Langkawi Holiday

Aku sekeluarga baru balik dari Langkawi. Holiday is always good. Should be in our annual agenda and budgeted for. Anyway this time, we all decided to be a little adventurous. For a start I'm not driving, instead we go by KTM train, Senandung Langkawi that is, the five of us. We took taxi from our house to Rawang KTM station and depart for Arau at 9:30pm. Our sleeping units are cosy enough for us to actually sleep. We reach Arau early in the morning and after breakfast, took a taxi (RM20)to Kuala Perlis for an hour ferry ride to Kuah jetty, cost us RM70. My last trip to Langkawi was about 16 years ago, before all these development. We rent the cheapest car in town, Iswara, RM200 for 3 days. Next, off to Helang Hotel, the 5 star hotel (or maybe 4) near the airport. The queen deluxe room with two queen bed and one long couch is confortable enough for us. The kids off to the swimming pool. Then we drive and pekena cendol and rojak with the full view of Chenang beach. A short distance away is roll of shop units, cafes, chalets and restaurants. I notice lots of mat salleh strolling around. Here we have the best dinner ever at Haji Jailani Seafood Restaurant. Siakap tiga rasa, sotong celup tepung, udang bakar, and kailan ikan masin were really really good. The second day, we visited Kuah town for shopping. Lots of nice goodies such as chocolates, t-shirts, kain batek, & pinggan-mangkuk. Shops till you drop is the theme. Good long rest on that 2nd nite. In the morning, I have a nice workout in the gym and after those buffet breakfast, we headed for the swimming pool. Third day is about visiting Padang Mat Sirat famous with beras terbakar, makam mahsuri, and the main event, underwater world with RM120 for the bloody tickets. Another seafood feast for dinner. The final day, we drive along Kok beach to Pasir Hitam beach to the north passing by Burau bay and all the nice resorts and marina bays along the way to complete the cycle back to Kuah. A quick lunch, jamak prayer at Al-hana mosque, and last minute shopping follows. I return back the rented car at the jetty complex and bought the ferry tickets. We came with five bags and we return with nine heavy bags. Some items are really cheap here, take for example the latest Honda Civic cost around RM76k (120k++ in KL) here and you have the whole island to drive around. Our ferry take off at 3:20pm. Reaching Kuala Perlis around 4:30pm, taxi ride to Arau for RM20 and a little rest at Arau mosque. Our train to Rawang taking off at 6:30pm and reach Rawang at 6:00am. All in all, a nice holiday. Good memories especially for my kids. Good shopping for my wife. Less saving in the MBB saving account, for me, but its well worth it. I'm thinking of putting all of these little travelling experience under a series of story telling books under the trademark of 'siri pengembaraan iman asilah'. The first book should be appropriately named SENANDONG LANGKAWI.