it’s not exactly going to rival the tourist beaches of Hawaii, places like that, but hey, you’re on the water
and that’s better than nothing.
There’s an AirAsia plane coming in for a landing. Probably came from Indonesia somewhere. It’s always interesting living near an airport. Gives you a unique perspective on the day. You see what’s going directly, what’s going on right around you. And then you can imagine all those people up there in the plane living an entirely different life. Pan down with your GoPro. And there’s a a woman out here setting a fishing net, which I find kind of interesting. Yeah, she’s been working for quite a while to untangle this net, put some rods in the water, and string the net from one end to the other. And then right over here, that’s a Glory Beach. And that is the Glory Beach Resort right behind it. Yeah, kind of a hulking monolith. A lot of these condo, like beachside condos here have a bit of a I don’t know, a hulking monolithic feeling to them. The second one there looks almost abandoned and uh yeah, just it just has a a I don’t know what the word is I’m looking for. But they look big and kind of oppressive rather than really nice beachside accommodation. That looks like a bigger jet up there. And the beach that I just walked along was right over here. Quite different when you look right. That one has brown tan sand right there. And then you go on the other side of this breakwater and over here is like classic, more classic white beach sand. I wonder if that’s natural or did they truck in a bunch of white sand for visitors. I’m not sure. And this whole beach over here seems to be set aside as a turtle hatchery. So, there are signs there threatening hefty fines if you do anything here like camping or anything else to interfere with the turtles who might be laying their eggs on this beach. So, I think the name of the beach is something like, you know, turtle hatchling beach or something like that. I took a some video of the signs there. A thousand ringgit fine if you pitch a tent here. So, this is not a place for the American hobo to put his tent or his hammock.
It’s amazing how frequently these jets come in for a landing, right? just on and on and on. There’s just no end to them. So, let’s continue walking along Glory Beach here. See what there is to see. This is the beach sand over here on Glory Beach. Very fine white sand, but a lot of black here as well. and wondering whether that black is just coming from fires because even over on Turtle Beach, you’re not allowed to camp or do anything there, but there were a lot of evidence of fires and even a fire burning right now that the local people are setting along the beach. So maybe all that black is like black ash. But yes, it’s very very very fine sand. Look at that.
Very soft. Look at that. I’ve seen a number of these like resort complexes, hotel complexes around Port Dickson. You see them on Google satellite view and they’re built out over the water on stilts. And from the air and from your memory of what places like this are like, I think of them as being very expensive and very luxurious. But from a distance here, they don’t look that luxurious, these ones. Maybe they’re still expensive because of the just being able to be on the water like that. But they look rather old and kind of worn out from here. But I don’t know. Maybe we can get closer. Maybe even walk out along the wharf, take a closer look at these, see what they’re like. Would they be worth whatever they’re charging for them here on Glory Beach? which I’m right underneath these buildings that I was describing as hulking kind of behemoths. And you I think you can see what you see what I mean, right?
Nice rocks here on the breakwater or whatever you call these. And this one is right beside this resort on stilts. You can see onto the balconies. Every one of them gets a little balcony and they look to be air-conditioned.
Glory beach.
I’m in among the giants at the end of Glory Beach. So, the Glory Beach buildings are all in a circle, a semicircle around a nice pool. A lot of people here are enjoying the pool.
And yeah, there’s some sort of a water treatment plant over here, I think. I thought maybe it was a turtle hatchery, but then the smell made it smelled more like sewage. So, this might be a water treatment center right over here. But yeah, another So, this would be the place with the all the hotel rooms out on stilts cuz the only way to get to it would be through their property.
So, yeah, it has a pool as well.
I’m not sure if a casual visitor would be allowed to just wander around, but we’ll see. Just go for a walk in here. See what this resort looks like.
So, this place is called Lexis. That’s the name I was trying to come up with. You can see up at the top top of the building there, it says Lexis. So, probably this hotel building. And then that one over there, part of the Lexis compound.
So, I just came into the Lexis. I walked through the lobby already, but I didn’t have my GoPro running. I’ll take some video of that as I as I go back through. Yeah. But I found a way to get to the back.
Ah, they have a buggy service maybe just around the property itself or maybe they take them farther a field. I’m not sure.
So, yeah, these are the the places that I saw up on stilts. Yeah, they have a sign here that only guests people staying beyond this point, which is understandable. So, I won’t go down there. Just wanted to take a look at them.
Yeah, this seems to be quite a popular place. Seems busier than other places. Doesn’t have that abandoned feeling. See a lot of staff back here. Clearly a lot of deliveries, laundry coming in through the back. So, and I saw a lot of people in the lobby area. Nice dining area, coffee shop. 50 ringgit per person if you want to buy your breakfast at the buffet there. Like from over here you can get another look at these places up on stilts. You can see the front of them over here. Yeah, they look quite nice. They look spacious from here. They might have a lot of room on the balcony and inside.
It’s funny as I walk through these places, I always feel like such an impostor. Like everybody can tell that I’m not actually staying here.
Hello. Like I clearly don’t belong. Yeah. Nice chairs here. Little shop to buy all of your floaties for the water. And there’s the reception desk.
Yeah. So this is the lobby area. Nice dining area and coffee shop. Yeah, looks quite nice.
And they had an interesting sign out here at the front. All the things that you’re not allowed to take into the rooms. Cookware, cooking appliances, mattresses and beddings, sleeping bags, non-halal food. This one’s a weird one. Cup drinks on takeaway trays. I don’t know why that would be a problem. Raw or frozen food. Durian, of course, mangosteen. Drones and pets. No pets. I I think these ones are obvious just for like bed bugs, things like that. So, you don’t bring bed bugs in. I’m not sure about the drinks one though. Maybe you’ll spill your drink or something. This is clearly a a service hotel. This is probably one of the nicer places in Port Dickson. You put your luggage on here and they’ll bring your bags up to your room for you. They’ve got chargers over here for electric cars.
As I left the compound, I had to pass through a security gate here. like this is where you would drive in to the Lexis and then the Lexis Grand. So I think the one on the left, the security guard told me this is the original building and that’s the Lexis built in 2006. And then the one on the right looking a little bit more modern, a little newer, that was built in 2011. And I can that’s the Lexis Grand over there. And yeah, they have a sign up here that in order to go in, you have to show that you’re a guest here. you have to register and show your your room booking. So, but if you come in through the beach like I did, you can kind of sneak onto the compound. But yeah, look at the houses out here on the road right across from the the Lexis. Kind of a similar design here with the big round pillar and then one here as well and sort of a Yeah, right there.
Big imposing mansions. Three in a row right here. Yeah. And this is the neighbor, the Glory Beach Resort. Looks more like a condominium, like long-term rental as opposed to nightly like the hotel like the Lexis over there. I’m guessing probably like Airbnb accommodation in here, that kind of thing. Or you rent by the month. Yeah. Looks a bit older, a little bit more worn.
There’s a closeup of the other place I saw around here, the Hotel Paradise Spa, but kind of like Glory Beach. It looks a little bit worse for wear. A little bit abandoned. I mean, it looks empty to be honest. May not even be open. I’m not sure. So, it seems like if you have the money and you’re looking for a good weekend, the Lexis, that’s your place. The Lexis is that’s where all the action is. Everybody goes to the Lexis. These other places seem to be largely ignored. May not even be open to casual tourists. I’m not sure. Of course, there’s lots of other places along the the coastline around Port Dickson heading south. I’m just talking about this area right here. Yeah, that’s where I walked down to the beach and then I could sneak into the Lexis from behind and nobody knew I wasn’t a paying guest.
I walked back past my hotel and then back to this temple complex that I mentioned. They’ve been building this temple for a long time right here. Every time I see it, they’ve added a little bit to the compound, but right now they seem to have set up a a performance stage over here and a bunch of tents there and then all of these incense sticks. I’m going to see if I can walk down there and take a closer look at the the incense sticks in particular. Quite impressive.
And here is bustling Port Dickson.
And there’s nothing going on right now. No performance, no music. So, it’s a good time to come in, take a look around. When I went by earlier, there was loud music playing, so I wouldn’t be able to run my GoPro. Yeah, look at this. not quite sure what might have been burning here.
Wonder when they’re going to have a performance. Probably in the evening when the sun goes down and it’s cooler.
Look at the size of these.
Oh, yeah. These are the ones that still have the covering over the top. So, they haven’t been lit yet. I can feel my shoulders are burning. I’m getting hit with all kinds of little sparks and burning cinders from here.
It’s not very aromatic though. I’m not really smelling very strong sort of incense aroma though. It’s more smells more like just burning wood. I don’t really get a strong incense odor or aroma.
So that’s where I was just a couple of minutes ago. I I ended up having to leave quicker than I expected just because there was so much smoke coming off of all the various fires getting in my eyes and making it hard to breathe. I kept getting hit by burning embers. So, finally yeah, took some video of the various Oh, there’s Glory Beach Resort.
And I’m just walking back to my hotel. It’s just up ahead there in that shopping plaza.
And all in all, I think that’s the end of the day and time to shut this video down. Was very kind of KY to come pick me up at my hotel this morning. He slotted me in with all of his family errands, delivering his children to various places, and he he kind of adopted Planet Doug along with his kids and delivered me to my hotel here in Port Dickson. So, thank you very much to KY for all his help. And I enjoyed that little walk down by the beach, checking out a part. I hadn’t seen that part of Port Dickson before. I haven’t gone down to the beaches here, so that was kind of interesting. And wrapping it up with a look at the incense sticks there and the the fires burning. I did see a woman there come out of the big tent with her face completely done up with white makeup and elaborate elaborate paint. So, they’ll likely be putting on a performance later tonight, I imagine. And so, that is it. I think time to shut off the GoPro. The GoPro performed well today with my microphones and everything. I had all the new batteries. That was really great. That was a relief to be honest. I did have to change batteries about three times today, but now it’s so much easier because of the new batteries that a mystery benefactor sent my way cuz I could just the batteries aren’t swollen up, so I can just pull them out, put the new one in, and I’m good to go. So that’s kind of nice. All right, there it is. The hotel Gilang Star.
There you go. That’s what you get for walking down the highway in Port Dickson. I better get off the road. So that’s it outside my hotel shutting down. Hope you enjoyed that and I’ll see you in the next video.