Okay, from most recent news to whatever I need to get around typing -

- I sat for my undang test this morning, and I passed!
- Now I need to spend 6 hours of my life learning how to change tyres and check the water levels of the car battery, etc. before I actually get behind the wheel of a car. Not that I'm complaining. But I think I'd learn more if my Dad taught me all that.
- Okay, I lied. I've sat behind the wheel of a car before. It's just that the engine wasn't on. And all I did was press on the brakes and giggle insanely when the brakelights will light up.
- I did all that to amuse myself and my sister. Good days.

Anyway, now to blog about Langkawi! I went to Langkawi back in 2000 (I remember because I remember I was in Std 3 and there's a story behind remembering it. Hahahaha I'm so lame)



So - we stayed at The Andaman (Don't scoff or be jealous. We wouldn't have stayed there if not for the promotion that was going on. Trust me. I blanched when my mum told me the normal price. Thank goodness for promotions).

It was awesome! I mean, I love going to places like Beijing because it's a bustling city, but I love it most for its history (The Forbidden City! Temple of Heaven! The Great Wall!). I like places like that, you know - someplace exciting, and yet with history in it. Like New York City. Europe. But I love a quiet holiday too. And Langkawi was perfect. I loved Kota Kinabalu too, but that's another story as well. (There was this quiz I took in the Going Places magazine on the way to Shanghai last year. You know, those random ones you do when you're bored. And, LOL, it said that Shanghai would be the perfect place to travel to for me. And I was like, "PERFECT! That's where I'm heading to!")

ANYWAY (I keep saying that nowadays. Sorry), it would be my first time flying no-frills, and my first time in the LCCT. It was... My first impression of the LCCT was actually, "If you want to incorporate it with KLIA, might as well do a good job out of it. It looks like the Subang Airport. And that is old". Seriously. I thought no-frills flying is getting big in this country. Might as well put in some effort and use actual walls, right? Not just temporary walls or zinc panellings. But the place was functional, and I'm a sucker for airports anyway, so I loved it.

So, on Saturday morning, we took an hour's flight to Langkawi! The pilot was great. Landing was awesomesauce.

Trivia: My sister and I equate a pilot's skill by how he/she lands. In any case, I have not sat in a plane with a female pilot yet. And we equate by how bumpy the landing is, whether the plane's sorta being brought down gradually or not, etc etc. and this pilot was real good. The descent was smooth, and the contact between tyre and tarmac was smooth, too! But I remember there was this one landing where it was so smooth, I barely felt it landing

Once we landed at Langkawi (The airport hasn't changed, as much as I remember. The Duty Free sign was STILL there), we got our bags, blah, blah, got the rental car (A new Saga, by the way). Since it was lunchtime, we decided to drive from one end of the island to the other to Kuah town for lunch. Anyway, the food was blehprettydisappointingwhateveratleastwehadfood. And since I was the only one who was not driving and does not have the tendency to get carsick/puke when I read in the car, I was Frontseat Navigator. Yay!

After some walking around in some stores in Kuah Town (Duty Free! That meant there was a lot of booze and cigarettes on sale. Yeah. OH, and so much chocolate!), before taking a ride to The Andaman.

We were very lucky to see the Dusky Leaf Monkey, which are apparently very shy, hanging out on some trees at the hotel, while checking in and getting our welcome drinks and stuff.

[Insert picture here. My Internets is being a bitch at the moment. Hmph.]
How presh is THAT? The baby monkey was so cute.

So, since we had free time, we hit the beach and the pool. Since, well, it IS an island resort, right?

Then, at night, we took this nature walk thing, which was basically in the rainforest the hotel is built at. (The Andaman's built surrounded by a 50 million year old rainforest. Yes. 50 000 000 years.) (Which is why I barely have a tan. I spent more time in the rainforest than on the beach. There you have it, Min Shen! LOL)

We were pretty lucky that night - we got to see the Colugo, which is basically a flying squirrel/flying fox, we saw the smaller flying squirrel, we saw a Slow Loris (The guide was saying how there hasn't been one in the Andaman area in about 2 years. Yay for my sharp eyes!), and crossed paths with a wild boar.

END DAY 1!

Day 2
We got up and took a drive down to the Langkawi Cable Car place (Which is just about a 20 minute ride from the hotel). We walked around the place for a while, and decided to only take the cable car ride on Monday, since the place was friggin' crowded.

We drove to the Petronas Quay, which wasn't far from the Cable Car place, to look-see a little. Then, we drove down South to Awana Porto Malai where the place was so different from the last time I went there (LOL 8 years. S'L you idiot. 8 years changes a lot of things. Especially when 1 year in that 8 has a tsunami in it) - I could barely recognize it. It was like... a ghost town. Anyway, we had lunch at some Thai restaurant which was at the Aquatic Centre (My English is failing me right now. I can't for the life of me remember what the place is called. The Marine Park?). The food was... okay. We didn't go into the Marine park thing since we did the last time, and if I recall correctly, there had been a few deaths in that place a couple of months back. Deaths of marine life, that is. LOL.

Anyway, after that, we drove back up north to where the hotel was for more beach and pool before having a lousy dinner at some lame restaurant that had no customers. We THOUGHT the food would be good. Then we realized that there was no one. And who cooks salted fish with chicken, and sizzling beef, 2 completely different dishes, WITH THE SAME SAUCE? LIKE, WHAT? Anyway, the vegetables were good. Redeeming factor, LOL.

Aaaaaaand back to the hotel for the night. Since the room had HBO, my sis and I totes watched TV 'til, like, 1 something 2 in the morning. LOL. That night was Nancy Drew (Tate Donovan was in it. I was all, "WTH HAVE I SEEN HIM IN BEFORE? HE'S SO FAMILIAR. GAH. GAH. I REMEMBER HE WAS A LAWYER, OR SOMETHING. I JUST CAN'T PLACE HIM IN A TV SHOW") (I found out it was Damages, LOL) and The Perfect Murder, or something. My sis and I recently watched Iron Man, so we were all, "Gwyneth Paltrow!" Anyway, her character works in the UN. I squeed. It was a weird movie. But there was a funny moment. "HEY LOOK! IT'S VIGGO MORTENSEN. WITH ARAGORN-LENGTH HAIR!"

And then later, "Man, they're all screwing each other over in this movie". Seriously. It was weird.

Day 3
Got up early to go to the Langkawi Cable Car place again. This time, we weren't surrounded by droves of people! It was in the space of the few hours we were at the place where I observed the good and the ugly of the Malaysian people.

The ugly bit, was when we were lining up for tickets. You see, my mum managed to get a good spot. Anyway, there were only 3 people ahead of us. The counter still wasn't open. When the counter opened, some guy swooped in and was being all buddy with the 2nd guy in the line. Basically, he cut queue and was acting oblivious.

Anyway, when Mr Impatient was paying for his tickets (i.e. opening his wallet), you know what I saw?

The guy was a freaking policeman.

A POLICE MAN.

DUDE. YOU. ARE AN EMBARRASSMENT. EVER HEARD OF LINING UP? OR IS THAT CONCEPT FOREIGN TO YOU? OR IS IT THAT WHENEVER YOU HAVE MARCHING SESSIONS WITH YOUR SQUAD, YOU STAND WHEREVER YOU WANT JUST BECAUSE IT'S THE BEST SPOT? BE THANKFUL THAT THE AUSTRIAN GUY BEHIND YOU PROBABLY DIDN'T SEE YOUR ID CARD. EUROPEANS? ARE VERY VOCAL WHEN IT COMES TO THEIR RIGHTS.

The cable car thing was worth it. And I SMSed Min Shen and Yih Shan from the top of the observation deck, just for the fun of it, LOL. "This message was sent to you 710m above sea level"

After the cable car ride, we drove down to Kuah Town for lunch! The food was decent this time. Anyway, we spent time at the hotel in the afternoon. Playing billiard, trying to surf the net. The connection was REAAAAAAAALLY slow I just posted a quick one on this blog and went offline. LOL.

We went for dinner at the same restaurant that we had lunch at, haha. We actually wanted to eat at the hotel restaurant, but really, do you want to pay RM36 for a plate of char kuey teow? I think not.

I timed our journey back from Kuah to the hotel. 56 minutes. Hahaha. That was taking the Padang Matsirat way. Which basically cuts through the island (Perhaps I shall scan the map we used =D)

OH, and that night, they showed Gladiator. Hans Zimmer is a really, really good composer. Seriously.

Day 4
Well, it was my last day on the island. And we did... nothing! Just hung out at the hotel, and had lunch at the poolside barbecue. Which was worth a lot more money than paying RM36 for a plate of char kuey teow.

And after lunch, we went to the airport.

And then we were home.

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So that's basically what I did in Langkawi. Almost nothing! We didn't visit places like Makam Mahsuri and Tasik Dayang Bunting because we already did in our last trip.

It was fun. I love doing nothing.


View of the pool and the sea and some rainforest from the deck.


This, my little pumpkins, is a Colugo. Flying squirrel. It's a nocturnal animal, but I spotted it sleeping on the tree during lunch on our last day. Do you see it? It looks JUST like the trunk, yeah? Its camouflage is really good.

Anyway, more pictures tomorrow! Photobucket's being cranky again.