Islands

Initially island hopping wasn't in our holiday itinerary in Langkawi but my sister whom we met in KL, booked us to an island hopping tour through Klook app. So, thanks to her, we went out for islands hopping trip on 15 December, covering Dayang Bunting and Pulau Singa Besar. 

First stop was Dayang Bunting. I had been to the swimming area on the island many years ago but now, they charged fee for visitors to go in. So we didn't go in but waited for time to ride our boat to the next island. 

The boys were restless as they wanted to play with water. Their wish came true when we made a stop at the other island where sandy beach and hot sun welcomed us. 

That was after we saw many eagles at the Pulau Singa Besar. Really so many eagles flying around us. What a scene!!

The eagle

One must visit this iconic eagle when one is in Langkawi, Kedah.  A beautiful, massive 12 metres sculpture of reddish brown eagle in Dataran Lang (Eagle Square) in Kuah Town.

 

Eagle Square is right next to Kuah jetty as we can see from the square. Beautiful sea and nice breeze greeted us when we visited the square after our lunch.  

Of course the afternoon sun was pretty warm but that didn't stop us from walking to the big eagle to take few photographs and selfies. Few visitors were around and everyone was patiently take shots amidst the hot day. 

Can you see the Maha Tower from the photo below?? Yes, that was the new Maha Tower, stood tall at the waterfront overlooking the sea. We didn't visit the tower.  Entrance fee applies.

The nearest view of the tower for us was in the Grab car when we entered Kuah Town, heading to our lunch venue. 

Maybe we can get to visit it one day. When there is a direct flight from Kuching to Langkawi by the new airliner. Fingers cross!! 

The best

After a brief visit to Underwater World in Cenang, we decided to head to Kuah town for lunch and duty free shops. It was about 30 minutes, more or less drive to Kuah town. 

Hubby did all the planning when it comes to food so he was browsing on which shop to have lunch. And we found out about this eatery, which has a good review. One of the best seafood restaurant, Kuah Town Seafood.

Simple, tidy establishment with printed old photos of old shops in Kuah on the wall.  Not many seating as a small shop, but business seemed to be good.  They have their regular customers from our observation.  The lady boss took our order.

She recommended their mantis prawn with kam heong but worry it would be too spicy for the kids, so we changed it to be cooked with butter.  It was a good decision as their crispy butter mantis prawns were super tasty and addictive.  

The same said for its salted egg soft shell crabs. Went so well with white rice. 

With the flavourful mantis prawns and soft shell crabs, we balanced it up with stir fried mixed vegetables. Nothing was wrong with this dish where the kids were concerned.

The cashew nut chicken was the lady boss' recommendation, and indeed it was delicious.  Crispy chicken strips with carrot, green pepper, chillies and cashew nuts in one plate. The kids loved this dish very much.

We also had soup for lunch.  Something simple like this soft tofu soup. 

Lastly hubby wanted to taste its pineapple fried rice.  Supposed to share around but it was slightly peppery and spicy, so mostly went into hubby and my tummies.  Jay took few bites and complained of its spiciness.  We ordered 3 bowls of white rice as well to share around.

All dishes were small portion as per our request. Just nice in size, and we had to pack some leftover in mantis prawns. We did finished it off that evening before we went out for our dinner in Cenang. Total bill amounting to slightly over RM80, inclusive of drink. That was cheap! And we were satisfied and happy with the serving.  The best meal we had while we were in Langkawi. Everyone enjoyed the lunch very much that we ordered extra 2 bowls of white rice to go with the delicious dishes.  

Underwater

For Underwater World like what I did for Skycab and SkyBridge Langkawi, I made booking via Shopee app and paid RM184. 

14 December was the day we planned for this, so from our motel, we walked for about 20 minutes or more to Underwater World Langkawi.  As it opened around 9.30am, we had time for a quick breakfast at nearby McDonald's outlet.  

By 9.30am, we walked to our destination and shown our online booking to obtain the tickets to the Underwater World. We were the first few visitors there before the place started to get crowded with visitors, mostly family with young children. We spent more than an hour covering the whole place before making our move to our next destination. 

Higher ground

Besides Petronas Twin Towers skybridge tour that I made online reservation and payment, I did 2 more online booking for our holiday in Langkawi. One was Underwater World Langkawi and the other was Skycab and SkyBridge packages. 

We paid RM225.50 for Langkawi SkyCab and SkyBridge through Shopee app. 4-in-1 Skycab packages that included cable car ride, 3D art gallery, SkyRex, and SkyDome. Unfortunately SkyRex was closed due to technical problem and we didn't go to SkyDome as we spent long time for the Langkawi SkyCab. 

Entrance to the Langkawi Skycar attraction. The hanging wooden bridge was Jamie's least favourite here as he was scared of the bounce when he walked over. Took him much courage and time to walk over the bridge, but not without his brother's jeer.

The place was clean and well maintained. Lovely lotus pond and the weather couldn't be any better, but windy. Not a good news for us who wanted to ride the cable car.

It took us more than 30 minutes to queue for the wrist bands eventhough we booked online. However, good news for us as you wouldn't believe the even longer queue for the walk-ins. Anyway, we were told that due to bad weather (wind) on middle and top stations, we were unable to ride the cable car at the assigned time.  So, we were told to come back to queue around 12noon.  

With more than an hour to spare, we went to 3D Art Langkawi first.  Everyone was also killing time at this place, since cable cars operation was suspended due to bad weather. 

The kids (and adults too) had a good time, posing and enjoying the 3D Art. We took quite a handful of photos there. 

Many sections in the 3D Art, from ocean, to beach, fantasy movie and well known tourist attaction in other countries. 

We took our lunch first before heading back to Skycab station.  We spent more than 2 hours in the queue.  Super warm and packed as everyone crowded the entrance.By the time we took our cable car ride, it was around 2.30pm!! Fortunately we had an early lunch otherwise I didn't think anyone could survive the queue in hunger state!!

Some gave up in the queue, too much and long wait for them.  Luckily we persevered although hubby and the youngest boy cannot stand the heat and crowd, and they almost gave up along the way.  But as we went along the queue and into the building and saw the cable cars, everyone started to feel alive and look forward to the adventure. 

 

Does it worth the long wait?? It does.  At least, for us. Maybe because of the school holidays, many families with children, as well as tourists, so it was understandable on the long wait.  And due to delay and bad weather, the early slots were pushed to later time.  

The view from the cable car was breath-taking, and the ride in the cable car was fun yet challenging.  Rocky ride as it was rather windy and at one point, our cable car was stopped for few seconds when we descended the Machinchang mountain. 

We stopped at two stations. First was the middle station where we enjoyed the view from the observation deck. Due to wind, it was rather chilling in both stations.  Luckily we stand by our jackets, otherwise I didn't think we could stand the cold longer.

Skybridge was at the top station, so we took the cable car again to ascend the mountain to the station. From the top station, you have 2 choice to go to skybridge. Either by tram or by foot through the jungle. 

We used the jungle trail to go up to the skybridge.  Not that far actually, but the steps were pretty steep so one needed to be careful when climbing up and down the steps. 

We did reached the skybridge in the end!!!  Beautiful view overlooking the mountain, and ocean!!  Super cool, right?

We spent quite long time on the skybridge before making our way to the skyGlide (a tram or cabin transportation that running on rail track), that took us to the top station. RM10 per adult and RM7 per child for the short ride. We didn't want to hike through the jungle trail again, so we paid for the SkyGlide service.  Then we descended all the way down to the the Skycab station before took a taxi back to our motel. 

Simpler dinner

First of all, Gong Xi Fa Cai and Happy Chinese New Year to all!!

A pause to my holiday post, it is time to usher the Year of the Rabbit. It was simpler affair this year, unlike what we had for reunion dinner last year.

Thanks to my mil, she helped me with the cooking. And hubby's niece who is staying with us for few nights; she helped with the reunion dinner yesterday. 

This year we had yee sang. We bought this prepacked yee sang and hubby did the preparation. 

The yee sang after he had done with it. Pretty nice and appetizing; we enjoyed it very much.

 

 

We bought one roasted chicken and 300g of roasted pork belly from Old Bank Cafe in the afternoon. 

My mil did most of the cooking with the help of our niece while I was busy cleaning with hubby and the kids. 

Her fish maw with 'tai ping'(peace) egg soup was very good and nostalgic as my late fil loved this dish. 

One of hubby's catch last year was used up for the reunion dinner. We can't finish the whole fish so cut it into half and steamed the head for the dinner.

Beef rendang cooked by my mil few days earlier; she heated it up for the dinner. 

Stir fried plum sauce prawns also made onto the table. 

Marinated chicken wings from previous dinner; my mil fried them up. 

This Pacific clam was cooked and gave by a friend of hubby.  Very spicy and I only took one bite. 

And that completed our reunion dinner. And as for this morning, a must to have chicken mee suah soup for breakfast. 

Wishing everyone good health, prosperity and joy in the Year of the Rabbit.