Perfect Day Trip in Ipoh (怡保) and Pulau Pangkor (邦咯岛) [Part 1]

Ever since leaving university life, working life for everyone most probably has been overwhelming, with so much to do and with so little time. But, what if, time can be well-managed in a way you can't think of! In fact following my plan, not only you can enjoy both Ipoh ((怡保) and also a nearby famous island, Pulau Pangkor (邦咯岛). Below is the itinerary for a day with besties:

We started slightly early for this trip since we had to cover so many places in a day. After having nice breakfast at Ipoh old day, we took pictures at the least popular mural areas. Obviously, everybody is going crazy with Ernest's work, but, we ain't going mainstream. In fact, we had chosen the less people area, to support some pretty nice local arts. 

After that, we set our path to Lumut, an almost 2 hour from Ipoh. However, it was pretty much an unexpected detour, when one of our friends insisted to drop by the Tua Pek Kong Temple (大伯公庙宇） @ Sitiawan, Perak. Currently, this temple is one of the most famous temples in Malaysia. As you can observe from the picture below, the temple indeed is a made of art, with various Gods and Goddesses, being sculptured into whitish and humongous statues. (Another post will be dedicated for this temple next time). We spent a limited amount of time here, before heading to the Lumut Jetty.

Lumut Jetty, could be easily located using GPS system. We parked our car at the covered parking. And, then, we walked to the Terminal Jeti. You can find more info regarding the price and time of the departure at [here]. Since it was crowded, it took some time for us to board the ferry boat.

The excitement continued, as we stepped on Pulau Pangkor. Pulau actually means island in Malay. We got a hand-drawn map from the car rental providers. We simply took a very very very old Proton wira car, for RM 150 per day! Actually we were reluctantly, but either hire a car or rent a car, we chose the latter for the convenience of time.

Based on the map, we decided to make an island round trip (a.k.a 环岛). This can be easily done in a day with a car. For those who are staying here more than a day, you can definitely rent a bicycle/ bike/ or even walk, around the Island! It would definitely be awesome. Yeah, the only petrol station with unknown brand on the island, was where we did our petrol purchase.

Our first stop was the famous Dutch Fort. I just wandered how was the fort originally looked like. Anyway, there were several interesting items found on site - the meriam or cannon (left) and the unique grassland (right).

As you could see, the fort was incomplete, or rather, undergone multiple destruction. These were the remains found on the land of Pangkor. Nonetheless, the fort today is still a popular photography area for the tourists. 

[The End ~ Part 1]

To PART 2