Pangkor, Malaysia's local paradise island! Round 1

Is this the hidden little gem that many western folk over look when living/visiting Malaysia?

Pangkor Island, not to be confused with Pangkor Laut which is the private resort island that won some prestigious holiday award for its natural beauty with its secluded island villa's and sea stilt rooms. Pangkor Island its self has never won such award yet is less than 3 miles away from such a beautiful little gem.

Now to point out I have visited the majority of Malaysia's beautiful islands like Redang, Langkawi, Tioman and Perhentian. I can without any doubt in my mind say that the most fun I have ever had, and the only one I visited again was Pangkor Island. Why? Well I don't quite know... It does not have the beaches of Perhentian, the Natural beauty of Tioman and the great hotels of Langkawi but it does have its charms. People often give me strange looks in Malaysia when I make that statement but it’s true, I genuinely have a weird affection for this humble little rock on the west coast of Malaysia.

The first time I went I really had no expectations; I was living in Kuala Lumpur at the time and didn’t have the money to fly to any of the fancy islands but really needed a break. Me, my girlfriend and my friend decided to go to Pangkor which you can easily get to by bus and ferry. First we got the bus tickets for around 10USD each, jumped on the coach, cracked the beers and the 4 hours went by quite fast due to the excitement of actually getting a break from the rat race in Kuala Lumpur. Time went quickly and we arrived at the coastal town of Lumut which is actually a very pleasant little place and we got down to eating some food then boarding the ferry to Pangkor Island. Again, nothing fancy just a small ferry/boat that lasts about 30-40 minutes across the sea to this big island that you can see pretty much from the coast of Lumut. You arrive on the island are instantly hit with the barrage of local taxi drivers, bike rental blokes and various other people wanting to provide services for their new guests. We did not have a hotel booked but we decided it was best to rent some mopeds and scoot around the island looking for the best choice rather than booking from a website. Naturally this was a great idea.

After hours or driving around the island getting used to being back on a moped and the crazy little roads on the island we found the Seaview Resort at the west end of the island overlooking the posh island of Pangkor Laut. We checked in, it was rather cheap so we took a beach front chalet overlooking the sea which was extremely nice and got down to the task of finding some food and booze. We zoomed around the island stopping at many of the little fishing settlements and beachfront eateries having a beer and trying some of the food before moving on to the next. Eventually we ended up back in the centre of the main little town on the island which seems to house the majority of the shops selling all sorts of tourist stuff as well as groceries. We decided to stock up on beers; rum and potato chips and head back to the hotel and enjoy what was rest of the night...

We woke up the following morning rather early and headed over to the main building for our free breakfast which was much better than expected and extremely entertaining with big hornbill birds sitting at your table and sharing food with you. I got the omelette. Birds don't eat omelette. We headed to pool for a quick swim before jumping back on the bikes and decided to tour the island some more. The way to think about it is one big road around the coast of the island with lots of roads crisscrossing each other. The middle of the island gets a little hilly and rather green so it is good for wildlife spotting and becoming a victim of monkey theft. Yes that’s correct if you leave anything out the monkeys will come down from the tree's and take it from you without hesitation or fear. It gets tiresome so we moved on. Riding around the centre off the island is quite tough the steep bending roads with crazy local taxi drivers zipping around on their bright pink minivans shuttling local tourists to and from their resorts for over inflated fares. We noticed along the road at the east side of the island there was many nice little fishing villages with lots of little place to sit and have a beer and some food, mostly local fish noodle dishes. The food in the island is not what I would call excellent but is certainly edible especially after a few beers.


We decided to see what the more local side of the island was like so we rode off to the centre of the main little town and looked around the shops and houses to see what it would be like to live on the island. We noticed a few housing developments were being built and some just finished still sitting empty. The prices of these houses were incredibly cheap compared to other Malaysian towns and cities which gave me a different view on life in the country outside of Kuala Lumpur, interesting to see. The rest of the day we spent visiting the Old Dutch port remains and looking for monitor lizards across the island. Probably not the smartest thing to be doing but we did feel we had done almost everything we could on the island its self, or at least so we thought.

Dinner time approached and we decided to gather some supplies (which was really just beer) and head back to the hotel. As we arrived back we realised that we had been out in the sun too long and were starting to resemble lobsters. We checked what was on the menu at the hotel and it was not all that appealing but was told that if we went along the road a bit there was this secluded little resort that had a nice restaurant in it. We jumped back on the bikes and went to check it out. Nice did not describe how good the menu was, I was genuinely surprised at the choices and I myself went for the Mozambique chicken which was really, really good. After that went over to the bar to watch the live band perform what seemed to just be Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams and other pop rock ballads. After a few nice drinks, good food and some bad music we set off for a drive around the island again, but this time at night. With a storm over head it was quite exciting zipping around watching the lightning out at sea and fork across the sky stopping off to watch it at certain points. A quick look at the watch and we noticed that it was probably best to head back to the hotel and try to get some sleep before another early rise!

Morning broke with the clattering of the cleaning lady next door throwing shit around making as much noise as possible so we decided to head out and have breakfast with those hornbills again. Omelette and OJ for me thanks smothering it in as much chilli sauce as possible to give it at least some flavour. After that we went down to the beach to ask if it was possible to go on a boat ride around the island and possibly stop off at some secluded beaches for swimming and such. After much enquiring and haggling we found a guy willing to do it, he said come back in an hour and stock up on food and drinks. I asked him "why?" He said he would take us around the island then drop us off at a nice beach for a few hours and come back to get us, "perfect!" we said. We popped into the busy little centre town to pick up some rum, beers and food as well as a cooler box to take with us, sunscreen was also on the list as we were already bad enough without making it worse. We arrived back at the beach and jumped aboard the little boat then off we set cruising around the island looking at all the points of interest along the way. The main thing we were shown was the secluded resort island of Pangkor Laut which is privately owned with all their pristine beaches and lovely sea view villas before heading off to a private beach you can only get to by boat.

After hopping off the boat and settling on the beach we got down to having a beer picnic on the beach in the shade and just enjoyed the couple of hours we had... As the drinks went down we decided to head into the water for a swim before heading back to the beach to finish off what we had in the cooler and the food basket. Hard to explain really how nice it was just to sit on a beach all day and enjoy doing completely nothing with no sign of life in front of you or around you, it really was a welcome little break from the past year or so of Kuala Lumpur living and the crazy bike riding around the island of Pangkor.

On the boat ride back we were all a little bit drunk, sleepy and sunburnt but all quite happy and looking forward to a nice dinner and an early night before heading back to Kuala Lumpur the next day. I was advised to check out a hotel close to us for some light dinner and a more relaxed atmosphere which I did and really enjoyed before going round the island on the moped one more time. All in all it was an excellent day only spoiled by the large bugs that often fly into you when you’re driving along as well as the extreme heat and sunburn.

We got back to the hotel, got the head down and woke up the next day nice and early to head back to the jetty and get on the ferry back to Lumut. However there was a huge problem returning one of the mopeds. One of the guys we rented it from claimed my friend had dented it (which he certainly did not) and was demanding 200 myr from us or we would not be getting back onto the ferry. The reason we went to this island in the first place was we were on a budget and 200 myr was something by the end of the break we didn’t have. After a lot of bad noise and hand waving we managed to explain we done nothing wrong and he eventually let us get on the ferry, knowing we only had around an hour to get to our bus we were cutting it fine. Any problems on this boat on the way back and we were going to miss our bus and really I had no idea if there were other options. Luckily we made it with just minutes to spare, which we spent in 7 11 topping up our beer count and some snacks for the long ride home.

After getting off the bus in Kuala Lumpur we headed back to my condo to have a look at the photos and basically talk over the weekend break we had and one thing that we all agreed on was, Pangkor is excellent value for money. If your not to bothered about the comfort of your hotel and the your food is less than 5 star then it’s really a good alternative and a cheaper one than some of the more popular islands around the country.

I think looking back on it now almost 3 years later I still have a little part of me that would love to go back and visit Pangkor, drive around the island and generally just get up to all the stupid things you would on such a place. I have a great affection for the local people there too, often it said Malaysian people are some of the friendliest in the world and you could be forgiven for thinking someone was lying to you when they told you that after living in Kuala Lumpur for a while, but on Pangkor the people were genuinely among the most pleasant I have ever met. I would have no issues ever if someone suggests Pangkor as an alternative and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for something a little different.

Maybe you might like to give it a try sometime!