VIDEO DESCRIPTION:
It’s a quiet, hot Monday in Melaka, and I’ve got a bone to pick with history.
In this video, I go for a long, sweaty walk to answer one question: Why have so few people in the West even heard of Admiral Cheng Ho?
While Christopher Columbus was crossing the Atlantic with 90 men on 70-foot boats, Cheng Ho’s Chinese armada was sailing the Indian Ocean with 28,000 crew on 400-foot “treasure ships.” And this was happening decades earlier.
So I grabbed my GoPro and went straight to the source: The Cheng Ho Cultural Museum in Melaka. What I found was pretty incredible—models of a “floating city,” a fleet formation called the Swallow, and a giraffe that sailed from Africa to China.
But the museum left me with questions. So I kept walking.
That led me to:
- Kampung Banda Kaba – A hidden traditional village just steps from the tourist crowds.
- Hang Li Po’s Well – A 500-year-old well (with a legend that you’ll return to Melaka if you drink from it… and a history of being poisoned).
- Bukit Cina – The largest Chinese cemetery outside of China. I got totally lost in a fairy-tale landscape of ancient tombs, mystery fruit trees, and warning birds. It was magical, confusing, and completely unforgettable.
In this video:
The quiet streets of Melaka
Columbus vs. Cheng Ho (the size difference is insane)
Inside the Cheng Ho Museum (thumbs sideways?)
The Swallow Fleet formation & floating farms
Why the museum felt chaotic (and why I still loved it)
Escaping into a REAL Malaysian kampung
The Princess Well & the poisoned history
Getting gloriously lost on Bukit Cina (China Hill)
Little India, pigeons, and otters!
The verdict? Cheng Ho should be a household name. And Melaka is hiding layers of history that most tourists never see.
Thanks for walking with me. Let’s go find the next hidden story.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
It’s a quiet Monday morning here in Melaka and I’m taking my GoPro and you with me for another walk around this amazing city. Every night I look at Google Maps and I come up with a new plan of places I want to check out. And for today’s exploratory walk, I’m starting with a man who should be world famous, right? This man is famous here. Of course, I think if you mention this name to anyone in Malaysia or Southeast Asia, they’ll go, “Oh yeah, that guy.” But in my home country of Canada and all of North America, mention this man and you’ll just get blank stares. And it’s really an incredible story. I have to admit right out of the gate because we’re talking about a man from China, the pronunciation of his name just stumps me. I’m starting off at a museum, like an entire museum dedicated to this man. And then when you look at the front of the museum building, it’ll say Cheng Ho. And if you go to the website for this museum, they have a whole website and the whole history of this man. In the very first page, the first paragraph, it flips back and forth between two completely different spellings of the name with two completely different pronunciations. And none of them track very well from Chinese into English. So anyway, you’ll have to forgive me if I get some facts wrong talking about this man because it’s a very complicated story from centuries ago. The facts are not always 100% clear. And if I get the pronunciation of things wrong. But anyway, I am talking about the Chinese explorer, adventurer, diplomat, academic Cheng Ho. And I’m just going to be calling him Cheng Ho throughout, though there may be other pronunciations for his name. So let’s walk the rest of the way to the Cheng Ho Cultural Museum.
There’s a very simple reason why this man should be famous worldwide. And as a good point of comparison, I can mention Christopher Columbus. Say that name Christopher Columbus to any child in North America, Europe. Oh, Christopher Columbus. And they think of these incredible expeditions in huge ships going around the world discovering America. Christopher Columbus is famous because of his expeditions. But now we jump to Cheng Ho. Christopher Columbus, if I have my facts straight, on his first trip to America, had three ships with a total crew of about 90 men, maybe 90 to 100. Three ships. These ships were about 60 to 70 ft long, 100 crew in total. That was the whole Christopher Columbus expedition. Cheng Ho from China had 300 ships in his armada, 28,000 crew members, musicians, artists, sailors, soldiers, academics, traders, doctors. 300 ships, 28,000 crew. Essentially a massive floating city that went on these huge expeditions all around this part of the world going from country to country to country like a floating city. Diplomatic efforts, exploration, establishing diplomatic ties, trade ties, this sort of thing. And his ships, the so-called treasure ships were 400 ft long. And this was all taking place decades before Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama and the other famous European explorers. So the ships, everything about Cheng Ho absolutely dwarfs anything the European explorers were doing. And yet in my part of the world, nobody has ever heard about him. So that’s why I’m interested in the man. And there’s an entire museum dedicated to him. So let’s go see what we can find out.
I just crossed over the bridge from Dutch Square, from Red Square, and standing in front of the gateway into Jonker Street. And right here, if you turn right, you’ll come across the Cheng Ho Cultural Museum just up here on the left. This beautiful red building on the left. And it is a Monday today, so I’m hoping I’m not going to be defeated by the usual museums are closed on Monday thing, but it looks to be open. Cheng Ho Cultural Museum. Museum Budaya Cheng Ho. So that’s where we’re going right now.
Hello. Just one person is good. You drink it. Do you have Touch ‘n Go? Oh, there you go. You have it marked with Alipay. Alipay Touch ‘n Go. Next door, coffee shop. Okay. Yeah. Got 10% discount. Okay. Cafe. So you finish, you can go. And this one is yours. All right. Thank you. Thank you.
I’m inside the very first room that you enter and it breaks down all of the voyages of Cheng Ho. So here in this room we don’t learn about the man and his story and his life but about his achievements which of course is the main thing we’re interested in. So he went on seven voyages in total and each voyage lasted about 2 years. And of course these black lines are his voyages starting of course in China and then you can trace his stopping points. Kalantan, Melaka. I believe he stopped in Melaka four times because it’s like a halfway point on these journeys. He would get here and he would even settle in Melaka with his crew of up to 28,000 people and they would build barracks and actually live in Melaka for a while and resupply, wait for good weather and then they would continue their journey. And so Cheng Ho developed a really strong relationship between China, the Ming dynasty and Melaka at that time. You can see how his journeys went all the way up to Ayutthaya, Siam back in those days, Thailand today, Borneo, all up and down Java, Sumatra, even hopping all the way over to Sri Lanka, India, way up there, even the Strait of Hormuz, which is in the news these days, of course, Saudi Arabia and even Somalia. Going as far as Mogadishu, Mombasa. And legend has it that on one of these journeys he brought a giraffe back from Mogadishu or Mombasa. I think he put a giraffe on one of his ships and brought it all the way back to China and presented it to the emperor, the Ming dynasty emperor at that time. So it’s really quite an extraordinary achievement. And they had the fleet. I think the very first voyage had 208 boats and I think he had as many as 300 ships in his fleet at one time. And yeah so the centerpiece I believe this is the biggest one, the treasure ship, 140 m long, 57 m wide. And then all these supporting ships, horse ships carrying horses for the army, a grain ship carrying supplies, battleships, water ships, troop ships. Each one a different size and a different design. And over here they give a clear idea of the scale of them and the size of the fleet. It’s pretty extraordinary.
The name treasure ship that you see all the time is a little bit unfortunate because to an English speaker treasure ship makes it sound like they were going around the world and plundering and piling all the treasure into the treasure ship. But it wasn’t like that at all. It was more about establishing trade relations and diplomacy. So the treasure ships carried all kinds of trade goods and valuable items and gifts from China. And the goal of the fleet was basically to go everywhere they could around the world and establish diplomatic and trade relations with all the countries, all the places where they stopped. So the treasure ships would hold all the gifts that they would give to foreign leaders and then they would get gifts in return for the emperor Yongle and then the ships would bring the treasures, the gifts essentially back to China. And that’s why they were called treasure ships, not because they were out there plundering and conquering. It wasn’t that kind of fleet.
You can see they had a specific design for the fleet itself when it was traveling where the treasure ship, the huge one would be sitting in the middle and then surrounded by the other types of ships with all the warships on the outside protecting them from pirates. And according to this the formation they called it the swallow fleet formation because it looked like a bird in flight, a swallow. So you would have the treasure ships in the middle and then all of the other ships on the outside. So yeah I guess they’re color-coded. These are the treasure ships here in the middle and then command and battleships on all sides of them. And then water ships, grain ships, horse ships. So that was when the fleet was on the move, that’s how they arranged all the ships.
And there’s a theater room here in the first room as well. Really nice, really comfortable. And they have a schedule here. Tells you when the show is in Chinese and English. I just sat through the English version. It was really well done, very well organized. I was really impressed with that. I’m not accustomed to that level of organization. And the movie filled in some of the gaps about Cheng Ho’s life. We learned that he was actually born in Yunnan province in China and he was born to a Muslim family. And when he was 13 years old, he was actually captured during some fighting. The Ming dynasty was fighting the Mongol dynasty that controlled China before them, driving them out of China. And during that fighting, Cheng Ho was captured as a 13-year-old boy. And then he was taken back to the emperor’s, well the future emperor at that time. I guess Yongle was 25 years old and he wasn’t the emperor yet, but Cheng Ho entered the household of Yongle and they formed a very strong bond. And I guess Cheng Ho impressed the future emperor with his fighting ability, his intelligence, his loyalty and promoted him through the ranks until when Yongle became the emperor of the Ming dynasty. He wanted to open China to the world. And he gave Cheng Ho the task of building a fleet and then embarking on this diplomatic trade mission for the next 30 years or something like that.
I’ve entered the second major area of the museum now from the entrance. Yeah, there’s a lot to take in. And the big displays here like with all the photographs and the maps it’s mainly in Chinese but then beside that they have an English translation so you have to consult these panels in order to figure out the meaning of all of these photographs and displays. Yeah, like I said, there’s a lot to take in and it puts Cheng Ho’s voyages in context and it becomes far less clean a story than just one of simple trade and diplomacy because it’s all tied in with Chinese history, the rise and fall of the dynasties, the various emperors, a lot of tragedy. So you can see incidents of ill omen. Anyway, there’s a lot here to read through. Adds a lot more context to the life of Cheng Ho and his seven voyages.
The next room is dedicated to the history of Melaka and Malaysia as a whole. So it actually tells the entire history of Malaysia here starting with the founding by Parameswara and then of course going through the arrival of the Portuguese. And you can see that Cheng Ho was here in 1405. So long before the Portuguese came, Cheng Ho was stopping at Melaka and establishing relations between Melaka and China. Then it works through the entire history of Malaysia all the way around the walls. These displays are interesting showing all the trade goods, medicines and spices, silk, all of the treasures of the Ming dynasty.
I’ve already gone through all of these exhibits on my own without the GoPro running. So that’s why I’m moving through it relatively quickly because I’ve already stopped and looked at everything and taken it all in.
The museum has a really interesting second floor that I wasn’t expecting. Traditional old house wood construction. So the floor creaking as you walk along, which is kind of cool. And they have signs saying, “Please walk slowly” because I can imagine kids up here running like crazy. And then the thundering of their footsteps would be bothering people down below. Yeah, there’s a major room over there all about the relationship between Cheng Ho and the spread of Islam, but it’s very academic and very in-depth, way beyond my pay grade, but a lot of it is just a very scholarly, very academic display in here. So I read some of it, but a lot of it is just way over my head. Very in-depth history.
This room is getting more into the area that I’m interested in, the fleet itself and how it worked. But this whole display is about how they kept the crew alive as they talk about here. I mean, you’ve got hundreds of ships, 28,000 people. I think in the west we are used to the stories of these ships of the European explorers going around the world with quite a small crew and they were suffering from scurvy and starvation and they would revolt against the captain. And here Cheng Ho had 28,000 people to feed for 2 years. So they had a very elaborate system of preparing enough food to last that whole time. And their ships operated almost as farms and gardens do. They brought live animals. They grew plants on the ship, giant water tanks and water systems. So that’s what this display is all about. I love this concept of the fleet being like a floating city. And to that end, they even had entertainment on board, games like these, musical instruments, and as I said, a farm as well. This display refers to the ships as floating farms.
No mention of any women being on board, though. Not sure if there were only men in the crew or women and men in his fleet. I’m not sure. That hasn’t come up in any of the reading that I’ve done. And I think what this display is about is how the sheer scale of the fleet, 28,000 crew members, like floating cities. It meant that when they arrived in different places and all of these people came ashore, they would actually for the time that they were there build their own compound. So they would build a Chinese town in Melaka or other places that they went to. And I think that’s what this is illustrating. And that’s another effect of this fleet of Cheng Ho that it actually contributed to the growth of a Chinese community here in Melaka because members of his crew would stay behind to maintain the stockade while Cheng Ho continued on with the rest of the fleet and then they would get married and have children and Chinese communities grew up. Just sort of sprouted in all the places where Cheng Ho’s fleet landed.
I think another reason they have signs telling people to walk slowly is because the wooden floor, it moves a lot and then you can hear the glass case. Like I’m walking very softly and yet all these cases are kind of shaking and rattling as I walk around. If you had 20 school kids running through here, this whole place would be rocking and rolling. They’re actually very open with their displays, which kind of surprises me. Also impresses me that the local people who visit must be very disciplined because I’m accustomed to museums keeping everything hidden. I mean, of course, there are signs everywhere saying do not touch, but those don’t have much effect on human behavior. People will touch. They just can’t resist. But look at all of these amazing ceramic pots and it’s just all out in the open and these all the models of the ships as well. They’re not behind velvet ropes or glass cases. I mean, they’re right here and they say, you know, don’t touch, but they’re very trusting of the visitors to their museum. And I noticed that here as well. They have all these displays for navigating on the ships. And even I, I think I’m pretty disciplined. But as soon as I saw this, I kind of walked up to it. I just want to grab it and spin it, right? You just do. You can’t help yourself. But they have it wired that it can’t move and do not touch. But again, all of these displays. Any kid could reach over and grab any of these things. Gives the museum a very friendly, informal style, which I enjoy.
Man, it is jammed with all kinds of information and exhibits. Much more extensive than I expected. They even have a big display of drums right there. I mean, how many kids can resist all these drums and bongos? Very hard to resist the temptation to start drumming on them. But yeah, it just goes on and on. Look at this. Another display of the fleet packed with more information.
Can you imagine back in those days you’re living on the shore of Africa in Mogadishu or Melaka and this shows up one day. I mean it would hit the local people like a storm, right? Like what an event to have a fleet this size just sort of show up at your port and all these people. It’d be quite an event.
There’s definitely a certain amount of chaos here in this museum. Like it doesn’t have a real strong through-line in terms of what you’re seeing and learning. It’s like a whole bunch of stuff thrown together. So yeah, it’s a bit overwhelming sometimes. You’re not quite sure what the point is sometimes of the displays.
So, I’m back outside on the busy streets of Melaka. For a Monday. It’s crazy busy, but I think we’re leading into another holiday period here in Malaysia. Another one. And I haven’t even looked it up. I don’t know what the holiday is for, but the fact that it’s so busy right now, all this traffic, all these people could be because of the holiday coming up. But yeah, I left from the museum. And when you leave the museum, you get funneled into the next door coffee shop. I’m sure they’re connected with ownership, same owners and everything. Yeah, there’s the museum down there. And I can put in a couple of pictures from inside the coffee shop. Show you what it looks like. Very modern, very white, very bright. I kind of like that.
I’ve gone to a couple of really well-known cafes here like the Baboon House and Fix. I keep forgetting the name of this one. It’s up there on Jonker Street. The Daily Fix. Yeah, the Daily Fix Cafe. And they’re very interesting on the inside. Very densely decorated with plants and artwork and things like that. So I really appreciate them from that point of view, but I guess I prefer something more modern that’s more open and brighter with windows where you can see outside. Places like the Baboon House, really interesting, and I’d recommend going there. But when I was in there, I did feel like, man, this place is kind of gloomy and very dark and very kind of cramped because of all the heavy decorations. But anyway, this cafe is more modern. It’s just bright and lots of windows, and I feel more comfortable there. I guess that speaks to my personality. So, the Cheng Ho Cultural Museum, Planet Doug approved. Well, to be honest, I would give it kind of a sideways thumb, like not a full thumbs up. I don’t know what it was. I mean, I really appreciate the story of Cheng Ho. In fact, I started thinking about this as kind of a topic because when I was at the Sultanate Palace, I think it was. Yeah, I was at the Sultanate Palace Museum and there was a model of a ship there that kind of blew my mind. But it was a model of a huge naval vessel, massive ship, again, probably dwarfed anything that was being built in Europe. And it was part of the Melaka fleet. And I’m reading about this and I’m looking at that model and I’m thinking, “Hey, wait a minute. I didn’t even know that Melaka had a navy.” It’s like one of these little unknown things about Malaysia and then about China and Cheng Ho that Malaysia in Melaka, they also had these huge ships. I mean, so when the Portuguese showed up, my sense is that they showed up in their fleet in 1511 and they’re in these much smaller boats and then they come up towards Melaka in the river and there’s these massive warships that belong to Melaka, the Melaka Sultanate. I didn’t know they had such huge ships. And it’s almost like as a lot of these things about Malaysia, about its history are not really broadcast to the visitor, to a tourist like me. Like even the story of Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat and Hang Kasturi, there’s these five famous warriors. I mean, they are the Malaysian version of the Knights of the Round Table. They’re their version of the Avengers. Basically, these mythical powerful warriors from history. And I bet you most of the vast majority of foreigners who visit Malaysia, spend 2 or 3 weeks here on holiday, leave the country, they would have no idea who these men were. There’s something about these amazing facts and figures of Malaysian history that just aren’t communicated to visitors. Like Kasturi Walk in Kuala Lumpur. I talked about this in my other video. Most visitors go to Kasturi Walk. They come across it at some point. But there’s no giant statue of Hang Kasturi because that Kasturi Walk is named after this mythic legendary figure from Malaysian history. And you know he’s a powerful warrior. Has epic tales written about him. But there’s no statue of him. No monument, no placard telling foreigners the story of Hang Kasturi. You see, oh Kasturi Walk and I think it’s marked by a big kite. Like the big symbol there is a kite. And people probably think, well, that’s probably what they call this type of kite or something. And then it turns out that they had these massive naval ships and apparently the Portuguese when they defeated the Melaka Sultanate, they burned all those ships. They destroyed them. But I’ve spent a lot of time in Malaysia going to a lot of museums and I don’t think I’ve ever seen diagrams, sketches, paintings, drawings of the ships of Melaka. And now you’ve got someone like Cheng Ho from China, a fleet of up to 300 ships that were all six, seven, eight times bigger than any of the ships that Christopher Columbus was sailing around the world. Massive things. And never heard of the guy or didn’t know about him. So that’s kind of my approach to these stories about Hang Tuah, the giant ships of Melaka, Cheng Ho’s fleet, all of these amazing stories from this part of the world that are relatively or almost completely unknown in the West, to people like me. So anyway, when I think of that museum, that’s the story I’m interested in. I want to know everything about the fleet. I want to know about Cheng Ho. I want to know that story. But that museum spread its wings to cover everything. It was like, let’s just tell every story we can think of. So the entire history of Malaysia, a whole room dedicated to that. Anyway, there was a lot there and there ended up being a lot of repetition from exhibit to exhibit. You’re seeing the same thing. And then there’d be quite a large interesting exhibit about something, but I wasn’t sure, okay, what’s the connection between this and Cheng Ho. So thematically, the museum wasn’t as focused or as strong. It didn’t tell the story of Cheng Ho throughout. I was a little bit overwhelmed by how much there was in there. But still, if you’ve never heard of Cheng Ho, yeah, the movie was really good. Told you all about him, his history. And yeah, the displays of all the models of all the ships, the fleet was fascinating, all that kind of stuff. So yeah, I mean, I would give it a thumbs up and maybe a thumb on an angle. I’d recommend it, but I don’t think you absolutely have to go there. If you only have a couple of days here, there are probably other museums you’d be better served going to. But yeah, I still enjoyed it. Still enjoyed it. I love the history. I love the story of Cheng Ho.
This is where I am right now. That is Dutch Square over there. You can tell by all the red buildings, the river, and the museum I just came from right over there. And I’m on my way on foot to Bukit Cina. And it seems like a good time to visit Bukit Cina because it has a strong connection to Cheng Ho. I mentioned that his massive fleet and 28,000 crew when they landed in Melaka, they would all come ashore and they would even make little settlements here, like build little communities. And Cheng Ho built a kind of base in Melaka, like a permanent base. And there’s some debate over where exactly it was located, whether it was like right down where the museum is now on the river, but I read in other places that it was located out by the hill, Bukit Cina, that his base was out there. So that has that connection to Cheng Ho. And then because Cheng Ho was instrumental in developing the relationship between the Ming dynasty and Melaka, they were strengthening that relationship. There was a time when a Chinese princess Hang Li Po I think her name was came to Melaka to be married to the Sultan. I think it was Sultan Mansur Shah. So this beautiful princess from China came here with 500 maidens waiting on her, all the ships and the wealth and came and married the sultan. And the Sultan gave her and her entourage a large piece of property to live on and basically gave her a huge amount of land in or on or around this hill which is where it got its name from because that’s where the Chinese princess lived on China Hill, Bukit Cina. And so it’s all associated with the Chinese princess Hang Li Po and it’s associated with the admiral of the Ming dynasty fleet Cheng Ho as well and his settlement there. And then of course now it is a cemetery. The hill is devoted to a Chinese cemetery. So there are some interesting things to see there. Go for a walk through the cemetery. That’s where I’m going. But I’m trying to take some small local streets to get there, but I’m having trouble. There’s so much traffic in Melaka. Once you leave the historical zone, it’s like, “Okay, you’re back in Malaysia now, buddy. Deal with the cars and the traffic.” Every time I try to get across the street, someone comes whipping around a corner. But this district is, I think, a well-known kampung. Yeah, let me look up the name. The name keeps slipping out of my mind. Oh, I’m standing right in front of the sign. It is Kampung Banda Kaba. So, it’s Kampung Banda Kaba. Yeah, we love Banda Kaba. And I guess it’s this kind of a traditional kampung neighborhood back here. So I thought I would walk to Bukit Cina plotting a route through this kampung district. I’m just assuming it has traditional styles of housing, things like that. Some history here. Heading towards Bukit Cina. I think I kind of go in a straight line from here, but it looks like turning here a little bit might be interesting. Go down one of these community streets might give a flavor for what this kampung is all about. Yeah, it looks like some of these houses are largely left empty now. People would have moved away from these traditional neighborhoods.
Okay. I already forgot the name again. Banda Kaba. My brain is just terrible when it comes to remembering names in other languages in other countries, particularly in Malaysia for some reason. Banda Kaba just won’t stick in my head. But yeah, looks like a very traditional kampung kind of district. The houses. Midday, of course. So on Planet Doug, I always seem to be heading out during the hottest part of the day. And that probably gives a less accurate picture of what a place is like because I’m always going. Everything looks like a ghost town when I’m out walking around because nobody’s out at this time of day when it’s so hot.
And then you get all the old cars that people are maintaining. Look at that Volkswagen Beetle of all things. And I think I have to keep going in this direction to try and get to Bukit Cina. That looks like some classic kampung architecture. Wooden construction with the house built up on stilts like that. Feel like I’m back in Kampung Baru in Kuala Lumpur or Kampung Morten. Further up the river here. Another famous kampung here in Melaka. Oh yeah. You start to feel like you’re in a village, right? Little patches of greenery here. A house hidden back there.
It’s amazing how much a place can change just by walking one block. Just a block ago, I could barely cross the street because of all of the thick traffic, and you got that dense cluster of tourism right around the river. Take one step off that pathway away from the river. Cross the busy street and look where you are. A totally different Melaka than you would see in the tourism brochures.
Look at this very interesting shrine. Yeah, this house here. Yeah, you feel like you’re in a village. I wouldn’t be surprised to start seeing some chickens and other animals.
I could smell the incense smoke from around the corner. So I knew there would be some sort of a temple complex coming up. That is an interesting building. Wow. Yeah. Village life in the middle of Melaka.
Look at this compound here. If you pay attention to any guides on YouTube or ask an AI, you know, what title should I give my YouTube video, 90% of the time they will put the word hidden or secret in the title. Like everything’s hidden. Whatever your video is about a museum in Melaka and they will say the hidden museum of Melaka that nobody else knows about only you. Everything is hidden or secret. But I was just thinking that this particular neighborhood could qualify for that. Boy my brain I got to trade it in. I got to get a new brain. I can’t think of the name. It’s so hidden. I’m here and even I can’t come up with the name kampung. Give me a second. Banda Kaba. Kampung Banda Kaba. Please remember it for me because I’m not going to remember. But everybody, not everybody, but a lot of people know about Kampung Morten. That is the classic traditional kampung of Melaka that everybody goes to see. It’s on all the maps in all the tourism brochures. But this one right beside the historical district just a few feet away and it’s even more traditional, much more interesting to walk around than Kampung Morten. So yeah, here are some more traditional homes right there. And then this interesting one right here.
There’s all these narrow alleyways, laneways. People are zooming in and out on their scooters, going to work, coming home. Little dead ends, little pathways. Look at this. This one right here. I don’t know if that pathway comes out. That might dead end in their homes, so I won’t go that way. But yeah, fascinating neighborhood. And as I said, it’s just a few steps away from the river. And there’s a tri that has seen better days. Could use a little bit of love. A Hello Kitty trike needs to be cleaned up. Get back out on the road. Yeah, you can follow these laneways all through this kampung. A classic backyard in a Malaysian kampung.
Distinctive and I think Bukit Cina is right behind this tall white building here. It’s just on the other side. Oh, there it is. I was going to say should be able to see the hill sooner or later, but there’s a bit of the hill poking out between the buildings. So yeah, I am heading in the right direction, which is good to know.
I’m at the base of Bukit Cina now and I’m faced with the classic pedestrian’s dilemma of Malaysia. How do I get anywhere? I was going to ride my bicycle here because it’s easier to get around faster, but my experience of cycling in Melaka was not that great. Just the usual one-way streets and the highways and the traffic. I just didn’t want to deal with that. It’s a little bit easier to navigate on foot. So here I am. Got through the intersection. So yeah, just over here is Bukit Cina. And there are a couple of interesting sites here connected with the museum that we just saw. And one of them is a famous well. I mentioned that a Chinese princess Hang Li Po came here with an entourage of hundreds of people mainly women, her maidens in waiting. She had hundreds of them. And she married the sultan at the time. And the sultan gave her a place to live here at the base of Bukit Cina. And the water supply for her and her household is this well up here.
Not exactly sure where the well is. I think it’s somewhere near here around the corner. Funny thing is when I was at the Cheng Ho Museum, there was a big focus on water and wells. There a lot of displays talking about wells. There were even two functioning wells inside the museum. I don’t think I got those on video, but you could look down into the wells and see the water at the bottom. So this is the temple over here. And let’s see where might the well be? I haven’t found the well yet, but in wandering around, I did discover something interesting right here that says steps leading to Bukit Cina. The funny thing for me is that there will be a big popular place to visit like Bukit Cina and I have no idea how to get in. It’s like I know where it is on Google Maps and I show up and I’m like well how the heck do you get into this place? Like what is it? What’s here? And how do you get in? I found stairs. So that is an entry point into Bukit Cina itself. So remember that. And the well I might already have passed it. Yes. Okay. So it is sort of part of the temple complex. I didn’t realize that. So, there’s the entrance to the temple. And I missed the sign. There’s a sign right there. Hang Li Po Well.
There it is. Yeah, that’s a big one. So yeah, I guess they would need a lot of water for this household. Yeah, this is no simple household well. This is a big deal to have dug this. So there’s the story, but it’s not in English. But yeah, there’s still water down there. That’s an amazing well. All the walls made out of laterite. Ah, here we go. English.
The King’s Well, not Sultan’s Well. Yeah, the king’s well, also known as the Hang Li Po well, said Sultan Mansur Shah ordered the well to be dug for the exclusive use of his wife Hang Li Po, who came from China. The water was used for their daily needs, and surprisingly, the well never dried up, even in the severest droughts. According to folklore, whosoever drinks from the well will return to Melaka. In 1511, Johor warriors poisoned the well, killing many Portuguese who drank the water. In 1606, the Dutch committed the same act, and the Achenese followed suit between 1628 and 1629. Their intentions were to covertly kill off their enemies. When the Dutch realized the importance of the well, they built a wall resembling a small fort complete with cannons and a guard house to safeguard it. However, during the British occupation, the well fell into disuse and the guard house became dilapidated. Fascinating stuff. Interestingly, it says it was ordered for the exclusive use of his wife Hang Li Po who came from China. But the legend or the history that I read is that she was just not some woman who came from China. She was a princess. Yeah, she was a very important woman. I don’t know why it doesn’t say that. Maybe there’s some debate among actual historians whether this woman was real because we’re talking about things that happened centuries and centuries ago. It’s not like they have videotape of her arrival and photographs, things like that. This is all in the written records and things get lost in history. Huh. Look at that. I’m assuming this is supposed to be locked, but for some reason, yeah, you can actually open it up. There’s no padlock.
And it kind of odd that it says the legend is that if you drink from this well, you will return to Melaka someday. So it’s a way if you’re going to go off on a long journey, you can come here, get a drink, then you will return safely. But according to the history, you’re basically rolling the dice because for all you know, somebody poisoned the water. So who knows? It’s either a good thing or a risky thing to drink from this well. Yeah. Beautiful little courtyard surrounding the well. Yeah. I’m glad I came here. That is perhaps another hidden secret of Melaka that I’ve discovered and nobody else knows about it. The Perigi Raja Perigi Raja. It’s beautiful. There is the site of the temple. The Li Po well is right over here. And beyond both of them leading up there is the Bukit Cina. That’s where I’ll be going next, following the trail. But right beside all of this is also a monument to the fallen soldiers during the Japanese occupation. At least I think that’s what this is to honor people who died fighting the Japanese.
There’s the monument. There’s the sound of Malaysia angle grinders.
So here is the story of the monument. I didn’t realize this, but it’s actually a monument specifically to the Chinese victims of the Japanese occupation. So, it’s sort of a monument to the anti-Japanese movement among the Chinese community and the Chinese who died resisting the Japanese when they occupied Malaysia during World War II.
And the rest of that story was all about when the monument was built and then as often happens, it fell into disrepair, worn out by the rain and wind and time. Yeah, that often happens with these monuments where there’s a lot of money for them to be built, but then there’s never any money for maintenance. So they all fall apart until they get to such a state of disrepair that somebody gets the idea to redevelop it and they form a committee, do a lot of fundraising. And that all happened back in 1993 that this whole site was rebuilt and refurbished and cleaned up back in 1993.
Time to climb up to the top of Bukit Cina. See what’s going on up here. There’s a very old sign. Steps leading to Bukit Cina.
It’s a big property. As I mentioned before in another video, I think it’s the largest Chinese cemetery in the world outside of China. It’s quite a large place.
You can hear the slow, steady footfall as I slowly climb upwards. So hot. I’m not going to be racing up these steps. I’ll tell you that.
I don’t know how much if any information there will be like the residents, whoever’s here in this grave site is probably lost to history. Maybe their names could be recovered. Maybe there’s a record somewhere. But I don’t know.
I keep intending to learn about the meaning behind this style, the shape, the circular nature at the top, the just the look, the architecture basically of these Chinese grave sites. There’s probably meaning built into every part of it, but I don’t know anything about it.
It is very shady up here which is nice. A lot of trees. And again, I think this would be a very different place early in the morning. In my experience, any park in a Chinese community or a hill like this would be filled with exercisers in the morning, running, walking, doing Tai Chi, things like that. So this place is probably full of people early in the morning, in the evening, but in the daytime, it’s largely empty except for tourists like me.
I wonder where the house of the princess was exactly. I haven’t seen anything about that. When I was reading about this place, a few comments on Google Maps said, “Make sure to bring your mosquito repellent.” I think I’m starting to understand why people said that. I’ve got mosquitoes flying into my eyes and my ears right now.
Man, it’s got an old feeling. It has like a German fairy tale tone to it. I can see Hansel and Gretel walking along through these paths with these trees like this. It looks like these trees could come alive and talk to you. Just looks like a very atmospheric fairy tale kind of landscape.
In my time in Taiwan, living in Taiwan, I was around for a lot of holidays that involve Chinese families going to the grave sites of their ancestors to honor them, perform ceremonies, give offerings, and to clean up the grave site. Makes me think most of the people here don’t have a family anymore because the grave sites feel like parts of history that have been lost and forgotten. Nobody is visiting these grave sites regularly to clean them up.
I have no idea even how old they are. Like this grave here looks ancient, but I couldn’t tell you. Could be hundreds of years old for all I know. There’s one over here that has a marker, but it probably doesn’t have a year on it that I can read. No, it’s all in Chinese.
Yeah, fairy tale land. That’s what it feels like.
Occasionally, the hill opens up on the side and you get a bit of a glimpse from up here of the city of Melaka. Not too often, though. For the most part, you’re in and amongst the trees.
That looks like the main path down there with the red handrails. Occasionally, you get a nice breeze there. Some parts of the hill here are open and you get a nice breeze going through because it’s quite hot and humid up here. Very muggy.
I’m curious about this tree. I have no idea. This tree is all over the hill. And it has fruit like this. And you can see there’s hundreds of them all over the ground. Sometimes they’re red, sometimes they’re green when they’re fresh. And this is the tree, I think, that they’re falling from. I tried to upload photos of all of this to an AI to ask, you know, tell me what kind of tree this is. What is this fruit? But my particular model of that AI doesn’t allow me to upload photos. So I couldn’t get an answer from my AI buddies this time. I have no idea what all these trees are.
This grave site has some English writing on it and it’s relatively recent. Mr. Chong Wal Ki died in 1962. So at least this the cemetery is still in use at least up until the 60s. I don’t know if it’s still in use today. I haven’t seen any burial sites that look like there was a fresh site within the last decade even or several decades. Yeah. It’s funny. I think of 62 as being relatively recent. I was born in 63. So it’s not ancient history. But yet, when you think about it, I mean, that’s almost 70 years ago, right? 40 plus 26. Yeah, it’s getting close to 70 years ago. Look at how much fruit this tree drops. That’s crazy. So much of it.
And of course, I’m going to come across as a dummy because I should know what that fruit is, but I just don’t know anything about fruit. It’s one of many things that my brain can never remember. Yeah, there you are. There’s some of the fruit hanging. I’m sure if someone wants to take a minute in the comments, they can tell me what this tree is. Oh, here’s looks like a relatively new grave site, but again, I don’t think there’s anything in English, so there’s nothing here that I can understand. I’m still walking around the top of Bukit Cina. Planet Doug review. Huge thumbs up. Really nice place to visit. Absolutely. I’m glad I extended my stay by one more day just so I could come up here. Really pleasant up here. Really, really nice. The atmosphere of the hill and the cemetery is like it has that fairy tale quality and you occasionally get trees like this that just burst into bloom with all the flowers. Get a view out over the countryside, even the hills in the distance, Melaka, and back toward more downtown. Yeah, just a very nice place to walk around. And there’s so much shade up here. That’s the key thing. If the sun were beating down and you were exposed, it would be way too hot to be up here very long. But most of the time that I’ve been up here, I’ve been under the trees in the shade. It’s very pleasant. I’m not usually a park guy. I’ll go to a park if there’s something of interest there, but I’m not a huge park aficionado. But I don’t know, there’s something about this place that speaks to me. I like it here. This is the very top of the hill. A nice grassy spot here. Yeah, it’s beautiful. It’s very peaceful. It’s very clean up here, too. One would expect garbage here and there, but no, it’s very neat, very tidy.
Not very accessible, as I said, to a foreigner like me. The meaning it’s all part of the Chinese culture, which is all somewhat mysterious to me. Like not there’s nothing in English so I can’t really know like who is buried here things like that and I’m not a huge nature guy either but I have to say I’m enjoying the bursts of color I’ve seen red flowers now right up here white flowers yellow flowers of different varieties.
I’m definitely not a bird watcher either, but this park is also a great place for birds. I’m seeing all kinds of different I can’t tell you what they are. Different species just back there. Some gorgeous bright yellow birds. I have no idea what they are. I couldn’t get close to them with my GoPro, of course, but beautiful yellow plumage. And I can hear it’s so quiet here. I can hear the bird calls everywhere.
Yeah, it’s nice. Yeah, birds everywhere. I’m slowly coming down the far side. I went up to the top of the hill. Now I’m coming down back to street level.
One thing that surprises me in Melaka is a relative absence of macaques. I don’t know what they eat to be honest, but there seems to be a ton of fruit here. I don’t know whether macaques like the fruit on these trees, but I would have thought an area like this would be filled with macaques, but no. Same with the river shore. I saw on all of my cycling and walking along the river, I saw one macaque the entire time. I took video of that one macaque because it happened to come very, very close to me. But other than that, that’s it. It’s the only macaque I’ve seen in the whole city. I think I was told to be careful of macaques around St. John’s Hill, St. John Fort. I didn’t see a single one while I was there. You’d think this place would be just bustling with them, but no. I haven’t seen any macaques at all. Maybe that makes sense that this particular terrain, this type of tree just is not suitable for macaques. I have no idea. All I know is I just haven’t seen any of them in the city, just one, my entire time here. I’m also surprised in general by the lack of insect life, especially in these forested areas and along the river. I don’t see any butterflies. I don’t see any beetles. No dragonflies, no moths. Yeah, I don’t. Oh, I just heard a fly go by. But yeah, no real insects either, which surprises me being a tropical environment.
I love this pathway. It’s why I have the camera aimed down at the ground right now. Just following this narrow curving path and matches the curves of the grave sites themselves because the path has been plotted to go around the curves of the grave sites. Look at that. It’s very cool. Yeah. I’m glad I didn’t come here by bicycle. Just coming here on foot was the right call.
Yeah, the hill and the cemetery is going on for quite a bit farther than I expected. Very long from top to bottom. I thought I would have reached the top a long time ago, but still going.
I think the river is off in that direction and that will be my path to get back home to my hotel. So I have to come down this side and then make my way to the river and walk back.
Going down the other side. Could still hear the birds. And just fired up my GoPro because I noticed over there is the Swiss Garden Hotel. And the river is right on the other side of the Swiss Garden. And somewhere over there, I totally forgot about it, but there’s another tower, I think the River Shore Tower or something like that that you can pay to go to the top for the views. I think it might be that building right on the other side of the Swiss Garden. And it’s much much higher than the Menara Taming Sari that I went up. And yeah, it’s supposed to be quite nice to go up there as well. Though I think most people do that at night to see the bright lights. And from up there, I think you can see much more of the city because you’re much higher than the tower. But I think the tower is better for me because it gives you you don’t go as high, but it gives you a nice view of the historic district and the river right there. So yeah, I think that would be my first choice. Look at this bird coming towards me.
No idea what species that is, but that a beautiful bird. Yeah, it’s a pair of them. There comes the second one.
That bird has a very distinctive cry. Hear that? It sounds almost like a warning. I think it’s warning other birds that I’m here. Like they’re saying intruder. Yeah, it does. It feels like an intruder alert. I could be wrong, though.
Near where all those birds are warning everyone about my presence. Came across this major grave site here. It’s like 10 times larger than any of the graves around it. So, it has to be someone of some importance. But I again no idea who this could be.
I’ve just about reached the end. You can see a road down there. I think this path goes down to the road just a short distance ahead. And I’m actually much farther away from the river than I thought. So in fact, a walk back from here to the river will probably get me to the river cruise terminal, like the end of the river cruise route, and it’s just off in this direction somewhere, but I have to walk through the city quite a ways to get there. I was just thinking what a brutal job landscaping would be here if you hired a company to care for this and keep everything cut and groomed and landscaped. What a tremendous job that would be. But I like how it looks the way it is. You know, it’s not polished or manicured. I like this rough look to it. As I’ve said twice already, has a fairy tale feeling to it, which I really enjoy. And it doesn’t look like the grass here grows very high. This is all wild, uncut, I think. And you can tell like it doesn’t grow very high. So it’s not like everything is going to be completely overgrown. For some reason, it stays relatively open like this even without a lot of landscaping.
This is a long walk though. Again, I have no idea how many entrances and exits there are. But the entrance where I went in at the Li Po, the Hang Li Po well and the temple, that seems to be one entrance, the beginning of this path. And it feels like it just goes all the way to the far end. And there’s another entrance here. Like I don’t see any trails heading off to the left and right. So if you’re coming here to explore Bukit Cina, you’re in for a long walk. I think you have no choice but to start at one end and then walk the entire length of the cemetery and the hill all the way to the far end. So it’s a bit of a long walk if you’re not prepared for it.
This is something unusual. It’s the first of anything I’ve seen in this hill. I mean, it’s all basically tombs, nothing else. But this looks like a well and looks like it’s very popular with local people to come get water. Full of stuff like stuff from the trees. So I don’t know. I doubt that that’s drinking water, but it looks like people come here to get it for some reason. Bring it home for their gardens and things. Yeah, I have no idea.
You often see a water source at cemeteries in Canada. I remember the cemetery where most of my family plots are has like a pump and you can pump water up from a well, but people use it because they plant flowers and other plants around their family’s grave site. So they come out there and they water the plants, but I don’t think anybody does anything like that here. So in any case, yeah, if you got your water from that well and your family’s grave site was on the other side of the hill, got a long ways to go to carry that water. So I don’t think that’s what it’s used for here.
I’ve passed two other people so far. Two men who are here for exercise. Just walking quickly, swinging their arms, jogging along this path. Yeah, be a good park for exercise. Bukit Cina.
I keep saying over and over that I’m almost at the end. I’m almost at the end. The path is just about to go down to the road and it just keeps going, keeps going and going. Although it looks like I could exit over here on the left. The path continues on the right as well.
It looks like my navigation skills failed me completely. My boy scout training. I don’t have any, but if I had any, my boy scout training failed me. No wonder it is taking me so long. I just I did a loop. I had no idea what was going on. But somehow I walked from the beginning and then I went towards the far end, but I just checked Google Maps and I’m almost back at where I started from. So I don’t even know how far I went. Luckily, I have the Strava app running so I can look later on and see exactly what I did. But somehow I thought I was walking in a straight line from one end of the hill to the other end. But somehow I started went up to the top and then somehow I just turned around and went all the way back. So I’m basically heading right back to where I began this walk. Yeah, I have no idea what’s going on. Completely turned around. I know I already gave Bukit Cina a Planet Doug big thumbs up, but I thought I’d stop here just before I exit again and give it a second big thumbs up because yeah, I’m just enjoying my walk through here so much. I don’t know if you can see the atmosphere just like through the GoPro. I don’t know if it’s capturing the way this place feels, the ruggedness of it, the trees. It’s just I don’t know. There’s something magical going on here. I can’t quite put my finger on it. It’s just such a great place to be walking.
From a typical tourist point of view, there could definitely be some improvements. Melaka, as I’ve noted, the historical district is filled with maps, really helpful, useful maps to show you exactly where you are and give you a lot of information. But here at Bukit Cina, you’re on your own. I mean, if I didn’t have Google Maps, I’d be out here for the rest of my life walking in circles. I’d never find my way out because, as I said, I was my body and my brain are both convinced I’m still convinced that I’m at the far side of the cemetery, but in reality, I’m back at the beginning and I just don’t. Yeah, I have no clue where I am. So in terms of information about this place, the historical significance, there’s nothing here. So anything you might want to learn about this cemetery, you have to learn it on your own on the internet. There are no signs. There’s no history information of any kind. So a little bit of that would be helpful. There are no markers on the paths to show you where to go. I mean, right here there’s my trail is meeting this one. Then there are some arrows, spray painted white arrows saying, “Hey, maybe you want to go down that way.” But I have no idea if that’s where I want to go or not. I have to look on Google Maps. So in terms of the paths and the route that the paths follow, there’s zero information really. So could use a little bit of signage for foreign visitors to find their way, especially if you’re older. I can see someone getting out into the middle of the cemetery completely running out of energy and then realizing they’re far away from where they thought they were and they have a heck of a time getting back. Yeah, this is where I started. That’s where I came up and I turned left. Yeah, I came up this walkway, turned left. I remember that now because I noted this tree, this log here and all of the mushrooms on it. I was actually going to stop and take a picture of that because I’m always fascinated by mushroom growth and I remember seeing that and I walked off in that direction. So I guess I did a complete loop around the whole thing. I just went around and I turned around and came back but without any maps or any signs. I had no idea that I completed a loop. I thought I was going in a straight line. But anyway, I’m going to check Google Maps again just to make sure that I’m right that I am supposed to go down this way. Yeah, I’m not 100% positive, but I’m pretty sure this is how I entered. This is looking familiar to me. This area here with the trees and I think right up ahead there will be some stairs going down to the well and the warrior monument and the temple just up ahead here. So from here, yeah, now I can, it’s a shorter distance to walk back to the river and back to my hotel.
That is so funny. I’m very curious to see on Strava how far I got to the far end. Like did I only make it halfway and then come back in a loop or did I go all the way to the far end and then come back in a loop? So I essentially walked twice the total length of the cemetery. It’s possible. Oh yeah. I remember look this was the very first grave site that I looked at and I remember noticing all the barbed wire around it which surprised me. Yeah. Yeah, I think I took a picture of this one on my way in. And right down here, there’s the temple and the well. So from here, I start making my way back to the river or through the city, back to my hotel. Oh, yeah. There’s the monument to the Chinese resistance to the Japanese occupation. I’m back down on the street. So if you’re coming to Bukit Cina, this is what you’re looking for. This would be the natural starting point, I think, for most visitors to come. It’s the closest entry point from the historical district. There’s the temple. On the right is the Hang Li Po Well. And here on the left is a Asam Pedas place, Perigi Hang Li Po, a restaurant right there. And there is the hill. So and most people would probably come from this direction. This road will take you right from the river up to the base of the hill.
Turning right here to get back to the river. Right across the road is Madras Cafe. So that’s pretty clear indication that we’re either in Little India or on the edges of it. Anyway, and I saw something on Google Maps sort of in this direction marked as Little India.
The Sterling Boutique Hotel. I had never heard of this one before. Looks pretty big for a boutique hotel.
So I’m thinking that this street here would be considered the heart of Little India. And since we’re out walking around, why don’t we walk this way and back again? Because my hotel and Dutch Square, there’s Dutch Square right there. So my hotel is back in that direction, but there’s an interesting looking hotel. The Hotel Mill Road looks like it has some history. My kind of place.
Yeah, even a dummy like me could figure out that I’m in Little India just from looking around here. A lot of Indian restaurants and yeah, sari shop over there. Indian sweets.
Yeah, it’s quite something the things you can do in Malaysia where I was walking through the heart of tourism and then I was in that kampung Malay traditional village then I was in the middle of the largest Chinese cemetery in the world coming down from Bukit Cina I’m suddenly surrounded by saris Indian music garlands for the temple and I can the incense. You go by all the open doors and the Indian incense just flows out. That aroma is everywhere and all the people change. See typical Malay small town dwellers and then you’re in the Chinese part of town. All Chinese people. Now everyone around me is of Indian descent. Very cool.
Just leaving from Little India and I don’t know what’s going on here. We’ve got the invasion of the pigeons. Never seen a flock of pigeons like that in Melaka before. Oh, okay. They’re actually feeding them. Maybe it’s a routine. They know to come here every day at this time. Yeah, it’s a feeding time. Didn’t know there were that many pigeons in all of Melaka.
So all paths lead back to the river. So I’m pretty much right back at the river again. Follow this back around to my hotel.
Yeah, I’m starting to think I was quite lucky on that one day I went walking here and I saw the family of otters that were hunting, swimming through the river because I haven’t really seen them since. Like today, if I come down here, I’m probably not going to see an otter. Maybe I was quite lucky to see them all out in the open that day. Or maybe I was just walking so slowly and paying attention. I spotted them.
Coming to the end of my little walk around Melaka today. And on my way back to my hotel, as always, I’m passing by the model for the Flor de la Mar, the flower of the sea, this Portuguese vessel. And I just stopped here to take a little bit of video of it because thinking about Cheng Ho and his fleet and his treasure ship would have been six or seven times bigger than this boat, something like that. So I’m just trying to put it into scale. Like when I walk by this ship, I look up at it and go, “Man, what a big ship.” You know, this sort of I don’t know how close this is to the actual size of the real Flor de la Mar, but I mean, I walk by it and every time I think, “Wow, that’s a pretty big ship.” But according to historians and all of the historical records, Cheng Ho’s treasure ship was six, seven times longer, bigger, wider than that ship, than the typical European ships of the day. Just incredible how huge those things are. And the dude had anywhere from 208 to 300 ships in his fleet on all of his seven voyages all the way from China to Arabia to Eastern Africa. Yeah, all over the place. Pretty incredible story. Anyway, that’s what I wanted to check out today and extended that visit with a walk through Bukit Cina. Still chuckling about that. I’m not back at the hotel yet, so I haven’t seen the final Strava route that I followed. I’m very curious just how far I got to the far end of the cemetery before I turned around and came back without knowing it. Maybe I only made it halfway and I didn’t walk as far as I thought I did, but it feels like I walked all the way to the end and back again. So I doubled the entire park, the entire cemetery. Yeah. And I enjoyed seeing the well of Hang Li Po, the Chinese princess. It’s a very romantic story. Big part of history here as well. So yeah, really enjoyed that quite a bit. And my other video I ended it right here at the same spot. This is where the boardwalk that follows the river begins and ends. There’s the Indomal Kingdom as always. Just came from Dumai unloading all of its passengers. Came here from Sumatra, the international ferry dock. And I guess I will end the video right here. Hotel is only a block or two in that direction. Be heading back there for a cold shower and a hot cup of instant coffee. Yeah. Yeah, I enjoyed that quite a bit. That was a good day. Very good day. And while I was in Little India, I stopped at a 7-Eleven, bought a couple of cartons of cold milk to recover, sat in the air conditioning for a while, and I paid for my cold milk, and I paid for my entrance into the museum with the power of Touch ‘n Go. So that brings me to say thank you and shout out to everyone who has made a contribution to the Planet Doug Touch ‘n Go account. Helps me out a lot in terms of having these small adventures and being able to make these videos for you and for YouTube. Shout out to all you guys. And shout out to all the Planet Doug Patreon members. Of course, you know who you are. And my coffee posse supporting me through the Planet Doug Buy Me a Coffee portal. I appreciate that very much. Which helps out a lot. And after this conclusion, I’m going to put in the Strava Map Director 3D map, the flyover map. You can see exactly where I went walking today. You can retrace my route. That’ll be coming up right after this. And if you made it this far and you know about the Strava map at the end, that means you are a member of the Planet Doug Crunch Club. Put CC in the comments to let me know. And if you’re also subscribed to the channel and you like the video, you know, people tell me that makes you part of the Crunch Club Elite Society. Put CCE in the comments to let me know. I didn’t invent that. Someone in the Planet Doug community invented that for me. The Crunch Club Elite. You make it to the end of the video, you subscribe to the channel, and you liked the video, gave it a thumbs up. Crunch Club Elite members. So that’s it. Shutting down. And I’ll see you next time. And just talking about the otter. There’s one right out there. Oh, it’s just. Do you see that customs boat? I just saw an otter swim out from under there and then go behind the customs boat. We just missed it. So the otters are actually active as far down the river as right around here. Oh, check this out. Another big one from Indomal. Backing into position. So maybe this is the one coming from Dumai today. What is that one? That the Indomal Empire. Yeah, I’ve taken that one as well. But I’ve taken the Empire out of Port Dickson, I think. The Indomal Empire. I guess they moved them around. Look at the size of that thing. It’s nice that there’s still enough traffic to keep these boats running. Feels very romantic to still have boats that go back and forth between countries. Very cool. Okay, so with those boats behind me, that’s it. Shutting down. Thanks for coming out with me on this long walk and I’ll see you next time.