VIDEO DESCRIPTION:
Is slow travel better than fast travel? In this episode of my cycling journey around Malaysia, I trade the remote mountains for the historic coast, riding 45km from the small town of Tampin to the legendary city of Melaka (Malacca).
But this isn’t just a bike ride. Along the way, I get into the pros and cons of traveling by bicycle vs. motorcycle, and why covering less ground might actually help you see more. I also stumble into a fascinating local factory making faux stone columns, nearly lose my hat crossing Malaysian highways, and find salvation from the brutal heat with not one, but TWO incredible drinks: a brown sugar coconut shake and a pure avocado smoothie.
Plus, I finally arrive in Melaka, reflect on how travel has changed since the 1990s, and deal with the never-ending chaos of GoPro batteries, broken kickstands, and screws falling out of my “tough” laptop.
In this video:
Starting early in Tampin
Why I abandoned my original route north
The tension between moving fast and staying put
Cycling vs. Scooter: The real truth about “covering ground”
A random factory tour (Faux columns!)
The legendary Coconut Shake & Avocado Smoothie stop
Crossing the Melaka River
Checking into a budget hotel (and my DIY hook hack)
The Crunch Club & gear struggles (screws falling out!)
Join the Crunch Club:
If you made it to the end of this long, rambling video, put “CC” in the comments so I know you have the endurance of a true Planet Doug fan.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Good morning and welcome back to Planet Doug at the beginning of another day of my cycling trip around Malaysia. I’m in the small town of Tampin which is about maybe 45 km outside of Melaka and yeah I spent the night here. You can see that hotel there. Hotel Siri Inan really pleasant place had a really good night there. One of the better low-budget hotels I’ve encountered so far. I guess the only issue is there’s no window in my room anyway down on the first floor. And then I don’t really need a window. But no window means you’re not really aware of the weather. So the sun coming up, what the weather conditions are like outside, and you could easily end up hanging out in your room way too long. And then by the time you start moving, it’s like, “Oh, the sun’s been up for two hours.” But that didn’t happen this morning. But I did want to be on the road as early as possible to avoid the sun. So, it’s about 20 after 7 right now. And it turns out it’s a bit of a cloudy day, bit of an overcast day.
I’m zigzagging up this steep hill, creating my own switchbacks the very first 2 minutes away from your hotel. You don’t want to be climbing up an extremely steep hill right away. So, I’m switching it. All right, I made it more or less to the top to catch you up on the journey overall. I started off in the town of Port Dickson on the coast and the idea at that time was to ride up the middle of Malaysia paralleling the Titiwangsa mountain range and I chose that route largely because I wanted to stay away from heavy traffic at the beginning of my journey. I just wanted to go to some remoter areas, quieter, not as many big cities, not dealing with as much traffic. And I thought it would be quite interesting to follow that route through central Malaysia, a bit more remote, bit more traditional perhaps. But I left too late in terms of my visa expiring. I still had just enough time to make it to the border with Thailand before my tourist visa was set to expire and I had a pretty good buffer in terms of a number of days. But right out of the gate, I had bicycle problems where my tire blew up, my derailleur got broken, bunch of spokes snapped in my rear wheel, and that led to several days of just making trips back and forth, back and forth to bicycle shops in Seremban to get everything repaired. So, I lost four or five days of my buffer zone. And then a Planet Doug subscriber reached out and saw all the trouble I was dealing with and offered me a few nights at the very fancy, very amazing Royale Chulan Hotel in Seremban. And we were right in the middle of the end of Ramadan celebrations, the Raya holidays. So, the timing worked out perfectly because being on the road on a bicycle during that time would just mean endless traffic jams. The roads would be packed with vehicles no matter where you go. Even the interior of Malaysia would be full of people on the move going home for the Raya celebrations. So I jumped at the chance to hunker down in Seremban for a few nights at a luxury hotel. That was very amazing. And it turned out to be a good idea because I did all those repairs on the bicycle.
And then instead of instantly heading to remote Malaysia, I rode to Seremban instead. And that’s where all the bicycle shops are. So, it was kind of like a shakedown testing ground for my bicycle repairs. And that turned out to be a good idea because I got to Seremban. I was like a 100 m away from my hotel and my chain broke in half. It turns out it wasn’t a big issue. It was only the master link that failed. And even if I was out in the middle of nowhere, with a little bit of thinking, a little bit of help from YouTube, from the internet, I think I would have been able to just put on a new master link cuz I had four spare master links with me. But at the time, I did know maybe the chain itself had broken. Maybe I needed a new chain. But since I was in Seremban, I could just go straight back to the amazing bicycle shop I found there, have them look at the chain, put on the master link, re-calibrate the derailleurs, my gear shifting, and dialing in my brakes. And yeah, so it was very good plan for me to take a break in Seremban during Raya. And then I left from Seremban intending to continue north. I rode to the small town of Kuala Pilah. You can see that in my last video. Wonderful little town. Really enjoyable place. And then when I was in Kuala Pilah, I started looking seriously at the numbers, the distances I had to go. But more than that, it was I knew I have this desire to spend time in different places. I don’t want to just ride my bicycle every single day. So, one day riding to Kuala Pilah and then I would at least want to spend one day there and exploring the town, maybe two days. So then I started to rethink my route to the north where yeah, I could still make it. I could still get there on my bicycle before my visa expired, but I wouldn’t have any time to really just stop cycling and hang out in an interesting town.
So, I made a snap decision to instead of going north, head south to the coast at Melaka and then in from Melaka following the coast down to Johor Bahru. And the advantage there is I’m sort of back in civilization and I have many more options for leaving Malaysia. There are ferries from Melaka going to Sumatra. There are ferries in Johor Bahru going to Batam both in Indonesia. Of course I could cross the land border by bicycle or by bus into Singapore. So, I changed my route. So, instead of going north through the central Malaysia, I’m now heading south along the coast. And today heading to Melaka about 45 km away. And I think it’s going to be a very civilization-heavy day. Lots of traffic, lots of shops, things to look at, lots of 7-Elevens along the way, and heading into Melaka. So, it should be a fun day, an interesting day.
So, that is you all caught up.
I really like the look of this town, Tampin, as an old traditional feeling. Looking ahead on this is the main street going through downtown. Lot of old shophouses. Kind of a bustling place. Obviously, my hotel was a little bit on the outskirts, I guess. Not here downtown exactly, but it makes me think about a certain tension in this kind of trip. I think about this all the time because I’m very much the kind of person that just likes to stay in one place even while traveling. It’s like traveling without moving because yeah, I mean I could spend a week here in Tampin just exploring it. I’m sure there’s a lot to see and do, a lot of history here. markets, old timey shops, restaurants to check out. So, when you’re traveling, there’s really no need to rush to the next city. Like, what’s in the next town that isn’t right here?
I’m not sure what was happening right there. There was some sort of a weird intersection. lights, car stopping. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but yeah, look at this downtown area. If you can see it on one of my GoPros. Yeah, interesting downtown area. It’s very near. This is the the Titiwangsa mountains begin here at Tampin. There’s train tracks go through here. Yeah, looks like a very interesting little town.
So there’s no absolute need to rush to the next town, the next town, the next town. Always moving. But at the same time, when you are moving, it changes your mood. You feel a bit more like an explorer, like you’re out there going to new places. And it just kind of kickstarts an attitude, a feeling that encourages you to go out exploring, to learn more. And then you may not get that feeling if you just stay in one place. You eventually lose that feeling because everything around you just becomes normal.
So you may not wake up in the morning like eager to get out there and explore. So there’s a nice balance I think between having time to stay in one place and moving from place to place.
And that of course begs the question, well, is cycling the best way to be doing that moving? And there you get the exact same tension where cycling to be honest, especially in a place like Malaysia, may not be the best choice. the heat, the hills, the traffic, all of that might tell you, well, you know, you’d probably have a better experience on a scooter or a motorcycle, so you can cover more ground more quickly, and you don’t spend all day sweating and baking in the sun and turning the pedals. So, you might think, “Oh, this cycling business, I should rent a scooter instead.” Something like that. Buy a scooter if you have the budget. And the idea is that if you’re riding a scooter or a motorcycle, the day is easier, not so physically demanding. you can cover more ground faster and therefore have more time during the day to just explore and have experiences. You don’t spend as much time in the saddle. However, the problem is that most people, if they do have a scooter or a motorcycle, rather than using all of that power and speed to slow down and see more, all they do is pick destinations for the day that are farther away. So, like today, I’ll spend six or seven hours on a bicycle riding to Melaka. And if I had a scooter, I could get there in an hour and have five hours extra time. But that’s not how it works. People who have a scooter or a motorcycle, instead of just riding to Melaka from Tampin, they would never stay in the town of Tampin to begin with. They would use the power of their scooter the previous day to go all the way to Melaka. And then they might go from Melaka all the way to Johor Bahru in one day or all the way, you know, they’ll travel hundreds and hundreds of kilometers per day because they have the power. So it doesn’t really help them explore the country more. It just means they just cover more distance in a single day and they skip all the little towns in between. That’s my own experience, too, when I’ve gone on scooter trips. It’s Yeah. I mean, it’s just human nature. You got all that power. You got that throttle. You’re going to crank that throttle, travel 80, 100 km an hour, and then, yeah, you’re going to blast hundreds of kilometers, and maybe you get so caught up in this idea of covering ground, you don’t even take the time to stop and explore anymore. You become all about the fast speed and traveling. So then cycling much slower and yet you end up in small villages and small towns that on a scooter you would just blow past and not even notice. And maybe because you’re traveling so fast on a scooter, your attention is on the road. I noticed that when I was on scooter trips in Taiwan where I’m traveling at 80 kilometers an hour. I can’t take my eyes off the road even for a second because of the potholes and dangers. So you ride for 7 hours, you get to your destination and you realize, huh, for 7 hours all I saw was the road ahead of me because yeah, you can’t look around as much. And even stopping like just now I stopped on the bicycle because there’s something interesting here. you may not do that on a scooter because you’re keeping up with traffic. By the time you see something interesting, it’s too late. You’ve blown past it. And now you’ve got to do a U-turn, come back, turn off the scooter, take off your helmet on a bicycle. You just stop and you’re just here in the world. And I stopped here because we’re going over the train tracks. And this is the main, as far as I know, this is the main West Coast line. So these trains, these train tracks go from Kuala Lumpur all the way to Johor Bahru. And yeah, this is the main line for Malaysia on the west coast. And a lot of different trains. They have a brand new train, I think, a super fast ETS perhaps going all the way from Johor Bahru to KL. They just opened that up a little while ago. But what’s interesting about this is from here the next stop on the train is a town called Gemas the name of the town that’s where the jungle railway begins. So if you wanted the smaller local train just sort of rumbling and rattling from small station to small station going through the interior of Malaysia, the jungle railway, that’s where you start the journey in Gemas. That’s not this line here. This is a different line. Anyway, I just thought that was interesting.
Of course, being on a scooter and being able to keep up with traffic, that is an advantage because maybe you don’t feel the pressure of the traffic as much. On a bicycle, you are the slowest thing on the road and everybody passes you. Everybody. So all day long, if you’re on a busy road, it’s just like whoosh whoosh whoosh. You know, everybody’s going by you. Got a big truck coming up behind me now.
I got branches on the highway here. I don’t want to get smacked in the face. Yeah, it’s a pretty narrow road right now. So, even if I see branches coming straight at my face, I can’t swerve around them because that would push me out into traffic, you want to keep a nice straight line if you can.
But then I noticed yesterday in particular, I talked about that a little bit. I on yesterday’s ride, I stopped at some really interesting places and those are probably good examples of the advantages of traveling by bicycle. I mean, you could do it those stops on a scooter as well. But I first stopped at a tremendous temple complex. It was a nine emperor gods temple.
And at first when I got there, I wasn’t really going to explore very much because I don’t want to just park my bicycle in the parking lot with all my bags on it and then it’s not secure. So the whole time you’re walking around the temple for an hour, you’re worried about all the bags on your bicycle cuz there’s no way to protect all of them. So there’s a risk, a security risk.
And if you’re traveling by scooter, you generally have less luggage because there’s less chance that you’re going to end up needing to camp. So, you don’t bring camping gear, you don’t bring a stove, you don’t bring fuel. So, you probably have just one backpack or something like that strapped to the back of the scooter and you have that locked down and everything is inside that one bag. and it’s a little you feel a lot more secure. So, I noticed that on scooter trips I took in Taiwan and Thailand and other places, you’re more willing to just park the scooter outside of a restaurant, just hop off and go inside, and you’re not really worried about your luggage. But on bicycles, you tend to have more exposed luggage, so you have to think about security.
But I stopped at that temple. Then I saw some guys, a work crew at the side of the road and they were cutting the grass and the growth that takes over roads. So they were there with weed whackers cutting back mother nature, keeping mother nature at bay. And I find those guys fascinating work crews like that, thinking about their life and their day. I I’m very curious to know how much they get paid. I’ve worked at quite a few labor jobs in my life, so I can just imagine them where they’re spending the night. And they’ve got to wake up at 5:00 in the morning. Make sure they have the clothing for the day. They got food. They prepared their lunch the night before. They made sure they’re bringing water, the tools they need. And then, of course, a truck comes around, picks them up along with the rest of their crew for that day. And then they work all day long out in that brutal, brutal sun. And then at the end of the day, the truck comes back cuz they get abandoned way out in the middle of nowhere and they just work there all day. It’s not like there’s a 7-Eleven across the street. They’re not taking breaks in air conditioned comfort and at the end of the day the truck comes back, picks them up, takes them home, and then they they’re so tired they go to sleep, sleep all night, wake up the next morning, do it all over again. So anyway, I find these guys interesting. So I parked my bicycle at the side of the road and I yeah, just went watched them for a while, shot some video, and then I saw a lumber yard. I went by this big lumber yard. I could hear the sawmill, the big blades cutting. I heard a lot of activity. I saw some stacks of beautiful wood, so I thought, “Oh, let’s pull in there and check the place out.” So I did that. And then I rode through some gorgeous mountainous scenery with the valleys. Yeah, really, really nice day. Traditional Kampung architecture in all the village homes.
And all of those experiences were probably possible or they probably resulted from having a bicycle. If you were on a motorcycle, you probably wouldn’t even go down that road. I mean, why would you? And then you’re going so fast, you wouldn’t pick up on all these little details of life around you, and you may not stop to check them out. So, that’s another advantage to cycling, you know, when you want to learn about a new country.
Hello. And that’s another example right there. That man of the side of the road. I’m going slowly enough. I’m going uphill now that I’m in his world. And so he has a chance to make eye contact with me, smile, wave hello. And somehow being on a bicycle makes you a public figure. If you’re on a motorcycle zooming by, I mean, nobody knows who you are. They might see, oh, two people. If you’re traveling as part of a couple, you know, two people on a motorcycle, they’ve got all these bags on the motorcycle, particularly if there’s two of them. And they might think, “Oh, those must be world travelers.” They might make that connection, or they might not. They might not know they’re foreigners. But I’m out here fully exposed. There’s no mystery about who I am. Say, “Oh, look at that foreigner on a bicycle.” And the bicycle acts as a icebreaker. Everybody is comfortable stopping to talk to me and they use the bike as a way to open a conversation. It’s like, “Oh, where are you from and where are you cycling to?” etc.
And people who go by in cars see me out here struggling and they’ll give me a friendly toot on the horn, give me a thumbs up for encouragement. So yeah, there are a lot of benefits, unusual aspects to traveling on a bicycle that you might not think of until you do it yourself.
Not to go on and on and on with this morning ramble, but over the last few days, I’ve certainly discovered or certainly had experiences with some of the negatives of bicycle travel. And that might have a lot to do with me because I have a habit of making my life more complicated than it needs to be. So, shooting video for YouTube means you carry a lot of extra gear, very complicated gear, and you spend a lot of time throughout the day. In the morning before you set off at night when you arrive at your hotel, during the day, you’re always monitoring the cameras, changing batteries, recharging things, getting memory cards ready. It’s yeah, it complicates your life immensely to shoot. It enriches your life, too, but it complicates it when you’re trying to shoot video. And the last few days, I’ve very much been aware of all of my gear.
And I don’t know, this is probably the least prepared I’ve ever been for a cycling trip in my life. And I blame it on YouTube. I blame it on my GoPro cameras. I have two of them, by the way, if you’re not aware of that. I have a GoPro Hero 12. This one aiming backwards at me on the patented Planet Doug broomstick sticking off to the left. Oo, I’ve got a macaque. I startled him running through the trees like a maniac.
Something else you probably may not see or notice on a scooter because all you hear is the roar of the engine. You don’t hear anything on a bicycle. I was aware of the macaque because I heard the branches rustling. So I look up. Oh, what’s making that noise? And I see the macaque and then I see it run through the trees. I hear birds all the time. I hear people calling out to me. Oh, here’s another classic example of a sort of kampung style house.
And I’m not an expert in this type of architecture, but just the style being up on stilts like that. Very attractive. Very open air, too, with all those awnings that can be opened up to let air flow through. There’s the sun rising. And across the road on the other side there.
Yeah, beautifully restored home. Someone put a lot of work into that. It looks almost like a museum piece. Maybe it was restored to serve like a historic home. It almost looks like a museum. Beautifully done.
These early morning hours, they are absolutely the best. You have so much energy. Nice and cool still. The sun hasn’t come out yet. You’re interested in everything. But you do have to keep an eye on the clock a little bit. If you go so slowly in the morning, stopping everywhere and then as the day comes to an end and you still have a long ways to go and then then you wish, man, I wish I covered more ground this morning. Wow, what a beautiful little section of road. Another gorgeous house right there. classic architecture, huh? I had no idea this road was going to be this beautiful. You can see on my Hero 9 GoPro pointing ahead through my handlebars. I hope you can see that hill on the right. And look at that house. What a setting.
Going to have to make a brief stop here. Make sure I have it on a clear view on video. Yeah, there it is. An older one. Not restored like that museum piece, but very lived-in classic Malay home with that hill right behind it. What a beautiful setting.
Yeah, this road is much more natural than I expected. I just thought I’d be in the middle of heavy traffic and highways all the way to Melaka. This is turning out to be very nice. I just passed some kind of a stone works or marble works warehouse or shop. I thought I’d pop in and take a look at this place.
I was going I have to cross the road and I saw a scooter coming. So I thought, “Oh, I better wait for the scooter.” But every time you decide to wait for a scooter, it turns out to be an elderly farmer kind of guy who’s got a scooter that runs at 10 km an hour and then you end up waiting and waiting and waiting. He just goes putt putt putt putt putt putty putt past and by the time he goes past and all the traffic returns. Yeah. The biggest challenge in Malaysia for a cyclist is just like how did the cyclist cross the road? Well, he didn’t. He just didn’t. That’s the answer to the age-old riddle. Every time I try to go across, more cars come around the corner.
And sometimes there’s enough room, enough time for me to do it. I know there is. But the drivers don’t they I’ve noticed in Malaysia they tend to panic if they see a bicycle going across the road. I know I have enough time to get across turn and now I’m parallel to the road but they don’t know how much time is required for that and they just lay on the horn. If I go across the road like they start honking honking honking honking.
Huh.
I was just going to leave my bike. I was just going to leave my bike down here because it’s got a steep road, but a steep driveway, but maybe I’ll come up and push my bike up anyway. Hello. Hello. How are you? Fine. Oh. Yeah, I’m from Canada. Canada. Just traveling around Malaysia. Oh. And I from the road I saw this place. I wanted to come in and take a look. Is it okay? Okay. Yes. It looks interesting. Oh, it’s cement or fiber. Oh, it’s cement. So, it’s not marble. Not marble. Oh, okay. Let me park my bike. So this is made of so it’s steel like fiber fiber mean fiber cement all of them. Oh this one too. It looks like stone looks like brick but it’s hollow. Oh so this is the material here. I see fiber and cement like that. So there you can see the the fiber on the inside.
And it looks like he’s applying something on the outside. Must be a finishing. What is it? Finishing. A finishing. Okay. Finishing. So you have many stages to make it. And if you look on the inside, oh yeah, you can see the rough the fiber on the inside. Ah, that’s interesting. Sounds sounds like metal. And then he’s putting a finishing on the outside. Huh. Oh, yeah. Some more ornate ones here they put near the entrance. Maybe as kind of an advertisement. Yeah. I don’t know how if they do that with a mold or I’m sure they don’t do it by hand. Is it okay if I walk this way? Okay. Okay.
So, I’m trying to be more careful with my bike. My kickstand isn’t doing anything. So, I just rather than my bike falling over, I just I dump it on the ground myself. C does less damage that way. Oh yeah, they’ve got quite a selection. Like if you’re if you want to make your home look like a castle, like a mansion, and you want to do it on a budget, hey, this is your place. I imagine this is kind of like a wholesaler and they would sell these through a whole bunch of different distributors. Yeah, they actually get quite tall. That’s quite a the 10 12T column.
Looking back at my bicycle, it’s like ah fell over again. But no, I did that deliberately this time. I don’t learn quickly, but I eventually I learn.
But I wonder what the first part of the process is. There must be a stage that the beginning stage of making these things. I’m not sure what it what it could be. I guess it all happens back. Oh, there’s all kinds of like bags of cement back there.
I don’t know if there’s a metal frame. I wanted to see how do you make these. Oh, okay.
What? So, this is a cement. Yes. Yes. Yes. or yeah, making concrete.
It still feels like there must be a metal frame to start with, right? There has to be some sort of a frame, boss. Good, my boss. Very, very good. Yeah. Good. Good, boss. Yes. All right. Very, very good.
And then our second time. Oh. Oh. Second time oil. Oil. Okay. Three time cam. Four time fiber. Ah. Five time fiber. Five time fiber. So yeah, that makes sense to me. Like many many stages. 10 time. Oh, okay. That now that’s starting to make sense to me. So this is the beginning stage. Ah so they put the bars across.
I see. I see. Okay. And then I guess they start laying down the fiber on top of the bars and that would be that would give you the frame. This gives you the frame to work with. Very lightweight to the clean. Okay. But yeah, you can see you can see right through it how thin it is. So I think they put the bars down as a frame and then they lay this fiber. Wow. Feels like Yeah. Feels very soft. No good. Oh yeah. Ah says it it’ll he’s saying it’ll make your skin itchy. Dangerous. Oh yeah. So you don’t want to get that on your skin. So I shouldn’t be sticking my fingers in a glass. Oh, glass fiber. So I have to see whether my my Yeah, I can feel it on my like a powder. I guess it’s a glass powder comes off. And you don’t want that all over your skin. And then they go through stage after stage adding M. Yeah, he’s showing me that they’re Yeah, you can see inside all the layers. Huh?
Yeah. It feels like I’m still missing something, though. I don’t know how you get this intricate square shape using just those metal rods. It feels like there must be more a starting point that I’m missing.
These are amazing. Like where they mix the concrete. It looks almost like a volcanic opening, you know, like a volcano. It’s not just a metal tub. That’s very cool. Thank you. You’re welcome. Have a good day.
So, I don’t have the entire process mapped out in my brain, but yeah, I got the basic idea.
You’d think there’d be a lot more staff. I’m sure they have a lot more employees, of course, but maybe today is just happens to be a quiet day. Not a lot of manufacturing going on today. This is my YouTube. Oh, Planet Doug on YouTube. Oh, YouTube. Yeah. Thank you. There’s a classic car. It’s probably been here a long time. Yeah. Antique Mercedes. Mercedes. Yeah.
Yeah. Very interesting stop to see how they make these. It’s places like this that make the world go around, keep the homes being built, keep the economies running. And I find they’re all kind of operating in the background. like we don’t even think about where all this stuff comes from. We just go to the stores and buy them. So, it’s kind of nice for me to stop and see it.
Okay. Thank you. Bye-bye. See you now. Going down this. I better hope my brakes are working. Otherwise, I go flying out into the road into traffic. Very very steep steep driveway. Now I got to get across here. Yeah, it’s a bad Yeah, this is a dangerous driveway. There’s a sharp curve. Very very close on both sides.
Like I said, I try to cross the road safely, but at the same time, I don’t want to freak out drivers. There we go. I made it. I did that the other day. I recorded myself riding on a highway. So, I mounted one of my GoPros at the side of the road, but then in order to ride past the GoPro, I needed to go back that direction. So, I did a U-turn across the highway, down the highway, then a U-turn across again to go back up. And every time I went across the highway, all the drivers freaked out. No matter how far away they were, they all just started honking their horn from like half a kilometer away. They all laid on their horns cuz it just to see a bicycle going across the highway in front of them. Yeah. Just freaked them out. So, I tried to be careful.
Another really nice example of some traditional architecture. I’ve shot video of a lot of these, but at least this one is on the other side of the road. So, the sun is hitting it more. Might be more clear with the details. Uh, beautifully done.
Yeah. One thing I’ve noticed about this road is I’ve just been steadily going downhill. My original route, as I said this morning, was to head into the interior and then head up head north through the through the middle of Malaysia. And I guess I didn’t even realize it, but all those days of cycling, I was gradually going up up up up up up up into the interior mountainous spine. And now that I’m decided to alter my route and I’m going back down to the coast, I’m losing all of that altitude that I gained and I’m just coasting sort of down to the coast, which is interesting.
There’s a little town up ahead called Alor Gajah, and I have a choice, different routes to take through that town. I think I’m going to try to follow the road that takes me through the center of town, through the populated area, just to see what the place looks like. So, I think I could take a highway that skirts it, but I think I’m going to try to go through the middle. We’ll see. Now, the closer we get to Melaka and the closer we get to the coast, of course, the more we’re going to be in the thick of things in terms of the the long history of Malaysia because of course the coast was where historically a lot of the action was taking place. Melaka being right on the the Melaka Strait and that’s been an important trading route and shipping route going back millennia you know going you know people tend to think of Melaka they associated with the Portuguese and the Dutch and the British you know the colonial era but there were many centuries and millennia before that where this coastline had a history as a trading route between China and India. And if I remember a little bit of my history, the Melaka Sultanate was founded somewhere around 1400. So that’s when you might think of the modern history beginning the founding of the Melaka Sultanate around 1400. And I can’t remember the name of the man. These names just don’t stick in my memory, but Melaka was founded by a man from what we call Sumatra today. I think he was part of a royal family there and there was a lot of fighting going on and then he left on his own and he founded Melaka and he was originally Hindu. He was a Hindu man. And then over time Muslim traders were using Melaka as a trading post. And my understanding in fact is that Islam entered Malaysia through Melaka. So I think most people when they think of Melaka they associated with the colonial colonial era.
Again, the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the British having controlled Melaka at various times. But Melaka’s importance predates that era considerably. And perhaps one of the most important aspects of Melaka is it is where Islam really took a foothold in Malaysia coming through Sumatra and through Melaka, Arabic traders, Muslim traders and then the man who founded Melaka, the Hindu man from Sumatra, he converted to Islam and then yeah it just spread from there throughout Malaysia and I think driven in large part by international trade again through Muslim traders bringing Islam here and I think it all started with Melaka. So it’s one of the interesting things about that city that a lot of people overlook. Yeah. This is where I could follow more of a highway. There’s a highway heading in that direction, but I can go straight ahead into the town itself, go down a smaller road, and then it it rejoins this highway outside of the city. So, oh yeah, there’s a sign over there, Alor Gajah. So, that is where I am. And at the end of all my videos, I try to insert a map, a like a flyover map using GPX data from Strava. And that can, if you watch that map at the end, you can see where I was during the day today.
Just as I was entering the town, I spotted this mosque. Looks very interesting. Looks old and historic. And then off to the left was this building. It’s now straight ahead of me. And I wondered if this was part of the history of Alor Gajah or whether this is a new building. I don’t really know what it is.
Mosques do come in different styles. So this could be another mosque but just with a different architecture, different style. It’s a possibility.
There it is in front of me. has a dome on the top. Looks somewhat mosque like a newer one perhaps. Hello. How are you? All right. Okay. Can you tell me what this building is? Uh it’s mosque. It is a mosque. Yes. Uh it is named I see. Just has a different design, a different architecture. So, uh it’s uh 2020. Oh, built in 2020. Yeah, it looks nice. Different style. Oh, thank you. So, I don’t know whether my microphones could pick that up, but that confirmed or solved the mystery. Yes, it is a mosque. A more modern example of a mosque built in 2020, he said. I wonder if it’s a companion to this more traditional, smaller mosque here. It’s just in front of me.
I’ve noticed that local people often pronounce the uee at the end. We just say mosque, but he pronounced it mosqu. And I’ve heard that pronunciation quite a few times. a mosqu. Yeah. Here is the the older mosque.
That’s very nice. More of a traditional style with the minaret almost looking like a a lighthouse.
Later on in the morning, as you can see, the sun has come out, which means hat went on. My new found treasure. I found this I found this baseball cap on the highway when I was cycling into Seremban. Picked it up, dusted it off, adjusted the strap, and fits pretty nice. And I was surprised at how much more comfortable this cap seemed to make me feel. So now when the sun comes out, I pop it on. Pop it on my head. Couple of times though, I lose the cap myself. If I’m going down a hill like 30 km an hour or something like that, I forget that I’m wearing the cap and if I lift my head, you know, blows off my head and then I have to park the bike and go back and get it off the road before it gets smooshed by a truck. It just happened a few minutes ago and I talked about how the drivers can kind of freak out when there’s something on the road ahead of them. I walked back to get my cap and a a big truck came over the hill. It was still far far away. So, I had more than enough time just to walk out into the middle of the road, grab the cap and walk back again. But as soon as I started walking, that truck hit the air horn like ah. And I’m like, “Dude, you’re like a kilometer away. Relax. You’re not you’re not going to hit me.” But, I got my cap back before he ran over it and way before he would have run over me.
I don’t think they’re they’re just not accustomed to seeing a cyclist or a pedestrian anywhere near the road, to be honest. Kind of a freaks them out.
And I’m on a bigger highway now as you can see. Lot faster traffic. Bit of a traffic roar, but lot more trucks, but there’s also a nice shoulder, so it all evens out. I guess I’m probably halfway to Melaka in terms of my trip today.
Another twist of fate or a quirk, every time I see something interesting, it’s always on the other side of the road. Like I never see anything that’s on the left side of the road. I spot something, it’s like, “Oh, I want to go look at that.” It’s always on the other side. Then I got to cross the road. And why did the Canadian cyclist cross the road? Well, this time, Coconut Shake. I also mentioned before that almost everything I see is closed and I never see any place that has cold drinks. And I saw this Coconut Shake place, but it had a shack that was completely locked and closed. But I see all kinds of cars parked here. And maybe I can go into the interior. But man, just getting across this road is just there’s just no way. The traffic never ever stops.
All right. Avocado Melaka.
As I said, there’s the the shack family house. Some of the things they make. Pizza. Sura. There’s a sura prayer room. Pisang goreng. I’m just here for something to drink. So you order, pay, and pick up here. Chicken tenders. Chicken tenders. Spicy. Hello. All right. How are you? Oh, burgers. I saw your sign for a coconut shake. Coconut shake over there. Oh, around there. Okay. So, the good stuff is hidden way in the back.
Ah, okay. a secret treasure hidden far in the back. Even have some bicycles up here and some no worries. 1930 photo flood in Melaka. 1890 Melaka.
So there there’s the avocado shake right there. Who knows? I might have to have one of those, too. And they have the coconut shake. They have them pre-made cuz they’re so popular. They have them in the freezer, but I got mine with a little bit of brown sugar. So, they just Yeah, they took it out of the freezer, added a little bit of brown sugar, and you you get it right away.
I was expecting something like very very thick like a milkshaky kind of thing. A little bit more liquidy.
Very, very sweet. probably didn’t need the brown sugar, but for most people, they probably wouldn’t want it this sweet. I don’t mind. Ice ice cold. That’s the most important thing.
And I think this area up here, they have some seating up there, too. Maybe maybe I’ll take a look. I think you have to take your shoes off to go up there. It’s really nice up here. But they have these stools sitting on the ground or very low to the ground a table, but my poor back. I can’t do that. I get uncomfortable very quickly. But I found myself a wall. I can lean against the wall and enjoy my coconut shake. And when I got off my bicycle, I discovered that my Hero 9 was frozen. a classic GoPro glitch in the heat or low battery power, who knows whatever happened. It froze. So, that whole last section where I was pointing my GoPro 9 at like look at this beautiful mosque and here’s the coconut shake place. All these things, none of that would have been on video. So, who knows what I’ll do with that section of video. I just shot a short sequence of video where I was buying a second shake, my avocado shake, but I didn’t realize my microphone battery had died. Yeah, I’ve used those microphones so much that the battery doesn’t last nearly as long as they used to. I used to just start them up in the first thing in the morning and they would just never turn them off and they would just go all day until night. But now I only get a few hours out of them. So, I wasn’t keeping track. But yeah, I decided to get a second shake because I when else am I going going to be way out here? I have to take advantage of my shakes when I come across them. And so the first one was a coconut shake with brown sugar. This is a pure avocado. And they usually they the more normal way is to have them with chocolate sauce, but I just got it without the chocolate sauce. Just got pure avocado. And we’ll see if it’s sweetened or not, or is it just pure fruit?
M. That’s nice. I think it’s just pure fruit. No sugar added at all. Just a avocado puree. That’s nice. That’s really nice.
Ice ice cold as well. So very very good. This one it’s a bit more expensive. 13 ringgit for this. All around me more and more evidence that I’m back in civilization assuming I ever left it. Got I think I’ve got a Burger King over there, McDonald’s over there, all kinds of restaurants, shopping malls, tons and tons of traffic. Just approaching the downtown core, the historic district of Melaka. It’s up ahead. Couple of kilometers.
Oh, really enjoyed those shakes though. They definitely got me back on the road feeling refreshed. Little bit of a rest there.
Obviously a very popular spot. I I saw people coming in. They would phone in their orders or like submit an order online for their entire family and they pull up in their car, park outside, and then mom goes in, comes back out to the car with a tray of six giant avocado or coconut shakes. Man, what a treat for the kids.
Probably. Yeah, very well-known spot here in Melaka.
I’m just coming up on the Melaka coastal bridge going over I think the main waterway that goes into the city. So this is probably the heart and soul of historic Melaka, the waterway that we’re just about to go over.
I didn’t realize this bridge was so big. I thought it was quite a small bridge.
I wonder if I get a nice view of the historic downtown from up on the up on top of the bridge. It might be called the Melaka River. I’m not sure. Sungai Melaka makes sense.
But considering the history of Melaka is all about shipping, makes sense that this river is a big part of that history.
There we are down in down in first gear to climb up this hill. 5 km an hour.
That could be the title of my memoir. Exploring Malaysia at 5 km an hour.
You don’t see much, but what you do see, you get a nice long look at it.
All right, time to do some walking. They have a dock in here for the ferries that go to Sumatra. If I wanted to, I suppose I could extend my stay in Melaka and then take a ferry across to Dumai and then return to sort of kick re to kickstart my Malaysian visa.
And they have Oh, there it is right there. That’s kind of a maybe that’s a sign of what I’m supposed to do. I can see the Indomal Fast Ferry from here. I recognize the the look of it.
That’s what I’ve been looking at. There’s the the river, some of the boats, and that big white one there, that’s the the ferry that goes across to Dumai on Sumatra.
I wonder if the ticket prices of everything have gone up dramatically just in the last couple of weeks. I keep hearing about the rising cost of gas causing all kinds of problems all around the world and I’m sure that’s affecting airlines and boats. Cost them a lot more to buy their fuel, I would think.
Right over there is the Melaka Strait.
And my hotel is right here in this neighborhood. Not this one. That’s the Moti Hotel. That’s not mine.
Oh, and there’s a Swing and Pillows Hotel right here.
I’ve got to find myself a a U-turn to get into this neighborhood on my left.
Almost lost my hat. Have to hold it down while I’m going downhill.
This is actually my second visit to Melaka. I’ve been here before, but the last time I was here was back in the ’90s. It was so long ago. I don’t really have any memories at all.
I don’t remember how I got here. I don’t remember where I stayed. I don’t remember what I did, how long I was here, who I was with, if anybody, not a scrap of memory. And that was in the days before digital cameras. And when I was traveling through Malaysia and Indonesia in the ’90s, for some reason, I was on this kick of not taking pictures. So, I think I had a little Minox spy camera for 35mm film. I I may have had that camera with me, but I didn’t didn’t have any film. Film was expensive to buy and process. So, yeah, I didn’t I didn’t take pictures on those trips. So, without the photos, I have nothing to base any memories on. I probably kept a journal, but all my journals are in storage back in Canada somewhere. So basically coming here is feeling like the very first time. Nothing nothing is going to look familiar because probably 90% of these buildings around me they wouldn’t even have existed back in the ’90s. All these tall buildings, the Holiday Inn up there, the condo buildings, none of the none of this would have existed. would have been a very different place back in the ’90s.
I got to thinking a while back about, you know, our dependency on smartphones and how we just assume we’ll have all the knowledge built into them because a friend of mine, Daniel, who runs the American Hobo YouTube channel, he was cycling in the middle of Indonesia. What island was he on? He Flores. He was way out in the middle of nowhere, remote Flores Island, and his phone broke down. Moisture shorted it out and suddenly he was lost, right? Because he didn’t have any paper maps. He didn’t have a guide book. He no longer had access to Google Maps. He didn’t have Google Translate to talk to people. And right now, for example, I booked a hotel room here in Melaka, but I don’t have any real memory of the name of the hotel, right? Because you don’t need to remember anything anymore. So, I was just thinking if my phone suddenly stopped working, I’d be like, I have no idea where my reservation is. Yeah, we just don’t write things down. We don’t keep notes, anything like that anymore. But I just started thinking and I think it’s called the Mahkota Vibe Inn. Previously, it had a previous name as well. Thought it was supposed to be here.
Maybe I’m on the wrong street. Maybe it’s the next street up. A lot of restaurants on this street.
There it is. Yeah, it used to be called the Holy or Holy Hotel and now it’s the Mahkota Vibe Inn though chances are I’m not even in this building.
Could be a family budget room.
So there by pure chance is where I booked a room. It could be one of those rooms up there. It could be anywhere up and down this street. I have no idea. Just cross our fingers and hope I get a nice friendly reception. That’s mainly what I ask for.
Hello.
Hi. I have a reservation with you for three nights, I think. Why was very hot? It’s so hot. I know. And I’m on a bicycle. Mhm. But it’s still okay. The passport tax you pay already. Mhm. the tourism tax. Okay. Yeah, it was included when I paid on a go. Okay. Now you just pay the for one 193 ringgit. That’s the heritage tax. You Yes. Three ringgit, right? Uh 39, right? Mhm. 9 ringgit. Okay.
So, you just put it there and lock it up. Uh you can lock to this door. This is door. Yeah. You don’t use this door? No. No. Okay. Yeah. I can just put it here. Lock it. You uh when you out, you Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And 203 is in this building or a different one over here. Okay. Uh first door. Very first door. First, second door. Second floor. Second floor. Okay. I’ll go up and take a look. Thank you.
Ah, yeah. to get in through their door. Okay, thank you. So, yeah, it is in a different building over here right here. 203 says it’s on the second floor. Holy and Mahkota vibe in. And in theory, this will open this. Hey. Hey. All right.
And a second floor might be third floor by the way we Canadians count them.
For a Canadian, this would be the second floor.
But I have to go up another one right here. Okay, the big reveal.
Well, yeah, pretty basic. Definitely does not look as nice as the photos online. I can be pretty happy in here though as long as the I can coax the air conditioner to life. And the bathroom is over here. Pretty standard. And they were nice and friendly when I checked in. Very helpful. So I don’t have any problems with that.
Yeah. I think in a city like Melaka there’s such a range of accommodation. You can easily find some even in the same price range as this, you can find something nicer. Like I said last night, I just gave up. I don’t know. I went around and around and around and and I finally just went, “All right, just book this one and go from there.” So yeah, got to go down and bring my gear up.
So, I have settled into this room. It wasn’t an easy job settling in just because the layout of the room is not very convenient. There’s an electrical outlet, but it’s way over on the far wall beside the bathroom. It’s nowhere near anything else, and there’s no real like no chairs and furniture and and it’s kind of hard to get organized in here, but I think I manage it. I even travel with my own stick on hooks. That’s a real pet peeve of mine. Like, sure, you you stay in a low-budget hotel. You’re not expecting luxuries, but it doesn’t cost anything to put a hook in the bathroom. Like, I went in there to take a shower, and you bring your towel in with you, and then you’re like, “Well, what do I do? Just throw it on the floor?” Like, you know, the hotel owners, what do they expect their guests to do with their towel or their toiletries kit or soap or anything. Like, there’s nowhere to put anything. and and so many bathrooms around the world in hotels are like that. I’ve never understood it. So anyway, I break out my own package of adhesive hooks and I put two on the wall in there, one for my towel, one to hang my toiletries kit. They’re good. You know, I’m good to go. So, it doesn’t take much, right? You can buy a whole package of those down at the dollar store for next to nothing. And I I carry my own. But yeah, just little things like that. But anyway, good thing I have a long extension cord. As you can see, I had to plug my extension cord underneath the TV over there and then run it over here onto the bed beside me. And then I’m lucky enough I have a very long high-powered USB-C cable to run my laptop because you can’t run that laptop on a normal USB-C cable. You have to have a special high-powered one. And I have a nice long one. So, I have the extension cord and then a USB-C cord to reach all the way here on my lap, aka Planet Doug Studios. But yeah, I’m kind of settled in more or less. Yeah, it’s a fine room. As I talked about when I moved in and as I was approaching Melaka, I think for the amount that I paid for this room, you can get a nicer setting, a nicer hotel if I just had managed to find one, but I just didn’t in that time. But all the basics are here. The air conditioner is brand new. It’s pumping out a lot of cold air. That’s the most important thing. I’ve got a window letting in lots of natural light. Tons of water pressure in the bathroom. So, there you go. Three for three. Can’t really ask for more than that. So, everything’s working out just fine.
I don’t know if anything else is going to happen today, like once the evening rolls around, going out to get something to eat, but I may have stopped filming by then. The bulk of the day is already done, so I think I’m going to wind up the video here. Yeah, nice nice day. I really enjoyed that. As I’ve talked about in the videos during this trip, when you start cycling, the first day is the hardest physically. So, or the first week is the hardest physically. And every day you get in a little bit better condition mentally and physically. So, day one, if you ride 20 kilometers, it feels like it kills you. And then the next day, you ride 15 feeling good. And then you tack on another 10. So you ride 25 on that day. Then you ride 30. And then day after day, you just start to feel more natural in the saddle. So today I rode 45 kilometers to get here. The first 30 just kind of blew by. I was in a good mood, had tons of energy. I started off when it was nice and cool and it was windy. I was babbling a lot on camera just rambling about different topics. I stopped off to see that place where they built the columns out of fiber fiberglass. That that was quite interesting. And then I got to stop to get the avocado shake and the coconut shake. That was a real highlight. But yeah, I rode I rode 30 kilometers without even thinking about it. Just enjoying my time on the road. Beautiful scenery that during that part when I was out in the mountains, gorgeous architecture, the Kampung houses, really nice. Yeah, I just had a really good time. And then after 30 km, I was starting to run out of steam and energy. The heat was getting to me. But then it was just another 15 km of riding to get into the big city of Melaka, dealing with the roar of traffic on the highways and things like that. But I got here without too much trouble. Very enjoyable day. So that is pretty much it. I think I’m shutting down. If you made it all the way to the end of this video, you know what that means. You’re a member of the Planet Doug Crunch Club. Those people with the endurance to make it to the end of a long Planet Doug video, you’re special people. You’re a member of the Crunch Club. Put CC in the comments to let me know you made it all the way to the end of the video. And everyone who has been supporting me on Patreon, I appreciate that very much. It helps out a great deal on journeys like this. I I couldn’t go on this trip without that financial support to be honest. So, thank you very much for being supporters on Patreon and people here in Malaysia who have sent me donations, contributions through touch and go. that has been really amazing and has helped me out a great deal. Financing helping to finance this journey around Malaysia and the journey seems to be coming together quite nicely. I was a little bit worried about it at the beginning, but the days that I’ve been cycling every day has been more enjoyable than the last. I’m still struggling with my gear. I don’t think I have the right kind of gear. It just I don’t know what I’m doing with it. Struggling with my camera gear to an extent. Batteries always dying, always running out. Recording video when there’s no audio playing, batteries dying at the worst possible moment. I don’t know what’s going on. So, I am struggling with all this all this gear that you see spread out around me. These pet bags and the trailer. I don’t know. It’s not really jelling quite yet, but yeah. And you really see that when you arrive at the hotel, like when I pulled up outside this hotel. A lot of it has to do with that kickstand. You pull up outside the hotel and then you try and just prop your bike up on your kickstand and the stupid bike wants to fall over. The kickstand just bends like rubber. Right from that point, you’re just sort of you’re fighting with it. I’m disconnecting the trailer and then I’m trying to lie the, you know, lay the bike down flat. But then when I do that, I’m covering up the bags and then I can’t get my passport out of my bag and and I’ve got cords running everywhere because my wireless microphones ran out of battery power. So, I was using this lavalier mic connected directly to the GoPro and that’s hooking on things. My my my reading glasses with the cord is hooking. It’s just it’s like I’m fumbling. I’m dropping things. I don’t know what I’m doing. It’s just like a big effort just to get off the bike, check into the hotel, come into the room. So, my gear hasn’t quite come together yet. But that takes time. And yeah, you work things out how to pack better. And if I could get a good kickstand that works for me, I think that would help out a lot. So, here in Melaka, if I pass by any kind of bike store, I’m going to be looking kickstand, kickstand, kickstand. anything any anything better than the piece of junk that I have. Right. So, yeah. Oh, and I don’t want to forget people who have been supporting me on buy me a coffee. I have a planet Doug buy me a coffee I set up for people who are familiar with that platform. Thank you very much for my buy me a coffee people out there. It’s been a great great help. And that’s it. I think I’m shutting down. I I have to do all the post trip things. Upload my photos, download Strava, create the 3D maps, copy all the video files onto my laptop. One weird thing, I took my laptop out of my GoPro battery died again, so I got cut off, but I have my little tiny power bank plugged into my GoPro right now, so I don’t have to change the battery. I always forget that I have the capability to do that because I have the GoPro media mod with a USB-C pass through port. So, I can plug in a power bank and I can run the GoPro right off of a USB-C power. So, that’s what I’m doing right now. Yeah. The last little story I wanted to tell was that I had a funny experience with my laptop because I put my laptop inside a waterproof bag, wrap it up, and then it goes inside a cushioned bag and the last couple of days I put that cushioned bag inside the trailer kind of lying flat. I worked out a a safe and convenient way of doing that. So, you know, the the laptop was in there all day, and I just kind of like kind of like bouncing a little bit on the trailer as it’s going over bumps. And then I unpacked it here, took it out of the big padded bag, and then I took it out of the waterproof bag. And then I turned the waterproof bag over. It’s a good thing I did because three screws fell out of the bag. So, like the bottom of the laptop is held on by a bunch of little screws. And I guess because the laptop is bouncing up and down all the time, all these screws are coming loose and they’re all just falling out of the bottom of the laptop. It’s like, ah, that’s not good. But anyway, I have a little screwdriver, of course, in my tool kit. And then I I took the time to screw those three screws back in and then tighten up all the other screws cuz all of them were about to fall out. So, that’s not a good thing. Something else I have to add to my to-do list every day. get out my little screwdriver and, you know, tighten all the little screws holding my laptop together. It’s like, what is going on with all of my gear? Uh, yeah, you start riding your bicycle and you certainly find all the weak points in your gear very, very quickly. So, this laptop, it’s an Asus Tough A16 Gaming Edition, and it comes with like military-grade endurance. It’s supposed to be very tough, which is one of the reasons I got it thinking it’d be very durable, but what they didn’t mention is that well, all the screws fall out, so I was like, “What the heck? What is going on?” Anyway, so I got to keep an eye on that. All right, that’s it. Got to move on to all my other little tasks and enjoy the rest of my coffee. So anyway, I hope you enjoyed that look at some of rural Malaysia, what it looks like out there. beautiful country when you get up into the hills, into the interior, into the mountains. Yeah. And now that I’m down on the coast, we’ll see an entirely different side of Malaysia. So, that’s it. Shutting down. I’ll see you in the next video.