Lumut Waterfront

I went to Lumut last Saturday with some friends as a quick getaway. They wanted to go somewhere with a beach ... but since everyone was only free after 3pm - and I feel that beach experiences are only good in the mornings 'til late noon (ok call me weird; fine) - so we settled for someplace with a shoreline instead :mrgreen:

I'll save talk on the journey there. Suffice to say, it's pretty uneventful save for a brief stop to get some takeaway bubur kacang merah and bubur kacang hijau at a roadside stall near Bandar Seri Iskandar which caught my attention on my previous trips to the seaside. Oh - I'd like to make it known for those of us who don't do the Ipoh-Lumut route often: beware of speed traps along the way. The stretches in the Manjung district are a popular haunting ground for traffic cops and the JPJ :???: Observing speed limits and such, the trip takes about an hour and a half from Ipoh. I can sense the speedster CN members here rolling their eyes at me now ...

We arrive in Lumut just around dinnertime, and promptly had it in town before walking across to the Lumut Waterfront. It is the esplanade and waterfront facing Pulau Pangkor, which integrates with the jetties for ferries to the island. An interesting sign caught my eye as I walk towards an annex of the waterfront area called ...



Uh ... Medan Dato' Hj. Ishak, actually. One look from a distance, I would have sworn that it read Dato' Hijack ...

So ok - we go further. We come across another patch of ... thingys. I think those white, curved beams are meant to be the ribs to a whale, cos there was this whale-tail-looking thingy at the end of it. Something to do with Moby Dick :roll: A water feature complete with pond and lights are right in the middle of them thingys. Here's how the whole place looks like with the Waterfront Promenade in the background and Medan Dato' Hijack behind that:



Right behind where I took the above photo, is the Lumut Waterfront proper and where the jetty entrance and ticketing counters are. There's a water feature there too: a small fountain group that is level to the ground and forms a circle - there's a name for such fountains ... anyone? We then continue on to walk towards the other end of the waterfront, which looks like this:



You can see the bright lights from the Lumut naval base at the extreme right of the photo, on the horizon. There's a small raised plateau behind where I stood while taking the above photo, which is actually a bar of sorts serving snacks and drinks with al fresco seating and tables - and dance music blaring from its sound system ... yeah :roll:

I must say the lighting's pretty. According to one of my friends, every bit of lighting equipment (except the neons) are from Hoover Lighting of Ipoh. Another friend tells me that the entire waterfront project is really funded by the private sector from the hotel, food, and transportation industries. In return, these businesses get to put up signages and lil billboards in the area. Smart dudes; the folks in the Manjung District Council ... Here's the sight as seen from this other end, looking towards the jetty:



There's always some breeze blowing thru the whole area; it's just your luck if the wind's gonna be warm or cool ... and my luck sucked this trip :-( It was blustery and cool on my last trip there before this, though. One can actually walk off the pavement onto the shore below during low tide to catch some sand and surf between one's toes, but just be very aware of the tides cos they come and go pretty fast on such narrow shorelines.

One thing that I find it almost inexcusable is the lack of public toilets in the area. I think there's one at Medan Hijack ... but it's so darn far away from the further end of the waterfront. Many instead, head for the loos in the KFC outlet located barely 100m from this further end - not a good thing for KFC, perhaps - but when Nature calls after having dinner or beers ... trust me - any port in Lumut will do (no pun intended).

Overall, the Lumut Waterfront is a good place for to have some nice seafood dinner and just chill out in the evening sea breeze with friends and family. It might be a tad far from Ipoh for some, but I think it's worth it, especially if you're gonna head for the beaches of Teluk Batik nearby earlier in the day.

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