Fun At Langkawi - Landcons-Orkid Ria-Eagle Feeding-Dayang Bunting

A long waited gathering with my pals was held in Langkawi at Jan 2011.
We depart from penang to Kuala Kedah, we drive for about 1 hour plus taking north-south highway. Finally we reach Kuala Kedah jetty, parking fee at RM15 per night, 3 days for RM40 (because 3rd day consider half day).

Bought the earliest ferry ticket that we could get, which is 1 hour later at RM23 per pax. The ferry are fully aircon, we are not allow to go outside of ferry... T_T Only very loud movie was play in the ferry, nothing else can do and I couldn't sleep either. It took us about 2 hours to reach Langkawi Island. I start getting excited when I saw the sea is green and much clearer than before!! Last time when I was here, it was like... 10 years ago? wow~ 

We already had our rented car pre-booked from my friend as he got friend doing the business over there. Advice from locals is that, do not take any offer from Kuala Kedah's Jetty, the price will be much cheaper at Langkawi Jetty. We stay in Hotel Landcons at Pantai Cenang, paid upon check-in, no deposit needed. After check-in, we strike straight to the sky bridge. Been wanting to check it out as seen so many people shoot it before. Sky Bridge cable car ticket cost RM30, very pricey, luckily half price - RM15 with Malaysian ID, MyKad present!

waiting to hop on cable car

 

sky bridge

We then had our dinner at Orkid Ria Seafood Restaurant 真浪花园, although the seafood is not as nice as in Penang, I think it is the best on Pantai Cenang, don't go anywhere else! Hehe... but do try other and let me know if you found a better one. The price is reasonable at RM245 for 12 of us. We had fish, soft shell crab, fried squid, fried egg, vege, hotplate beancurd and soup.

Dinner at Orkid Ria

How can we leave langkawi without having the f*cking cheap beer?? The beer priced ranging from RM1.50 - RM4, you can get them from mini market along Pantai Cenang. Do buy it earlier as they are not 24 hours mostly. 

Landcons hotel is within 5 mins walking distance to the beach. We bring the beer and had it on the sandy beach beside Langkapuri Resort...

Next morning, we took the island hopping package at RM30-40 per pax from our hotel with 3 destination - Eagle Feeding, Pulau Beras Basah snokelling and Pulau Dayang Bunting.
The eagle feeding is indeed worth to have a look, although they are feed by the boatman but not us, it is not 2 or 3 eagles that they are feeding. There are uncountable eagles flying around you waiting for the food!

The beach they took us are not good to swim. Too many stones (or dead coral, I'm not sure), they cut our feet whenever we stop swimmming... T_T

Pulau Dayang Bunting is famous with a freshwater lake in middle of the sea which legend told us that you will get pregnant if you drank the lake's water. Grab a life jacket from your boat if you are allow to do so. You will need it to swim in the lake unless you are a really good swimmer. Rental of life jacket is available at RM5-RM10 on the lake platform.

sc showing off his tricking

pretty gals at the lake

After came back from the tour, we had our lunch at Kampung Siam Restaurant（暹罗村海鲜餐厅）, Thai food beside Underwater World. It's expensive and the food is not nice at all. It cost us RM333 for 12 and I don't bother to mention what food we had ordered.
We had a nap the rest of the afternoon and had our dinner at Kuah Town for steamboat. The shop is behind Hotel Bella Vista, can't remember the name. The steamboat tasted so so as well.

Except for the bad food we had on second day, everything else is fun for us. Don't forget to have a shopping at Duty Free shop before leaving Langkawi. They are located next to Underwater World. 

My true pals always

Accomodation In Langkawi:
Hotel Landcons
Lot 2616,Persiaran Pantai Cenang
Mukim Kedawang,
07000 Langkawi,
Kedah Darul Aman.
Tel : 04-9531101
Quad Room (2 Double Bed for 4 pax): RM150
Note: Some room do not have window and the bathroom is a bit dark. But still consider quite clean for a budget stay. Check out my review on TripAdvisor.

Transportation/Rent a Car In Langkawi:
5 seater car (Hyundai): RM50
7 seater car: RM80
We had them at RM260 for 2 days. Probably the best price in Langkawi since it's from friend.

How to go Langkawi Sky Bridge:
Grab a map from the information counter at Jetty or the Tourist Information Center across the road (beside KFC).
Drive along Pantai Cenang toward Airport, and towards Telaga Tujuh, should have signboard along the way.
Cable car: RM30 (Foreigner)/ RM15 (Malaysian)

Orkid Ria Seafood Restaurant:
Lot 1225, Pantai Cenang
Mukim Kedawang, 07100 Langkawi, Kedah
04-955-4128

Hiking @ Pantai Kerachut, Penang National Park

We were in a very energetic mood sometime back then. One day we decided to check out the Taman Negara Pulau Pinang. There are 2 main trail, one heading towards Muka Head, where the famous light house is, another towards Pantai Kerachut that have a shorter path (which we chosen).

When you reach the main entrance, register yourself at the counter for free. You have to report yourself again when you return back after tracking. This is to ensure no one get lost in there.

It tooks us around 2 and half hours from the entrance to Pantai Kerachut. It is not a too difficult trail, I will said it's easier than jungle trail in Tokun Hill at Bukit Mertajam. But both of us, too bad stamina fellows... it was damn tired.

The bridge marks the ending point of the trail, as well as the sea in front of you! It feels like we found the oasis in desert.

There is a Meromictic Lake here, special natural creation of its kind, few in the world. In Meromictic Lake, the layers of the lake water remain unmixed for years, decades, or centuries. Unlike the normal lake, at least once a year, physical mixing occurs between the surface and the deep waters (Quote from wikipedia). This lake in Pantai Kerachut known to be dry in some season. It was dry when we were there.

There is no food nor drink along the trail, get prepared yourself. V make us some nice sandwiches, love it!

In case you all do not know, Pantai Kerachut is one of the beach that have turtle hatchery in Malaysia. We get to see baby turtle! They will be released back to the sea once they grow bigger.

The beach is extremely hot as it is 2pm in the afternoon... we can't get ourselves jump into the sea. Standing on the sands is like standing on a hot plate... all we wanna do is... go home... @_@

We do not have energy to crawl back anymore, plus we were running out of drinking water, thus we took the boat which cost us RM10 per person, back to where we came in within 15 mins...@_@. There are boats sailing to and fro Pantai Kerachut, we just happened to catch one that have extra seats available. If you plan to go Pantai Kerachut without tracking, you can choose to take boat also. There are several counter/shop for boat services outside the national park entrance.

of coz not with these boats, they are for fishing

Back to real world, time to grab something to gain back the cholestrol we just burned. My all time favourite Weld Quay Seafood Restaurant （海墘（大树脚）海鲜饭店）. It is almost right opposite Penang Island Jetty. You can see a big tree grows right through the roof of the shop.

This is where we called off the day. :)

How to Go Pantai Kerachut, Taman Negara Pulau Pinang:
Drive from Georgetown towards Batu Feringgi. Straight all the way.
After Batu Feringgi small town/market, drive straight again you will see a Caltex petrol station on your right.
In a short distance, you will reach a round about, take 12 o'clock direction, drive to the end, you will be reaching Taman Negara entrance in a minute. Parking space available at fee of RM3 (if not mistaken).

GPS Location:
N 5 27.561
E 100 12.396

Short Trip to Kellie's Castle, Ipoh 怡保

On one boring November afternoon, we suddenly decided to have a short trip to Ipoh.

Around 3pm, we reached our first destination - Kellie's Castle, probably the only one castle in Penisular Malaysia. It has a mystery legend behind, like all the leftover castles did. You can click on the link for more details.

We take away the Ipoh's famous Aun Kheng Lim salted chicken (宴琼林盐焗鸡). 4 of us, finish the chicken in less than 15mins. Feel so 狂野 to eat with hands... :p

Salted chicken

Next, we were plan to have a dinner and back home already. However, we determined for a detour to temple after the visit of the haunted castle. One of the cave temple caught our attention because we saw a staircase leading up to a hill while we were driving on the old road from Kellie's Castle to Ipoh town. I can't remember the exactly location. But it's on the same trunk road where there are lots of pamelo selling on road-side.

The staircase we saw from the main road

The cave is named as Guan Yin Cave (觀音洞). The temple itself was closed when we arrived at 6pm ++. However, the other sections for this place still open for public. As we walk deeper to the temple's compound, we found that this place is actually a combination of multi-national and multi-races wishing altar.

Write down your 甜言蜜語and hang it there

It looks like a themepark that presents wishing ritual or method as their theme. From conventional to cultural, from spiritual to modernization. You get too see what's the wishing process and try it on your own! There are explaination notes for each wishing section.

黐孖筋

Wish Making stepping stones

We could not finish all the sections as the sky was getting darker. We went to Lou Wong Nga Choi Gai (老黃芽菜雞) for dinner. Its tender chicken and kuey teow soup used to be very very tasty. However, this is the second time it disappointed me. Some says, the boss had handover his shop to those foreign workers for daily operation. It just wouldn't work man... Guess we will try out other sprout bean chicken next time we are here.


芽菜雞 & 沙河粉

How To Go Kellie's Castle:

1. Drive along North-South Highway. If you coming from North (Penang), exit at Simpang Pulai Toll. If from South (Kuala Lumpur), exit at Gopeng Toll. Around 2 hours drive from both way.

3. Exit at Simpang Pulai Toll, turn left towards Gopeng. 

4. Look for a main junction to make a right turn that leads you to Batu Gajah/Kellie's Castle. Take note on signboard.

2. Probably there's no clear and specific signboard around. Keep looking for signboard in this priority sequence:

- Kellie's Castle

- Batu Gajah

- Gopeng

3. If you are from north Penisular, and you found yourself in Gopeng town, you are mostly overshot the junction to Kellie's Castle.

Address: KM 5.5, Jalan Gopeng, Batu Gajah, Perak.

GPS Location: N 4° 28.525     E 101° 05.262

Entrance Fees:
Primary School: RM2.00
Secondary School: RM3.00
Adult: RM4.00

How To Go Aun Kheng Lim Yim Kok Gai (宴琼林盐焗鸡):
It's located in Ipoh town. Lots of websites already mentioned it's location. So I'll just say look for McDonald as your landmark. You are very close to it if you saw McD.
Address: 24, Jalan Theatre, 30300 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.
Price: RM16 per bird (Take Away Only)