Alvy: Travel To Perak - Pangkor Gateway

TRAVEL TRIP (DECEMBER 2010)

I just recently came back from a very calm and peaceful holiday. I went to Pangkor Island. At first me and a close friend, Alejandro from Italy was thinking to go to Redang or Tioman as a weekend gateway but the timing was not perfect to these beautiful islands as they are located at the east of the peninsular, facing the South China Sea. From November up to end of February, it is a monsoon season.

So although we knew Pangkor Island is not ‘that’ happening, we settled down for this Island. After all we just wanted to be relaxed, spend sometimes at the beach, listen to sound of waves and enjoy the ocean as to escape from our normal daily city’s life. We went there for 3 days and 2 nights and stayed at Pangkor Bay View Hotel in Teluk Nipah.

TRANSPORTATION

1. From outside Malaysia
If you are travelling from outside Malaysia, usually you will arrive in KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) before your continue your journey to Perak. KL or Kuala Lumpur is the federal capital with lots of city attractions. I will advise you to spend few days in KL before travelling to Pangkor Island in Perak. From KL you can travel to Perak by road car/bus/taxi.

2. From inside Malaysia
By Air:
There used to be a flight service provided by Berjaya Air to Pangkor and most of the popular islands in Malaysia. Unfortunately the management decided to cancel its service to Pangkor as the journey to this island are preferred more by land.

By Road:
Journey by car/bus/taxi will takes about 4 to 5 hours. If you want to travel by bus, you need to be sure which bus terminal you should go as KL has 3 main bus stations. I might be giving a wrong information as the bus departure details sometimes change from time to time. You need to check the latest information. For basic knowledge, these are the stations:

1. Pudu Sentral
The Pudu Sentral (formerly Puduraya Terminal) is located in the city centre, used to be KL's main bus station. After a complete make-over and the re-opening in April 2011, it now servers north-bound buses. The nearest LRT (city train) station in here is called Plaza Rakyat.

2. Terminal Bersepadu Selatan at Bandar Tasik Selatan (TBS)
Terminal Bersepadu Selatan at Bandar Tasik Selatan (TBS) covers the south territory. Much of the southern-bound buses have been moved to Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (Bandar Tasik Selatan Integrated Transport Terminal), resulting in Pudu Sentral losing half of the bus volume. Less traffic and congestion in the city. The nearest LRT (city train) station in here is called Bandar Tasik Selatan.

3. Jalan Duta Terminal
Jalan Duta Terminal serving mostly express buses from the Northern states of Kuala Lumpur but more to the east coast of Malaysia. It is located at Jalan Duta, just opposite of Mosque Federal Territory and also next to the National Tennis Centre and Tun Razak Hockey Stadium. There is currently no LRT station nearby and taxis are the best way to get there.

You can check this website for more information on KL buses www.expressbusmalaysia.com.
You can check these websites for car rental:
www.avis.com.my, www.europcar.com.my, www.simedarbycarrental.com, www.iprac.com, www.mayflowercarrental.com.my, www.hawkrentacar.com.my.

By Rail:
If you want to travel by train, please check this website www.ktmb.com.my. There are 4 stations in KL: Kuala Lumpur Station, KL Sentral (advisable to departure from either these two stations), Kepong Sentral or Petaling.The journey will takes longer. There is no train to Lumut. If you want to travel to Pangkor by train you have to go through Ipoh and transfer to either bus or taxi. It's not recommended because it's a long way. From Ipoh it is still another 80 km's to Lumut and Pangkor. Next you must continue your journey from the Ipoh railway station to the Ipoh bus station to catch a bus to Lumut.

After arrival in Lumut, you have to take the ferry to Pulau Pangkor. Ferries leaves every 30 minutes during the day. It takes about 40 minutes to the ferry port of Pangkor Town. The boat service starts early in the morning at 6.30am at Pangkor. The earliest boat from Lumut leaves at 7.00am. Ferries go every half hour, during most of the day 15 to and 15 past the hour. Remember the last ferry leaves Lumut at 8.30PM. The fare is RM10 for a return (the rate might increase in the future, check for latest information).

From KL we took Sri Maju Express (there are 3 reputable bus express companies in Malaysia; Plusliner, Transnasional and Sri Maju). Others I would not suggest as I believe their reputations are questionable and unreliable. We chose Sri Maju Express is because of the departure timing which is 9.15am, will make us arrive nicely at the hotel for check-in at 2pm (considered the 4 long hours jouney from KL to Lumut, queuing and getting tickets at Lumut Jetty, lastly travel from Lumut to Pangkor by ferry). As you travel up north the peninsular to Perak from KL, you will see the buildings will slowly change to heritage. Love the view. Suddenly I felt like I was in a different era. A transition from modernization to the past.

ACCOMMODATION

Pangkor Island is quite a quiet beach. If you are looking to really enjoy just the sea and nature, then you will enjoy Pangkor as we did. Our holiday motives were just to enjoy the beach, swam in the ocean whole day long and sunbathing for hours. There were not many night life activities in this place except dinner at restaurants by the seaside while enjoying the night view. You can try camping on the beach if you want.

Before deciding a place to stay in Pangkor, I would advise you to consider which beach/location is your favourite. Pangkor has 4 famous areas (bear in mind that there are also many hotels available in Lumut, if you don't mind travelling by ferries back and forth everyday during your stay period):

1. Pangkor Town
Pangkor Town, the main town on the island, is located on the east coast. It used to be one street town and it is still not much more. There's a range of souvenir shops and little restaurants. Some of the best food you will find in the local stalls.

2. Pantai Pasir Bogak
Pasir Bogak claims to have the "Greatest Swimming pool in the World." Regardless, this is a beautiful beach, no matter if the claim is true. Around the main area you will find plenty of hotels, all within minutes walk from the beach. A bit away from the hotels area, the beach is even better. Especially off season and week days you can be completely on your own. The beach is indeed a few kilometers long stretch of sand and it is clear why it is a very popular beach.

3. Teluk Nipah
Nipah Beach or Teluk Nipah in Malay is one of the best beaches at Pangkor. It's also home to many hotels and hostels on the island. Nipah Beach is much more quiet then the Pasir Bogak. Usually people talk about one beach but in fact there are two separate beaches, Teluk Nipah and Coral Bay but as they are so close many people forget they are separated. Nipah Beach is a several hundred meters long stretch of white sand and it is my favorite beach at Pulau Pangkor. The beach is secluded. Therefore there is little current and it is a very safe place to swim. The water is comfortable warm and never too deep. In fact, during low tide, you will be able to walk to Pulau Giam, the island you see right in front of the beach. There are beaches at Pulau Giam and it's slightly bigger neighbor, Pulau Metagor. Usually you have to rent a boat to go there. You can hire a boat at the Nipah beach for visit to all nearby islands. Nipah Bay is a very popular place to stay, and not for nothing. The beach has great white sand, blue waters and in the evening excellent sunsets. There are a many good places to stay.

4. Private Beach
If you like secluded beaches without public interference, you may find few hotels (quite expensive I might add) in all of these areas; Pangkor Laut, Teluk Belanda, Teluk Dalam, South of Pangkor Town etc. The Pangkor Island Beach Resort, formerly known as Pan Pacific Pangkor Island, is 4 star hotel. It is located at the North West end of the Island and they have their own private beach, Teluk Belanda. The hotel has a pool which is located almost at the beach. On the North East side of Pulau Pangkor lies Teluk Dalam Resort. The resort offers individual chalets and bungalows with a fine views on the garden and the sea. With its slightly more remote location, it is perfect for those who wish to stay away from the crowd. It is a nice set up and the pool makes up for the smaller beach available here. Pangkor Laut is another popular accommodation where it is not just one of the top hotels in Malaysia but also a worldwide renown island resort. The Pavarotti suite is one of the top attractions to stay and the chalets start from RM800 per night. Pangkor Laut is an island resort, located just west of Pulau Pangkor and has one of the most beautiful beaches of Malaysia
Source: http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/Pangkor-hotels.html

We chose Teluk Nipah beach because (as some of you familiar with my other trips experience written in this blog) I always prefer a quite beach. Not to the extend until I require a private and secluded beach from public, just enough for me to sense and feel the existence of nature, especially at night.

When we arrived in Lumut, the ferry journey took about 30 minutes to arrive at Pangkor Jetty. We rented a cab there for RM12 (two persons) and arrived at the hotel at 2.15pm. Teluk Nipah is also where the water spots activities rigorously happening. Another reason we chose Teluk Nipah is because we wanted to go snorkelling at Pulau Giam, which is just in front of this beach and can be reached by boat.

Something funny about Pangkor sea water is that I am not sure either it was the sea lice or algae but as you swim in the water they will stick on your body and they itched your skin. Alejandro felt the same too. And when we went out from the water, slowly when they dried, all these small particles turned to green colour. I wonder is it why they called this place Lumut? Lumut is a malay word for moss/algae. I had to soak myself in the swimming pool chlorine water afterwards to remove the sand debris and this algae. My skin too had become so tanned.

At night we went to have dinner in a very beautiful sea side view restaurant called the ‘Daddy’s Cafe’. I really advise travellers in Pangkor to have your dinner at least once in here.The food price ranges from RM15 to RM40. The atmosphere was spectacular. You can really enjoy your dinner on table that is just located about 2 meters from the water. Imagine that! It was so tranquil and serene. I enjoy every single moment of this experience. We sat and relax ourselves. The other night we went for a massage and it was so rejuvenating.

Our activities in the morning were canoeing and snorkelling at Pulau Giam which is located just for about 200 meters in front of Teluk Nipah beach and we rent a boat for island hoppings before reaching there. We went snorkeling when the tide was low. While I was swimming my feet hit one of the corals and got some cuts. Quite bad as I need to buy some ointment to put on those cuts. I used the traditional way of putting Gamat oil on this wound.

Forgot to mention that on the first day while bathing in the ocean, we didn’t realised the tide went up so fast and soaked our bag which we left on the shore. You need to be extra careful in Pangkor Island. The tides went up really fast. Really really fast than my usual beach experiences. It soaked my beloved Samsung handphone too and it became dysfunctional. I could not reach home by phone call anymore. Thank God the hotel has an internet access and I brought along my laptop. That night when I went to Daddy’s Cafe, out of sudden my Olympus camera also went dead as the LCD screen did not function anymore until end of this trip. How awkward was the whole journey? We chose Pangkor because we did not want to splurge our money too much for this trip. It was just supposed to be a weekend gateway for me. Unfortunately I came back with bad cuts on my feet, lost of a RM1400 handphone and a RM1500 camera. Figure out the total loss value. LOL.

But do I regret for this trip? Absolutely no. My companion for this holiday, Alejandro was such a wonderful person. I enjoyed the nature, the sun and the sea breeze with him and this escape gateway released me from my 2 years suffering of finishing master study in Landscape Architecture that I recently graduated on the 30th November 2010.