DEBORAH K.: STOP AND REWIND: LANGKAWI TRAVEL DIARY

"A wise traveller never despises his own country"

- Carlo Goldoni

LANGKAWI DIARY – Part I

- December 2011 -

This is my first island getaway with friends. I think the last time I went was when I was a kid. Lots of tourists love to come here to enjoy the sun. If you love to chill and relax by the beach, get tanned, then this is the perfect place for you!

One of the rules me and my friends always upkeep: Do your research on the places you want to go. Our main criterion is food, shopping, and places to visit. For this case, its food and booze. Here’s what I did in Langkawi in 2011. We flew down to Langkawi. There are 2 choices to travel to Langkawi: Ferry (boat) and Flight. Flight is faster (1/2 to 1 hour to reach) while Ferry is slower (4hours from Penang to Langkawi) but cheaper. You can view the ferry time schedule online (https://langkawi-ferry.com/home/schedule.aspx). Penang to Langkawi is more costly compared to driving to Kuala Kedah then take ferry from there to Langkawi. It all depends on who is going with you. For a group of 2-3 people, I suggest to take direct ferry to Langkawi. For a group of 4-5 people, you can take the Kuala Kedah route (You have to park your car near the jetty. RM10-20 a day). You also need to rent a car in Langkawi to move around. Bargain for the rental price!

One of my favourite places to eat in Langkawi is called Red Tomato Restaurant & Lounge. There is a chic and hippy vibe about that place which I love. Their food is good too! The only 2 dishes I’ll eat there is their all-day breakfast Farmer’s Choice (A hearty meal of potatoes, tomato, mushroom, egg & cheese, with your choice of beef bacon, turkey ham or just veg. Comes along with homemade bread or toast) and Eggs Benedict (poached egg with spinach topped with béarnaise sauce with your choice of salmon, beef bacon or tomato & fresh mushroom. Also comes along with homemade bread or toast). Their pasta and pizza is also not bad.

I went to Underwater World Langkawi @Cenang Beach. I could barely remember my first time there as a kid. So I tried for the second time. To be honest, there’s nothing much there (That’s why its cheap). If you want to compare Singapore’s Underwater World (What I saw through pictures. I haven’t actually visited the aquarium before). So if you asked me if I were to go back to Langkawi’s? I would definitely not.

Langkawi has a few tourist packages to choose from (Island hopping, Mangrove Tour, Marine Park, Sky Bridge etc.). For this trip, I chose Island hopping. This package will took us to: /1. Lake of the Pregnant Maiden - There is a strong belief among the locals that women would become fertile once they take a dip in the lake. They even have a hill shaped of a pregnant woman. /2. Eagle feeding - You don’t get to feed the eagles with your hands. The tour guide will throw food into the water where eagles will be flying down to the water to grab it. /3. Pulau Beras Basah - An island to relax with the option of water sports (You will have to pay to play).

LANGKAWI DIARY – Part II

- May 2012 -

Another year, yet another trip to Langkawi. Actually it was just a really short trip. The whole purpose was to award ourselves for our Birthday. Me, Becca, and Yen. Our birthdays all fall on the same month. Talking about coincidence! I will just be brief here as I already mentioned what Langkawi has to offer earlier in this post. A group of us went down. My korean boy was not able to join this trip. This time, our plan was to sit, chill, relax. And yes, I went back to Red Tomato Restaurant & Lounge! I ate the same thing. Hahaha. Just in love with it. Took the time to relaxed at the beach. Got some tan, drank chilled beer, built sand castles. This whole feeling was great! Just what I needed. Water sports were expensive. The only water sport we played was banana boat. For the fun of it, we requested the banana boat to be toppled over at the very end of the ride.

LANGKAWI DIARY – Part III

- March 2013 -

Okay, this is the last trip for Langkawi. Hahaha. I can sense that you are feeling irritated already. Like, Langkawi 3 years in row? Really?? Well, Me and Yi Fei wanted to go somewhere local for our 1^st year anniversary. So we chose Langkawi. We went there by flight. Again, we ate the same place Red Tomato Restaurant & Lounge. Well, the boyf has not tried it so I brought him there for brunch. The package we chose this time was Mangrove Tour. This package will take us to: /1. The Mangrove - to see the mangrove trees. /2. The Wild Life – where they will take you to see the old crocodile cave (no crocodiles. Heads up.) and monkey island. /3. Eagle Feeding – You don’t get to feed the eagle yourself. /4. The Bat Cave – No camera flash is allowed in the cave. /5. Fish Farm – A place where they breed fishes, stingray, sea urchin, etc. I got to touch the stingray and hold a sea urchin!! /6. Isolated beach – The tour takes us to an isolated beach. I can’t remember the name of this beach. But, the sea view was so serene and calm here it really is such an amazing atmosphere just to be here. The water is so clear and clean. You can take a swim, pick seashells, and sunbathe.

For cocktail date night, I went to Babylon Beach Bar. I love this place! The environment was great with their reggae acoustic live performances. Cocktails was cheap, of course, in a land of duty free alcohol. There is one bad news as of 2014: Babylon Beach Bar has CLOSED DOWN for good due to conflict among the partners, I heard. SO SADDDDDD :(

Anyhow, I’m glad I could enjoy this with my bae. I took him for his very first shisha. Hehe.

Our One Year Anniversary ♥

LANGKAWI DIARY – Part IV

- November 2013 -

OMG. I am so, so sorry. There is one more. I was just typing as I go and my memory just suddenly hit me that I have ONE MORE TRIP to Langkawi, which was with my cousins and a distant cousin. So please bear with me. This is my life journal after all. But I promise you, the places I went will be totally different. EXCEPT Red Tomato Restaurant & Lounge, of course. I needed to let my cousins try this place.

This trip was really free and easy. I didn’t spend much on this trip at all. We stayed in Cenang Beach and we just drove with a rented car for our own beach hopping. It saves costs compared to taking packages. So we went to Cenang Beach, Tanjong Rhu, Telaga Tujuh Waterfall (Seven Wells Waterfall), and the Sky Bridge. Honestly, I don’t know why they called it Seven Wells Waterfall. I just see waterfalls. Hahaha. It was my first time to the Sky Bridge. However, half of it was closed due to renovations. Sigh. So I just managed to ride the cable car and stand on the starting point of the bridge. Though I have to admit, the view from the top was breathtaking. And windy. My hair was flying all around my face (this makes me curious about strong hold hair gels. Hahaha omg.).

The Seven Wells Waterfall was my first time too. Bad luck. It was raining. So the adventurous Kang’s and a Shanks decided to purchase raincoats and hiked up to the waterfall. It was really hilarious. We look like Teletubbies and also Sleeping Beauty’s fairy godmothers.