Tag Archive for 'langkawi'

Langkawi Day 2 (Part 1) – Sunny’ish adventure

Published on September 13, 2009 in This I like and Usual Ramblings. 4 Comments Tags: langkawi.

After a rainy and somewhat enjoyable misadventure during our first day at Langkawi, Lyn (my boo) and I woke up to sunny clear blue skies and a really lush greenery outside our room. The start of day two seemed to have given us hope for outdoor activities, something we were looking forward to…all of yesterday..

Left: Right: Blue skies taken from my fogged up camera lens | Right: Our rooms…not flooded

Left and right: Green green green everywhere

Before embarking on our adventure, we popped over to our resort’s cafe for breakfast. As the folks from TripAdvisor have earlier warned, breakfast is not so fantastic there, so we braced ourselves. They were right though, the only buffet style food options offered were bread, jam, cereal and not so cold milk. However, you can order as many eggs as you want, but we stuck to just two. Substandard breakfast aside, what took our breathe away was the proximity of the cafe to the beach – right beside. It was pretty nice.

Left: Our cafe | Right: The eggs and sausages

Left: My must-haves for breakfast overseas – coco puffs and coffee | Right: Bread..loads of bread

The beach..nice..

Getting a tad bit adventurous, Lyn suggested we rent a car so we could make our way to Kuah where a fish-for-your-own-lunch await. Initially skeptical about car rentals here and the fact that we are not exactly a couple who can find their way around, I wasn’t too keen on it. But after making some calculations on how much we could have saved and adding another milestone to our adventure abroad (I have never driven anywhere else apart from Singapore before), we rented a nice blue slightly rusty manual Proton Saavy for about RM80 looking forward to driving on dry roads. Oh, by the way did I mention that the speedometer does not work?

Left: The car… | Right: …the clear dry road…

…and the busted up speedometer

With a half tank of gas (we had to fill that up) and a not so detailed map on our hands, we headed to the Langkawi Fish Farm at Kuah in anticipation of catching ourselves some lunch (pun intended). After some travel hiccups, we arrived at the farm only to find out that we have to take a really long walk up to a kelong to catch ourselves a fish and then back to the restaurant where they will weigh and cook our lunch. The walk was so long that it went from sunny, to rainy (we had to pull our ponchos and umbrellas out) and back to sunny again. Really…true story.

For a person who has never fished before in his life (except for prawning), I must admit that fishing there was a breeze. Nevermind that I was doing it in a controlled environment where fishes are trapped and waiting to be hooked, the bait was huge and compelling (even to me), and that I was assisted all the way. The fact that I managed to pick one in four tries shows how easy it is. With that, the staff there placed our snapper (yes, we caught a snapper) in a bucket and I swaggered my way back to the restaurant.

Left: The restaurant front | Right: That long walk

Left: The kelong | Right: The bait

Left: A closer look at the bait | Right: My attempt at catching lunch

Left: Our lunch |Right: After swaggering I started walking back

Upon reaching the restaurant, the wait staff weighed our snapper and began grilling them. We ordered a nice plate of sambal kang kong for greens. Not exactly a healthy option but hey..we are on a vacation. Food is really good though, not because that were really really hungry but perhaps that we caught it..

Left: 950 grams | Right: Other selection

Left: Our snapper | Right: Sambal Kang Kong

With half a day gone, we departed Langkawi Fish Farm looking forward to what the Jewel of Kedah have for us. Part 2 coming up soon…

Langkawi Day 1 (Part 2) – Making the best out of an opened floodgate

Published on September 9, 2009 in This I like and Usual Ramblings. 0 Comments Tags: flood, food, langkawi, massage.

Being the ever so positive couple we are, Lyn (my boo) and I decided to make the most out of our not-so-dry Langkawi Day 1 episode. Given that the outdoors is not exactly an option and that our room is about to be flooded, we figured that indoor activity should be the order of the day. Going through a list of our favourite indoor activities, we narrowed down to two things we both enjoy – food and massage. With that, we headed to the nearby Sun Cafe at Sun Mall to stay dry (pun intended) and to grab some chow.

Left: The little Sun Mall | Right: The dry Sun Cafe

We both started off with non-alcoholic (let’s save that for the night) beverages followed by a main of chicken rendang for her and chicken lasagna for me. To further help ease our hunger pangs, we shared a nice big plate of supreme pizza. Food in Langkawi during our entire trip in our opinion is generally decent and at times leaving us wanting more. That sure does say a lot for dining there since we are somewhat critical about food, well, mostly Lyn…

Left: Fruit juice for me | Right: Coke for her

Left: Chicken lasagna | Right: Chicken Nasi Rendang

Left: Pizza!! | Right: Heavy’ish rain

After a really fulfilling lunch, we made our wet journey back to the resort to check out the scene before deciding on our next activity. As we have earlier feared, the rain continued to pour not flooding the resort front but our rooms as well. Thankfully, we weren’t that badly affected as it was just a puddle inside compared to the outside. And yes we were farsighted enough to have earlier placed our belongings on higher ground. Of course we were much more fortunate than the other guests with their rooms completely flooded at shin level.

Left: Still flooded | Right: A scary sight, water invading our room

Left: In the bed room | Right: A little worse in the bathroom

Not wanting to stay in our rooms, we immediately booked an appointment at one of Langkawi’s best (meaning expensive) massage, Nithi Ayurvedic Massage. According to their website, “Ayurveda is the oldest system of Medicine in the world and traces its root to ancient India (1500 B.C). It is an age-old healing system that uses diet, exercise, herbs and body therapies to help meet life’s demands and embrace life’s opportunities. Located in Langkawi, Nithi Ayurvedic Massage offers both relaxing and healing Ayurvedic treatments. We practice healing through ritual and music, aromatic essential oils, herbs and teas – all part that makes your stay a truly authentic Ayurvedic experience.”

Touted by many as one of their best massage experiences by a great number of tourists and locals (I think) at TripAdvisor, we figured that it would be a shame if we didn’t at least give it a go. The photos don’t really do justice to the spa, but here is just a little glimpse.

Left: Our beds | Right: They used a lot of very warm (not hot) oil

Left: I think these are spares | Right: The bathroom, really nice and rustic

Leaving the spa just before sun set, we headed to our initial first choice for accommodation (but was fully booked), Beach Garden Resort for dinner. Also have earlier read of their wonderful yet simple dining options, we ordered up a set of grilled seafood platter and Antipasto for our main and banana pancakes for dessert. Needless to say, beer was our beverage that night. Service was amazing although there are just two staff waiting on about a good six or so tables indoors, they were receptive, friendly and quick.

Left: Beer, can’t go without beer | Right: Seafood platter..it was really good

Left: Antipasto | Right: Banana pancake with ice cream

After dinner, the restaurant continued their pampering by arranging a car to send us back to our resort. The water has receded and the rain stopped when we arrived. Making our way back to our slightly damped room, we crossed our fingers for a sunny day tomorrow. Day two coming right up…

Slightly dry

Langkawi Day 1 (Part 1) – Someone forgot to turn off the tap

Published on September 5, 2009 in Things that suck, This I like and Usual Ramblings. 0 Comments Tags: flood, langkawi, rain.

So now we got the teaser out of the way, here’s the truth. Yes it was raining most of the time during our Langkawi stay and never mind that we spent most of our time mucking around indoors, the bottom line is – we had a great deal of fun and will return again… . Given that I have taken quite a number of photos for day one which is enough to tell the story (or at least the first part) and that I’m just too lazy to craft a long entry, let’s just leave it to pics and captions for this entry shall we?

Left: Yes I must brag, the person who previously sat in my seat must be pudgy… | Right: Lunch on Air Asia for us was chicken focaccia. Not ideal while reading about porterhouse steaks…tsk

Left: It began raining when we arrived… | Right: …and everyone disembarked with umbrellas.

Left: The rain continued as we headed to our resort. | Right: Flooded roads, not exactly a good sign

Left and Right: Our experience didn’t get any better when we discovered that the entire resort was flooded…

Left:…only to find out that it can get worse with the waters threatening to invade our room. | Right: But we managed to find some humour amid the depressing start.