Langkawi Day 4

14 Sep 2010 (Tues)

We only visited the snake santuary (admission @ RM15/A. Children below 6 FOC) this morning after we checked out of Citin Hotel. With nothing more to see, we went to the airport early as usual. Our flight took off right on scheduled.

Upon arrival into KLIA LCCT, we paid for the parking fees @ RM126 for 4 days. Then its off to Malacca to visit hb's fren's wife, who had js given birth about 2 months ago. We gave her one of the DOM wine that we bought. We ate dinner at their place since she had cooked "bak kut teh". I told hb: " your wish has been fulfilled. hiak hiak! "

We left around 8pm & arrived back home close to 11.30pm due to the delay at Singapore customs. You see, at the secondary clearance, the woman officer asked to open our luggage & saw the bottle of DOM we bought. She told us we have to declare that, so hb took the wine & his passport & went over to the waiting area. I waited in the car for more than half an hour.

If that woman nvr checked so in detailed, we wld hv been home long ago. Sheesh!

So this concludes our trip to Langkawi. Now, to save $$ for our next trip next year. :)

Some facts:

Air tickets to & fro LCCT KL: RM1116 (at time of booking)

Hotel for 3 nights: RM360 (at time of walk in booking)

Sightseeing in total: approx RM600

Meals in total: approx RM TBA. (need to gather all bills from hb before i can calculate the total)

Items purchased: approx RM300

Exchange rate based on 30 Aug 2010 @ approx 2.31. I changed about SGD500 initially, there- after another SGD200 at LGK airport.

Langkawi Day 3

13 Sep 2010 (Mon):

Today was our 2nd last day of this Langkawi tour. We begun our morning with a visit to the Wildlife Park which we happened to bypass yesterday. We were the 1st visitor for that day as the park opened at 8.30am. Soon, more & more tourists groups/individuals flocked into the park. Admission fees: RM22/A & RM15/C (3 yrs onwards). But we "declared" Rachel as below 3. Heh.

Inside the park, they have a variety of birds, small animals & fishes. What made the kids squealed was that they get to feed the animals by buying the food prepared for them. Carrots, cabbages & different kinds of seeds for differents birds. Hb bought them for RM6 in total.

So its walking, feeding, yelling for joy, jumping up & down, gettin excited, more walking, more feeding, more yelling & jumping.....

After about 2-3 hrs, we went on to the Mardi Agrotechnology Park aka fruit farm. Admission: RM15/A & RM8/C. There we got to ride on a tram, visited the different areas of the farm & got to eat 6 different kinds of fruits. Our guide gave us starfruits, papayas, pineapples, dragon fruits, pomelos & bananas. ( video below of the guide explaining to us abt the starfruit that they have grown)

Guide explained to us about starfruits & the way they were grown.

I jokingly told my hb that we do not need to have our lunch anymore, given all these fruits.

Rachel received a ring from a guide at the park. Its made of dried banana leaves but i had forgotten to ask the guide what it was. However, the fragile ring was torn apart after Lionel wore it on his finger & accidentally pulled it apart.

We went back to Kuah town & hb decided to have 'Bak Kut Teh" but alas, the store wasnt open. We came across another kopi tiam selling a variety of food so we decided to have our lunch there. Its just opposite the Coco Valley. For once, we had something cheaper. Hb had hokkien noodles while i shared wanton noodles with Rachel. Lionel wasnt feeling too good so he forego lunch.

We walked about Kuah town, browsing at the wines & chocolates they sold there. As Langkawi is a duty free shopper's paradise, i had my eyes fixed on certain choco products. Hb had his eyes fixed on a wine product which he saw while we were having lunch on the 1st day. Its comes with a dispenser, something like a water cooler where you can just pressed the gadget to get the liquid flowing out. We were thinking of buying the products later this evening after our shopping at Langkawi Fair cos most of the shops were closed last evening so we only got to browse ard & see very little.

Lionel at this time, reminded his father that he wanna take a photo with the cattles which we saw on the 1st day. So on the way to the fish farm restuarant, we passed by a herd of cattle, grazing the fields. As Rachel was asleep, i did not get down the car. Lionel & hb went down to take some shots. Within a few mins, Lionel came back with tears in his eyes. i asked him what happened but he didnt want to answer me. So i asked hb. It turned out that one of the cattles butted against Lionel, causing him to scream in fright. I wanted to laugh but stopped myself. So i asked Lionel if he's in pain, at the same time, trying to hold my laughter. He replied he's ok & then scolded me: " i got butted by the cow & yet u still can laugh. Hmmph!"

At this time, i cannot contained my laughter anymore...

We arrived at this fish farm. In fact, its a " cook what u catch" restaurant. They have a private kelong whereby u can fish for your food. Then u bring it to the restaurant, where they will prepare the way u like it. Per fish is RM8.50 per 100g. We had it the cantonese way. Hb caught the red snapper. Besides that, we also ordered soft shell crab, battered prawns & apple salad. I took 1 small bite of the salad & forego that plate the whole evening. ( video of the kelong provided)

Walking on the rickety bridge gave me the chitters. Its made of wooden planks & some of them threatened to give way. Hb told me to walked along where they nailed down the planks. Its safer.

Hb fishing..

A look around the kelong..

Then its off to Eagle Square where we took photos of the enormous eagle, a Langkawi icon by jetty point. I managed to catch a glimpse of the sun set as well. (See below video). We went towards Coco Valley & Langkawi Fair to purchase our sought after items. Hb bought in additional to his wine, another 2 bottles of benedict DOM @ RM72 per bottle. The wine costs RM45.

A sunset view around Eagle Square.

I got my chocolates like Hersleys, Ritter Sports, Andes, Swiss Lindt & more. Hb said we will check out first thing in the morning & go about seeing those less than popular places before proceeding to the airport. Our flight is at 13.25pm so check in is at 11.25am. So its back to the hotel for some packing.

Lights out!

Langkawi Day 2

12 Sep 2010 (Sun):

After a good night sleep, we woke up refreshed & rejuvenated. We got dressed & went down to have our breakfast. Nothing much; more of a simple fare like porridge, fried rice, mee goreng, bread, baked beans & potato wedges. Plus coffee/tea & orange juice.

The 1st destination of the day was suppose to be the Underwater World. Quoted: "If u have never been to the Underwater World, you have never been to Langkawi". Or just like: " If you have never been up the Great Wall, you have never been to China".

Well, thanks to the GPS, we got lost & make big circles 3 times ard the island. Due to some areas of Langkawi being remote areas, the GPS cannot received any signal & thus a breakdown. This breakdown caused us to continue driving onwards but in actual fact, we were suppose to turn at certain roundabouts or turnings.

We ended up at Kilim Mangrove Tour jetty instead since we saw a sign indicating Kilim Mangrove Geoforest Park. We parked the car & walked up to the ticket counter. For a 1 hour boat tour, it cost RM200 & for a 2 hours, it cost RM300 & so forth. Each boat can take up to 8 passengers.

We saw a couple enquiring abt the 2 hours boat ride & we thought of approaching them to see whtr they were interested to share so as to cut down the cost. Alas, their guide came up to them & took RM300 to pay to the ticketing staff. So we proceeded with our own tour & paid RM300 for our very own boat. Heh!

The 1st stop was the fish farm where the guide introduced to us all the various marine creatures they have & demostrated some feeding methods. ( see below video). We walked ard each pond & learned abt the type of marine creatures there. Hmm, i see people from Jordan, UAE, Pakistan, Yemen, etc..

Lionel feeding the fish, with bread wrapped ard his little finger.

Feeding the stingrays.

Fish "shooting" water to get the bread. Its one of their skills. You have to pay attention closely to the tiny droplets of water the fishes "shoot". The white piece of bread is sticking onto the vertical stilt

Next is the eagle feeding area. The boat took us to the middle of the river where we saw many eagles flying ard. The boatman brought out a bucket full of chicken pieces & threw up high in the air. Whoosh! The eagles came flying down one by one, glided across the waters & picked up the pieces one by one. (caught on video too).

We cruise ard the Andaman Sea as well, the wind blowing in our faces; perfect day to be at sea ( sounds familiar? quoted from "The Little Mermaid")

Last stop, the Kelawar Cave aka Bat Cave. We disembarked from the boat and walked up along the boardwalk into the dark caves. It was so dark and at certain points, you got to bend really low to walk across. The uncle behind me kindly shone his torch up at the caves, bright enough for me to take a shot of the bats.

If you looked at the black circle, against the orange light, you can actually see tiny black spots perched on the ceiling. Those were bats. We were not allowed to use flash lights.

2 hours flew past in a flash & its the end of the tour. We returned back to mainland at approx 12.15pm. We sat back in our car & browsed thru the map, trying to decide where to have our lunch. Our next destination would be the UnderWater World so we thought of having lunch near the area. Hb spotted a Lan Kwai Fong Restuarant, located just opp the UWW on the map, so we headed over.

Lunch at LKF was not all that fanstastic. We had 2 sets of fried rice & 1 set of lamb chop rice. It comes with veggies, soup, drinks & dessert of the day. Total paid: RM52.50. Do you think its worth the $$? If u said no, i agreed with you. And they cheated us of 2 plates of desserts. We ordered 3 sets of meal, so we shd get 3 plates of muffins but we only got 1 plate. :(

After lunch, we went over to UWW. Admission was at RM38/A & RM28/C for foreigners. Total waste of time & $$. The place was not like what i though it would be. Again one of the recommended place of interest in Langkawi. What turned out was that there were individual glass tanks housing different species, thats all!! At the end of it all, there was a bigger tank housing some bigger marine creatures together. The more interesting things to look at were the penguins. They consisted of the Rockhopper & the African penguins.

Next stop, the Oriental Village. Another dead town. There were practically no one around, set aside for some tourists here & there. Most people were gathered at the base of the cable car station, queueing up to buy tickets. Other than that, the whole village was empty. We brought some snacks from a small provision store & the storekeeper told us, lucky enough, we get to see half the stores opened, otherwise, most of the stores were always closed.

You can see from the above photo that there really isnt anyone about. Actually, i also dun know what's there to marvel about at this place, but since i came across a website indicating that this is a must-see place, i came for the sake of it. Haiz!

The kids had an enjoyable time at the animal garden, feeding the rabbits.

We decided against joining the queue for the cable car, so we went towards the Seven Wells Waterfall. In Malay, its called Telaga Tujuh Waterfalls. The waters slides from 1 pool into another, cascading 90m down into the seventh pool. We climbed up some 500 plus steps, only to arrive at the lowest pool. For the more adventurous, you can still go upwards. But for us, this was enough. The kids were eager to enter the pool & we saw some people already basking under the setting sun, wearing their swim suit & splashing about.

I did not pack the kids' swimsuits as this was a there & then decision, so what to do, they went in naked. Haha! After spending about 1.5 hrs up there, yes, we stayed that long, it was time to go downhill. What happened to me next was - i was in tremendous pain right from my ankles upwards to my knees. In other words, i was not able to walk or run cos i cld feel my muscles "pulling" and that was very painful. I had to hobble slowly & finally made my way down.

That night, i had hb gave me a massage, trying to ease the pain. We made our way for dinner back at Kuah Town. Again, we sourced thru my printouts & found a recommended place for dinner -Yong Leong Restuarant ( YL Restoran). We had buttered prawns, sauteed pork ribs, home-made tofu with specialty sauce & seafood soup. Total bill: RM71.80 including rice & drinks.

We shopped at Langkawi Fair Shopping Complex & had some fries/apple pie at MacDonalds for supper. Most of the shops were closed. I believed its either late or the people were still celebrating Hari Raya. Hb bought some DVDs again, like Alvin & The Chipmunks 2, G-Force, Karate Kid & a few others.

Thereafter, we returned back to the hotel. The kids were still wide awake, so we gave them a warm shower, pamper them with their milk, had some little games & soon, they fell fast asleep. :)

Tomorrow's itinerary:

Wildlife Park/Bird Paradise

Mardi Agrotechnology Park aka Fruit Farm

Langkawi Fish Farm Restaurant

Eagle Square

Langkawi Day 1

11 Sep 2010 (Sat):

We were up & about by 3am. We took our own sweet time so by the time we left the house, it was 4.10am. We cleared customs on both sides; traffic was a breeze & were soon on the NSH at 4.30am. Yes, its THAT fast. Heh!

Both kids were excited & happy & didnt want to sleep. We stopped at Ayer Keroh for a toilet break & arrived into Nilai at 07.50am. Boy! That was early. KLIA LCCT is located at Nilai area, which means we only drove for about slightly more than 3 hours. Since it a town area, the shops are not open for business yet. We ended up at Macdonalds for breakfast.

** i was thinking we might need at least 4-5 hrs of driving but we ended at arriving with more than enough time before our check in. Our flight is scheduled to depart at 1200pm which means we got to check in by 10am. **

We left Macdonalds at abt 8.40am, allowing the kids for some play at the indoor playground. We arrived at LCCT approx some 10 mins later, giving us so much free time to laze & wander ard.

KLIA LCCT...

We walked abt the grounds, took some photos & slept for a little while on the chairs inside the terminal. When it was abt 10.20am, we joined the queue for Air Asia flight to Langkawi via AK5324, SIN/LGK.

Hiccup 1: there was no prompt during our booking with Air Asia to indicate that their flights were 0kg baggage allowance. I assumed & pressumed that it comes with a 15kg allowance, hence i was shocked when we were asked to pay RM60. It cost RM30 for every 25kg weightage.

Air Asia flights were on time, at least for ours. The flight took off earlier than scheduled, arriving into Langkawi at 12.35pm, some 25mins earlier. Cool!

We collected our luggages & proceeded to the car rental counter to rent a car. We got a Toyota Vios for RM380 plus a refundable deposit of RM50 for 4 days usage. There were so many models to choose from that i left hb to do the decision. I know nothing abt cars.

The tank in the car was empty so hb told the staff since they gave him one with an empty tank, we would returned with an empty tank. They were okay with it.

It was late at 2pm & we were all hungry. The kids fell asleep while hb drove around, trying to navigate with the help of his GPS system. I flipped thru my printouts & wandered where to have our lunch. Finally, we decided to stop at this roadside restaurant style, May Yi Cafe. We ordered szechuan veggies soup, steamed fish, stir fried mixed veggies & shrimp. If you looked at the photo closely, you would noticed that all dishes comes with carrots & 3 out of 4 dishes includes tofu.

After lunch, we drove onwards to Bayview Hotel which i had pre booked via Air Asia. I thought to myself happily: "finally, we can get a good rest, especially the kids who looked tired." But luck decided to play a cruel trick on me.

Hiccup 2: More shocking news bestowed upon me when the staff told me they do not have my booking. They tried retrieving using my first name, last name & even checked thru all guests who were supposed to check in today but the system still did not display my booking. I told them i have booked thru Air Asia & can they kindly check with Air Asia on this. Their rude reply: " You have to call Air Asia yourself ".

Being Hari Raya which was a PH both in Singapore & Malaysia & also being a Sat, the airline office was closed. There was no way i could get hold of a staff to assist me. It was also useless to check my booking online as Air Asia only displayed the flight portion.

I was in a terrible mood for that few hours. Anyone who crossed my path was not spared, including my kids who happened to made me even mad with their endless yelling & running about. I was wrong; the kids were not tired at all. They had too much energy in them.

Hb was calm & felt that it was of no use argue-ing further with the staff. He sourced thru the website at Bayview's business centre to check what other available alternatives there were. All rates were either too high or there were no rooms available. We drove out of Kuah Town, into the resort areas like Pantai Cenang Beach area. We stopped at Langkawi Lagoon & checked on their rates. RM370 per rm night. God help me!

We bypass Sheraton Langkawi & the kids wanna have some fun in the water. So we walked along the coastal lines, enjoying some breeze & at the some time for the kids to run wild & got wet.

We drove back to Kuah Town & bypass a boutique hotel, Citin Hotel. The rates were about RM120 per night & more importantly, rooms were available. We register immediately & lugged our baggages up into our room on the 2nd floor. Being a small hotel, there was no lift available. And there was also no tea/coffee making facilities like a flask or hot water kettle. Instead, u have to call up the recep to ask for it. We were okay with this. So long the rooms are clean, air conditioned, with hot/cold water shower, we were easy on it.

It was already 6pm plus by the time we showered, changed & stepped out of the hotel. The recep even asked: " Going for dinner? Enjoy. Have a good meal ". I was completely at ease by that time & wasnt felling annoyed or irritated anymore. Perhaps it was the stress of not being able to or would not be able to find a hotel with affordable rates & available rooms that made me so frustrated. I learned my lesson. NEVER book with Air Asia EVER again!

We drove back to Pantai Cenang area cos we saw a whole row of sidewalk cafes & restuarants earlier in the afternoon. We came across a Thai Seafood Restaurant & decided to try that. However, the restuarant was so crowded & apparently there was a shortage of staff. We waited for quite a long time & still no one came to take our orders. We left & crossed the street to another restaurant, Casablanca Seafood Restuarant.

We had roasted duck in plum sauce (RM28), fishball soup (RM8), fish fillets fried with garlic & spring onion (RM28) & stir fry veggie with deer meat (RM25). Total bill: RM103.00 including drinks & rice. While eating, my ils called. And they took turns speaking to the kids. I guessed they must have missed them already. :)

After dinner, we went to walk ard the area. We hit our beds ard 10pm & all 4 of us slept like a baby thruout the night.

Itinerary for the next day:

Kilim Mangrove Tour

Underwater World

Oriental Village

Seven Wells Waterfall