Day +826 : Holiday in Langkawi (9)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday...

Langkawi Holiday Day 3 (1 October 2008)

The main activity for today is Island Hopping Tour. The three hours tour covered three islands - Tasik Dayang Bunting, Pulau Singa, and Pulau Beras Basah by using a small boat. The tour cost RM45 per person including hotel transfer.

Initially we planned to take the earliest tour in the morning so that we could have other activities in the afternoon, but due to the fact that today is the first day of Hari Raya Aidilfitri, no tour agent provides morning tour. So we have to take the 2:30pm tour.

After a quite heavy buffet breakfast, while waiting for the afternoon Island Hopping Tour, my wife and I went for a lengthy morning walk. We walked from Awana Porto Malai northward, heading Cenang Beach. We first visited the jetty for island hopping that is situated about 200 meters from Awana. Along the way, we also visited a number of beaches. The weather was still not that good and we could hardly see the sun.

We rented a motorbike at a shop somewhere near Langkawi Underwater World which is situated about 1km away from Awana. After some bargaining, the shop owner agreed to a price of RM20 per day.

With the motorbike, we managed to travel further up to Cenang Beach, which is one of the famous beaches on Langkawi. The beach in the morning was very quiet and we didn’t see many tourists there.

Awana Porto Malai - It has good view but lack of beach Another view
The swimming pool
The jetty for Island Hopping Tour We met baffaloes again
Lanai Beach - not far away from Awana
Pirate ship? A Chinese restaurantCar/Van rental rate - the shop owner told me that his fee is fixed regardless the season. So we would be able to get a Perodua Kancil for RM50 per day even during the peak season.
The motorbike that we rented
Langkawi Underwater World
Cenang Beach
Another view of Cenang Beach
The hotel, Casa del Mar, situated at Cenang Beach
The beer is so cheap. RM1.60 per can, the price of soft drink. "People will laugh at us if we don't drink here," I told my wife. So I bought two cans, but neither of us managed to finish drinking it :-( Still, the soft drink tastes better :-)
To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +825 : Holiday in Langkawi (8)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday...

The facilities on the island are very basic. No canteen is available on the island. We were supplied with a simple packed lunch consisting of a piece of fried chicken, two chicken nuggets, one chicken sausage, an apple and a small bottle of mineral water. The quality of the food was quite poor, so if you can’t take those fried food, you'd better pack your own lunch box.

On the returning journey to Langkawi, I told my wife that perhaps we should pray for big waves :-) Why? Because we spent quite a lot for the trip and it turned out that the trip was a little bit below our expectation. A big wave will create a joyride that should provide some kind of compensation for the money that we spent :-)

“Don’t look for trouble! If God listen to your prayer later, don’t scare to death,” my wife responded.

We reached the hotel at about 6:30pm, and we had instant noodle for dinner. Very delicious!

I watched the movie Iron Man before going to sleep.

Langkawi Coral Platform Another view
The lunch
Eagle statue at the Eagle Square near the jettyTo be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +824 : Holiday in Langkawi (7)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday...

We were given four hours to stay on the island. The activities that one could have on the island are diving, snorkeling, swimming, fish and shark feeding, fish watching and sightseeing. Neither my wife nor I were prepared to swim or snorkel, so the four hours given was really a long time to us. Most of the time we were staying in the gazebos as it was raining all the time.

We managed to see many fishes roaming the beach, feeding on the breads given by tourist. The most interesting event was shark feeding where we saw a few sharks came to feed on the small fishes that were given by the park staff.

The small stretch of beach at the park
A view at the park
Another view
Another view
Another one
Another stretch of beach - directly opposite the Langkawi Coral platform
The path lead to the above beach
Crabs

Plant and fruit
The fishes
The shark
Quite a big one but poses no danger to swimmers
To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +823 : Holiday in Langkawi (6)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday...

Langkawi Holiday Day 2 (Tuesday, 30 September 2008)

We went to Pulau Payar Marine Park the second day of the trip. The standard price for a day tour to the park costs RM200, but we managed to purchase the ticket at a price of RM120 only. This is because we know the one who operate the tour :-)

We waited at the hotel lobby as early as 7:55am in the morning, but the bus that fetched us to the jetty came at 8:15am only. Apart from picking up my wife and I and another couple from Awana, the bus also picked up quite a few other tourists from various hotels along the way.

We reached the jetty at 9:00am but due to bad weather, the 400-seater express boat started the journey at 10:00am only, and it took about 1 hour 15 minutes to reach Pulau Payar from Langkawi.

A view from the jetty
The express boat
Internal view
The seats - a lot more spacious and comfortable than AirAsia :-)
Canteen in the boat
A photo on the deck
My turn

Towing a small boat along - used to ship divers around the marine park
The lifeboats
It says that this lifeboat could accomodate 65 people when it opens up
It was fun to look at the water dynamic from the deck

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +822 : Holiday in Langkawi (5)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday...

After visiting Tanjong Rhu beach, we headed south to Kuah Town again. We had an expensive but delicious sea food dinner there at a Restaurant called Rootian (露天). A 600g steam fish, a stewed pork knuckle and a very small dish of kangkong cost us RM112.

Beware of cattles - we met this herd of cattles on the way to Kuah town from Tanjong Rhu Beach
Rootian (露天) restaurant that we had our dinner - next block to Wawasan Baru
The tea. It cured my sore throat :-)
The steamed fish - RM120 per kg
The stewed pork knuckle - RM24 per dish
Fried Kangkong - so few :-(
We were back to hotel at about 9:00pm and concluded the first day of the trip.

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +821 : Holiday in Langkawi (4)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday...

Despite meeting some obstacles – the fallen trees – on the way, our journey to Tanjong Rhu beach was quite smooth.

The Perdana Stables along the way to Tanjong Rhu Beach
We also stopped at this beach along the way When we reached Tanjong Rhu Beach, it was about 7:00pm and we saw a few people on the beach only. The sun set view through the beach is known to be the best, but due to bad weather, no “sun” for us :-( And without the sunlight, we can’t really see the beauty of beaches.

This photo proves that we were there :-) A view from the beach
Another view
Let me take a photo on this beach
However, the bad weather didn’t hamper our happy holiday mood. Being able to enjoy a “private holiday” with my beloved wife after an intensive Leukeamia treatment and bone marrow transplant, I really have no reason to be unhappy.

It is the togetherness that counts, not the weather. I told my wife that I have no reason to be disappointed or unhappy with the weather – the unavailability of sun, as I am in fact bringing along the “sun” with me. Guess who this sun is? My wife loh :-)

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +820 : Holiday in Langkawi (3)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday...

As Awana is located on the south-western tip of the island, we planned to round the island in a clockwise direction along the coastal road. The first thing that we planned was to ride the famous Langkawi cable car and walked on the Sky Bridge.

We set out on our journey at 3:00pm northward along the western coastal road, bypassing Cenang beach and reached the Oriental Village where the cable car station is located at 5:00pm only.

A barn of cattles - scenery along the way to Oriental Village
Onother one - Padi field
Take a photo on a bridge
My turn
View from the bridge - fishing village
The reason of the delay was that we experienced another storm along the way. The car that we rented was leaking and we had to take shelter at a petrol station for quite some times. When we picked up the journey again after the storm, we came across a few fallen trees on the road. Fortunately, no one was hit by the tree.

One of the fallen trees The cable car service was shut down due to stormy weather. My wife and I took some photos. There are quite a number of duty free shops available at Oriental Village. We did some shopping there as well before embarking on our journey to our next destination – Tanjong Rhu. Situated on the northern tip of the island, someone said that it is the best beach in Langkawi.

Oriental Village
A scenery of the village
To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +819 : Holiday in Langkawi (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday...

Luckily, I did some homework before and came to know that a shop called Wawasan Baru at No. 29, 30 & 31 Jalan Pandak Mayah offers the lowest prices. Haji Ismail Shops, a shop next to it, is also offering the cheapest prices.

Wawasan Baru Trading
A view of Kuah Town - the tall building in the photo is Bayview Hotel
After purchasing some chocolates from Wawasan Baru, we had lunch at a Chinese restaurant apposite it. A dish of economic rice cost RM4.5. Together with the tea and some stuffed bean curds (酿豆腐), we spent about RM20 for the lunch, which is considered a moderate price.

It started to rain after the lunch. So we decided to find our hotel – Awana Porto Malai, checked in and rested first before we further our adventure on the island. We managed to check in at about 12:30pm, and after that I enjoyed a very good afternoon nap. My wife told me that while I was sleeping, there was a crazy storm raging outside, which I didn’t notice at all.

To be continued and see you next post :-)