VIDEO DESCRIPTION:
What happens when you finally give in to a tourist attraction you’ve been ignoring for weeks? 🗼
In this episode of Planet Doug, I head back into Melaka’s UNESCO world heritage zone for another deep dive — but this time, I’m starting from above. The Menara Taming Sari observation tower seemed like a splurge until I realized: after walking & cycling many kilometers along the river, cycling out to a ghost island, and exploring every corner of the historic district, I finally needed to see how it all fits together.
But the tower’s name sent me down a rabbit hole. Taming Sari isn’t just a tower — it’s a legendary kris (dagger) with magical powers, belonging to one of Malaysia’s most famous warriors, Hang Tuah. That story follows me straight into the Melaka Sultanate Palace Museum, where I come face-to-face with the tragic duel between Hang Tuah and his best friend Hang Jebat.
And just when I think the day is winding down, I stumble onto the Independence Memorial — which turns out to be not a small monument but a full-blown museum packed with newspaper clippings, political cartoons, the actual tape recorder that captured the Merdeka announcement, and even a Chevrolet once used by Tunku Abdul Rahman.
Plus: senior citizen discounts with the power of Touch ‘n Go, a swimming pool I never knew existed, and a very honest conversation about how much barefoot museum walking hurts when you’re 63.
Planet Doug approved attractions in this video:
🗼 Menara Taming Sari — 7 minutes, 3 full rotations, totally worth it
🏰 Melaka Sultanate Palace Museum — a nail-free wooden replica built in 1984
📜 Independence Memorial — not what I expected, in the best way
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to a Saturday morning here in Melaka, Malaysia. And it is one of my final days here in Melaka. I’ve stayed quite a bit longer than I intended, but yeah, I enjoy the town so much. And every day I wake up with another idea of a place I want to visit, something I want to see, something I want to understand. And when I first got here, I didn’t really have any interest in going up the tower that I’m looking at, Menara Taming Sari. It didn’t seem like it would offer much to my experience of Melaka. But now that I’ve been here and seen a lot more, I mean, I’ve been out to the Melaka Island. I’ve been all over the historical district. Of course, I’ve learned about A Famosa, the fortress, and land reclamation. And I’ve followed the Melaka River boardwalk the full 10 kilometers all the way to the end and back. So now that I have all of this geography in my head, now it feels like going up the observation tower would kind of expand on my experience of Melaka. I’ll get to see all of these places hopefully in relationship to each other. I can put all the pieces together. So, that’s where I’m heading today. And it isn’t as expensive as you would think. I kind of lumped it in with expensive tourist attractions, but I think for a foreigner on the weekend it might be 22 or 24 ringgit, something like that. So, I thought, well, let’s do it on one of my last days. So, I’m heading into this giant building. It’s pretty crazy that this tower has such a huge building. That kind of surprised me when I first saw it. I was like, why in the heck don’t they need just a little ticket booth and that’s it? But apparently, I don’t know. There’s a Burger King in there, a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, but I’m not quite sure what is all inside this building. Maybe I’ll find out as I go in to buy a ticket.
Little bit hazy today, but that should still be okay for going up in the tower to getting the view.
I don’t know any of the details of the tower off the top of my head, like when it was built, how tall it is, how long the trip is, you know, going up and down. It’ll probably go by a lot faster than I would expect. It’s not like another tower where you can just go up to the top by elevator and then just stay up there as long as you want. Oh, what the heck is this? Adventure studio. Some sort of a
Oh, hello. Just curious what it is. Yeah. Oh, I see. Like roller coaster. Yeah.
I see. So, the chairs, they move and do things like that. I see. Oh, okay. Cool. I didn’t know this was in here. Oh, thanks. Yeah. So, that’s like a 5D cinema. And I don’t know what their schedule. Oh, here it is on the door. I guess I know I didn’t notice this when I was going in. Oh, just saying if you have any of these health conditions, don’t do it. May not be open. So, that’s one reason they have such a big building. They have other attractions in here.
Souvenir stall.
The golden toilet. Oh, okay. I think I’ve heard about the golden toilets in Melaka and let’s see. So, here the prices. Yeah. So, here the prices are higher. So foreigners 26, Malaysians or MyKad holders 20. So that’s Monday to Sunday 9 till 6:00. So that’s daytime. And this one is the sunset time. Monday to Thursday 6 till 10:00 p.m. 25 31. Okay. So, the nighttime is more expensive than the daytime.
And I’m hoping I can use the power of Touch ‘n Go.
Hello. Hello. How are you? Just one. One. Sorry, but may I know your age? 63. 63. Just turned 63. Okay. Where you from, sir? Canada. Canada. So one senior. Do you have a Touch ‘n Go? Yes. I scan you, sir. Oh, you scan me. Okay. All right.
More cheaper. That’s one advantage. Getting older becomes a little bit cheaper. Okay. This one complimentary for you. Thank you. Okay. Your ticket. All right. Thanks. Thank you. Just through there. How long is the whole trip from beginning to the end? Up and down. 7 minutes. 7 minutes total. Okay. Thank you. So, there’s my ticket. And she looked at me this time and just assumed I was elderly. So, I didn’t get away with a youthful look today, but I saved four ringgit for being an old man. And you get a complimentary bottle of water. Minum.
There you are. One person. Yeah, one person. Just a lonely one person.
Are you ready? I’m ready. 5.
You can rent binoculars if you want to. Thank you.
Yeah, it’s fun that the tower the observation platform comes all the way down to ground level. It just sits here waiting for you like a private car or jet ready to take off.
You’re welcome. Hello. Thank you. Thank you. Hello.
Thank you.
So then yeah, I guess you just walk around in a circle. And stop where you feel like it. I guess it doesn’t really make any difference. I suppose I could stop right here. I don’t think you have to there’s no rule that you have to go all the way around to the end.
So, as a YouTuber, the pressure is on when you get on something like this because you only get one shot at the video. So, I have to make sure the battery is fully charged. I have enough memory on the memory card. The GoPro is not overheating. That’s the big one. But inside here, it’s fully air conditioned. Yeah, I feel a nice cold breeze on my lower legs. It’s nice and cool in here. But yeah, here’s the view. I think that the tower, the observation platform is going to be largely empty. A few people got on with me. There’s family over here. And there might be more people around the corner, but there’s not like there’s a big lineup, people pouring on.
Now I just have to cross my fingers and send a wish up to the GoPro gods that nothing goes wrong for the next seven or eight minutes during this tour. There’s an interesting story about the name of this tower. By the way, you can see it’s called Menara Taming Sari. And as far as I understand it, the Taming Sari is a very famous dagger in Malaysian history. They call the local daggers here kris. And this particular kris has a long legendary history in Malaysia. It’s a little bit like Excalibur, the sword of King Arthur in British legend because this kris is associated with Hang Tuah, the legendary admiral and warrior of Melaka. And I went to look at the mausoleum of Hang Jebat and Hang Kasturi who were contemporaries of Hang Tuah and I guess Hang Tuah won the kris in a famous battle and the kris has all kinds of magical properties. It makes the bearer invulnerable. There are stories that the kris can actually fly out of the sheath on its own power and attack the enemy. It gives all kinds of powers to the man who wields it. And then I believe Hang Tuah defeated the warrior who had the kris despite him having all these powers. Hang Jebat was a legendary fighter and he defeated his opponent and then he was given that kris as a gift because of his winning that battle. Whoa, we’re moving up.
Anyway, so we have to look for things now. Oh, right out of the gate, of course, St. Paul Hill right over there. So, that’s one thing I wanted. Oh, I had no idea there was a pool. Huh. Didn’t even know there was a pool in Melaka. So, there’s St. Paul Hill, Dutch Square right over here, the Stadthuys. And here we have we’re looking out towards Melaka Strait. And all of this, as I’ve talked about, is reclaimed land.
Yeah, my hotel is right down here in this cluster of buildings. Yeah, my hotel is just down this alleyway right here on the left. But all of this is reclaimed land.
There’s the Melaka Strait out there. Oh, this is cool. There’s the international ferry terminal right there. I don’t see an IndoMal fast ferry right now. Yeah, I haven’t explored this part of Melaka yet, like on the other side of the river. I haven’t gone out in that direction very much.
Looking straight down at the swimming pool. Yeah, it gives you a freaky feeling moving in a circle like this, seeing it. It looks like the Earth is rotating beneath me. There’s a giant shopping mall, Mahkota Parade. Oh, and there’s Melaka Island. That’s a ghost island that I visited yesterday on my bicycle. That huge abandoned building right there. So, that’s Melaka Island out there. The Melaka Gateway project that was largely abandoned.
Huh. Yeah. I haven’t gone out in that direction. Maybe that’s just the end of the island, Melaka Island.
And you can see the pace at which we’re rotating.
I guess we’ve gone all the way around one time, like one full revolution.
And that’s the direction that I cycled into Melaka. I came into the city from over there following this road and over that the main bridge.
As a YouTuber, I have to remember to take a picture as we go around this time. When you’re shooting video, you often forget to take a photograph at the same time.
Take a picture off towards Melaka Island. And there’s the huge shopping mall, Mahkota Parade. I think I mentioned that already. And where my hotel is located right down there.
One big landmark I almost forgot about right down there, the Samudera Museum. The Flor de la Mar treasure ship and the flower of the sea. An old port replica of a Portuguese boat. There’s the Melaka River. You can see one of the river cruise boats.
Okay, we’ve started to go down.
I think we went around three times, like three full rotations.
Heading back down to the ground. There’s the main building that I was talking about. Still don’t know why it needs to be so big. Maybe the upper floors don’t really have anything up there.
There we are. Heading back down. Can actually feel my ears popping a little bit as we go down. Being a tourist on Planet Doug. Very cool. I enjoyed that a lot. Well worth the 22 ringgit.
Here’s the exit.
Thank you. Thank you.
There’s a nice view. Here’s the platform and the tower way up there.
I didn’t quite finish the story of the kris with Hang Tuah, but according to what I read when Hang Tuah was unjustly accused of treason, he was imprisoned and sentenced to be executed and they took away the kris. It was removed from him and they gave it to Hang Jebat, his friend. So they presented him for me. No, thank you. Yeah, there’s the photo. They have it on little souvenirs that you can buy. Anyway, yeah, Hang Jebat was given the dagger, the famous Taming Sari kris. And I don’t know whether it was used in the duel or not because of the famous duel between Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat. It feels like whoever had that kris would have a big advantage in the duel. And according to what I read, Hang Jebat, he was in possession of the dagger, but I don’t know whether he used it in the battle. But again, Hang Tuah was the greater warrior, the more skilled fighter. And even if Hang Jebat had the Taming Sari, it didn’t matter. Hang Tuah still won the duel and killed his friend out of loyalty to the Sultan. So there we are down at ground level. Yeah, the tower looks a lot higher when you’re standing right below it like this.
Lot of food and drink stalls right at the base of the tower, which is nice. One last look up at the tower.
Is that experience Planet Doug approved? Absolutely. I enjoyed that very much. When I asked the woman, you know, how long the trip up and down takes and she said seven minutes. I can see someone thinking, “Oh, that’s not very long. Is it worth the price?” But to be honest, it’s more than long enough. I mean, how long do you need to be up there to go around and around? Three full revolutions at that pace, I think, is more than enough time to absorb the atmosphere and see everything you want to see from up there. Though towards the end I was scrambling in my mind like, “Oh, have I actually looked for all of my things that I wanted to see?” And it turns out I totally forgot about one thing I wanted to look for, and that was the river itself, like the river boardwalk going 10 km out into the countryside. I didn’t remember to specifically look for that, but I don’t think I would have been able to see it anyway because of the angle and then buildings and trees at the side of the river. I don’t know that you would actually see the river, but it didn’t jump out at me like I didn’t see it and go, “Oh, look, there goes the Melaka River.” Maybe if I’d made a point of looking, I would have seen something. But anyway, that’s one thing I completely forgot to look for. Well, I am such a dummy. I had no idea that this park was like a shortcut between my neighborhood and the Dutch Square. Look at that. It heads straight over there. All this time I thought I had to follow the road. So, my hotel is back here. Then I would walk in this direction and then follow the road around. But there’s actually a shortcut right through this park. Very nice. I knew about that road over there, but I didn’t realize I could go through the park. This is cool. And okay, that’s why I didn’t know about the swimming pool because it is part of this park and I didn’t really explore this park in the time that I’ve been here. So, I guess yeah, the swimming pool is right over there.
And here’s something St. Francis Xavier commemorative stone. This stone is known as the city cross. It was originally located in the sea, but has since been moved inland when reclamation work was done by the British 37 to 39. During the Portuguese reign in Melaka, the Batu records depicted that this stone had once been adorned by a steel crucifix. Melaka Historical Society rebuilt this commemorative stone in 54 using metal sheet. This site is now one of the attractions for visitors visiting Melaka. The stone is believed to be the location where St. Francis Xavier first set foot in Melaka during his visit in 1512. It is also believed that the stone will not sink. This is due to the curse that St. Francis Xavier put on it. Well, I didn’t know any of that. And where is the stone or the recreation of the stone that they’re talking about? I don’t see anything. Is it this? There’s no stone here. Oh, but this must be it. What? Maybe it’s underwater because there is a crucifix on top. And that seems to be what they were talking about. Yeah, that must be it. The commemorative stone. And so maybe it’s actually underwater and you can’t see it. So maybe this is it here. It has a historical plaque on it. Can’t read the plaque anymore, though. There you go. Taking the shortcut, you see new things. There’s the transportation courtyard that I checked out before.
Another place I wanted to visit on my last couple of days in Melaka and I thought it would be appropriate to combine it with the modern tower is the Melaka Sultanate Palace Museum. I’ve tried to go to this museum a couple of times already, but I keep timing it wrong and it’s always closed when I get there or I just run out of energy before it comes up on the daily schedule. But today is the day, morning time, full of energy and I think I’m in the right frame of mind to really appreciate it. So this palace is as far as I understand it an exact duplicate because the original palace was destroyed in all the fighting with the Portuguese and the Dutch things all you know the buildings here got destroyed but this museum now is an exact replica of the original at the same scale and I believe the original Sultanate palace we’re talking about something that goes back to the 1400s. Sultan Mansur Shah, I think, was the one who commissioned it and lived in this palace at that time. So, yeah, from the 1500s before the Portuguese arrived. And the original palace made entirely out of wood and didn’t use a single nail in its construction. The whole thing was done with joinery and wooden pegs, things like that. And I think it was located on the other side of St. Paul Hill closer to the river. And then when they rebuilt it to make it a memorial and museum, they put it here on this side of St. Paul Hill. You can see it behind me there just to place it. Of course, it’s right beside A Famosa. And there’s St. Paul Church up there, Bukit Melaka. And then just down the street from those is the Sultanate Palace Museum.
I think it’s one of these places where you’re expected to remove your shoes to go in. All wood on the inside.
I’m surprised more of the shutters aren’t open. Looks a little bit gloomy and dark from the outside. Yeah, I think for a photographer, you probably want to boost your ISO. You need a low light camera perhaps to truly appreciate the inside. But there it is in the name in Malay, Istana Kesultanan Melaka. So, the Melaka Sultanate Palace Museum and I don’t really know what’s inside what you’re going to see, but I think it’s essentially they rebuilt it as it was historically. So, I don’t know if it’s full of exhibits where, you know, full of information to read and photographs or it’s just the original furniture all on the inside and you get to see what the palace looked like when it was built.
It looks like the ticket counter is way down here at the end.
Aha. And I see a do it now QR code. It’s very exciting pricing.
Dewasa means adult. So it’s 10 ringgit if you have a MyKad, you’re Malaysian. 20 ringgit for foreigners. Kanak-kanak children. 5 and 10. And then the hours there, Tuesday to Sunday, 9 till 5. Fridays have different hours. Monday closed.
How old are you? 63. Okay. So, for senior citizen. All right. 10 ringgit. Can you pay by card? I just have my passport. Passport? Why? Like I don’t have a special card. You have Visa. Visa? I don’t know what that is. I just have the date on my passport.
You give me 10. Okay. You pay by what? I’ll just pay cash. Cash. But you have a card. I have Touch ‘n Go. You have I have Touch ‘n Go. Okay.
Okay. Wait. I give you a receipt. Okay.
Thank you so much. Okay. Thank you. I got your book. Yeah. All sorted from the ticket counter. I think I would need a detective to go over that conversation line by line because I think I was just completely out of sync with what they were saying. They started of course they asked me whether I was how old I was and apparently you get a 50% discount as a senior citizen. So, hey, being older has its benefits here. 20 ringgit versus 10, that’s a substantial savings. But then she did say, well, 10 ringgit, but then she said card. And I assumed she was asking for some sort of a senior citizen’s ID card, like to qualify as a senior citizen, I need the card. So, I was offering her my passport, which has my date of birth on it to show that I am 63 years old. But I think maybe now that I’m thinking back, she was asking me for payment. Okay, it is 10 ringgit. We accept your senior citizen. Look how old you are, man. Come on. You know, you’re no young. You’re no spring chicken. We can tell how old you are. But to pay, it’s no cash. It’s card only. So maybe she wasn’t asking for senior citizens card. She was asking, “Oh, payment. Can you pay by card?” So anyway, we got really confused. And by that point, the Touch ‘n Go QR code had disappeared. It was like on a window that they could open and close and it was open and oh, I don’t see the do it now anymore. So then I says, “Oh, I’ll just pay you with cash.” And then they’re like, “No, no, no, no cash.” And so I was totally confused, but eventually she slid the door back, revealing the do it now code, and then I was able to pay 10 ringgit with the power of Touch ‘n Go. So, we got there eventually, but I think there was a great deal of confusion. All right, so we’re in front of the building. As I said, yeah, seems a little bit dim and dark because all the shutters are closed and the dark wood gives it a little bit of a gloomy feeling as well. Just the darkness of it. And this is where you leave your shoes. Okay.
Okay. Thank you, sir. Okay. Thank you.
You can see the dark brown of the stairs right away here.
And they’re thinking ahead to us senior citizen types. They have a whole series of massage chairs. You can rejuvenate yourself for the tour or after the tour.
Looks like three floors. Here’s the main entrance. First floor, second, and then a third floor. More it looks like it’s a treasury room way up at the top. Sultan’s bed chamber ceremonial costumes traditional costumes audience hall ceramic and copper collection clash of two warriors. I wonder if that’s the story of Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat. Malay traditional weapons and then a whole bunch of dioramas. So it is an actual museum like with museum displays. But this is the audience hall for the king. And according to the sign here, the king sits at the head there on that raised yellow like a throne or seat. And then all the various ministers and authorities would sit around him based on their status. And this is where they would meet with foreign dignitaries as well.
And luckily they do have a modern element of air conditioning. So it’s nice and cool inside here. And they do have a display here about when it was built. It was in 1984 they constructed this palace.
And this is a gorgeous replica of what they’re calling a Menara Bahari ship. I didn’t know that the Melaka Sultanate had a navy. I had no idea that they had ships like this, but apparently they did, complete with cannon. And this was gifted to Admiral Hang Tuah. Oh, look at all the oars along the bottom there. So was driven by a galley of oarsmen and the sails. That’s something new. I was right. This whole display, it’s labeled on the map as like two warriors fighting and it illustrates the whole history of Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat. So the whole story is told here and there’s all kinds of details that I wasn’t aware of. So Hang Tuah of course was an admiral for the Sultan and he was extremely popular, extremely gifted and got a lot of rewards from the Sultan and apparently that made some of the other leaders jealous. So they accused Hang Tuah falsely of being a traitor and Hang Tuah was a very loyal man and very honorable. So he did not fight against the punishment. The sultan didn’t investigate the charges against him. Just assumed that he was a traitor and then Hang Tuah just accepted his fate again because he was so loyal to the Sultan.
However, the man who was supposed to carry out the execution had his doubts and did not carry out the order. So, this man was supposed to kill to execute Hang Tuah. But instead of doing that, he whisked him away and hid him in a forest. And that’s what’s being illustrated here.
However, Hang Tuah’s good friend Hang Jebat thought that Hang Tuah had been executed and he was also given the famous Taming Sari by the sultan. This is the Taming Sari. Yeah. From the tower that I was talking about. His famous dagger which was supposed to have powers and Hang Jebat to avenge his friend actually revolted against the Sultan. But at that point the Sultan learned that Hang Tuah was actually still alive and he was happy to hear that Hang Tuah had not been executed. So he called Hang Tuah back to put down this rebellion. So now we had a situation where two best friends Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat were now facing off against each other. Everything Hang Jebat did was out of loyalty to his friend. But Hang Tuah being an honorable man, he had no choice but to follow the Sultan’s orders and fight against Hang Jebat. And I was very puzzled by this display for a little while. So this illustrates the classic, the legendary duel, the fight between Hang Jebat and Hang Tuah. And I couldn’t figure out why they were posed this way. It just seemed like an odd pose for a legendary battle, right? So, I asked another man here, a Malaysian man, if he could explain it to me. And he pointed out all the daggers and they’re raised up off the ground and a bunch of soldiers were sticking their daggers, their spears up through the floor during the battle. So these two men that were fighting, they had to fight each other while avoiding all of these sharp blades coming up from the floor trying to stab them from down below. So that that’s why you have such a dynamic setup here.
And I guess the battle ended when Hang Tuah retrieved his dagger, the famous Taming Sari. He took that back from Hang Jebat and then he used that powerful kris to kill his friend. And now this is the death scene, the two friends where Hang Tuah was forced because of his honor and loyalty to the Sultan to kill his best friend Hang Jebat. So yeah, my time here in Melaka has worked out really well from that point of view because before I came here like a couple of days ago, I visited the mausoleum of Hang Jebat. So I learned the whole story of this legendary part of Malaysian history and then going to the tower itself and the tower was named after this legendary kris. So in fact, I had all of the information already in my brain that I could understand everything. Not everything, but I could understand most of the significance of what I’m seeing in this display.
It’s becoming more clear to me why so many of the shutters are closed. It’s mainly because of the heat, I think. And this area is still somewhat air conditioned and has fans. But in order to keep the temperatures down, I think they have to close most of the shutters. Otherwise, it would be so hot in here. The whole area behind me was a really interesting display of all of the palaces around Malaysia for all the different sultans around the country over the centuries. And I’m not going to go over all of them with my GoPro, of course, which is a really beautiful selection. And then over here are all is a display about the weaponry of Malaysia the ancient weapons they used here the kris that we’ve been talking about the whole history of them and spears. So this is what they were stabbing upwards when Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat were fighting those long spears like this stabbing from below.
And cannon as well. But what’s amazing is how big this is. Beautiful displays. I really appreciate this place. I’ve read through most of all this information here already, but I just assumed this was the end here, but then you turn the corner and you go all the way around the entire palace. The whole building has display after display after display all along the outside. There’s a palace kitty cat and there’s St. Paul Hill. So, we’re at the back side of the palace now.
Yeah. Just a stunning building. It’s gorgeous.
One thing I’ve noticed as I’ve gotten older, my feet really hurt when I’m walking barefoot. I think I talked about this in the past as a kid in Canada into my teen years. I think I just went barefoot all the time, running on rocks and wood and climbing around hot sand. My feet were fine. But now when I remove my shoes and all I’ve done is walk around this museum and my feet are in agony. I just can’t walk on bare feet anymore. It’s really strange. I’m not sure why they hurt so much. And there’s something wrong with my circulation or something.
Here’s one of the many palaces, the models that are on display. This is from Megari Sambula, the Sultan’s palace. Oh, we’ve come all the way around back to the beginning. Gone all the way around.
I’m fascinated by this story. There’s actually a painting exactly like this downtown by Zeus coffee and I took video of this painting and took a picture of it and I thought it was quite amusing because the story that I read there was something about this tiny deer, that mouse deer, and somehow it managed to kick a big powerful hunting dog into the river. And I thought that was so weird. I didn’t know the story behind it but they tell the story here that the founder of Melaka Parameswara fled from what is now Sumatra and landed near Muar and then after traveling along the coast in this direction he stopped to rest beside a river I guess that’s him there the founder of Melaka and while he was here he saw this little mouse deer and then out of nowhere this tiny creature kicked one of his hunting dogs right into the river and it was just so strange he took it as an omen that he should make his home here and then he stopped. So that was basically the origin story of Melaka. So this mouse deer is kind of the symbol of Melaka now which is very interesting. I’m up on the second floor now. Much hotter up here because yeah, heat rises. So, it’s quite a bit warmer up here, but still fans and air conditioning, so it’s okay. And this whole end is dedicated to telling another famous story from Malaysia’s history. I really like that approach in this museum. It’s very very well done that they base the exhibits on storytelling rather than just a dry, okay, here’s a pot, here’s a piece of jewelry, you know, stuff like that. Here’s a sword. They actually have displays that reenact with, you know, paintings and dioramas of the history of Malaysia. So, yeah, it’s very engaging, very, very interesting. Yeah, I like this place a lot. The final section is up here. Sort of the third floor tower. You can see it up there, but it’s closed off to the public right now. I don’t know if it’s ever open. But this would be the stairwell to go up there, but it’s closed as far as I can tell. And the fans aren’t running up there. Leaving from the Sultanate Palace Museum. You can see it all around me. Really nice place. Planet Doug approved, especially when you get the 50% senior citizen discount with the power of Touch ‘n Go. Very exciting. But yeah, really like this place. Astonishing building. Beautiful building. The building alone is worth coming to see it. But I love how they did the displays. As I said, they actually tell stories rather than just putting up a bunch of stuff to look at. Though, one thing I found the story of Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat compelling. Like when I was looking at that exhibit, I really appreciated that. But that could be because I already know most of the story. I’ve been reading about it in recent days. And I think that exhibit, the way they’ve laid it out, it’s designed for people who already know the story. It’s like, you know, the story and here’s the story illustrated. So it seems like whoever put together the displays they were thinking of Malaysians like okay you grew up in Malaysia you know these stories and here is diorama and paintings retelling that story that you’re familiar with and if you’re a foreigner a western visitor like me you wouldn’t really get it you’re like oh like the display doesn’t start from the point of view of a foreigner who knows nothing like it doesn’t have a display that says that tells you exactly who Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat are and why they’re so significant in Malaysian history. Like it doesn’t start at the very very beginning of the story and lay out their significance for you. They just assume you already know their significance and just have it out there, you know, on display. But yeah, so I could see some visitors going up to that display that I just saw and just walking around it, glancing and going, “Oh, yeah, okay. Well, that’s cool.” But they may not know the deep the real significance if they don’t already know the story.
And the only other small critique I might have is a common one for me. There’s actually the man who told me the significance of the spears going up through the floor. It actually made me think of like the choreography of like a Marvel’s superhero fight where Spider-Man or somebody is fighting the bad guy in this room and they’re focused on fighting each other, but then they also have blades, you know, piercing up from the walls and from the floor beneath them and that would create a very unusual fight choreography. And that’s what they had on display there. And I thought that that was quite interesting. But there happened to be the man who told me that story. He was quite tall. He was as tall as I am. So I went up to him because he was looking at a display, but then the placard giving the history was down at our feet. So he actually bent over for a second and then he just gave up. He’s like, “Ah, no, I can’t be bothered.” So that’s how I started a conversation with him. And I says, “Yeah, museums are always hard for tall people because the information is always at ground level and we spend the entire time in the museum like bend way over trying to read everything down on the ground and then we got to get back up again, go to the next one, bend way over, read it.” I always wanted the signs to be kind of at eye level, but that’s just a Planet Doug pet peeve about museums in general. So, I really notice it if a museum happens to have the information a bit higher, like at waist or eye level, and then you can just read it, or bigger letters, so you don’t have to lean way in and squint to try and read everything. But yeah, that worked out very very well. And I think maybe I can throw this in at the end. I’d read about this and I knew it was here. The proclamation of independence memorial because the announcement of Malaya’s impending independence was made by Tunku Abdul Rahman Malaysia’s first prime minister at Padang Pahlawan just across the road. I remember that whole story from when I went to some museums in KL and around independence day that the announcement that the day had been set was made here in Melaka. So I guess they built this memorial to that event. I thought maybe it would just to be a memorial, like a statue, like something you’d look at. I didn’t realize it was an entire building that you could enter. So, since I’m here, I might as well enter. Go take a look inside. Seems to be open. And I’ll just go in with my GoPro. And hopefully nobody yells at me and says I can’t go in. Let’s see how it goes. So, here we go. So, this memorial, this building pre-existed the memorial. It was the Melaka Club built in 1911 and then it was converted into this memorial to the independence of Malaysia. So, I don’t think I’ll spend a huge amount of time in there because I spend a lot of time in KL reading about and learning about the path towards Malaysian independence. And it looks like the displays inside tell that story again. So I am going to go inside and check it out. But visually this might be more interesting. I saw these out of the corner of my eye. But I guess the proclamation of independence like the announcement that the date had been set was made over here in this park area.
Which I yeah I wasn’t aware of that part of history.
I’m not sure what the significance of these are. Why they’re here. Oh, look. Hang Jebat, the man we were just talking about in the palace museum.
Certainly got an aggressive styling. And there’s Hang Tuah. A pair of military vehicles, the great warriors of Malaysia, Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat side by side and doomed by circumstances and loyalty and honor to fight each other. Yeah, it’s a great great part of Malaysian history that story. And as I suspected, this car was used by the Tunku on his travels around Malaysia.
Chevrolet. Amazing condition. Really good condition.
Colorful flags, very festive. And so I’m just going to go in for a few minutes and hopefully I can keep my sandals on as my feet really hurt. I’ve already gone through most or all of the first floor. The highlight for me are the photographs. Like I haven’t really stopped to read a lot of the text because there is a lot of text there. Entire books on the wall here, but there are a lot of photographs that I’ve never seen before of historic periods, boats on the water, the Japanese occupation, and then of course government photos like this, various meetings.
But for me, there’s yeah. And look at that. Actual clippings from newspapers at the time. Seeing the headlines established 1845, the Straits Times.
And yeah, I think we’re allowed to go up, but yeah, for me, I don’t think there’s any need to really do a deep dive. I’m more interested in the building and just the general impressions of the place. Yeah, very nice. This is the second floor. So, I guess this was the Melaka Club originally. So, this looks like this would have been very nice. Probably an outdoor balcony, tables and chairs, cold drinks out here for the Melaka Club members,
and just more of the museum part over here. Yeah, as you see, look at all these photographs. So, you get to see a lot of images that you may not have seen before. So, this is all about the emergency.
Yeah, very well done as well. Just giving some atmosphere because so much of the fighting of the emergency was centered around the countryside and the jungles fighting with the communists and they developed that kind of atmosphere up here, you know, with the trees and things like that. And it looks like the second floor after the display about the emergency. That was actually quite interesting. There was a lot of information there about how entire villages were resettled in their fight against the communists. You know, they took people in farming villages that may have been supporting the communists with supplies and food and things like that and basically moved them to another area like new villages and that kind of the idea was to remove the base support that the communist forces were depending on. There’s a lot of photos and stories about that over there. It’s quite interesting. But this floor is all about the actual independence, the modern independence movement. And it’s a story that I’ve looked into quite a bit. But this is why this museum exists in the first place because as I talked about the announcement of the date of independence was made here in Melaka. And this is the procession I think. Yeah. So there’s it looks like that’s St. Paul Hill in the background. Oh yeah, there’s A Famosa right there. And they’re driving from the airport, I think, to the park and then they’re making the announcement. That’s a very cool diorama. I like that. I had no idea this museum even existed. Like I said, I just thought it was a like a statue or a memorial. And I had no idea the museum would be so extensive. There’s a lot of information here. And as I said, a lot of photographs and dioramas, things like that. So, of course, this is the famous Merdeka Merdeka Merdeka moment. Yeah, I’ve never seen it on display like that. And then some I think a lot of these photographs are new to me. And this is interesting. According to the sign, this is the actual recording machine, tape player, basically recording device that was used to record the speech by the Tunku. The proclamation of independence speech was recorded on this device right here.
Malaya independence celebrations 1957. Yeah, I don’t think I’ve seen any of these photos before, not even online. Like this one here. I think that’s brand new to me. I’ve never seen that one before. Or this one here. Very cool.
Something else quite new, an entire display about political cartoons that would have been in the media at the time. The declaration of independence and forming the new country Malaya and then of course the formation of Malaysia itself.
It’s a long complicated road Malaysia followed until it got full independence in the form that it is today. They have this a selfie area right here. You can climb up onto this car. I think there’s a bench behind here. So, you can stand up there and raise your fist in the same gesture.
Yeah, I’m more and more impressed with this place. Even on the stairwell heading down to the exit, they have this interesting display. All historic photographs, these are like botanical gardens of the Straits Settlements in the early 1900s or in the 1900s anyway. But there’s also some photographs of street scenes that you can see here. Really gives you a sense of the history of Malaysia. That’s Penang,
Singapore.
So, some landmarks of the Straits Settlements. I really like this one. These are the people population of the Straits Settlements in the 1900s
and transportation. Everything from elephants to boats to rickshaws, horse-drawn carts, all kinds of things.
Now we’re back at the entrance and the exit. Planet Doug review. Big thumbs up. Very interesting museum. Far more interesting than I was expecting to be honest. It’s the kind of place where had I known it was so extensive in terms of the information and the displays. I would have set it aside like for an entire morning, this would have been my main goal just to come here. This is where I would have started the day because I would need a lot more time and energy to go through everything. But yeah, very interesting place. The building itself, it’s got a lot of history. Displays are imaginative, full of new perspectives on everything to do with Malaya, Malaysia, Straits Settlements, the proclamation of independence memorial. So maybe it’s just a misnomer like they gave it the wrong name calling it a memorial because I didn’t know it was a museum until I actually went inside. Interesting. And over there is the Sultanate Palace and Bukit Melaka. A lot of people here today Saturday a lot of visitors very bustling.
Yeah. My main interest for the day was to go up the tower and to visit the Sultanate Palace. So, I kind of I used up all of my energy to visit those two places. And then this I tacked on at the end, but I didn’t have a full my batteries were not fully charged to go through there, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. So, yeah, that is the end of my walk for today. Yeah, I enjoyed that very much. I really picked a beautiful day to do this. Yeah, there’s Bukit Melaka up there. A Famosa, I think the Santiago gate. And I got some discounts for being 63 years old. I saved four ringgit to go up the tower, the senior citizen discount. And then I saved 10 ringgit to go into the Sultanate Palace. All with the power of Touch ‘n Go. Which leads me of course to my the end of the video. And a shout out to everyone who has supported me recently with contributions via Touch ‘n Go. Yeah, really funds the Planet Doug Small Adventures so that I can make these videos for you. I appreciate the support through Touch ‘n Go very much. And of course, shout out to all of my Planet Doug Patreon members, the free members, and everyone who has joined one of the tiers, the City Planet, Forest Planet, and the Ocean Planet members. I really appreciate all you guys. And throughout this morning’s walk, I’ve had the Strava app running to record where I go. So, I will put a 3D flyover map at the end of the video or at the end of this conclusion so that you can follow along on the map, see everywhere that I went. And if you made it all the way to this point and you even know that there is a 3D flyover map coming up, well, that makes you a member of the Planet Doug Crunch Club. You made it all the way to the end of the video. Thank you very much. Put CC in the comments to let me know. I’m curious. All of my Crunch Club members, if you came to Melaka, would you go for a ride in one of the trishaws? Like whether during the daytime or nighttime? If you planned a trip to Melaka, would you be looking forward to a ride in one of these brightly colored music playing trishaws? Yeah, I’m curious how many people would actually do that. I don’t even know how much it costs. I’ve never spoken to one of the drivers. So, I don’t know what they charge, how they charge cash only, or can you do it with the power of Touch ‘n Go? I have no idea. Yeah, I haven’t done it myself. Yeah, let me know if you would. So, that’s it. Shutting down and see you next time.