On the second last day of Chinese New Year, we decided to take a drive up to Sekinchan. I have always wanted to go take a look at this town. There is something about the name and how exotic it sounds (to me, at least). Plus, I have seen some pretty photos of the place and thought why not?
The sun on the day of our outing was relentless, but that didn’t dampen our spirits. Getting there took a fair while, even though Waze said it would take about an hour and forty-five minutes to reach there. Scenery became interesting once we got off the highways and onto the trunk roads.
Malaysia really is beautiful, especially when developers haven’t turned plantations or forests into housing or commercial developments. Thankfully, the drive north to Sekinchan had loads of palm oil plantations as yet torn up for development. Unfortunately, we not only picked a bad day to drive up, but also bad time of the year.
Sekinchan is famous for its paddy aside from its fishing, but sadly I think the grain had just been planted after the monsoon season. In addition, the tide was out when we reached the beach.
Sekinchan town itself is much like many small towns in Malaysia (as far as I could tell). Kuala Selangor, in fact, made a bigger impression while driving through. However, we turned off the main dual carriageway into the seaside village and things changed somewhat.
The buildings along the coastal side of Sekinchan were mainly wooden or, if not wooden, small modest affairs. There were a few seafood restaurants open (but I guess most were closed during daytime and opened only at night) but most shops seem to be closed. Busloads of tourists were brought along this narrow road, most were taken to the famous Wishing Tree on Pantai Redang.
Pantai Redang is apparently crowded and touristy, with many stalls selling coconut water and fried seafood dishes. The coconut was good! We didn’t intend to go to any other beach due to the heat and the sun. Redang beach, however, was reminiscent of Morib back in the day.
We had a bit of lunch, which was decently priced and headed to the paddy fields. Unfortunately, again our timing wad wrong because the paddy fields had been harvested and we only managed to drive around the mud flats. Still, a different weekend experience.
After this, we decided to head back. Just before we hit the highway, we saw this amazing temple in Bukit Rotan. We stopped by the side and found this awesome beauty was called “Sri Shakti Devasthanam” Temple.
We really were in awe of the sculptures and words cannot express. Unfortunately, the temple was closed so we couldn’t view the interior.
After about half an hour of viewing the outside, we headed back home. Great weekend! Will you be heading to Sekinchan soon?