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Langkawi Dayang Bunting Loiyumba jumping water

Malaysia 2010: Day 6 — Langkawi (Island hopping tour, Pantai Tengah beach, Night market)

By Mithun Divakaran
/
Mar 18, 2011
/
Malaysia, Travel

Date: 30th September 2010

After a great first day in Langkawi, today morning we were up and ready for our island hopping tour.

Langkawi roti canai — For breakfast, I had ‘roti canai’ which is similar to Kerala parota, but fluffier. To drink, Milo, which is waaaay more popular in Malaysia than it is in India.

We were picked up by the tour operator at 8am and dropped off at a pier where other tourists were gathered as well.

Langkawi island hopping tour private speedboats — These were the kind of boats we were going to be driven around in

Langkawi island hopping cloud sunny skies — It was a lovely sunny day to be out on a boat trip

Langkawi island hopping tour boat steps — All the tourists were divided into groups and we got into our boat

Langkawi island hopping tour wave splash — Given my past experience going on a similar trip in Krabi, I was more careful this time in protecting my camera equipment

Our first stop on the tour was to get a glimpse of the Pregnant Maiden Island, called so because it looks like a lady lying down with a pregnant tummy.

Langkawi island hopping tour Pregnant Maiden island — Took me a while to make out where the ‘pregnant maiden’ was

Langkawi island hopping Pregnant Maiden island panorama — This is a panorama comprised of 6 shots. See if you can find her. (Hint: Head is on the right)

Langkawi island hopping tour tourists speedboat — We moved on

Langkawi Dayang Bunting Marble geoforest park arrival — Soon after, we arrived at our first major stop on the tour

We were at the Dayang Bunting Marble Geoforest Park, which is located inside the Island of the Pregnant Maiden.

Langkawi Dayang Bunting monkey at pier entrance — Our welcoming party. The monkeys, not the old guy.

Langkawi Dayang Bunting Marble Geoforest park monkey on tree — Needless to say, there were going to be a lot of monkeys here

The stop was for us to check out a lake inside.

Langkawi Pregnant Maiden island park monkey opening bottle — But I was more amused watching monkeys

Langkawi Dayang Bunting Marble Geoforest lake — The lake inside is famous because despite being in an island located in the sea, the lake’s water isn’t as salty

Langkawi pregnant maiden island lake — You can also swim here

Langkawi pregnant maiden island lake paddle boats — There are also paddle boats for hire

They also have one of those “fish spas” here with small catfish ever ready to nibble away at your feet’s germs.

Langkawi Pregnant Maiden island lake tourists catfish spa — Plus it’s free

Langkawi pregnant maiden island lake catfish massage — The water is cool, but the nibbling at your feet can be ticklish… and slimy

Langkawi Pregnant Maiden island lake catfish spa — But when people throw bread crumbs near your feet…. it can get a *little* too much!

Langkawi pregnant maiden island lake swimming — We had nearly an hour to spend here

Langkawi Pregnant maiden island changing rooms — They have changing rooms for men and women here itself

Langkawi pregnant maiden island women's changing room — … but it kinda helps to know English

45 minutes in, we made our way back to the pier

Langkawi Geoforest park monkeys on stones — Like I said, lots of monkeys here

You have to be a bit careful though. Yes, they are more afraid of you than your are of the monkeys. But if they see anything enticing in your hands — like juice bottles or food packets — sometimes they will come at you and just grab it. Also, I saw some idiots throw things at them. Please don’t do that.

Langkawi geoforest park monkey coke bottle — 2 seconds ago, that Coke bottle was in that old man’s hands. He didn’t fight for it back… because that would make human race look inferior.

Langkawi geoforest park boats leaving — We got into our boats and moved on

Our next stop was a short trip away.

Langkawi island hopping tour fish feeding farm — Next up was a fish feeding farm…

Langkawi island hopping tour fish feeding farm arriving — … which was also a restaurant. Hmmm.

The thing was, you had to pay to feed the fishes. This isn’t exactly included in the package.

Langkawi fish feeding farm baskets — But we didn’t go for it

We didn’t opt to feed the fishes because, 1) all 3 of us weren’t interested 2) the concept of paying to feed fishes, fatten them up and who then (possibly) end up on the restaurant menu didn’t sound right to me.

Langkawi fish feeding farm tourist — Boring huh?

Langkawi fish feeding farm teal water — Fortunately it was only a 30 minute stop, so I continued clicking

Langkawi geoforest islands blue sky huge cloud — We moved on

Langkawi island hopping tour guide smoking — Our boat driver, smoking

We rode up to what looked like a mangrove forest, where we would witness an eagle feeding session.

Langkawi eagles grey sky — Langkawi gets its name from eagles. Malay word ‘lang’ = eagle, kawi = reddish brown colour

Langkawi island hopping tour eagle feeding mangrove — The island is inhabited with a lot of eagles of that colour

The eagle feeding session works as such. The boats all float apart from each other and the drivers/guides throw some eagle feed (bread bits or some meat) into the waters, and the birds of prey come sweeping in with their beaks ready to eat.

Problem was, I didn’t have the right lens for this part of the tour. The most zoom I had was with my Tamron 28-75mm f2.8, which as a macro lens is great, but isn’t much when it comes to photographing fast moving birds.

Here are a few shots Ramesh got using his Canon 55-250mm telephoto lens.

Langkawi white breast eagle Photograph by Ramesh — (Photograph by Ramesh Iyer)

Langkawi brown eagle Photograph by Ramesh — (Photograph by Ramesh Iyer)

After the eagle feeding session, we moved on to our next and final stop on this tour.

Langkawi island hopping tour Beras Basah island — Beras Basah island

Langkawi island hopping tour Beras Basah island sign — If you wanted to swim in the sea or just hang around on the beach, here is where you are allowed to do it

Langkawi island hopping tour Beras Basah island beach — We were all keen to hit the water!

Langkawi island hopping tour Beras Basah island swimming — But I didn’t feel like leaving my camera on the beach

Langkawi Beras Basah island sea level — So I took it with me into the water! But I trod very carefully so as not to get a drop of water on the lens.

Langkawi Beras Basah island Loiyumba coral reef — Loi and Ramesh found broken corals

Langkawi Beras Basah island Ramesh Loiyumba corals — So I asked them to make use of them and pretend to be reindeers!

Langkawi Beras Basah island Mithun corals — Because you know, reindeers in water are… ermm… 🙂

Langkawi island Loiyumba Davidoff ad — Couldn’t help but turn this into an ad 🙂

Langkawi Beras Basah island Mithun floating head — Attempting the ‘head floating in water’ shot

Langkawi island hopping tour Beras Basah island hotel — After some time, we made our way back to shore

Langkawi island hopping tour Beras Basah island overcast skies — Overcast skies in the distance

Langkawi island hopping tour Beras Basah private property — Not sure if this was a hotel or not

Langkawi island hopping tour Beras Basah island dock — After drying ourselves up, we headed back to the pier

Langkawi island hopping tour Beras Basah island monkeys — Monkeys inhabit this island too

Langkawi island hopping tour Beras Basah island monkey — Amazing how they survive on the island, considering there are no human residents here.

Langkawi island hopping tour Beras Basah island forest — We left Beras Basah island

Langkawi island Malaysia yacht — We got a bit of rain as we neared the pier from where we set off in the morning

Langkawi island resort hotel — Pretty cool looking resort

The rain was mostly a drizzle once we got back. They were selling memorabilia plates of everybody who went for these boat trips and since they were only RM10, we all picked up our respective plates.

This was a half-day island hopping tour and it only cost us RM30 (Rs. 450 approx.) per person. I’ve done a similar tour like this last year in South Thailand. Of course, that trip didn’t start of well, with my camera getting wet and all, but I doubt I’ll ever get sick of seeing clear blue water and less crowded beaches far away from civilization.

As we were walking to our vans, Ramesh and I were talking about visiting the Langkawi Underwater World, just when one of the Sri Lankans who was on our boat overheard us. He turned back and advised us against it, saying that the Aquaria KLCC in Kuala Lumpur is “much better”. So we decided to take his word for it and dropped the idea of going to Langkawi Underwater World.

The tour company dropped us back to our hotel.

Langkawi Sweet Inn Motel chairs lobby — The lobby downstairs at Sweet Inn Motel

Langkawi motel cat licking — One of the many cats that visit Sweet Inn

Langkawi Pantai Cenang village — It had just finished raining

We stepped out again, this time for lunch.

Langkawi Skol beer Chang beer — We stopped by a restaurant to quench our throats first with some chilled beer. I tried SKOL which I never had before. It was average in taste.

Unfortunately, looking at the menu, it offered very little in terms of vegetarian for Ramesh. So after beer, we sought some other restaurant.

Langkawi Pantai Cenang lane — So we went further down Pantai Cenang road to check out other restaurants

Langkawi Underwater World Malaysia — This is Underwater World Langkawi

Langkawi restaurant soda pop iced tea — We sat down at a restaurant in front of Underwater World after Ramesh found something he could eat

Langkawi Malaysian chicken curry rice — But the food wasn’t particularly good. I didn’t like my chicken curry rice.

Post lunch, we checked out some Duty Free stores. Langkawi is a Duty Free shopping destination, so one would assume you would find some great bargains. But as we hopped from one shop to another, that wasn’t the case. Especially with electronics. We walked into the Canon store at a mall adjacent to Underwater World and found the prices to be far higher than that of Singapore. We were aware Malaysia isn’t as cheap as Singapore when it comes to electronics, but still, the prices we came across were a bit exorbitant. Some even higher than prices back in India.

I feel Langkawi businesses were taking advantage of the “Duty Free” label and jacking up the prices because you never know, some less-informed tourist would buy into the whole gimmick and assume they got a good deal here.

At this point, Ramesh and Loiyumba wanted to head back to our hotel in Langkawi for some rest. This being our last day on Langkawi, I didn’t feel like resting, so I told them I wanted to roam around a bit more.

I was contemplating heading to Kuah, Langkawi’s main town, just to see what that side of the island had to offer. But since we had already walked quite a bit, I decided to head further on and visit Pantai Tengah beach. In the process, also share some more beachfront hotel options on Pantai Cenang in case you wanted to know where to stay (I highlighted some places in the previous post).

Langkapuri Inn hotel Langkawi — Langkapuri Inn to the left; the yellow building is a BBQ restaurant

Sugary Sands Motel Langkawi — Sugary Sands Motel

Tanjung Malie Beach Motel Langkawi Malaysia — Tanjung Malie Beach Motel

Green Hill Beach motel Mali Perdana Resort Langkawi — Green Hill Beach motel is the one with the green sign

Sunset Beach Resort Langkawi Malaysia — Sunset Beach Resort (http://www.sungroup-langkawi.com/sunset/)

The Cabin Langkawi budget hotel — The Cabin Langkawi (http://www.thecabin.com.my/)

Aseania Resort Langkawi Malaysia — Aseania Resort, not on the beach though (http://www.aseanialangkawi.com/index.html)

Langkawi Durian fruit melons stall — Durian (similar to Jackfruit), is the national fruit of Malaysia (I think)

Langkawi way to Pantai Tengah beach — Head straight down this road to get to Pantai Tengah beach

Langkawi Pantai Tengah beach Malaysia — This is Pantai Tengah beach

Langkawi Pantai Tengah beach grey skies — It isn’t as big as Pantai Cenang… and the sand isn’t as soft either

Langkawi Pantai Tengah beach sand Malaysia — In fact, the sand was mostly broken shells. Not the best for walking barefoot then.

Langkawi Pantai Tengah beach shore rain — At this point, it began to rain

Langkawi Pantai Tengah field — Fortunately, I had my umbrella in my backpack. So I walked back instead of taking cover.

Langkawi Sri Kijang Bank Negara resort — This nice looking resort isn’t open to public

Langkawi Sri Kijang Bank Negara resort Pantai Cenang — Upon research, it belongs to a bank and is meant only for its employees. Posh.

Debbie's Place Irish pub bar in Langkawi — Debbie’s Place Irish pub on Pantai Cenang

Langkawi Sweet Inn Shida Laundrette — There’s a laundry shop very close to Sweet Inn, very reasonable rates for service

I went back to the room to drop off my laundry, and to see what the other two were up to. Ramesh and Loi were taking a nap and so, I decided to step out again.

Way to Rasa Eksotika The Palms guesthouse Langkawi — I wanted to explore the area behind the motel

Langkawi Pantai Cenang house lodges — Some of the houses here have been turned into budget accommodation for tourists. Good income for villagers.

Langkawi village field water buffalo — Apparently all water buffaloes do is stare at you

Langkawi Pantai Cenang Malay house — I had reached a main road at this point

Langkawi weekend market fish Malaysia — I saw this market by the main road…

Langkawi weekend market Nasi Beriani Malaysia — … and since there was a lot of food on display, I had to check it out!

Langkawi weekend market fish balls Malaysia — I forget if these were fish balls or cheese balls… or fish balls with cheese powder coating

Langkawi weekend market Apom Balek Malaysia — Apom Balek, sweet stuff. I sampled a few of these. (‘apom’ sounds like India’s “appam”)

Langkawi weekend market Nasi Beriani price Malaysia — ‘Nasi’ is Malay for rice and ‘Beriani’ is well, biriyani (RM 3.50 = Rs. 50)

Langkawi weekend market van vendors — Seemed like this was some sort of weekend market, not a mainstay

Langkawi weekend market sotong kangkung Malaysia — Guess I knew where to bring Loi for dinner

Langkawi weekend market fruit stalls Malaysia — Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables on offer

Langkawi weekend market dried fish — Dried fish… lots of it!

Langkawi weekend market cempedak goreng Malaysia — ‘Cempedak’ is a type of fruit, ‘goreng’ I’m guessing means fried

Langkawi weekend market lychee Malaysia — Not sure what these were

Langkawi weekend market juices Malaysia — All these colourful juices made me thirsty

Langkawi weekend market corn juice Malaysia — So I had corn milk juice. Weird choice, I know. But I didn’t come all the way here to strawberry milkshake.

Langkawi economic rooms village — You got budget accommodation out here as well

After spending some time at the market, I knew I was coming back here for dinner. Great street food at very low prices — who am I to complain? I headed back to let the other two know about my ‘discovery’.

Once I got back to the room at around 6pm, Loi was still napping. So we forced him to get out of bed and get ready. We set out by 7:30pm.

Langkawi Palms guesthouse at night — It was pitch dark and there weren’t any street lights on this route

Langkawi street market orange susu air kelapa — ‘Susu’ is the Malay for milk (yup); ‘kelapa’ means coconut and ‘air’ is water (seriously)

Langkawi street food spring potato — Wondering what this is?

Langkawi night market spring potato — It’s potato

Langkawi night market putu mayong — Keralites, looks familiar?

Langkawi Malay street food putu sign — Puttu! Albeit, a slight variation

Langkawi street food making putu — This is how they make lots of it

Langkawi street market fried fish — This is fish apparently

Langkawi street market pizza vendor — I ordered a seafood mini-pizza from here

Langkawi night market seafood pizza — Mostly crab meat and prawns; RM 5 (Rs. 75) for one

Langkawi street food fried rice noodles — A lot of the food was already sold out

Langkawi night market boiled meat — You take the basket and tongs, pick up whatever you want and you will be charged accordingly

Langkawi street food Loiyumba boiled meat — After you choose, you cook it in boiling water

Langkawi street food baby octopus — … even stuff like this (Yuck)

Langkawi street food spring rolls samosas — Picked up some chicken samosas and vegetable spring rolls (RM 2 = Rs. 30)

Langkawi street food fried chicken bbq — Was tempted to get some fried chicken too but I didn’t want overeat 🙂

Langkawi street food burgers — Picked up a beef burger as well. ‘Daging’ = beef, ‘ayam’ = chicken, ‘benjo’ = egg (RM1 = Rs. 15)

Langkawi weekend market stalls — The night market was a lot more crowded than earlier

Unfortunately, everybody except Ramesh got what we wanted. There was very little in terms of pure vegetarian on offer at the night market. So we headed back to the main road so that Ramesh could pick up his dinner from a proper restaurant.

Since this was our last night in Langkawi, we hit the beach to the feel wet sand on our feet one last time.

Langkawi Pantai Cenang Rasa restaurant — This is the restaurant from where we had lunch yesterday and breakfast today morning

After checking out a few restaurants, Ramesh ended up picking up a vegetarian pizza from Italian coffee chain illy Cafe, which cost as much as all the food myself and Loi picked up from the night market.

Langkawi stray cat Loiyumba petting — While we waited, Loi petted stray kittens

Langkawi Pantai Cenang Mithun Divakaran — As it is this post has over 200 photos, might as well squeeze in one of me. (Photograph by Ramesh)

Langkawi stray cat fight scar injury — Wonder what animal this cat fought with

Langkawi Sweet Inn Zee Cinema — Back at our motel, this guy was hooked on Hindi movies

Langkawi hotel dinner street food beers — Dinner! 🙂

And just when you thought we had seen enough cats for one day…

Langkawi Sweet Inn cat eating — This came to our door. We had to share our food with it too.

Langkawi Sweet Inn cat Loiyumba — We kept referring to the cat as ‘it’. So, Loi felt the need to check. It was a ‘she’.

Dinner and drinks done, I ended the night satisfied with all that I saw today. Actually, I did want to head to Kuah town after we came back from our island hopping tour. But given that it ended up raining in the afternoon, it’s a good thing I stayed put in Pantai Cenang.

With 208 photos and over 2000 words, this is the largest post I’ve worked on. There were still some more photos I felt like using because they looked good, but in the end decided not to.

It was good day today, but tomorrow onwards, it’s four days in Malaysia’s capital — Kuala Lumpur.

Other posts in this series:

Singapore & Malaysia 2010: Planning and preparing for the trip

Singapore 2010: Day 1 – Little India, CBD, Clarke Quay, China Town… and a lot of walking

Singapore 2010: Day 2 – Orchard Road, mall-hopping… and already shopping

Singapore 2010: Day 3 – Singapore Zoo, Marina Bay Sands; leaving Singapore for Penang

Malaysia 2010: Day 5 — Langkawi (Ferry ride from Penang, Cable car & Sky Bridge)

Malaysia 2010: Day 7 — Kuala Lumpur (Low Yat Plaza, Petronas Towers, Jalan Alor)

Malaysia 2010: Day 8 — Kuala Lumpur (Batu Caves, Petaling Street/China Town)

Malaysia 2010: Day 9 — Kuala Lumpur (KLCC Aquaria, Merdeka Square, KL Tower observation deck)

Malaysia 2010: Leaving Kuala Lumpur… and about going back

Unseen Malaysia | 41 Bucket-list-worthy Destinations. View the interactive version here

Malaysia 2010: Day 5 — Langkawi (Ferry ride from Penang, Cable car & Sky Bridge)

By Mithun Divakaran
/
Feb 28, 2011
/
Malaysia, Travel

Date: 29th September 2010

After a rather disappointing day in Penang yesterday, we woke up early today to set off on our next island destination: Langkawi.

After a rushed breakfast, we hired a taxi and headed to the terminal to board our ferry to Langkawi. We bought our tickets yesterday itself, and its advisable to do so; our boat was full.

Inside ferry from Penang to Langkawi — It’s air-conditioned inside and there’s a “first class” upstairs as well

Inside ferry from Penang to Langkawi Loiyumba peace sign — The ferry leaves at 8:15am every morning

Penang to Langkawi ferry window — Soon after the ferry set off, we decided to get up from our seats and go ‘upstairs’…

Penang to Langkawi ferry ride mushroom cloud — … and then outside. The mushroom cloud from yesterday was still there.

Leaving Penang island ferry ride — Goodbye Penang, until next time

Penang to Langkawi ferry clear sky — On one side it was clear sunny skies…

Penang to Langkawi waters clouds panorama — …on the other, dark clouds with some pockets of rain

Malacca Strait rain showers clouds panorama — In this wide panorama shot, you can see the pockets receiving rainfall in the distance

Malacca strait sea big cloud formation — There were some lovely cloud formations along the way

Malacca Strait ferry trail — The fumes are coming from the ferry

Penang to Langkawi ferry ride Loiyumba sleeping — With a cool breeze, calm waters, and sunshine…

Penang to Langkawi ferry ride Loiyumba bench — … it’s perfect for a nap

Malacca Strait Langkawi waters concentrated rain — It was cool to see rainfall like this

Langkawi ferry ride Mithun AOL Google tshirts — I wasn’t the only one on board donning our company t-shirts (Photograph by Loiyumba)

Reaching Langkawi by ferry boat — By 10:30am, we were nearing Langkawi

Malacca Strait buoy Langkawi — The water was getting clearer

Malacca Strait Langkawi ship — At this point, we were asked to go back to our seats

Langkawi ferry boat docked at terminal — This was our ferry (Taken using my phone camera)

Welcome to Langkawi ferry terminal — Hello Langkawi! (Taken on the Nokia E72)

Langkawi ferry terminal pier — (Taken on the Nokia E72)

Langkawi ferry terminal restaurant — (Taken on the Nokia E72)

Langkawi ferry terminal yachts marina — Plenty of yachts out here (Taken on the Nokia E72)

We hired a taxi to get to our hotel, which was on Pantai Cenang beach. (Cost us RM24)

Taxi Proton Langkawi ferry terminal — There is a pre-paid taxi booth outside the terminal

Langkawi Kuah town road — The main town in Langkawi is Kuah (Photograph by Loiyumba)

By the way, if you wondering where the iconic symbol of Langkawi (the eagle statue) is, you can find it near a park very close to the ferry terminal. We passed it while driving out of the terminal but didn’t bother stopping to take photos… as there isn’t much to it.

Langkawi taxi ride from Kuah to Pantai Cenang — The drive takes around half an hour

Langkawi islands driving by — We were quite happy to see all this

Langkawi Pantai Cenang road — By 11:30 we were at Pantai Cenang

We could see a sign on the main road pointing to Sweet Inn Motel, the place where we had reservations. Problem is, the sign was pointing to the left side, into the mainland and not to the right, where the beach was.

Sweet Inn motel Langkawi Pantai Cenang rooms — We were a *bit* disappointed upon seeing the place

Sweet Inn Motel Langkawi owner's house — This I’m guessing is the motel owner’s house (Photograph by Loiyumba)

When we made the booking via Agoda.com in August, the description read “on Pantai Cenang beach,” and though it is only a 2 minute walk away from the beach, it’s not a sea facing hotel. Oh well, at least it was cheap. Our triple room cost us Rs. 2360 ($52/€37) for two nights — that’s under Rs. 800 per person for 2 nights!

The rooms were also quite decent. The triple room was one double bed and a single bed, a TV with mostly local channels, wardrobe and a clean enough toilet with hot shower.

We couldn’t check in yet because our rooms weren’t cleaned and kept ready. So instead, we dumped our bags in the office room and hit the beach.

Babylon lounge bar Pantai Cenang Langkawi — Is there any beach on the planet that doesn’t have a Jamaica-themed bar?

Langkawi Pantai Cenang beach panorama — Langkawi’s most popular beach — Pantai Cenang beach (panorama comprised of 15 shots)

We couldn’t hand around for too long at the beach. We needed to convert currency as we were running short of Malaysian Ringgits. Loi wanted to sit at the bar, so myself & Ramesh headed back to the main road in search of a money exchange.

Palace of India Malibest resort Pantai Cenang Langkawi — There are a few Indian restaurants here

The resort you see above is Malibest Resort, and it’s by the beach.

AB Motel Pantai Cenag Langkawi Malaysia — So is this place

AB Motel Pantai Cenag Langkawi bike rentals — Just about every hotel has bikes for rent

Langgura Baron resort Pantai Cenang Langkawi — Langgura Baron resort is more ‘motel’ than ‘resort’. Reasonable rates & by the sea.

When we first came across a money exchange center, they were closed for lunch. We had to walk quite a bit before we came across one that was open. There really weren’t that many money exchange centers on Pantai Cenang road. Not as ubiquitous as I noticed in Thailand. My advice is to convert money either prior to landing in Langkawi or outside the ferry terminal if you come by boat.

Money in hand, we headed back to the beach.

Pantai Cenang beach Indians Arabs Langkawi — Judging by the flags, Indians and Arabs form a large chunk of the tourists in Langkawi

Villa Idaman Pantai Cenang Langkawi — Villa Idaman Motel, I couldn’t find their official site so you’ll just have to Google for more info

Pantai Cenang beach Langkawi sand — Despite being Langkawi’s most popular beach, it wasn’t very crowded

Air Asia Langkawi flight in sky — Air Asia has plenty of daily flights to Langkawi

Langkawi Pantai Cenang beach hotel — Not sure if this hotel was open yet

Melati Tanjung Motel Pantai Cenang Langkawi — Melati Tanjung Motel, this another budget sea-facing option

AB Motel Pantai Cenag Langkawi watersports — The usual watersports are on offer

Langkawi Pantai Cenang beach sand art — Lovely ‘sand art’ by beach snails (I presume)…

Langkawi Pantai Cenang beach snail sand formations — … and the shore line had lots of them!

Langkawi Pantai Cenang beach dead jellyfish — A dead jellyfish. Felt like poking it with my fingers… but didn’t.

Babylon beach shack bar Pantai Cenang Langkawi — Inside Babylon bar

After having a beer to cool ourselves, we went back to Sweet Inn to check in to our rooms.

Langkawi Pantai Cenang village split road — Take the left road to get to Sweet Inn motel

After we checked in, we freshened up and then stepped out again for lunch.

Nasi Lemak lunch Pantai Cenang Langkawi — I had Nasi Lemak, pretty much the Malay-equivalent to India’s ‘meals’

Considered to be the national dish of Malaysia, Nasi Lemak consists of some rice, roasted peanuts, papadam bits, small dried anchovies, boiled egg and and sambal, a spicy sauce (in the above photo, it’s the red one with calamari in it). The meal is filling and is usually very reasonably priced.

Nasi Goreng veg egg noodle soup Malay dishes — Ramesh had the one on the left; Loi had the one on the right

After lunch, instead of taking a nap, we decided to rent bikes and head to the Langkawi Sky Bridge while the sun was still up.

We rented 2 scooters at RM22 (Rs. 325/$7/€5) each for 24hrs.

Modena scooters bike rent Pantai Cenang Langkawi — The bikes that were the most common were Modenas. This model is called the Karisma.

The rental shop made a note of all the pre-existing scratches and damages before handing it over to us.

It’s best you inspect the bike as carefully as possible, so that they cannot point at any scratch or damage on the bike claiming you did that when you return it.

Helmets on, we set off. Ramesh rode solo while I rode with Loi sitting behind me.

Riding bikes Langkawi helmets — Photograph by Loiyumba

Langkawi road trip with bikes — Photograph by Loiyumba

Langkawi mosque — Photograph by Loiyumba

Langkawi petrol station — We stopped to fuel up. Filled up petrol for RM8 (Rs. 118). (These are self service stations by the way)

Riding through Langkawi road trip — Quite a scenic drive

Bike road trip Langkawi Loiyumba clicking — … and it kept getting better

Langkawi airfield plane landing — This is one end of the Langkawi International Airport runway

Pantai Cenang to Langkawi cable car sky bridge route map — This is the route we took. ‘B’ is Pantai Cenang beach and ‘A’ is the Langkawi Sky Bridge.

Stopping at Langkawi airfield — We had to stop to take a few photos. (Yes, I was aware of how big the helmet was on my head)

Langkawi bridge panorama — Panorama comprised of 3 shots

Langkawi airfield fishing by the sea — He’s fishing… not anything else

Langkawi scooter ride Mithun Ramesh — We moved ahead and then stopped again. I don’t remember why though.

Langkawi bike ride Ramesh — Ramesh ridin’ solo

We stopped here on the bridge to take a few photos.

We moved on.

Way to Langkawi cable car fruit stall — You reach a T-junction, from where you’ll see this fruit stall. Take the right.

Then, up ahead is a signal. From the signal, you have to take a left turn.

Langkawi yacht club marina — You’ll pass the Langkawi Yacht Club

Langkawi Yacht Club boat — The road to the sky bridge goes all around the marina

After setting off at 2pm, by 4pm we were at the Langkawi Geopark. It’s not that the journey takes that long, we just stopped on the way quite a bit.

Langkawi Cable Car parking lot — There’s ample parking available for cars & bikes

Langkawi Cable Car Oriental Village — There are stores and restaurants below

Langkawi Cable Car entrance — You buy the tickets from here

Langkawi Cable Car pods — Tickets cost RM30 per adult (Rs. 440/$10/€7)

Langkawi Geological Park waterfall — There are few mini-waterfalls here

Langkawi cable car first stop station — This is the first station, there’s another leg to the trip to the top

Langkawi view from cable car — The view is amazing even at half-way point

Langkawi cable car sky bridge — That’s the sky bridge

Langkawi Geological Park forest trees panorama — Panorama comprised of 10 vertical shots

We got into the cable car and continued up.

Langkawi Geological Park steps to sky bridge — Once you get to the second platform, you have to take these steps to get down to the sky bridge

Langkawi Geological Park 652 meter above-sea level — That’s how high the sky bridge is above sea level

Langkawi sky bridge platform gap — By the way, there are gaps in between the platform you walk on

Apparently the final scene of the Hindi film Don (starring Shah Rukh Khan) was filmed on the sky bridge. I didn’t see the film, but that’s what Ramesh & Loi said.

Langkawi sky bridge under platform — There were steps leading under the platform. Being curious, I took it.

Langkawi geological park trekking path steps — Apparently you can trek all the way down too. But you need prior permission.

Langkawi geological park trekking path tree — Walked a few steps down and saw this. So went back up again.

Langkawi geological park second highest observation deck — That’s the second highest observation deck

Langkawi Yacht Club marina from sky bridge — That’s the marina of the Langkawi Yacht Club

Langkawi cable car observation deck closed — This observation deck was closed for maintenance

Langkawi cable car 705 meter above sea level — So we went to the other observation deck

Langkawi cable car observation deck Mithun Loiyumba — Me showing Loi where we were staying (Photograph by Ramesh)

Langkawi Pantai Cenang view from observation deck — The first wing of the beach you see in the distance is Pantai Cenang. The one further up is Pantai Tengah.

If you want a video of the sky bridge, watch this HD capture by Ramesh:

The sun was setting, so we decided to head back down.

Ramesh took video of our journey back down:

(You can view it in HD for better clarity)

Langkawi Geopark Temurun waterfall — Temurun waterfall

Once down, we checked out the Oriental Village.

The Oriental Village mostly comprises of shops, restaurants and other services like massage spas. We were a bit hungry so we sat in a cafe to have something to eat.

Roselle flower juice beef burger Langkawi Geopark restaurant — This is what I had: Roselle flower juice (L) & beef burger (R)

It was was past 6pm, which is also closing time for the cable car ride. We wanted to make the most of whatever sunlight was available while heading back. So we set off…

Langkawi near Yacht Club — …buuut we ended up stopping again near the Langkawi Yacht Club

Langkawi Yacht Club lighthouse sunset purple sky — A beautiful evening to close out a lovely first day in Langkawi

Langkawi Petronas station near yacht club — There’s a Petronas gas station near the yacht club

Mithun Loiyumba bike waiting — Yes, me and my big helmet (Photograph by Ramesh)

As darkness fell, we still managed to get back to Pantai Cenang beach road in around 45 minutes. Instead of heading back to our rooms, we decided to make the most of the bikes while we had them. We drove straight, on to Pantai Tengah beach and past it as well, until we hit a dead end which looked like another docking bay for boats.

So we made our way back and decided to return the bikes tonight itself.

Langkawi Pantai Cenang T-shoppe bike rentals — This is the place where we rented our bikes from

The reason why we returned them is because the next morning we had booked ourselves for an island-hopping tour which would last until afternoon. So by the time we would have gotten back to our rooms, it would have been past the 24-hour limit.

Orkid Rea seafood restaurant Pantai Cenang Langkawi — For our early dinner, we went to this restaurant which had a sizable crowd

Orkid Rea seafood restaurant interior Pantai Cenang Langkawi — It’s lovely place and isn’t that expensive

Orkid Rea seafood restaurant lobster tiger prawns Langkawi — Yum

Orkid Rea seafood restaurant mud crab Langkawi — Hmmm…

Orkid Rea seafood restaurant mantis prawn Langkawi — Errrr…

(I kinda wanted to try it though)

Chinese butter prawns dinner Langkawi — But Loi & I ended up ordering this interesting looking butter pan-fried tiger prawns

We had a large plate of fries, some beers, and some pasta; all of which came to around RM44 (Rs. 650).

Kit Kat cone ice cream Malaysia — For dessert, and in my quest to try out new things, I had Kit Kat ice cream. It was okay.

With that, day one in Langkawi came to a close! We had woken up early in Penang today morning and tomorrow, we had to wake up early again for our pick up for the island-hopping tour.

So an early good night in Langkawi it was.

Other posts in this series:

Singapore & Malaysia 2010: Planning and preparing for the trip

Singapore 2010: Day 1 – Little India, CBD, Clarke Quay, China Town… and a lot of walking

Singapore 2010: Day 2 – Orchard Road, mall-hopping… and already shopping

Singapore 2010: Day 3 – Singapore Zoo, Marina Bay Sands; leaving Singapore for Penang

Malaysia 2010: Day 5 — Langkawi (Ferry ride from Penang, Cable car & Sky Bridge)

Malaysia 2010: Day 6 — Langkawi (Island hopping tour, Pantai Tengah beach, Night market)

Malaysia 2010: Day 7 — Kuala Lumpur (Low Yat Plaza, Petronas Towers, Jalan Alor)

Malaysia 2010: Day 8 — Kuala Lumpur (Batu Caves, Petaling Street/China Town)

Malaysia 2010: Day 9 — Kuala Lumpur (KLCC Aquaria, Merdeka Square, KL Tower observation deck)

Malaysia 2010: Leaving Kuala Lumpur… and about going back