Pangkor Island

Pangkor's position, sheltering the mouth of the Perak River, gave it a part in the region's history out of proportion to its size. Traders and pirates used its bays, and in 1670 the Dutch East India Company built a fort at Teluk Gedung to control the tin shipped down the river. Malay forces destroyed it in 1690; the Dutch rebuilt it in 1743 and gave it up within a few years. Its brick walls, reconstructed in 1973, and the carved boulder beside it known as Batu Bersurat are what is left.

The island's better-known moment came in 1874, when the Pangkor Treaty was signed in the strait offshore. The agreement settled a disputed succession to the Perak throne and required the sultan to accept a British Resident whose advice had to be followed on all matters except Malay custom and religion. It became the model for British indirect rule across the peninsula, and the Resident it installed, J. W. W. Birch, was killed at Pasir Salak the following year.

For most of the time since, Pangkor has lived from the sea. Chinese and Malay fishing communities settled the eastern shore, building jetties, boatyards and yards for boiling and drying anchovies, and the trade in ikan bilis, salted fish and crackers still shapes the working side of the island. Tourism arrived from the 1970s and grew through the 1980s and 1990s with chalets on the western beaches and a small number of resorts; it has had its ups and downs since, and fishing remains the older and steadier livelihood.

The island's character comes from being a working place first. Its Chinese families, many of them descended from fishermen who settled the east coast, keep Taoist temples where offerings are made for safe voyages and good catches; the Malay kampungs on the southern and northern shores centre on their mosques and the Islamic calendar; and a small Indian community maintains a Hindu temple at Sungai Pinang Besar. The three communities live in close quarters on a very small island, and the festivals of each are visible to everyone.

Everyday manners follow rural Malaysian norms rather than resort ones. Modest dress away from the beach is expected, shoes are removed at temple and house doors, the right hand is used for eating and handing things over, and greetings are unhurried. Malay is the common language, with Hokkien and Mandarin in the Chinese villages and enough English around the beaches.

Pangkor is also a place people visit rather than a place with a strong visitor scene: most of its guests are Malaysian families and weekenders from Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur, which sets the tone at the beaches — picnics, football, boat rides and shopping for dried fish rather than nightlife. The federal government granted the island duty-free status at the start of 2020, and shops selling chocolate, alcohol and tobacco have appeared alongside the older trades.

About 11,000 people live on Pangkor, almost all of them along the coasts, with the interior left to steep forested hills. More than half the islanders are Chinese, which is rare among Malaysia's inhabited islands. Most live on the eastern side, in Pangkor Town and the string of fishing villages between Sungai Pinang Kecil and Sungai Pinang Besar, where the jetties, schools, clinic and shops are. The western bays are given over to chalets, resorts and a much smaller resident population.

Fishing and everything around it remains the backbone: boats go out at night, the catch is landed in the early morning, and anchovies are boiled and spread on racks to dry in yards that scent the whole eastern shore. Boatbuilding, fish processing and the trade in dried seafood employ many households. Tourism supplies the rest of the work — chalets, restaurants, taxis, boat trips — and is concentrated at weekends and holidays, which makes incomes uneven.

The rhythm of the day follows the boats and the heat: early markets, a quiet middle of the day, and evenings at the beach or the coffee shops. Ferry timetables shape everything, since secondary schools, hospitals and most jobs for young people are on the mainland. Water supply in dry spells, the state of the fishery and the departure of the young for Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur are the standing local worries.

Pangkor eats what it catches. Squid, prawns, crab, mackerel and whole reef fish are grilled over charcoal or cooked with chilli and tamarind at the open-air restaurants behind the beaches, and ikan bakar — fish wrapped in banana leaf with a sambal paste — is the standard order. Sotong goreng, deep-fried squid, and kerabu salads of raw vegetables with lime and chilli come alongside.

The island's real speciality is preserved fish. Ikan bilis, the small anchovies boiled in brine and dried in the sun, are the export the mainland knows Pangkor for, and they turn up in the local kitchen fried crisp with peanuts in the sambal beside nasi lemak. Satay fish, a flat grilled fish cake spiced with a satay-style paste, and keropok, puffed crackers made from fish or prawn paste, are sold from shops all over the island and bought by the bagful by departing visitors.

Everyday eating is Malay and Chinese in equal measure: nasi lemak and roti canai in the morning, nasi campur at lunch, char kway teow, chicken rice and claypot dishes in the Chinese coffee shops of Pangkor Town, and cendol or iced sugarcane juice in the heat. Perak's inland dishes, including Ipoh-style noodles and white coffee, are easy to find as well, and durian, rambutan and mangosteen appear from mainland orchards in the mid-year season.