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Sunday, May 06, 2007

Langkawi Adventure

Note: I apologize for this uber late post.. anyway, better late than never right? I'll try my best to recall what happened here. Please bear with me..

I am not the type of person who loves the beach because I don't like to swim (lahing pusa ako). I only like the beach because I love to take its photographs, especially during sunset. In fact, most of my favorite pictures that I took have the beach as my subject. But if given a choice between going to the beach or exploring another city for a vacation, I would choose exploring a (busy) city life.

This is the reason why it was a big question for some people that I availed a 3D/2N package in Langkawi during the MATTA fair last March. I really wanted to bring my parents in a famous place here in Malaysia which is away from Kuala Lumpur and my original plan was to bring them to Penang. This is the reason why I went to the MATTA fair with Minnie and Gen. What we found is a 3D/2N hotel accommodation in Langkawi, which is what Malaysia has been promoting as somewhat similar to Boracay in the Philippines. I decided to avail it right away because I thought it was a good deal. The package that I availed was good for 4 people, so Minnie decided to tag along with us.

The trip to Langkawi via plane takes almost an hour. Meanwhile, the road trip from KL to Langkawi is from 8-9 hours which includes a 7-hour bus trip and an hour-long ferry ride (whew!). Since we're on a stingy mode, we opted to go for the long trip.

On the April 13, my family and Minnie took the midnight trip from Pudu Raya bus station going to Kuala Perlis. The bus that we boarded was a Konsortium double-decker bus, which all of us found to be comfortable because we can stretch our legs. It was shakey at first because we were seated at the back of the bus, but eventually, we all fell asleep. We all slept soundly that we didn't notice that all the passengers took off the bus. We just woke up and found out that we're the only passengers inside the bus. So we hurriedly took off the bus.. and the bus left the terminal. We have no idea how long had the driver waited for us to wake up (but I think the driver should have bothered to wake us up ryt?). It was already 7 AM when we landed in Kuala Perlis. After that, we booked for a ferry that would take us to Langkawi Island. We were able to book to the ferry that departed at 7:30 AM.

The ferry that we took on our way to Langkawi is kinda gross - there were a lot of roaches (eew!). Another that Minnie and I noticed is that we crossed the Thailand border because our mobile phones were already in roaming mode (panalo di ba? nag-cross country na kami bwahahaha!!). Langkawi Island is so close to the Thailand border. In fact, there are some ferries that goes to Satun, Thailand from Langkawi. This is a good opportunity for some tourists to have a Thailand stamp in their passports =)

We arrived Langkawi at 8:30 AM. It was too early for us to check-in the hotel so we stayed in the port area in Langkawi. Good thing, there's a Starbucks where we can hang out. The thing about Langkawi is that its tax-free so duty-free shops are very common. All the prices are cheaper - its really tempting to shop! So Minnie and I went around the port area to do some "window shopping" and I ended up buying 2 shirts while my parents waited for us at Starbucks. When its their turn to go around, Papa bought 6 cans of Carlsberg (na-miss nya ito hehehehe).Anyway, at 11 PM, we ate lunch at the nearest KFC then we took a cab going to Langkasuka Hotel, which is 20 minutes away from the jetty and is very near the airport. In Langkawi, most of the taxis are paid on a contract basis and most of the cab drivers would take advantage of this. This is also one of the reasons why the car rental is a common thing in Langkawi. Unfortunately, none of us has a driving license so we can't rent our own car. Anyway, the taxi driver (Uncle Aminuddin) who brought us to the hotel seems nice so we asked him if he could take us around Langkawi.

We arrived at Langkasuka Resort (at the Cenang beach area) at around 1 PM. The room was big for 4 people - it has 2 queen size beds and has a veranda. The comfort room is big as well. But the thing with our room was that - the disinfectant really stinks and the room is not that clean. The toilet bowl has even stains in it and the bed has some insects crawling (eww!). Anyway, I don't think this experience deserve more space in this blog so enough about that hehehe..

While my parents snoozed, Minnie and I went around the resort and the beach. Of course, picture taking is included. I had fun taking pictures because Minnie is a willing subject hahaha and in fairness, she's happy with the pictures that I took (*wink wink). Minnie and I also inquired on the tour packages in Langkawi and we planned on availing the Island Hopping tour on Sunday morning and the Langkawi tour (by hiring the Uncle Aminuddin's cab) in the afternoon. While we explore a resort, we saw a beautiful black butterfly. I am not the type of person who believes in those type of things so I was not bothered when I saw that butterfly.

At 4 PM, we went to the grocery to buy some necessities during our stay in Langkawi. While we're in the store, I received a text message from Uncle Llano (my mom's brother) to call him back. I did and spoke to Aunt Genny. She informed me that Aunt Luding passed away at 4 PM. She suddenly collapsed while sweeping the floor and was brought to the ICU on Friday afternoon. She was comatosed on Saturday morning. Aunt Emie (my mom's eldest sister) was beside her when she died. When I received the news, my mother saw my reaction so she knew that there's a bad news. I didn't tell her right away. But since she knew something's wrong, I decided to tell her before we took a cab that brought us to Langkasuka. The whole 20 minute ride was silent. Before we hopped out of the cab, Minnie and I smelled a floral scent but there's no perfume no air freshener inside the cab. According to Minnie, her mother said that if someone passed away, there are 2 scents that can be smelled - if its a scent of a candle, that person has an unfinished business. If its a floral scent, that means that he person who died is happy. My mother was happy when she found out about this, knowing that Aunt Luding is happy.

After a looong talk, we decided to go back to KL on Sunday morning. I also spoke to the manager of the tour agency (Kembangan Holidays) where we got our package and asked if we could refund the rest of the amount that I paid him since we're planning to leave on Sunday morning. He didn't get back on us which was disappointing. Also, there's no available trip going back to KL on that day so we decided to maximize our stay in Langkawi.

Needless to say, we didn't go to the Island hopping tour as we're not in mood for that. So we spent the Sunday morning swimming. Oh wait, let me correct that =P Minnie and my mother swam while I took the pictures (as always) and my dad watched TV (hindi rin sya beach person katulad ko! harharhar)

On Sunday afternoon, Uncle Aminuddin (the cab driver) picked us from the hotel and picked us from the hotel for our city tour. We asked him to bring us to the Langkawi cable car. Man! The cable car is not for the faint hearted.. The cable car is mounted 45 degrees from the top (very steep indeed!). and the highest point is 710 m above the sea-level. My father is scared of heights so he opted not to join us. The 3 of us went for a ride. We were all scared from the view from top especially while its going up because we can feel that we're being pulled up - we're really scared. Once we arrived at the top, the view is magnificent. We got a glimpse of the Datai Bay beach, considered to be the best beach in the island and home of the most exclusive resorts in Langkawi. Notice that the small buildings in the picture below is actually our starting point (kakalula no?)

Our next stop is the Black Sand beach. The sand is black due to the tin and mineral ore deposits which were washed up on the shore.

Our last beach stop is the Tanjung Rhu beach, considered to be one of the best beaches in the Island. We took a few pictures again and shopped in the nearby bazaars.

To complete our Langkawi trip, we shopped once again for our pasalubongs at the duty free stores. I shopped for a lot of chocolates to be given by my parents to my friends in the Philippines. Uncle Aminuddin has been such a good driver to us that we asked to pick us up from the hotel going back to the Jetty on the next day.

On our last night, Minnie and I decided to take a quick dip at the beach (para hindi naman masayang ang ipinunta ko sa Langkawi maliban sa picture-taking). We're the only people at the sea so we didn't swim that long. We stayed at the beach and talked how we found our stay in Langkawi. Minnie has been very understanding for the entire trip despite our family crisis and she deserves credit for that. I just hope she enjoyed her vacation with us =)

On Monday morning, Uncle Aminuddin took us to the Jetty at 9:00 AM. We took the 10:00 AM ferry from the Jetty to Kuala Perlis and the 12:00 bus going back to KL. The bus trip took us 8.5 hours (whew!). Good thing that my parents are used on long travel because they would usually take a 10-hour trip to Cagayan from Manila.

Despite of what happened, I enjoyed my vacation with them. I just hope that my parents did as well, and so is Minnie. I would recommend Langkawi for someone who's looking for a tranquil and laid back vacation. If someone is looking for parties at the beach, then this is not the place. If I would be asked how beautiful is this island, well, I'll just show you the pictures that I took =)

posted by subhuman @ 12:35 AM

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