VIDEO DESCRIPTION:
Melaka Dragon Boat Races 2026: Sprints, Sportsmanship & 2,500 Years of History
On the first day of the dragon boat races in Melaka, I didn’t know much about what was going to happen and what was going on. But I got lucky, and I stumbled across the location of the finish line just as the first 40-minute long distance race was ending. And then I was right there to witness the beginning of the second race. The whole event was over in about two hours, and then Melaka and the Melaka River went back to normal.
And day two was kind of a repeat. I knew a lot more about how the races were organized and what was going to happen, but I was still in the dark on a lot of things. Even so, I got lucky, and I emerged at the exact spot on the river where they put the starting line for the 200-meter sprints. I quickly learned that day two of the races on Sunday was the big event. There were more spectators, more races, and the event went on for the entire day.
I spent most of my time at the starting line because that felt like where all the action was. But I ended the morning down at the finish line to capture some of that excitement there. It was then I made the discovery that rather than ending in 2 hours, the 200-meter races were going to go on all day and the finals for each category wouldn’t be until around 4 p.m.
So this video covers the early-morning races, and I will be posting one more (shorter) video focusing just on the finals and the awards ceremony at the end of the day.
In this video, you’ll discover:
🏆 Why the races start so early (8 AM!) and why they end so quickly.
🇨🇳 The two ancient legends behind the Dragon Boat Festival—from the water dragons to the poet Qu Yuan.
🚣 The mind-blowing logistics: Did you know teams don’t even bring their own boats?
💪 The incredible sportsmanship where competitors cheer for each other across the finish line.
🏅 The difference between the grueling 8km endurance race and the explosive 200m sprints.
I also share some of the mysteries of the event—like figuring out which team is which when they all use the same boats, and why there are so many international teams made up of local expats.
📍 Location: Melaka River, Malaysia
📅 Event: 41st Melaka Dragon Boat Races (June 27-28)
#PlanetDoug #DragonBoat #Melaka #Malaysia #TravelVlog #DragonBoatFestival #MelakaRiver #BoatRacing #Culture #TravelMalaysia
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Today is the second day of the dragon boat races here in Melaka, Malaysia. I went to see the dragon boat races yesterday. That was a Saturday here in Melaka. The races are taking place on June 27th and 28th this year here in Melaka. And apparently it is the 41st year that they’ve held the dragon boat races here, which is pretty exciting. And it’s a perfect spot for it, of course, because they have the Melaka River with that amazing boardwalk on both sides. So many places where you can watch the races. It’s a perfect setting. Really is for dragon boat races. So, it’s pretty exciting stuff. But yeah, yesterday I walked down to the river to take in the dragon boat races. And I didn’t really know much about them. I only had a vague idea that the races were happening. Beyond that, I didn’t know where, I didn’t know when, I didn’t know how. And I got really lucky because I happened to just show up at the right spot on the river, the finish line and the starting line for the long distance 8 km races that started there, then went 4 km up river and then the boats would turn around 4 km back and it would take them about 40 minutes to complete the race to do 8 km. And I just happened to show up at exactly the right place at the right time and I had an amazing experience taking in the excitement of the races.
One thing that really jumped out at me was the sportsmanship that I saw everywhere because it is an athletic competition, right? These are teams of athletes rowing a boat and they have to do it synchronized, right? That’s where all the power and the speed comes from. They all 10 of the rowers have to be synchronized and they practice and they exercise. I mean, these are athletic teams competing with each other. And yet, every time a team was crossing the finish line at the end of the race, all the other teams were cheering them on, shouting, cheering faster, faster, giving them encouragement. It was a fun event and just so much sports, just good feelings all around. And I was really impressed with that. So that was yesterday, the 8 kilometer long distance race. And then today I think today is the big event. Today is the more popular event. So there’ll probably be more teams, more spectators, more excitement. I think anyway because today they’re doing the sprints, 200 meter sprints. So everything is going to be much faster and you’re actually going to have boats I think I’m just guessing boats lined up side by side competing with each other in real time to complete the 200 m sprint because when they did the 8 km race they can’t have 12 boats lined up at the same time because yeah it’s just too much. So what they did is stagger their departure. So instead of all the boats leaving at the same time and racing against each other, they were all racing against the clock. So one boat would leave, they start the timer, and when that boat reaches the end of the race, they stop it, and then the next boat leaves 60 seconds later. It’s like they stagger the departures of the boats and each one gets its own separate time and then at the end of the race they look at all the times and then they see who won based on who had the fastest time. But I think with the 200 meter sprints, they’re going to have several boats lined up. They’re not going to have 12 or anything like that, but maybe four. I don’t know. So today I’m going to learn how the 200 meter sprints are organized. I’ll tell you one thing, you have to be an early bird if you want to enjoy the dragon boat races for various reasons. They start at 8:00 in the morning. And I don’t know, it feels really early. So there’s one of the teams getting ready. Every team has its own staging point. So, all up and down the river here, you’ll see a bunch of white tents. And each tent is. We got here just in time for the start. This could even be the very first race. I don’t know. They’re very, very punctual as well, as far as I can tell because I’m getting here at exactly 8:00, which surprises me. And both, four boats are lined up. Perfect timing on my part. I don’t know what’s going on these days. I’ve got perfect timing now. I’m usually at the wrong place at the wrong time. There they go. So, 10 rowers in each boat. A drummer keeping time and then a steersman like an oarsman and this I guess yeah this is the starting point. I had no idea where it was. Just by pure accident I got here at exactly the right time.
I don’t dare move my camera. I don’t want to miss the start of the race.
Hello. Yeah, I was expecting more spectators today and there’s obviously a lot more yesterday for the long distance race. I don’t think there was anybody standing here like there was no people at all. Everybody was down at the other end of the river and I thought the race would start by the bridge, but they’re not quite at the bridge. They’re a little bit forward of the bridge.
And I learned all kinds of things about the dragon boat races yesterday that I didn’t know. One thing is I thought each team brought their own boat, but that’s not how it works. All these boats are used in common by the same teams and they’re all kept here in Malaysia. Here they go.
What a sight.
From here, we can only watch them from a distance. So, you kind of have to choose. Do you want to watch the beginning of the race or the end of the race? So, I’ll stay here for a couple of heats.
There they go.
200 m. Yeah. And I think that’s as far as they go just about. They’re already at the end of the race. So, it really is a true sprint.
In this stage right here. I believe this is where they’re going to have the award the winners like closing ceremonies I think is taking place right here at the water wheel. So now, yeah, they are very efficient with this race. I’m telling you, they are very punctual and very organized. Like the next set is already lining up, but I don’t know how many teams are taking place in the sprints.
So, I was just talking about the things I learned yesterday and one of the things I mentioned is that yeah, these boats are not owned by the teams. They’re actually owned by the Dragon Boat Festival Association here in Malaysia and they’re stored in Malaysia. So, no team has an advantage. They can’t design their own super fast boat with the best aerodynamics. They all use exactly the same boat and then when one team gets out, the next team just hops into the same boat basically. So I was imagining all these teams flying in from Singapore, the Philippines, Australia, all over Asia bringing their boats with them. But they don’t. They arrive, they tend to have their own paddles, very high tech, expensive paddles that each team uses, but the boats themselves are assigned to them by the festival organizers.
Something else I learned yesterday is that a lot of the teams that I thought like the international teams, I thought they flew into Malaysia. So it would be like a big expense for them to fly from the Philippines from Australia into Malaysia, book hotel rooms, all that kind of stuff. But a lot of the teams are made up of expat workers that live in Malaysia. So I met the team from the Philippines and I was told that all the Filipino members of their crew, they live and work in Malaysia already. So they didn’t fly in from the Philippines. They live here and then they form their own dragon boat team made up of Filipino workers who are so it’s a lot easier instead of flying in from another country they just had to travel to Melaka.
And what else did I learn? I learned that the history of the dragon boat races goes back 2,000 years, 2,500 years in China. So, it’s got a long history. And I learned that the dragon we’re talking about in this case is not like the typical western firebreathing dragon. These dragons in China, they’re water dragons. They’re like a benevolent spirit that lives in the rivers, oceans, waterfalls, and they control rainfall, things like that. And part of the history of the festival is that 2,000 3,000 years ago, however long it was, they would have races to honor to make the dragon spirit happy and then they would get rain for the harvest. That’s one story that I heard. And the other story, I’ll talk about it after this race gets underway. We get to watch another one kicking off. And one thing I thought could be improved is that you have no way of knowing which team is which. So there’s four crews here, but I have no idea where they’re from. What city or country they represent, what organization, because their boats don’t belong to them. So there’s no identifying marks. So I was thinking they should each have a big flag that they could put on the boat and then I can know okay this team is from Singapore, Philippines, from Kuala Lumpur or wherever these teams are from. From here I have no idea who’s competing against who. There are no markings at all. So that’s a little bit takes away from some of the excitement I think.
And there’s the table down there. You can see that little structure with the blue roof. So, some of the organizers are in there, I think.
And I have no idea how many teams are competing today. I saw online that there are over a 100 teams in total attending the festival, but I don’t know how that divides up because if there were four in each race for 100, they’d have to have 25 races in total. And I think the whole event is over in like 2 hours. That was something else that was a surprise to me yesterday. I thought it was like a festival that went on all day long, but I met a lot of people yesterday who showed up around 10:00 thinking, “Oh, I’m going to go watch the dragon boat races at they get there at 10:00 and everything was over.” There we go.
Very close heat.
Yeah, I guess I’ll have to move down to the finish line later on. Capture some of the finish. I heard them counting out numbers in English. That was interesting.
I wonder if these teams get better times like when they’re practicing by themselves compared to when they’re in a heat like this. The competition right beside them maybe they end up going they beat their best times in competition.
There it is. They already got to the end. So, yeah, the 8 km race, as I said, took 40 minutes for each team to complete. Basically, it was around 40 minutes, but this sprint much much faster. I didn’t time that, but didn’t take very long.
And again, I am surprised at how few spectators there are. I was anticipating thousands of people, hundreds and thousands. I thought the riverside would just be jammed on both sides. I thought there wouldn’t even be room to move around.
It’s pretty quiet where I am. I don’t know why exactly. There are so few people right here at the very starting line, so we’re not getting the excitement of the crowd. Yesterday, I was in the middle of a lot more people, and that’s when I heard all of the cheering where each team was cheering on the other teams. And I think that’s happening more in that direction.
And I don’t know for sure, but I think the team there with all the pink uniforms. I believe they’re a team raising awareness for breast cancer research and prevention and treatment. And they got a lot of cheers, a lot of support from the crowd and the other teams. But yeah, the team, it was pointed out to me yesterday, a team all in pink. They’re wearing pink hats and pink life jackets, but I think the team I saw also had pink shirts. So maybe they’re different. I don’t know.
So I only see three boats. Where’s number four? Yeah, they really have to know what they’re doing in terms of like turning around. I’ve done some wilderness canoeing in Canada back in my youth and I can tell you that yeah, turning a canoe around. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re out there floundering in the lake. But they’ve got to turn these boats around in pretty tight spaces. They’re doing a pretty good job. I haven’t seen anybody like running into other boats. Yeah, the team has to be so coordinated. And I think the drummer is the boss for the most part, keeping the rhythm, telling them what to do, and then the oarsman just takes care of steering. I mentioned there was another story about the history of the dragon boat races. And I think that is the more commonly told one. And the origins have to do with a very well-known a famous poet, a government official and a poet in China 2,500 years ago named Qu Yuan. And this poet, this government minister became unhappy with what the state was doing, what the government was doing and was protesting and then was accused of treason and he was so upset about this that he left and he threw himself into a river. He was like traveling around the countryside being a poet and he became a very beloved figure in the villages. The villagers knew him quite well. And then when Qu Yuan ended his life or decided to end his life throwing himself into the river to drown, the villagers, the farmers, the fishermen jumped into their long fishing boats and then paddled hard out into the river or the lake, whatever it was to rescue him. But they didn’t make it in time. But that was like the origin of the races. These fishermen or the villagers paddling in their boats out into the lake to rescue Qu Yuan, this beloved figure from ancient China. And then to prevent his body from being eaten by the fish, they would also throw rice dumplings in the water. And then the fish would eat the rice dumplings and they would not eat Yuan’s body and leave it alone. And anyway, very short version of the origins as that’s what I was reading the other day. Anyway, we have another set of four lined up waiting to go.
There they go.
White, blue, green, and orange. The dragon heads.
Pink team is falling behind.
Yeah, from this angle, I can’t tell who’s winning.
Yeah, to get an overall winner, I think that yeah, they would also have to time it, right? So, there must be some coordination between the start line and the finish line starting or maybe each winning team moves on to the next competition, like finals, quarterfinals, semi-finals, that kind of thing. Like I said, I had a lot of trouble getting information about this festival and about the races. So, I don’t really know how it works at all. I was lucky even to find the races. My hotel just happens to be right beside the river where the races are taking place. So, that was quite lucky for me. I just happened to stumble across the perfect place.
Hello.
Hello.
We have another race just about to kick off. Four boats again. Five, six, seven, and eight. Wow. They even have them numbered perfectly for each race. Let’s get a closer look at some of the teams. Oh, they’re about to go.
Not sure which one would be my pick. I’m waiting for the ready, set, go. And then the horn. I think they shout that in English as well. Something like that. The starting commands.
The tension is building.
And of course in the background we’ve got weed whackers and leaf blowers. The endless sound of Melaka.
The start to this race is taking a long time. Bit of a delay. Everybody’s poised. They’ve got their paddles in the water.
I’m surprised there’s no announcers like MC’s, but I’m kind of glad about that as well cuz you don’t have somebody’s voice blaring over the speakers all the time. It’s very quiet, very serene.
There we go. The horn sounds and they’re off.
I think seven has got the advantage.
Number six definitely fell behind.
You can hear the rhythm changing much faster at the beginning, like a really hard sprint, and then they settle into a rhythm for the rest of the race.
I think one of those is the winner. I think number seven is in the lead, but I can’t tell from here.
So, looks like eight is making a comeback. Neck and neck. I think it was number eight came in. Just took the lead at the very end.
Good race.
The reason they start so early and end so quickly and they’re so fast and organized is that they have to make a deal with everyone else that uses the river. Like these tourist cruise boats, if the dragon boat races went on all day on a Saturday and a Sunday, these companies running the tourist boats would lose a lot of money. So, they probably had to negotiate with them. Can you give us two hours? Two and a half hours.
And here come the next set of boats. I think I’ll stay at this end for one more race.
Yeah, I still have no idea where any of these teams are from. I saw one team had Sabah written on their life jackets. So clearly they were from Sabah, but the others yeah, there’s no clear indication of who they are, what team it is. You can see the drummer for this boat has a 360 camera mounted on her back. Yeah, should be mounted on the boat. Keep it more steady. But I guess that would be hard to organize.
I saw one white dude on that boat, but the only one I haven’t seen an Australian team yet. The Australian team that I saw yesterday, I’m pretty sure they’re made up of expat workers because they were all quite a bit older than the other teams. They didn’t look to be like a young serious athletic team. More like older people that live and work here. And they organized a dragon boat team to represent Australia, but more out of, you know, getting exercise, a hobby, something like that. All right, the next four are lining up.
The next race, they’re off.
The blue team is pulling into the lead.
It’s hard to tell from this angle, but I think blue has got a commanding lead.
Black is definitely struggling. Orange is struggling. Green is probably in second place. I don’t know. Yeah, I think blue was the clear winner of that heat.
Yeah, I have no idea if certain teams are considered powerhouses and they win every year. No idea. They all finished.
And they always have a safety boat keeping an eye on things in case a boat capsizes or someone falls in the water, anything else like that. This safety boat was following behind the 8 km race as well, like going the whole way up the river and back again. They might have had one or two of these safety boats.
Purple number three boat.
I’ve noticed the drummers I think majority maybe certainly a lot of them are women and that could be because they generally weigh less. So if they’re not paddling then you might as well have someone who isn’t adding as much weight to the boat. So, that’s probably gives each team an advantage to have a woman as the drummer. I don’t know what the official name for that is. Yeah, another woman there.
And each boat has its own drum as well. The drum stays with the boat. I thought maybe each team would have their own drum.
And I see a lot of GoPros, maybe act like DJI action cameras, whatever brand they are. A lot of them on their helmets and hats.
There’s the fourth team for this heat. Bit older most of the men in that boat, I think. Not quite as officially decked out. So, they could be one of the more hobbyist teams.
Yeah, she has an action camera on her hat. That would be a lot better than the 360 in a way because it doesn’t bounce around as much.
Another race. These boats. Yeah, they’re in order again, I think. One, two, three, and four. Black, a kind of dark red, purple, and light blue.
Yeah. I’m not sure if I’ve got a favorite here. I’m not sure which team looks the most determined and organized and professional. They all look a little bit like their fun teams more doing it for a hobby than a true sport. But you never know, one of them could be the dark horse, the dark dragon.
Of course, they’ve got to get their boats lined up perfectly. No false starts. Nobody gets a 20ft lead by drifting their boat ahead just before the start of the race. Wonder who they’re looking at. They must be looking at somewhere. Someone somewhere. Maybe someone has a flag that they can look at to get ready cuz the shouts, you know, get ready, get set, go are not that audible to me.
Zoom in on a couple of the teams. Team one, two, team three. Oh, they look pretty serious. Team four.
Some of the dragon heads are a little bit tilted on the boat. I think they need to be secured back in place. I saw a couple of them bobbing, like bobbling around. They were kind of loose.
The countdown should be coming soon. Let’s really listen for it this time. I want to hear what they say. Ready.
Close race.
I think number one is in the lead, but it is kind of hard to tell from this angle.
I was going to try to head down to the finish line, but I noticed there’s a different kind of team here. I think there’s a lot of Western competitors on that team. Wonder if I can figure out where they’re from.
Looks like all women on this team. Someone I was talking to yesterday did mention that there were different groups like different categories like the open women only you know so they kind of group the teams so that they’re competing with similar teams but I’m not really clear on that as I said I found it so difficult to get any information about the races like any of the actual details but I’ll stay here for this race and then I’m going to try to head down to the finish line. This will be my last race where they start from the starting line.
So number three in this heat seems to be a western team. Is it mixed men and women or only women?
No, it looks like a all female team, all women.
Boat number five, green, six, seven, and eight. They look serious. Look at how poised they are. Number eight.
All women maybe on all the boats. I’m not sure.
So, there could be a separate category like for men’s, women’s, mixed, open, and then fun teams. I really don’t know. Let’s track this team for their sprint at the beginning. How well they do.
Yeah, they got to get lined up nice and straight. Yeah, I can imagine taking off on an angle. We haven’t seen any kind of disaster yet. Like no team has gone on a crazy angle and run into another boat. Here we go.
Go.
They’re doing well. Five and six are in the lead. Maybe six is doing better.
They should be appearing any second. There they are. Six might have the lead. Five and six. Oh, no. I think five and six.
I don’t know. I think six is going to take it, but we’ll see. Well, we won’t see. I’ll have no idea who won.
There’s the end of the race. The last team. Yeah, there was a big spread in their times. So between the winner, the first place and last place, there was a lot. There’s a big time difference for that group.
So I don’t know how easy it’s going to be, but I’m going to try to walk down to the finish line. And I have my 360 camera raised up in the air to get above the crowds. And maybe we’ll see one of the teams or one of the races as we walk along. I don’t know. It could be absolutely jammed with people or it could be nice and open. Oh, actually it doesn’t look that bad. And on my left, those are all the tents that I mentioned. Sort of every team gets its own tent where they get to hang out and get organized. Their staging point.
Oh yeah, this is I think number five. Yeah, I think. Yeah. Okay. This is Australia.
I think they won their heat. They’re being congratulated anyway. Right, mix. We’ve got one race till we’re warming up. One race till we’re warming up.
Not as crowded as I expected down here.
They all get into their boats down there on the left. So, every team has to work their way down to that dock, get on their boat. That’s where they would get off as well. And it looks Yeah, they can come down here and stop right beside their tent right before their race and get some last minute encouragement, maybe some equipment that they need. Yeah, nicely organized. Really is. So here, I didn’t notice this before. The tents have names. So this is the Casa del Rio team sponsored by that hotel across the river. Five-star hotel there. Very nice. So this is sponsored by Casa del Rio. Here’s the Mommy team, the Mommy Monster. So, they have a corporate sponsor, the Dragon Fury Warriors from Singapore. Looks like SG. Okay, so there are names here. Another team from Singapore. Kia Splash. Dragonboat Singapore.
Noble Resort Hotel Melaka sponsored team. Yeah, like I said, I wish each boat had this on their boat so I knew who was racing against who. The Fusion Dragons from AirDry.
Lumid Maritime Terminal.
Attention to team Majlis something. Black Orca 10B, please get ready and I repeat, attention to team. Black Orca, please get ready and jetty. Thank you. There’s the dragons from Singapore. Marriott International.
Ah, so yeah, this demonstrates what I was talking about where the teams get off and then they actually share the boats. Each team doesn’t own their own boat. So, one team gets out and then the next team gets on board.
Hi.
Hello.
Man, it’s quite the job to organize all this, keeping track of all the teams.
Like I said, a lot of incredible sportsmanship. Win or lose. So, here’s the organization table.
I was so involved. I didn’t even know there was a race happening. So, there’s the end of a race. There’s the finish line.
Purple one that time.
Very close though.
This is amazing that there’s enough room even now right at the finish line. There’s more than enough room for me to stand here with my cameras. Has provided a food truck to serve noodles to all participants. So the truck is stationed under the tree behind the public toilet. Please help yourself and buy anything that you need to satisfy your cravings. Thank you.
And from here you can see the distance from the whole race. Right here is the finish line and this is the boarding area. And then you can right over there you can actually see the starting line. Oh, the horn just sounded for the next race. But since I’m at the finish line, I have no idea who’s competing in this race. Yeah, definitely a different view from over here. You can see them from the front. Look at the wake at the front of the boat. They’re really powering through.
Here they come. Little bit obscured by the dock, but there they are. Yeah, they’re going much faster than I expected. Look at that. Six in the lead. Five is gaining on them. Five might pull it off. Absolutely. Number five.
Wow, that was a close finish. But I think number five took it.
Very, very close.
And they have to make sure they turn at the end. They’re going to run right into the cement dock over there, the cement wall. So, somebody Yeah, there’s another tent over there. A blue tent. Must be lined up with the finish line. They would have to take very close look just to make sure they know who won. And I think they’re taking video at the same time. I saw that yesterday. So yeah, quite an organization. You got four teams just finished a race. Four teams loading and unloading and another four getting lined up. So three sets of four all getting organized at the same time. Dragons please get ready. And the organizers have to deal with the river cruise boats who need to come down here get ready for the day timing for when they can go through between races a lot of logistics to deal with but they’ve been doing it for 41 years I don’t know if I mentioned that or not this is the 41st year of the dragon boat races in Melaka.
Yeah. So, this boat has to get through the tourist boat. And these are the four who just completed their race.
These are all the teams that just finished a race.
And they have to be very organized, very efficient to get all this done so that there isn’t like a backlog. And there’s another set way down there. So there are the four teams getting ready for the next heat. We can, if nothing obscures my camera lens, we can actually see a little bit of them starting the race from 200 meters away.
There’s what I need. There’s a real camera. And they’re off. Look at that splashing. You don’t get that sense of the splashing when you’re right there at the starting line. They’re really pushing wakes ahead of them. That’s crazy.
And different boats seem to have a different rhythm. Like some are very very smooth and then others are kind of bobbing a little bit. So can’t see them. They’re about to emerge. There they are. You can see that boat is bobbing up and down. Maybe that’s not the most efficient. This one is more smooth.
Number nine clearly in the lead.
Finish line.
Yeah. I wonder if that bobbing up and down is an indication like it isn’t as efficient their strokes. They’re putting a lot They’re making the boat bob up and down and the faster boat had a smoother line through the water. Was not going up and down at all. Very cool. Another race just got underway.
Just coming up on the finish line.
Looks like the two far boats are competing for the lead.
Number three is gaining stroke by stroke.
I think it’s going to be number three by a hair. Yeah, purple.
Even a pink wig for the pink team wearing their pink proudly.
So, I’ve moved to kind of a new location, a little bit closer behind the finish line. There it is there. So, we can see the next heat coming down the river.
Took a long time for this race to get started. We were waiting quite a while. So, I don’t know if there’s something special about this team, this set of crews.
Even from here, it’s hard for me to tell who’s in the lead. Let’s look at the finish line. See who crosses first.
It looks like pretty close. I have no idea. I have not got a clue. 9, 11, and 12 are like lined up right across the finish line. That was very close. All I know is this team here, blue boat was a blast, but no idea. I’ve had the chance to chat with some people on the railing while I’m filming the races. Got another race just ending right now.
Oh, another close one. Five has taken the lead. Definitely five over seven second place.
But yeah, while hanging out here on the railing, so I have people sitting or standing beside me. I’ve been chatting with them, asking questions about how this whole thing is organized. And to be honest, most people know as little as I do. So I’m asking them how it’s structured. Each race, is it men only, women only, open categories, seniors? People are just, yeah, something like that. People don’t really know. And some people have been telling me this goes until 5:00 today. So yesterday was like 8 to 10. But apparently this is going to go on all day. So, yeah, I can’t be here until 5:00 filming everything that happens. So, I’m going to have to figure that out. I haven’t seen a schedule of any kind.
Just trying to make this is like the most crowded section where the teams get off and on the boats.
Oh, so here here’s some sort of a schedule.
So I guess the organizers know.
So the organizers know what’s going on. They’ve got everything pretty well wired, pretty well dialed in, which is really cool. Everybody here in these purple t-shirts for 2026. They’re all the or has a lot of I don’t know if they’re paid or volunteers so they know what’s going on even if I don’t. The following teams for race number 22 category spring dragons. Another race underway. So apparently this is going to go on all day long as I said until they get to the championship races in the afternoon ending at 5:00 maybe.
So, it’s going to be a much longer day than I anticipated.
Like the Australian team is up next again.
So, I’m thinking I may call a halt to Planet Doug Productions for right now as the races continue throughout the whole day and come back, maybe come back later for the finals. We’ll see if I can figure that out. If I know exactly when the finals are taking place, I’ll come back in the afternoon to film that. But for now, what I want to do, I think just before I leave this morning, is walk over to the other side, Casa del Rio. And I just want to see this whole scene from the other side of the river, and then that will be the end of Planet Doug Productions for this morning. Time to dive in somewhere for a cold drink, get out of the sun. But first, let’s pop over the river. So, I’m still making my way across the river. The bridge is here, right? There’s the famous Melaka Bridge that I keep talking about and the Middberg Bastion right here.
So, the setting for these races could not be more spectacular, more interesting. But I haven’t been standing right here for the beginning of a race yet. So, before I walk across the river to the other side, across the bridge, I thought I’d record the beginning of this race as well. Get this angle. You can see how poised they are. And they have to line up their boat perfectly with the buoy.
And I’ve been paying attention to how they drum as well. Different drummers have different techniques. Some of them go straight up and down. Others hit the drum with kind of a sideways motion. So they hit the drum in a circle and it might give a more a stronger visual cue to the rowers, I’m not sure, or the paddlers. And I noticed that the purple boat there, number three, the woman there, the drummer, she has a special stick. It looks like a horn, some sort of an animal horn or a tusk that she’s using to hit the drum. Everyone else has a piece of wood. So, I guess the drummers have their own special tools as well for drumming.
Are you ready? Are you ready? Get set. There’s the horn.
There they go.
Yeah. And you can see the strokes are different, too. The red boat with the green, they seem to have faster strokes. They’re going at a faster pace. The black boat has longer strokes. I don’t know which one is going to have the advantage. As I said, I think it’s all about synchronizing. Whichever team rows in the exact motion, they’re all rowing at the exact same time. I think they tend to win. Oh, yeah. So, here is the starting point. And it makes sense now that they do have a tournament structure so that winner of each heat moves on to the next race. So they’re not actually timing them, which yeah, I was wondering how in the world are they timing all of these boats from start to finish. I didn’t see any timing mechanisms, but I think all they need to know is who crosses the finishing line first. Whoever wins, they get marked as the winner and they move on to the next stage. But how many stages there are, how long we take to get to the championships for each category, what the categories are, I still have no clue. So, I’m here pretty much absorbing atmosphere and then the last bit of atmosphere for this morning across the river. Let’s head over there. So, I’m on the bridge now, the Melaka Bridge. There’s the Stat House and Dutch Square looking up river in that direction. And just to give you some context of where the races are taking place. So there’s looking down the river towards the start of the race and the finish line at the same time. And the safety boat here keeping an eye on things.
And there they go. Took a long time for this race to get started.
Yeah. From closer like near the finish line, you really get a sense of how fast they’re going cuz you see the wake at the front of the boat, but from here it looks like they’re going quite a bit slower. There’s another of the river boats going through.
So yeah, if you’re coming to Melaka as a tourist and you wanted to take a river cruise during the day, today is the wrong day because it looks like the dragon boat races are going on all day long. So you wouldn’t be able to take a river cruise until nighttime, I guess. There they go.
A different perspective on the dragon boat races. That’s where I was all along here when I first got here this morning. I was right beside the water wheel over there. And this is the starting line right here.
Finish line down in that direction. Four more teams lining up here. I am right at the starting line. We’ll see if anybody’s cheating. Anybody gets their dragon boat a little bit ahead. Yeah, they have to line them up pretty carefully.
I’m still impressed at how organized they’re keeping the boats. They’re lined up again in order 9 10 11 and 12. Apex DV Dragon Boat team B screen dragon boat please get ready energetic I repeat attention to the following team I think number 12 is going to have to come back a little bit Kahu Naga PIPC Apex DB Dragon Boat Team B screen dragons. Thank you. So I think the organizers are telling them they got to move back a little bit.
Yeah. So 11 has to go back a little bit. 12.
Okay. Oh, now number nine.
A lot of photographers on this side.
I would have to run to keep up with them. Certainly going faster than a walking pace.
There are the crowds on the other side. Yeah, it’s really nice to see it from this perspective.
And I think I’m winding down my experience of the sprints, the dragon boat race, 200 meter sprints. I think these races are going to go on all day long, like I said, up until 5:00 when they have the finals. I may or may not return for those. We’ll see how that works out. But, yeah, it was very, very exciting. I enjoyed that a lot. Learned a lot about dragon boat races, that’s for sure. And if you’ve watched the video all the way to this point, all the way to the end, that makes you a member of the Planet Doug Crunch Club. Put CC in the comments to let me know you watched the video all the way to the end. I always like to see that. So, shout out to the Crunch Club and shout out to everyone supporting Planet Doug through various ways. There are some QR codes at the end of the video that you can use if you want to keep Planet Doug in orbit and Planet Doug Productions busy making videos like these. So, that’s it. Shutting down for now and I’ll see you next time.