3 days, 2 nites of Pangkor Island - a real holiday

It has been a long time since I had a real holiday where I just let loose and cutoff the office. It's the second week of school holidays and my son wanted time off anywhere but home. My wife suggested Pangkor since the last time she visited was during her primary school days. Believe it or not, I had NEVER visited Pangkor. So this was a good opportunity.

Tan Yee Khan, a former great badminton player who represented Malaysia internationally in badminton events winning the All England and Thomas cup in doubles with Ng Boon Bee owns a resort (together with his siblings as I understand it) in Pangkor that was frequented by some families I know. Ting's Dad used to be the secretary of the Badminton Association of Malaysia and she helped me to get a room for my family at Seaview Hotel and Holiday Resort Pangkor. I am sure Ting must have put in a good word for me as the room normally costs RM220 per night and I was only billed RM176 with 3 breakfasts thrown in every morning. It was one of those sea facing chalets.

We drove along the NS Expressway and got off at Bidor before heading in the direction of Lumut. When we arrived at Lumut, we spotted the multi storey car park and proceeded to park our car there for the next few days. Parking charges are Rm7 per day (24 hours). Lugging our few bags to the jetty next door, we purchased ferry tickets for Pangkor island. It costs RM25 per adult - return fare and RM 15 for children.

Reaching the island, you just take one of the island's very distinct looking taxis to your destination. It cost RM10 in most cases (which I think is a ripoff for a short 2 to 5 km ride). I guess the islanders have to earn a living.

First day, we just walked around to get our bearings. Had lunch in the hotel and then walked all over within a 1km radius. One thing we found was that the locals are very friendly. We walked into this shop selling the local stuff - dried fish, anchovies, satay fish, etc, and the shop keeper will tell you anything you want to know. Best seafood around - go to Restoran Pasir Bogak (in Chinese, it is called Ko Lo Hoi Sin - or tall guy's seafood). Frankly I found the place so so only, but it sure was packed. They open around 6pm and when we arrived at 7pm, there were only a couple of tables left. Tourists are hungry people!

Next morning, after breakfast, we waited for the boatman. We had reserved 3 seats for ourselves and were promised an island hopping tour. There were many families waiting too. The island hopping tour lasts about 2 1/2 hours and cost us RM 25 for adults and RM15 for the kids.

First stop was the Pangkor Laut Resort. The island is privately owned by the YTL group and only paying guests are allowed to set foot on the island. The boatman tells us that the rooms cost RM1900 per night!! Even the more economical ones cost around RM900 per night, So we cruised around as the boatman showed us rock formations for which the locals have imaginatively named. I guess, they needed to create some kind of lore to make the trip enjoyable for all the tourist. My favorite is the lovers tree, with the spotlight (Din Dang Darm) beside it.

Another enjoyable part of the island hopping was a stop behind the duty free island, where our boatman stopped the boat, dived in and haul up corals, sea cucumbers and sea urchins for us to gawk at!! Later, we were suppose to go to Coral island for a spot of snorkeling and feeding the fishes. But there were too many people there. So the boatman took us to Monkey Bay to swim. The passengers were told to disembark from the back of the boat. My family and a Singaporean family decided to just dive off the ship from the front. All 7 of us enjoyed the swim and walk around Monkey Bay.

When the crowd at Coral Island seemed to thin down, we made our way there and just jumped in with bread to attract the fishes. Very enjoyable. I now feel and look like a lobster that was dumped into hot water. What can you expect after almost 3 hours under the hot and glaring sun?

We were not finished. When we got back to the Seaview beachfront, all 7 of us (including the Singaporean family) wanted to go on the banana boat. The boat dragging us did a series of left and right turns and finally ditched us into the sea on the last lap. Wunderbar!!

After cleaning up, bathing and getting comfortably dressed, we had lunch at the hotel as the sun was getting unbearably hot. Everyone, we came across rented cars. We decided to rent a motorcycle - a Honda 70cc cub. With 3 of us on board, I rode to town, did a bit of shopping and then had to send my wife back first because we bought too much. Within 15 minutes, I got back to pick up Alex and the 2 of us went around Pangkor Island by bike. Dutch Fort was a must - just to get photos of the place to show that we were in Pangkor.Warning - motorcycling around Pangkor can be hazardous - not because of the traffic, but because there are slopes of 15% and 20% on 2 stretches of the roads around the island. It was a struggle for the little bike to haul both of us up the 20% slopes and then down again on 2 hilly stretches. Luckily it was not 3 of us as I believe the bike would not be able to make it up.

We also managed to schedule a visit to a couple of the many "factories" producing dried fish and snacks. Interesting cottage industry. I think almost everyone is involved in the industry from the fishermen all the way up to the shopkeepers. So almost everyone on the island is employed.

Some interesting things we found in Pangkor

First of all, if you take a walk on the beach, you can find a lot of rubbish. What is interesting is that stuck to the rubbish are some kind of shelled creatures. And they are all over the place. If you try to pry them off whatever they were stuck on, it was quite difficult as they creatures had emitted some kind of adhesive to glue themselves good and tight. We found them stuck on discarded soles of slippers, disposable lighters and even a marker pen!

Then there are the hornbills. I always thought hornbills were found only in Sarawak. Seems that there are hornbills on Pangkor Island. They are not as colorful as the ones found in Sarawak, but they were something different from other tourist spots in peninsula Malaysia. The hornbills visit the eating place of Seaview Hotel twice a day. Once around 7am for breakfast and then again at 7pm for dinner. The hotel staff prepares bread and fruits (mainly papaya) to feed these regular visitors. On one occasion, when the food was slow to be laid out, a pair of hornbills decided to fly towards the kitchen because they could see a bag of bread there. The hornbills has even featured in the local newspapers before.

Third thing about Pangkor is that almost all the workers and employees that we saw were locals. No Indons, Filipinos, Bangladeshis and so on. Totally self reliant on local resources. I think that's what the rest of Malaysia should emulate. I personally think we have too many foreign workers here now.They have brought social and health problems to the country.

Last but not least, the locals are very friendly. We just had to ask the workers in the Seaview restaurant and they arranged for the bike hire - at a lower cost that what was advertised outside of the hotel. The boat ride for island hopping was also arranged by the hotel workers - again at significant savings compared to the quote we got from some of the other vendors we approached.

Alex loves this place and wants to come back again soon. I agree.