When I bought the ticket to Langkawi, I had a choice of 2
morning flights. 7am and 10am. I wanted to make the most of our time in
Langkawi since we were only going to spend one night there, so I thought of
getting the 7am flight. But after
talking it over (like what time Jane needed to take us to the ERL station to
catch the train to catch our flight – 4.30am??? OMG!), I decided 10am is a
better option. I realized I am too old
for this kind of ungodly morning flights.
So we had a leisure wake up time and left the house at 7.30. Caught the 7.50am train and got to the
airport early (which is excellent; because I am a freak like that). It was my first time to KLIA2 and was
certainly impressed and ecstatic that they have Auntie Anne’s! So we grabbed a few of that and went in to
our gate. Then started our morning
exercise. Gate J1 to K4 to J1 and back
to K4 again! And the gates were so far
apart! Thank God Noel and I decided to
travel light! Obviously our flight was
delayed but not that far off. Managed to be seated together this time despite
using AirAsia. Hurray! Landed Langkawi at 11.30am.
I booked a car 2 weeks before the trip, and it was difficult
enough to get the confirmation of the car from the guy. Note:
NEVER contact Mr. Ng of 012-4078229.
Useless. After repeatedly calling
/ whatapps-ing him, he said his colleague will call me back, which they never
did and when I arrived, obviously he said there’s no car available.
Thankfully, there were car rental counters at the airport
and I got one at the arrival gate and they also have tickets for the places we
wanted to go with discounted prices.
Maybe a blessing in disguise that Mr. Ng had been so hopeless. We followed the guy out to pick up our Viva
and asked him where locals would go for lunch and he introduced a place with
ikan bakar just outside the airport road.
Initially, Noel and I said we were not hungry (and because
his mommy was busy trying to weather read, it’s
gonna rain soon, we should go catch the cable car ASAP) but when we drove
out to pump petrol, I thought que sara,
sara, we should go makan first and let Noel try ikan bakar Melaya
style. So we dropped by the ikan bakar
place and I was really glad that I decided so.
Not only was it yummy, it meant that we will be full and be able to enjoy
the next item in the list.
So… onwards to the main reason we came to Langkawi. Cable car.
When our initial plan was “messed up”, we were left with 4 days in KL
and had to fill in the time. I asked
Noel what he wanted to do and he asked if we can ride cable car – which meant,
either Genting or Langkawi. When I
presented Noel with the Genting idea, I told him there’s nothing much to do
there, except for the theme park; then he said it would be boring without his
cousin. So, I told him about Langkawi –
cable car, beach, chocolate, booze (oppsss… that’s for me! Hehe) and he quickly
bought the idea.
When Noel was 1, we went to Langkawi with my parents and I
wanted to ride the newly opened SkyCab.
But my ever cautious (read: negative) mom said it’s too dangerous. So, I didn’t pursue it. But this time, there’s no stopping me. We entered the Geopark, which is a rather
surprisingly happening place and went straight to SkyRex (a 6D dinasour ride – this was good –
I wonder how they make this work), SkyDome (a spherical dome with Mars-like stimulators
– nothing much) and finally onwards to SkyCab.
It was such an amazing ride – the silence that fills the air as you are
being transported up and hanging on the line, with the perfect view. Mesmerizing.
We shared our cabin with an Australian couple and it was a nice
ride. Got to the viewing station and
decided not to linger and went straight to the second station. I was worried about the rain (yes, I am after
all my mother’s daughter!). When we got
to the 2nd station, then only I realized that to get to the
SkyBridge, we needed to either walk or pay to use the SkyGlide. If I was not so pressed for time, I might
have opted to walk, but even then, the wait for the SkyGlide was quite long as
well. When we were inside the SkyGlide,
I asked the lady what will happen if it rains (there was heavy dark clouds at
that time), she said sometimes, the clouds are only of a while, the wind will
blow it away and then it will come back – depends on the wind.
Finally we reached the SkyBridge!!! We were amazed at the
technology that kept the bridge suspended.
It was misty when we arrived and we couldn’t help but to feel a sense of
magic as we walked on the bridge. God’s
favor once again humbled us, as we walked on, the mist cleared and we were able
to see deep down to the jungles of MatChinChang’s Mountain as well as out to
the Andaman Sea. It was perfect. After about 10 minutes, the mist came back
but we still hung around for a bit before catching the SkyGlide back to the
station and back down to the foot of the hill.
Can’t linger too long – still so many things to do! Move, move, move!
Next on, 3D Art Museum.
There’s one of these in Penang as well, which was our next
destination. But Penang had so many
other type of “Museum” that I thought we should cover 3D art here in
Langkawi. From the first display, it was
so fun posing with the many creative artwork.
There were many “halls” with different themes. Fun, but exhausting, mind you, we spent about
an hour in this Museum. There was an
Arab lady, who was there alone with her little baby and Noel and I spend a lot
of our time helping them take photos as well.
Her husband and her son went up to the SkyBridge and she was left there
with the baby. Not an easy place to go
without a camera-clicking partner.
By the time we got out of the Museum, we were
exhausted. There are many attractions in
the Geopark – so if you have some time, it would be nice to linger. Noel wanted to try the F1 Stimulator, so he
did. RM10 for 10 minutes. Worth it, good fun for guys (and for mommies
to watch :D)
Back to our history lesson!
What’s a trip to Langkawi without visiting the legends? Onwards to Makam Mahsuri. The last time I visited with my friends in
year 1999, it was just a house and a gravesite – creepy because we visited at
about dusk. But now, it’s turned into a
“village” – with cultural music performances as well. Learnt about Mahsuri and walked around – to
the gravesite, the house etc. Again, I
felt creepy and didn’t want to stay there long!
So we head out and I stopped by to buy some Gamat Oil by the roadside.
When I was doing the research before the trip, I chanced
upon a blog that wrote about Yellow Café in Pantai Cenang area. It looked like a great place to catch the
sunset (with good food too) so I wanted to see if we could catch the sunset
there as well. Thank God for technology,
for Waze, for GoogleMaps, for the Internet… We found the place, Noel seems to
like Pantai Cenang a lot – he said next trip we can just stay this area, and we
found Yellow Café! Truly an awesome
place to catch the sunset – though there were no sunset when we were
there. It was a cloudy evening, but we
enjoyed the relaxed early dinner by the beach.
There were people playing beach volley, jet skiing, parasailing,
banana-boating, taking a dip in the sea or even just walking on the beach. Families, couples, singles – everyone seems
to be enjoying a relaxing time.
Noel had wanted to buy a watch in KL, but his Aunty Jane
told him she got her watch (original) for about RM60 or something ridiculous
like that in Langkawi. So he was anxious
to go to shopping malls to hunt for his watch.
As night fell and no sunset was coming through, we left the café to go
to the mall. Went to see watch, nah, too
expensive. Told him we will look around
in town.
So, finally, we headed to Kuah Town, where our accommodation
was. We decided to go shopping for
chocolate and booze before retiring for the night so we went hunting around
Kuah. Got our year-supply of chocolate
and my night-supply of booze [because we were only staying for one night and
because I was a scarycat, I couldn’t bring back any alcohol (apparently the
website says you need to stay at least 48 hours to be able to bring out
alcohol)]. I was tempted to get a
luggage bag (because luggage bag is so cheap there as well) to fill up with
chocolate but decided again it (because it would mean I will be spending more
on chocolates!).
Then… the must visit landmark… the Eagle… Dataran Lang here
we come. Though it would be nice to see
the Eagle during the day, I cannot imagine standing there under the scorching
hot sun. It was sufficient that Noel can
take photos with the Eagle and it was rather pretty at night too. Too bad can’t see the buzzing jetty in action
– but perhaps tomorrow we will be able to drive by?
Time to call it a day
kiddo! Wait – noooo… the malls were
still open! Well, barely, because it was
already around 10 by then. But Noel
still wanted to go watch-hunting, so hunt we did. Can’t get what we wanted, and exhausted by
then, we finally went to the “hotel”.
Stayed in Havana Hotel – hmmmm… a very VERY dodgy place. It’s cheap, the guy I booked with was very
friendly, but I think because it was already late, and business ain’t that
great, the “receptionist” was not so informed and he had to call his colleague
to find out about our bookings. They
(receptionist + another 2 friends) were watching hindi movie with very high
volume. He (receptionist) had overnight
breath even if it’s only 11pm – yucks. The
room that we were placed in looked “used” (there was toothpaste / brush and
other suspicious items) and not well taken care of. In the middle of shower Noel came running out
because there was cockroach. The towels
were… not clean. I didn’t want to make
too much noise and demand another room because there was just the 2 of us,
didn’t was to create a scene. No, do not
ever stay here.
But, as Noel said, at least
the shower was hot and the aircond was cold.
We prayed and latched the door as best we could and slept through the
night. End of Day 2.
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