Pangkor Part I & II.

Part I.

In the late 80s, there was a TV commercial for Pelangi Beach Resort, Pangkor. There was a beautiful couple dining (I think) and dancing on a patio with serene water and a beautiful sunset for a background. Every time the ad came on, I would long to go to the beautiful Pulau Pangkor. Although I was a stupid romantic at that time, a silly teenager, the potential beauty of sandy white beaches and pristine water was more captivating than being the couple itself. I don't even remember if the ad showed any sandy white beach and crystal clear water. I suppose I had faith that it was possible for such things to exist in Malaysia as only 5 years before my mom took my brother and I to the beautiful, not-yet-commercial island of Tioman nestled in the South China Sea. It was beautiful and unspoilt and I suppose relatively unknown then. The sand was superfine and white and the water was super clear. I remember standing in waters knee-deep looking at beautiful, colourful fish weaving around my legs. I was gob-smacked and so, 5 years laters, I believed that Pulau Pangkor was capable of producing such beauty as I had imagined.

So back to the late 80s. Towards the end of that year our school Swimming Club was organizing a trip to Pulau Pangkor, Penang and Cameron Highlands. That was too good to be true. The 3 of us (the ones who mocked around in science tuition) decided to join the trip. We didn't care who else was going (who were mostly people we didn't click with, except for Vivian, the "leader" and elder sister of our friend Evonne). What was important was that we were going together and for me, setting foot on the beautiful Pulau Pangkor.

We opted to sit at the back of the bus so that we could be together, no concern that the ride was always bumpier at the back. Who gave a crap? A bumpy ride sure beat having one of us sit with someone else. Besides, we were equipped with a Sony Walkman, Kylie Minogue, Erasure and Climie Fisher. Sometimes I do wonder how I remember these things because for the life of me, I do not remember getting on any ferry to get to Pulau Pangkor and back. Perhaps we never did but I'd like to believe that we did. We arrived in Pulau Pangkor during the night and we were ushered to stay in wooden house which had a verandah/patio at the back standing on stilts in the water. We were uncomfortably packed like sardines into rooms with gaudy vinyl coverings, the kind my grandma used to thumbtack to her wooden dining table. Before going to bed, I went to the toilet and in the dark I saw the wooden patio on stilts. The sound of the waves hitting against the stilts and the shore was invigorating but the fishy smell of the night air was enough to bring me to my senses that this was no Pelangi Beach Resort.

The next morning, while some ser-pu-ser girls spoke about seeing ghosts or some crap like that, I was more interested in going to the patio. While I had lowered my expectations greatly, I was not prepared to see huge, rough stones beneath the patio, thick mud and worst of all, rats - uncountable number of rat scavenging and scurrying about. I grew up by the sea. Our house faced the Straits of Malacca, the same straits my beautiful Pulau Pangkor lies in further up the coast. There was no sandy white beach and crystal clear waters but there was also definately NO RATS. We still played on the coarse sand and in the dirty-green salt water, but this in what I believe was Pulau Pangkor was just too disgusting for me. I suppose I naively gained the notion that the water and sand just got clearer and whiter respectively the further up the Straits.

Now that I've put the pieces together, I've semi-concluded that we were most probably thrown in a fishing village on the mainland because I seriously do not remember getting on the ferry or any other water vehicle - and I have elephant memory. By golly, we were really quite stupid suckers or maybe so put-off by the horrible discovery, I obliterated the most part of the trip. I remember visiting a temple on the supposed island which was surrounded by overgrown lalang and really, that's about all I remember about that leg of the trip. OMG, I seriously think we never even made it to the island.

Part II.

The little Peanut has been wanting to go to the beach. We decided and promised to take her to a beach during her school holidays. As the holidays approached rapidly, we came down to 2 options - east coast (Kuantan area) or west coast (Lumut/Pangkor). I wanted the east, the South China Sea. I remembered accompanying my mom on a business trip to Teluk Chempedak, Kuantan earlier in the same year of that (expletive) dreadful Pulau Pangkor trip. I liked the place because although it was no Pulau Tioman of 5 years before, the sand was white and the water was clearer and less murky than my Straits of Malacca water playground. That versus smelly rat-infested fishing village which may not even have been Pangkor, my pick was a no-brainer. However, we had decided to go on this trip with another family who had a very eager-to-be-big-sister 6 year old daughter (which doesn't look like it's happening). Let's just say that the other 3 adults in our party enjoys food much more than I. While I do enjoy a good meal when presented or chanced upon and do have salivating cravings on and off, I am no foodie. I eat to live, not live to eat. So they pretty much veto-ed me. Food tops beach.

Having settled for the west coast, it was a toss between mainland and Pulau Pangkor so obviously for the foodies, it was the mainland. That was fine with me as we decided that we could still make a day trip to Pulau Pangkor. As you would have guessed rightfully so, I had resorted to my Pelangi Beach Resort fantasy. After all, wasn't Pangkor Laut Resort where Jodie Foster stayed in in Pulau Pangkor? (WRONG!!!!) I had been to the dogdy part of Pulau Pangkor. This time we will go the advertisement-friendly part of the island and all faith will be restored.

The hotel we stayed at was rather deep in from the town area via a narrow, winding road but it was self-sufficient. It had to be that far in. There's a private beach, but unfortunately for me, no white sand, no crystal clear water but it was good enough. It had coconut and pine trees, lazy chairs and most importantly, it was clean. We took Peanut down to the beach on the first evening and I made it a point to take her there every day of our stay for that was the main aim of this little holiday. She was a scardy-cat at first but her confidence grew as the days passed.

Fast forward 22 years and I finally arrived at Pulau Pangkor again, or was it my maiden visit? The only way to Pulau Pangkor was by ferry. No bridge, nothing. I found out that the ferry service starts at 6am and ends at 7pm, so that kind of confirms that we never made it to the island on my school trip because we definately arrived at "Pulau Pangkor" at night and elephant memory here does not have any recollection whatsoever of getting on a ferry to or fro. We were so conned on our school trip. How come it didn't cross our minds back then? Such deluded teenagers. The upside to this revelation was fantasy Pelangi Beach Resort revived. Pulau Pangkor was crap because I was never on it. There was hope.

While on board the ferry (Peanut, by the way, was having a whale of a time), I was messing around with the GPS map application on my phone when I suddenly realised that there was another island called Pulau Pangkor Laut next to Pulau Pangkor, further out into the sea. OK, so Pangkor's current prime marketing tool called Pangkor Laut Resort, host to the rich and famous and Jodie Foster was actually on a separate private island? So, it is possible that Pulau Pangkor is still the crappy, smelly island I remembered or thought I remembered?

The jetty and pier area was a new construction with big words of welcome in updated silver 2D fonts backed by colorado bricks for a background. There was a bazaar, although relatively unoccupied and a swarm of boys and men of various shades of tan and hair dye shoving photocopied too-many-times-over flyers offering taxis and car rentals. We engaged the car rental service of Ah Fatt for a 2-hour block which he claimed was more than adequate time for us to have lunch and drive on the west coast of the island (the more scenic coast, I read). He told us to avoid the east coast as the roads were very windy and accident prone. Ahh... that was where my Pelangi Beach Resort must have been. Besides, I saw a couple of resorts on this coast in one of the maps.

There was no fancy, romantic resort. Only wooden shacks for water sports business and what looked like stalls in the midst of construction. There was accommodation, but nothing fancy. It was the kind of accommodation where I would be tiptoeing around feeling eekie and complaining about the toilet and shower. We saw an island with water chalets in the sea - that must have been Pangkor Laut Resort, but there was no hint of what could have been my fantasy Pelangi Beach Resort of the 80s. We stopped by at the beach which was nicer than the one at our hotel but there was no fine white sand and crystal clear water, not even close.

22 years later, still got conned. And you would think I'd learn, growing up playing in the straits. FAIL!!!!