I love this time of the year. Office is almost deserted. Even those still at work are planning their getaway trips. It seemed a good idea to get away myself - from office, from visitors flocking KL, from the rain - and it didn't take long for me to decide on Langkawi. Never mind the emails circulating warning of a possible tsunami which may shift northwards occuring sometime within these two months. Heck, you can die anytime, anywhere, anyhow, anyway these days.
Alhamdulillah, a hotel booking was accepted - I made bookings to 3 hotels, just in case seeing our proposed stay was over the Christmas weekend - followed by plane bookings immediately after. The northern states of Peninsular were experiencing flood and besides, we were not too keen on driving all the way to Kuala Kedah. Our journey started on the evening of 23 December 2005.
Arrived at Langkawi International Airport just before 9 pm. The first thing I noticed was the wind. Anyway, we didn't stay out too long and quickly made our way into the building to collect our luggage. We took a while deciding on the car to rent [and who to rent from] before settling on a Wira. Armed with a map and some vague directions, we set off to the Oriental Village where the Oriental Inn is. Abah was panicking as the fuel indicator was near Empty and I had to reassure him it was fine just as long as it hadn't turned red [which it did some km later]. We stopped to ask for directions at least twice and finally, after continuously assuring Abah we were on the right direction, we found a big Petronas station. After that, it was only 2 km to the Oriental Village and by then, he'd trusted my navigation. Hey, give me some credit: I am the navigator for all the treasure hunts I've been on! And girls can read maps! Check-in process was a breeze and before
long, we had settled ourselves in the hotel room.
The Oriental Village is a charming, self-contained tourist attraction with its own speciality stores and food outlets. A bit like Colmar Tropicale resort in Pahang. It is sited against the backdrop of Gunung Mat Chinchang around a beautiful lake - which is fed by a
stream that I suspect is a tributary of the river that forms from the waterfalls of Telaga Tujuh or the Seven Wells. The cable car station is just behind our room. Our room also overlooked a rabbits-and-fawn mini enclosure. After breakfast the next day, we drove to Kuah taking the 
Teluk Yu and Air Hangat roads, stopping en route at Pantai Ewa to admire the scenery. Now Kuah is the main town on the island and it offers serious shopping especially for crockery, chocolates [to name a few] at bargain prices. After lunch, we drove to the Langkawi Craft Complex before returning to the hotel to rest.
On the second day [Christmas Day], we drove to nearby Telaga Tujuh. A strenous lone hike up [Mummy & Abah stayed at the stalls; they wouldn't have been able to hike up the steep hill] and I was rewarded by a breathtaking view of the waterfall. Simply spectacular! A good thing it did not rain the day before or the tracks would be wet and slippery. Unlike the day before, there were some clouds overhead but not those that warn of imminent rain. We then took the same route to Kuah but detoured first to Datai, where we sighted the Temurun Waterfall and admired the man-made Langkawi Falls near Pantai Pebble. Pantai Pasir Tengkorak which is a few km away looked inviting but we decided to drive on to Tanjung Rhu. The Tanjung Rhu Beach was similarly lovely and the sand was so white, it almost hurt to look down. After a light meal, we drove on to Dataran Lang [Eagle Square] before heading to Kuah. Then we took a different route, i.e. Padang Matsirat/Nyiur Cabang/Teluk Burau roads back to Pantai Kok/Tanjung Burau where the Oriental Village is, stopping at some stalls near Mutiara Burau Beach Resort for a late lunch.
That evening, I decided to take the cable car up Gunung Mat Chinchang. Abah & Mummy didn't want to go so I went alone. Crazy? Yes, I must be! It was like a Fear Factor episode for me. As I was alone in the gondola, it was less stable than if it had been occupied by more passengers and this obviously made it more sensitive to the wind. I was texting a mate and my hands were perspiring in the process! After an agonising couple of minutes or so which seemed like hours to me, the gondola came to the first station. I got off here and after giving some time to calm my shaking legs and frayed nerves, went to the Hanging Bridge to view the neighbouring mountains and distant seascapes. The winds were even stronger here and I had to summon my courage to walk along the platform - see, the Hanging Bridge didn't look like it was well supported somehow! I swear that I could almost feel the platform sway at least twice. I gingerly made my way back to the station and rode off again in another gondola to the other station. There are two platforms here offering a 360-degree view of the Andaman Sea, Langkawi Island itself and the surrounding islands. After my ascend up, I thought it'd be wiser to descend at dusk so I decided to wait and catch the sunset from the top. At 7, suddenly there were fogs around me and that dashed any hopes of a sunset view. Anyway, I thought it was a good time as any to start making my way down. Only then did I have a bird's eye view of Telaga Tujuh. Magnificent!
On the third day, we drove back to, yes you guess it, Kuah again for some last minute shopping. Had lunch there before driving back. That evening, I walked to the beach at nearby Berjaya Langkawi Beach Resort.
All too soon, the last day of our stay arrived. Checked out at almost 12 noon. Stopped by at Pantai Kok for a while before driving to Beras Terbakar near Padang Matsirat. We didn't fancy waiting too long at the airport but that turned out to be the case as our flight from KL was delayed due to bad weather in Sepang. The flight finally took off after 7 pm, almost an hour later than scheduled. Reached KLIA at 8, collected luggage and took a cab home. Fortunately or unfortunately, we got a driver who drove very fast, he was definitely a certifiable lunatic ex-KL mini busdriver on parole, but hey he got us home safely before 9.30 pm without crashing into any oncoming vehicles.
Hope you had a good end-of-year break too!
Alhamdulillah, a hotel booking was accepted - I made bookings to 3 hotels, just in case seeing our proposed stay was over the Christmas weekend - followed by plane bookings immediately after. The northern states of Peninsular were experiencing flood and besides, we were not too keen on driving all the way to Kuala Kedah. Our journey started on the evening of 23 December 2005.
Arrived at Langkawi International Airport just before 9 pm. The first thing I noticed was the wind. Anyway, we didn't stay out too long and quickly made our way into the building to collect our luggage. We took a while deciding on the car to rent [and who to rent from] before settling on a Wira. Armed with a map and some vague directions, we set off to the Oriental Village where the Oriental Inn is. Abah was panicking as the fuel indicator was near Empty and I had to reassure him it was fine just as long as it hadn't turned red [which it did some km later]. We stopped to ask for directions at least twice and finally, after continuously assuring Abah we were on the right direction, we found a big Petronas station. After that, it was only 2 km to the Oriental Village and by then, he'd trusted my navigation. Hey, give me some credit: I am the navigator for all the treasure hunts I've been on! And girls can read maps! Check-in process was a breeze and before
long, we had settled ourselves in the hotel room.The Oriental Village is a charming, self-contained tourist attraction with its own speciality stores and food outlets. A bit like Colmar Tropicale resort in Pahang. It is sited against the backdrop of Gunung Mat Chinchang around a beautiful lake - which is fed by a
stream that I suspect is a tributary of the river that forms from the waterfalls of Telaga Tujuh or the Seven Wells. The cable car station is just behind our room. Our room also overlooked a rabbits-and-fawn mini enclosure. After breakfast the next day, we drove to Kuah taking the 
Teluk Yu and Air Hangat roads, stopping en route at Pantai Ewa to admire the scenery. Now Kuah is the main town on the island and it offers serious shopping especially for crockery, chocolates [to name a few] at bargain prices. After lunch, we drove to the Langkawi Craft Complex before returning to the hotel to rest.On the second day [Christmas Day], we drove to nearby Telaga Tujuh. A strenous lone hike up [Mummy & Abah stayed at the stalls; they wouldn't have been able to hike up the steep hill] and I was rewarded by a breathtaking view of the waterfall. Simply spectacular! A good thing it did not rain the day before or the tracks would be wet and slippery. Unlike the day before, there were some clouds overhead but not those that warn of imminent rain. We then took the same route to Kuah but detoured first to Datai, where we sighted the Temurun Waterfall and admired the man-made Langkawi Falls near Pantai Pebble. Pantai Pasir Tengkorak which is a few km away looked inviting but we decided to drive on to Tanjung Rhu. The Tanjung Rhu Beach was similarly lovely and the sand was so white, it almost hurt to look down. After a light meal, we drove on to Dataran Lang [Eagle Square] before heading to Kuah. Then we took a different route, i.e. Padang Matsirat/Nyiur Cabang/Teluk Burau roads back to Pantai Kok/Tanjung Burau where the Oriental Village is, stopping at some stalls near Mutiara Burau Beach Resort for a late lunch.
That evening, I decided to take the cable car up Gunung Mat Chinchang. Abah & Mummy didn't want to go so I went alone. Crazy? Yes, I must be! It was like a Fear Factor episode for me. As I was alone in the gondola, it was less stable than if it had been occupied by more passengers and this obviously made it more sensitive to the wind. I was texting a mate and my hands were perspiring in the process! After an agonising couple of minutes or so which seemed like hours to me, the gondola came to the first station. I got off here and after giving some time to calm my shaking legs and frayed nerves, went to the Hanging Bridge to view the neighbouring mountains and distant seascapes. The winds were even stronger here and I had to summon my courage to walk along the platform - see, the Hanging Bridge didn't look like it was well supported somehow! I swear that I could almost feel the platform sway at least twice. I gingerly made my way back to the station and rode off again in another gondola to the other station. There are two platforms here offering a 360-degree view of the Andaman Sea, Langkawi Island itself and the surrounding islands. After my ascend up, I thought it'd be wiser to descend at dusk so I decided to wait and catch the sunset from the top. At 7, suddenly there were fogs around me and that dashed any hopes of a sunset view. Anyway, I thought it was a good time as any to start making my way down. Only then did I have a bird's eye view of Telaga Tujuh. Magnificent!
On the third day, we drove back to, yes you guess it, Kuah again for some last minute shopping. Had lunch there before driving back. That evening, I walked to the beach at nearby Berjaya Langkawi Beach Resort.
All too soon, the last day of our stay arrived. Checked out at almost 12 noon. Stopped by at Pantai Kok for a while before driving to Beras Terbakar near Padang Matsirat. We didn't fancy waiting too long at the airport but that turned out to be the case as our flight from KL was delayed due to bad weather in Sepang. The flight finally took off after 7 pm, almost an hour later than scheduled. Reached KLIA at 8, collected luggage and took a cab home. Fortunately or unfortunately, we got a driver who drove very fast, he was definitely a certifiable lunatic ex-KL mini busdriver on parole, but hey he got us home safely before 9.30 pm without crashing into any oncoming vehicles.
Hope you had a good end-of-year break too!
