Round island cycling trip at Pangkor Island

One of the best things about living near an island is that we get to swim at the beach at anytime of the year or simply have a fun family 'road trip' around the island. Pangkor Island is a mere 20 minutes or so from where I live in Sitiawan. When I was young, around the early 90's, the whole family used to bring our bicycles in the car, boarded the ferry toward Pangkor Island and went on a round island cycling trip for the whole day. Back then my sisters and I didn't have mountain bikes, so we went around cycling in one of those bicycles fitted with a front basket while my little brother rode on his tiny BMX and my dad on his racing bike. As long that everyone has a bicycle, we were good to go for one of the best early days round island cycling trip at Pangkor island.

If you must know, the road around Pangkor is very steep, hilly, small and either winding up or down. It was very challenging to climb up the steep 35 degrees road but we sure made it around the island either pushing our bicycles, cycling on it as hard as we could or going down the fast downhill road in lighting speed. After what had been ages, my family (minus 2 family members) finally made yet another round island bicycle trip at Pangkor Island last year.

This time around, we rented mountain bikes at the island for a small fee and attempted the round island cycling trip. The result was very shameful. At that time, I had close to zero stamina and a pretty awful fitness level. After merely 15-30 minutes of cycling, I was feeling light headed and nauseous.The trip was made worse when one of our bicycles had a punctured tire and that forced us to turn back and had lunch instead. Haha. The mid afternoon sun was really getting on us, so we left the island soon after a scrumptious lunch. Up until today, we have yet to re-attempt the round island cycling trip at Pangkor and I wonder if July will be a great time to make that fun, cycling trip once again.

If you are adventurous and love the outdoor, cycling around Pangkor Island is a must do. You get to see very the beautiful view of the Naval Base and Lumut town also not forgetting the beaches and other small islands surrounding Pangkor. Along the way, you can also make many several touristy stops for example at the Dutch Fort, the fish factories and other tourist attractions around the island.

I also have some vital notes on cycling around Pangkor Island to share here. There are:

- If you would like to make the cycling trip as a day trip (no sleep over at the island) then, it is best to take the first ferry of the day to the island - I think the earliest is around 7 am or is it earlier? I'm not so sure :). The ferry is very frequent so fret not if you can't make it to the Lumut Jetty that early in the morning. The reason you want to be at the island as early as possible is so that you don't get caught up with the the hot sun later (around 10 am above) on during your cycling trip.
- Dress appropriately -sunblock,hat,shoes or those zap on sandals ( flip-flops are not recommended because you may hurt yourself if you fall on your feet from the bicycle or worse lose the flip-flops along the way. haha), light clothing and if you are a typical Asian and are afraid to be home looking super tan - put on a long sleeve t-shirt and long pants.
- Drink a lot of water and pack some bottles also some food in your bag pack.
- Bring some medicines if you are prone to mild sickness like me. Haha. Some panadols, antiseptic cream and hansaplast plaster will do.
- Most importantly, have a hearty breakfast before you kick off to pack some energy because you need a whole lot of it.
- The trip may take up almost until noon or even later into the afternoon, depending on how fast and fit you are. So be prepared to spend almost the whole day at the island.
- In case and just in case you really can't cycle anymore because you are just plain exhausted, you can still continue on with your round island trip by hiring motorcycles or even cars or simply hail the prominently pink taxi at Pangkor Island. Of course, it wouldn't really be a cycling trip if you ended up taking bikes and cars to finish up the trip and I'm pretty sure you wouldn't end up doing and risk losing all the fun of crazy cycling around the island.

Also, it is not really common to see people cycling around the island. Most people will simply cycle around the beach and they usually won't pass the hilly roads. So I can really assure you that round Pangkor Island cycling trip is adventurous, fun and very recommended for the fit. Happy cycling, peeps!