VIDEO DESCRIPTION:
What happens when a king orders you to kill your best friend — and you do it?
In this walk through the historic heart of Melaka, Malaysia, I set out to understand one of Southeast Asia’s most haunting legends: the story of Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat. Two warriors. Closer than brothers. Torn apart by loyalty, betrayal, and a sultan’s order.
Along the way, I stumble across an abandoned police station I’d walked past dozens of times without noticing, explore quiet backstreets, and visit the mausoleums of Hang Jebat and Hang Kasturi. I also get drawn into the “Harmony Triangle” — a mosque, Hindu temple, and Buddhist temple that have stood side by side for centuries.
And because this is Planet Doug, the walk ends with an unplanned burger at the famously quirky Baboon House, followed by a surprise food treasure hunt sent by a viewer (complete with a mysterious iced latte and a very friendly tomcat).
In this video:
– The real (and legendary) story of Hang Tuah — Malaysia’s most loyal warrior
– Why Hang Jebat rebelled against the sultan — and paid with his life
– A quiet look at Melaka’s mausoleums, mosques, and hidden laneways
– A bonus food adventure inside a Melaka mall
If you’ve ever walked past a street name like Jalan Hang Tuah and wondered who that person was — this one’s for you.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome back once more to historic and beautiful and interesting Melaka, Malaysia. It’s late in the afternoon. Yesterday, I rode my bicycle the entire length of the Riverside boardwalk. It was about a 10 km bike ride to get to the very end where you could no longer follow the river on a bicycle and then 10 km back again. And I’ve done a lot of walking along the riverside, things like that. Visited a bunch of museums, gone out for a night walk, done a few things here in Melaka. And today what I want to do is cross over the bridge to the Jonker Street area, the famous Jonker walking street, but then veer off to the side onto some of the smaller roads and just sort of walk around. I have one or two places that I want to check out to sort of give myself a destination for this walk. But the main idea is just to explore some of the other streets that I haven’t walked down or cycled down. And I’m nowhere near Jonker Street yet, but I fired up my GoPro because there’s something here that is of particular interest to someone like me on Planet Doug, and that is an old abandoned police station. Check this out. I’ve walked by here probably two dozen times, maybe even more, and I instinctively know the blue and white color scheme of the local police in Malaysia. I’ve remarked on their huge police station buildings in so many cities that I go through, but I’ve never actually looked at it. And today for the first time I kind of looked through the fence and checked it out. Yeah, it’s a huge police complex. Classic Malaysian police blue and white colors, but it’s completely abandoned. I’ve walked all around this thing many, many times, but it never occurred to me that the whole place was abandoned and not in use anymore. So, I wonder what they’re going to do with this land eventually. Very important land like right in the heart of Melaka. But anyway, yeah, I just thought that was interesting. An abandoned police station. Walked by it dozens of times and never really noticed it until now. Modern history of Melaka, abandoned police station. So, I’m just… This is very near the Dutch Square. Dutch Square is just ahead of me. Just around the corner here is Dutch Square and that’s where I’ll be crossing the bridge over to Jonker Walking Street and some of the nearby streets just to go exploring. I just crossed over the bridge. There’s the Stadthuys and Dutch Square right over there. And yeah, you’re right in the very heart of the historic district of Melaka right here. And directly ahead of me, of course, is the gateway, the entrance onto Jonker Street. But right now, we’re not going to head up Jonker Street. I think we’re turning right because I want to explore this area off to the right of Jonker Street. But here’s the riverside. Yeah. One thing or a whole bunch of things I haven’t done in Melaka is basically check out all the fancy expensive restaurants. Like they’ve got the Hard Rock Cafe here. I’ve heard really good things about this place to be honest. The food and the atmosphere and the drinks and the vibe, but it’s not really my kind of place, I guess. And then you’ve got all these fancy restaurants, cafes, nice pizza place, a lot of bars here. And I’ve walked by them a dozen times, but I haven’t actually gone out for meals at places like that. Yeah, that’s one thing I haven’t done in Melaka. I don’t know whether… Yeah, looks like I’m not going to spend a lot of time doing things like that. Not enough time left in my time here in Melaka. Lot of tour groups, a lot of school groups passing through. Today’s a Thursday, by the way, so it’s a regular weekday. The weekend crowds haven’t quite shown up yet. One of the rules on Planet Doug, always look up. You could walk right by this building a dozen times and not even notice how amazing it is. But now, yeah, if you stop and look up, we have some time for you. Really cool building. Street house of authentic delicacies down at the bottom. A lot of groups with their guide with their flags. So, let’s head off in this direction partially just to see what we stumble across just to check out the atmosphere. But also, as I said, I have at least one maybe two places in particular I want to check out. And this is why do you see that name there? Jalan. Jalan means street. Hang Jebat. So remember that, Jebat. Because if you’re a visitor to Malaysia and even if you’ve never cracked open a history book about Malaysia, Southeast Asia, even if you’ve never opened a Wikipedia article, you’ll probably remember seeing that name all the time, Hang Jebat. And then you’ll see Hang Tuah everywhere on schools, on buildings, on streets. And you’ll also see Hang Kasturi and then two more. So you’ve got Hang Jebat, Hang Tuah, Hang Kasturi, and then I forget the last two names. I’ll put them up on the screen and you can see the five names that I’m talking about because those five names are a really important part of the history of the Melaka Sultanate and of Malaysia in general. So, you don’t need to know the whole history. You don’t have to know all the little details about these five men, these five famous figures from Malaysian history, but it’s just kind of nice to have a general idea of who they are. And then as you tour Malaysia, as you walk around Kuala Lumpur, any city in the country, and you see Jalan Hang Tuah, ah, I know that name. Or Jalan Hang Jebat or Hang Kasturi like in Kuala Lumpur for example in the Chinatown district there’s a very famous tourist walkway called Kasturi Walk and again that is Hang Kasturi a historical figure that that refers to and here in Melaka there are mausoleums like marking the burial sites. I don’t think they’re actually buried here, but these mausoleums are listed as burial sites, but they’re more like memorials to these men. And just up ahead on the right, I think, is the first one I’m going to look at, which is the mausoleum to Hang Jebat, which this street is named after. These streets and all the shophouses, the bars, cafes, restaurants, hotels. Reminds me very much of Georgetown in Penang. Feels that way to me. I mean, yeah, just look at some of the buildings here. Place is just oozing with history. You could probably I’m sure people do spend a lifetime exploring Melaka, learning about all the individual buildings, all the streets. Look at that. And that hotel on the corner there. Yeah, really beautiful areas back here. And lots of beautiful temples tucked away, mosques, Hindu temples all over the place. I don’t know exactly where they are, but I know there are three famous houses of worship here that make up a kind of Harmony Street. It’s very similar to the Harmony Street in Georgetown where there’s a famous Christian church, a mosque, Hindu temple, Buddhist temple. Like all the major religions have big houses of worship all on the same street essentially right beside each other and Melaka has the same thing here and I think the three temples are among the oldest in all of Malaysia. So they would have like the oldest Hindu temple, Buddhist temple and mosque all on the same street and very very close to each other. Again, I don’t have the names of these temples and their history in my brain right now, but I know that if you want to go visit them, you can find them here in Melaka. Yeah, I keep trying to say Melaka and I keep saying Georgetown by mistake just because it reminds me so much of Georgetown on Penang. And look at these shophouses here. But to get back to the five men that I started off talking about, probably the most famous of the five and perhaps the leader of the group of five would be a man called Hang Tuah. And Hang Tuah and his four companions, they were warriors fighters for the Melaka Sultanate back in the 1400s, basically the 15th century. And Hang Tuah is, I think, listed also as an admiral for the Melaka Sultanate. And if you have a Malaysian friend, just ask them about Hang Tuah and I’m sure they will tell you the whole story. But Hang Tuah is known for his fighting prowess, for his bravery, for his loyalty, trustworthiness, and respect for authority. A very famous figure in Malaysian history. And I’m not going to go into his life story more than that because I would get everything wrong. As I said, if you have a Malaysian friend, yeah, just ask them about Hang Tuah, and they will fill you in. And we just happen to be passing by one of the more famous sites here in Melaka, Masjid Kampung Kling. And what I find fascinating about these mosques in Melaka is they have their own architectural style with the roof. Like if you’ve been in Kuala Lumpur anywhere else in Malaysia, I’m sure you’re familiar with mosques with the domes, right? The classic dome and the mosques here in Melaka have their own architectural style going back centuries. A little bit more Chinese influence. You can see in the rooftop and then the minaret there too. Its own unusual look. Yeah. So yeah, it’s a very interesting mosque and there’s a very famous story in Malaysian history about Hang Tuah and as I said he was a very loyal servant of the Sultan of the Melaka Sultanate renowned for his fighting ability and his trustworthiness and a false accusation was made against him that he was a traitor to the sultan and then the some details of the story I’m not very clear on I’ve seen some version of the story where Hang Tuah was executed like the the legend is that he was executed by the sultan for being a traitor but then his companion and his friend Hang Jebat was upset about that and Hang Jebat rebelled against the sultan because the Sultan killed his friend Hang Tuah. And then it turned out that Hang Tuah wasn’t executed. He was actually still alive. And then because Hang Jebat rebelled against the Sultan, the Sultan told Hang Tuah to kill his friend Hang Jebat. So I don’t think I told the story very well there, but essentially Hang Tuah was falsely accused of being a traitor and then Hang Jebat went to his defense fighting against the Sultan. But then the Sultan ordered Hang Tuah to fight against Hang Jebat. So in fact, Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat fought a famous duel and then Hang Tuah killed his friend and companion Hang Jebat out of loyalty to the Sultan. So when if you stop to think about it, it’s practically a Shakespearean story like who was in the right where Hang Tuah was accused unjustly of treason. The accusation was not true. It was a false accusation. So his friend fought the government fought the sultanate in defense of his friend. So he was doing something loyal to his friend but he was rebelling against the sultan. So was he in the right? And then when Hang Tuah was ordered by the Sultan to fight Hang Jebat, he did. He followed orders because he was loyal to the Sultanate. But he fought against his friend Hang Jebat and he killed him in a duel. So was he in the right? So it introduces all these fascinating ideas about loyalty to your friends, loyalty to the government, whoever the authority figures basically in power. So it’s a fascinating part of Malaysian history and Hang Jebat, his mausoleum is located in this neighborhood. And since I’ve been babbling into the camera, I’ve lost track of where… Oh, I think I might be right in front of it. Yep, I think it’s right here. Right here, Makam Hang Jebat. And I don’t know if it’s open, whether one can go inside. I was hoping I could because I think the story of his life would be on display in here and perhaps it would be more clear than what I just said. So this is the mausoleum of Hang Jebat. Very peaceful back here. Very quiet. And then he would have been laid to rest here after his duel with his friend Hang Tuah. So I mentioned there were five of them as I said, Hang Tuah, Hang Jebat, Hang Kasturi, and then two more. The names I can’t think of right now, but you can think of them as Malaysia’s version of like the knights of the round table. They were the fighters and warriors loyal to the Sultan, a group of five men that were friends and fought together and they were like the knights of the round table but for Malaysia. And in a funny twist, I was thinking of them in modern pop culture terms. And then Hang Tuah would be Thor. Like if you think of the Marvel movies, Hang Tuah would be Thor, the the greatest warrior of them all, loyal, trustworthy, that type of figure. And when I was reading about the history, I thought of Hang Jebat as more like a Loki figure, like a a little bit more like a Loki. If I can read some of the story here, so this will make more sense. Perhaps Hang Jebat together with Hang Tuah was part of the legendary five brothers in arms that also included Hang Kasturi, Hang Lekir and Hang Lekiu. So he served as an admiral during the reign of the Malay Sultanate of Melaka under the fifth Sultan, Sultan Muzaffar Shah 1446 to 1456 until the beginning of the next Shah. And then here’s the heart of the story. As a close and loyal friend of Hang Tuah, he was aggrieved by the actions of the sultan who had ordered Hang Tuah’s immediate execution on account of the slander made by this gentleman without investigating it. So Hang Jebat turned against the sultan to avenge his friend’s death and seek justice. So here’s the part of the story I wasn’t sure if it was actually true or not. So the chief minister, he was ordered to execute Hang Tuah, but he didn’t carry out the order and instead Hang Tuah was taken to a remote hiding place. But Hang Jebat had rebelled against the Sultan. And because of that rebellion, Hang Tuah was brought to kill him and a fight ensued between the two and Hang Jebat finally fell at the hands of his own friend Hang Tuah. So you can see what I mean. It’s a very Shakespearean story about friendship and loyalty and raises a lot of interesting questions. But as I said, for a visitor from the west, a casual tourist coming in Malaysia, you know, the takeaway would be to just to remember the story of these five brothers in arms that they were, you know, date back to the 15th century, the 1400s here in Melaka. So everywhere you go in Malaysia when you see Hang Kasturi Walk or you know Jalan Hang Tuah like buildings and streets and named after these men and you see that name you can go ah I know that story. Those are the five brothers in arms from Melaka. There is also a mausoleum to Hang Tuah. But it’s not here in the city itself. I think it’s located about 10 kilometers outside of the downtown core. Like near the village where Hang Tuah was born. So I can’t go to his mausoleum, but I believe there’s also a mausoleum to the third brother in arms, Hang Kasturi. Yeah, his mausoleum is up here on Jonker Street. So, that’s where I’m going next. I kind of feel bad walking around in all these back streets because I come across so many amazing cafes and restaurants like in all these tiny alleyways and laneways. Like, there’s a whole bunch. Look at this beautiful laneway. And I say I feel bad because 90% of all the visitors never make it this far. They would stay on the main Jonker Street. And I’ve walked by a number of these cafes where there’ll be someone on the inside and the place is completely empty and then they’re looking out the window and they see me walking by and they kind of look at me with yearning eyes like, “Oh, a customer, a customer, please come in.” But I’m not out to do that just now. So, but of course it’s still midday. I’m sure they get a lot more customers at night. That’s when people go out looking for an evening meal, evening drinks. It’s too hot right now for most normal people who don’t go wandering around in the hottest part of the day. But yeah, look at this laneway. It’s really beautiful. All kinds of the famous artwork that Melaka is known for and of course Georgetown as well. You could spend an entire week just tracking down all of the street art spread out all over Melaka. So, let’s go track down the mausoleum to Hang Kasturi. And look at this. I just happened to be right on Jalan Hang Kasturi. So, as I said, you’ll see this name all over Malaysia. And to get there, I have to walk in this direction to Jonker Street and then turn right on Jonker Street and walk up towards the end. And that’s where Hang Kasturi’s mausoleum is located. I mentioned the three famous temples in Melaka forming like Harmony Street and I just saw it listed online as Harmony Triangle. Maybe that’s another name for it. But it turns out just by accident, I think I’m walking by the Hindu temple. I believe this one dates back to the 1700s, maybe built in 1781. So, this might be a part of the Harmony Triangle, and it’s right beside the famous mosque that I already talked about, this one right here. And then nearby would be a Buddhist temple, but I’m not really sure which one it is or where it’s located, but it would be nearby here. The information about this temple completed in 1748. So the architecture is Sumatran with strong Hindu influences. Yeah. And you can see that in the minaret which resembles a pagoda right there. Yeah. Very clearly kind of a pagoda shape. I don’t know for sure, but I’m thinking that this Buddhist temple up ahead might be the last part of the puzzle for the harmony triangle. It’s just up the street from the mosque and the Hindu temple that we just saw. And it certainly looks important from a distance. I don’t know if this is the old Buddhist temple that’s part of the Harmony Street, Harmony Triangle, but it’s a pretty good guess. Let’s go take a closer look. Or it could be this one. It actually makes more sense. This one looks older and it’s on the same exactly on the same street. So this is the Buddhist temple on the corner and right back there you can see the minaret of the mosque and the Hindu temple is just a short distance down from there. So yeah I think this is the Buddhist temple I would assume part of the harmony triangle. Ah there is a historic sign here. This can tell us. Yeah. Must be you know constructed in 1673. So it’s the oldest functioning temple in the entire country dedicated to Guan Yin, the goddess of mercy. So yeah. So this is the oldest functioning temple in all of Malaysia. Cuz yeah that one at the end there yeah it jumped out at me as quite new may not even be a temple could be a community hall or something like that but there’s the Buddhist temple very very old. I didn’t really dress to go inside any of the temples, so I’m just staying on the outside. And I mean, I can poke my camera on the inside here. And you can just sort of see the temple from here. I’m just not in the mood to do a deep dive into all of the architecture and the history and wander around with my camera. I just wanted to get a glimpse of it from the outside just to give you a taste of what Melaka is all about. Back on Jonker Street. We’re looking back towards Dutch Square and somewhere around here is the mausoleum for Hang Kasturi and I’m guessing it’s this white structure right there. And in some of the accounts I read that whole story I tried to tell about Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat. Sometimes the story makes it about Hang Kasturi instead like he is the one who fought a duel with Hang Tuah and was killed. Like some stories talk about Hang Jebat and some tell the exact same story but they say it’s about Hang Kasturi. So I’m not sure which is 100% true. But there is the mausoleum to Hang Kasturi. There’s the mausoleum to Hang Kasturi just behind me there. And while I was taking some video of the inside like through the gate, a man on the other side of the road, he called out to me and says, “You can go in. Just push the gate. You can open it.” But I didn’t need to. Of course, there was actually it didn’t have the history there. It didn’t have the story like it did at the Hang Jebat Mausoleum, but it’s good to know that the local person said it’s okay to open the gate because I did open the gate at the Hang Jebat Mausoleum. I wasn’t sure whether I was allowed to do that or not, but apparently that would have been okay. But yeah, those are the two main things I wanted to see on this little walk out into Melaka. Yeah, I mean you could just spend the rest of your life here. I mean, every time I turn a corner, there’s another like there’s the Geographer Cafe and then in this direction more historic buildings, museums, restaurants. It just goes on and on. It’s almost a bit overwhelming. The man who was telling me that I could open the gate and go in, he started telling me the story more or less as I told it to you and just talked about Hang Kasturi, Hang Jebat, Hang Tuah and the two others as famous warriors of Malaysia and that’s how I think the local people think of them and again sort of like the knights of the round table of Malaysia. See what I mean? The names they just pop up everywhere. So here’s another one. Jalan Hang Lekir. So he was one of the five warriors of Melaka. Lekir one of the lesser known ones in terms of the stories but I’m sure he has a lot of exploits of his own. You read up on the history you can learn about him. No end to the restaurants. Hainan chicken rice right there. Looks like a really nice place. Another interesting restaurant right here. This building beside it. Na Kitchen, Seven Green Restaurant, Cafe, Bar. And I’m walking in this direction because there is quite a famous restaurant or cafe. Serves western food, but I think it’s right around the corner here. But it’s supposed to have a very interesting atmosphere and decor called the Baboon House. Yeah, this street parallels Jonker Street. And I was thinking I could even have a meal at the Baboon House, but it looks according to Google Maps, it says they close at 5 and it’s 4:30 right now. So, there isn’t enough time to really enjoy a good meal at this place, but just thought I would take a look at it anyway. Maybe grab a drink just so I can see the inside. So, where are you? Baboon House. There it is. You can see, look at that. The Baboon House kind of hidden in there. And I guess the idea is you press the bell and they come and get you. And that’s part of the tradition. Okay. So there’s the sign, the Baboon House. So we are not a photo studio. We are a home, restaurant, cafe, art gallery. Yeah. So they have very strict rules here telling you how to behave if you want to take pictures or video. I don’t see any hours. Hello. Welcome. Thank you. Are you open? Yes. For what? Just for one. Yeah. Come in. Yeah. There we go. What time do you close? 5:00 p.m. Closer. 5. Yeah, I thought so. Okay. Yeah, got here a little bit late. Sounds good. So, as you can place the order, I can using Wi-Fi. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. So, I came in and on impulse since I’m here, I did order a meal. I just ordered a burger, their basic beef burger. And then they have a system where you order with a QR code, like an online menu, which I love. So, at the table, they have the QR code there. So, you can scan that QR code and see their menu. And they have a Wi-Fi in case you need it. So, I ordered this drink here, passion fruit kefir, and I don’t know anything about it right there. And but I haven’t had any of it yet. Since there’s no customers in the courtyard at the moment, I thought I could take advantage of that just to take a little bit of video of the interior. Yeah, you can spend a long time in here just looking at the decor as well. So, let’s just take a quick look. And they have a skylight lets a lot of light in. And then a spiral staircase. Beautiful. Leading up to the second floor. Yeah, really like this place. Look at all the different styles of tables. A long narrow one there, round one there underneath the stairs, kind of a garden patio style, and then normal like restaurant style tables over here. Yeah, beautiful place. But let’s give my drink a try. So here’s the drink. Looks quite interesting. That is really nice. I’m surprised. Oh, yeah. I’m not a connoisseur when it comes to drinks and food, but that’s really nice. It has a really nice flavor to it. A really sharp carbonation. And my burger has arrived. And you’ve all seen burgers a million times, but came with some like wedge fries, watermelon, cubed watermelon, and then a big burger. There you go. And I can’t really relax over this meal because they do close relatively soon. So, I’m not going to linger over my meal. I’m just going to enjoy it. Nicely done on the fries. The burger came out really fast. Like very quick order. Didn’t have to wait at all, but they’re still very hot and crispy. Dive into my gourmet burger. That is really nice. That’s a good burger. So, that was a lunch. Really nice burger. I’ve already settled the bill and I discovered that they have another room in the back here. I didn’t even know this would be a nice table for someone like me just to sit tucked away out of sight. And this is nice, too. Another sort of outdoor lawn chair. Oh, this is like wide open. I don’t think there’s even glass up there. So, rain would come in support all of these plants. Has a well. Looks original, too. Yeah, that’s definitely a real well. Oh, yeah. A couple of nice tables there, too. Yeah. I haven’t gone up the stairs. I don’t know if the stairs are like leading to other tables or not. Yeah. Beautiful spot. This is the very front room when you first come in. I didn’t really take a look at it cuz I went in so quickly, but yeah, beautifully decorated as well. Every room has its own style, its own look. And they were telling me that there’s even more rooms further back than I went. Yeah. Normally for a meal like that, I would build my entire day around it. Like an interesting place like this, a relatively expensive meal. I wouldn’t do anything like that unless I could turn it into like a half day experience at least and really dive into it. But I don’t know, just on impulse, popped in. Really glad I did. I don’t know that I was in the best mood to really appreciate it. Feeling a little bit rushed because I went in at 4:30 and I knew they closed at 5 and I was only going to get a drink, but they said that yeah, they can make a burger no problem and so there’d be more than and they said I could stay after 5 if I wanted to, but I don’t like to keep people waiting, right? So, I ate my burger quite quickly and the drink was really nice, as I said. Really enjoyed that, too. Yeah. And a lot of these houses, big houses here have been turned into museum spaces as well. So yeah, down by the river once again heading back towards my hotel. Yeah, not a big adventure today. Just wandering around the back streets around Jonker Street. Really enjoyed that. As I said, I wanted to take a look at the two mausoleums and just dive a little bit more into the history of Hang Tuah and the five warriors of Malaysia. Yeah, fascinating bit of Malaysian history particularly because yeah, it all happened here in Melaka. This is where the history is based. So, that is it. Shutting down for now. Yeah, finished it up with a pretty nice burger and a nice drink. But the highlight, I mean, the burger was great and the drink was really good, but the highlight there really is the atmosphere. But it looks like they almost went too far with the atmosphere because every room there has so many things. People like me, any foreigner would just go crazy taking pictures, taking video. It looked like they’ve ended up in situations where other customers were annoyed and bothered. They couldn’t enjoy their meal because there’s so many people treating it like it’s a photo studio. So, it got to the point where they had to put a policy on the door saying, “Okay, these are the rules. It’s cool in here. You can take pictures, but it’s not a photo studio. Like, don’t go crazy. Be courteous to other people.” And they even had a rule. I don’t know if you saw that. The rule was if you are going to take video and photos with other people in the photo, you have to get the permission of every single person in the photo. And I think the intent of that rule is okay, only take pictures of your friends. If you and your friends are sitting at one table, you can take pictures at your table cuz then you have everyone’s permission. But the way the rule reads, it sounds like if there’s like 20 people in the restaurant, you have to get up and go to every single table. Oh, do you mind if I take your picture? Do you mind if I take your picture? You know, ask every single person. And that would end up annoying people even more if, you know, every 2 minutes somebody comes up to their table and says, “Is it okay if I take a picture with you in it?” Anyway, I took a little bit of video, couple of photos, but I must admit that sign kind of threw me. Once I read that sign, I was like, “Oo, now I kind of felt uncomfortable going in there with my GoPro and taking pictures.” And yeah, I wasn’t really at ease anymore. But I still enjoyed it. And there was only me and I think two other people in the whole restaurant at the time, so that was okay. Yeah. Back at the river with all the river boats. There’s three of them heading up all at the same time. Yeah. Sun getting lower in the sky. Right behind me or beside me, I should say. One of my favorite places, the Samudera Museum. I just like the boat. I think the boat and the history of that boat is so cool. And every time I walk in and out of the historic district, I end up walking by the boat. It’s a very familiar site by now. And that is it. Shutting down as always. I had my Strava app running. I’ll put the 3D map at the end of this conclusion and you can see exactly where I went walking. I didn’t go very far, just a short distance around the downtown core. But yeah, you can check out the map and see where I went. And yeah, shout out to all the Planet Doug supporters out there supporting me on Malaysia, the Touch ‘n Go e-wallet. I appreciate that very much. And my Patreon members, thank you for joining the Planet Doug Patreon. I appreciate all of you. And of course my coffee posi over on buy me a coffee. Yeah, really appreciate the support there as well. So that is it. Shutting down and I’ll see you next time. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey. And if you made it this far in the video, all the way to the end, even beyond the conclusion, that makes you a member of the Planet Doug Crunch Club. And after the credits to this video, there’s going to be a bonus video sequence of me heading out into Melaka to get a snack and a drink and having some small adventures. But only the Crunch Club knows about that bonus video cuz you watched all the way to the end. So skip ahead to the end of the credits and you’ll find the bonus video clip. All right, that’s it. And put CC in the comments to let me know you found these hidden secret instructions for the bonus video. See you next time. A little Planet Doug vignette here. I got a message from a Planet Doug subscriber and viewer and they offered to buy me a snack, a surprise snack here at the Mahkota Parade Mall, which is just right around the corner from my hotel. So, I just walked over to the mall and I’m going to get a message, kind of like a treasure hunt, a screenshot telling me where to go inside the mall. And I just have to follow the directions to arrive somewhere and pick up some kind of a snack. Could be a drink, could be a meal, could be a takeaway finger food snack. I don’t know yet. Yeah, it’s a huge mall. Much bigger than I thought it was when I came here. This is where I bought my sandals from Bata. But even from the outside, it doesn’t look that big from the outside, but it’s a sprawling kind of mall. Covers a lot of territory, I think. You need a new car today. I guess this is the place to come. Nissan on one side. Maybe it’s all Nissan. I don’t know. I might head upstairs. Food court looks to be up there maybe. I don’t know. The food treasure hunt has begun. I got a message to head to Subway on the ground floor. So loud in here. They’ve got a stage show going on with the cars. But so I’m here down on the ground floor and Subway would be an S. KG5E take me there. I thought it was going to give me directions how to get there. Take me there. Go. It’s not working. That worked the last time I was here. It gave me a map. KG. Ah, I can’t hear myself think. So loud. But anyway, KG5E, but I don’t know where that is. Just going to have to go wandering around. Find a Subway. I’m not having much luck finding Subway. On all the maps here, for whatever reason, it doesn’t give you directions. Like all the other stores, it says, “Okay, go here. Go here.” But Subway isn’t on the map. But I just as I was saying that, I came around this corner and apparently this is a Subway. So, I just have to show them the receipt on my phone that the Planet Doug supporter sent me. Hello. I have an order that someone sent in for me. Oh, you pick up here. Yeah, I pick up here. Oh, that’s it there. Yeah. Okay. That’s the order if you need to see it. Yes, that’s the one. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. So, there it is. Yeah. No muss, no fuss. That was just sitting there and waiting for me. And apparently there’s more happening. I’m under instructions that after I pick this up to ask for further instructions and I have to go somewhere else. Still waiting for instructions on the next leg of this amazing race. Food treasure hunt. I walk by the main courtyard again. And it’s not the loud, you know, the all the loud music and someone speaking from there is not about the cars. It’s actually an Herbal Life presentation. So, they’re marketing for Herbal Life, which makes sense that it would be so loud. But yeah, whenever I end up in like a night market wandering around Melaka in a shopping mall like this, I’m always a little bit amazed at how relatively slim and athletic and in good condition Malaysians are because the extent to which food is the cornerstone of existence and how much food there is everywhere for sale and fresh good food everywhere. Everybody buying food all the time. Yeah, you’d think there would be like an obesity epidemic or something, but no, not really. Not as far as I know. So, yeah, a lot of good food in Malaysia everywhere you turn. And it’s so easy to get as well. I got my next clue. It’s at Gigi Coffee or GG Coffee. I don’t know where that is. So, we’re back at the map and let’s see if we can track this one down more easily than Subway. Okay, so I am here and let’s search letter G. Ah, KG5C similar area. Will I get a map this time? No. No image. Take me there. Nothing. So, GG coffee. Unless I’m doing it wrong. I don’t think so. Like, what else could you do? There’s no image. Take me there. Let’s go. Yeah. Nothing. No map. Luckily, there’s not a ticking clock because if I was racing against a clock, like a timer, I would immediately fail because I don’t do well when there’s a time pressure. I figure things out very slowly and deliberately. Maybe I’ll pick up a new car as I go by. I can tour around Malaysia in one of these bad boys. What do you think? Ah, that was so loud. Cuz I blew out my eardrums. Oh, these families trying to figure out whether they can get their family in that car or not. Okay, there’s the entrance. And I think KG 5C will be right down here. Yeah, here’s the escalator. There’s KFC. And this must be GG coffee right here. All right, this is mine. Funny thing is with this kind of a treasure hunt, I don’t even know what the order is. So, you know, I’m waiting. But since I didn’t place the order, I don’t know what my drink is. So, when it appears ready, I’m not sure which, but this one she got my attention. Cold cafe latte, which makes sense because my mystery benefactor knows I love latte. And here in Malaysia, ice latte is generally preferred because of the heat. And when you get a fancy latte, even at a fancy coffee shop, most of the time, it’s not hot enough, so you don’t even get the sensation of having a good hot coffee. So, you might as well just get it iced, really. Time to head for the exit. Wow, that was too much for me. Oh, no. Melaka is a bustling place. Saturday and a Sunday. I was out last night just checking out the Saturday night hustle and bustle and it was pretty overwhelming for me. So much going on, so much noise, music. And even that shopping mall, it’s kind of overwhelming on the inside. So many people, so much noise and so much stuff going on. And already I miss the air conditioning. You step outside into the sun. Wow. It hits like a sledgehammer. It really does. Right across the road is an older mall. That’s the Melaka Mega Mall. Dataran Pahlawan, I think, is the maybe that’s the neighborhood. And then right across the road from the Mega Mall is now the Mahkota Parade. Yeah, very good mall. Lot of selection in there. Very comfortable. But I haven’t tried my iced latte. I’m under strict orders from my mystery benefactor to give a detailed report on the iced latte. Is it good or is the latte good? Interesting. No, it’s not sweetened, which is fine with me. Yeah, there’s no sugar at all, no sweetening. I don’t know whether he asked for it that way or whether it just comes naturally that way, but yeah, very nice coffee flavor. Yeah, I like it. Nice mixture of coffee and milk. I think they got the balance right. Ice cold, lots of ice. So, yeah, very nice. The real test would be a hot latte. And I know that in general it’s not cool to like Starbucks. Like if you’re a cool guy, you’re supposed to be, you know, you’re above Starbucks for some reason. But Starbucks for me still makes by far the best hot latte. Like nothing else even comes close to it in all the places I’ve been. Every other place basically is disappointing. But Starbucks has never let me down when it comes to a hot latte. But I didn’t have their hot latte. Of course, I’m having their ice latte. And I’m just bringing the Subway sandwich back to my room. Get out of the heat. Just coming back from Dumai and Sumatra. I really feel the difference every day that I’m here. I still feel it because as much as I enjoy the rough and tumble life of Sumatra, Dumai, it’s a great place for me to hang out. It’s a lot more of a struggle to get food. Restaurants, places to eat are not nearly as plentiful, but here in Melaka, I mean, it’s just everywhere. Heading back to my hotel. I just cut through this little mall kind of place, which I’ve never gone down before. And yeah, just coming through here. There’s a restaurant. Here’s another one. Like a buffet style. Good food there. And I came down here because I keep seeing signs for the Explorer Hotel. And I guess that’s what this is over here. Explorer Hotel. But I don’t know if it’s still open or not. Hotel. The Explorer. Just I’d like the name, but maybe it’s not even open anymore. Oh, look at that. Here’s a place where they store a bunch of the trishaws. Yes. Trishaw storage. Yeah. Pikachu. Yes. Pikachu. Yeah. Pokemon. Pikachu. Yeah. Looks like there’s a whole room full of them. Eh, your room. Yeah. Storage. Look at that. Waiting to come out tonight. It would be fun to dive into the hidden world of the economics of these trishaws. I’ve mentioned a few times I saw a documentary like a short documentary about a guy in Melaka building his tri for the upcoming season, redesigning and rebuilding the whole thing based on a new theme. So, new batteries, new sound system, new decorations and everything. And it cost a lot of money, like in the thousands of dollars to build. And yeah, so here, you know, you have to pay to store it at night, like do all these guys who ride around, how many of them own it, how many of them rent it, like what’s the how is that organized? What does it cost to store it there? You know, it’d be a whole world of economics. Hm. Not quite sure what’s going on here. I got a cat meowing at me right there. I guess I’ll stop and say hello for a second. Hello, kitty. Are you looking for food and drink or are you just looking for company? Oh, I think you’re just looking for company. You’re lonely, huh? That’s a big That’s a tom cat, I think. That’s a big old boy cat. You can feel the muscles in his neck. Wow, you are a I have a feeling that with my fingers in there eventually, he’s going to become so friendly that I’m going to get a love bite. He’s going to dig his teeth into my hand at some point. We’ll see what happens. Hey there, buddy. Oh, you’re Oh, there’s a little love bite. Just a small one, though. A very very friendly. Looks healthy. Hopefully he’s comfortable out here in this cage. Maybe lots of people stop and say hello. He’s got a bit of a sore eye. Looks like he might have been a little bit of a street cat before got into some battles, but yeah, he looks very, very healthy. All right, buddy. I got to go. I got to go. Beautiful cat. That’s a big muscular cat. Like a tiger, aren’t you? Aren’t you? Yep. Yeah. I’ve never come down through this way before. Just more of a roundabout way of getting back to my hotel. Oh, yeah. There’s a parking lot here again with all kinds of food around the parking lot, too. Like I said, the food here is everywhere. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t call it wasted on me, but I mean I wish I was a different kind of person who ate four times a day and then I could take advantage of, you know, four different meals a day, but I’m usually like one meal a day kind of guy. So, I can’t take full advantage of all the food that’s being offered back in Planet Doug Studios for the Subway sandwich. Oh, yeah. I fired up the I turned on the air conditioner as soon as I came back in, but takes a while for it to have an effect on this room. So, it’s still pretty warm in here. And this room is not spacious like it doesn’t have tables and chairs or desks or anything like that. So this is the Planet Doug studio approach to getting yourself a table in your room, assuming the room garbage can is clean enough. And don’t worry, I clean these before I use them. I take them into the shower and I give them a good scrubbing with soap and basically it turns into a little table on my bed. That is the Planet Doug dining room table. And yeah, when was the last time I had a Subway sandwich? I’m not sure I can even remember. Yeah, good thing about these is they got such a hefty feeling to them. Very dense and heavy. So, you know, you’re getting some good food value there. A wrap. So, it’s not a typical Subway sandwich. Not like a 6-inch sub. It’s a wrap. Oo. Yeah. And that’s a meal. Lot of sauce. It’s a chicken wrap. I think in the very first bite there, I got a big blast of a pickle. Well, overall, I don’t know if there’s anything else to say. I mean, I’m going to be enjoying this very much. Thank you to my mystery benefactor for sending me out on that treasure hunt for some good food, good latte, good sandwich. It was just nice to go out. I was busy here in my hotel room doing some Planet Doug things, of course. It’s nice to take a break and then go out on a little food treasure hunt. Got to see all the activity at the mall. That was crazy. And then I got to meet that big old tom cat. So now when I go back out of my hotel, I think I’ll go through that shopping area and then see if he’s out there outside of that restaurant all the time. I can stop off and say hello, keep him company a little bit. All right, that’s it. Thank you, Mystery Benefactor. And I’m going to dive in and enjoy the rest of my chicken wrap.