(Unfortunately, it was not romantic having dinner by the candlelight when suddenly the power went out in the Pangkor hotel without any notice)
Seriously, what a man will do when lying down in a hotel room next to a beautiful beach? Let me rephrase that – what a family man will do when lying down in a 1-star hotel room next to an overcrowded beach?
Read Part 2 here
Although the urge to hit the beach and dive into the water was strong but having too much sun and too many people on the beach somewhat discouraged me (it came to a point where there was no good place to stand on the beach).
We reached the Pangkor Island during the peak of the public holidays so not surprisingly we experienced frequent black-outs along the area where we stayed – too many tourists switching on their lights, TV and air-conditioners unnecessarily. Not mentioning, of course, the hotel operators and shop owners putting on extra spotlights and large speakers around the business premises.
Black-out means no light and air-conditioned in the room. And that is bad news, especially having a small kid in the room. The fellows from TNB came along, did something up on the lines and the power was back but after they left, the black-outs started again.
We even had our dinners under candle lights – quite a tough thing to do when one had to pick fine fish bones from the plate. One shop seems to have stable power – a coffee shop that was serving cold beers. So, after dinner, leaving my wife and my son to rest in the room, I and couple more beer drinkers made our way to the brightly lit shop.
The beer price was obviously high but it was a welcome change especially when the shop was facing the sea. After getting high on alcohol, we decided to walk along the beach in the dark, stopping by the night fishermen and anglers.
By midnight, electricity had somewhat stabilised but still, there were rooms without power. We had power but the room right in front of ours had no power till the next day (pity the 3 heavy smokers who were staying in that room). Almost midnight, the power went off again prompting many to come out from their rooms and spend the time at the lobby where it is cooler. Good thing our room still had power.
(At far – Giam Island. We were waiting for the boat whilst the rest was being briefed on snorkelling)
On the 2nd day in Pangkor, the tour guide arranged for a snorkelling session. For those who opted from going for snorkelling, there was a choice of taking a boat to Giam Island. Having an over-excited son on board, we opted for the 2nd choice of taking a boat to Giam Island.
Once again the sun and the big crowd were not missing in Giam Island. There was a big crowd from Mainland China on the island as well and it only made it worse – girls and guys running around and playing without much care to other people on the beach. My son who was innocently standing by the water was almost knocked by 2 big sized guys from the group.
Thankfully they toned down a lot after that. My son was more interested in playing with the sand with his tools than playing in the water. We did worry about him getting sunburn but a large “dose” of sunblock cream helped.
(My son and his sandcastle making tools – he was excited by the beach sand than the seawater)
The sea bed around the Giam Island was full of dead corals so standing in the water was painful. We had to walk very slowly and feel our way in the water so as to avoid sharp dead corals. “Shuttling” between the water and the beach was getting boring and we were so thankful when our boat came back several hours later to pick us up. We were hungry and just wanted to get to our rooms for a shower and a quick change before lunch.
To be continued…