Disclosure: The discovery in June that the original post was inadvertently deleted, led to this rewrite.
The COVID Pandemic is still in its early days. After leaving Cameron Highlands the plan was Kuala Lumpur to Singapore for a few days then on to Borneo; however, Borneo bans people arriving from Singapore. That plane ticket goes into the garbage and Pangkor Island looks like a good place to while away some time to match up with other travel plans.
Pangkor Island's name translates to Beautiful Island. It sits in the Straits of Malacca 3.5 km from Lumut on the mainland and is only 12 km long. Its population of 25,000 relies on fishing and tourism. There is plenty to do here from beach-time, to hiking and water sports like kayaking, snorkelling and diving. Renting a scooter is the way to get around the island while going on a boat tour lends another perspective. You can boat to one of the other four islands in this group or 12 km south to Pulau Sembilan, an archipelago of 9 uninhabited islands frequented by divers.
Pangkor Island has some of the calmest waters in all of Malaysia as much bigger Sumatra off of Pangkor's west coast takes the battering from the Indian Ocean.
In 2019 the Malay government announced that as of January 1, 2020, Pangkor would become duty-free (like Langkawi) and tourism spiked by 40%. Duty-free shops were under construction when we were there.
The dry season is October to April, but tourist season is Dec/Jan and the summertime, so it turns out that very little in the way of restaurants is open, except on weekends when it becomes busier with people escaping Kuala Lumpur.
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| Source: www.wonderfulmalaysia.com |
In general, the resorts and beaches are on the west side of the island, while local people live and work on the east side of the island. The inland is forested and has some hiking trails.
We find two favourites on Coral Beach, including Daddy's Cafe. They are a bit more expensive than downtown but the vibrant sunsets are worth it.
At Daddy's, we can have an inexpensive beach lounger all day with chair-side service. There are outdoor shower and washrooms available to clean up and change for dinner, but we opt to walk back and forth to our accommodation.
At about Happy Hour time, the hornbills start coming down from the interior forests to feed on figs from the trees overhead.
We meet a Swedish woman who is on land for the first time in four months. Her sailing partners are on the way to Langkawi where she will meet up with them in a few days. She is delightful company over a couple of dinner hours and more than a few bottles of wine.
Residents here celebrate anniversaries, birthdays and other life events with dinner on the beach. There are people who specialize in setting up elaborately decorated dinner tables, sometimes several each night. Guests arrive after dark to enjoy the lights and candles that are part of the setup.
The view from here is out to Coral Island. It's possible to walk from Pangkor to Coral at low tide, but if you lose track of the time you may end up spending the night on a little island with zero services and no shelter. Our Daddy's Cafe waiter watches anxiously for our return. The tide has started to come in by the time we leave Coral and our shorts get wet. He tells us the tide can come in forcefully some days and people have been washed out to sea.
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| Leaving Coral Beach on Pangkor Island & Walking to Coral Island |
Many people do the walk in bare feet but the sand is littered with broken coral and sea cucumber, so water shoes would make the journey more comfortable.
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| Looking at Coral Island |
Our first accommodation is about three blocks from the beach in a modern hotel. There are WiFi problems that we complain about and eventually, they upgrade us to the honeymoon suite for several days at no extra charge. Very nice with working WiFi.
Looking for something a little more local we land at a place a bit closer to the beach. It's here where we meet fellow Canadians Chrisse and Warren. We have a couple of Happy Hours, some street food and a hike with them over a few days and arrange to meet again in Kuala Lumpur where they lived and worked for a couple of years.
On the hike, we stumble upon an abandoned resort that has turned into no more than a playground for monkeys.
The goal had been to cross the 'neck' north on the island to another beach but we are stopped by a guard who says it's under construction and we may not pass.
For over a decade now, every evening at about 6 PM, father and son at their guesthouse near the beach bring out a big tub of cut-up bananas and dozens of hornbills come down from the jungle for their fill. They have learned to tell time. We learn how to hold the chunk between thumb and forefinger and these huge birds sweep down and very gently take the offering. There is no fighting. Everyone waits their turn. Its explained that the birds are very family-oriented and if one bird has had its fill, it will pass the banana to another member of the family who may still be hungry.
Sometimes a banana chunk is flung high into the air and the acrobatics of several birds all vying for the piece are magic to watch.
The double-decker bill is honeycombed inside which reduces the weight, but a male bill can weigh anywhere from 600 to 1,050 grams. The neck vertebrae are fused to help support the weight. The upper portion of the bill is a resonator that amplifies their call. When a piece of food is at the tip of the bill as in the photo bottom right of the above collage, the hornbill must toss his head back to get it as their tongue is too short to assist.
It's remarkable to see these birds in good numbers here. In other parts of Asia, such as Singapore they are critically endangered.
On scooter trips around the island we pass through Chinatown, but don't make it to the Lin Je Kong Temple. The one street of Pangkor Town where the ferry comes in has lots of action for people watching.
Discovering the Masjid Al-Badr Seribu Selawat Floating Mosque off of Teluk Gedong is breath-taking. There are a thousand prayers carved on the walls and pillars of this mosque both inside and outside. Unfortunately we cannot go inside as a service is underway when we arrive. The prayer room can hold 1,500 worshippers at a time.
Another interesting discovery is the Dutch colonial fort built in 1670 as a storehouse to protect the Perak tin trade. Twenty years later it was destroyed by locals not happy with Dutch methods of extracting minerals. It was rebuilt in 1743 and staffed with a contingent of guards but abandoned a mere five years later. The government partially rebuilt it in 1973 under the antiquities act as a place of historical significance.
A handful of souvenir shops and eateries line each side of the fort. This man catches pufferfish and finishes them for sale to tourists. His scooter helmets are quite creative. His sales pitch is that they will arrive at our destination intact. To demonstrate their toughness he hurls one onto his desk; it ends up bouncing into a pop can for sale on the counter, piercing it and sending spray everywhere. Indeed, the inflated fish remains unharmed. There are over 120 species of pufferfish in the world, some species are a delicacy, while others are so deadly that flesh eaten from one fish could kill 30 adults. Generally, their populations are stable.
We enjoyed our time here and look forward to having more time with Chrisse and Warren in KL.
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