Bukit Melawati

The hill before the river

Bukit Melawati is a low hill above Kuala Selangor town, and it is the daylight half of a Kuala Selangor fireflies evening. Both options on our fireflies tour stop here in the late afternoon, which is deliberate: the hill gives you the history and the view while there is still light, and it puts you twenty minutes from the jetty when darkness falls.

You reach it either by road or by the open-sided tram that runs up from the base. The climb is short. At the top the ground opens out into a green plateau with cannons, a lighthouse, a royal mausoleum, a poison well, and a great many monkeys.

Fort Altingsburg and the lighthouse

The Dutch built Fort Altingsburg on this hill in the 1700s, during the long contest over the Selangor river mouth and the tin trade that moved through it. What survives is the outline: the earthworks, a scatter of cannons pointing out over the water, and later Malay-era structures alongside them.

The Altingsburg Lighthouse still stands at the summit, white and squat against the sky. From the terrace beside it you can see the river mouth open into the Strait of Malacca, the fishing boats at Pasir Penambang, and on a clear evening a long flat line of coast. It is the best orientation you will get all night: the water you are looking at is the water you will be on in three hours.

Why the stop is timed this way

Late afternoon light, before dinner. You get the history and the view while you can see, then dinner by the river, then the boat once it is properly dark. Doing it in any other order wastes the light or wastes the darkness.

The silver leaf monkeys

The residents are silver leaf monkeys, Trachypithecus selangorensis, grey-coated adults with a distinctive crest and startlingly orange infants. The colour change is the thing people remember: babies are born bright orange and darken to grey over their first months, so a troop usually has a few vivid orange dots moving through it.

Long-tailed macaques share the hill. They are the bolder, greedier species and the one that will go through an open bag. Keep bags zipped, do not carry loose food in your hand, and do not treat them as tame.

Feeding beans are sold by vendors on the hill for roughly RM 2 to RM 5. If you want to feed the silver leafs, hold the beans flat on an open palm and let them come to you. Do not chase, do not lift food above your head, and do not let small children hold the whole bag. Your guide will show you how it works before you start.

Practical notes

Bring water and something with sleeves. The hill is exposed and the late afternoon is hot even when the evening turns cool on the river. Shoes with grip are worth it if you plan to walk down rather than take the tram.

Photographs are easy here, unlike later in the evening. This is the part of the night where a camera works normally, so take your pictures on the hill and let your eyes do the work on the water.

The stop usually runs under an hour on both tours, then it is down to Pasir Penambang for the seafood dinner and on to the jetty for the fireflies. Which jetty that is depends on your tour, and the difference is worth reading before you choose: Kampung Kuantan paddles you out on a silent sampan, while Firefly Park Resort at Bukit Belimbing uses covered electric boats.