Discovered: a new short cut to Damai Laut

Damai Laut as a resort, has been in existence for more than 10 years. It has a hotel, some bungalows and apartments (some of the latter two are privately owned instead of by the developers) and a golf course.

In the early years, the few kilometres leading to the resort was not even tarred and the way to reach there from Batu Gajah or Ipoh, was either via Pantai Remis road or via Lumut where there was a special carpark and ferry services to the jetty. Now, I suppose the jetty is being used by those with private boats or yachts.

With the completion of three bridges across the estuaries of Dinding River linking the highway to Lumut, most people use this as the usual route to get to Damai Laut.

Recently, we have been there a number of times and each time, my wife would mention, “next time when we come early, we should try the route through Kg. Baru and see if it comes out to Ayer Tawar-Sitiawan road” because there is a sign to “Kg. Baru” along the stretch.

Last Sunday, we were quite early (just after 4 pm) and we decided to turn right from Ayer Tawar-Sitiawan road towards Kg. Baru. We went past a road on the left which leads to a private Chinese school, Nan Hwa, and after a few kilometres, past a TLDM communications centre. Just before we reach Kg. Baru Ayer Tawar, there is a junction with a road on the left leading towards Pantai Remis. Anyway, being new to the place, we decided to check out this small fishing village. There is a decent jetty where a young couple from Ayer Tawar were fishing. They showed us a small stingray and a 'sek parn' which they had caught. There are two seafood restaurants which we had decided to try out one later for dinner.

As we were about to leave, an Indian man called out, 'Ah Soh' and he turned out to be an estate worker who knew my wife! He introduced to us from afar, his brother who was at the restaurant and pointed out his house just across the road. He told us that had we been earlier, we would have been able to buy fishes from the fishermen who came in two hours ago. Generally, we have a very good impression of the little village, far from the madding crowd.

We took the road towards Pantai Remis and sure enough, we came out at the place which my wife noticed before! It was directly facing KL Maritime University! When we turned right, it leads to the third bridge (we bypassed two!) if coming from Sitiawan/Lumut junction.

Before going to Damai Laut, again my wife decided on a detour - to visit Teluk Senangin to see if there were any changes. Well, what we saw wasn't encouraging at all, everything seems so 'half-hearted' but the good thing is that the public beaches would appeal to those who shun the crowds at Teluk Batik. TB has transformed into a popular beach resort, but the hillside wooden houses by the state authority, remain in a sorry state like before.


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