Ernest has been gripping about how boring our annual CNY trip to Malaysis has been and we absolutely have to do the very thing our parents forbid us to do: visit the island of Pangkor. Rumor has it there are SIRENS on that island who will bite our heads off when we step foot into the island, but Ernest decided to throw caution into the wind and gathered up a carful of strength to attempt a trip to Pangkor via Lumut on the 3rd day of CNY. Since Baba and eldest uncle saw that their protests has gone into the wind, they wisely suggest we leave the house at 6am in the morning to beat all the crowd. What a wise advice indeed!
When we reached Lumut, it was just slightly after 8 and we had our breakfast at Sitiawan on the way already. Cool breeze sprung up and we walked briskly to the jetty. Couldn't wait to see Pangkor man! There were 4 different cruise boats company who offered their services to ferry people to Pangkor. JS quickly bought our ferry tickets from the very first booth who hollered at him to get tickets. We soon will thank him for that impulse buy!
Because it is still very early, the ferry boat is not very full and we can run up and down the length of the boat, screaming and shouting like kids to explore the boat and see the scenery from the back of the boat. But before long, the nice weather, the aircon in the boat and the nauseating CNY MTV (in the loudest volume they possibly can) they were showing made us very sleepy and everyone fell asleep when the boat is trugging through the water to Pangkor.
PANGKOR!
We are here!
Check out the view. Pangkor is really pretty. We strolled the length of the jetty and were as fascinated as tourists.
I was sorely disappointed when we stepped out of the jetty into the land of Pangkor. The 'jetty station' was freaking small and everyone was screaming and hogging pink colour van-cabs. We were so lost. We didnt do any research work or anything and we didnt know what to do. As Pangkor is so small, the only transport available for visitors are the van-cabs which can seat up to 10, bicycles and motorcycles. It was dusty and foreign and I didn't like it. I am beginning to hate Pangkor and wished we didnt come. In the meantime, Ernest, being trigger-happy as he always is, went click-a-clicking with his camera.
Finally, with the help of JS and his fluent Malay, we managed to snag a grey van-cab and shared a mini 2 hour tour of Pangkor with another Chinese family of 5 to share costs. First stop, the chinese temple of chinese fishermen in Pangkor. Through JS's translation, the Malay driver told us that most of the people living in Pangkor are fishermen. Chinese stayed seperately from the Malay community and they are mostly fishermen or business men. The temple we are going to is frequested by the Chinese fishermen praying for good weather and journey mercy before they go fishing.
There is a garden at the back of the temple and we went to explore that first. The garden is full of interesting discoveries.
There's even a Malay-themed resting place on the slope of the hill behind the temple.
Ernest found an insect shading away in a hibiscus and it was an interesting shot. Coming up too, the shot of the whole of Pangkor from the Malay-themed resting place-cum-lookout.
Huey and I explored the temple. Nothing much to see except that there are a lot of candles in the temple and the hazy smoke from the candles and incense is making me sleepy.
Second stop is the dried goods factory. I suppose that is the one thing that is unique to Pangkor. The dried seafood and crackers are out of this world.
3rd stop is Coral Beach. One of the most famous beaches of Pangkor, it boasts of lazy coconut trees and beautiful views.
Sea cucumber in its furry coat. Never knew it looked so cute live.
Last stop was to see the remains of the ancient Dutch fort where the Dutch has guarded Pangkor from enemies eons ago.
Picturesque, but the weather was too bloody hot for any proper touristy viewing. Besides, I was bursting from the seams, wanting to pee badly, but there were no toilets to be found, so I was too bloody pissed (pun not intended) to bother with any Dutch fort. Luckily, Ernest and his trusty camera to the rescue.
By then we have finished with the Dutch fort, it was about 1230 close to 1pm, so we decided to have our lunch in Pangkor before returning to the mainland. The driver let us off at the little Pangkor town and we paid RM$40 for our share on the van-cab. We all had zhi-char for lunch. There were no pictures because we were too hot to bother with anything else.
There was a 1330 ferry back to the mainland and we hasten to the jetty to try to catch that ferry. But we were really surprised to see the jetty full of people. What happened to the peaceful strip of jetty where we could scroll and see the boats and marvelled at the kampong on silts? There were so many people on the jetty. There were much pushing, shoving, children screaming, crying and men leering to see if they could get a piece of flesh.
We could see boats moored to the side of the jetty, but we couldn't see our boat, so we decided to do the refuge thing...to push and shove and tried to squeeze thru the crowd. We slithered past crying babies and almost stepped on small women. People shouted at each other to stop pushing, but we must board our ferry! We have a bus to catch at 6 to go home to Singapore!
Guess how long we were stuck in the human jam? 1 hour. JS commented that this should be the infamous jam that our Baba and eldest uncle is trying to warn us about. Everyone wants to go into and get off the island but there is only one jetty with both incoming and outgoing traffic. I suppose during normal days, the jetty should be sufficient, but today, the jetty was so chock-filled with people and I am not surprised of some one really did jump off the jetty in bid of getting into the boat. We dunno why the people are not let into the ferries but I think they are trying to do some crowd-control, but failed miserably.
Back to why we are so thankful to JS for his impulse purchase of the boat tickets, we found out that our ferry was moored to the furthest end of the jetty where there are NO CROWD. After getting ourselves away from the maddening crowd, we found ourselves at the end of the jetty with a few people milling around and our ferry people smiling and bidding us to get into the boat where it is only refreshingly half-filled with people. Thank God for JS! The boat ride back was so relaxing that we fell asleep again.
Home, home on the ranch...where the deer and the antelope play...
It was 1730. We were trying to get ourselves stuffed with a very early dinner before catching the 6pm bus. Big aunt concocted this delicious nonya-looking chicken dish and we could not resist but posed with the dish to show our appreciation for it. We even smuggled a few pieces back to Singapore because it was simply too delicious. Kudos to big aunt for the delicious dinner.
Shout-out:
Goodbye to Popo, dun cry, we will be back again next year. Hope you can walk again.
Goodbye eldest uncle, JS and JY and your mum
Goodbye to all my relatives
Goodbye to all delicious food
Goodbye mosquitoes. I shan't miss you all
Goodbye JW's cat. Look how regal it looked. I heard the cat only understand Malay. What a datuk(or datin).
2 comments:
the malay cat is so regal looking that it may as well sit there and play a tree or a clod of dirt and self-destruct after that. i hate it. q-tip is the bomb.
woah...that is such a racist remark about the cat. I dunno you have it such for cats. Thanks for dropping by, by the way
Post a Comment