A night by the beach in PD

PD stands for Port Dickson. It is a town in Negeri Sembilan. Around an hour drive from KL (minus all possible jams in KL itself). Most famously known for it's beaches. The idea of camping in PD was mooted a few weeks ago. Due to work commitments, it had to be postponed until we finally got to actually do it last weekend.

To locals, when you said PD beach, it would refer to the beach near the town. Other beaches away from the town includes Blue Lagoon, and Teluk Kemang. We didn't have any preference on where to camp. Just as long as it is not entirely secluded (thus making it unsafe) and have (usable) public toilet. After a short drive from the town, we stopped by a place somewhere near Batu 4 (around 4 miles from the PD town or according to the milestone, 37 km to Melaka). The place is right next to the main road. There is a small coffee shop at the entrance of the gravel road.

It wasn't exactly marked as a camping site, but there were already few tents there. There were pine trees that shaded us from direct sunlight. I guess the trees also absorbed most of the noise from the main road. The sand near the camp site are white and relatively clean (except for a few rubbish left by previous picnicers). However, the sand near the water and the water itself, was a bit 'muddy'. It is more of a 'fishing' beach, which explain why there were many small fishing boat anchored there.

Later we found out that the coffee shop opens their toilets and bathroom to picnicers and campers 24 hours a day. There were 2 toilet 'booths', 2 shower booths, and one bathroom. The bathroom is the kind that you scoop water from a tub not the kind you lie in. They hanged a coin box on the wall. 50 cents per entry (and choose with booth you want to go). Though the 'booths' were small and very basic, there were clean. Cleaner that most fancy public toilets that I've been to.

We set up our tents and took out our foldable picnic table. We also brought along our barbeque grill. Since we had problems starting the barbeque in the past, we decided to start the fire early. By sunset we had our coal burning. We also had a little bon fire. The bon fire was a funny story in itself. The beach wasn't exactly littered with driftwood. Just little twigs from the pine trees. So, my brothers had to drive somewhere else to find firewood and brought back to the camp.

The menu for the night was baked potatoes, barbequed chicken, lamb chops, sausages, corn, prawns, squids, and fishes. Unfortunately, we could not eat the fish since it was already dark. We didn't want to choke any fish bones. The cooked fish was set aside and eaten for breakfast the following day. We managed to boiled the water kettle using the barbeque grill. Didn't really used the portable gas stove that we brought.

The next morning, I woke up to find that we had new 'neighbours'. They must have come while I was sleeping. And I must have had a deep sleep, for I didn't realise when they set up camp. Reheat the fish and had it for breakfast. The coal in the barbaque grill was still burning. So I just add fresh coal and boil water for breakfast. Later when the tide was low, we walked to a small island off the beach. It was a rocky island. There were mostly mangroves trees. But the water and the beach was cleaner there.

On my way back to the camp, there were people flying kites. The kite resembles a lot like Malaysian Wau, but with a more modern design. The kites made a buzzing sound when flew. It took around 4 men to rise the kite into the air.


Around noon, we packed our things, cleaned our camp site, and left. We were a bit tired, but it was a great outing.