The plan was to go to Pangkor for a couple of days diving with a few buddies from KL, before heading on to Hong Kong. Pangkor is a smallish island of the west coast of Malaysia, to the north of KL and to the south of Penang. The fact that the only airline offering a service to the island had ceased to operate this route last year should have served as a warning that all was not going to turn out as planned. We ended up making the 6 hour trip by road and ferry.
Once there it transpired that my mate's information was somewhat out of date. The only dive shop on the island, which he had used a couple of years ago, was now closed. We decided to make the best of it by doing some snorkeling instead. This was also a failure as the water was so cloudy that visibility was less than two meters. Apparently this is the case for a bout 50% of the time, depending on rain and other seasonal factors. Not surprising then that the dive shop closed down! The moral of that tale is: always do your own research beforehand.
Leaving aside the lack of diving, the island was pleasant enough and the beach we were staying at was pleasant enough. Most of the other holiday makers were Chinese Malays, and the local restaurants seemed to cater for their tastes, so we ended up eating some excellent Chinese food.
No comments:
Post a Comment