Traveling to Pangkor

by Erissa Yong-Wilson
(Canada)

Me with a catch from the sea

Hmmm. Where do I start. I suppose I shall start from my visit to Kuala Lumpur Dec 19. 2007. One of my nephews has the blessed luck to work in a shipyard in LUMUT which is the point of entry by ferry to Pangkor.

It took my 3rd sister 45 mins. to find Jalan Kuching to get out of KL to find the Highway to Ipoh. Thank God for Cell phones we were in constant talk with our nephew to find out how to get to Bidor before Sitiawan to get to Lumut. However, we passed a really nice Chinese restaurant on our way called the NAGARIA Chinese restaurant which made really delicious HK styled local seafood. Lumut by the beach is a seaport with lots of seafood.

At the Pangkor Island Beach Resort Beach

After one night in Lumut we took a 45 minutes. ride on a yellow ferry as part of the Pulau Pangkor resort hotel shuttle service across the Strait of Malacca to Pangkor. The Hotel is all inclusive at about $180 CAD per night. Very Mexican in flavor.



The Pangkor Island Beach Resort Beach, this is where we stayed

Great swim up bar with lots of choice so liquor! Great beach in a bay with stinging jelly fish in the water. The morning jog to Teluk Nipah 5 k away was great. The little airport with Air Bajaya service to the Island from KL is just a 10 minutes run from the Hotel and it is a 22/04 orientation.

Wish I had my own Cessna here to do a touch and go on it. It is a great little bush airport. The next day we took a RM100 worth of taxi ride around the Island with the best Malay taxi driver/tour guide I have ever met.



I am a pilot, obviously I took some pictures from the plane

He was fun, funny, friendly and most knowledgeable. It was the best part of the stay. Oh well. I lied. THE BEST part of the stay was helping the fisher man .. small Indian young men hauling in fishnets full of small fishes to sell on the beach and also chasing after little crabs on the beach and flipping humongous jelly fish that have been washed ashore. If you want to be a child once again and just live a GOD given paradise lifestyle, you have to come to Pangkor.

The village in town selling sarongs and all sorts of dried fish and Ikan bilis of the best quality is only 10 km from our hotel. I loved it here and I shall return. For the $$$ it is the best fun a big grown up can have. Oh, and by the way, the Filipino band called the Fouyrplay was fantastic. It played Christmas carols and danced for us all the nights away.... The staff/crew are fabulously helpful and friendly but some of the guests are snobbish ! Why? only they know!! After all in a paradise everyone should have been happy!! I was. I spend the 3 days with a very good sister and It recreated our childhood on the beach in Miri Sarawak about 40 years ago. It is holiday I shall always cherish. It is soulful and memorable.