Travel Around Langkawi Island (21 - 23 Sep 2007)

After last year unforgetable trip to Langkawi Island, we planned to go to Langkawi Island again this year as we had a complimentary hotel voucher which helped to save the hotel cost. This time our Langkawi trip's main purpose was to help Boon to practice his photography skills using our DSLR camera and at the same time for us to relax.

:: DAY 1 ::

Our flight was at 10.20am which had been delayed from its actual schedule at 8.45am. Anyway, the delay didn't affect our trip much. We reached the Langkawi Airport about 11.30am. After took our luggage, we then went to rent a car. Like last year, we chosen a Wira with the price RM100 for 2 days. After refuel the car, we then drove about 30mins to our first destination which was the Air Hangat Village. Its entrance fee is RM4 per adult but we entered the village free due to the village was under construction. What we saw only a Malay style wooden house, a few small hot water pools and a 18m-high carved river stone mural, which depicts the well-known legend of the earth-shattering battle between Mat Cincang and Mat Raya. After that we drove about 10mins from Air Hangat Village to the Bird Park (Bird Paradise). The entrance fee is RM12 per adult (by showing the NRIC). It isn’t only a bird park, it also consists of multiple kinds of wildlife. What we saw in the Bird Park was different kind of birds (parrots, flamingos, etc.) and different kind of wildlife (monkeys, bears, crocodiles, ostriches, etc.). Something very amazing and attractive was the ostriches. It was my first time to have a very close look at the ostriches. They were so tall and huge. Unfortunately, the sky was started to raining the time we were watching the ostriches. So pity! There was no rain shelter for the ostriches to rest. They could only sit down together under the rain. After finished visiting the bird park, we went into the Bird Park shopping mall to buy some chocolates and drinks. After that we drove back to Awana Porto Malai to check in. We took a short snap in the room, and then we drove out to Pantai Cenang. We walked along Pantai Cenang to Pantai Tengah to enjoy the sea view. Along the seaside we could see a number of villas, chalets and resorts. There were parachuting and water sports activities (banana boats, jet skis, water skiing, etc.). Due to the weather was a bit blurred, we couldn’t really see the sunset. The sun was hidden behind the clouds. That was bad! We spent more than 2 hours time at the seaside, we then walked back to the place where our car parked to get back to the hotel.

:: DAY 2 ::

The weather was quite good in Day 2 but the sky still looked blurred. We woke up at 8am to continue our Day 2 journey. We went to the Oriental Village which the Machincang Geopark was located in. The sky was so hot in the morning. So we didn’t go to the Machincang Mount as which we had been there in our last year trip. So we were just shooting photos around in Oriental Village. We spent about an hour there, and then we drove towards the Seven Wells Waterfall. On our way to Seven Wells Waterfall, we met a large road blocker which was a cow. =_=” Anyway, we were still able to reach our destination. When I got down from the car, I was shocked seeing so many monkeys around. It was a monkey territory! Scary! Those monkeys were not only blocking the road but also blocking the staircases. We couldn’t continue our steps until those monkeys left. At the moment waiting for the monkeys to left the staircases, Boon was taking that opportunity to take photos on them. They had many funny actions and were caught by Boon. Haha… Finally after 15mins, those monkeys left. We continued towards the waterfall area. The waterfall was looking as beautiful as it was last year. What a hot day! We changed our swim suites and immersed ourselves into the crystal clear water. It was a Saturday. Hence there were a number of visitors to the waterfall. We met people from Seremban and also foreigners from Japan and other countries. After 2 hours at the waterfall, we changed our clothes and left. Our next destination was Temurun Waterfall. On the way to Temurun Waterfall, we dropped by the Pantai Kok. Finally I saw the Summer Palace from far as which I couldn’t able to find it last year. Summer Palace was the place where the film ‘Anna and the King’ set there. Hence, it becomes a tourist place. We didn’t visit it as it needs entrance fee of RM3 per adult. We continued our way to Temurun Waterfall. We could see the 30m waterfall from the car park opposite the entrance to the waterfall. Wow! It looked great! We could hear the sound of the waterfall along the way we climbed to reach the waterfall area. When we reached the waterfall, it was so amazing! The picturesque of the waterfall looked like we were in the fairy tale world. The water looked much clearer than Seven Wells Waterfall. We didn’t take bath there. I only immersed my feet into the water while Boon was busy shooting photos. We only spent an hour there then left. We then went to the Sandy Skulls Beach. Boon likes that beach very much as it was a very clean and with white soft sand. The beach looked bright & charming under the hot sun. There wasn’t a lot of people there comparing to our last year’s visit to the beach. We only spent about 15mins taking photos there. We went back to the hotel to take bath as we wanted to go to the Eagle Square and Kuah town. We reached Eagle Square about 7.30pm. The sky was growing darker and the huge eagle statue was shining with the lights. We spent about 30mins taking photos there. Then we drove to the Langkawi Fair Shopping Mall which was located in front of the Billion Hypermarket and opposite the Legendary Park. We didn’t buy anything there. We only walked around the shopping mall. After that we went to the Kuah town. Boon was planning to buy a pair of sport shoes. We went to a large Nike shop in the town and there Boon was able to buy a pair. After that we looking around the town to find if there was any duty free shop which I could get the biscuits that Collen requested. It wasn’t disappointed me at all. There were a lot of duty free shops selling chocolates and alcohol. I walked to few shops and finally I found the biscuits for Collen. Collen, you were so lucky! It was about RM3 cheaper than in KL. I also bought some chocolates to bring back to KL. Hooo… After finished shopping, it was a bit tired. We drove back to hotel.

:: DAY 3 ::

It was the last day in Langkawi. We woke up quite late as we were not rushing for our journey. Our flight to back KL was 8.15pm. We decided to spend our morning time at Awana Hotel’s area to take photos before we check out. After checking out from Awana, we took our way to Gunung Raya which was the tallest peak in Langkawi. To drive thru the winding road to the peak of the mount, we need to pay RM0.50 per car as the toll fee. Before you drive toward Gunung Raya, please make sure your rented car has enough of petrol to drive about 15km upwards to the peak and 15km downwards to the foot. As from the information I read regading to Gunung Raya, it has a tea house, a museum and an art gallery. But what we found there was, nothing was available for us to see, except the sea view. The lookout tower and the lookout point were not available for us to enter. The Gunung Raya peak was having construction at the time we went there. That was a bad news to us. We could only see the blurred sea view and the cloudy sky. It was a disappointed visit for me. After finished photography at Gunung Raya, we drove to Tanjung Rhu Beach which was our last destination of our trip. We only stayed there for about 15mins as there was nothing to see and we had been visiting this beach last year. So we took a long road to go to the airport. We returned the car and we had our dinner at Kenny Rodgers restaurant inside the airport.

Sungai Lembing's Sunrise View (1 Sep 2007)

This was the first time I brought Boon to Sungai Lembing, Kuantan (my hometown) to watch the sunrise view. Sungai Lembing was the world largest tin mine until 1970s. Now it's a town being decline as it is no longer produce tin. Anyway, it is still the best place in Kuantan to view the sunrise. My brother, Boon and I woke up at 5am to start driving to Sungai Lembing to climb up the hill to catch the sunrise view. The weather was quite nice. We reached there about 6am but the parking space was almost full. We spent about 45 mins to reach the peak hill. Unfortunately the sky was cloudy. We were able to catch the sunrise moment but it wasn't beautiful enough. Anyway, the panoramic view at Sungai Lembing hill was really nice. We enjoyed the view and took photos until about 8am then climb down the hill. After climbing down the hill, we had our breakfast at the pasar (market) there. Sungai Lembing is famous with Sungai Lembing mee (林明面) which the mee was made from the mountain spring water. Normally the local people will eat the mee in soup, curry or dry together with Yong Tau Fu.