Thursday, February 10, 2022

The Jewel Of Kedah

 I had optimistically bought a hotel stay and then air ticket to Langkawi back in 2020 and had to keep deferring my travel plan no thanks to the pandemic (with Omicron currently raging, I don’t think we can categorise it as endemic). After discussing with my friend, we decided to go there during Chinese New Year and we managed to change our flight tickets without any extra charge (thanks, MAS!). I then informed the travel agent but early last month, she informed that the hotel wanted to impose surcharge as it would be peak season. She had told me previously it’d likely be RM100/night so I was not at all happy when she informed that the hotel wanted to impose RM200/night. I told her I could book another accommodation with that amount of money. And I managed to book a room at the organisation’s resort. Ha! I could shop with the savings!

 

On Federal Territory Day (happy birthday, KL!) and the first day of Chinese New Year, I left home pretty early as I wanted to catch the 09:00 bus from Terminal Bersepadu Selatan. I reached KLIA before 10:00 (the bus headed for KLIA first) and was surprised to find KLIA was relatively deserted. The flight took off on time at 12:35 and we landed an hour later. Bags were quick to come out and we ordered Maxim car to the resort. We managed to check in on arrival (check-in time is actually at 16:00), alhamdulillah.

 

Langkawi is in the midst of months-long drought and it was hot and bright then so we decided to rest before venturing out. We left at around 17:30 but the sun was still bright and intense then. We had dinner at a food truck area. Mine was just edible. I left Anita and went to walk around Cenang area. I’m sorry to say that it was not clean, what with the dry leaves lying unswept, dust and sand, and rubbish thrown without care. I went into many shops to browse the chocolate prices and offerings. I wanted to watch the sunset but there were too many people so I didn’t stay long.

 

I turned back and walked to Aseania Resort before returning to our room.

 

On Wednesday morning, I went for a morning walk by the beach and came back with a handful of seashells. So many and so much bigger than any other beaches I’d been to! I then went to find breakfast. I bought some local desserts and had a bowl of noodle soup before returning to our room. My friend wanted to go to Kuah but after thinking about it, I decided to stay in.

 

I went out and braved the afternoon sun after 16:30 and walked up to a second-hand bookshop and left with two books. I had almost finished the thick novel I brought and didn’t want to spend the flight and trip home without reading anything, hence the purchase. I then went to find a massage place and finally had a massage but it was disappointing. And I couldn’t tell the masseuse as she was Thai and couldn’t speak Malay or English. I went to find dinner and after dinner, hurried to The Zon. I was only aware of the lightning and thunders then. According to Met Malaysia, it was due to rain the following day and not that evening.

 

I did a quick supermarket sweep kind of chocolate shopping (good thing I had browsed the evening before!) but when I came out, the rain had fallen. Torrentially. So I went back into the two shops and bought more chocolates while waiting out the rain. Thankfully, the rain had slowed down to a light drizzle within half an hour so I hurried back to our room.

 

On Thursday morning, I went out for a morning walk again along the beach and managed to get more seashells. Alhamdulillah. We checked out at noon and booked Maxim car to the airport. We had lunch at the airport before going through security check.

 

I don’t think my next visit to Langkawi will be anytime soon. It’s much too hot for me.