The tin fort
A seventeenth-century Dutch store.
Michael — Public domain · ogwen — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Gryffindor — Public domain
The remains of a brick fort that the Dutch built in 1670 on the shore of Pangkor Island, calling it Fort Dindingh, to store and guard the tin they bought from the Perak Sultanate, in an age when European powers competed for the peninsula's trade. The fort did not last long: local Malays destroyed it in 1690, angered by the Dutch methods of obtaining the ore; the Dutch rebuilt it in 1743 and posted sixty soldiers there, before abandoning it for good in 1748. Malaysia's museums department restored what remained in 1973, and it is a protected historic site. Today it stands as weathered red-brick walls within a small garden of flowers with an old cannon; entry is free and it is open during the day. The visit is short, a quarter to half an hour. It stands on the coastal road in the south-east of the island, so make it a stop on your round-the-island trip by pink taxi or bike, and pair it with the nearby Fu Lin Kong temple.
A seventeenth-century Dutch store.
Weathered walls in a garden.
A chapter of European competition.
Teluk Gedung, on the east coast of Pangkor Island
If you are touring the island, yes: it is right on the road, takes only minutes and tells a chapter of the region's history. If your time is short, the beaches come first.