Tuesday 5 April 2016

10-day trip to Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi, Kota Bharu, Perhentian Islands

Below is a write-up of my 10-day (approx) trip to Malaysia with my wife. Definitely wouldn't mind going back to Malaysia again in the future! So much to see and experience...

Kuala Lumpur

Wed 23 Mar afternoon — set off from London Heathrow airport flying on Emirates Airline (flight cost us £550 return per person; we booked three months in advance).
Wed 24 Mar evening  — landed in Dubai International Airport for a 4-hour stopover before proceeding onwards with our journey. Had a McDonald's burger meal while we waited!
Thu 24 Mar afternoon — landed in Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Got a taxi to our hotel (The Federal) located in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur. (We arranged and paid for the taxi at the taxi counter at the airport.)
Thu 24 Mar evening — joined a friend of a friend (a local) for a drive out to a restaurant named Sate Kajang Haji Samuri for some local Malaysian food. We had Satay meat (chicken, lamb, beef and fish) with rice and rice balls and peanut sauce! Was awesome!
Fri 25 Mar morning — the travelling caught up with us and we totally slept through!
Fri 25 Mar afternoon — we walked (around 20 minutes) from our hotel in Bukit Bintang to the Suria Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) mall located under the Petronas Twin Towers, and then had a browse around the mall.
Fri 25 Mar evening — met some friends for dinner at Madam Kwan's on the fourth floor of the Suria KLCC mall. We ordered Nasi Lemak and Kung Pao Chicken. Was very decent!
Sat 26 Mar morning — we just about woke up in time for the hotel breakfast and then met with a local brother who drove us around Kuala Lumpur. We stopped by some places like the National Mosque and Central Market.
Sat 26 Mar afternoon — we continued our tour with the local brother and went on to Putrajaya where we saw the newly constructed government buildings as well as stopping by the two famous mosques here: the Putra Mosque (also known as the Pink Mosque) and the Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin Mosque (also known as the Iron Mosque). Totally loved the open designs of these two mosques.
Sat 26 Mar evening — met some friends for some Thai food at a little local eatery called Pak Chu Tomyam located in Keramat, Kuala Lumpar. If you're gonna go, go with a local otherwise you won't know what to order!
Sun 27 Mar morning — headed to Kuala Lumpur International Airport to catch our flight to Langkawi booked with Malindo Air (approx £15 per person). We should have flown from Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport (also known as Subang Airport) which was a bit closer to our hotel but I made a mistake when booking the flight!

Langkawi

Sun 27 Mar afternoon — landed in Langkawi International Airport and got a taxi to our hotel (Langkawi Chantique) located in Pentai Cenang.
Sun 27 Mar evening — we got a taxi to the Cenang beach, enjoyed the sunset, prayed Maghrib on the beach, and then walked along Jalan Pentai Cenang (= Pentai Cenang Road) and browsed the shops. We also booked ourselves on the Mangrove Tour for the following morning. Absolutely lots of places offering tours and activities and things to do in the shops dotted along Jalan Pentai Cenang.
Mon 28 Mar morning – we got picked up for our Mangrove Tour and taken to Kilim Geoforest Park where the tour starts.
Mon 28 Mar afternoon — we continued with the tour travelling to the various sites by boat. You'll see bats, monkeys and eagles along the way. Highly recommend the tour. Thoroughly worth it.
Mon 28 Mar evening —walked from our hotel to the shops dotted along Jalan Pentai Cenang in the search of dinner. We settled on Telaga Restaurant based on the taxi driver's recommendation the previous day. Bad idea! Don't trust drivers when it comes to restaurant recommendations! The food was not nice and overpriced too.
Tue 29 Mar morning — we hired a moped for our last two full days in Langkawi and what a great decision! So cheap (£10 per day including full insurance cover) and so liberating to go wherever we want whenever we want.
Tue 29 Mar afternoon — we rode out on our moped to Langkawi Cable Car (also known as Langkawi SkyCab) and enjoyed the views up top of the mountains. The Oriental Village at the bottom was nice too. Some nice cafes to rest at.
Tue 29 Mar evening — we rode out to the night market which is set up in a different area of Langkawi every night of the week and on this night happened to be close to our hotel. Had we known how good it was we would have gone the previous nights also! Lots of snacks and drinks on offer.
Wed 30 Mar morning — we rode out to the Crocodile Farm. Worth a quick stopover to feed the baby crocodiles and to watch the adult crocodiles being fed!
Wed 30 Mar afternoon — we continued our ride on to the Crafts Complex and then the Fruit Farm. Both worth a quick stopover.
Wed 30 Mar evening — we continued our ride on to Restoran Siti Fatima which had some good reviews online only to discover that it closes at 4pm! We thus rode back to Jalan Pentai Cenang and had dinner at Restoran Haji Ramli instead. Was decent. Good value for money.
Thu 31 Mar morning — rode out to Jalan Pentai Cenang to return our moped which served us so so well the previous two days.

Kota Bharu

Thu 31 Mar afternoon — we got a taxi from our hotel to Langkawi International Airport and then our flight with FireFly (a subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines) to Kota Bharu airport (also known as Sultan Ismail Petra Airport) and then a taxi to our hotel (Hotel Perdana Kota Bharu). The flight cost us approx £25 per person.
Thu 31 Mar evening — we set off from our hotel and walked around town. We had no real plan. Just to walk around and get a feel for the town centre. We picked up some Kelantan FA (The Red Warriors!) football shirts along the way, stumbled across a local book fair and stopped by the local night market for some dinner. The local night market was cheap and cheerful but not quite as good as the one we experienced in Langkawi.
Fri 01 Apr morning - we got a taxi from hotel to take us to the Kuala Besut Jetty. The taxi ride from our hotel to the jetty took us just under an hour.

Perhentian Islands

Fri 01 Apr afternoon —we caught the 12:30pm boat from Kuala Besut Jetty to our hotel on the Perhentian Islands (Perhentian Island Resort). Note that boats are hourly from around 8:30am to around 4:30pm and the boat journey is around 40 minutes. We bought our boat transfer tickets from Kota Bharu Airport (70RM return per person).
Fri 01 Apr evening — we chilled by the resort's beach and jumped in for a swim till sunset and then prayed Maghrib before tucking into the resort's buffet dinner.
Sat 01 Apr morning — we got some snorkelling equipment from the resort's equipment hire cabin and practiced using it on the resort's beach.
Sat 01 Apr afternoon — we joined a snorkelling boat tour and stopped by three different places close to our resort which are good for seeing coral and fish.
Sat 01 Apr evening — last evening on the island... sitting by the beach and taking it in :-)
Sun 02 Apr morning — we caught the 8am boat back to Kuala Besut Jetty and then a minibus ride to Kota Bharu airport.

Kuala Lumpur

Sun 03 Apr afternoon —we flew to Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport (also known as Subang Airport) from Kota Bharu and then got a taxi to our hotel (The Federal). The flight cost us around £20 per person.
Sun 03 Apr evening — we joined some friends for some delicious Western Chinese Muslim food at Amber Chinese Muslim Restaurant located in Bangsar South, Kuala Lumpur. Excellent way to wrap up the trip.
Mon 04 Apr morning —a taxi ride to Kuala Lumpur International Airport from our hotel and then the return flight back home with Emirates Airline.

*****

SUMMARY: Excellent trip throughout. We'll be back to Malaysia for sure! And if we go back to Langkawi (which we sure plan to) we'll probably spend a week there next time round rather than just a few days.

No comments: