Last weekend Nate and I spent a few days in Langkawi, Malaysia. Since I start full time Mandarin classes on Monday we decided it would be a good idea to get away for a relaxing vacation before I hit the books. There are no non-stop flights from Shanghai to Langkawi, so the overall trip took us 9 hours inclusive of a 3 hour layover in Kuala Lumpur. The first thing we did after checking into our hotel was head to the night market for dinner. The night market features local foods, fruits, and a little bit of clothing that are enjoyed by the local community and tourists. Each night the market moves to a different location around the island. Luckily for us, Thursday's night market location was just down the street from where we were staying. We spent all of RM10 ($3USD) and stuffed ourselves with char kway teow (fried flat rice noodles), popiah (fried spring rolls), apam balik (pancake filled with sweet corn and peanuts -- see picture below), grilled corn on the cob, and two refreshing fruit flavored juices. Needless to say we were in Malay street food heaven!
The next morning we awoke bright and early as I was like a child on Christmas Day -- I couldn't wait to see the beach! We were not disappointed! We stayed on Pantai Cenang which is a beautiful stretch of beach with powder white sand located on the southwest side of the island.
In case you're wondering...yes, the beach is actually that empty! There's a stretch of Pantai Cenang that is a little busier with cafes and water sport activities; however, the stretch we were on was literally like having our own beachfront.
That evening we decided to watch the sunset and have drinks at the Cliff, which is a restaurant with a view of the opposite side of Pantai Cenang than we stayed on. Here, you can see that there are more people, but we were surprised by how little tourist were here considering this is high season!
For dinner we ate at Tomato, a street side cafe that specializes in Indian and Malay food. The roti canai and tosai were y-u-m-m-y!
There are plenty of activities you can do in Langkawi -- snorkeling, diving, jungle trekking and island-hopping -- to name a few. Since we only had a few days and we wanted to spend most of our time just relaxing on the beach, I had the great idea that we should take the cable car up to the top of Gunung Machinchang which is approx. 708m above sea-level, and then walk across a suspension bridge above the jungle. As I was looking over the information for this activity, we found out that the suspension bridge was actually closed a few months ago due to maintenance...hmmm...well, the view was still supposed to be spectacular from the top! Did I mention I'm scared of heights? Maybe it was the sun, the 90 degree weather, and the beautiful beach I starred at all day, but it didn't quite register that the 20 minute cable car ride was up the side of the mountain...
Nate was kind enough to capture this shot of me, all of 10 seconds into the ride...
I survived, and the views really WERE as beautiful as that pamphlet that sold it to me said it would be.
~ Trisha
P.S. For a few more pics from our trip to Langkawi, go to Nate's langkawi [feb 14] travel album.