Hello!
You'd better appreciate this post because it had been years since I blogged like this (as far as I can remember).
On the 10th to the 13th, me and my girlfriends had a mini vacation in Penang and Langkawi. We usually have this every year but ever since we got busy with our lives after high school, some with work and some with colleges and universities, we didn't get to do this every year.
On our previous vacations,we went to Genting (2009 after SPM), and Seremban for a homestay (2010). This time we also had a road trip and most of us thought it was too dreadful to have another one anytime sooner. Hahahahaha. So on day 1, we drove up to Penang around 6 AM and reached before 10 AM. Thanks to my previous trip in Penang in last June, I managed to be a part time tour guide to the girls, whom never been to Penang or been to Penang years ago. Brought them to the famous cendol in Penang Street and for photo session with the murals! Hahahah sorry I am also quite a fail tour guide because I cannot remember places and I have zero sense of direction, so most of the times we rely on only GPS and my Penang coursemate, Michelle! Thank you Michelle :3
The girls having fun in photo session with the murals! I was the photographer because I've taken photos during my last visit. Joey look like a Taiwanese pop star thanks to the shades, cap and neon pink hair. :D
We had theme dressing for the vacation and D1's theme was pastel!
Sorry hahaha can't really see the pastel theme but me, Siow Yong, and Kee was wearing mint while Joey wore orange and Yong wore a light blue. (:
Before we went for photo session with the murals, we headed to Straits Quay first because the weather was scorching hot and we couldn't take it.
At the mini harbor in Straits Quay, where the yachts who I assume belong to filthy rich people were parked.
The place is still pretty quiet since it's new but it is really luxurious. They also have residential areas in the shopping mall. If I'm filthy rich, I'd like to buy a yacht here and also live here. I mean seriously. So awesome. Plus, it's pretty green here too and not too crowded, unlike places like Pavillion and The Gardens (which also have residential suites).
In the Snoopy theme cafe! There's also one in KLCC so KL people if you like this place you don't have to go all the way to Penang! It's the second time for me here.
Pardon my crappy face, I had like 2 hours sleep the night before.
After the mural photo session, we went and ate laksa as well as cendol. Sorry no pictures hahahaha. After that, we headed back to our hotel / or guesthouse in Batu Feringghi. Where I totally slept like a dead person during the whole journey and didn't know we drove through hills with really nice views of beaches, and I noticed only when we drove to the Jetty in Kuala Perlis.
Here's our room! It's considered not bad, because we paid RM80 for this! 2 single beds and 1 queen size bed. It was supposedly only 1 single bed and 1 queen size bed, but the owners forgot to reserve the room for us so they gave us this instead. A lot of backpackers stayed here too. It's also quite clean and they have tonnes of DVDs for you to watch!
Some of the other facilities are : air cons, mini fridge, heater.
Personally I think it's really not bad if you're looking for cheap place to stay for a tight budget. However, Batu Ferringhi I suppose, is more of a tourist place so I think you can't really find a lot of Chinese food. In my last trip, I had a Penang coursemate who brought us to a lot of nice food places (chinese ofc) which is very cheap and so freaking delicious, and they're usually in Georgetown area. But! Fret not, because just opposite this guest house we stayed, there's a long strand of night market that sells clothes, bags, souvenirs and all sorts of stuffs. I find it cute how they have actual mini boutiques in the night market. Their clothes are really not bad! Prices around the same as KL. The only pity is that they don't sell food in the night market. There are a lot of foreign restaurants and bars, though. From Italian food to Muslim food. I suppose their target customers are foreign tourists. (:
If you're interested the place I stayed is : Lazyboys guesthouse.
*
D2, after leaving Lazyboys, we headed to the Kuala Perlis jetty to catch our ferry to Langkawi. There are a few jetties who provides ferry service to Langkawi like Kuala Kedah and Penang as well. We chose Kuala Perlis because the ferry journey was less than an hour, not like the others which requires at least 2 hours. However, the drive to Kuala Perlis is 2 hours, so.... yeah. Hahahaha. That made up to about the same travelling time. If you ask me.. just book a flight. Lol.
Upon reaching Langkawi it was already around 2PM. We settled with our car rental and also island hopping trips on the spot. Which we regret after that. Well the car rental was okay I guess, we got a Sentra for RM80 a day. Too bad we got conned on the island hopping trip. Usual stuff, travelling mah. Sure kena cheat one. But if you are planning for a trip to Langkawi soon, I'd advise you to seek for help with your hotel, maybe that's even better, and there are tonnes of travelling agency that offer cheaper prices than the ones in the jetty. And! If you are into snorkeling, don't take the island hopping. You can't even see anything, like me ): Take the Pulau Payar Marine Park one. I heard the water is clearer there. After settling with all that stuffs, we went to Underwater World!
Note: You can also find travelling agencies opposite Underwater World (cheaper than the jetty ones!)
Birds, seals, penguins and sea urchins and sea apples!
I was really happy to see seals and penguins for the first time in my life! They're so adorable, especially the seals. They keep doing stunts in front of us. The penguins were hilarious because they kept running after our hands... Maybe they thought our hands were food. Lol. And because of that misundestand, we managed to get some pictures with the penguins!
Spot those cute little penguins!
More fishes~ Hey fishy~
I've always liked fishes and fishes are the only pet that I could keep well. Hahhaha.
Here's a special picture dedicated for jelly fish~
I particularly like this shot because it looks very pro imo.
The aquarium is right in the middle! It would have been more perfect if they were swimming around.
D2 dress theme was dresses!
After Underwater World, we went back to our hotel, Tubotel.
Tubotel is a tube themed hotel which is quite famous overseas and the concept was brought into Langkawi recently. They're still building more tubes at the moment! We, however didn't get to stay in the tube rooms because they were fully booked.
Some of pictures of the hotel I randomly took (which explains bad angle bad everything plus i did not edit )
At the lobby~
This is in one of our hotel rooms~
Simpson!
*
D3
We got up early for our island hopping trip!
We decided to go on a chartered boat - which means you booked the whole boat for yourselves. The maximum limit is 8 person. It's for RM250, but the price can go to as low as RM 220 depending on the stops you decide, and the people you deal with.
The original island hopping trip had 3 stops, 2 beaches and 1 lake, but each stops is only for 45 minutes and all of us thought it was too short. That was why we decided on chartered boat, where we chose 2 stops only, in order to have longer time at the stops. We chose a lake and a beach.
Tasik Dayang Bunting (Pregnant Lady Lake) and Pantai Beras Basah.
The lake is really beautiful, surrounded by greenery and when we went up there it was still pretty misty, some sort like a movie scene. This is my first time to see a lake up close! The natural light up there is also really good for camwhoring. :P
They built little swimming pools with platforms all around for tourists to play jumping and all sorts of stuffs. Although it has a lot of tourist activities (water sports included) it is still pretty clean and I am grateful for that. Hopefully the condition stays (:
Camwhore!
D3 theme was sarongs/batiks :D
After that, we headed to the beach.
The water looked lovely from far, but disappointing in real life. It's not very clear and we can't even snorkel there. Booo.
With ma ladies~
The camwhoring session was pretty fun!
After the beach, we contacted an uncle we met the night before at a restaurant. He had like 29126 companies. Hahahaha. He was the boss of the restaurant and another seafood restaurant, also provides boat and island tours, as well water activities! Yong had been telling she wanted to do parasailing, so we called the uncle up. He was really nice and offered a whole lot of discount~
Before parasailing in Pantai Tengah, we went and ate seafood at his restaurant too!
One of the girls parasailing. Can't tell it's who. Hahahha.
We paid a total of RM230 for 5 person. Cheap!
Parasailing is a water activity where you get tied to a parachute and get dragged by a boat.
It's really lovely and breathtaking to view the beach and hills from above.
However, the landing may be a little scary~
After the beach activities, camwhored more and then went back to chill at the hotel. I was quite exhausted that night, so I decided to stay in with Joey while the others got us food from outside. We dined at a platform stretching out into the sea at our hotel, and enjoyed the night. We also had drinking session! We bought a few flavoured vodkas and mixed them up with Sprites. It was a starry night and all of us were feeling good.
It also happens to be the night where the meteor shower occurred! But ofc we didn't catch it because if we did I think we would have fainted. Hahahaha. Okay I would. Maybe not the others.
*
D-4 was the day that we head back to home (:
Tubotel, Langkawi.
PS: Reviews on Tubotel
The hotel was not bad, but be prepared for the tiny space and public sharing toilets with no division for male and female. You bath and pee together. The door at the bathroom stalls are not legit doors, just a piece of cloth hanging, so be prepared for that too. The toilets have decent doors.
Their breakfast are nice! Try the ones beef and mashed potatoes!
They supposedly have public Jacuzzis, but pardon me, the thing I saw wasn't a Jacuzzi but a pool with water of room temperature with no whatsoever Jacuzzi stuff.
Staffs were okay friendly, but not informative enough I suppose since my friends had to spent almost half an hour talking to them. Food is good! Rooms are okay.
But I don't think I will ever go theme hotels in this period of time. A nice decent hotel will do.
Okay my fingers hurts from all the typing and if you just finished reading instead of only scrolling through my pictures iluvm
xoxo