Langkawi

Langkawi, the Island of Eagles, located at the north of Strait of Melacca, off shore of Kedah. We went there for 4 days 3 nights vacation around August 2005. It is a nice place for a short retreat, as well as a breathtaking adventure, or even a tour of discovering. You can go by air or sea- take a flight to Langkawi from Kuala Lumpur International Airport or take a boat trip from Penang.

Photo taken at Commonwealth Park.

We like Langkawi very much. There are many places of interest to visit. Underwater World, Bird Park, Telaga Tujuh Waterfall, Tanjung Rhu Beach, Lagenda Park (Park of Legends), Gunung Mat Cincang's Cable Car and Lang Square (Eagle Square) are just few of them.

We stayed in Eagle Bay Hotel for the first 2 days. The hotel posted 3-star, which for us, not reaching the standard. However, the RM80++ stay per night is over-worthed, as the location of the hotel is right in the middle of Kuah Town, which tax free alcoholic drinks and chocolates are available everywhere. The Chinese food is remarkably nice as well.

Photo taken at Lagenda Park, Paddy Museum, and Underwater World.

Clockwise from upper left: Photo taken at Lang Park, Mahsuri Tomb, Air Hangat Village (Hot Water) and Durian Perangin Waterfall.

After that, we switched to Helang Hotel, which was a 4-star hotel. The hotel, well, was more than excellent in design, as well as the buffet. The most spectacular part of it- RM90++ per night! Without hasty and fussy, we visited a few tourists' spots a day. The complete island map (available free at the airport) and helpful villagers make driving own rented car possible. Oh, an 1.3 cc Iswara sedan is about RM75 per day (non-peak season), considerably cheap for us, of course. If you haven't visit the island, well, we suggest that you can plan for a few days trip there. Besides all the great spots and tax free shopping, don't forget to discover the mysterious Legend of Mahsuri, which according to the local villagers, effecting their life until today!

Great sunset scenery at Tanjung Rhu beach.

We like Langkawi in the aspect of the interesting tourists' spots, tax free shopping, nice scenery, well developed. We dislike the artificial (man-make) elements in some nature sites. You can find information about Langkawi at Langkawi Online and Langkawi info.

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Penang

August 2005, noon, we departed from Langkawi to Penang, Pearl of the East, and reached the airport 30 minutes later. As a matter of fact, both islands just 1 hours and 45 minutes away by speed boat (made in Sibu, my hometown, yeah!). Of course, you can follow us by air as well.

Anyway, Penang is easier to reach, compared to Langkawi. You can take a bus from any part of West Malaysia to Penang, or you can take a flight either.

Photo taken at Kit Lok Sik, Temple of the Sleeping Buddha, and Botanical Garden.

Penang is a multi-cultural land, thanks to her complicated history. Burmist, Thai, British, Chinese, Indian, etc. Just look at the temples, the cable car at Bukit Bendera (Flag Mountain), The Kit Lok Sik (The Temple of Ultimate Happiness), and Fort Cornwallis, you can name all the founders of the building without much hesitation (of course you might need a little bit of common knowledge as well).

Butterfly farm, Botanical Garden, and Batu Ferringhi complemented with Shopping malls, Penang Bridge (longest in Asian), Toy Museum, and above the rest-food, food and a lot of nice delicacies, make Penang a wonderful island.

The design of Burmist Buddhist and Thai Chayamangkalaram Temple (Both countries occupied the Island once upon a time).

We took a 3 days 3 nights trip(we departed from Penang Airport back to KL at 9 pm), with a stay at The Gurney Hotel, at the Gurney Street. The hotel, 5-star, was not as good as it sounded. RM200++ for studio suite, not a very competitive price. Failing safety box, partial functioning jacuzzi, and impolite receptionists, flawed the beautiful lanscapes, water park, swimming pool. However, the location is good- not far away from everywhere! Well, a 15 minutes walk to the Thai, Burmist, and the Sleeping Buddha Temples (at Burma Road), 10 minutes taxi ride to Comtar, shopping centers, and Botanical Garden. However, it will be a 20-45 minutes away from Kit Lok Sik, Feringgi Beach, Toy Museum, and butterfly farm.

If you have the chance to visit Penang, don't you ever miss their Char Kuey Tiaw (somewhere around Burma Street and Gurney Street), Asam Laksa (Ayer Hitam), Lok-lok and many-many other nice food (sorry, we cannot remember the location anymore). Don't forget, now, Penang is a World Herritage town! We have a very old but effective method to search for nice food around Penang- jump onto a taxi with a middle aged driver, ask him to bring you to the food stall. How about the Malay and Indian or Thai Food? You can try the same method as well (we got a lot of the info about the food from the taxi driver).

We really enjoy the food, multi-cultural herritage buildings, kind and helpful locals there, while dislike the Traffic, lowly maintained Bukit Bendera and Botanical Garden (2005).

For more information about Penang, log on to the Official Penang Website and about Penang site.

Water park at the Gurney Hotel.

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Malacca

Malacca, City of History, founded by Parameswara in 13th century, is now a World Herritage site. Malacca can be reached by road. We drove there with our own car, 2 hours from Kajang (that's 2 and a half hours from Kuala Lumpur). We had being to Malacca for many times already, attracted by her uniqueness and, of course, historical auras. The Historical City, Jonkers' Street, a series of museums (Maritim, Baba & Nyonya, Cheng Ho, etc.), old churhes, A' Famosa Fort, old tombs of kings and heros, blended into the modern Mahkota Parade, Pahlawan Square (Warrior), and first class hotels, together with the Traditional Hainan Chicken Rice, Portugist Tarts, durian cake, Satay Celup and popiah... well, nothing better than "extravaganza" to describe Malacca.

Photo taken at Jonker Street.

Buddist temples along the Jonker Street.

Other places of interest, such as Malacca Zoo, Butterfly Farm, Bee Farm and temples of unique architecture designs are the places that we should not miss. (Just some personal point of views, you can skip some of them as well, such as the crocodile farm, eye of Malacca and Mini Malaysia). An early booking for hotel is necessary, unless you are a backpacker. We had tried Grand Continental (3-star), Tan Kim Hock Hotel (2-star), and Mahkota Resort (4-star). The first two were quite old and not well maintained. The Mahkota Resort is ok, RM180++ for a family suite (2006, credit card special promotion price) and the good location make it a good choice for us (5 minutes walking to Mahkota Parade and Pahlawan Square, 15 minutes to Malacca old town and 20 minutes Jonkers' Street).

Great landscapes around butterfly farm.

Yeah, after describing all the good things, now, the bad side- the traffic jam!! You will understand the true meaning of traffic jam if you visit Malacca during public holidays with your cars. "Holy Hainanese chicken rice!" We once caught by 2 hours of jam, just to enjoy a lunch of chicken rice. Horrible or not? Wanna take a try? The moral behind the story was: stay near to the heart of the city (such as the Mahkota Resort or some places nearby), and go to whatever place you can, possibly by foot.

2nd generation of old F&B industry, a brand of quality.

Well, we tried best ever tasted Hainanese Chicken Rice at "Chop Chung Wah", while the most advertised "Oldtown Chicken Rice" disappointed us most. Chop Chung Wah located at the entrance of Jonkers' Street (if you walk from the river side). The Portugist Tart, durian cake, and popiah are available along the Jonker Street. Besides delicious food, vast varieties of souviniors are available in Jonkers' Street as well.

A part of Malacca old town (Stadthuys) which was built around 1650.

Another place, which is nearby, is A' Famosa Resort- a name which combined Golf Resort, Water World, Safari, and Wild Wild West Theme Park. Interested? Then, let's go to A' Farmosa Resort, Malacca.

If you ask, would you visit Malacca again? The answer is certain, but not in peak seasons. For more information about Malacca, you can visit Malaysia Leisure, Malacca Net or any official results from the search engines.

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