VIDEO DESCCRIPTION:
Good morning from Melaka! Thanks to an incredibly generous mystery benefactor, I got a surprise bonus day in this historic city. Join me on a full cycling adventure through Melaka’s UNESCO heritage zone!
In this vlog:
- Wandering the lively Sunday morning flea market near Jonker Street – vintage treasures, old photos, vinyl, and more
- Exploring the stunning Encore Melaka performing arts theatre on the waterfront
- A spontaneous adventure on Melaka Gateway Island, where I discover and climb the massive beached Cheng Ho ship (a real ghost boat turned urban exploration spot!)
From chaotic city cycling and historic streets to blazing heat, construction booms, and a reflective moment on the Melaka Strait – this was an unforgettable extra day.
What would you do with a surprise bonus day in Melaka? Drop your thoughts in the comments! 👇
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Good morning. Welcome back to Melaka. My bonus day in Melaka, thanks to my mystery benefactor booking me a room here at this Time Hotel. And when I was checking into this hotel and just kind of moving in and out of it, I noticed that this particular road was incredibly busy. The traffic just backed up. There’s like a major almost like gridlock all along this road that curved by my hotel. And it looks like that’s because it can be used as kind of a shortcut artery to get through the town and navigate all of these one-way streets because I’m on my way to the historic district since I’m further away now. This hotel is a bit farther from the center of town than my original place. So, normally I would walk from the Melaka Kota vibe in, but here I’m riding my bike and so I plotted a route to get from here to there and the route takes me down this street.
And so yeah, I think it’s like a very handy kind of shortcut for getting through the town doing this little serpentine thing.
Just right out of the gate, as soon as you start moving around in Melaka, it just seems like such an interesting place. I’m heading into Parameswara. There’s a gate here for another neighborhood. Just so many historic homes and temples and buildings all around.
I have to stop here just for a second just because I passed by this temple and I have no idea what it is, but I want to take a quick look.
There’s I saw a sign here that’s going to give some of the history. But look, I mean, look at that courtyard. That looks so cool.
And the main reason I stopped. Oh, there it is. There. Okay. Oh, it doesn’t really say anything. It just says Cheng Hoon Teng Temple. That this temple with the land is erected under the control and management of the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple Incorporated. So that’s the name of this place. But yeah, like you as you wander around Melaka, whether you’re on foot or on bicycle or whatever your mode of transportation is, you’re just greeted with sites like this everywhere you go.
And I’m heading into the heritage zone again this morning because they host a flea market on one of the side streets I think on Sunday. Yeah, today’s a Sunday. So Sunday mornings they have a flea market from 8 until 12. And it’s not like I’m out here shopping for knickknacks, you know? I don’t have a house where I need something interesting. But yeah, it’s just a place to go. I want to check it out, walk up and down the street a little bit, take in the atmosphere.
And it seems like Melaka with its history would be an ideal town for a flea market.
Who knows, you could go treasure hunting maybe in the flea market in and amongst all of the casual household items. You’ll find a historic treasure of some kind or something you think is a historic treasure and you can bring it home to your home in KL or wherever you’re from.
Astonishing weather lately. Just every day nothing but sunshine, which I really appreciate. But I certainly underestimated the sun yesterday. I thought I had been out a lot on my bike and walking, so I thought I’d been exposed to a lot of sunshine. And I didn’t think I was outside for very long yesterday, no longer than normal. But by the end of the day, yeah, I got a heavy dose of sun on my face and on my arms. I wouldn’t call it a sunburn because I’m more adjusted to the sun than that, but I definitely turned red. So, I got a blast of solar radiation yesterday when I was exploring the Portuguese settlement and going from hotel to hotel to hotel in search of a home for the night.
And if you missed that whole drama in my previous video, a mystery benefactor reached out just as I was leaving Melaka and yeah was curious if I wanted to meet up for coffee or dinner but then after I explained my difficulty just staying in Melaka because it’s a holiday and all the hotels are full and really expensive then I was on my way out. I was actually on my bicycle leaving Melaka and then my mystery benefactor rode back and says, “Hey, we’ll book you a room and then we can meet up for dinner.” And then after a really good evening last night meeting him and his wife, great conversation, exchanging some life stories.
Wow, I can’t even think straight the noise of all those motorcycles. And then, after that, he offered to book me a second night at that same hotel so that I didn’t have to worry about waking up at the crack of dawn and getting on my bicycle again so early. So yeah, I got a bonus day here in Melaka.
That white car cut kind of close, but yeah, there’s not a lot of room. Over on my right, by the way, is Bukit Cina, the big cemetery. And I went on a long walk there the other day and I noticed inside the cemetery there was a tree. A lot of them there’s one particular tree was all over the place and it had a kind of a fruit on it and this fruit when it fell to the ground would turn brown and fibrous kind of a wrinkly look to it. And there was hundreds, you know, within the cemetery, of course, thousands and thousands of these rotted fruits on the ground. And I became very curious about what that tree was. And I was curious why there weren’t hundreds of macaques living there because they had all this fruit to eat. So why weren’t there animals eating all of that fruit?
So, I started doing some research and I found out that that tree is the pong pong tree, also known as the suicide tree. And the reason all the fruit is just left alone by the animals. Nobody eats it, it’s because it’s toxic. The seed of that fruit contains a poison, a very serious poison, which is why it’s called the suicide tree. And I found out later on that this pong pong tree in the fruit actually shows up in the season of the white lotus. There’s the TV series The White Lotus that was set in Thailand. And there’s a whole subplot in the White Lotus where they show up at the resort and they notice a tree with this big delicious looking green fruit and then the tourists are kind of looking at it. Oh, you know, can we eat this fruit? What is this fruit? And then their guide at the hotel tells them, “No, no, no, no. That’s the pong pong tree, the suicide tree, and it’s poisonous, so don’t eat that fruit.” And so the guy in the White Lotus learns about that. And then that becomes a plot in that season of the White Lotus where somebody takes the fruit of the pong pong tree and uses it to make a poison and that becomes part of the plot. So here at Bukit Cina, the pong pong tree is used in the White Lotus. I thought that was very cool.
Yeah, this is where I came on foot when I walked to the Princess Leipo, her well is here. It’s a big attraction and her temple is here and behind it is Bukit Cina over there on my right. And it’s becoming more and more obvious why this is such a busy road, the one that goes by my hotel, because it seems to be a very, like I said, a convenient way to get across the city. There’s all these left-hand turns taking you down these one-way streets, so you can just go left, left, left, left, left, and then curve through the city.
Yeah, I remember this area. I came through here on foot and on the left is a kampung right here on my left. It’s very similar to Kampung Morten and Kampung Baru in Kuala Lumpur.
This windy path is taking me through Little India through this kampung.
Amazing architecture and atmosphere in these tight narrow streets. My GoPro broomstick mount. I have to be more and more careful about it cuz it does stick out to the left a little bit. Probably a little bit further than it should.
Keep having to check Google Maps cuz it’s a real maze down here. I think I know where I am.
Nobody’s using turn signals, so I can’t tell what any of these vehicles are going to do. But like I said, this is a very standard path that everybody follows. So, it’s a pretty sure bet that all these cars are going to be turning right just like I did and crossing the bridge up ahead that takes us into the heritage zone. And this street, I believe, is the heart of Little India. I think most cars a bunch of them could be turning left here, so I better be careful. There we go. Big pigeon park over here.
Here I am back in bustling Melaka, the heritage zone. If you’ve watched my previous videos, this would look very familiar to you. This whole neighborhood. I spend a lot of time here walking up and down the river, but I better not spend a lot of time on this bridge. It’s too busy and too narrow.
And I think my left turns continue here. I need to turn left here.
And this will take me to Jonker Street.
And now we’re truly in the thick of it in terms of cars and pedestrians having to make way for each other. But all the cars go so slow that I can just pedal my bike normally. I can easily keep up with traffic.
I’m not in a hurry, so I don’t need to go by the cars on the left or the right.
It’s going to be so busy today. Probably one of the busiest days of the year.
Here it is, the beginning of Jonker Street.
And I’m bypassing Jonker Street. Following the flow of traffic here, I turned right. A rare right-hand turn on this route.
There’s so many amazing buildings down this street. Parallels Jonker Street. And this is where the famous Baba Nyonya Museum is.
That’s one of the many museums I didn’t go into.
Okay, this is Jalan Hang Kasturi.
And the flea market street is one of these side streets up ahead going to the right. So at any point along here I can look for a place to park my bike, lock it up, continue on foot.
This must be it right here cuz there’s a barricade.
So, I’ve got my main GoPro just mounted around my neck on a neck mount just to wander through the street and get a sense of what the flea market is all about. Musical instruments here, which is kind of cool. From what I read online, it’s not a big flea market. Maybe it comes in, it gets bigger and smaller depending on the time of year. But pretty typical garage sale kind of stuff here. CDs. It’s kind of nice to see CDs and DVDs again. It’s like old technology we don’t use anymore and yet it feels like it was just invented.
A lot of coins and currency of course. This is kind of cool. Some old family photos and postcards.
Where you from?
And if I just happen to be in need of a certain wrench for my bicycle, here you go. Adapters.
And speaking of old technology, albums, vinyl, there’s Elvis.
Of the most interesting items for me are all these like sorts of postcards like little booklet covers showing how people looked back in those decades and then the family photos there quite a few family photos already coming to the end so it is a relatively small flea market but high quality I mean it’s not like a junk sale most of the vendors here seem to have a nicely curated set of things they’re trying to sell. Everything seems to have something interesting about it. Historic vintage.
It’s not like a garage sale in Canada. Hello my friend. Welcome to America. Thank you. Thank you. I say ring Malaysia. No single dollar. Not US dollar. Not Australian dollar. Don’t worry. Okay. No. You can see.
Right here. This is Jonker Street. So, anybody wanting to come here on foot, pretty easy to get to. There’s a Dutch square just ahead of me down there.
I think this is a good landmark for finding the flea market, the Geographer Cafe. I think that’s a very well-known spot. So, if you know where the Geographer Cafe is on Google Maps, that’s where the flea market is.
For me this is even probably more interesting than the vendors themselves and what they’re selling cuz I’m not in the market to buy anything. But just the story of who these people are, where they live, and where they come from. And I was thinking of that because this van is clearly used by one of these guys for bringing his goods to the flea market every week. But look at that. It’s got some history inside the seats completely torn apart. I’m accustomed to vehicles like this from the old days in Canada where you kept cars running as long as you could as they fell apart from rust. They don’t really do that anymore. People just buy new cars all the time now. It’s harder to keep old cars on the road because of environmental laws and rules now. And cars you can’t work on them anymore by yourself. Everything is computerized now, so you can’t really wrench on your own cars and keep them running anymore like you used to.
So on the left side of the street right here, you’ve got all of the vendors with their displays. And then on the right side, probably their vehicles where they drove up this morning and then unpacked. This would be another one right here.
And one thing I’ve noticed is that all the vendors are men. This sort of activity. I’ve noticed that in flea markets around the world tends to be men who gather up all this kind of stuff.
Maybe we’re born collectors.
I’m at the end of the street where I started. This is where my bicycle is locked up. It’s like 20 after 9 in the morning, by the way. So, I don’t know if more vendors come during the day or not.
That gives you a sense of what this place is all about. I didn’t see electronics for the most part, so you’re not going to find old cameras and stereo systems, DVD players, things like that. It’s more on the memorabilia side, sort of the vintage side of things. Not much in the way of toys either. So there really isn’t much here of interest for kids, for children. But there you go. The Melaka flea market. Sunday morning flea market.
Continuing up this street that parallels Jonker Walk. All kinds of interesting cafes, restaurants, museums, hotels.
And from here, I thought I would ride down to the coast. I just wanted to take a look at a building down there called Encore. It’s like a performing arts center. And I don’t think there’s anything for me to do down there. It’ll be a place where you would go to see performances, whatever is scheduled. You buy a ticket and go there. But it just looked like an interesting building and it’s down on the water. So, I think I’m just going to ride down take a look at the building.
Last night when I was at the home of my mystery benefactor, we went up to the 30th floor of his building, like onto the rooftop, and he pointed out this building to me as a place of interest in Melaka, but I’d never heard about it. I never noticed it on Google Maps. So, he gave me the idea to check it out.
Yesterday when I was riding around, I had my trailer attached and all of my pannier bags, two pannier bags on the front, and I heard a rattling from my bike and I was worried that it might have been part of the crank set, some sort of a bearing that was wearing out. But now that I just have the bike, I don’t hear that rattling anymore. So, I think it was something connected with my pannier bags. One of the buckles or the belts or something that was loose and rattling. So, it’s good to know it’s not a mechanical problem with my bicycle.
Getting closer. Not exactly sure how to get there, but I certainly see an interesting building. I think I might have to go to the end of this road and then turn right down here.
I can smell the Melaka Strait, the salt water. And yeah, it’s quite an interesting looking building over there. That’s got to be it. At night, I thought it looked more white, like a white building. This one is more tan brown. Maybe it’s a different building. The Encore might be somewhere else nearby.
Here we are in all the reclaimed land again. I guess the Melaka Strait is getting narrower all the time as Malaysia pushes out into the water. I don’t think they’re doing that on the Indonesian side, but of course, the Melaka Strait is pretty wide. They’d have to do a lot of land reclamation before they make it narrow.
I think they are different buildings. I think the Encore building is over there. You see that white structure? I think that’s Encore. So, this is a completely different one. Just has an unusual rooftop. I don’t know what that is. That building. It doesn’t come up on Google Maps. It’s not marked. So, right now, I have no idea what it is, but Encore is on the map.
Little note about the weather. Wow, is it hot. That sun is absolutely scorching. It’s been like this for months here in Malaysia and over in Sumatra. The heat is incredible. I don’t know if this is like one of the hottest years on record, but it’s definitely one of the hottest years of my life that I’ve ever experienced. Just constant heat day after day. Really intense heat.
So much construction going on here. So many buildings going up. On my left behind me, you can see a big area that has a fence, a construction safety barrier put up all around it. So, I guess some more skyscrapers are going to go up there. Some probably apartment buildings all around me. Just giant buildings everywhere, either completed or under construction. It’s just crazy how much Malaysia is growing.
This Encore is way out in the middle of what feels like nowhere. It’s not easy to get to. I’ve been trying to find an entry way, but I think I went past it. I’ve got to backtrack here.
I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get there. I see all kinds of barriers. That road dead ends at a barrier. See another barrier over here. Maybe Encore isn’t even open yet. Or they closed it permanently. Let’s see what happens. Another huge apartment building over there beside Encore.
I feel like I’ve gone off into some sort of crazy wilderness area wasteland.
I think I have to go over this bridge and then I should be able to turn left and get to Encore.
And there it is. Encore. Very cool.
Encore Melaka Impression Series. I’m right beside this very large apartment building. In terms of its shape and design, it kind of reminds me of the Tsunami Museum in Aceh. Just sort of the wave line going along the top there. Just feels like a water wave. And as if the sun isn’t bright enough, standing here underneath a white wall, you get the sunlight reflected back at you. It’s like you’re in an oven right here, just baking.
Very cool. Modern looking structure. When you look at it from the outside here, it feels like there’s no windows at all, like completely solid. But there might be some light getting in through there. But wow, look at this side.
Look at that expanse of pure white. It’s blinding right now with the sun hitting it.
And I wonder what the waterfront side looks like, whether they did anything special with that. Just heading down to the edge of the water here. Beautiful spot out on the Melaka Strait. You can see why it’s such an important waterway. Again, I was reading the other day that 25% of all the goods shipped in the world go through this strait right here.
The news is all full of the Hormuz, the Strait of Hormuz, the effect on the world economy when it is closed. But to be honest, I think that would be nothing compared to this strait being shut down. It would have a devastating impact on shipping world economy.
And here’s the waterfront side. Doesn’t look like they did anything particularly special with it. It’s just another solid white wall. So, the focus in this building is not about what’s around it really. Maybe there’s a beautiful rooftop set of cafes and viewpoints up there. I don’t know. But I think since it’s a performing arts center, the focus is on the interior. The stage or stages, all the performances going on inside. They’re not that worried about the outside view perhaps. I don’t know how new it is. Maybe this is all still being developed. All of this is going to be turned into a garden. Maybe patio with tables and cafes and everything. I’m not sure.
So on my way out, I did circle all the way around and I was going to do another loop around the main building, but I guess the way I went in because it was blocked there. That also included bicycles because as I tried to do my loop back around, suddenly there were security guards popping up everywhere yelling at me. Bicycles, they really get a bad rap worldwide. They get lumped in with like motorcycles like they’ll make a rule that no motorcycles allowed and then somehow or other that gets extended to bicycles even though you can just get off the bike and walk right but then all the security guards are yelling at me no no no bicycle no so I was like all right don’t get too upset and I just left but pretty interesting building.
Just turn around here. Get a view of the whole thing from this side.
I snuck onto the grounds through that entrance right there.
That big gray building, that’s all for parking for Encore. So, the security guards, they want me to park my bicycle in there and then walk around. And that wouldn’t normally be a problem. I would do that except I’ve already gone all the way around the whole building on my bicycle. So I just said, “No, I don’t need to park my bicycle. I’ll just find an exit and leave.”
I just stopped here on my way back into Melaka proper just because of the sense of all that construction that I was talking about. There was tower block A, B, and C back there. Huge buildings. And out here just on the main road, there’s another one, Amber Cove, either just completed or still just about finished construction. All of this is going to be built up. And then over here, look at that. Countless towers being built in that direction with all the cranes. Look in this direction. More towers going up over there. All those towers already there. It’s crazy. They’re anticipating the huge population boom in Malaysia or something or the economy is looking pretty good and they think people are just going to snap up all of these units when they’re done. And they’re probably right about that.
So, I’m heading back into Melaka now. The last place on my tour for this morning is probably going to be out on Melaka Island. When I was up on the top of my mystery benefactor’s building, the 30th floor. We could look out over one undeveloped end of the island where there was no construction, and there were two boats like old looked like shipwrecks. Not giant boats, but like local style traditional boats, I think. Anyway, I just wanted to ride out onto the island, go off onto that undeveloped part. Take a look at the boats. And that might be the end of my tour in that hot sun this morning. You really feel it when you are at traffic lights. As my mystery benefactor was commenting yesterday, he lives here in Malaysia. It’s his home. And he talks about how long it takes for the lights to change. It feels like you’re here for a lifetime waiting for a green light.
I’ve come full circle on my Melaka visit cuz I’m on the bridge that I crossed over this bridge a couple of months ago when I first arrived in Melaka, cycling down out of the interior of Malaysia to the coast and then crossing this bridge. And there’s the Melaka River down there. This was my first view of Melaka from when I first arrived. So, I thought I would stop and take it all in again. Especially now that I’ve been here so long, I understand the town so much better. Everything I see in this view is familiar to me now. I know exactly what everything is and where everything is located, at least here in the World Heritage Zone.
And there’s the Melaka River emptying out into the strait out there. And I’m heading out there again. That huge building that looks incomplete on Ghost Island. I’m going to go on the other side of that building, go down, cross the causeway, and then turn left on the other side of that building if I can find a way to get there. This is the intersection where I have to turn right to head across the causeway.
I think all these people are turning right. At least I hope so. Otherwise they could be going straight.
To be honest, I’m not sure I was able to do a right-hand turn there because it was just a green light. It didn’t show a right turn arrow, but the intersection seemed to be free. And just as I was approaching the island and the causeway, I remember the last time I was here and then when you turn to the left, if you go on your left, there’s actually a big construction site and security guards. So, it could be that that whole side of the island, you’re just not allowed to go there. Or I just have to find a way to get around that construction site and get to the open area. So, there might be a little bit of a challenge here to track down those boats that I wanted to look at.
I just got what the American hobo would call a road score.
This was lying at the side of the road, but I don’t think I can use it. It’s a medium. It’s too small for my hand. I have my own pair of cycling gloves, but they’re getting pretty old and worn out. So, I thought I could score with a new one, but it’s probably too small. So, that’s where I want to go. Off to the left.
Then we just have to see if we can bypass any kind of security. I can see the boat. It’s like a giant Chinese junk or fishing boat, something like that. I have no idea why it’s out there, what it is. Maybe it’s something that just looks like a boat and they built it there. Or is it a boat that actually ran ashore or something? This is the main roundabout when you enter this area. And I think on the left, I don’t think I can go that way. I think it’s all going to be blocked off. There’s no way to get in through there. So, if I want to go there, I probably have to go on foot. I’m not sure I can even get in on my bicycle.
When I was here the last time on my bike, I met a local man up ahead on a scooter. Chatted with him for a while and he said he and his friends come here all the time and they go around here and then walk to a beach there and hang out on the beach. So the local people come here all the time and I’ll probably have to lock my bicycle up here and go on foot. There’s a bunch of cars here. Looks like families come here to have a picnic. So yeah, even if I can’t get all the way to the boats, at least I can lock up my bike here safely, I think, and then just go for a walk as far as I can.
Just need a tree that I can put my bike lock around.
This one will do.
I thought I could just head out to that part of the island and ride my bike, but doesn’t look that way.
Here comes one of the duck tour boats. A bunch of children on board. That’s funny. I wonder if it goes in the water at all or just stays on land. That would be fun for the kids.
Don’t know about all that exhaust. Black exhaust coming out of the engine. This glove is definitely too small. Well, I managed to get it on, but I can’t get it back off. It’s too small. My hands are too big.
Bike is all locked up. I took a picture of it. Can show that picture to the police if I come back and find it gone. This bike was stolen. Secret fishing spot.
That’s what all the guys do when they come here. Got a couple of fishing poles here wedged into the stones. They might all belong to this one guy. These days when you go fishing, you fish with multiple rods and you hope one of them hits.
There’s a trail here following the shore.
You’ve got some crows forecasting doom. Abandon all hope, ye who try to sneak onto this property. To be honest, I’m not sure if this area is off limits or not. Maybe they’re just keeping people out of the building. That’s why the security guard is there just protecting the construction site if there’s anything of value there.
And nobody seems to be that worried about this beach area. Anybody can come here to the beach, it looks like.
And if there’s anywhere off limits, technically off limits, it’s probably this area here. Look at all those posts. They sunk into the ground for foundations. I guess it’s pretty crazy series of posts. And that’s where the security guard is on the other side of that building.
So yeah, here’s the beach that was supposed to be part of the big development here belonging to some of these fancy hotels or condos or Airbnb. This is all going to be developed as a nice beachfront.
Pretty exposed to the sun out here. It is really beating down. There’s no shade, no protection from the sun out here.
This guy’s thinking he’s fishing with a net. A lot more efficient than a single line.
This breakwater is pretty rough. The last time I was walking on one of these was out by the mosque. You can just see the mosque peeking around the corner there and I was walking on that breakwater and I fell. I tripped and I fell. So, I’m trying to not be distracted by my GoPro this time and be more sure of my footing. So far so good. There’s the boat that I want to check out. And I think if I go in this direction in a wide loop, I should be okay to get out there without being bothered by anybody.
And once you’re on foot, everything suddenly seems much bigger. Distances are much greater. On a bike, of course, you cover distance a lot faster. But now that I’m walking over towards those boats, they seem much farther away. Very slow pace.
But I’m hoping I can follow the line here, get down to the water, and then just walk along the shore. That should be nice and scenic along there.
That looks to be possible. I can just make out the top of the ship over there, the boat. And here’s the shoreline. Looks like I can walk along the beach to get there. Very nice down here.
And I guess that line of sunken posts that was going to be where the huge dock was going to be built out for all of the cruise ships coming here.
Wonder what this is. Something’s obviously buried here.
And then tied to these rubber strips. No idea what that could be. Some sort of breakwater to protect against erosion perhaps.
And yesterday when I was taking video of this area and I saw the boats, I was on top of that building like right up ahead. The roof line is shaped like a V, like a series of steps going down on the left and right. So I was up on the very top of that building, the 30th floor. And then I was taking video of this whole area.
Nice beach, though. You wouldn’t want to hang out here a long time. No shade, no little cafes to serve you cold drinks, nothing but the sand and the water.
Almost there. I think it’s just around the corner up ahead. Should have brought my sunglasses for this little walk. Very bright down here with the sun reflecting off the sand.
Fishing boat just came out to join me right there. There’s an old dock here. Might be connected to these boats that are on shore.
That’s where I came walking from right there.
That is way more of a boat than I expected. Much bigger than I expected. That is crazy. What is it doing here? Where did it come from? Why is it still here? It’s huge.
Doesn’t look like a fishing boat. It looks more like a tourism boat.
It even has a name that fits in well with my time here in Melaka. It is the Cheng Ho. That’s the Chinese admiral who was the leader of a fleet of between two and 300 ships on seven voyages around the Indian Ocean way before the Portuguese even arrived in Melaka. Very famous man.
What a boat to be sitting in the middle of nowhere.
I have no idea what it’s doing here. As I said, was it blown ashore or was it deliberately placed here as maybe a hotel or a restaurant or something like that?
Even if it is a tourist attraction or a restaurant or something, it’s clearly a real boat. It used to be able to float. It even has the depth markers here on the side.
Towering up above me.
There’s the name again. The Cheng Ho.
Goes up several stages, several floors.
What a sight out here.
If you wanted to get on deck, explore the inside, there’s probably only one place. I mean, you could try to climb up here, but you’ve got that door on the other side. Maybe you can climb up there.
And there’s another boat beached over there.
Nice and cool here in the shade of the boat. It’s the only shade on the whole beach. If you wanted to come here for a swimming picnic, I guess this would be the place to do it as long as the sun is on the other side. It’s possible to climb up here if you’re determined to do it. I might give it a try. So, I managed to get up into the boat. This side is actually pretty high. It would be hard to get up here just climbing unless you have the agility of a young child, like a teenager, could probably clamber up here pretty easily. But for an older person like myself, it’s not so easy anymore. But all I did was pull down a table and then I could climb up on the table. So I don’t have the agility of a young man anymore, but make up for it with the smarts of an adult. And I guess it makes sense to walk very slowly, feel my way, make sure that the floorboards haven’t rotted all the way through.
Seems pretty solid. Actually, I’m not feeling any weakness. There’s no give in the floorboards.
But yeah, here’s the front of the boat.
There’s the inside. All the life jackets. This must have been a floating restaurant. It’s definitely something like that.
And if you went down there, this kind of reminds me of my childhood, of course, because I grew up on the Great Lakes in Canada. And there were all kinds of barges and ships like this, old ones, abandoned, tied up on the shore of the St. Clair River. And that was our playground as kids. We would go climbing around. And it was nowhere near as dangerous as this one. I mean, there’s so many things here that could hurt you. Jagged edges and nails and broken glass. The barges that we climbed around on as kids were just stripped clean. There was nothing left of them. And we would just climb up on top and then jump off the barge into the river down below.
This place has been trashed. People have come up here and just ripped apart the whole thing and vandalized it. Those are the old controls. Not much left intact.
All the windows have been smashed out. It’s all safety glass. So you can see how it broke, which is good. So there’s not a lot of sharp glass that can cut you.
So yeah, the ghost island has a ghost boat.
Here’s the rear of the boat.
And I think that’s as far as I’ll go. These stairs don’t look too reliable. And on the other side as well, the stairs are completely smashed. So if it was a life or death situation, yeah, I could make it up there. But there’s no reason to do it. This whole set of stairs could break free right here and come down. So, no point risking that just to be up higher a few more feet. Same thing over here. The stairs are all broken. So, this is as far as I’m going to go.
This is the most interesting part of the boat for me where all the action would have taken place. Or what’s left of it anyway.
There’s even a control out here on the deck. The rudder control. That’s very cool.
Luckily, these stairs are still in relatively good condition. Whoa. I say that and then the entire stairs rock as soon as I put one foot on them.
For the couple of anchors, front anchors right here.
Last look at the inside before I climb down.
This deck is actually in much better condition than the upper decks.
Feels a lot more solid under my feet. And at least the windows aren’t broken here. So, there isn’t broken glass everywhere.
So, now I just have to reverse what I did and climb down onto that table.
Going up and down is actually pretty easy because they have this beam right here. So you can just get underneath the beam, sit on the edge, put your feet over, and then turn around and you’re dangling from the beam up here. Just twist around with your feet on the table.
Make sure you’re always holding on to something cuz this table could collapse easily.
Then you just have to reach back up and get your stuff.
I think somebody who was here before me took this table from the inside and they used it to climb down and then they just picked it back up and put it right back in the doorway. So, it’s conveniently placed for the next adventurer who wants to come. So, I’ll just put it back where I found it.
At first I was trying to climb up here, like jump and then grab hold of this and then hoist myself over, but there’s so much broken glass up here, it’s really hard to get a good grip. And it’s a lot higher than you’d think it is. It’s almost as high as I am. And yeah, I guess I don’t do this very much anymore, right, at my age. So, as a kid, I could just jump right up there, scramble up like a monkey, but now I don’t have the arm strength to pull myself up this high. I couldn’t do it. I tried a few times, and I mean, I could have done it, but I would have ended up scraping myself pretty badly on this rusty edge and all the glass in there. It’s pretty dangerous. And then I got the idea. I saw that table sitting there and I thought, “Aha!” Use your brain, not your muscles and I just pulled that table down and then I could climb up onto the table. It took me a long time to think of that. I even went for a walk along the beach and I started gathering up driftwood. So, I was going to put a big pile of driftwood here and then build a platform and I could climb up on the platform. But then I got this very first piece of driftwood and then I stood on it and I looked and then I saw that table and I went, “Oh, for Pete’s sake, just grab the table and drag it down and then you can climb right up here.” Once I figured that out and pulled the table down, then it was really easy. So, there it is. The Cheng Ho ghost boat of Ghost Island in Melaka. Very, very interesting. Very cool.
This makes me think of the story of Alfonso de Albuquerque. I was talking about that the other day about how when he was attacking Melaka and attacking the Melaka Sultanate, he took one of these boats was really really high like this one and then he fortified it heavily fortified and then he ran it aground next to the bridge on the Melaka River so he could use that as a fortified defensible position very high up and he could fire down on the bridge. So he used a boat like this when the Portuguese Armada in 1511 defeated the Melaka Sultanate. It was a boat shaped like this. That was the key to their victory because it’s so high and they used it almost like a siege engine to fire on the bridge and defeat the Sultanate forces. So yeah, that’s it for that adventure. Going to turn around, walk back along the beach. One last look at the Cheng Ho. Didn’t make it all the way to the top. But risk versus reward, the risk was too great getting all the way to the top. Unless you’re an absolute daredevil, you didn’t really need to risk the top level. The stairs were too weak. All broken.
Time to get back to my bike, cycle back to my hotel, and get out of this sun. It is brutal.
I’m taking a slightly different route back. Still following the beach, but I think I ended up going farther along the beach before I turn around. And I think last time I went up and over this hill and some rocks, but just thought I’d see if I can just go around the rocks this way along the beach. Seem to be getting closer to the mosque than I was before.
I’m not sure if I can get back to my bicycle this way or not, but we’ll see.
Whatever is buried here is still a mystery to me what all of this could be. This is a mystery. My only guess is they put something down there and for some reason tied these rubber strips to it like to serve as some sort of a breakwater to keep the sand from washing away. They probably brought all this sand here to make an artificial beach, but maybe enough of the sand has been pulled away that it’s starting to be revealed like the rubber and the rocks or rubber tires or whatever is underneath us here. There’s some concrete with a rebar.
Came out all the way over here. And where I originally went over the rocks was right over there. So, I’m not sure if I have to backtrack. Maybe I can wade through that water right there. It’s probably not too deep.
My bicycle is in these trees over here. At least that’s where I locked it. Hoping it’s still there. I don’t think I’d be able to make it through that mud.
Last thing you want is an emergency alert going out across Melaka. Dumb Canadian tourist stuck up to his thighs in the mud and he can’t get out. Come rescue him. It’s not out of the question. I’ve seen that happen to people.
You get stuck in mud like that and you can’t get out without help. So yeah, I’m just walking backwards, backtracking.
I made it back to my bike. Took me a while to find it, actually. It was sort of hidden on this side of this tree and from the other side I couldn’t see it at all. It was camouflaged cuz all these trees kind of looked the same. So looking over here, I was like, “Ah, my bike’s gone. I don’t see my bike.” I was already planning on what bus I was going to take to get from here to Johor Bahru or something like that or Kuantan, but nope, my bike is still here.
That is it for this morning’s small adventures on Planet Doug. Heading back to my hotel. Going to stop off somewhere to get a couple of cold drinks, a liter of milk for one, and maybe an ice cold vanilla Coke for two. That’s what I’m thinking about anyway. And then tonight, I have plans to meet up with my mystery benefactor for dinner again, a Chinese meal. So, he’s planning something very special. So, I’m looking forward to that. Just leaving from the Melaka Gateway.
Considering that there’s huge buildings, Melaka Gateway, that this morning out by Encore there are like a dozen massive apartment towers being constructed. It’s interesting that this whole complex is in a standstill right now. I guess it was hit pretty hard by COVID and that’s when it stopped construction during COVID and yeah that hit everybody so hard.
Shout out to my very generous mystery benefactor here in Melaka who saved me from the holiday rush where I couldn’t find a reasonable or really you could hardly find any hotel rooms at all. But my mystery benefactor came through for me and booked me a couple of nights at this very nice hotel. So thank you very much and gave me an extra day like today to go out exploring Melaka which I really enjoyed. Nice to see these last couple of places. The flea market, Encore building, that river shore area, and now the ghost restaurant boat on Melaka’s ghost island as a really really good way to end my time in Melaka. That’s assuming I’m leaving. You never know. I feel another night in Melaka coming on cuz I need a day to edit all these videos that I’ve been shooting. So, I may extend my stay by one more night. We’ll see. Shout out to my mystery benefactor. Shout out to all the Planet Doug supporters out there who subscribe to the channel, like my videos, and leave interesting information. I really appreciate that in the comments. When I see something that I don’t understand, the Planet Doug community comes through for me and gives me the history of whatever it was I was confused by or didn’t understand or something I missed or a tip about some other place I could go to visit here in Melaka. Planet Doug community is the best for keeping me fully informed and up to date with all of that.
And all of those supporting me through Touch ‘n Go, through the Planet Doug Patreon, buy me a coffee. Thank you very much for all of that support. And of course, if you’re still watching this far into the video, hello to the Crunch Club. Put CC in the comments to let me know you made it all the way to the end of the video. And right after this conclusion, I’ll put the Strava map director 3D flyover map. You can see the route exactly the route that I followed today on that map. So that’s it. Shutting down. See you next time.
I didn’t have to speak nearly so fast. Now that I’m at a typical Malaysian intersection, I’ll probably be here 5 minutes waiting for a green light. I better back up. Get my GoPro out of the intersection. Who knows how long I’m going to be here.