Friday, February 29, 2008

Day 2

DAY 2

16hb February. At 7.30am we took our breakfast in . There’s a lot of food on the table. I took as much as I can to ensure that I have energy enough for our trip that day. At 8.45am we herd
together in the lobby and waiting for the bus and van to picked up us. At 9.00am we moved to ‘Galeria Perdana’ which is located in Kilim, Mukim Air Hangat, 11km from Kuah town.. It took 20 minutes to reached there from our hotel. Galeria Perdana showcases various awards, souveniers and gifts received by the fourth Malaysian Prime Minister The Honorable Tun Dr.Mahathir b.Mohamad and wife Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah bt.Mohd Ali from world leaders and statesmen as well as Malaysian in his tenure as the Prime Minister of Malaysia. This is line with Tun’s belief that the collections belong to the people of Malaysia. Through this gestures of friendship from all over the world, visitors will have the opportunity to appreciate the uniqueness and diversity of various arts and culture portrayed. Galeria Perdana also serves to express Tun’s appreciation and acknowledgement of the generousity from various donors. Here, we have to paid rm2.00 per camera that we want to use. So we paid rm4.00 for two cameras. It was very beautiful inside. One section is devoted to gifts made of wood, leather, crystal and lacquer, as well as musical instruments and stone objects. Another section comprises textiles, game, weaponry, ceramic, plaques and Islamic art. There are also gifts of silver, copper, brass and pewter .There is even an array of automobiles. We took many pictures as we can before we going out.

At 10.20am we moved on to Kampong Raja at Padang Matsirat where the Beras Terbakar was. Field Of Burnt Rice is a tricky place to find, it is located within a small kampung opposite a high school in Padang Matsirat. There were a lot of stalls selling t-shirts, food, drinks and Langkawi’s famous product,Gamat. During the heyday of Langkawi the island's rice granary was located there. During the Siamese invasion of Langkawi in 1821 the Chieftain of Langkawi, Dato' Karma Jaya, ordered the granary to be burnt in order to starve the enemy. Remnants of the burnt rice could still be seen today at the very spot of the burnt granary which is known as Beras Terbakar (Burnt Rice). The burnt rice is said to have been buried a few metres below ground but often appears on the surface after a rainy day. Basically we reach a place that looks like a morning market and we have to park there and walk about 2 minutes into a person’s house compound where the Beras Terbakar (burnt rice) located.


I didn’t see any burnt rice on the ground, I wonder if it’s already disappearing. Only burnt rice on a plate sealed in the plastic container we can see. They look like normal black sand to me. Also located within Field Of Burnt Rice was this nice traditional Malay house, took some photos with it before we left. Field Of Burnt Rice is not really worth visiting because there isn’t much to see around here. But should be quite interesting for those into local markets.
After spending an hour at Padang Matsirat, at 11.20am we moved to taking our lunch in Pina Ikan Bakar. This restaurant is very popular among the visitor. The ‘Ikan Bakar’ was very delicious. No wonder why so much people came to their restaurant.
12.20pm, after luch we went to the Langkawi Fair Shopping Mall which is the largest Shopping Mall in Langkawi offering shoppers a unique experience like no other .Situated conveniently at the South Eastern tip of Langkawi Island it is a more 1 minute drive from Langkawi Jetty, 5 minutes drive from Kuah Town and approximately 20 minutes drive from Langkawi International Airport. The big department and Supermarket Billion Duty Free are in here. The chocolates there were CHEAP!! There’s a lot of chocolates type. I don’t know which one I want to buy because all this chocolates looked very attracting. I spend RM50 buying chocolates. I don’t want stay any longer in there because it will make me spend more. So my friends and I walking around the shopping mall and see if there’s anything we can buy beside chocolates. After spending a lot of money, we waiting for our transport for the next activity, island hopping.
At 3.00 pm, a van picked us up from Billion Shopping Mall to a nearby beach to board a speedboat for the Island Hopping package we purchased. It is worth mentioning that Island Hopping is a very common activity in Langkawi that almost every resort/motel offers it. I have heard of island hopping in Pulau Langkawi from my friends. This is my first time, and I’m very excited. Island hopping is an exploratory journey and you get to visit fascinating islands of Langkawi.
We start from the beach near the jetty and the first island we visit would probably be Pulau Beras Basah, a place supposedly great for swimming and sun-tanning. It takes about 15 minutes from we left. Here, we really have a good time for swimming and taking picture. The sea water here is really blue-green and quite clear too; fishes can be seen from the jetty.


From Pulau Beras Basah, we then hop to an animal sanctuary where you can see eagles being fed by humans in Pulau Singa Besar and it is off to Pulau Beras Basah. Apparently guides would scatter the pontoon with chicken entrails and then sat around on their boats with tourists waiting for the eagles to appear. As our boat approached the pontoon we witnessed a most extraordinary sight, within minutes of our arrival the sky filled with sea eagles. There were around 2 to 10 birds circling waiting to be fed. The boat guide told us that Langkawi derived its name from the eagle or "helang". In old Malay, "kawi" denotes reddish brown .Hence, Langkawi means reddish brown eagle.
After seeing the beautiful birds in the sky, at 4.55pm, we then hop to the Pulau Dayang Bunting, an island with a beautiful freshwater lake called the Lake of the Pregnant Maiden. We were given approximately an hour to spend on the island doing whatever we wanted. We climbed a rock stair for 15 minutes to reach the lake and there were a lot of monkeys around. Luckily they were not aggressive. It's a beautiful lake where you can go for a swim, paddle a solar powered boat or simply dip your tired feet into the cold water to be nibbled by catfish. But I didn’t see any catfish, maybe we have to buy the pack of fish feed first to see the catfish come out for feed. Locals believe that if a woman were to drink the water from the lake, she'll get pregnant. Believe or not, I kept my mouth zipped when swimming. After spending an hour here, we took on the way back to our boat. It was really fun being here, and was an unforgettable experience for me. At 7.00 pm we arrived at jetty. In wet clothes, we were going back to our hotel since we not have much time to changing clothes there.
At 7.15 pm, we arrived at Langkasuka Beach Resort. June and I going back to our room. We prepared ourself for the BBQ dinner that night. It was 8.15pm, there is so much meal on the table and I was very hungry after all day journey. That night Miss Zaharah, our cute lecturer asked us to introduce ourself since some of them didn’t know the members of our class yet. At 9.30pm we were going to our last activity for that day. Karaoke time! We really have a good time. Some of them have a great voice. I even don’t know some of my friends really talented. Listening and watching them singing make me forget how tired I am. At 12.00am we going back to sleep. Time to relax our body.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

LANGKAWI TRIP 2008. (Day 1)



Thursday, 14 February, 4.00pm. We assembled at Seroja College. Our project manager, Kak Mel briefly tells us about the trip. We are separating into 4 groups which I was in a group 3. In my group consist 10 members including me. We’ve been waiting almost 2 hours for the school bus to pick us. At 6.30pm, we got picked up. Finally…fuhh~. We depart at 6.50pm from UiTM. It takes 8 hours to arrive in Kuala Perlis Jetty from Uitm. It’s hard for me to sleep in the bus and not felt comfortable with the small size of the seat. So we are spending our time with watching movie. We were watching horror film from Thai. It’s quite scary for me and make me couldn’t sleep.

At 9.05pm, we stopped at R&R Tapah. We were taking 1 hour rest and taking our dinner. At 10.05pm we continued our journey. 1 hour 40 minutes later, we stopped again at R&R Semanggol for 30 minutes. Everybody rushing to the toilet. Then at 12.35am we continue our journey. This journey make me felt so tired sitting in the bus for a long period. I couldn’t sleep at all. And I felt dizzy because of the bus movements. At 1.45am we stopped again at Gurun Selatan and this is the last pit stop. Then we moved on back at 2.40am. I’m sitting in front behind the driver bus. Before I’m sitting at the back, but the water from the aircond falling down onto my seat. So I’m changing my seat. Everyone already had their dream. Only me left. All I can hear is the driver bus talking with his friends on the telephone. His friends is the another bus driver. He kept on talking so that he will not fall asleep when driving. Even I don’t understand what they are talking about in Chinese, I felt safe. Anything can happen in a long journey. Thanks God, we’re safe.
Finally, our long journey end at 3.55am. it was too early in the morning for the ferry boarding. The driver bus dropped us at Kuala Perlis Jetty. We then take our entire luggage. It’s very cold. The wind was very strong. At 5.00am the counter open. Then we were getting inside the terminal. Here, we clean ourself in the toilet and get some rest while waiting our ferry at 8.00am. At 8.00am our tour guides, Miss Dafiqah and her assistant Mohd Hafizol were at the terminal to meet us and brought us to the ferry On Labuan Express 8 and continue our journey to Pulau Langkawi. The journey was somewhat rough, making both my friend and I feeling a nauseous. The seating was very cramped and the ferry looked quite old.





Kedah is the state characterized by vast paddy plains and off
ers a captivating variety of natural attractions such as the famous island getaway of Langkawi, Pulau Payar Marine Park and Lake Pedu. The Langkawi Geopark, comprising of the 99 islands in the Langkawi archipelago is Malaysia’s first geopark. The total land area of Langkawi Geopark is about 478 square kilometers. According to local legend, Langkawi derives its name from 'helang' meaning eagle and 'kawi' meaning reddish brown. Those of you who love shopping would be pleased to know that Langkawi is a tax-free zone :). We arrived at Langkawi around 9.15am. There’s been a bus and a van waiting for us at the jetty. My group taking the van whiles the others taking the bus. I saw a big guy open the van and dropped our luggage into the van. The big guy is our guide. His name is Bob. Believe or not He just 21 yrs old. Just like me. He got his own company with his father. Lucky son.

in Bob's Van


Our first stop for the day was at the Gamat Factory at 9.35am. I had thought gamat was some food or stone but turns out to be sea cucumber processed into medicine. It enhances the body's resistance towards various diseases and contains a cell growth factor which has the ability to accelerate the regeneration of biological cells, bone, collagen and rejuvenates skin. A popular produce of Langkawi. Our guide showed us how the locals make gamat oil - a hot boiling mix of sea cucumber and coconut oil. And he actually put his finger into the hot boiling pot of cooking gamat!!! He said it burned at first but if you leave the oil there for awhile then wash it off, your skin will be perfectly fine. True, because his finger looked fine when he showed it to me. Then I’ll try put my hand not only finger into the Gamat pot. Yeah...It’s true, not too hot actually. Just felt warm. My hand very oily and it’s very hard to wash it even with soap and its smell bad.



Good for skin! :P

At 10am we moved on to the next stop, Makam Mahsuri (Mahsuri's Mausoleum). We arrived at the ‘Makam Mahsuri’ at 10.10am. Its only take 10 minutes from we left. The mausoleum is a shrine built in memory of Mahsuri, the legendary 19th century Langkawi princess, who was innocently stabbed to death for committing adultery. With her dying breath, Mahsuri cursed Langkawi to have 7 generations of bad luck, which many locals of Langkawi believed to be true, citing Siamese invasion and decades of failed crops following her death. It is only at the end of the 20th century, after the 7 generations have supposedly come to pass, that Langkawi began to prosper as a tourist destination. We began our tour of the place watching beautiful ladies playing the traditional Malay instrumental songs. Their performance, all of them, made us and others amazed. We walked around the premises, taking photos and buying some local crisps.


Behind me is Makam Mahsuri




At 11.05am we hop to the next station – cable car. It takes 25 minutes to reached there from Mahsuri’s Mausoleum. At 11.30am, at Oriental Village, a themed shopping centre, where the Langkawi Cable Car is located and goes all the way up Gunung Mat Cincang. There were so many people there queuing up for the cable car, but the cable cars arrive very fast. Hence, waiting time is minimal. Bob told us that the legendary Gunung Mat Cincang, Langkawi's second highest peak was believed to have been once a being named Mat Cincang who turned himself into a mountain. The exhilarating 20-minute journey you take in a four-seater cable car silently ascends the height over a distance of 2.2 kilometres all the way hovering over the verdant forest canopy. I have to say, it felt rather scary being lifted so high up and those 20 minutes felt like a very, very long time. From cable car we can saw a beautiful sea, clear blue sky and lush green hills. Words cannot describe the scenery here so I will let the photos do all the talking. .... It took about 30 minutes and gave us amazing views over Langkawi. We could see a waterfall in the forest from the cable car too. The views were really spectacular. We stayed there for some time before catching the cable car to the Upper Station. It's one of the worlds steepest and is the longest free-span mono-cable car in the Malaysia Book of Records. The top stop was about 700m above sea level. Bob said on a clear day, we would be able to enjoy the magnificent view of the island all the way to southern Thailand. Our group took a walk to the viewing points and also to the Curved Suspension Bridge. We walked down lots of steps to the curved suspension bridge, which is the Middle Station. It was really interesting to walk above the mountainous forest, with little wispy refreshing clouds blowing in our faces. The wind must have picked up while we were on the bridge because I could feel the bridge 'move' as the wind blew. Don't feel very safe up here. The wind blew so strong up there and it makes Adam’s glasses fell down. The view up there was very beautiful. Oh...it makes me don’t want to go home. We stayed here for more than 2 hours before getting down.






At 1.25pm we left Oriental Village and proceeded to D’sa Restaurant where we were having lunch. After we reached there, we’ve been waiting for the food about 10 minutes. I’m so hungry. The food was very nice and delicious. No wonder why the guides recommended this restaurant to us. After having our lunch we proceeded to Langkasuka Beach Resort which is located at Kuala Muda, Mukim Padang Matsirat.



At 3.20 we arrived in Langkasuka Beach resort. This place was very nice. Then we herd together in the lobby and waiting for the key room. June and I have to wait our room been occupied. While the others already going to their rooms. After awhile, we get our key. We got deluxe suit room! Yes… this room very bigger and nice. But unfortunately our window view is not very nice. The gate side view. After a long journey that day, we felt so tired. After taking bath we fell asleep. When we woke up its 5.50pm already! Oh no...We were late.
Supposedly we having a games that evening at 5.30pm.June and I jumped off from the bed and prepared for ourself and rushing to the beach. In the beach, we were punished by our lecturer because we late. As a punishment we were asked to run. Oh…so tired. Not only two of us, somebody else also late. Adam and Leroy. Next time, I will on my alarm.  They organized so much activity, not so much actually, only 5 activities. But it’s really fun. We were having our good time. The best part in these games is the Mummies challenges. In each group we have to choose one person to be mummy. And we choose Fadhil as a mummy because he has a small body and easy to wrapped him with the tissue. It’s so funny looking all these mummies been wrapping by tissue and decorated with the balloons, wood and some kind of stuff. After all, our group became the winner but there’s no prizes only a clap hands we got.



The mummies!!!!


We finished our games at 7.30pm. We were going back to our room and taking shower. There is no dinner included in our package in the resort that night. So we have to go out and looking for a food. At 8.30 we were going to having our dinner. Only a few of us going to having dinner while the others just stayed at the hotel and sent their ordering to us. We were going by van to somewhere in Pantai Cenang. I forgot already what does the restaurant named. It’s charged us rm7.00 (go and back). After dinner, we went back to our hotel. At 10.30pm, I already have my sweet dream. Good night.