Langkawi Life February 2012 A Three-Day Getaway to Langkawi By Teviot Fairservis

Illustrated with photographs of Langkawi by Arifuddin Rahmad of Monara Studio

Figure 1 Photo: Arifuddin Rahmad. View of the island from the Tower at Gunung Raya.

A relative or friend calls, texts, or emails – they are coming to Langkawi! And they only have a

few days free to get away for a much-needed holiday. Where will you go? How will you keep your family or friend feeling happy and satisfied? The senior folks say they want to sample foreign cuisines, mothers want to go shopping, the teens would enjoy a jungle or boating adventure, the dads want to hit the golf course while everyone says they want to have some time to hang out at the beach. Where can you go that will please everyone of all ages? Malaysia’s northernmost island chain, Langkawi, has it all within an hour’s drive maximum.

Here’s a three-day itinerary inspired by Air Asia’s downloadable Malaysia guidebook:

http://www.airasia.com/my/en/travelinfo/destinationguide/LGK_overview.html. Tourists from all over the world are discovering Langkawi as airlines and ferry companies expand

their routes. You can book on any of Malaysia’s leading airlines like Air Asia, Firefly, Malaysia Airlines, as well as Silk Air which all run regular flights while others including China Eastern (Taiwan) and Etihad Airways (Ireland), Qatar Air (Qatar), and ANA (Japan), and others offer periodic excursions. From Kuala Lumpur, it is just a short one-hour flight to Langkawi International Airport (LGK).

Fly in the afternoon or evening before and you will find yourself waking up in comfortable

accommodations suiting whatever your budget allows. Lovers of luxury will find a surprising number of 5-star resorts on the island including the Four Seasons Resort Langkawi which won the 2011 “Best of Malaysia” award for Best Romantic Stay with Tanjung Sanctuary giving a close runner-up. Round-the-world backpacker types can camp out in dorm rooms a few blocks from Pantai Cenang beach for as little as 25 RM per night. Get to know an island family in one of the many homestays and guest houses or meet other visitors in the hostels and motels near the yacht harbor and ferry jetty in the city of Kuah or

not far from the airport along the beaches of Pantai Kok, Pantai Tengah, and especially the main tourist beach at Pantai Cenang.

Figure 2 Photo: Arifuddin Rahmad. Panoramic View of the Langkawi Airport (LGK)

Day 1 - Explore the Island’s East Shore

First question of the morning – where to have breakfast? Most of the big hotels will offer a

breakfast buffet or you could meander down Pantai Cenang’s main road. Pop into the ever-popular “Breakfast Bar” or for “a unique breakfast” in which ‘East Meets West” when you stop by the Red Tomato Garden Café for some of the island’s best homemade breads.

This is just the first of many suggestions found in Air Asia’s downloadable e-tour guide, free from

their website and giving an inspiring itinerary for a 3-day visit to Langkawi. For some “Nature and Family Time” on your first day on the island, you can stick close to Cenang Beach by visiting the rice paddies and educational displays at “Laman Padi Rice Museum.”

Why not get out of the hot sun for awhile and head down to the other end of the beach to the

internationally acclaimed aquarium, one of Southeast Asia’s largest, called “Underwater World.” Several hours can easily slip by as you become engrossed in the strange habits and unusual shapes and sizes of the undersea flora and fauna.

Before setting out further, pop into the duty-free shops for chocolates, sunglasses, and a batik

sarong, then replenish your funds at Underwater World where several banks have located their ATM machines. Plenty of taxis gather outside Underwater World and along the road to whisk you off to various sites on the island. A short ride which takes you north of the airport leads through the kampong

Figure 3 Photo: Arifuddin Rahmad. Sun on paddy fields.

community of Kuala Teriang and on to Telaga Harbor which shelters sleek yachts and elegant restaurants.

In the bright afternoon sun, you can catch one of the world’s steepest cable car rides up to the top

of Mount Machinchang (until 7:00 pm) for extraordinary panoramic views of the Andaman Sea, and the main island of Langkawi and its neighbor islands. While at the top, you can mail a postcard from the postbox installed at 708 meters above the sea by POS Malaysia, the country’s postal service. You can walk out on to the Skybridge for more exceptional views – a walkway supported by an unusual one-point suspension tower. Or if heights aren’t your thing, you could join the new “Duck Tours” which will take you out on to and under the sea in a specially equipped “duck” car. Or why not combine both trips up into sky and down under the sea in one super adventure in one day?

While still at the Oriental Village, the children will enjoy petting animals at the mini-zoo and the deer

park. After shopping for souvenirs in one of the many shops at the Oriental Village, hungry travelers can choose from Japanese, Malaysian, Thai, Indian and many other cuisines in the food court. In the mood for seafood? Get a fresh catch from the ocean. Air Asia’s guide advises heading back to Pantai Cenang to one of the most popular seafood restaurants, Orkid Ria. Expats in the know say head into the island’s main city, Kuah, for a super-fresh fish dinner at Wonderland.

Day 2 – Go Back in Time

Figure 4 Photo: Arifuddin Rahmad. Skybridge on Mount Machinchang (reach it via the Cable Car from Oriental Village)

Take a boat ride into the Kilim Geoforest and you’ll be taken deep into the mangroves and cruise by

limestone karst towers, peek into bat caves, and spy birds, monkeys, butterflies, and many varieties of fish and other wildlife in the jungle tangles. You’ll see contemporary life and also look back at fossils that are more than 400 million years old. Granite, marble, limestone – all the rocks you learned about in elementary school are here on these ancient islands. The expert guides from Dev’s Adventure Tours and other tour operators will show you some of the island’s secrets and take you back in time to the days when the planet’s first animals emerged from the primordial ocean. UNESCO has designated the 99 island chain as a “Geopark” with geopark and geoheritage sites (http://www.langkawigeopark.com.my) deserving of sustainable protection of its geology, cultural traditions, and ecology.

Legends fill Langkawi’s traditions. There is the story of the maiden Mahsuri, commemorated at the

Mahsuri Mausoleum. A ‘Romeo and Juliet’ story, a beautiful Thai girl named Mahsuri from Phuket came to live on Langkawi. Mahsuri was falsely accused of adultery. When she was executed, she bled white blood proving her innocence. Before she died, she cursed the island of Langkawi for seven generations. As told on the Malaysian Museums website (http://www.malaysian-museums.org/mahsuri.htm ), the curse ended with the return of a 15-year old girl, the seventh generation descendant, in time for the 10th anniversary of the Langkawi Development Authority (http://www.lada.gov.my). Since that time, the island’s economy has continued to grow.

History is embedded in the traditions of arts and crafts you can find at the large Craft Cultural

Complex, and at the new art gallery opened in Kuala Teriang by the association of Langkawi artists (Galeri LAVAA). At Atma Alam, masterful batik artists create gorgeous designs of fish and flowers on silk. See the architecture, art, crafts and gifts given to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr.Mahatir Mohamed and his wife Datin Seri Dr Hasmah Mohamad Ali at the Galeria Perdana.

After a long day exploring the past, come back to the present for a late afternoon swim at Pantai

Cenang or any of the island’s lovely beaches. If you are still feeling energetic, there are jet skis, banana boats, and for the truly adventurous, you can be lifted high above the scene with a parachute pulled by a motorboat to go “parasailing.”

Figure 5 Photo: Arifuddin Rahmad. View of Gunung Raya, the island's tallest mountain, named after the Giant Raya, from Kuah City. The city's name means "gravy" which in a well-known legend was spilled when a gravy boat was kicked over by a giant.

Long-time residents of the island gather at Yellow Café or Little Lylia’s or the Beach Garden Resort

for drinks and dinner at Cenang, or head into Kuah to meet friends to watch the spectacular sunsets over Kuah Harbor as seen over the elegant yachts gathered at the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club and its Charlie’s Place restaurant.

Day 3 – Shop Til You Drop

Figure 6 Photo: Arifuddin Rahmad. Fishing boats at Pantai Kok beach.

Figure 7 Photo: Arifuddin Rahmad. Lubuk Semilang in the center of the island.

Last day and you’ll start thinking of souvenirs to take home for yourself and those you want to bring some very special gifts. Bargains can be found almost anywhere on this duty-free island whether you are a ‘chocoholic,’ a lover of fine wines, or on a hunt for Corelleware and other high-end kitchen and dining supplies, or simply an eagle sculpture or keyring commemorating the island and the country of Malaysia.

For the most variety, work your way along Jalan Pantai Cenang, the main street that parallels

Cenang Beach, where you’ll find everything from 15 RM sunglasses to hand-crafted porcelains, batiks, clothing, and other luxury art and crafts items suitable to decorate the classiest mansion.

A ‘secret’ of island residents is the large village of Padang Matsirat which hosts an amazing open air

market with colourful traditional Malay foods and smoky grills cooking up fresh seafood. There is also a ‘traveling’ Night Market that appears at various locations throughout the island – it’s in Kuah City on Wednesdays and Saturday nights starting about 5 pm. Another island ‘secret’ is Pantai Tengah’s row of luxury shops.

Wander the streets of Kuah and you’ll find everything you could need to live a comfortable life on

Langkawi. There’s many duty-free shops, groceries, computer and camera shops, jewelry stores, the headquarters of all the island banks and the offices of the utility services. Souvenir items of all kinds tend to be less pricy in Kuah, the island’s capital city. The city hosts three malls – at one mall there’s a Cinerama on the top floor and the large grocery, TSH, on the ground floor. At another, there’s a harbour view restaurant offering Arabic food on the top floor and an array of vendors on the ground. The island’s largest mall, Langkawi Fair, has good bargains on namebrand and hand-made clothing, the huge Billion supermarket, duty-free shops, and several very good restaurants including the Arabic ‘Fair Café’ and of course, McDonald’s.

Figure 8 Photo: Arifuddin Rahmad. The iconic "Sea Eagle" and Kuah at night

Across the way from Langkawi Fair Mall, there’s a lovely walk through the Sri Lagenda Park to the

famous Eagle statue that greets the ferries and yachts that enter Kuah Harbor. At the edge of the park, vendors set up with mobiles, statues, and souvenirs. A few more steps will take you to the ferry Jetty for those who are in need of a Starbucks coffee or a Baskin & Robbins ice cream.

Your last evening on Langkawi, why not splurge on a gourmet sunset dinner prepared by one of the

island’s award-winning chefs? Head out to Unkaizan, a Japanese restaurant located high on the hill overlooking Pantai Tengah, or watch the lights come up at the Lighthouse. Over at Telaga Harbor, there are a number of elegant restaurants to choose from. Or you could make the night unforgettable with a romantic sunset cruise on the luxury yachts sailed by Tropical Cruises and other cruise lines.

One last thing to do before you leave this magical tropical island: take off your shoes and walk in the

white sand at Cenang under the moon and stars. If you are like me, you will remember this night as one of the most romantic of your life… and you’ll come back to Langkawi again.

Figure 9 Photo: Arifuddin Rahmad. Tanjung Rhu Beach, rated #9 of National Geographic's ‘Ten Best Beaches in the World.

Photographs by Arifuddin Rahmad of Monara Studio

Phone 1939733420174357247

Email monarastudio@gmail.com, mail@monarastudio.com

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Malay Wedding & Portrait Photographers

Figure 10 Photo: Arifuddin Rahmad. Pantai Cenang at night.