Port Dickson

Lukut Fort on Saturday, Tanjung Tuan on Sunday

A weekend suits Port Dickson, 60 km from Kuala Lumpur. Leave early on Saturday to beat holiday traffic, check in on the coast road and see the 1847 fort at Lukut, 7 km from town, then eat Negeri Sembilan cooking at dinner. Be at Tanjung Tuan on Sunday morning, before the heat, to climb the lighthouse.

Drop your bags at a hotel on the coast road and spend the late morning at Lukut, 7 km from town, where the 1847 fort and its small museum tell the story of the tin rush that made this coast. Have a long lunch in the shade, then hit the beach in the late afternoon when the sun is lower.

Dinner should be Negeri Sembilan cooking: rendang with lemang, or fish in a fiery coconut gravy loaded with cili padi. If the Saturday night market is on in town, give it an hour of grazing.

Climb the lighthouse for the view across the strait towards Sumatra, then walk down the 63 steps and along the forest path to the little beach, looking out for the rock with the Hang Tuah footprint on the way. Swim at Blue Lagoon afterwards, where the water is cleaner than near town. Stop at the Army Museum, with its tanks, aircraft and communist-era tunnel, on the drive back, and aim to be on the expressway before the mid-afternoon rush.

Masak lemak cili api and Jalan Pantai seafood

Order masak lemak cili api: meat, smoked duck or fish in a yellow coconut-milk gravy coloured with turmeric and fired with bird's-eye chillies, the signature of Negeri Sembilan's Minangkabau-rooted cooking. Rendang with lemang is the other classic, and the restaurants along Jalan Pantai and in Lukut grill fresh seafood.

Order it with plain rice and a glass of something cold.

Rendang, beef cooked slowly in coconut milk and spices until almost dry, is the other dish to look for, and here it often comes with lemang, glutinous rice packed into bamboo and cooked over a fire. Both appear in quantity around Hari Raya, when roadside stalls set up their bamboo fires.

Seafood is the coast's natural strength. Restaurants along Jalan Pantai and in Lukut serve chilli crab, steamed fish and prawns by weight, eaten outdoors with the sea breeze; shore fishing has declined, so much of the catch comes in by boat from further out. Order coconut water straight from the shell to put out the fire.

For variety, the town centre has Chinese coffee shops and Indian restaurants doing banana-leaf rice. On the nights it runs, the Saturday market brings satay, fruit and kuih to the centre. Beer is mostly confined to the resort bars and Chinese restaurants.

Tanjung Tuan lighthouse and the raptor migration

Tanjung Tuan, also called Cape Rachado, is the forested headland at the south end of Port Dickson's coast. Its lighthouse descends from a light the Portuguese built in the 16th century, and birdwatchers come for the raptors that cross the Strait of Malacca here on migration. A trail leads down past the lighthouse.

A narrow spiral staircase leads up to a view across the strait, with Sumatra 38 km away on a clear day.

The headland's real fame is with birdwatchers. It is the narrowest crossing point for birds of prey migrating between Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, and from September to March honey buzzards, hawks, eagles and swifts pass overhead, often in streams. The northbound passage towards the end of that period is the bigger show. Come mid-morning, when thermals lift the birds, and bring binoculars.

Walk down the 63 steps beside the lighthouse and follow the trail through the forest to a small, quiet beach. About 50 m to the right of the path is a rock bearing what local legend calls the footprint of Hang Tuah, the 15th-century Malay warrior, with a well said to be his nearby. Devotees still leave offerings, so treat the spot with respect.