Langkawi : The Journey

I had a busy Saturday, so I was trying to arrange my time before the Langkawi trip. Flight to Langkawi will be at 18:25, but I had a birthday party invitation in Shah Alam at 12pm and a discussion with a Bank Negara officer at 14:00, also at Shah Alam. Since I had done my web check in, I thought it will be OK even if I reached there at 17:30 since the gate closed at 18:05. We reached airport at 18:00, just in time to catch the flight *phew*.


Except for the accommodation where Mr D reserved a standard room at Bayview in Kuah, we didn't make any other arrangement. It was a last minute trip. But it was a breeze since Langkawi, unlike most cities around Malaysia, is quite well prepared for its tourism industry at the entrance gate. With many rental car companies operating at the airport, with the free map distributed highlighting its attractions, it was such an easy one. It reminds me of New Zealand somehow, except New Zealand probably is more organized in that sense. How I wish other cities in Malaysia is doing the same, we are not tourist friendly enough. We should provide more facilities and tourist information centres for tourists, not only in major cities.


Langkawi probably relies heavily on the taxi service for public transportation. I understand that public buses only operates around Kuah and Pantai Cenang. So if we want to have freedom to move around, renting a transport is probably the better option. Cars, motorbikes and bicycles are available for rent. We opted to rent a basic car, so we got an old Proton Wira for RM70 per day. Not the best deal, but OK lah.. though the noise coming out from the car's engine was quite scary. I was just quite worry because there's no insurance related matter spelled out during the renting of the car. Other than that, it was quite an OK deal.



By the time we reached Langkawi, it was already dark. Kuah is quite far from the airport, so by the time we reached our hotel, it was already past 8pm. Once we've done with the check in, we decided to take a walk nearby to the night market. The free maps distributed at the airport actually have the information on where the night markets will be on what day. The items sold ranges from food to fabric items to souvenir. We had yong tau foo and the not so nice murtabak with the refreshing guava juice as dinner before ending the day.