February 2019
Just one year after our last visit to Malaysia we are back again! I did not have any plans to travel to Asia in 2019, but that all changed the day before Christmas when I was the lucky winner of a Scoot Facebook competition and I won airfares to any location that they fly to!
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Oh, the possibilities! I know they fly all the way from Australia to Europe, via Singapore, so I was dreaming of taking full advantage and going all the way there. But reality hit – we were already booked to go to Europe in April/May for six weeks, and there really is only so much leave Simon can get from his job! So Asia it was, but the question was where?
We chose Langkawi because we had not been here before and because Simon in particular really wanted to come here last year but we just couldn’t fit it into the schedule. Malaysia is also pretty cheap, and of course, we love the food! This is something like my fifth trip to Malaysia, so it is also familiar and easy.
What was potentially not going to be easy was the flights. While I am a serious budget flyer for short haul flights, when it comes to long haul, my travel hacking kicks in and I use my points to fly business. I always feel a thousand times better when I can get a little sleep on the flight.
Scoot does not have flat seats even in it’s ScootBiz section, and we were on the cheapest of the cheap tickets called simply “Fly”. We had no bags, no food, no entertainment, no seat selection. Of course we could add them on, but the cost soon mounted up, and I was trying to do this extra international trip on a reasonable budget. So no frills it was!
I could deal with the lack of food and entertainment, but I was worried a little about the 10kg carry-on limit. Not for my clothes and stuff though, but for my laptop and camera! No matter where I am I still need to work, at least a little.
On weighing my bag on the scales set aside just for that purpose before I was about to check in in Melbourne it came to exactly 10kg! But do you know what? No one else weighed it. I could have squeezed some extras in! (But I don’t necessarily recommend this!)
On the morning we were leaving Adelaide, things didn’t start off so well. We had a big weekend and I didn’t get much sleep so I made an error when I set my alarm. Instead of waking my up at 5am, I woke at 5:40am. We had to leave no later than 6am to get to the airport for our first flight to Melbourne!
It was a crazy, mad rush just to pull some clothes on then finish packing the last few things we needed. We jumped in the car, then had that usual last minute panic – where are the passports? We had them last night, but which bag did they get shoved into? A few minutes later we found them, and were on our way.
We had to check a bag each in Adelaide since Jetstar only had a carry-on limit of 7kg. I discovered onboard when reading the magazine that it’s possible to pay for extra carry-on to make it 10kg. If I had known that beforehand I would have done that rather than pay for a checked bag, mostly to save the repacking once we got to Melbourne.
We had an uneventful transfer, and were soon boarding our Scoot flight, and we figured with a name like Barry, our ride on this plane was going to be a good one. We settled into our seats, commented on how spacious they felt after the recent Jetstar flight – and then all our thoughts of a good flight evaporated!
The person who sat down beside us smelled! Really bad. I wasn’t even next to him and I could smell his breath when he breathed! And his general body odour – ugh! We had eight more hours to survive, and no spare seats on the plane!
Apart from our inability to breath freely, the flight was fairly good. It was a daytime flight, so no sleep was needed. I’m a reader anyway, so mostly occupied myself by plowing through a book. I played a mindless game on my phone for a bit, and snacked on all the food we brought until we landed in Singapore exactly on time.
An hour after we had landed, we were checking in to our hostel, Backpacker’s Inn Chinatown. We had a private room with shared bathroom. It was decent, but I wouldn’t say amazing. Room was clean enough, with tv and coffee supplies, bathroom was also clean and water was hot. Breakfast was edible too. Location though was excellent. For $78SGD ($80AUD/$58USD) it did the job!
We dropped our bags and headed straight back out again in search for food. I had come across this article “The 10 Best Michelin Star Meals Under $5 in Singapore” and had decided I wanted to try to get to one of these places for dinner. Most of them are only open earlier in the day, but we discovered Tiong Bahru Yi Sheng Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee was open until 10:45pm.
We had never been to the area before, but Singapore public transport is great, so I was happy to use it even at night. Google Maps showed me there was a bus leaving from just a couple of hundred metres up the road that would deposit us right outside the hawker centre the stall was located in.
As we tapped off our transport cards, we were surprised to see the twenty minute ride had only cost us 12cents! We crossed the road and started to make our way through the hawker centre looking for the right stall.
I spotted it quite a distance away – it was the one with the lineup! We waited about half an hour, then received our noodles. They were delicious, and totally worth the $4SGD we paid for them.
After not much sleep my crazy body clock had me awake the next morning at 4:30am – after all, in Adelaide it was now 7am, and that would be a huge sleep-in for me if I was at home! I tried to sleep for a bit longer, but by five got myself up and ready for the day.
I waited until I couldn’t wait any more, and woke Simon at about 6:30, and we made our way down to a basic breakfast of toast and coffee. I knew a second breakfast was coming up and didn’t want to ruin my appetite.
We wandered aimlessly around Chinatown for a while, looking around and keeping an eye out for a Citibank ATM. We were literally $1.50SGD short to be able to buy our next meal so needed some cash. Chinatown is a different place in the mornings, the hustle and bustle has died down and the streets are calm and peaceful.
We gave up the hunt for a Citibank ATM, and just used any old one, hoping there wasn’t a fee (there wasn’t! Yay!). We went up the nearby escalators to go into the hawker centre – and of course we found the now-no-longer-needed ATM.
Our next breakfast (also from the Michelin Star list) was at Outram Park Fried Kway Teow Mee. Fried Kway Teow is quite possibly Simon’s favourite ever meal. If it’s on the menu, it’s what he orders. I quite like it too. We have eaten hundreds of different versions.
So how did this one stack up? It is supposed to be the best fried kway teow in Singapore, and right now I wouldn’t contest that! The basic noodles cost $4, with egg it’s $4.50, and cockles can be added for an extra $2.
We ordered with egg, but got cockles too. Yum! It also had little crispy bits of pork rind in it which I hadn’t come across before. I would definitely eat here again.
Singapore is all about the food, but now it was time to head to the airport and get on our next Scoot flight to Langkawi.
No smelly seat-mate this time, but we still had a bit of a weird thing happen. The plane was half empty, but we had a third person next to us. The strange thing was, his girlfriend/wife was on the other side of the plane, a row in front, and completely by herself!
About three more rows in front of us were also empty. So I don’t know what sort of ticketing system does that. As soon as we were in the air our seat-mate got up and moved to sit with his companion.
We were again exactly on time, and within about fifteen minutes we were in our hire car and driving the whole three minutes to our hotel. We had a look around our room and the rest of the hotel before jumping back in the car to go and find an ATM, a supermarket and have a quick look and the beach near us at Cenang.
We were planning to head to the Night Market to pick up some cheap street food for dinner, but I had forgotten to save where it was that night (it moves each day) on Google Maps. We did not bother with SIM cards this trip since it’s only five nights in Malaysia, so back to our hotel we went – to discover we drove almost right past the markets on our way back.
Back to the markets and we walked up and down the rows trying all different sorts of foods. Some I still don’t know what they were, but others were firm favourites, such as the chicken satays, that only Malaysia seems to know how to make!
We also tried a few sweet things, such as some little pancakes filled with a sweet spread, some coconut rice, and a coconut icecream. All up it cost us 30MYR ($10.30AUD/$7.40USD) for dinner and some fruit to take home for later. What a bargain, and delicious too!
On my first morning in Langkawi my crazy body clock let me sleep until only 5:15am! The way things are going, I’ll just start waking up at a normal time they day we fly home – to spend another week syncing. I seem to be getting worse as I get older.
At least I don’t feel crappy throughout the day, and I still go to bed at the usual time, it’s just my very strong body clock doing its job. At home, I am always awake before my alarm too (and thank goodness when it’s set for 5 pm instead of am to go to the airport!)
While we were eating we were looking up the things we planned to do today, but discovered that instead of the cable car opening at 9:30am, for some reason today it was 12!
I’m not to sure of the reasons, I just saw on the calendar that that Wednesday and the next were not open in the morning. I suggest you check this before you go, as well as check the wind, because it also shuts down on windy days. So, change of plans.
We decided instead to drive around most of the island, get our bearings and check out some of the further attractions. We dodged all the monkeys on the roads and first stopped at a few beaches on the north side of the island.
The views were looking out into the beautiful Andaman Sea. The colour of the water here is lovely, and the views and filled with small karst islands.
The final beach was called Black Sand Beach. I was excited thinking about seeing the dark colours contrasted with the water. Well, as it turns out, Black Sand Beach is not really black. Oh, there are definitely a few specks of black sand around, but mostly the beach is beautiful white sands like all the others around.
Next we came across Ayer Hangat Village, “the only natural saltwater hot springs in Malaysia” it claimed. We decided that for the entrance price of 5MYR ($1.70AUD/$1.25USD) we may as well go in and have a look.
The place looked a little worn to me, but still okay. We dipped our feet in the first pool. It was surprisingly warm, but on reading the nearby information, this was the coolest of the pools. These waters are said to be really high in minerals and have great restorative powers.
We walked around the grounds, and we only saw two other visitors. We tested out the hotter pool, and it was so hot I could almost not keep my feet in it.
This wasn’t a bad way to get out the car and have a look for half an hour or so, and the price in incredibly cheap, but it really did look a bit run down and well past it’s best. I was surprised to later read on a website that it had been recently updated.
Apparently the jacuzzis had been recently added (private enclosures for fully submerging in the water) but when we sneaked a peek they did not look good at all. I doubt they are ever used now – I certainly would not use one without substantial renovations being done first. My favourite part was the views over the rice fields next door.
Next stop on the road was the Kompleks Kraf Langkawi. This was a jumble of buildings showcasing many local crafts, from batik to glass blowing, jewellery to painting. Most of the crafts were for sale, and there were demonstrations and options to learn or join in. There were also a few small museums to learn about the local culture.
Again, another okay stop for half an hour or so. You may find it more worthwhile if you are interested in picking up some lovely souvenirs – I have to admit some of the clothes and art pieces were lovely. I was almost tempted until I remembered my luggage limit.
The only downside was I found it oppressively hot inside some of the buildings with little airflow so often couldn’t wait to get outside again.
The next sign we saw on the road was one pointing to Kilim Geoforest Park. I had read that this was where the mangrove tours were held, so we turned off to perhaps do a tour. But no, the tours had to be booked at least a day in advance. I decided to look into the options more that evening in the comfort of our hotel.
I could see we would soon be passing by the Langkawi Wildlife Park. As I learn more and more about responsible tourism, I become less inclined to want to visit zoos or wildlife parks or participate in animal activities.
As such I would have been quite happy to drive past and not visit, but Simon wanted to go in, so we stopped. Mostly the animals here were birds or small mammals and reptiles, with the only larger animals being a few deer.
The park looked clean enough, most of the residents lived in relatively large enclosures and there was no indiction of mishandling. There was still a lot of human interaction and feeding allowed though. So while I wasn’t horrified, there were certain aspects I still felt uncomfortable with and I recommend those who are particularly sensitive to stay away.
Otherwise this is a small wildlife park so only needs about an hour, and I think young children would particularly like being able to get close to some common birds and animals like rabbits, hedgehogs and guinea pigs.