Batik Destinations on the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia

Highlighting two popular batik destinations - Natural Batik Village and NACC Batik Pavilion.

Back in November of 2024, I went on a short road-trip to the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia, where I made it a point to visit two popular batik destinations namely Natural Batik Village in Pahang and NACC Batik Pavilion in Terengganu.

Natural Batik Village, Pahang.

Natural Batik Village is located in the town Balok, which is very close to Kuantan - the capital city of Pahang state. It's about 3 hours' drive east from Kuala Lumpur.

Natural Batik Village offers visitors a chance to observe the batik-making process and shop for a wide range of Batik products in its retail section. Here, you can buy anything and everything batik such as garments, decorations, accessories and artwork. For an enhanced experience, visitors can participate in batik painting workshops, which are reasonably priced and popular among school groups, international tourists, and corporate teams.

Natural Batik Village doesn't seem to have their own website at this time of writing, but I found their Facebook page here.

Here are some photos I took at Natural Batik Village:

NACC Batik Pavilion, Terengganu

NACC Batik Pavilion is located in Kuala Terengganu, which the capital city of Terengganu state. It is about 2.5 hours drive north from Kuantan.

NACC Batik Pavilion has the same offerings as Natural Batik Village, but in a more touristy setting. They also sell a larger variety of textiles. It felt more like a textile shop to me than a batik center.

Comparison

I don't have the facts and figures on sales or shop areas, but personally, between these two batik centers, I felt that Natural Batik Village is more authentic. However, NACC does seem more popular as a tourist attraction (Kuala Terengganu is a huge tourist destination).

Conclusion

Both Natural Batik Village and NACC Batik Pavilion are recommended places to visit for batik lovers. But if I really have to choose one, I'd go to Natural Batik Village because it felt more dedicated to the batik art, unlike NACC Batik Pavilion which offers more than just batik.