VIDEO DESCRIPTION:
ANNUAL DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL 2026: 8KM RACES & RECONNAISSANCE IN MELAKA, MALAYSIA! |
Welcome back to Planet Doug! Today, we are diving into the heart of one of Melaka’s most exciting weekend events: the 41st Annual Dragon Boat Festival! 🐉
I have to admit, finding information about events in Asia is always a bit of a mystery for me. Instead of a clear schedule, I had to conduct a full-on reconnaissance mission down to the Melaka River to figure out where the action was! Join me as I uncover the secrets of the 8km long-distance races on Day 1 of this incredible festival.
In this video, you’ll discover:
👀 The Mystery: Why I couldn’t find any info online and had to rely on “reconnaissance.”
🚣 The Action: Watch as teams of 12 battle it out in perfect synchronization over 8 kilometers.
🌏 International Teams: Meet the crews from Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Australia—and find out the surprising reason they don’t bring their own boats!
🏆 The Logistics: How a 40-minute race is timed manually by two organizers with a smartphone, a tablet, and a piece of paper (yes, really!).
🐉 Cultural Insights: Learn the difference between a “Supreme” Chinese Water Dragon and the Western fire-breathing monsters we know.
Plus, I got a sneak peek at the setup for the next day’s 200-meter sprints! The energy here is amazing, with teams cheering each other on and showing incredible sportsmanship.
If you’re planning to visit Melaka during the Dragon Boat Races next year, you might want to watch this video (and my next one) first, so you have some idea of what is going on.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
I am squinting here on a bright Saturday morning in Melaka, Malaysia. The sun is directly in front of me, hitting me full on in the face. And yeah, I’m down by the Melaka River. As you can see, this dredging barge has been there most days that I’ve walked by here. It’s always busy dredging the bottom of the Melaka River. That is the international ferry terminal directly across right over there. And the reason I’m down by the river and on a Saturday morning is because this weekend is the dragon boat festival. I found out that the dragon boat festival was scheduled for this weekend. I guess it takes place annually on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. And I guess that falls on this weekend, June 27th and 28th. So today is the first day of the festival. Saturday, tomorrow, June 28th, is the second day of the festival. As I said, I just sort of found out that it was happening. So I extended my stay here in Melaka just to take in the festivities, see what the Dragon Boat Festival in Melaka is all about. And I have to laugh because I’ve had an ongoing struggle in Malaysia and to be honest in Asia in general when it comes to public events because no matter how hard I try, I can never find out any information about them. It’s like I think the local people just know stuff. Or maybe there’s media in local language or I’m just a dummy. That’s probably what’s actually going on here. I’d look for information about the festival, like what is happening during the festival, when is it happening, where is it taking place, like where should I go at what time? And I end up with absolutely no clue. I never know. So, I basically have to do reconnaissance missions. And I did find some information online that today, Saturday, June 27th, they are conducting long distance races. So the races this morning are like 5 km long or 8 km long. So they go way up the river, but I don’t know whether they go up the river and back. Like where is the finish line? Is the finish line up at the top of the river or do they go turn around, come back? So, is the starting line downtown and then they turn around and the finish line is downtown? I have no idea, but I think that’s what’s happening this morning. And to my surprise, the schedule I found said it was only happening from 8 until 10:00, like a 2 hour window for the whole day. So, like, oh, so I guess I better get out there early enough. And I did hear something about opening ceremonies. I tried to find out, okay, where are these opening ceremonies? No clue. I just could not find out for the life of me. And there’s supposed to be a huge special like a 100 foot long dragon boat coming from China. I believe it’s supposed to be very special and is here as sort of an honored guest. So I want to know, okay, where is this boat? When will it be on the water? When can I get a look at it? No clue. No matter how much work I did, I could not find out anything about the events taking place, when they’re taking place, where they’re taking place, where I should go. So, that’s just my life. But, so I’m just down here doing reconnaissance and just hoping that something is going on. I don’t know what’s going to be going on. I don’t know where the teams are, like where they’re gathering, how many races there are, who’s competing. I did read that there are over 100 teams in total in Melaka for the races. Whether that’s for the short sprints which are taking place tomorrow and for the long distance like how many different teams there are. I really don’t know anything. But anyway, I’m here at the river just to check out the action, see what’s happening on a Saturday morning.
There’s a big crowd over there. So, yeah, let’s go for a walk. One thing I think the organizers got very lucky with the weather. I think they must be thanking their lucky stars because it was an even chance whether the day would break with heavy heavy rain in the morning. But the day started with perfect absolutely perfect weather. And they probably start the races so early 8:00 in the morning because of the heat. They don’t want people out there killing themselves in the extreme heat. Midday Malaysia, midday Melaka, it gets very very hot here. So maybe that’s why they do it so early. But yeah, I don’t know if this area is open to someone like me just to walk through. It seems to be a staging area where the teams are getting ready. But at least we can get a kind of Oh, that’s interesting. Yeah, for every sport in the world, everybody has specialized gear and of course they have specialized paddles and they have very very high-tech bags. Look at that. All the gear you need to keep your paddles safe. That’s cool.
And my understanding is that for the dragon boats themselves, they take 20 crew. So there’s 20 people on each team. Hello. Good morning. How are you? Thanks. Hello.
So people are warming up, stretching, exercising.
Yeah, I was just saying yeah, with the dragon boat races, I think there are 22 on each boat. 20 rowers, one person hitting the drum, so they have a drummer, and then one person steering for a total of 22. I think that’s the standard. Maybe there are all kinds of variations. I’m not aware of. Maybe for these long distance competitions, there’s less smaller boats maybe because they have to make tight corners and things on the river instead of a full-size boat. I really don’t know. Like I said, we’re doing reconnaissance here. And there’s one of the one of the boats. I was wondering where the boats were because there’s supposed to be over a hundred teams competing this year from all over the world, at least all over Asia. And you’d think with that many teams, you would see these boats all over the place. But I went walking all up and down the river yesterday. I didn’t see a single dragon boat. I didn’t see any of the teams at the hotels. I didn’t see any trucks carrying the boats, people carrying them to the water. So, yeah, it’s all kind of a mystery to me. So, that’s why I do a reconnaissance walk like I’m doing now. Team building over there. They’re pretty serious. Yeah. And I don’t know how professional the teams are either. Like are there fun races and also serious athletic teams, athletic races, or are they all at the same level? Everybody, every team is a professional team. I don’t really know. Do they represent schools, represent companies or neighborhoods, different city teams? Like I said, it’s all kind of a mystery to me. I’m just here to absorb the atmosphere.
Good timing. Here comes one of the first boats that I the first boat that I’ve seen on the water. I’m assuming they just completed the full race. Does that mean they’re winning? They’re in the lead.
Woo.
So that answers some of my questions. Yeah, that’s a team of 10 rowers, one drummer, one steersman. So, I guess there’s the larger boats like this one down here take a team of 22 and then smaller ones maybe for the long distance that take a crew of 12. Oh, maybe that’s their the competition behind them. Yeah, they were way in the lead. That was not a photo finish. That was a clear winner. And here comes the teams behind them.
Yeah, a lot of excitement here which is very cool. All the teams on the shore are cheering on the teams on the water which is nice.
And the key to a good dragon boat crew is pretty obvious is being synchronized, right? They all have to paddle at the same exact time.
There they come.
Oh, they looked like they were going to miss the gate. I guess they have to go through the two buoys. Yeah, he managed to go in there. Yeah, they almost missed it.
The teams look to be mixed, men and women on the same team, on the same crew.
Four boats in total in this race, I guess. Maybe there’s more. I think I 12 boats in this heat. 12. 12. Yeah. How many at one time? 12. Oh, really? Yeah. So, there’s eight more coming. Yeah, eight more coming. Wow. Did they all leave at the same time? No. Every 30 seconds. Oh, so it’s staggered. Okay. So, you only know who won because they’re timing it. Yeah. Correct. At the end. No. Yeah. So, we still don’t know who the winner was.
Are all these teams at the same level? Like they’re all professional style athletes or some of them are fun teams? Some are fun team. For ours is a senior team. Okay. Then some feel all the ladies although it’s a open event. Open event actually is mainly they put guys. I see. Okay. Some maybe not enough guys. So the open class that’ be the most serious athletes. The open. Yes. And then there’s other categories. Other categories are mix women and masters. Masters are 40 and above. I see. Okay. Yeah. But that one will be 200 m tomorrow. I see. Today is only the 8km. 8km. Yeah. So the 8km they go up, turn around and come back. So this is the starting line and the finish line. Yes, correct. I see. And do the sprints use a bigger boat? No, same boat. Cuz this one looks much bigger. Same. Same. Is it the same? Yes. Okay. The same boat. I read online that there were 20 rowers in each boat, but I only see 10. Oh, these are all the small boats. The 22 are big boats. Today they use all the small. Oh, okay.
So, is there only one race this morning or more than one? No, only one race. Okay. So, this is the only race. Yeah. 12 teams in the first race one. Another 12 teams race two. Okay. That’s also happening this morning. Yeah, this morning after this. I see. So, I’ll be going down. Okay. So, once they call once the boat all better. Where’s your team from? Singapore. From Singapore. Awesome. Are there any international teams from outside Asia that you know about? Australia. Yeah. Australia. Yeah. Okay. Australia. Yeah. Okay. I’m from Canada. There’s no Canadian team? No, no, no, no. Only Australia, Singapore, mainly Malaysia. Oh, I see. Yeah. Different parts of Malaysia. Like there’s a pin, there’s I don’t know. Okay.
Australia. Yeah. Australia. Australia. Oh, that’s Australia. Yeah. But all female. Yeah. Also all female. They look more casual. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. All right. True. Yes. Yes. Do you think they brought the boat from Australia? No. No. No. They are all here. Okay. So you from Singapore, you didn’t bring your own boat? No. Ah.
Do they always paddle so hard the whole time or only at the end they go so fast? Start at the end but in between they go very long st cuz they couldn’t do it like this the whole time. Cannot get up. Get up.
I read there were over 100 teams coming this year. Yeah. Total. But okay. Go big medals.
Oh, and two boats coming up behind for safety. Yeah, for In case monitoring. Yeah. So, this is probably the last team. Yes. On this race.
I was also reading that they’re dragon boats because in China the dragon is different than the western dragon. Like for us dragons are monsters like fire breathing. They love gold and they have treasure and they’re dangerous monsters. But this dragon is different, right? The Chinese dragon. Yeah. In what way is it different? Supreme. Ah, supreme. Like last time those Chinese emperor, right? Only the emperor wear clothes with dragon. So if other people wear dragon with dragon, right, they will be executed. Yeah. So dragon is supreme. But they’re supposed to be like spirits of the water, right? This dragon is associated with rivers and lakes and that that is a water dragon. Yeah, water dragon. There’s a fire dragon as well.
So in Chinese tradition, there’s also a fire dragon too. Yeah. So there’s water dragon and fire dragon. Ah, I didn’t know that. I see. That’s similar to the western idea, the fire dragon. Okay.
Well, for me as a visitor to this event, could not have worked out better. Like I said, I was so worried that I had no idea where anything was taking place, where the finish line was, where the start line was. By pure accident, I got here at the finish line, which is also the starting line right at the time when the first race was just ending. So that that’s pretty amazing. Yeah. Right below me, this is the team from Australia. Hello.
So, how did you do?
We finished. That’s great.
And there’s a I Yeah, I learned a lot from chatting with a woman who was standing beside me. She’s a member of a team from Singapore. And so I’ve been learning a lot very quickly. One mystery was solved about the boats that these boats are all kept here in Melaka. So the teams don’t fly in with their own boats. They are kind of used communally. So in fact when a team finishes they go over there and unload. The team gets out of the boat and then the next team in the next race gets into that same boat. So, they don’t have their own specialized team boats. They’re all the same, all used by all the teams, which is interesting. So, that explains why I didn’t see boats at hotels on trucks moving around the city because they use the same boats every year and all the teams use the same boats that are held here in Malaysia from year to year.
Yeah, that looks like a scary team. All in black. And the woman I was talking to told me that the woman in pink here or the team all in pink is raising awareness for breast cancer. So that’s the pink team there.
And she told me that they stagger their departure. So when they start the race, they don’t all leave at the same time. Every 30 seconds a new team goes. So you don’t have like a photo finish going over the finish line. They time each crew individually.
So, in fact, you don’t really know who the winner is until they get all the times and they compare them, right?
So, the next race is starting. What?
A lot of cheers from the other teams. That’s a really cool thing about these Dragon Boat races so far. There’s a lot of good sportsmanship. It’s the focus seems to be on fun, sort of a camaraderie, sportsmanship, and then the athletics. I think this second team, they jump the gun, so they’re being called back. The first team, they lined up, so they they’re listening for the air horn, and the air horn tells them go, and then they start timing. There’s a table back here with all the officials. So that’s how it works. So this poor team, yeah, false start and they have to come back to the starting line and do it again. So yeah, I was talking with the woman from Singapore and she was telling me that they have staggered departure. So each boat is timed individually by the officials and they have to do it that way. Of course, they can’t have 12 boats lined up. It’d be very exciting if they did. And I guess tomorrow when they do the 200 meter sprints. I was talking with a woman here from the Philippines who’s a member of a team of Filipino dragon boat racers and she was telling me that the 200 meter sprints happen here as well. This is the finish line, but they start the sprint by the bridge over by the Hard Rock Cafe, and they sprint from there to here, 200 m. And that’s all happening tomorrow. And I’m assuming for the sprints, they would have several boats lined up. So, they would actually be competing with each other in real time. For this 8 kilometer race. They’re trying to, you know, lodge the fastest time possible, but they don’t really know who’s in the lead. They just have to do their best and hope that their time is faster than all the other teams, and then they know who the winner is. So, okay, they’re lined up again, waiting for the horn. There they go. They didn’t jump the gun this time.
One thing I was thinking of is that every boat should I mean they’re all using common boats that belong to the Dragon Boat Festival Association and they store them somewhere in Malaysia probably here in Melaka between events. So, they don’t have their own boats, so they can’t decorate them with their own team colors or sponsors or country of origin or anything like that. But, it would be nice if they had like a flag, like if every boat had a mounting spot for a flag and the team could bring a flag that identifies them, cuz I have no idea where any of these teams are from. I have no idea. I think some of them have a logo on their paddles. But here’s the next team about to take off. There they go.
And I guess the drummer must be quite skilled because they can the drummer controls the tempo, the rate at which they paddle. And if the drummer demands too much from them, it would wear them out, right? So they the drummer really has to establish a really good pace fast at the beginning to get started and then for the midpoint of the race they settle into longer paddle strokes rather than sprint hard. They’re settling in for a grind because I didn’t realize this. Again I was talking with this woman from the Philippines and she was telling me that it takes 40 minutes. So that first race I saw the ending of the race. That race started 40 minutes ago around 8:00 in the morning. So it’s a 40 minute 8 km route that they paddle. That is a lot. I had no idea it took so long. I thought it would be 20 minutes, you know, 10 up, 10 back, but it’s 20 up, 20 back. Something like that.
So we got there were 12 teams in the first heat. And now there are 12 more teams getting started.
They’re waiting. There goes the horn. Off they go.
Yeah. Perfectly synchronized. That’s where all the speed and the efficiency comes from.
I guess you could have 10 incredible Hulks on your crew, but if they’re not paddling at the same time, that wouldn’t do them any good. They all have to be paddling in perfect rhythm. That’s the key. I’m told that’s the key to dragon boat races.
And when I was chatting with the woman from the Philippines, she was, like I said, she worked for the Philippines team. She was on the crew. She’s going to be on the sprint team tomorrow, but she also does a lot of the organizing and the logistics and the planning and the training stuff like that. And she told me something quite interesting that yes, her team is from the Philippines. They’re all Filipino competitors, but they live in Malaysia. So, I was picturing all these teams flying from the Philippines into Malaysia. And I was thinking, oh, how do they bring their boat? How do they pay for the flights? How do they cover all the costs? But it turns out, at least for the Filipino team, they are all working and living in Malaysia already. So, they’re based here. And then they formed a Filipino dragon boat team. So that makes a lot of sense to me as well. And the Australian team could be the same. Like I was assuming the Australian team flew in from Australia, which would be a huge expense and would be quite a big deal. But it’s entirely possible that the Australian team, they are also all expats living and working here in Malaysia and then they formed a dragon boat team in the country. And that makes a lot of sense to me. I have this timed on my watch as well, more or less. When the first team left, I started a stopwatch so I can see for myself how long it takes, whether it’s 40 minutes before the first team comes back again.
I have to say I’m surprised at the lack of spectators. I guess there they would be spread out all along the river. So there would be many more spectators for the overall race than you’re seeing right here because they’re going 4 km up the river and then 4 km back. So there will be spectators on the various bridges all the way up the river. But here right at the starting and the finish line I was expecting crowds like huge crowds of people but there aren’t that many people here and I’m standing here all by myself because I’m willing to stand out in the sun. Most people are hiding in the shade, but I don’t mind being out in the sun to get lots of elbow room and I’m not bothering anybody with all of my talking into the camera.
So exciting. The first team is coming back from the second heat, the second set and it is exactly 41 minutes from the departure. So it is a 40 minute. I don’t know whether this is the first team that left. I can’t remember which one it was, but they’re the first to cross the finish line.
Sprint to the finish. That’s crazy. And I think the rule is you have to go between the two buoys to finish. And some of the boats nearly missed. Like the steer forgot and they’re veering off to the right. And at the very last second, they cut really hard to get through the buoys cuz I think they would have to turn around to go through the buoys to officially finish. Yeah. Funny thing is I went over to look at the table where they’re monitoring everything, timing everything, keeping records. I was expecting like 10 people with all kinds of computers and cameras and timers official gear, but as far as I can tell, the entire race is being run by two young women with a smartphone and a sheet of paper. So, I think they’re just doing it manually where they note the time that the team leaves. The horn sounds, they see the time, they write down the time, and then when they cross the finish line, they write down the time. So, it’s not like they’ve got 12 different people with stopwatches, you know, doing it exactly, judges and all. It’s very, very casual over there. But they’ve been doing this, by the way, for 41 years. This is the 41st annual dragon boat race here in Melaka. Oh, look at this. This is another western team.
I don’t know where they’re from. Like I said, they need a flag or something to identify the team.
And I think I’m hearing an Australian accent. So, this might be an Australian team. Do you know where they are from? You don’t know? They look Australian. I think I heard an accent. Yeah, I think so.
Oh, they don’t even have their own life jackets. They’re actually putting them into that bag there. So, I guess the organizers supply their life jacket as well for the whole team.
Okay, here comes the second team to finish.
There’s another one of the dragons. A benevolent water spirit. These Chinese dragons, they control water in the rivers and lakes, waterfalls and rain.
This team, they are finishing strong. Look at that. They are synchronized. They’ve really got it going on. Make sure you go through the two buoys. Yep.
I guess one could do some simple math, right? 8 km, 40 minutes on average. So, you can figure out on average how fast they go in these boats. I’ll do the math and put the speed up on the screen for you. I can’t do it in my head right now. I’m too busy monitoring too many cameras and microphones.
I’ll just walk down in this direction for a minute towards the table with the organizers and get a little glimpse of what’s going on over here.
So, there’s the table and these seem to be the people in charge of recording finishing times. But yeah, it’s very very casual unless there’s hidden automation that I’m not aware of, but it all seems to be done manually. Oh, okay. So, she’s actually watching the finish on a tablet, probably recording the finish, and then she’s going to note exactly when they cross the finish line. She’s right here, right in front of the finish line, and she’s going to report the time. Boom.
And then the second woman is writing down the time. So that’s it. That’s the whole system. Very straightforward. Just keeping track manually and writing down the results on a piece of paper.
Go again. View. View duck. Suck. Yeah. Are you ready? Happy birthday.
So this is unusual. You actually have two boats finishing at roughly the same time. But of course, it doesn’t mean that one boat is in the lead because they left at different times, right? Still kind of fun to see them arriving at the same time. Makes it look like they’re racing against each other.
It’s cool for me to see all the cameras. A lot of the teams have 360 cameras. The drummer on that second boat has a 360 camera mounted on a selfie stick from her backpack, you know, above her in the air. And a lot of them have GoPro and other action cameras mounted on their helmets or their hats. So there’ll be a lot of video of stuff like that. But and every time they finish this time, they’re not using these boats again today. So instead of a new team getting in the boat, they’re bringing all the boats here on my left and then tying them up to the shore. And they’re going to be waiting until tomorrow.
And when the race started, I think it took about 20 minutes for all the teams to leave cuz they had staggered departures. So, it was like 20 minutes for all 12 teams to get started. So, the end of the race will be staggered over 20 minutes as well. Yeah, pretty simple design and construction like a unibody boat. And even the steering oar is just held in place by some rope there. Hopefully that rope is checked before each race. In the middle of a race, you wouldn’t want that rope to break and the steering oar to fall off.
And then each boat has its own drum. Yeah, they leave looks like they leave the drum in the boat overnight.
It’s a lot of good natured back and forth between all the different boat crews.
Yeah, I think my biggest disappointment in terms of the organization is what I already mentioned. I have no idea who any of these teams are. Each boat should have a flag on it clearly identifying what country they’re from, what city they represent, what club, what company, what organization.
Local people here seem to know who is who, but I have no clue. So, I have no idea who any of these teams represent.
Hard work. Yeah, he’s got to climb up the fence in order to get out of the boat here. There’s no ladders, no dock or anything like that. Also kind of interesting.
Yeah, this is the boat I mentioned where the drummer, she has a 360 camera mounted on her on her back. That would be very cool to get the video like that.
I’ve seen a lot of boats arriving at the finish line. So maybe for the final boats, I’ll take the time to walk around a little bit. Maybe walk over to the bridge. I can film the last couple of boats from the bridge. But yeah, a lot of congratulations.
I’m curious to see how many more spectators are lining the river over in this direction.
I saw them setting up all these tents yesterday. I actually ran into one of the tents. I hit my head. They were raising it, but a bar was still hanging down low and I cracked open my head. I was bleeding from the top of my head yesterday. But I thought they were putting up these tents for all kinds of food stalls, like for spectators to get food and drinks. But it looks like all these tents are for the teams. So every team is assigned one of these tents where they can stage for their race, get out of the sun. Very well organized.
360. Yeah, there’s a cool shot. The boat right by the water wheel.
I notice that the drummers, they seem to be using a technique where they hit the drum and then move off to the side rather than straight up and down. It’s like a hit and then a sideways motion. Hit sideways. I’ve seen a number of drummers do it that way. I wonder if that’s traditional for dragon boat races. I don’t know.
Maybe it gives more of a visual cue for the rhythm. They can actually hear the drum, but they can actually see the motion to the side to keep them more in sync. I’m just guessing.
Ah, this is so much fun. I spend so much time going up and down this river, kind of looking at it from a historical point of view. The water wheel, the bastions. Right up ahead here is the Middelburg Bastion, of course, which I’ve talked about endlessly, Victoria Bastion, further up. And then over here, the Frederick Hendrik Bastion right across the road there. And I focus so much on the history. Now I get to see the river in a completely new light as a site for a festival. Not just a festival, a sporting festival.
Yeah, this would be a pretty amazing place to take in the races.
If you’re at a cafe or a restaurant at the side of the river, you can just sit there in the shade, have a cold drink or hot drink, and then watch the boats.
So, what I want to do, I guess, is go up onto the bridge for the final boats, and maybe I can get some video of one or two of the boats from here going underneath the bridge.
I’m curious to see if they are paddling at the same pace. Like when they get close to the finish line, of course, they go faster to get a dramatic finish, but for the bulk of the distance, I think they do it more gradually, a longer stroke to, you know, conserve energy and be more efficient. Yeah. I’m not sure how many boats are left. I was just wondering how many more boats there could be because there’s this one coming and it has like a safety boat right behind it, which makes me think it must be the last boat, but I don’t think 12 of them have gone by yet. I’m not sure. I’ve seen the Philippines crew yet. Maybe the safety boats kind of stagger. One boat halfway through and then another one coming at the very end just in case a boat tips over. Of course, cheering underneath the bridge. Gives them a nice echo.
Look at that. The steersman, the oarsman is doing a really nice job. He’s cutting the angle. I thought he was going off course and was heading towards shore, but because the river curves here, he was cutting the angle to get the most efficient line, the shortest distance to the end. Yeah, a lot of skills involved for all the members of the crew.
So, yeah, let’s go up on the bridge. To be honest, I wasn’t going to come to the bridge because I just assumed there would be hundreds, if not thousands of people crowding every vantage point. I didn’t even think I’d be able to get close to the river. But I can actually go anywhere I want. And yeah, right up onto the bridge. Oh, Zeus coffee. I can smell good coffee. Yeah, this is amazing. Such a laidback yet exciting event. Quite often these big events end up being a bit too much for me because just the crowds and the noise are kind of overwhelming. But today anyway for the long distance race, it’s pretty casual, pretty laid-back.
So, let’s see if we can capture one more boat at least going underneath the bridge.
It’s looking like that boat, the one that was so efficient cutting the line to get to the finish line. That was the last boat. So that boat, the safety boat was following the final boat cuz I came up here on the bridge and yeah, there’s been no more boats since then. And I’ve been waiting. I think I’ve given it enough time. I think the race is over. So, I timed my trip up to the bridge a little bit late, but that’s okay. I think I got a lot of pretty interesting footage from the finish area. And I did manage to get video of the final boat heading towards the finish line. There’s Jonker Street over there for anyone that’s unfamiliar. This is the Melaka Bridge. And over on the other side of the bridge, the Stadthuys, Dutch Square, all of the famous historic buildings.
St. Paul’s Hill up there. And this is where the event took place. Just down there is the finish line. Incredible setting. I think this luxury hotel over there on the right, the Casa del Rio, something like that, kind of a five-star luxury place. They are sponsors of the Dragon Boat Festival, the Dragon Boat races, I imagine. Maybe some of the teams are even staying there. Not sure. Again, I thought the entire river on both sides would be lined with spectators, but even down around the finish line where I was, the teams themselves kind of outnumbered the spectators. The teams and their family members and supporters. Yeah, there weren’t as many spectators as I thought there would be. But again, this is the first day and these are the long distance 8 kilometer races and the big event I guess is tomorrow. But now, yeah, I’ve certainly learned a lot. My first time going anywhere. Like I said, I treat them like reconnaissance missions because I don’t know anything no matter how hard I try. Researching online, talking to people, asking questions, I just can’t figure out what’s going on. So when I go there, I don’t really know anything. And then this morning, just by luck, I got here at the perfect time to see the end of the first race, the beginning of the second, all the excitement. Yeah, I managed to take in all of it. And I thought I heard an engine behind me, but I think that was a truck. I thought maybe there’d be like a cruise boat or another safety boat and another dragon boat coming, but no, I think that is the end of the races. So, I’m just going to walk back in this direction, but get back to the beginning. Yeah, the sun is a real challenge for a lot of people. I’m so accustomed to being out in the hot sun, I don’t even think about it anymore. Which is kind of odd considering I’m from Canada, but a lot of local people, I guess they grew up with this sun, so they just don’t want to deal with it. So, being out in the sun all morning for this race, a lot of people covering their faces from the sun. Yeah, post race excitement selfies.
There’s one of the teams and their sponsor, I guess, Dragon Venture, Swiss, but I don’t know where they’re from or who they represent.
Yeah, crowds are breaking up. Teams are going to start getting ready for tomorrow for the sprints. And I think tomorrow is going to be a much bigger event. A lot more spectators, a lot more excitement. And some people that I was talking to, they told me that the awards ceremony announcing the winners that takes place tomorrow. So even today for these long distance races, I’m sure they know who won. Maybe the teams themselves know who won. I don’t know whether there’s a public announcement or not, but I guess the awards, the official public announcement, giving out trophies, whatever it is they do, that’s all taking place tomorrow after the sprints. So, I think that is it. I was thinking about covering the long distance race this morning and the sprint tomorrow and then turning that into one Planet Doug video cuz I wasn’t sure what was going on today. I wasn’t sure whether I would see anything interesting or not. I thought today would only be reconnaissance and then tomorrow I would actually be able to film the races. But everything worked out beautifully this morning. So I think this will be a very good standalone Planet Doug video for the dragon boat festival 2026 in Melaka. As I said the 41st annual dragon boat festival there have been this has been going on for 40 years which is pretty amazing. So that’s it for today for the long distance race. I’m going to come back tomorrow morning 8:00 a.m. sharp for the sprints. That ought to be very exciting. Hopefully the weather is as good tomorrow morning as it is today. This is absolutely perfect. And now that the races are over, you can see that the cruise boats are all docked over there. And now all these boats have pulled over. They’re getting ready for the tourists of the day. Take them up and down the river. Right now, I have no idea how long this video ended up being, but it could be a typical fairly long Planet Doug video. So, if you watched the video all the way to this point, all the way to the end, that’s quite an accomplishment. And you know what that means, you are now a member of the Planet Doug Crunch Club. Those who watch the video all the way to the end, you can put CC in the comments to let me know. And as I’ve joked recently, someone suggested that if anybody watches the video all the way to the end, likes the video, and is subscribed to Planet Doug. Well, that makes them a Crunch Club Elite member. CCE in the comments to let me know. I like that idea. It’s kind of fun. So, yeah. Shout out to the Crunch Club members. And as always, shout out to everyone supporting me and the Planet Doug video production through Malaysia’s Touch ‘n Go through PayPal, and of course, all the members of the Planet Doug Patreon, and my coffee supporting my small adventures through Buy Me a Coffee. Appreciate that very, very much. So, that’s it. Shutting down and I’ll see you in the next video all about the dragon boat race sprints 200 meter sprints tomorrow morning here back on the beautiful Melaka River.