Langkawi: Eagle Island

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langkawi international airportFlying in from Singapore via Air Asia, we arrived in Langkawi tired and sleepless from our night sessions with friends. At the airport, we changed enough money to last us for the Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur legs of our trip. In Singapore and Malaysia, we found out it is always best to change money at the airport as the rates are so much better. For a small airport, there are a lot of shops at Langkawi International, probably because the whole archipelago is duty-free! We also came right smack in the middle of the Malaysia Grand Sale so we were very excited about the prospect of some good shopping.
Taxis are not metered in Langkawi but trips in between popular places are fixed rate so there is no stress over haggling over fares. There is a cab counter at the airport where we booked one to take us to Pantai Cenang where our resort, Beach Garden, is located. Fare was RM18.

ACCOMMODATIONS
First thing that struck us on the drive towards the resort was that Langkawi is very much like the provinces in the Philippines – lush green trees, mountains, farmlands, animals grazing, simple houses. The only difference is that
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our room at beach gardenthey have grade-A roads and being a duty-free archipelago, even the simple houses had late-model cars in the thatched-up garage!

You know you are in Pantai Cenang when you see the resorts popping out one by one along the roadside. Beach Garden has a pretty, unassuming frontage but once you step in their reception, you know you are in a good resort. Service is A1 and the rooms are very nicely-done. Decor seems to be Balinese, with plenty of wooden artwork and ornaments all around. Small touches like umbrellas, ashtrays and a bench right outside your door are very much appreciated.

The restaurant, where you will find the Wi-Fi connection, faces the beach and is a very nice place to relax in. As there are only 12 rooms in the resort and many of them occupied by long-staying guests, people tend to congregate in the restaurant and swap stories of their adventuresfor the day. Food is very good and the servings are huge!!! Breakfast is free and you can choose from the ala carte menu. We tried as many of them as possible – everything was good and abundant – but our favourite has got to be
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our room at beach gardenthe Beach Garden Breakfast (or something like that). It’s a huge platter of cold cuts, an enormous basket of breads all baked in-house, an assortment of cheese and a plateful of tropical fruits – and that’s one per person! All juices are fresh and coffee is unlimited. Ahhhhh. If we ever go toLangkawi again, we will surely stay at Beach Garden again if only for this breakfast!

DAY 1: ORIENTAL VILLAGE, LANGKAWI CABLE CAR AND SHOPPING!!!
After having a very good lunch at the Beach Garden restaurant, we got the concierge to call a taxi for us. Destination: Langkawi Cable Car. The Langkawi Cable Car, located at the Oriental Village, is a must-do when you visit Langkawi. The views are breathtaking and the ride itself exhilarating. Tickets are RM25 each. We took a lot of pictures in the view decks and spent some scaredy-cat momentsat the hanging bridge (which is constantly moving because of the pedestrian traffic and the winds). Fantastic experience! At the base of the cable car, there is a shop for souvenirs, etc. But we were not interested so we left immediately to explore Oriental Village.

The Oriental Village is actually just
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outside our rooma collection of shops selling snacks, souvenirs and other knick-knacks. There is an outlet store advertising designer brands but truth be told – it is all junk. There are a couple of duty-free stores that sold mostly chocolates, liquor and smokes. We bought a ream of Dunhill Blues for Kim’s boss for only RM48 and which apparently costs almost 400x more here in Australia. Oh well, everything is more expensive here. It being a very hot day, we scoured the area for ice cream and cold drinks — Haagen-Dazs is very cheap here and there are heaps of interesting ice cream flavours (Nestle, Selecta, some local brands).

I forgot to mention that instead of us just hopping from one taxi to another in between places, we contracted our driver to take us aroundfor the day. I have read that usually, for all-day tours, it costs RM60 for the first 3 hours and RM15 for succeeding hours but I’m a firm believer in promoting local commerce and was in no mood to haggle plus he was nice and had lots of information so we agreed on RM20/hour. (It would have been cheaper to rent a car – you can
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our room at beach gardenget one for RM80/day – but it would have taken the fun out of sight-seeing, what with reading a map and asking for directions… so a taxi is a good alternative.) Anyway, so after Cable Car and Oriental Village, it was still early afternoon so we went shopping!

We asked our driver where shopping was good and he said there are 3 large malls in Langkawi. He brought us first to Langkawi Mall where we went crazy on Converse and Body Glove USA stuff. It was a lot cheaper and well, we do not have Body Glove here in Australia and neither inthe Philippines . I hoarded on The Body Shop stuff as well. We got so shopping-crazy we ran out of ringgits and had to look for a money changer to buy them.

After Langkawi Mall, we went to Jetty Point Duty Free Complex. Compared to Langkawi Mall, this was a lot busier, maybe because it’s adjacent to the port where the ferries to and from Thailand arrive. Given that we have already spent all of our shopping allowance inLangkawi Mall, we just wandered around the complex then proceeded to have early dinner.

Dinner was
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our room at beach gardenat the wonder-full Wonderland. It is so widely popular that even at 5PM, it was full and many customers had to wait for seats. Wonderland is an unpretentious outdoor-seating restaurant beside a stinky river that serves very, very good food. You order what you like and they will cook it for you. We had a sinful feast of lobster, clam soup, squid in egg batter, garlic shrimps – OH MY GOD, it was so good We couldn’t move from our seats after

Another fascinating tidbit about Langkawi: many of the people we have come across here are well-travelled. Our “waiter” at the Wonderland, for example, has been to more places in Australia than us who have only seen Perth and nothing else. Our driver has lived in the UK, in China, and in the Middle East, I think, and has so many more exciting stories to tell than us. They say airfare is always on sale here (I believe that since with the exception of our flight to and from Perth, all our flights within this Asian trip are with Air Asia), thus many people can actually afford to visit other parts of the world and enlighten
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small touchesthemselves I am so envious!

Anyway, after rolling ourselves off Wonderland, we boarded our “limo” for the day and asked for other places we can explore. (There is no TV in the room in Beach Garden, by the way, so we were trying to see as much of Kuah town as possible before hitting the sack.). We passed by another mall and I so wanted to buy Vincci shoes which were really cheap but unfortunately, I did not have space for it in my luggage seeing that we have several more places to go to after this, so I took one last lingering look on those pretty shoes and left.

DAY 2: STARDUST CRUISE
After a super-satisfying breakfast, we were picked up by the Stardust Cruise staff for our adventure of the day: a cruise aboard the Stardust yacht. For RM295 per person, the all-day cruise includes transfers to and from the resort, buffet lunch and unlimited drinks on-board the yacht.

We were dropped off at the base of Kilim Geoforest Park where we boarded a speed boat going to the yacht moored somewhere in the lake (river? sea?). The mangrove forest was spectacular, so much
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small touchesbigger and healthier than what I have seen anywhere in the Philippines. There were a lot of monkeys near the base where the boats are docked. It started to rain as we went to this part of the lake where it widens out to meet the sea and got confused when the boat man stopped the engine. As it turns out,we were to see a display of Langkawi’s pride – he was feeding the eagles! There were about 10 or more eagles that came out to feed. Langkawi is not called the Eagle Island for nothing. Eagles are a staple sight in Langkawi and so is the red sandstone where the eagle in the Langkawi emblem is perched – Langkawi comes from Helang which means eagle in Malay and Kawi which is a form of red clay stone natural to the area.

After the eagle-feeding, we were finally brought aboard the Stardust yacht. Lucky for us, there was only a Singaporean family of 5 sharing the yacht with us that day. The skipper and his assistant were very, very hospitable and had plenty of stories to tell. I really did not know nor cared where they were taking
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our room at beach gardenus that day – I was just happy to be in the sun, cruising in the beautiful islands of Langkawi (they have 99 by the way), relaxing with my iPod on, nibbling on free chips and pastries, drowning on the special cocktail they mixed just for me because I told them I do not drink beer, soaking on the saltwater “spa”. Ahhh, life is soooo good!

Lunch onboard was a mix of continental staples (pasta, bread, etc.) and local cuisine. It was good, nothing special though. There was so much food and it was a waste that they had to throw it out after since there were so few of us onboard that day and we seriously had no way of finishing off all that food. Anyway, after lunch, we just spent some time fishing (I did not catch any) and swimming. At about 3PM, we headed back to Kilim Geoforest Park and stopped by a fish farm. It was a dingy place but interesting nevertheless. A couple of hours later, we were back in Beach Garden.

After showering and resting for a while, we hit the road again, this time to see the night market in
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small touchesKuah. We decided not to call a taxi and instead explored Pantai Cenang on foot. There were plenty of resorts, restaurants, and shops along the main road. Underwater World is on the same road, if anyone is interested. After a while, we got bored and hailed a cab off the street. We had a not-so-good dinner in one of the Chinese restaurants we saw near the market. The market itself is not so big, they sold mainly clothes. I scored a pink GAP hoodie for RM15, probably my best buy in this trip. The same item was selling in Singapore for $130! We also walked around the other market where mostly food was sold. Lots of grilled street foods, lots of colourful fruits, enticing scents, lots of cheap gadgets, interesting but you get the feeling it is not very safe. There are many other duty-free shops in Kuah town but since we have no more space (and money), we left after a while, hailed a cab at the cab stand in front of one of the duty-free shops, packed our bags, and crashed for the night.

DAY 3: HELLO KL!!!
At 11:45AM, we flew via Air Asia again, this
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small touchestime to meet our friends Dudz and Hannah again at Kuala Lumpur. We had a brief look at the airport shops again but did not buy anything anymore. We had a slightly embarrassing moment when we took the International Flights entrance. It skipped my mind that we are flying domestic this time hehe

We had a great time in Langkawi and would not think twice about coming back. We know there is so much more to see in Langkawi – we didn’t even swim in our beach! I think you need about 3-4 days to really see what Langkawi has to offer. Maybe next time