A Few Good Things

Langkawi is a small Island located 1 hr flight from KL. Our Flight landed by 9 PM – and were in our hotel by 9.45 PM – its a 30 min drive. The Westin Langkawi is a wonderful property – located close to the Jetty and the Fair Mall its a beautiful property with excellent service. Rates are reasonable – our rooms were priced at $160 / night (April is off season , May the rains start – peak season is from Oct to Feb) – rates for food was also very reasonable – 1/3rd of what the Westin Gurgaon charges. It has 3 large pools – the main pool , a kid pool and a rock garden pool. A Lovely Spa called the Heavenly Spa. A centre for water sports and a Kid Activity Centre. 3 Restaurants – one with live music at night at the lobby level. A beautiful floating Pagoda in the sea where you can host private parties.  All +ves for the Westin and I am glad we chose this over Datai and Andaman – these are nice properties but located at the north west corner of the island very far away. The only challenge at the Westin was the beach – it was OK – Sand was grainy and coarse and the sea was far away exposing marshy rocks –  no comparison to the beach at Sheraton Krabi or  the Park Hyatt Goa.

A tropical duty free island – its a UNESCO Geo Park. A small island (but 3 times as large as Singapore) – you can cover this comfortably in 3 days. Here is how we paced ourselves

Day – 1

Morning session 9 – 2 , was a drive to the Cable Car, A trek to a waterfall (not much water this time of the year) – and a drive past some beautiful golf courses and a quick stop at the Datai , a 5 min halt at a small but very clean Indian Temple and  lunch at the Indian Arabic Restaurant at Fairview Mall.

Cable Car

View from the top of the Cable Car Ride

Elephant Ride (Same areas as Cable Park – they also have a 6D movie)

Day – 1 : Second Half : 2.30 to 5.30 PM  High speed drive past Mangroves – Kite Feeding , Bat Caves.

The speed boat travels at 90 Kmph – zips past miles and miles of mangroves – and on the way we crossed an area for kite feeding and entered caves full of bats. The drive reminds you of Phantom and the Denkali isles – just that the river is free of Piranha. What added to the fun was sudden rain as passing clouds drenched us for a few minutes.

Day – 2 was spent entirely in Snorkelling / Diving / Swimming – a Yacht ride to an island – 1 hr away.

Anvi was brave enough to try deep sea diving and she did a great job of it – not once but twice going as deep as 50 feet into the deep blue sea – she claims to have seen amazing flora and fauna including a wide variety of coral reefs.

We were back by 5 PM and spent the evening in the lovely hotel having a peaceful dinner and watching the sunset over the beautiful island. Sun Rise at 7 AM snd sets by 7.30 PM.

Day – 3 our flight was in the evening at 7.30 – so we had the whole day to ourselves – but we had covered almost all of Langkawi – barring the wildlife park. Its a 20 min drive from the Westin and we reached at 10 – a small but homely wildlife centre it houses amazing birds and a few animals – no tigers / elephants / leopards etc. Kids love the place – its neat , clean and very homely – being off season was almost empty – and that added to the charm.

The place is full of beaches and water sports activities – so if thats your interest its all over the place. I believe there are some great treks to the rich forests – but all that needs more time.

We check out at 2 and head for a late lunch – and then we leave the hotel by 5 PM for our 7.30 PM flight to Bangalore Via KL.

That brings to an end one more amazing 10 day holiday. SE Asia is beautiful, affordable, efficient – and there so much more to see. I can now start planning my next holiday and I have a big list to choose from – Maldives , Sri Lanka, Seychelles, Bhutan , Bali …… let the good times continue.

All the photos of the Blogs / FB were taken on the amazing iPhone 6 – now there is no need for a camera the iPhone 6 beats most amateur cameras hollow.