Pangkor Island and KL, June 1-5

Leaving the Cameron Highlands, we took a bus to the coast and then a ferry to Pangkor Island, which I visited nine years ago. If you want a real jungle island where the jungle literally runs into beautiful often deserted beaches and ocean, this might be the place for you. Nine years ago I stayed at a place called Khoo’s which was the popular place at the time for many I knew. Not any more. Khoo sold it and it has changed hands and management several times in the past few years. Don’t go there. When I was initially calling them to see if they had availability everything was going fine until they asked where I was from...United States – “Oh sorry sir, we are all full.” But when we got there, and I checked they had all sorts of availability! Instead, try Havana Beach Resort where we stayed. It’s right across from the beach, helpful, friendly, and a great deal. (Photo to right - the view from our room at Havana Beach Resort.)


The only sad change to report about this island from nine years ago is that where before we could literally swim off the beach and see great coral and fish, it is now all gone. You can still get a quick cheap five minute boat ride to another island just off shore, where fish can be seen, but even this place will soon be gone. For snorkeling definitely go somewhere else! But the island is beautiful. Monkeys and hornbills are overhead in the trees. The beaches are nice and the swimming is good. Feels very much like a family place and like the rest of Malaysia, just a cultural, ethnic melting pot – Interesting to see Muslim women swimming in their hijab's.

I really like Malaysia, I really like KL (Kuala Lumpur – the capital city) but KL didn’t really see the best side of me. We had scheduled two days there hoping to see a few sights and also connect with a board member from Youth Compass who we had met at the conference back in Meina, Italy, who now lives in KL. Unfortunately I arrived in KL sick from something I ate or inadvertently put in my mouth, and with high expectations that we would quickly navigate our way around the city like locals. Nope, not to be. Instead KL saw one generally tired, fussy, grumpy and unprepared guy who then affects the girl he’s with.

So we didn’t do much, didn’t meet up with our YouthCompass friend and weren’t the happiest campers as we dealt with various frustrations that kept cropping up – but I really like KL and would readily return. We did go see the Petronas Towers and I wandered up the hill that the KL Tower is on. Word to anyone wanting to come to KL though – taxi’s are expensive – ok, maybe it was just a reaction to the price difference compared to Thailand but really 80 Malay Ringgit to the airport!! (which is an hour away – also not the easiest thing) That’s 800 Baht – you can do a lot with 800 Baht – yet it’s only 20+ US dollars. It’s all about perspective…Our taxi to the airport cost as much as our flight to Cambodia on Air Asia!!



(Photos to the right - Andrea in front of a Lego model of the Petronas Towers and Duncan in front of the real thing.)



Here’s a plug for Air Asia, the low cost carrier that has taken over Asia and also now flies from KL to London. It is possible to get deal after deal with them. This past month, 90 percent of our flights within Asia have been with them. They dinged us a little with excess baggage fees when we had all our belongings on our final flight to Singapore before returning to the US but we knew it was coming...














Duncan