I almost gave up writing blogs but our recent exhilarating trip to Langkawi forces me to write this one, as this trip was a remarkable history for 12 of us. My masters department friends and NTU friends formed a group to visit Malaysia for the second time and this time its full of beaches.
We booked all the travel tickets well in advance and our trip started at Singapore airport. Flight time was 3pm, at around 2.30pm the airport officials spotted a bunch of people running around the airport to get boarding pass; i don't have to give a special mention to who those bunch of people are.
Get ready folks the tour is on!!!
Flight journey was smooth and we landed Penang airport at 4pm.Malaysia is yet another India with just good road and infrastructures, smokers can enjoy the privilege of throwing the cigarette bud to the ground and smashing it with their feet. We were waiting for bus 401E which leaves to Jetty. There was a bus driver and we enquired him about the bus 401E and he told next bus will arrive in 20 mins but actually the bus arrived in 5 mins; almost India right. Malaysian buses doesn't have tapping system like Singapore nor conductors like India. Bus driver is the one who issues ticket, the driver didn't board us because we gave 40 ringgits for 37.5 ringgits. He collects exact changes from all people; he has tons of changes but he wont give us the change. We waited another half an hour, this time with exact change we boarded the bus and it took 1 hour to reach jetty. Every one was very hungry and we went to a restaurant called Anadha Bhavan. We started ordering food; it started with samosa, dosa and ended with chicken briyani, mutton curry, prawn curry and many more. After almost 1.5 hours of lunch time it seemed like 12 people from Singapore came to Malaysia to have food. Food at Malaysia is very cheap compared to Singapore almost thrice cheaper.
So after tiring and heavy lunch with bellies protruding out of everyone, we started to search for night stay at Jetty. Night stay at jetty is the only itenary we didn't plan for, as we thought we can get to some night cruise. Unfortunately night cruise were costly and fortunately we were able to find rooms in two different hotels. One road side hotel and one corner side(muttu sandhu) hotel.
Slept at 12 and got up at 6 am next day morning to catch a ferry at 8am which we had booked. After light breakfast we boarded the ferry, initially the boat keepers didn't allow us to deck. Don't imagine a high class cruise, its just a normal ship with bus like seating arrangement with air con. Luckily we were allowed to go to the deck, else it would have been a boring ride for 4 hours with absolutely 0 entertainment. Yes the ferry took 4 hours to reach the so called Langkawi. Almost 2.5 hours of non stop photo shoot at the deck, solo, group and scenic stills. Bright sun, cool wind with moderate ferry speed, ya it was good ride but not for 4 hours. Any one who plan to visit Langkawi take direct flight to Langkawi unless you are with your boyfriend/girlfriend or on a honeymoon trip. From now on i have attached some photos which i think are the best among the collection.
Very near to the ferry drop off is this place called Langkawi eagle square where you can see a extra large XXL size eagle statue. Remember to have a photo shoot in this place, as it is like a name card to Langkawi.
After this location every one was very hungry, we had planned to hire bikes since every one was tired we decided car is a better option. We took a big car that can fit 12 people. No proof is required to hire a car, you are the driver of your vehicle and you can go where ever you want in that island. The entire island is duty free and guess what the petrol price is so so cheap, around 30+ INR almost half the price in India right. We took the car and drove back to hotel, on the way we had food.
After one hour of rest at the hotel we drove to this place called oriental village which has a cable car ride. There is a hanging bridge at the top of the hill, you should take the cable car to visit the hanging bridge. We all took the cable car, 6/car; this was the best cable car ride i had ever had. Just imagine the cable car moves from the bottom of the hill to the top at almost 45 deg angle and at considerable speed. We got down and walked to the hanging bridge. The bridge is one of the marvelous engineering constructions. Constructing a bridge at the top of the hill and that too hanging, hats off for those who constructed it and maintains it.
I will give you a real feel of the picture shown above. The 45deg angle ride...
Do anyone remember this bridge? not yet? its the bridge where the climax of BILLA movie was shot. Take a closer look again you will remember. We became ecstatic that forced us to try some BILLA like snaps.
See thala pola varuma, thala pola varuma!!!
Maintaining that monstrous hanging thing is very tedious. The sun went to the other side of the world and it was dark when we drove back to our hotel. The way back was also a like a thrilling ride with the driving skills of the big boy.
It was around 8pm and slowly we started moving to the beach nearby our hotel. We got our food parceled to have at the beach and of course there was hot drinks and soft drinks to accompany us. 11pm party started at beach with hot drinkers and cold drinkers. 1pm party ended, half the team was at the water and half was at the shore. The team at the waters were flat out, they didn't know what they were doing other than just falling in the water. The coastguard at the beach started flashing focus light on this team. The team at the shore was steady even if they had hot drinks and we decided to move out the guys from the water to our hotel. We are the rescue team and slowly started moving one by one to the hotel. It was damn difficult to move these guys some were heavy, some had big mouth, some had dancing legs. Finally we moved everyone to the hotel and it was around 4 am in the morning. I would refrain from providing much details about this 6 hour event as it wuld require pages and pages of it. But guys, believe me it was like watching HANGOVER movie for 6 hours. There would have been 3 dead bodies by the next morning, 2 people almost drowned at the sea and one almost vomited his lungs and kidney out of his mouth(Nakku Thallirichi). Well done rescue team. Good Job. Appreciate it guys.
We all got up at 9am and got ready to visit waterfalls, on the way was this beautiful beach with white sand and awesome sea color which forced us to have a photo shoot.
Oh i forgot to show you the photo of the car we hired right? Ok let me upload it for you...
Driver Bossu with Cleaners Venki and Rajs.
Since we were going to the waterfall no one bathed at the hotel. We arrived at the waterfalls and this one is not so big waterfalls. Difficult for 12 people to be in water falls at a point in time, but still we all managed to take a shower.
Look out for the pose of 3 people who are not in the water. Have a closer look.
After nearly a hour and half bathing we drove to our next spot called the Mangrove Trailing. Oh i forgot, on the way back from waterfalls we found the lost grandparents of venki.
We split into two groups, 6 per group and took the boat. My group was the enthusiastic one and the other one was the dead boys group. Remember i told that 3 persons would have died at the beach, ya those people were in the dead boys group. Below i have added two photos as proof
Hope you found which is the enthu group...So after tiring and heavy lunch with bellies protruding out of everyone, we started to search for night stay at Jetty. Night stay at jetty is the only itenary we didn't plan for, as we thought we can get to some night cruise. Unfortunately night cruise were costly and fortunately we were able to find rooms in two different hotels. One road side hotel and one corner side(muttu sandhu) hotel.
Slept at 12 and got up at 6 am next day morning to catch a ferry at 8am which we had booked. After light breakfast we boarded the ferry, initially the boat keepers didn't allow us to deck. Don't imagine a high class cruise, its just a normal ship with bus like seating arrangement with air con. Luckily we were allowed to go to the deck, else it would have been a boring ride for 4 hours with absolutely 0 entertainment. Yes the ferry took 4 hours to reach the so called Langkawi. Almost 2.5 hours of non stop photo shoot at the deck, solo, group and scenic stills. Bright sun, cool wind with moderate ferry speed, ya it was good ride but not for 4 hours. Any one who plan to visit Langkawi take direct flight to Langkawi unless you are with your boyfriend/girlfriend or on a honeymoon trip. From now on i have attached some photos which i think are the best among the collection.
Very near to the ferry drop off is this place called Langkawi eagle square where you can see a extra large XXL size eagle statue. Remember to have a photo shoot in this place, as it is like a name card to Langkawi.
After this location every one was very hungry, we had planned to hire bikes since every one was tired we decided car is a better option. We took a big car that can fit 12 people. No proof is required to hire a car, you are the driver of your vehicle and you can go where ever you want in that island. The entire island is duty free and guess what the petrol price is so so cheap, around 30+ INR almost half the price in India right. We took the car and drove back to hotel, on the way we had food.
After one hour of rest at the hotel we drove to this place called oriental village which has a cable car ride. There is a hanging bridge at the top of the hill, you should take the cable car to visit the hanging bridge. We all took the cable car, 6/car; this was the best cable car ride i had ever had. Just imagine the cable car moves from the bottom of the hill to the top at almost 45 deg angle and at considerable speed. We got down and walked to the hanging bridge. The bridge is one of the marvelous engineering constructions. Constructing a bridge at the top of the hill and that too hanging, hats off for those who constructed it and maintains it.
I will give you a real feel of the picture shown above. The 45deg angle ride...
Do anyone remember this bridge? not yet? its the bridge where the climax of BILLA movie was shot. Take a closer look again you will remember. We became ecstatic that forced us to try some BILLA like snaps.
See thala pola varuma, thala pola varuma!!!
Maintaining that monstrous hanging thing is very tedious. The sun went to the other side of the world and it was dark when we drove back to our hotel. The way back was also a like a thrilling ride with the driving skills of the big boy.It was around 8pm and slowly we started moving to the beach nearby our hotel. We got our food parceled to have at the beach and of course there was hot drinks and soft drinks to accompany us. 11pm party started at beach with hot drinkers and cold drinkers. 1pm party ended, half the team was at the water and half was at the shore. The team at the waters were flat out, they didn't know what they were doing other than just falling in the water. The coastguard at the beach started flashing focus light on this team. The team at the shore was steady even if they had hot drinks and we decided to move out the guys from the water to our hotel. We are the rescue team and slowly started moving one by one to the hotel. It was damn difficult to move these guys some were heavy, some had big mouth, some had dancing legs. Finally we moved everyone to the hotel and it was around 4 am in the morning. I would refrain from providing much details about this 6 hour event as it wuld require pages and pages of it. But guys, believe me it was like watching HANGOVER movie for 6 hours. There would have been 3 dead bodies by the next morning, 2 people almost drowned at the sea and one almost vomited his lungs and kidney out of his mouth(Nakku Thallirichi). Well done rescue team. Good Job. Appreciate it guys.
We all got up at 9am and got ready to visit waterfalls, on the way was this beautiful beach with white sand and awesome sea color which forced us to have a photo shoot.
Oh i forgot to show you the photo of the car we hired right? Ok let me upload it for you...
Driver Bossu with Cleaners Venki and Rajs.Since we were going to the waterfall no one bathed at the hotel. We arrived at the waterfalls and this one is not so big waterfalls. Difficult for 12 people to be in water falls at a point in time, but still we all managed to take a shower.
Look out for the pose of 3 people who are not in the water. Have a closer look.After nearly a hour and half bathing we drove to our next spot called the Mangrove Trailing. Oh i forgot, on the way back from waterfalls we found the lost grandparents of venki.
We split into two groups, 6 per group and took the boat. My group was the enthusiastic one and the other one was the dead boys group. Remember i told that 3 persons would have died at the beach, ya those people were in the dead boys group. Below i have added two photos as proof
Somewhere inside the island there is a restaurant which nurtures fish and use them to feed the humans. We had a visit to their fish nurturing zone and one of the workers guided us through all the fish varieties they nurture.
You see the big boss in the photo?
LA la la la LA la la la LA la la la... I know this may be weird but down the line i will tell you what this La la la means.After the fish tour we selected the fish variety for our meal; Tiger prawn, Groupe, Squid pakoda and xx(forgot the name)
Actually before this restaurant we had a display of eagle feeding by the boat man. The LANGKAWI eagle is the special part of it. Footage for you...Remember the below Photo, i will ask questions later. Time 4.00pm
After dinner we moved on to Bat caves. Nothing special, a host of bats hanging up side down without any movement. We thought of spotting bat-man but we couldn't, he might have went to hunt criminals. ;)
Outside bat caves. Uh!!! that's our boat behind us.Next is the beach drive. Till now we were in back water and now we gonna enter the sea which has high tides at that time. Our driver is so experienced and he showed his moves to us. The boat was almost 30 deg in line with the sea most of the time, like a see-saw moving only upwards(LA la la la LA la la la LA la la la). The ride was around 15mins and never forgettable one for us. High risk drive, the life jacket supposed to be on us was inside the boat under our seats.
Want a look on our driver???
Ooops... This is just for still and it was taken in backwaters. The real man is down
This picture was taken at the end of our ride. You could find almost all of us are drenched with water and check out our terror driver without shirt in stealth mode on.This ride got ended at around 6pm and we went to the Langkawi Shopping mall. This is a budget tour and i still don't know why we went to shopping mall. We went to mall, had ice cream and came out wasted almost 1.5 hours in the mall. But i could capture a MJ forward moon walk in my cam...
just 2 photos from the shopping mall...
The veg guys were hungry and we parked on the way for them to have food.
I asked you to remember a photo at some point right, you remember???. This person in this photo is the same person on the other photo too. Time 8.45pm. He was sleeping the whole day.Since that night was the last night at Langkawi we took our so called car and went to few beaches looking for a better spot. There is a scene in padikathavan movie where Vivek becomes Don, he gets in to a car, car moves in a circle and drops him back at the same point where it started. Could visualize it??? Ya it was like that we took the car and visited almost 5 beaches just go there get down and start back again to next spot.
Next day morning and this is the last day for us at Langkawi. As per itenary we have to visit one of the waterfalls out of 3. We started at 9am, en route is the 3 waterfalls which ever we find first is our spot and that was the plan.
On the way we had a special dance performance in the car. One of the dancers is so elegant that he can move every part of his body individually at different angles...
We drove drove drove and we couldn't spot any of the 3 waterfalls. With the help of the map we spotted a waterfall and found that we have crossed it and so we had a U-turn and found our falls. Interestingly, better you the picture below.
Do you see a big mountain wall? That is the so called water falls we spotted. Actually there was water droplets from the top of the hill. We had a doubt when we got near the falls, as there was no sound at all and it was pin drop silence. A water fall with out even a glass of water.Fortunately we spotted an astonishing beach on the way to falls, being dejected by the falls we drove our car to the beach. This beach was so magnificent and it was cool place to play around. It was more like a lake with tiny waves.
You remember the face of our guy who posed as BILLA ajith. If so he is now as Khaka Khaka suriya, check out below
Sing along... Uyirin uyirae Uriyin uyirae Uyirin uyirae Uriyin uyiraeWe wanted something reminisce in that beach and we created the Langkawi Man
Architects(Mesthiri's & Kothanar's)
Ya....Itzu me!!!We spent almost 2 hours at the beach and we returned for checkout at the hotel. Few of us went to banana ride near the hotel. Its nothing but a very huge banana and we sat on that, one end of it was tied to a water bike. The biker rides the water bike and turns the banana upside down somewhere in the sea. Not so exciting but worth giving a try.
We checked out our hotel at 2pm with a quarrel against the receptionist for charging us extra. For all those who are reading this blog if you have plans to go Langkawi then don't stay at "Landcons Hotel". There is another hotel near Landcons called "CASA FINA" try there, even if you don't stay at CASA FINA, don't forget to have ROTI CANAI at CASA FINA restaurant(Must Eat)
We have flight at 10.15pm and now its 3pm so we planned for island hopping. Island Hopping - You take a boat and get to see 3 islands half an hour on each one. We took a single boat and entered the first island. A small island which had a big lake and part of it was fenced for swimming. Four of us swam in the lake, the water was dark green and 10m deep.
This is one place which i would not forget because i lost something very important to me. Wait!!! how can i loose something which is very important to me, actually my friend lost it for me. Since the water was dark and deep we couldn't find it.After an hour we moved to the next island and this is the most romantic beach, nature's beauty at its best. I don't know how many of us experienced it but this was a damn good spot.
Since i was not in good mood i didn't enjoy the spot. The beach has pure white sand, trees along side the shore, blackish flat rock with small snails, calm sea with nice breeze. If you walk along the beach with water kissing your feet, slippers in hand, sun out of its way, cool breeze around with girlfriend/boyfriend; it will be a paradise and it doesn't get any better than this.
Nanbaen da!!!
We are nearing the thrilling climax of the trip. We left the island at 5.30pm, settled all the money matters, had food at Tomato and moved to airport. Reached airport at 9pm and our flight was at 10.30pm, we were happy that this time we made very early to the airport.
12 of us split into 3 groups 6,5 and 1. Since i was sad i was hearing song and was alone. Remaining people in 2 groups were chatting happily . Time passed and passed, people chatted and chatted. Remember 10.30 was our flight, at 10.15 there was an announcement saying the flight got delayed and departure is at 11.15. Chatting goes on...
This is the final photo where you would see happy faces.Before the tragedy, i was often telling you about Lalalala right. Actually it was our theme song for the trip. The video explains more...
Tragedy starts now, time is around 11pm and there was an announcement, "This is the final call for passengers boarding Air Asia". There was no one else in the airport, imagine just only 12 of us in the entire airport. Some one passed a comment, Air Asia is so rich it is flying an airplane only for 12 of us. We went near the gate and the officer at the gate asked us for the boarding pass. Then only everyone realized that we all forgot to get the boarding pass. We have just 15 mins left to convince the Air Asia person to get our boarding pass. We talked talked talked, convinced convinced convinced but the lady didn't even tried to help us. She did call the pilot, but the pilot refused to fly us. Initially there was 10 of us around the lady convincing, time passed 5 of them were hopeless and left, time passed 3 of them left and finally the remaining 2 of us left at 11.15pm the flight has already left the runway.
It was entirely our mistake we should have got the boarding pass immediately when we got to the airport. Actually we missed 2 flights, Langkawi to KL and KL to Singapore was our itenary. We decided to stay at the airport and book tickets on the first flight to Singapore next morning. Just 10 mins passed a security guard came to us and told that the final taxi leaves in 5 mins. We didn't understand, then he told that they are gonna close the airport for the day. Langkawi is a small airport and it seems that its their routine to close the airport.
We didn't have even a cent left in each of our wallets. So it no use talking about taking a taxi going to city booking a hotel. There was benches outside the airport and we started settling there.
Nothing was around airport, we didn't even have a single drop of water to drink. We split into 2 groups and started our march to find water. Fortunately we found a tap and got our bottles filled up.
See the anxious faces out there...Time was 12 pm and there was a local police men who came to us and one of us explained the situation. He went and brought 2 police men along with him, again we convinced them on with our situation. They went and brought a huge van to arrest us. The policemen checked with his boss and his boss agreed to permitted us to stay outside the airport. The policemen warned us and told if he find anyone of us away from the group he will arrest that person.
After all this everyone started relaxing and there came hundreds of mosquitoes and started attacking us from every possible directions it could. I covered every part of myself with the clothes i had but still mosquitoes found some way inside and i constantly heard the hissing sound and the pain of its bite.No one really slept, after all this miserable happenings no one did really feel any disappointment, even a pinch of sadness of the size of a mustard was huge for us. Every one was happily chatting and hearing songs moving around far away from the mosquitoes.
7am in the morning and they opened the airport. We all moved in with a sigh of relief. Phew. We straight away queued in the boarding pass line, got tickets and boarding pass there itself. The ticket priced 150 Singapore dollars per person. The total cost of travel that we pre-booked was 77 singapore dollars, that includes 3 flights and 1 ferry drive but this one alone cost 150.At last we reached singapore at 11am and really felt at home. A night stay at police station would have completed the tour. After this incident we 12 of us were privileged to join the elite club of ALTHOTA BOOPATHY. If any of you wanna join the club then share us your experience and we would certify you.
This trip is a history for everyone of us. I still couldn't understand how is it possible for 12 brains malfunctioning simultaneously. This is one such group i would like to trip again, no problems what so ever even if Tsunami had hit us or the whole world came crashing down.
wait 2 more months for yet another thrilling trip @ Thailand
