VIDEO DESCRIPTION:
Melaka, Malaysia – my first full day exploring this historic coastal city. And honestly? It didn’t go exactly as planned.
I set out with a simple goal: visit the History and Ethnography Museum to understand Melaka’s legendary past – the 1400s sultanate, the Portuguese, Dutch, British, and the fall of the great fort. But on the way…
I got completely sidetracked by the Indomal Express 8 ferry getting refueled right on the river. 2,730 liters. A fuel truck. A crew figuring it out in real time. And suddenly I was standing there asking questions about gas prices, spare boats, and daily crossings to Sumatra.
From there, I finally made it to the Stadthuys (the big red Dutch building), wandered through the museum’s history and ethnography sections, saw laterite bricks up close, learned about Cheng Ho’s 25,000-person fleet, and stood where the British blew up the old fortress.
Then – a walk through Melaka’s busy streets, past trishaws blasting music, the mysterious Mamee Monster, and ended the day with a Zeus cafe latte by the river, sitting under a painting of a mouse deer kicking a hunting dog into the water.
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🌏 New here? I’m Doug. I often travel by bicycle, one slow day at a time. This is Planet Doug.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Good morning and welcome back to Planet Doug in Melaka, Malaysia. And the way it feels, this is actually my first full day in Melaka. I arrived 2 days ago, I guess, late in the afternoon. Rode my bike here from a city called Tampin. And then I spent one day in Melaka already, but that was more all about getting organized, settling in, doing a lot of YouTube stuff on my laptop. I went out for a meal. A Planet Doug subscriber ordered a meal for me, a really tasty dish of laksa and I went out into the city to go pick it up and bring it back to my hotel and that was my one time heading out into Melaka and I started to get a feel for the place.
This is my hotel by the way. I think on a go it’s no longer called Holy. It’s the Mahkota something. And when I got my laksa, I started noticing Mahkota, that word all over the place on all kinds of businesses. And I was going to look it up and figure out what that meant, but I forgot to do that. So that’s where you check into this hotel, but they put me in a room that’s up here somewhere in this building, and my bicycle is parked and locked outside. I’m glad that on my yeah, this morning it’s still there.
Yeah, check out the sky, though. That’s a very different thing for me. Up in the hills where I was the last week or two, brutal hot sun every single day, there was not even the hint of cloud or rain. But now that I’m down on the coast, maybe it’s just a weather system that moved in and even up in the hills, it’s now cloudy and rainy. Or maybe it’s just the effect of the coast. I’m not sure. But yeah, I’m carrying my umbrella around with me now just to be ready.
It’s been quite something to arrive in Melaka. As I mentioned before, I have been here once before in my lifetime, but it was so many decades ago. It might as well have been a previous lifetime where all my memories have been wiped away. Total blank slate. I don’t remember anything about Melaka other than whatever little bits of history have stuck in my brain, but my experience here, no memories. So, it’s like a brand new city to me.
Much bigger, much more urban than I was expecting because in my mind I was thinking about the Melaka Sultanate dating back to the 1400s, the arrival of the Portuguese, you know, Melaka being a trading center for the world, ships moving back and forth between China and India, and now with the arrival of the Europeans taking over ships from all over Europe, docking here, going back and forth between the different worlds. So, I think of it as this bustling but small harbor city with ships and things.
And modern Melaka, I mean, it has the remnants of that era, which I’m going to go out and look at, but it’s all about massive hotels, shopping malls, restaurants, cafes. It’s much more developed on a big scale than I was expecting. I was like, “What the heck? Where did all these huge buildings come from?” So, yeah, it’s been quite a surprise showing up here. I don’t know what I was expecting exactly, but one thing they are well equipped with hotels. My gosh, there’s huge ones here. Big modern luxury hotels. And then these smaller boutiquey style hotels are just everywhere. The ND hotel right there. Maybe that’s also part of the ND hotel right over here. We got the M Candy Hotel down this road. There has to be at least six more. And on the next street over, six more. And this is sort of the historic tourism area of Melaka.
Morning. Morning. So yeah, it’s not a bad area to be based. If you’re interested in the history, visiting the museums, seeing the old forts and the ruins and the churches, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, you can find a hotel here for sure. And you could probably find one in your price range if you’ve got the money. There’s the Holiday Inn is over here. This giant structure. It’s right over there blocked by the Oh, there it is. Right there. There’s the Holiday Inn. And then there’s a whole bunch of other giant hotels across the road in the downtown area.
And where I’m heading to this morning is the main history and ethnography museum. I always like to start with a trip to a museum just get my bearings in terms of the history just to get my head straight about where I am. So before I go out into the city itself, I’d like to visit whatever museum they have on offer. Don’t fall in that hole or that hole or any of those holes or those ones. Yeah, it’s like mountain climbing sometimes. You have to cross on the cement bridge.
Yeah, this is actually Whoa. Yeah, another one there. Wonder how many tourists they’ve lost down into these holes over the years. But this is a kind of an interesting symbol of modern Malaysia, modern Melaka, because in my brain, of course, I have the traditional town, the historic port of Melaka. And here is the Melaka River. So, this would be where all the action took place.
I was reading this morning that Melaka was a popular shipping port, not because it is a deep water port. Not because it has amazing facilities for ships for loading and unloading and docking, but mainly because of its location in the Melaka Strait. It was all about the location kind of a strategic point between India and China and then of course to Europe. But I was reading that the big ships that traders were using can’t come up the river. The river isn’t deep enough. So what they would do is take their big ships, park them out there in the strait, drop anchor, and then they would have a fleet of smaller boats would load and unload the ships. So that’s how it was done. I was picturing huge docks here where the big ships would come in and unload, but that’s not how it worked. They would have I guess they call them lighters, these small boats called lighters, and they would go back and forth and unload the ships and load them, but the big ships would stay out there in more open water where it was deeper.
But again, this is where all the action took place, the Melaka River. This was the key to the whole operation. So, we’re looking at history, but then up there towering above it, that is modern Malaysia. Huge bridge, big highway system. So, you kind of get both right here, the old and the new.
So, to get to the museum opens at 9:00 a.m., I think, and it’s 9:00 a.m. right now. Just I wanted to walk along the river just to get in the mood. Imagine all of the lighters bustling up and down this river loading and unloading. Be lots of maybe warehouses and porters working loading and unloading those boats as well.
I was not expecting to deal with rain at all. I had no idea that rain was on the horizon. Personally, I have some logistics to deal with while I’m here. I can talk about that a little bit, I guess, while I’m on my way to the museum. And I thought about that because this boat might be in my future. That is the Indomal Express 8. I’ve never seen that particular boat before, but I’m very familiar with the company Indomal because I’ve taken an Indomal ferry back and forth to Indonesia to Sumatra out of Port Dickson and ages ago out of Port Klang.
And with my visa for Malaysia expiring, I wasn’t planning on doing this at all. But the easiest option for me might be that boat right there to go across to Sumatra once more and then hopefully come back to Malaysia and arrive with a fresh visa to continue my bicycle journey. So that’s what I’m thinking about right now. So it’s kind of cool. I got to see the boat leaving. That’s a big one. I don’t know whether I’d bring my bicycle or try to leave it behind in Melaka. I’m not sure. There it goes. The Indomal Express 8. And it’s nice to know that it is so close to my hotel where I’m currently staying.
I guess they’re not heading across quite yet. They’re actually just coming over to this side of the river for some reason.
That looks very traditional using some old trees that have sunk into the water to moor the boat. Yeah, this is much older boat than the ones that I saw leaving from Port Dickson.
Yeah, I wonder why they’re coming over here. This doesn’t look like this would be the main dock for them. The dock on the other side looks much more modern, much bigger. I’m not sure what they’re doing.
Oh, maybe they’re fueling. That seems odd. But he’s definitely pulling. I was wondering what that little cord could do with a boat that size. It’s not like they’re going to pull themselves to shore. But apparently this is perhaps refueling. If so, they’re going to need a tanker truck or something because they’ve got one end of the hose, but as far as I can tell, this is the other end of the hose and it’s not connected to anything. So, what exactly are we doing here? Classic Planet Doug detour. I go off to go to the museum and then I get distracted by something I find along the way. Yeah. What in the world could they be up to? I love boats like this. Very casual. And if you rock up here with a bicycle, I think they’re like, “Yeah, cool.” They’ll just grab it and throw it on board. Find a space for it. At least if I try to do that, that’s what I hope.
So, unless there’s underground fuel tanks here, but I don’t think so. So, I just spoke to this man and he said, “Yeah, they’re waiting for a truck coming here right on time, fuel truck, and then they use this pump to get the gas.” He says, “Yeah, there’s no fuel facilities over at the main dock on the other side of the river.” Atifa, they fuel your journey.
Yeah. Well oiled machine here. Timing is perfect.
They need a whole crew. It’s more complex than I expected. They’re doing something on top of the truck. Maybe opening a valve to let air in for the fuel to get out or I have no idea.
Feels almost like they’re figuring it out as they go. They’ve had long discussions about okay, which where to hook up which hose and how to do it. So maybe it’s a new system or new truck. They’re figuring it out.
And with my endless interest in pop culture, this reminds me of the famous scene in Breaking Bad when they forced a train to stop carrying methylamine and then they hijacked like hundreds and hundreds of gallons, probably thousands of gallons of methylamine, pumping it out. And yeah, looking at this, it’s not as easy as you would think. You would have to be very well organized to do it so quickly, like a major major heist.
And it’s interesting that the Indomal staff, they’re using phones to take pictures of everything cuz they have to make records of all the numbers, make sure they get exactly as much gas as they paid for, etc. So, they’re making a record of everything.
Oh, I get it now. That’s not even a pump, which makes sense. I was wondering because there’s really no engine there. That’s only recording the amount.
So, the force, the actual pump is built into the truck. Oh, so something really went wrong. They had to reconnect the hose and you’re always going to get spillage. I’m just guessing, but I think the problem is that there’s a lot of air in the line and it’s trying to measure how much liquid fuel is going through. But I was looking at the hose and it was just like churning like full of air. And maybe that means it’s not getting an accurate reading. So, they’re disconnecting over and over, and now they’re putting in a new gasket. Maybe there was an air leak of some kind.
The main guy here, he had that’s his scooter over there, and he had a set of gaskets over there. So, now they’re just putting a new gasket into place, trying to get a better seal, I guess.
Okay, that looks better.
Yeah, there’s no more air in the hose. It’s just all liquid going through. They got it all sorted.
So, I was just chatting with the man a little bit, just confirming that those really are lighters. And he says that they’re going to pump 2,730 L. And that makes sense. You can see on the truck he says there’s three compartments and they’re emptying one compartment. So 2,730 L. That’s what’s going into the boat today. And the front compartment also contains 2,730. And then the middle one contains 5,460 L. So, of course, you have to take all of that with a grain of salt because I’ve learned over the years, you ask your questions and you get answers. But they could have misunderstood your question or you misunderstand what they say. There’s a lot of possibility for not understanding when you’re dealing with a bit of a language barrier or you don’t understand the systems that well, but that’s basically what he said.
And I asked him about the price of fuel and he says yeah it has gone up 60%. He said like since last week the price of the fuel gone up 60%. Seems crazy. But yeah it’s just how the world works. You block the Strait of Hormuz and it just sends a shock wave around the world. Even affects this boat here in Malaysia. All right. Everything runs on fuel. So, yeah, clear sign of how interconnected the world is now.
So, we’re getting there. About 1,700 L. Another thousand to go. I guess that’s the old gasket I felt around the whole It doesn’t seem worn at all, but if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. You put in a new one and it looks like they’re prepared for a cleanup operation as well. They’ve got the buckets, but there’s always going to be a little bit of spillage. And they have this soapy concoction to deal with that, which is kind of cool. So, where did it end? Oh, yeah. 2005.
So, they didn’t empty the whole thing. Transfer. No, the fuel tank inside. Oh, different fuel tank. I get it. Okay. So, we paused because the fuel tank on the boat is full and now they have to change to another tank. You can see the tank is emptying 2,730. It’s cleaning out the dregs a little bit.
Now it’s time to disconnect. Shut down, clean up.
Oh, it’s part of his job as well to do this. I thought it would be the young dudes doing it.
Need a new bucket.
Very friendly man there. I was chatting with him a bit more and I was asking him about the boat. The boat goes every day which surprised me. I guess maybe it shouldn’t surprise me because Dumai is a bigger center for transport, the oil industry. There’s a lot more going on in Dumai than Tanjung Balai where I’ve normally gone. Tanjung Balai is, you know, a smaller town by comparison. So yeah, they only go on certain days of the week, but this boat goes every day. But he told me this one is actually their spare boat. The real boat is much bigger. And the only reason they’re using this boat is because they have more passengers than normal. So they filled up the big boat and now for the overflow they needed the second boat in service to carry how many passengers they have today. They go every day at I think he said 2:00. Fridays at noon, but every other day of the week 2 p.m. the boat goes and it’s usually the bigger one.
It’s an interesting kind of a YouTube issue as well. I’m standing there talking to this man and of course I would like to record our conversation on video but we’re sort of in the middle of chatting and it’s kind of awkward to suddenly hit record on my GoPro and then sort of hold it out here and then continue the conversation. Right. So normally I might have my neck mount but I forgot to bring it this morning. I left it in my hotel room. So, I wanted to put the GoPro on my neck mount, but I couldn’t do it because I forgot to bring it.
I really enjoyed that though because I was just talking about and thinking about Melaka historically as a shipping center, a trading port, a free port, which is one of the reasons it became so successful that under the Melaka Sultanate, it was a free port, free trade. There were no taxes maybe. I don’t know exactly. I’m not a historian, but if there were any duties and taxes and customs issues, it was very very minimal. So that’s why it was such a popular place. It was a free trade port and so I was talking about that and then that is all gone now. Of course, Melaka is not a trading center anymore, but we still have boats going in and out. It’s the modern version of Melaka as a place where boats come just for the trade in passengers back and forth from Sumatra.
In modern times, of course, Singapore is now the major shipping harbor in this area. Singapore has taken over from Melaka in that way. I walked around this area yesterday and I pointed out a bunch of these things. The tower here with the observation deck that goes up and down. Doesn’t seem to be operating yet this morning. Hasn’t started running. And this is a Malaysian naval museum. I was looking at Google Maps to figure out what all these places were. So, this is another museum for the Malaysian Navy. And then there’s a maritime museum here. I read that this big galleon over here an example of the type of ships that used to come to Melaka during the colonial period. This one is a replica of a Portuguese ship I believe. So that’s a Portuguese style and it’s also a museum. And that warehouse building beyond it is a customs museum.
And about half a kilometer ahead of me is the center of all of this. What’s it called again? The Dutch Square. By the way, I wore my orange shirt with that in mind. A nod to my heritage and the role of the Dutch here in Melaka. Orange being the official or unofficial. I don’t know. I think it’s the official color of the Netherlands. Certainly associated with that country. I didn’t buy this shirt with that in mind. It just I just liked the bright orange color, so I bought it. And then everyone kept saying, “Oh, you must be from the Netherlands.” Oh, yeah. Orange shirt.
Oh, yeah. This is the name of this one, Samudera Maritime Museum. And that’s this ship here. So, I’ll definitely be checking that out at some point. But this museum, the main history museum is located, according to Google Maps and according to what I read, inside the Stadthuys, which is a big red building here in Dutch Square.
Oh, let me just stop that story just for a minute because here is the maritime museum, Samudera. And there’s the entire ship from across the road. And the sign board here gives a lot of useful information about the museum and the history of this area. So I guess this is the model of a Portuguese galleon similar to a ship called a real ship I guess called the Flor de la Mar. And this sign breaks down the time periods. So you’re basically talking about the Malay Sultanate the 15th century to 1511. So it’s like 1400 to 1511. Then came the Portuguese era 1511 to 1641. Then the Dutch era 1641 to 1795. Then the British era 1795 to 1941. Then importantly the Japanese took over during World War II. So they occupied Melaka from 1941 to 45 and then when World War II ended the British came back and they were in charge I guess from 45-57 and then of course came Malaysia independence 1957 until today.
That’s interesting. There’s a little bit of a patriotic shot at the colonizers here. The final paragraph here in lies in the cargo hold the invaluable treasures of the nation taken away by the colonial masters after they had conquered Melaka in 1511. But by the will of God, the ship sank on January 26, 1512 in the Straits of Melaka on her voyage to Europe. The museum serves as a reminder that once the political power is lost, everything else is lost.
I might be getting ahead of myself here because I’m not at the museum yet, but I was reading this morning about sort of the population figures. This is something that always intrigues me because I think as a modern person, we can’t help but view history from a modern lens. So when we hear about a great battle that took place in history, we imagine millions of soldiers or hundreds of thousands of soldiers on each side. But then you read about the actual battle and it will be like 7,000 soldiers on one side and 11,000 on the other. Like the scale of the battle matches the population of the world at that time, you know, centuries ago. And then when you think about Melaka and it’s described in history as a major city of the world of strategic importance that all the colonial powers were fighting over and you think wow what must have been a huge place but then you have to think in terms of history and then I think during the Malayan Sultanate I think the population was sort of like in the 100,000 people range. So, it’s like a moderate to small city by modern standards. But back in those days, a city of 100,000 people, that was a major world city.
And then, interestingly, according to what I read, when the Portuguese conquered the place and took over, the population dropped dramatically from like 100,000 people and then just dropped down to more like 30 to 40,000. And then when the Dutch took over, the population went even lower down to like 20,000 because the Dutch were more interested in Jakarta. I think they called it Batavia or something like that. Jakarta was their shipping port. That was their main focus. So they didn’t really focus on Melaka as much. And then when the British took over, the population rose a little bit, but it still hovered around 30-40,000 people at the most. So, we’re not talking about a huge city by modern standards and you have to sort of keep that in mind, right? I can’t help but read the description in history about the importance of Melaka and I just picture millions of people living here, but it wasn’t that way at all.
Before we get to the museum, I’m very close to the river, so makes sense to come down here, get a little bit of video of the river. And yeah, there’s the river cruise boat boarding. Yeah, really nice boardwalk. That’s nice. I always like it when a town has the foresight to reserve the waterfront areas and then make it accessible to pedestrians. Oh, look at that place over there. Casa del Rio. It must be a hotel. Nice cafe over there too with if you have deep pockets that might be the place to stay. Something like the Holiday Inn is probably more modern and has more facilities, but it wouldn’t have as much character I guess as staying at something like that. The Casa del Rio right on the river, but I imagine you’re paying a premium for that location.
There goes the cruise. Small group on board early in the morning. She blew me a kiss.
You know, a friend of mine, the American Hobo, was here in Melaka on his bicycle for a few days and he did one of the river cruises. You can see that on his video.
I don’t really know what this is, but they say it is a replica of the original water wheel. And I read through the description here and apparently this water wheel drove water into the river somehow to make it deep enough for the ships to make it up and down the river. But I don’t know how that works or exactly what’s going on with the water wheel. It says at its peak there were 2,000 trading ships docked at the port here. And then this water wheel was used to keep the waterways open and deep enough for all of these ships. But I don’t see a wheel. I guess it’s hidden inside this brick structure. Or maybe the wheel itself is just not here. Maybe this is the mount for the wheel and there used to be a giant wheel revolving in there. But I don’t honestly know how that could affect the water depth of the entire river. Maybe it’s a much bigger mechanism than I’m imagining. Something to look up.
I think this is called the Dutch Square. And that building up there is the Stadthuys. I was reading this morning that the original color the Dutch built it in 1650. And when I read that, I was really surprised because I was looking at this whole building. I was like, “What the heck?” For a building dating from 1650, it’s in pretty good condition considering the climate here. But I guess over the centuries, over the decades, it’s just constantly being rebuilt and refurbished cuz apparently it’s been in use non-stop that entire time by the Dutch and then the British and then by the Malaysian after independence. So I guess Stadthuys means like city house or city hall. So it’s basically city hall for the Dutch. That’s what it was housing the city government basically. And it’s been in use for centuries and keeps being rebuilt and refurbished.
So I don’t know exactly where the museum is but it’s inside this complex somewhere. And one of my favorite things, a good map of Melaka, Melaka World Heritage City. This is a small part of that map, basically where I am right here. You are here. And here’s the Maritime Museum down here. And then the Customs Museum, the river cruise boats are here. And this is the Stadthuys here. And then St. Paul’s Hill.
I have no idea how much of this is original or rebuilt, reconstructed, but this is a segment of the original Melaka fort. I wonder where this brick came from. Of course, you can see the cannon up there. Every fort has got to have its cannons. And this sign is talking about the defense of Melaka. And it says that the Portuguese built eight extra bulwarks and then the Dutch added one called the Middelburg. And then it talks a lot about how many times the city was attacked. So here you know the Melaka fort was attacked by the Acehnese in 1563. Again the Acehnese in 1653. Melaka fort attacked by the Dutch, the Dutch landing in Melaka and then the Melaka fort during Dutch rule in 1744.
So I don’t really have a sense of the scale of the fort and all the bulwarks that they’re mentioning, but I think this one is Middelburg. I think this is the one that the Dutch built and added. And then there would be eight others that were built by the Portuguese.
So I guess this is an outline of the original fort. That would be the wall going all the way around the fortification. And perhaps each one of these is what they’re referring to as a bulwark, like a defensive position. One, two, you know, maybe there’s nine of them in total and those are the bulwarks. I’m not really sure about that. But the information I had never heard before that when the British took over, the British destroyed the fort of Melaka in 1807 because they wanted to move people and trade to Penang. They were staking their hopes on Penang as a new trading post and they didn’t want to compete with Melaka. So as part of that they destroyed I guess they tore down the walls and the bulwarks and this would be either a reconstruction or a remaining part of the fortifications Middelburg built by the Dutch and now it’s all about ice cream and toast and river cruises. Yeah the same red brick here all along the shore of the river.
This sign is going more in depth into something that I was already circling around and basically says that during the period of the Malay sultanate the port of Melaka was the busiest in the world and that’s because the Malay rulers made sure it was secure. So traders from any country in the world could come here with their ships, conduct their trade and they felt safe. Everything was supervised and under control. And the second reason is that the Melaka maritime law ensured that trade was regulated fairly and watched over by the harbor master. And back in those days, as I said, there was an element of free trade. And then it says down here at the bottom that the Portuguese and the Dutch and the British were not big fans of free trade. So when they took over, they adopted a system of monopoly, trade, taxes, duty, that sort of thing. And then that drove traders away. And then when the British took over, they wanted to develop Penang and Singapore. So they sort of abandoned Melaka and Melaka fell into neglect as a trading port.
I’m still down at the Dutch Square and that’s the Stadthuys across the way. And I’m still assuming that the museum I want to visit, the history museum is in there. And from what I can tell, it’s the main museum, the main history museum for the city, but I haven’t seen any signs pointing to it. Like I see signs pointing to everything, all the historic sites, but I haven’t seen anything indicating that this museum even exists. I don’t even see it on any of the maps that they have on display. So maybe I’m out here looking for something that doesn’t even exist.
But I’m still walking along the river and there’s an old crane still here. Maybe one of the only one still remaining. It makes a lot of sense that all up and down the river at the mouth of the river anyway, they would need cranes like this to load and unload some of the boats. And they have some information about that here on this sign.
And this history of the crane does talk about what I was saying that large ships anchored away from the river port in deeper waters, but small and medium sized ships could come right into the river and then they would need cranes like this to load them and unload them. And then there’s a photo of what the river might have looked like back then. Yeah, very different from how it looks now. I was thinking of that in particular when I came down here. Looking at the bridge, bright yellow and pink and blue sign. Welcome to the historic city of Melaka. A mommy monster over there. Whatever that is. Hard Rock Cafe. And Na restaurant right there. Gravy baby. Another restaurant. Heron House. And then that big hotel complex down there that I already mentioned and one tiny piece of the history in and amongst all the restaurants, this crane.
But yeah, looking around here, there’s the Melaka Sultanate Palace. I actually saw that briefly yesterday. And there’s a beauty museum, a people’s museum, a stamp museum, Islamic World Museum, Melaka Islamic Museum, Malaysian Architecture Museum, Museum, but the main history museum that I was reading about, it’s not noted anywhere on the maps. That is so strange. I assume the mystery will become clear eventually.
So, I read through the information here and I learned a couple of new things. The main thing I learned is that this is a recreation. This is not original. The entire fort was destroyed, dismantled by the British completely and then they discovered the foundations and they went into the historical records and they basically rebuilt it as it was. But this is a recreation. And I knew there was a name for this type of brick, this stone. It’s a type of natural clay called laterite. And I should remember that because I’ve done so much reading about laterite in all my visits to museums. I’m just sort of fascinated by laterite. So I should have remembered that. I knew this stuff, but it wasn’t until I read this sign and I saw the word laterite. It’s like ah cuz yeah, you can just dig down into the ground and you find this stuff exactly as it is here. And then you just cut it out in big squares and it dries and turns into a big brick. It’s like natural bricks underground. You just have to dig them out and cut them into the right shape. And that’s the laterite right there.
And that is the prayer room that I accidentally went into and I wasn’t supposed to, but I think I can be forgiven for not recognizing. I mean, that’s the prayer room up on top, but then you’ve got Isaac Toast and ice cream parlor and a Zeus cafe and in the basement there was a souvenir shop and public toilets. It’s only that top portion was the prayer room. So, yeah. I wonder if these cannon are original or not, or are they also recreations? I mean I can tap on it, but that’s not going to tell me anything. But since the entire fort was destroyed, maybe that included the cannons, but I don’t really know.
You do wonder what these cannons would be pointed at. I guess warships. Did they make it this far up the river to attack the fort? I guess they would have to, but man, it feels like any ship that comes up this river to attack the fort. They’re just like sitting ducks, right? There’s nowhere out there to maneuver. So, I can’t imagine a naval battle taking place here. These cannons would just rip any ship to pieces. The ship would have to get so close to shore that they would just basically be sitting ducks, right? Yeah, I don’t really know. Oh, there’s the observation deck on the tower just going down right now. Good old laterite. If I had a house in Canada and I wanted to build a wall around it or something, I would try and get some laterite. I love this stuff. I don’t know why. It sort of captures my imagination to think of this just being under the ground. And if you find a pocket of laterite, you just dig it up and there you go. You got yourself a brick. It’s a little bit more complicated than that, but yeah. Laterite. Very cool stuff.
I’m at the bottom of the steps, I think, that lead up to the Stadthuys, and I think you can go up there and visit it. We have some of these classic petty cabs here. As I said, I saw a YouTube video like a documentary about a man who was coming up with the design for his petty cab for the new year and all the work that went into it, including the batteries, of course, cuz they need a lot of power to run the lights and the sound system. And you can see it’s got a complete sound system back there, like a home stereo.
And this, of course, is a Hello Kitty theme. Another Hello Kitty, but I was reading here about the Stadthuys. And yeah, a lot of the information here I’ve come across before. Built in the 1650s. The Dutch conquered Melaka. They defeated the Portuguese in 1641 and then they built this as their the center of their government for Melaka essentially. And I guess it’s classic Dutch architecture. And when the British took over, they didn’t really change anything. So everything is still traditionally Dutch, though the building was white at the beginning and then it was painted red, I believe, by the British, but don’t quote me on that, but it’s been red ever since. But originally it was white.
But what there is here for a foreign tourist like me to see, I don’t know. But people seem to be going up and down. So I guess I can do the same. Ah, okay. There’s a sign that looks closer. There it is. The Melaka History and Ethnography Museum. So it is here. It’s just not well signposted anywhere else. So, it must be inside here somewhere.
Okay. And that’s the ticket office for the museum which is over here. Okay. I finally found it. So, it does exist. So, 20 ringgit for foreigners, for adults, 10 for children. These days I can claim to be a senior citizen and get the discount. I’m actually more than 60 years old, but I guess you’d have to prove that. Have some kind of a card. I don’t know. Balcony out here overlooking the square. Nice roundabout. That’s got to be Dutch, right? Perhaps the Dutch created that roundabout originally. Yeah, you get a nice view from up here.
And there’s the Malacca Art Gallery.
I’m very proud of myself. I got an iced Wanda coffee from this machine using the power of Touch ‘n Go. Pretty simple that it didn’t take me long to figure out how to do it. But I push one button and then I knew I had to scan their QR code. And you can see on all the signs there, it has things like Alipay listed. So all of these like Chinese tourist, the tour groups that are here, they could use these machines with their Alipay e-wallet from China, I guess. But Touch ‘n Go to the rescue.
Unfortunately, the machine is not set to like a high cold setting. It’s kind of like lukewarm. Very disappointing. Come on, Wanda. Cuz it’s not a Wanda machine. It’s just a general vending machine. Whoever’s in charge of the machine doesn’t have it set cold enough for my tastes.
I’m inside the museum now and I asked them about the senior citizen discount which I have never done before in my entire life. Of course I still think of myself as a teenager practically. I feel like I’m in my 20s. We all feel like that I guess even when we’re in our 60s. It feels weird to be 62 years old. But I went up to the counter and said, “Oh, excuse me. You know, I technically I am a senior citizen, but do I need to show a special card?” And then she says, “No, that’s fine. 10 ringgit for you.” So, I got the senior citizen price, but then I looked at the receipt, and the receipt actually is listed as child price, which is kind of interesting. You know, you begin life as a child, you’re an adult, and as you get older, you’re actually considered more like a child again. So, they don’t even have a setting on the cash register for senior citizen. You just get the children’s price all over again. It’s like you’re going back in time as you get older. Yeah.
So, I’m inside the museum and obviously there is going to be a tremendous amount of information in here. So, I am going to take pity on you, my video viewers, and I’m not going to go over everything I see and everything I read. There’s so much history out there in the city itself as you’re walking around. You don’t really need to know everything that’s in this museum to understand what’s going on. But I’m going to walk through the museum now and do my thing, figure out what Melaka is all about. Having said that, I’m not going to do a deep dive into everything in the museum. There is one fact or one idea that I think is really important and this relates to what I was talking about earlier. How when as a modern person you imagine historical events through a modern lens and you misunderstand exactly what’s going on the numbers are not the same and that has a relationship to this where with the founding of Melaka there’s a figure Parameswara and the idea is that this man came from Sumatra and he kind of founded the city. But then that gives you the impression that this one man by himself just came from Sumatra and just started building or something. But the reality is that he was a prince from Palembang. So he was a member of a royal family. And when the history books say he came, what they really mean is that he came with his entire royal entourage. So he came here with probably dozens perhaps hundreds of other people in his entourage, soldiers, noblemen, craftsmen, like it would be a large number of people. It wouldn’t have been just him coming here by himself.
So yeah, there’s the story of Parameswara. He married a Pasai princess and he converted to Islam and took the title Sultan Iskandar Shah and I guess he ruled 1414 to 1424. He sailed to China. There’s a lot of connection between Melaka and China historically. So again, he traveled to China, but you can see that he went with 540 people. So you have to understand what they mean when they talk about how he went to China, he actually went with 540 other people. It’s a much bigger project than you would think.
So far, my experience of this museum, Planet Doug approved very much. So I just started at the very beginning, but there’s a very interesting display here about the cannon and the weaponry from that era, which is fascinating. And you can see that the displays are very large. Malay and in English. And I love that the sections that you read in English are at eye level. A lot of museums will have some sort of a display and then they have a plaque down at the bottom and then you got to bend way over tiny letters to try to read. Here they have big signs. I don’t even need my reading glasses. I can just read that standing here and a lot of very interesting information presented in a very concise and comprehensible way.
I love this story where the first Portuguese to come here was in 1509 Diego Lopez de Sequeira. So he arrived in Melaka with five ships and he came to establish diplomatic and trade relations and there were meetings but according to all the history I’ve read so far the Portuguese behaved rudely. So this is a good lesson in always being polite. So the Portuguese apparently were not polite. They behaved rudely towards the people of Melaka. So then the fleet was attacked by the people of Melaka. And 18 crew members were taken and held captive. And because they were held captive, then another dude with his ships came back in 1511, Afonso de Albuquerque. So he came back with 18 ships to free the Portuguese that they had captured and that led to the war. And then by August 24th, 1511, the Portuguese had defeated the Melaka Sultanate and now the Portuguese were the rulers. And it all started apparently because the Portuguese behaved rudely and that’s kicked off this entire war and the Portuguese ended up winning.
And then of course they talk about the Dutch followed the Portuguese, the Dutch defeated the Portuguese, the British defeated the Dutch, the Japanese defeated the British and on and on. So yeah, it’s they tell the story in a very clear way. It’s very interesting. You can see more displays here. I’ve barely even gotten started. That first section of the museum that I went through had a lot to do, of course, with the founding of Melaka and the Melaka Sultanate and the arrival of the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British. So, the colonial history and I think the history section of the museum continues. So, that’s where I came in. And there’s stairs here. I think there’s a whole other second floor. Down here on the first floor, there’s a doorway that leads into the ethnography section. So you have a display about copitam and a history of that. And then in this direction, I’ve already gone through this entire area, but there’s a lot about Malay Melaka culture, wedding ceremonies, family traditions in particular. A lot about the weddings here, wedding customs, the clothing and all the ceremonies.
And I started filming again just because the displays here were just visually very interesting with the furniture and then the clothing, traditional clothing from the people that lived in the Melaka area. And then check this room out. This is where I decided to go back and turn on my GoPro and walk through. This is a display of like a baby hair shaving ceremony which is quite important. All the information about it is here. And look at some of this furniture.
One thing that has always struck me even in modern times and in old times like this, this furniture which is supposed to be, you know, luxurious wealthy kind of furniture, but it always seems so uncomfortable to me to sit in, you know, give me a modern-day La-Z-Boy any day of the week, you know, as opposed to I mean, you know, these are like high craftsmanship, probably very expensive, and only wealthy families could afford it, but I’d much rather have a nice cushion.
And this is a Portuguese wedding apparently. Yeah, see a very different style of clothing. And a Rumah Melaka, a Melaka house. Looks like we’re allowed to go up there. But yeah, here’s the looks like a lovely little place. I’m a big fan of tiny homes, you know. I’m a big fan of the tiny home movement and this would suit me perfectly. Just all I need is one room and a little outdoor balcony like this. Yeah, I think I’m allowed to be up here.
There you go. I could live in here quite happily. That’s all I would need. I don’t even need that much. Cut that room in half. And this looks like a kitchen cooking area perhaps or a living room area.
And all through this display, household goods and weights and measures, pots and pans and plates, things like that. Yeah. Much more extensive displays here than I realized. Continuing through the ethnography section, there is a display about music, various instruments, but I fired up my GoPro once again because of this room. Look at that. All about agriculture and fisheries. What an amazing display. It’s a huge space.
I’m up on the second floor now of the history section. And here, as you can clearly see now, we’re doing a really deep dive into the realities of the colonial period, postal system, probably monetary system, all kinds of government administrative stuff. Yeah, there’s so much information up here. Another room over there. I haven’t gone through this section yet, so I just wanted to show a little bit of it on video so you can see what it looks like. And one thing I really like about this museum is it’s got a casual atmosphere. There aren’t security guards standing at every floor monitoring you. There’s no requests to, you know, leave your backpacks at the door. No signs saying no cameras, no tripods, no flashes. It just yeah, it’s a very open, welcoming, friendly sort of place, which of course I appreciate because I’m walking through here with a camera and if I had to leave my knapsack in a locker somewhere, then it suddenly causes all kinds of trouble. Running out of batteries, memory cards, all the things I need. So, yeah, I really like this museum. Tremendous amount of information as well.
And this is what I was hoping to see, a scale model of the fort. And now this gives a very clear idea of the colonial era and the fort that was built. You can see what it looks like. Yeah, that helps a lot for me to get oriented.
Something I often think about is what the actual moment of a meeting between different cultures would have looked like back then. What I mean is what would the local people in Melaka think if they happened to see a ship come up and then it’s a Dutch ship and a man comes off the ship looking like this, right? The kind of clothing that would have been traditional in Europe at that time or even the helmets and armor that the soldiers would have been wearing. I mean, how would the local people react seeing someone dressed in Dutch finery looking so foreign compared to the local style of dress and metal helmets? And again, what did the people of Melaka look like at that time? How did they dress? Were they completely different? I love these paintings. That really gives a sense of what the fort alongside the river would have looked like and how it’s a defensive bulwark with the hill up above.
And here’s another good example. So this is a whole display about the Dutch colonial era. And this might have been a typical Dutch style of collar and hair, facial hair looking like that. I mean, would this guy have looked like an alien to the local people when he arrived? Looking very, very strange.
So, what I read way at the beginning about how when the Portuguese arrived, somehow or other, they were perceived as behaving rudely, whatever that meant. I’m not quite sure what’s contained in that word rudely. It might mean, you know, they went on a crime spree or they were just not polite. I’m not quite sure what that means, but I imagine it’s very easy to imagine misunderstandings between people taking place when two cultures meet for the first time. This amazing model. What would it have been like to cross an ocean in one of these? Can’t even imagine.
That’s a very cool painting. This room is all about a deeper dive into the British colonial era. Very interesting. A lot of detailed drawings of how things would have looked back in those days.
A seal. Okay. Pressing a That’s a very heavy duty seal. And the story I like is something over here. There’s no photo or drawing to Oh, it is actually. I didn’t notice that. You see in the top left corner, you see an explosion taking place. This tells the story of how they destroyed the Melaka fortress. And man, what a shame that is. As I’ve read, the British wanted to prevent Melaka from competing with Penang and Singapore. So to make it less attractive as a trading port, they wanted to destroy the entire fortress. So the entire wall encircling the whole city, they started tearing it down. So they had hundreds of laborers just tearing it apart brick by brick like you can see. You can imagine how long that would take. And months and months went by and they weren’t making progress fast enough. So whoever was in charge decided, well, let’s just use explosives. And then they went around the entire ring of fortress and just blew it up section by section. Can you imagine if they’d left it alone and we still had that entire fort in existence as part of Melaka today? Yeah, that always seems like such a shame to me. In every museum I’ve ever visited, every history book you’ve ever read, there’s always the story of the conquerors destroying cities and buildings and walls, and it all seems sort of so pointless. You can imagine if all of that still existed today, all of that destruction for no reason.
And there’s a good example of what Melaka would have looked like at that time. I guess this was the main fortress. And then there’s also fortifications going around that section of the city as well. But yeah, to tear all of that down, all of that laterite. Yeah, that would be a major project. It’s not as easy as you would think. That’s why they eventually decided to use explosives.
I don’t know how much of this museum is left. There’s another door here that says to Admiral Cheng Ho Gallery, but I don’t know what that is. But this feels like one of the last rooms. And this is all about the Japanese occupation of Melaka during World War II. That must have been a fascinating time. I don’t see a lot of material about it when you’re just roaming around the internet reading about Melaka. But the Japanese in general were pretty dynamic to put it mildly. Like when they take over a place, they really start transforming it. You see that all over Asia, Southeast Asia. So it’d be interesting to know what the Japanese were doing in Melaka. There’s the banana tree currency that the Japanese used during the occupation.
There are photos of Allied forces surrendering to the Japanese and becoming prisoners of war. That must have been absolutely terrifying to be way out here so far away from your own country and now you’re a prisoner of war. Yeah, I don’t know much about the Japanese era.
And this is an interesting display about the introduction of rubber as a cash crop and when that took place and the history of it. The beginning of rubber plantations. So, I guess rubber seeds were introduced as late as 1876, 1877, and then they didn’t really become popular until like a decade or two later. That’s quite interesting.
This is cool. When you exit from the Japanese era room, these doors here, there’s actually more museums up there. There’s a sign, literature, education, governor’s museum. Three more museums up there where those cannon are pointing. I don’t know if they’re open or whether you can access them from here, but I do not have the energy for those today. That is for sure. And then there’s a stairway leading up to another floor. And this is the Cheng Ho Gallery. I don’t know what the gallery is, but you get to see more of the building. I think it was originally a four-story building, and as I said earlier, it was painted white. I saw some paintings of it when it was all in white as built by the Dutch. Yeah, look at this beautiful upper floor.
Cheng Ho. No idea who this is. The great voyager and excellent world peace envoy. So Cheng Ho’s naval expeditions 1405 to 1433. So 28 years Cheng Ho was apparently traveling around the world. So let’s find out who he was. I really don’t know. I guess there’s no great mystery to what this is all about. Cheng Ho had a fleet of ships for 28 years from the Ming dynasty and traveled to many many places, 50 different seafaring routes, 30 countries and regions. And I guess this map over here illustrates an estimation of all the journeys that he took. So I guess he was an envoy for the Ming dynasty. Diplomatic relations, trade relations, exploration, scientific discovery, everything along those lines, I guess. And that must be the man himself or what they think he looked like.
And I assume these are what his ships look like at that time. Very interesting. Look at the sails. Like almost like they look like paper sails. Almost rectangular in shape.
Somebody in the Ming dynasty thought it was important to go out exploring the world and establishing relationships. And I guess Cheng Ho was the man for the job and these would have been his fleet. A much bigger story than I thought it was. It says here that Cheng Ho’s armada consisted of 60 vessels and 25,000 personnel. And when they came to Melaka, they would basically just take over the whole city, buying up supplies for their ships and trade things like that. And this is really fascinating. They had a whole range of different types of ships. Treasure ship, a warship, horse ship, food ship, a water ship, and a passenger ship. So, each ship had a different purpose within the fleet. Very cool. 60 ships, 25,000. It’s basically a floating city divided over 60 ships. I had never heard of the man or the fleet before.
And this looks like it tells the story of his life over here in this corner. Found a doorway that led outside. So I’m getting a sense of the scale of this building. So seems to be like an inner courtyard here. I’m trying to find the exit now. I think I’ve more or less come to the end of the museum or most of it. Anyway, there might be exhibits here and there that I haven’t come across. And there’s Cheng Ho again. Yeah, there was an interesting sign inside there at the end when I was walking out that put him in context with all the European explorers of his day. So, he was listed among all the great explorers of the world from the 1400s. Christopher Columbus, da Gama, Magellan, all these guys, and then Cheng Ho. But I guess one big item about him that I didn’t mention is that he was China’s Muslim envoy to the world and that was one of the things that made him quite special and because of that he had a special relationship with Melaka the Melaka sultanate and a lot of his journeys had him stopping over in Melaka. Yeah, beautiful building. Look at that seating area over there. Some shade and an iced coffee. That’s where I would be hanging out right about now. Yeah, look at this beautiful spot right in the middle of the Stadthuys. It’s gorgeous.
I was just thinking that there’s no way my 10 ringgit entrance ticket and the 20 ringgit ticket that it would normally cost for a foreigner who is not a senior citizen. There’s no way that pays for the upkeep of this building. I don’t think so. There’s no way they would earn enough money to pay for this place. So, I wonder where the financing comes from and what their budget is like. It’s a really nice museum. It’s a tremendous place to visit.
Looking back at where I just came from, that section up there, that is the gallery for Cheng Ho. And there weren’t any arrows pointing the way to an exit, but it made sense. So, I followed these stairways down here into this gorgeous courtyard. And there is a cafe over there. So, it looks like at some point or another you could get a cup of coffee and sit out here, but I think it’s closed right now for some reason. But I guess this seating area would be connected to that coffee shop. But it looks like I chose the right direction to go because this is taking me right back to the entrance where I came in.
There’s the invasion of the trishaws. So many of them today. And when a whole bunch of them arrive all with their music playing, it’s quite the cacophony as they say. Quite a lot of loud music. And some of them, yeah, the younger men are still pedaling, using leg power like this guy here. He’s still pedaling. And the bigger, heavier ones are all they have electric motors now. And there’s the Stadthuys from down here around the roundabout. And I guess there’s a lot more history to be uncovered in that direction, but that’s going to be for another day. One thing that didn’t occur to me until just now is traffic. The lack of traffic. It’s just so nice. I haven’t really had to deal with any cars at all. So, I guess these streets are closed to cars, maybe all the time or just on the weekend. So, we got this classic roundabout. This being Malaysia, I would expect vehicles to be roaring around here non-stop, but it’s perfectly quiet. The only people making noise are the trishaws with their stereo systems.
There goes a river cruise boat with Mommy Monster. There goes the boat on the other side. Yeah, river cruise. Cuz if I do that, we’ll have to be on another day as well.
When I was looking at this gateway, this entrance, you know, it looks like a Chinatown obviously from this gateway. Look at that. Year of the horse up there. New statue, I imagine. If I have the energy, I’ll probably try to come here tonight when it’s cooler and I think more people will be here. It’ll be bustling at night and since this is the weekend, it should be quite busy tonight, I would think. But I just want to walk through it today just to get a feel for it and find a coffee shop. Yeah, check out that building over there. It’s got a very Spirited Away look to it. Yeah, beautiful street. Very interesting. A lot of variety in the architecture, the shop house fronts. Check this place right across the road. That’s gorgeous.
And then down on the ground floor of all these shophouses, all the little shops, cafes, restaurants.
Here, cars are allowed. So, there’s a bit more of a struggle between people on foot and people driving. Kamosa chicken rice ball.
Really colorful front to that shop as well. That’s looking back towards the square and the museum where I just came from. Very colorful temple right here.
It’s a very long street. Much longer than I expected. Famosa Copitam. No end of places to get something to eat if that’s what you’re looking for. Aha. Here’s the There’s the mommy monster. So, I guess this is where he comes from, connected to a restaurant or a shop or something like that. The mommy monster perhaps turning into the Melaka mascot.
Look at that. Very cool. The Royal Press. Would that be coffee?
Yeah, it’s kind of nice to be here on a Sunday. Busy, lots of people around. Gives a sense of life. Nonya cuisine there.
I don’t know if Melaka is known for high quality food by people who know about these things, but there’s certainly a lot on offer. A lot of variety. I’ve been feel like I’ve been walking for miles almost and then I keep passing restaurant after restaurant, cafe after cafe.
Very colorful. A lot of activity. Getting a little bit quieter down here towards this end.
So, I guess between this gate and the first gate is the most crowded area. Of course, if I were in charge of the universe, this would all be car-free. I don’t even know why they would allow cars to go through here. Seems kind of pointless. I would just block off this whole area on the weekend at least to cars. But I feel that way about most downtown areas.
Oh, another gateway here.
Yeah. In a way, it feels like Melaka is just teetering on the edge of too much development, right, in terms of keeping it quaint and interesting and historic and then having businesses and then tourist attractions, things like that. It’s It still feels like a good balance to me. It’s obviously very bustling, very busy, lot of shops and stores and shopping malls and restaurants, but yeah, it all seems to come together quite nicely to make a very interesting place to visit. It’s another Na pineapple shop. There’s the monster again. Like stuff like Mommy Monster maybe is going a step too far into Disneyland for a place like Melaka. That’s maybe where you would want to draw the line. You don’t want too many of these mommy monsters popping up. But other than that, yeah, it’s a very attractive town. If you had the time and the money, there’d be so much here to explore. Baba House. I don’t really know what that is. It’s probably a nice restaurant. Baba House Melaka. And right over here at Lady Na. Look at that beautiful spot hidden back there. Looks like you could get some good food, drinks back there.
Small art galleries dotted around and little temples like this on these back streets.
And just talking about all the places that are hidden back here. Check that out. A residence I assume. Chi ancestral mansion or Qi ancestral mansion. I didn’t see it till just now, but there’s a sign over here. It’s a world heritage site designed by J Westerhout. The mansion was built in 1925 in honor of Chi Yam Chuan, a prominent Baba businessman. Huh. But yeah, that’s quite the amazing looking place.
It’s not far from overwhelming. The more you walk around here, the more you see. I passed by a number of like more mansions with open doors like art galleries, museums, and this here’s another one, Baba and Nyonya Museum.
It’s just sort of never ending when you’re walking around these streets.
I just came walking up that street right there, whatever that street is called, and I just got back to the river. Looking at everything from the other side now. There’s the maritime museum, that Portuguese galleon. And that’s the water wheel right there directly ahead of me. And right over here there’s the fort or the little bit of fort that they reconstructed. I guess in terms of the original fort, there’s one gate left. That’s original. And I’m not quite sure where it is though. I haven’t seen it yet. And then the Stadthuys is just on the other side of this building here. And the hill just up there. So there’s a lot more to see in Melaka than I’ve seen so far. You could probably stay here a full week and go out every day and not quite come to the end of everything. So, I don’t think you should try to see everything. Just relax and take it as it comes and enjoy what you do come across.
I was looking for a cafe where I could duck inside, have a nice cup of coffee in a fancy boutique kind of place, but all the places were like interior and I really my brain is all about the river right now. I’m just focused on the river. So, I came all the way back here and instead of a fancy boutique cafe, I got my cafe latte from Zeus. Not very imaginative, but Zeus has this seating area right here out by the river. And there’s a little bit of shade here. I’m taking advantage of the shade. And I noticed right beside my table is a painting. I saw it earlier, but I didn’t know what it was. But it’s all about the man of the hour. This fellow I assume in yellow. This is Parameswara. So he you can think of him as the founder of Melaka as it is today and the Melaka Sultanate. And this is quite funny. It’s looking at how one of his hunting dogs was thrown into the river after being viciously kicked by a white mouse deer. So I was looking down at the painting for this vicious mouse deer. And look at that cute thing down there. A tiny little thing, but yeah, I guess he’s got quite a kick. Sending that hunting dog flying into the river apparently. Anyway, it’s kind of a nice place to end my walk around Melaka. I hardly need to report on the coffee. I don’t think it’s going to taste like a Zeus cafe latte. Nice. Yeah, it’s unsweetened. I don’t know whether I had a choice for that or not. It’s just like coffee flavor. And there goes one of the cruise boats going by.
So, I don’t know how long this video is going to end up being, but I think it’s going to be a classic very long Planet Doug video, but I’m getting to the end of it here. I didn’t intend to do so many things to talk about so many things. My original idea was just to go to the museum and that was it. But I started off with that in-depth look at the Indomal ferry, like refueling the ferry. I thought that was quite interesting. And I saw so many little bits of history coming up here, reading the plaques, and then the museum. And now ending it with a coffee by the river. So, if you made it all the way to this point, you know what that means. That makes you a member of the Planet Doug Crunch Club. Put CC in the comments to let me know that you made it all the way to the end of the video. You’re my absolute favorite people. And shout out to all of the Planet Doug Patreon members. Thank you for supporting me through Patreon. I really appreciate it. Helps out a great deal. And with one more hop on, looks like a hop on hop off cruise boat. I didn’t even know they had those. Completely empty right now. But with that boat going by, I’m shutting down the video and I’ll see you next time.