Kampung Buntal
Laid Back Village With Seafood

brightly painted house and fishing boats

Kampung Buntal is a small fishing village at the mouth of the Sungai Buntal with the Santubong Peninsula on one side and Bako National Park on the other.

Most day trippers from Kuching come to Kampung Buntal for its seafood restaurants and, to be honest, there's not a lot else to see or do here.

After parking your car at the small village car park you can enjoy a walk through the back lanes and raised walkways surrounding a sheltered tidal creek where the fishermen moor their boats. The locals are friendly and welcome visitors.

A tug boat and a dredger were seen at the riverfront, possibly involved in keeping the waterway clear or sand mining.

There are a few market stalls selling seafood items such as razor clams, mud crabs, sea snails, fresh fish, windowpane oysters and clams. Other local products on sale include keropok chips, kuih, belacan shrimp paste, stingless bee honey, grilled fish and shrimps, pickled fruits and cencalok preserved shrimps.

In the village square is a poster commemorating the lives of three local celebrities - Rasli Bin Buan, a soldier who died in 1971 from a gunshot while battling terrorists, Ghazali Bin Samsudin, well known in the field of traditional massage and Mohamed Bin Chek, a martial arts master who was also a healer of bone and sprain ailments particularly.

Buntal Esplanade is a 200 metre long concrete walkway above the mangroves where you can get a great view of the muddy and sandy coastline. Locals venture onto the sand at low tide to dig up razor clams and other shellfish.

two locals digging for razor clams in the far distance

There are half a dozen seafood restaurants in the village but only one, Lim Hock Ann Seafood, was open during our visit. We enjoyed a tasty meal for a reasonable price with a relaxed open-air atmosphere overlooking the sea.