A day trip to experience Sematan's atmosphere by a group of friends

 

We, a group of friends, were in Sematan over the weekend, partly to pay a Chinese New Year visit to a friend, Andy Ling, a businessman and owner of Sam Chai Seafood Restaurant, and partly to experience the Sematan atmosphere.

 

  Sematan is a small town in Lundu District, and it lies approximately 67.5 kilometres (42 mi) west-north-west of Kuching which is a two-hour drive or driving at a speed of 90km per hour.

A tourist brochure describes Sematan as a fishing village looking out over the South China Sea.

It has reasonably clean beaches, a promenade along the waterfront and a concrete pier into the sea.

At the north end, there is a park celebrating early Malay fishermen in the Sematan area.

When we arrived on the hot Sunday afternoon, the town was rather empty, probably because it was a fasting month for the Muslims or maybe visitors did not come in the afternoon and only came in the evening to see the beautiful sunset and to feel the sea breeze blowing as they walked along or relaxed at the waterfront.

As we reached Sematan just at noon, we went straight to Sam Chai Seafood Restaurant. Andy was there waiting for us.

The restaurant was packed with people. Lucky for us, Andy, as the owner of the restaurant, had booked a table for us. 

Sematan waterfront is exceptionally attractive and something to be proud of.

I visited Sematan many years ago, and there was no “modernised” waterfront then.

Now, any visitor who has not been to Sematan would be surprised to see the new waterfront, needless to say, a place that tourists should visit.

Outside of Sematan town, there are beautiful beaches. I know these to be true as I had been to the beaches before.

If a tourist wants to venture further than Sematan, they can go to Telok Melano, which has beautiful golden beaches.

I had been to Telok Melano after the road to this tourist spot was open to the public a few months earlier.

I wonder if the federal Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry has listed Sematan and its beautiful beaches on the tourism calendar of the Visit Malaysia Year 2026.