“Malaysia, truly Asia.” – claims the advertisements of Malaysian tourism. Did they coin this tag line just because Malaysia and Asia rhymed well? I had this doubt all along till I visited Malaysia in 2011. Oh my God! Malaysia is, definitely, truly Asia. A land full of mountains; A land so green and fresh; A land that can make you fall in love with nature. I love Malaysia so much that, when in 2014 (this year, last month) I got married, Malaysia was the first place I wanted to go with my husband for a honeymoon. Why did I love the country so much? What impressed me? Let’s go on a dream trip to Malaysia through this article.
5 Things one will be assured of when one visits Malaysia:
1. Fresh green mountains
2. Heights
3. Wildlife
4. Sea food
5. Islands & Sea
A dream trip:
“Have a nice trip” said the airhostess with a pleasant smile. There started my beautiful vacation to the land of mountains, Malaysia. I sat back, turned on flight mode and fastened my seat belt.
*Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz*
‘We will land in Kuala Lumpur in less than 30 minutes. The local time is 2:50pm. Please fasten your seat belt…blah …blah… blah…’ said the announcement.
I, quickly, looked through the window and saw a huge area fully painted in green. I couldn’t wait to go out of the airport.
I reached my friend’s place, dropped my baggage, had some water and packed my handbag for sight seeing. The best thing about Malaysia is that it becomes dark only after 7.
You can trip to Malaysia just to see the glittering KL Tower at night. The tower is so tall that you can see the tower from almost anywhere in KL and shines like it is studded with stars. It looks like someone had studded stars on the tower and spilled a bit of it on the sky. You can reach there through the metro rail and it is walkable from the station. The backside of the tower had a musical, colourful fountain, where people can sit and watch the beauty of the tower.
Six, bottom floors of the two towers are shopping complexes. For a vegetarian, Indian like me seeing a Saravana Bhavan there was like winning in a treasure hunt. There is a raised platform at a certain distance from the fountain where we can stand and click pictures with the tower.
The next best thing about Kuala Lumpur is HOP ON HOP OFF service which is a boon to tourist who have not planned anything. HOP ON HOP OFF buses operate from 8am to 8pm. I just got one ticket for 45RM and I was allowed to get in and get out from any hop on hop off bus at any destination in the below map. So you pay 45 RM and get to see all the interesting places in the city. You can also check the status of buses and the exact time of arrival of each bus at each stop on their site.
I boarded at stop 11, KL Sentral and got down at the national Museum. This place is a huge collection of stuffs that depict the culture and tradition of Malaysia. Most interesting and attractive fact is that this huge museum has a free entry.
National monument, lake garden are something you can see from the bus itself. It is a double decker bus with half of its top area roof free. My next destination was bird park, stop 15. This is heaven if you are a bird lover. You get to see all kinds of birds just walking and flying close to you. These birds are not caged and you can even take snaps with them. The entry is less than 50 RM per person and the area is too huge with a lot of birds which made me feel I saw more than what I had paid for.
I walked to the butterfly garden, orchid garden from the bird park. The best way to enjoy the butterfly park is to rub some flower on your finger and watch the butterfly sit on you. Best for photo-crazy girls like me.
The next best stop is 23, KL CC. Watching the KL Tower in the morning makes it as exciting as watching it in the night. It is so beautifully built that it looks like a beautiful silver art work, standing tall. You just have to walk into the KL tower, come to the fountain side and walk a little towards a triangular tomb like building to reach the aquarium. This KL aquarium has so many kinds of fish that, you will take at least 1 hour to come out of it. You have an underwater aquarium set up, too, where I saw the frightening shark just a glass wall away from me.
Finally, I went to China town followed by Central market to buy some stuffs. You can bargain as much as you are skilled to, in china town. The best place to window shop and bargain. I was so tired by the time I reached back KL sentral, where I stayed.
In Malaysia, almost all the buildings, even residential, are so tall that you could see the entire city from most houses. There is also a revolving restaurant, I think at the 30th floor or so. But please check the website and look for the dress code before you book tables. Worth the money, I bet.
The next morning, I took a flight to Lungkawi. The flight takes hardly half an hour and there are lot of flights all through the day.
Langkawi is the best and friendliest tourist spot one can ever see in Asia. The taxis have fixed rates all over the island. The taxi drivers are more like tourist guides and they tell you what you need to see at what time. There is no bargain or over demand done by taxi drivers as every taxi is pre booked and carries a book full of rates we can refer to. You can even rent a car or bike. But considering the climate in Malaysia I would recommend you to take taxi or car.
I stayed at Seaview hotel in kauh town. This hotel is surrounded by a lot of eating outlets, mostly non veg. The Seaview hotel serves a very wide spread for breakfast with amazing indian veg food. There is one Indian restaurant for Pizza named ‘Domino’ close to this hotel. This also has veg Pizzas and vegetarian salads. If you want to taste Dosas, go to Haji Ali restaurant; the cook is a tamilian here. If you want to have south indian food take a taxi for just 8 RM to Langkawi Pride mall. There is a small restaurant opposite to it which serves veg/non veg full south indian style food with banana just for 10 RM.
Oh my god! I am talking only about food and showing out that I am a foodie. Let me also tell you about the places I visited. The day I reached Langkawi, I went to the eagle square. This is a big eagle statue with a huge area around it. There is no entry to it and its ten steps away from Jetty point, shopping area. Best place to click pictures.
I booked an island hopping tour with the hotel before I went back to the room that day. The hotels arrange for transport to and fro the island hopping spot along with the ferry arrangement for island hopping. The trip started at 9am and costed me 120RM.
Island hopping starts from a ferry terminal opposite to the eagle square. You can see the eagle statue from this point. They take you for some 20-30 minutes in a ferry and drop you at the first island. You are let to be in this private island for 1 hour. The view of this beach was so nice that I wanted to stay there forever posing to photos.
The next hop was to mid sea where some fishes were thrown into the sea and the eagles rushed to the area from we had no idea where. Huge sea eagles with wild looks circled high up in the sky and took turns to hit the sea with their claw to pick up fishes. The moment they get hold of a fish in their claw, they pass it on to their beak and fly back to the far sky. I saw some 50-100 huge eagles less than 50 mts away from me. To my surprise I was not scared but admired those wild eagles.
It is important that you take something to eat and enough water along with you as it is obvious that you wont find water or snacks in mid sea. Also, carry a cap as these islands are so hot with not much shades. At the third hop, I had to walk up and down some 100 steps to reach a beautiful island where we were let to take pedal boats and also swim in the sea.
Finally, fully drenched and exhausted I reach the hotel to catch some sleep. I started again at 4 to the wild life park. I should say this is the best place I have ever been to. A lot of birds, fishes, reptiles and animals all over the area. You are let to feed them, lift and click photos with most of them.
I don’t know how often you see peacocks dance, but that was the first time I saw a peacock dance and pose for pictures. My luck was so good that day, that I saw 3 peacocks dance and one was a beautiful white one.
My husband fed the worlds most dangerous bird, the Australian cassowary, from her hand. He even fed a giant ostrich, goats, monkeys, parrots, ducks, swans and even rabbits. We had the best time with those animals all around us. Please note that the last entry is closed at 6 to this place.
Now, to the most attractive place in Malaysia, the Oriental village where the cable car starts. The cable car in Langkawi is the longest one and I think the steepest one. You get to see some out of the world views from there. At 700 Meters above sea level, fresh and cold breeze hits your face in a way that you just want to get evaporated with the breeze. There is also a sky bridge through which you can take a long walk, at that height but when I had gone this was out of service.
Last but not the least, you need to spend some time for water sports like banana boat at the cenang beach. You can see both white sand and black sand beaches in langkawi. Due to less amount of energy and time we couldn’t visit the cenang beach, which I regret till date.
 |
| Only photo in this post got from google. Everything else is a click from my photograph |
This was an amazing trip and I am always ready to visit Malaysia again. :)
Wow, Ganga! That's an amazing travelogue. I'm planning for a Malaysia trip since ages and my husband is all for travelling without booking packages. I'm going to show this post to him :) Thanks again!
ReplyDelete