“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. :)
Great post Ganga! Your experiences are well documented! Nice to read!
ReplyDeleteThanks! :)
DeleteYes, Malaysia is indeed an exciting country and your pictures and text agree with this notion. Nice post.
ReplyDeleteArvind Passey
www.passey.info
Nice post.. Malaysia is a must watch place :)
ReplyDeleteThank u all :D
ReplyDelete