Malacca - Tang House

We are going to Malacca this week. The idea is to visit the town, stay in Chinatown and be as budget as we can be. So browsing along the town, we managed to booked a room in Tang House. More info on Tang House can be found here.




The room came in 3 sizes. Single room which cost around RM35, Double which around RM55 and our room which is triple room which cost us RM75. We booked 3 room which is 2 double room and 1 triple room. This is because for this trip we bring Kelchai, Anis, Chundi and Chin Pei to follow us to enjoyed the beautiful night life of Malacca. The room charges is nett which is good and surprisingly to us it do comes with a breakfast as well (which is good!).


Tang House basically been run by a family business. The owner will try to make you feel as comfortable as they can as tho' as you are staying at home. There is a free WiFi as well as 2 free public PC for you to used while staying there. What is the about Tang House is that it is located exactly fronting the big main stages. So at night you can see the elderly people of Malacca do their singing 'karaoke' and having their good ol' fun!


If you are lucky enough you can get the double room which got 2 windows where you can view the famous 'Jonker Walk' at night. There is also a refrigerator where you ca stuff your cold drink and even kitchen if you do feel hungry at night to cook some of those 3 minutes lazy maggie mee.



At the back lower ground there is cafe where you can get some snack, cold canned drinks. There is a even some old magazine and some books for you to read while staying there. I must say that Tang House is a heaven for a backpacker like us! We will surely visit Tang House if we are in Malacca again!


Bagan Lalang - Sepang Gold Coast

For this time we decided to go and visit Bagan Lalang (or is it Sepang Gold Coast?). We have been hearing alot about this place from our friends where the seafood is cheap, there is a beach which lots of people yet we still don't know the turth about hence we decided to give it a visit and making it a day trip. Kinda like a 'weekend gateaway' just to ease of our boredom after working so hard during the weekdays.


Our journey start once we reach the Sepang-Dengkil highway. We decided to stop by at Sepang R&R since we haven't had any lunch at that time. Surprisingly, we saw the famous 'Satay Kajang' outlet in one of the eateries shop there. Without wasting our time, we decided to get a plate of chicken satay plus some of those meat satay for our lunch. Who know now that you can simply eat satay Kajang without going to Kajang itself anymore.


Once we done with our lunch, we continue our drive. It is a bit tricky to go to Bagan Lalang cause you are supposed to drive heading to Air Asia LCCT airport but before you reach the Sepang F1 circuit, at the trafficlight you must turn to the left. By then just follow the signboard drive straight away until you saw Bagan Lalang or Sepang Gold Coast signboard.


During our journey we saw lotsa dragon fruit farm along the way. This must be due to the humid wheather in Sepang so the fruit are suitable to grown within its soil. We decided to stop for a while and buy some of the fruit since those fruit are rarely seen been widely sold in KL or town area. Further up then we saw the sign board to the Sepang Gold Coast.



We then saw the beach. Our comment was that the beach look nicer but not as clear as other beach maybe due to the current development of Sepang Gold Coast which currently still running. More info about Sepang Gold Coast can be found here. However the beach is alil' bit more cleaner than Port Dickson which we have been went last month.



Next to Bagan Lalang, we then decided to visit Sepang Gold Coast. The surrounding area is really nice as the landscape has been designed according to Balinese archipelago architecture. Since the day was so hot and humid, we decided to stop at the one of the cafe available called 'Sunset Beach Cafe'.




We decided to have a coconut to ease of thirsty. Looking around it seems that there are a lot of tourist flocking the area of Sepang Gold Coast. We never expected this place will be swarming with lotsa people. Maybe it is a weekend I guess. Moreover the development of the Sepang Gold Coast do attract a lotsa people to visit to see themselves the luxury house which has been build above the Bagan Lalang Beach.


Coconut never felt so good if you are having it fronting the beach. Or is it my own self-indulgence feeling knowing how hot is the day actually. It is actually nice to see this kinda development since as we all known Sepang can be consider one of the further distance hence faraway from the main city.




The whole landscape really makes you feel like you are in some other island with full of nice coconut tree been planted, bamboo everywhere and green color grass. It was a relief of feeling seeing it.






We then visit the tourist information centre where we then been brief by the tourist officer in the centre regarding the development of the areas, prospectus regarding the floating houses and as well some tour promotion package which currently been organized by the centre. One thing for sure there are a lots of restaurant and cafe been build which is a good sign knowing the places seems like been visited by lotsa tourist during the weekend.


At the end we decided to visit one of the Bagan Lalang restaurant. It was build on a floating jetty. We took a few seafood such as tiger-prawn, fish, lala and some squid. To add some we also took 1 vegetable including in our dinner. To summarised it was not that nice since lots of our friends been saying how nice and cheap is Bagan Lalang seafood. Well, maybe different people, different the opinion might be. You gotta try it by yourself. Do visit Bagan Lalang and Sepang Gold Coast once in a while if you have time.

Langkawi - Island Hopping Trip

The next day we woke a bit early as we need to wait for the tour van to bring us to the another fisherman bay; since we have booked for the island hopping package. The package estimated cost us about RM45. Once we reach there, we are then being divided into a few small group of 6-8 people depending on the capacity of the boat. To tell you the truth it was not a big boat but it is more sorta like kinda fisherman boat which can only fit on 6-8 people on it. Don't worry as life jacket is provided as well. :)


During the ride, the boat driver aka the tourist guide will explained to us some of the location which we are currently visiting now, stopping near it and the story or legend behind of it. We had funs since during the ride we made a few new friends from other country which is from Iran, China and Italy.



The first stop is Island of Pregnant Maiden (Pulau Dayang Bunting). Legend says that whoever drink the water from the lake will get pregnant (lady for sure!). Another wonder of the lake is that the water from the lake itself is not salty knowing that the island is in the middle of the sea. From the distance you can see that the hill resemblance of a pregnant lady which is sleeping on her slumber. There is a head, breast, pregnant stomach and legs of her.


One thing one must remember when visiting the island is to avoid bringing any plastic with you. This is because the island is full of money inhabitance in it. And those monkey will try to grab anything which resemble plastic as tho' that they thought that those are the food. We did saw an incident where a tourist guide been chase out by the wild monkey because of her junk food. Poor her..


The first things activities that you can do once reach the island is to book some floating bicycle cycling. The floating bicycle cost you RM15. There are 2 types of floating bicycle. One is powered by solar and another one is the manual type. we opt for the manual one as we got it free including as well within our island hopping package. It was fun as you can cycle around the island and enjoyed the breeze with your loved one.


Next activity you can do is to try and get feet massage by those cat fish. I really don't know whether it is those typical cat fish which we normally see in market or eat but amazingly those fishes inside the pregnant maiden lake won't bite you! So just for the sake of thrill just soak your feet and let the fish do the massaging.



Estimated you will be left to enjoyed the scenery and do those activities for about 45 minutes in the island. Once you have do whatever you feel like to do in the island you need to hop on the tour boat again and followed by the next destination. Next destination is to visit the Eagle feeding sanctuary. Once your boat have reached the area, what the boatman basically will do is to throw some chicken's skins into the sea and within a minutes, a swarm of eagles will flew nearby and garb those skins. Nothing much to say about this activity except we never seen a sawrm group of eagle fly together before and it was kinda fun also for us.

Finally once completed with the eagle feeding activity, the boatman will bring us to and island which is called 'Wet Rice beach' (Pulau Beras Basah). In here you are allowed to spend relaxing either on the beach or get yourself wet inside the sea of the island. We decided to try snorkeling for some coral on this beach. However the sea is not that clear compared to 'Payar island' which is also protected as marine park we went yesterday. However it would be a losses if one go and visit the island without trying to get yourself wet in Wet Rice Beach.


The island is known as wet rice because most of the sand on the beach do resemble and its size is exactly look like a rice. Since it is near to the beach hence it get wet. So there is how they got the name for this island according to legend. At the end we can make conclusion that the island hopping trip is truly a worth once in a life time to do or visits. You will never know how interesting some legend are once you are visiting he places yourself.

Langkawi - Chenang Beach

We stay in Chenang beach. It was one of the happening beach in Langkawi island. Compared to the other beaches available in Langkawi, Chenang beach is the most happening and busiest beach of all with lot of tourist stayed in it. It got lotsa hotel/ chalet/motel which is fronting the beach. Moreover you can also opt for either lying on the beach to get tan, playing some beach activities such as banana boat, jet-ski, or beach view parachute.


You can watch sunset in front the beach itself. It was truly a breathtaking view to see the live sunset with your own eyes. The water however is not that clean but what nice about the beach is that the waves is not that strong as well. It might depends on what time did you go and visit the beach I guess.



For us, we just enjoyed the scenery as well as making ourself lazily at the beach shore. There is so many thing to do actually. But for the past few days it is just a nice experience lying the next to the ocean beach, put on our ipod and sleep while hearing the sound of the sea breeze hence away from all the office trouble and problems.



Shopping in Chenang beach is also a convenience. There are lotsa shop which available which mostly cater for the tourist. Some of the shop do sell cheap souvenir and its a matter of you knowing how to bargain the stuff that you wanted. One thing for sure Langkawi is well known for their duty free stuff such as liquor, cigarette, chocolate and some household electrical appliance.


If you are talking about night life in Langkawi island, there Chenang is the place. There is a few cafe aka small pub which you can visits. Reggae bar is one of them. There is alive band full of Rastafarian local playing raggae tune all night long. It was a nice experience hearing some Bob Marley while feeling the sea shore. If music is not your taste then a few pub/ small cafe do serve some delicacies to enjoyed during dinner time naming it from western cook to local dishes. Shop are until 11pm and some might even closed until midnight depends on seasons.

Langkawi - Payar Island

The next day early in the morning we had to wake up early around 7.30am. This is because we have booked the 'Payar island' snorkeling trip. The trip cost us about RM150 per person inclusive of the rent for our snorkeling gear as well as our lunch together. The tour bus pick us up exactly infront of our chalet which is really a convenience of the both of us which known for our lazy bum to walk around.


The journey estimated roughly about 1 hour as the bus had to keep on going either inside the hotel/ chalet or wait nearby the hotel/ chalet area. Once we reach the town of Langkawi which is the 'Kuah town' we are directed by the tour guide to proceed to our ferry waiting for us at the famous Langkawi harbour bay.



The ferry journey to the Payar island almost took us nearly another 1 hour. During the ride, the tour guide keep on briefing us on things which are can be do's and don't on the island. There is also a video screening of the coral living and Payar island marine park on the old-skool vcr which we think was very, very lame and boring. Once we reach to Pulau Payar, the ferry stop suddenly in the middle of the sea.


By this time the tourist guide told us to board on a small speed boat to go to the Payar island jetty. This is because the ferry are not allowed to go more further and must stop at the designated areas. It was told that by doing this it is to preserved the coral and its whatever living inside the marine park of Payar island.



There is no chalet nor hotel the island. It was a marine park. Everything was well preserved on it. The water was really a clear water blue color. You can even see all the ocean small fish which I think Dory fishes playing and swimming underneath the ocean. It was a very nice experience. There is a jetty plus a long bridges build up along the area near the rock of Payar island.


Once reach the jetty, all of us busying changing our cloth and occupied ourself with snorkeling gear. There is a pack of bread selling by the tourist guide which cost for RM3 per pack. You can used this bread to feed the fish. But one thing you must remember that once you feed on the fish, never ever put on your finger inside the water. Just be cautious as the fish tend to be very hungry and they came in a swarm.


Next was a shark feeding activity. One of the beach boy would basically splash up a few blood of a dead fishes to attract the shark. This is not a deep blue shark it was basically a baby shark which swims nearby the coral. We bum into them a few times while snorkeling on the Payar island shore actually. By tis time, most of us are busy capturing the photo of the shark.



We had so much fun snorkeling in Payar island. The trip almost took half a day. It will definately will be on our traveling list if we are tend to be visiting Langkawi island again. For lunch we are given a pack of 'rice with curry chicken' and drinks, which we think more better than some of them who are being given a pack of apple, fried chicken and bread.



So for the next whole day we were snorkeling, playing with the fishes and get ourself sunburn. It was a funny, fun, exciting experience knowing how beautiful is the Payar island itself. So next time whoever mention one of the beautiful Marine island, do mention Payar island name as well in the list. And to tell the truth, the package for this trip is really well-worth spend. It was like a half day full trip on the island already. By 4.30pm we go back to our ferry again.

Langkawi - Oriental Village

We went to Oriental Village since it was the base location for the Langkawi's Cable car located on Gunung Mat Cincang. To go there you must pass the Petronas Quay, heading to Langkawi's Geopark and straight up to Gunung Mat Cincang. It was a long journey at first for us from Pantai Chenang as we mistakenly took a wrong direction. More info on Langkawi Cable car ride can be found here.


Once reached, you can see a hanging bridge at the front signboard of the Oriental Village. It is adviseable to go in the early morning before the noon so that visitor can see a nice view with all the cloud lining on the uphill of Mat Cincang mountain. Moreover there might be less people and the crowd will not be that much since from our past experience there are lots of tourist who are visiting this area.


Once reach there is a large signboard of all the places that you can visit at the Langkawi's Geopark. You can either opt for direct to the Cable Car ride, visit the animal farm or take a break at the food court which available located at the areas. Don't worry with the large signboard, you won't get lost around this areas.



There are 2 animal farm which you can visit here. The first one is the rabbit farm and the other one is the deer farm. The entrance for rabbit farm is free but visitor are advised to buy a packet of rabbit food which consist of carrot for a packet at RM2. We felt so sad to see that those rabbit are kinda tend to be left hungry just for the sake to attract the visitor, so that when visitor brought a packet of food those rabbit will rushed up them. Poor rabbit-rabbit..


After the rabbit farm, we headed to Craft Cultural Village which is just located in front of the Cable Car ticket entrance. In here you can get as many Langkawi's souvenir. We can say that most of the souvenir a bit of pricey knowing that more and more tourist are visiting these cable car areas.




Besides the Cultural Craft Village is the Langkawi's Geopark Hotel. This hotel can be consider a nice budget situated exactly near the cable car. It is well decorated in yellow and orange, of a brick color. Looking from the outside, it was really a nice hotel but in our opinion it is a bit faraway from all the action in Chenang beach. More info on the Geopark Hotel can be found here.


The cable car ride was really nice, once on top of the hill you can even saw Thailand faraway in a distance. There is 2 station for during the cable car ride. The first one is at 700 above the sea level and another one is at 750 above the sea level. The view on both scenery is truly a breathtaking. With the cool air, nice scenery what else can you asked for?



When you reach the last station, there is actually a hike up trail whereby you can go down to the hills not faraway where there is a hanging bridge. Amazingly it was being told that the hanging bridge was build without a single nail. Do same up some stamina as the walking distance between up hill and downhill do gonna make you a lil' tired if not exhausted.


Visiting hanging bridge of the Mat Cincang mountain is definitely is a must activity if you are visiting Langkawi island. It was truly a breathtaking panorama. However there a few precaution that visitor must remember. First is never visit or take ride if it is raining and secondly if the wind blew is terrible on that day. Most probably you can visit the whole area of Oriental Village but we don't guarantee that you gonna get a chance to ride
on the cable car.

Once we come down from the cable car ride, we visited the deer farm. Actually there is a few other name which I've forgot to mention nearby but since we are too hungry and want to go back to our chalet, we decided to just skip to the other tours as in KL we can also visit the National Zoo. The entrance for the deer farm is definately a free entrance but visitor are advised to buy a packet of food for the deer which cost RM2 also same as the rabbit farm. The deer is friendly and tame, must be due to the cold nature and the way they preserved the sanctuary.

Langkawi - Haji Ramli Restaurant

For lunch, we headed to Haji Ramli Restaurant. Before coming to Langkawi island we have read in the Internet that this restaurant do serve some local as well more specialize on Siamese/ Thai seafood not forgetting as well local delicacies. Most of the waiter cannot speak/ converse well in Malay neither nor English however they do understand whatever you are ordering.


Most of them speak fluently in Thai's lingua. Yet one thing for sure that their food speak for themselves. It was excellent as most of the seafood is fresh. We ordered a bbq/ roasted tiger prawn, a bbq/ roasted squid, seafood tomyam, an omelette and a bbq/roasted fish. The roasted are all well-done, tomyam is well prepared with sweet and sour with some lemonade taste and the rice is well cook.


It was really delicious. And the best part is the price is reasonable and can be considered as cheap also since as well known most of the Chenang beach's restaurant tend to charge higher on seafood for the tourist but not Haji Ramli Restaurant. More review of Haji Ramli restaurant can be found here at trip-advisor.com