dtraCorp - peninsular malaysia, and langkawi pointers

peninsular malaysia, and langkawi pointers

11th-jan-2010 - posted by dtra

ok, so it's time for the full briefing of the malaysian trip (the first week anyway), i'll mostly provide reviews and tips in this post, and then, over the next few weeks, as the pictures from the trip start going up on flickr, i'll post some updates here to keep everyone informed of the latest pictures. we'll start with kuala lumpur and i guess, air asia, the flight in was pretty stock standard, except that their seats don't recline (i mean, is there an extra fee to get reclining seats?), i paid extra for the exit row seats, but i think the leg room for the normal seats is fine (obviously there is more than you will need in the exit row), and you also don't have morons standing around your area for no good reason other than to be annoying. we had a flight delayed for three hours returning to kl from kota kinabalu (i suspect because they wanted to try and sell more seats, it was a pretty empty flight). and my flight back to australia was late by about half an hour (got about four hours sleep this morning before going to work), and so, in conclusion, for domestic/short flights, air asia is ok, for long distance, unless the price differential is extreme, i would go for a normal airline. also, you can opt to pay for your meal before your flight, but if they serve more than one meal, you will be forced to have the early meal, and pay for any later ones.

ok, back to things to do in kl (getting around is pretty easy for the most part):

see the petronas towers, went to see them a couple times, and also on new years eve, the mall there is one of the fancier, pricier ones supposedly, the towers are really cool though, free ride to the sky tower, but there's a limited number per day, so you have to go pretty early i guess (i didn't make it)
up to the kl tower, even taller than the petronas towers, but not as impressive i reckon, it cost $38 rm (about $13 aud) to go to the observation deck, nice view, but unfortunately a lot of the support posts (and dirty windows or reflections) get in the way of the panoramas, worth it though
batu caves, a hindu shrine on the outskirts of the city located in and around some limestone caves, massive gold statue out the front, cheeky rhesus monkeys roam the steps, free to wander around and have a look, get a local bus out, and catch a bus back from outside the entrance, worth it for the monkeys, takes less than half a day, probably really good if there is a hindu festival or something
chinatown, i was only there briefly, but i reckon the food is probably better than the shopping, good to have a look around though
bukit bintang is a busy shopping area, with, i reckon, better value in the shopping mall (if you can find something that fits) than chinatown, also a great street "jalan alor", really cheap and really tasty food at the restaurants/eateries in the street
bird park, the world's largest walk-in aviary, well, you know i don't like zoos, and this had a massive zoo-type feeling, poor owls, eagles, hornbills (i did see one flying about though), and kites (among others) in cages. the storks seem to have the freedom to leave if they want, so there's that, also, there are peacocks, parrots, and lots of different birds there, for $42 rm, not worth it, unless you're really into birds, and don't mind seeing some birds that look a bit sad, i also had to pay $38 rm to get on the hop on hop off bus to get there, the other option is taxi it seems

accommodation
i stayed at two places in my three visits to kl, first, hostel cosmopolitan in chow kit, i thought it was a really cool place, quiet, chilled out, clean, free wifi and internet (most places have that it seems), and two really cute cats (will post one to flickr), only $24 rm for a dorm, the only problem was it was a bit further from the cool areas of bukit bintang and bukit nanas.
the second place i stayed was trekkers lodge in bukit bintang, right near the shopping mall. the staff were friendly, but i can't recommend it based on the terrible bathrooms, leaking water everywhere.

after a couple days in kl, i took a bus up to penang to meet alf and ozzy, supposedly the bus takes four hours, well, from my 2pm bus (it left at about 2.30pm) it took about six hours to arrive at the guesthouse where we stayed in penang. penang is supposedly one of the best places to eat in all of malaysia, i didn't really eat that much there, there was a cool food court that did have lots of really good stuff though, we sort of didn't want to keep going back there though. i didn't manage to go to the beach up there, as the guys reckoned it wasn't anything special, so we got on the first ferry to langkawi, which was a day and a half later.

however, we did bear witness to a chinese street parade with performers and some such, that was fun, except that i struggled to get any decent pictures because the fa43 could not focus quickly enough in the low light, and the built-in flash made the whole process even slower, i think it's a monthly or bi-monthly thing, probably a lunar calendar thing
visited the "snake temple" just outside town, i have to say that was pretty lame, i still don't know if the snakes were real, i saw one breathe (maybe), they also had some real live ones for posing with, not worth it
paid a visit to the kek lok si temple, that was pretty cool, a nice view of georgetown, and a pretty pagoda, worth it

transport and accommodation
some local buses in the area have wifi, that's a cool feature, that's pretty much the only way to get around apart from taxis and walking.
the ferry to langkawi leaves twice a day, at 8.15am, and 8.30am, and takes 2.5 to 3 hours. stayed at the banana guesthouse, cheap and basic, but had free wifi.

on to langkawi, and tomorrow i'll do the sabah thing, we didn't do a lot in langkawi, pretty much spent the whole time on the beach, didn't ride the cable car, didn't go inland at all. we did manage to share half an hour riding a jet ski between the three of us, that was some crazy shit, i want a sea-doo now, so fast. alf paid for but didn't get to go para-sailing (well, he had one chance, and he blew it ), he did manage to get his money back though (eventually). on our last day in langkawi, we went to pulau payar (the marine park), it's about one hour ferry ride from the main langkawi island, and has some beautiful snorkelling and diving opportunities. i saw some little sharks, some people saw a big one, like 1.5m or so. we went with the cheaper company, coral island, for snorkelling it was more than half the price, for diving it was a little cheaper. in only six months, i pretty much managed to forget everything i learnt when i got my open water licence. forgot to spit clean my goggles, so they were fogging up constantly, forgot how to control my buoyancy, and just generally struggled to keep up. it was fun though, saw some clown fish, but it would've been so much better if i didn't have to concentrate so hard on the stuff that has to become second nature. i didn't even get my log book signed, cos i didn't think that i was going to go diving (so i didn't take it with me). the beach was nice, but there were jelly fish (not that many, i didn't get stung), and the sand goes back a long way, so there isn't any shade near the water. the water was also a bit murky.
since transport was negligible for us, i thought i'd comment on the restaurants for langkawi. there are a bunch of them that line the main street, and it seems a lot of them are understaffed, or just didn't like the look of us. right here, right now, i call for a boycott of the snobby garden tomato or whatever it is called, three times we tried, and three times we were turned back, the food probably wasn't that good anyway, and we were really only going there for the free wifi. there was a good arabic place (big-ish, yellow sign), got a nice kebab there, no alcohol though. oh, and a seafood place, a chinese restaurant near the grand beach motel (where we stayed, it was ok, we couldn't really find anywhere else, not that it seemed that busy), had the best prawns i had all trip, ridiculously massive tiger prawns, as big as lobsters (small ones).

picture of the fireworks outside the petronas towers on new years ever, needless to say i had too much to drink, but would you believe it? i had too much to eat as well, which did me in .