The First Step

Ok, long overdue again! I guess I sharpened my travel skills more than my tech skills, it feels. Some of you might be wondering does travel needs skills? Yes, it sure does. Right from prep to execution every minute needs to be planned. Well, if you need to make it a memorable one.
So I'll rewind a few years back. 2009 You all know what a budding courtship could end up as... Marriage, heck ya! So I'm not going to get into details about the wedding, but I'll jump directly into the honeymoon, as that's of prime importance. If it were not for this blog, I wouldn't have confessed it. But wedding preparation and honeymoon preparation don't really go hand in hand. Especially if you want to take off as soon as you bid your guests farewell. Visas, guests, hotels, catering, tickets, etc, etc and definitely not necessarily in that order.
Ours is no different story. After being ditched by 2 travel operators who took our passports, and other important docs and money, we were totally lost even before the journey began. Luckily we got our important docs back, lost a little money in the process, but managed to get our bookings done before we flew.

We took a Malaysian Airlines connecting flight from Kuala Lumpur to get to our first destination, Langkawi. It was an hour long flight and it was well served. We stayed at the Berjaya Resort & Spa. It was a fantastic place considering the price we paid for it and the last minute rush. The resort was spread far and wide and some had amazing views of the ocean. Individual wooden chalets for everyone! A special button brought you a personal golf buggy which transported you to the main lobby which had restaurants and other facilities. The beach and the BBQ area nearby was worth a visit.
Langkawi was a quiet, small and simple island primarily intended for tourism. The white sand beaches, lush green forests and rolling hills were all that a honeymooner could ask for. Activities included Eagle feeding, speedboat rides and a few other places of interest.
We opted to go for a cable car ride, up the mountains to get a good view of the island, so we hopped on to one.

The view from the top was breathtaking and we could see far into the Andaman Sea on one side and Thailand on the other. Some 700 odd meters above sea level. Reminded me of the Hindi movie Don. And btw, everyone in Malaysia knows Shahrukh Khan.

Back at sea level, we explored in and around our resort and didn't venture too far outside. The following day, we had a day tour of the island as a part of the package and were promptly picked up from the hotel. It started with the Underwater world and took us about an hour and half. 

We made a stop at a place that made Sea Cucumber Oil locally known as "Gamat". Langkawi is supposedly famous for it and our guide told us it had a lot of medicinal value. There was a pot of boiling oil and he made us put our hands in it and magically it didn't burn us, at all. A quick google search tells us that Sea Cucumber is actually an animal and not a vegetable and it looks like shit. 

Another stop was at Madam Kota Mahsuri's house. It was a total waste of our time and his. I dont want to even write about it here, coz that will be some more waste of time. You can look it up if on google if you are interested. 

The last stop was the eagle square, which had a large brown eagle statue. The island earned it name from the brown eagle which in Malay translates to LangKawi. The place was interesting, although there wasn't much to do there. A few pics and we were back at the hotel. 

Langkawi airport was the coolest airport we have seen/will ever see. No security check, no luggage issues, no heavy crowding, everything you bought on the island was duty free. We took a MH flight back to Kuala Lumpur. Here's the first view of the Petronas Towers.

We booked a hotel pretty close to the towers. After reaching our hotel Corus, we realized it was adjacent to the towers. 

The rooms were good and we were given a room without a view and we requested the staff to get us a better room and they obliged. However they could only give us twin beds instead of a queen bed. The new room had a nice view of the towers. The staff weren't very courteous, but yeah, not bad too. 

Kuala Lumpur was good, had nice activities, shopping, eating and partying. The city looked kinda safe, but we didnt stay out too long.

The city tour included the KL Menara Tower, a chocolate factory tour, the Kings Palace and stops at a few malls. Bukit Bingtang mall to be specific, because we ended up shopping at this mall almost everyday of our stay in KL.

We booked ourselves for a tour of the Genting Highlands (pronounced Genting, not jenting) which was an amusement park, casino and a resort. We took the cable car on the way up after picking up some souvenirs at a pewter factory. We enjoyed the rides at the park, but the queues were pretty long and we got tired easily. We took the bus on the way back, got off at a local train station, got off at our station and took a cab home. Happy. :)

The next morning we stood in line at 6am to get tickets to go to the walkway on the 42nd floor of the Petronas Towers. The views of the city were amazing. Reminded me of Entrapment.

This blog refreshed my memory of the first trip we took as a couple and will cherish it for the days to come. Though the trip made us both mature travelers, I will remember this trip because it taught me how to hand a DSLR camera. Though these pics are crappy, I know I've improved my skills and you'll come to see better pictures in blogs after this. Malaysia was a truly different experience. Truly Asia, as they say.