Pangkor Island

See what the traveller said

We start at Lumut, at the ferry. The ferry building is one of the new buildings, finished in 2003.
Inside the Ferry building you will find small stalls selling souvenirs and drinks. Ofcourse this is the place to buy your tickets too.

The ferry takes about 40 minutes to reach Pangkor. The ferry passes the Naval base on your left side and the Swiss Garden Resort on the right.
After leaving Lumut with the base on your left and the Swiss Garden on your right hand you will see your first glimpse of Pangkor straight in front of you.

There are few cars on Pangkor and they have to be brought there by ferry. Those ferries where in use for many years for all transport to Pangkor until the speedboat ferries came.
Next you see a typical ferry bringing cars to Pangkor.

The first stop at Pangkor is the small town of Sungai Pinang Kecil or SPK as the locals sometimes call it. It is the first stop for the Pangkor ferry but you will see two more piers. Those are not in use for this boat. One pier is newly build and the second is the private pier of the Teluk Dalam Resort.

When the boat passes SPK you will see many boats. Most of the boats sail at night and will be docked during the day.
After arriving at the ferry port at Pangkor Town we cycled north. It takes about 5 minutes to reach Sungai Pinang Besar. Sungai Pinang Kecil is just another few minutes further cycling.

The villages are no more then so called "one street town". There are little shops and local food stalls. The smell of dried fish is all around. You will be able to see the fishermen working on new boats on the dock. In fact, many houses on the see side are build, or half build in the sea. People here live, so to say, almost "in" the sea.

There are some great little food stalls and local restaurants in both the villages. We tried some excellent rice with curry.
Other available dishes were black dry noodles, basically a noodle dish made with soja sauce. Chicken rice, known as Nasi Ayam is a very common dish with steamed rice and cooked chicken served with not too spicy sauce.

First we made a visit to the Foo Lin Kong Temple, a fairly new temple.
This temple is for many Chinese people a "must have seen place". Around the temple there is a miniature Great Wall of China build.
The temple can be a little difficult to find but the signs are clear. However, if you can not find it, the locals in SPK are willing to point out the way.

We cycled out of the village. And here we saw one of those magic views. The local people are so used to this they even do not recommend to watch it. But, we shot this picture so you will be able to enjoy the tropical paradise.

The road marker told us we had another few kilometers to Teluk Dalam. Here we came on the hilly part of the island. For people who are not used to cycle regular it can be a nasty little climb. The road swindles up quite steep but it is only for a few hundred meters. Still, a lot of sweat can be spoiled.

After climbing the hill on the north part of Pangkor we had to go down on the small roads. And it was steep, as you can see on the next picture.

It is not many kilometers cycling but the hill on the north part of Pangkor is quite steep. Every cyclist knows that after a climb the road goes down. And when it is back at sea level, you will enjoy a beautiful view on the bay of Teluk Dalam.

For many people it will be funny to hear but this part of the island is still my favorite. The jungle is so green, so beautiful. It is so quiet here. Every now and then a taxi passes but further the only sound comes from the trees and the round flying Hornbills. This one here flew a few minutes later not even two meters away from me.

Although we had cycled no more then 10 kilometers, we felt a good drink was important. So after a while we left searching for some good drinks. So packed our towels and made a move. However, few monkeys came by. They were checking what we were doing there.
Tired of climbing the hill, we sought some cooling on Nipah Beach. Here we had a wonderful view on Pulau Giam. The water was like a warm bath and the beach almost empty. What else do you want after a sweaty climb?

A monkey checking what we were doing at the beach. There are many monkeys living on Pangkor and it is very UNLIKELY you will not see them.
And otherwise, since they are not afraid of humans, they will find you and stare at you waiting for something to eat.

We cycled back to Pangkor Town where we had a well deserved second lunch of excellent Soya sauce noodles. On the streets you will find an abundance of tropical fruits.
Available fruits are bananas, tasty green coconut, mangosteen, rambutan and oranges.