Pangkor and Lumut

Pangkor Island, located in Perak. To go to the ferry point at Lumut, Perak, we took 2 and a half hours of bus from Kuala Lumpur. After we arrived at Pangkor, we were told that's a airport with a single flight a day as well.

Lumut (in Malay means moss) is small town at the west coast of Perak. During our visits (2003 and 2004), most of the people gathered around the ferry point with few rows of shops around the area. There were a wide guarded parking space for the visitors with their own transports as well (just 100 m away from the ferry point). A ferry trip to Pangkor took around 25 minutes (if not mistaken). Along the way was the Malaysian Royal Navy base on the left, which can be easily indicated by battleships and service depots. Again I noticed that the ferries were made in Sibu, my home town in Sarawak.

Betty and I at Esplanade Lumut, around 2 pm.

Photo taken at Esplanade Lumut, while waiting for the ferry.

We took a 3 days 2 nights visit to the island on our first visit. Together with our Sarawakian friends, we rented motorbikes for cruising (RM 10 per day, each bike carries 2 person). We stayed in Khoo's Holiday Resort, just beside Pasir Bogak Beach. The resort was quite a good place to stay, cheap, clean, and friendly staffs. With only RM 65 per room (for 4) per night at that time, we were quite satisfied.

Photo taken around 6:30 am at Pasir Bogak Beach, in front of Khoo Holiday Resort.

First evening, we visited the Dutch Fort and the rock with ancient written on it on the south. Then we went to the Nipah Bay. There, we took a boat trip (to Monkey Beach), played with the waves, snorkeling and had a lot of fun there.

Next morning, we took a trans-island trip with our bike, following the main road to the north at east bank, crossing the Pinang Rivers (with bridges) and went right into the forest reservation at Pangkor Hill. Then, we headed south at west bank, passing by Pangkor Island Beach Resort, Pangkor Airport, Coral Beach, Nipah Bay, and all the way back to our resort.

Dutch Fort and "The Rock".

From above: Photo taken a beach side somewhere around Teluk Baru, bike "gang" at Pangkor airport, and boat trip at Nipah Bay. We went for snorkeling after the boat trip.

Ling Shing went to Pangkor for the 2nd time with his family (2004), stayed in the same resort. Photo taken at Fok-Lin Temple, the miniature of The Great Wall (behind the temple), and the Ducth Fort.

We, indeed heard a lot of good things about the island. Anyway, we found that the island was not as good as it sounded. It was more likely a small fisherman island than a holiday resort. Anyway, the island is still worth at least a 3 days 2 nights trip (without snorkeling and golfing).

For more information about Pangkor, you can visit Pangkor Island.com and Official site for Pangkor.

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Mines Wonderland

"Mines Wonderland" is a place that we want to mention. Why? It used to be a great place that everyone should not miss. But, that's history. Now, Mines Wonderland is badly maintained, poorly ran park (even hardly call it a park).

Photo taken around 2004. Mines Wonderland was filled with the Asian Wonders' Lanterns.

We put Mines Wonderland in here, we have a lot of good memories there. First time for us to watch the musical fountain, fireworks together, roaming across Ice Wonderland, taking garden boat trip, watch white tigers with vintage trains etc. It really really was a good place for us. Well, we did visit Mines Wonderland from time to time for different occasions. The last time was November 2008. That's the first time Ling Shing's younger sister visit the park. Nothing much left there, except the big coins and light decorations.

Go to Mine Wonderland with Ling Shing's younger sister and some friends (2008).

Took steamboat buffet dinner together in the park with friends (2008).

How to go to Mines Wonderland? Well, you can take the commuter service to Serdang Station, then take a 10 minutes walk from the station. If you don't want to walk from commuter station, then you can take a water taxi. Other alternatives, bus and taxi. Of course, you can skip Mines Wonderland and focus your visit on Mines Shopping Center. Mines Shopping Center is well maintained with middle-high class of shops. The shopping center is the one and only one shopping center in Malaysia with a river flows through it. Wow, amazing Venice like! More information, please log onto Selangor shopping guide to learn more about Mines Shopping Center (under guide to Selangor -> thing to do -> Shopping).

Photo taken in Mines Shopping Fair (Center) around Oct. 2009. The shopping center is well improved under new management of KapitaLand from Singapore.

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Ipoh

Ipoh, Capital of Perak, is a modern town, with a lot of old buildings. The town is located along the North-South Highway, which we will pass by the town if we travel from Penang to Kuala Lumpur using the highway.

We went there for a 3 days 2 nights trip in 2007. From Kuala Lumpur, we took a 2 and a half hours driving to reach the town (with our own car). We stayed in the historical Majestic Station Hotel, which shared a same building with Ipoh Railway Station. The experience there was really unforgetable, as the hotel was a little bit too "historical" (built in 1917). Although the room rate is cheap, but we don't think we will go back to that hotel anymore.

Breakfast with Ling Shing's brother (younger) and our future sister-in-law. What else did we took? Famous Ipoh White Coffee, of course!

Ipoh is the home for many traditional chinese food, Ipoh Chicken Rice with sprout, toufu fa, and dim sum are few of them (we went to the most famous and original shop for those food). The chicken rice and toufu fa were really good. The dim sum, however, was not as good as expected.

The road system was simply confusing (even with clear road signs), a lot of small lanes and one way street. But, we managed to get a excellent tour guide for us (future sis-in-law). It is a very leisure place (dislike rushy KL), and worth a 2 days tour, aimly for food and beverage (don't ever forget to try Ipoh White Coffee).

These are some websites with useful information about Ipoh: Ipoh up close, Ipoh quick tour guide, and Hotels in Ipoh.

In fact, we had few more photos for this town, which were KIA during the reformatting of our laptop, we will post more photos in the future!

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