Pangkor Island
I really enjoyed my food safari in Kuala Lumpur and my art walks in Georgetown, but after both I was pretty beat and ready to relax. Anticipating this I planned the last bit of my trip to Pangkor Island (Pulau Pangkor in Malaysian). Pangkor is a small island off the coast of the middle part of peninsular Malaysia. Around 18 square kilometers, the middle of the island is mostly forested and hilly, while the outside has a town, beaches, and hotels for tourists.
The island isn’t too large, but it is a little too big to explore on foot. The ferry from Lumut arrives on the east of the island where most of the locals live. It has the feel of a local village, maybe centered around fishing, although I’d guess the people who live there mostly work in tourism somehow. The areas for tourists are more concentrated on the west coast of the island, with one area at the end of road coming from the east and another around the middle of the island, with more hotels scattered on the road between them.
If you go to Pangkor Island it’s probably for the beaches. And they were nice. They weren’t the crystal clear paradise beaches you always see on Instagram from Bora Bora or the Maldives but they were nice (and probably a fraction of the price). I don’t know if we were there during the off season or what, but the island and the beaches were not crowded. And there are beaches all along the western edge of the island. I wouldn’t be surprised if you could find a quieter piece of beach by just walking a little. Most of the beaches I saw were’t too wide. There wasn’t a ton of sandy real estate between the road or hotels and the ocean, but they were pretty long so there was plenty of room to spread out. They seemed pretty peaceful with the occasional hotel or restaurant around for a drink or some food. The area isn’t built up to the point where you’re surrounded by resorts and hotels. It’s still a little sleepy. This can be a double edged sword however. Our hotel was between two bigger tourist areas, so we had a 10 or 15 minute walk when we needed to buy something or wanted to eat because there wasn’t anything in the immediate vicinity of our hotel except some more hotels.
There are a handful of other things that you can do if you need a break from the beaches. You can venture over to the town near the ferry and explore a little. Go around lunch and you can grab some food and a coffee while you’re there and try something inexpensive and probably a little more local. If you go north from the town you’ll find the entrance to the Fu Lin Gong temple. A Chinese temple, you’ll find the main temple in the center surrounded by walkways and paths that lead up a hill and near a mini replica of the Great Wall. At the top (not really that high) you can get a nice view of the whole complex. Some of the most interesting stuff was at the southeast of the island. There you can find the remains of an old Dutch fort from when the Dutch were trading tin in Malaysia. Near the fort is Tiger Rock, where a baby was supposedly taken by a tiger and then found. There’s also a really cool mosque built out over the water that you can check out. You can also take a hike through the middle of the island to see more of the flora.
Most of this can probably be seen in a day but it’s probably too far to walk. There are taxis on the island you can rent to take you around to the different areas for not too much money and enterprising locals offering tours. This is probably the best way to see the island. And since it can be done in a day you have the rest of your trip to enjoy the beaches.
Pangkor Island was just the relaxing ending the trip needed. After running around Kuala Lumpur and George Town it was nice to kick back and relax a little and the island not having too much going on worked in its favor since we didn’t feel rushed to see tons of things during our short stay.
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