When you are in a shop in Asia, it’s not unusual to see objects such as the Maneki Neko or a little Budai statue near the register – these are objects which are believed to bring fortune and luck.
Growing up in Singapore, I tend to see small coins glued to calculators, which I think is done in the hopes that the owner’s money will multiply.
I’ve always assumed that these are the sort of thing which is distinctively Asian, till I stepped into a pizzeria in Magliana. There was a little figurine with multiple Euro coins next to her, placed right next to the cash register.
I didn’t know that Italians had this belief too. The fact that it had European coins could mean that it came from other parts of Euro. But it’s the first time that I’m seeing anything like this in a shop in Italy.
Sometimes when I’m in my neighbourhood, I’d come across this car :
Instead of fixing the damages, the owner just duct-tapes it over. I’ve seen other cars with tapes over them, but not till this extent! I believe that the car is still functional as I see it parked in different places.
I’ve been talking a lot about Langkawi but I haven’t really explained where Langkawi is :p
(By the way, loads of pictures in this post. So if you’re on a slow connection … grab a cup of tea while waiting)
Langkawi is an island on the North-West side of Malaysia, part of the state of Kedah, almost reaching Thailand. It is surrounded by about 99 smaller islands. The name Lang means Hawk in Malay while Kawi is a reddish brown colour. Which is why the hawk is the mascot for this island.
There is a legend here where it was said that on this beautiful island, lived a beautiful girl called Mahsuri. She was so beautiful that the Village Chief’s wife got jealous and spread a rumour that Mahsuri was unfaithful to her husband and having an affair with another man.
Eventually, the rumours grew so strong that villagers openly accused her and she was condemned to death. And she cursed the island to have bad luck for 7 generations.
In any case, more about that later in this blog post and for now here are some of the places that we visited in our 3 day stay there :
Helang Square
After settling down from our flight, apartment and lunch. The first place that we visited was Dataran Helang.
Located in Kuah, this eagle man made statue is huge at 12 meters tall. And from here, you could see pretty sceneries of the many islands in front of you. Interestingly, if you check from google maps, this place has a star shape from the top.
We would have explored more places, but we couldn’t visit anything more though, as it rained rather heavily after that. Bah!
Island Hopping
Early next morning, we headed to one of the quays in Persiaran Putera to go boating! We explored 3 different islands in Langkawi. And I was so very excited.
In case you were wondering, our private boat with a driver goes for $250 RM while it would be $30 RM per person if you were going by yourself (but you’d have to wait for at least another 9 more people to fill the boat up)
In any case, we were lucky that we had a pretty good day and we crossed our fingers that we don’t get caught in the rain while we were out (perhaps we could try this superstition of skewing an onion an chilli on a stick to ward off bad weather the next time :p)
Nevertheless, it was very relaxing, just to see the water and the islands (to me, it looked like a Microsoft Powerpoint Template … hahaha) and going up and down the waves. For some, it could be a little puke-conducive. But I like it.
Pulau Beras Basah
This was the first island we stopped at. By the way, Pulau means Island and Beras Basah means Wet Rice. This island is probably named that way because somewhere during the 14th century, with the prospect of Siam attacking this island, the islanders would rather throw the rice in the sea rather than having the enemies steal them (I could be wrong though)
Nevertheless, this island is so beautiful. Oh if only you could walk here. It’s like walking on soft powdery, lightest of brown sands, with the clear sea next to you. It’s not as transparent as the water in Capri, but its probably the next best thing for someone who can’t travel all the way to Italy
Check out how clear the water is from the jetty. You could see the fishes … and the bottom!
Little clams growing at the edge of the jetty. I’m having very vague memories of scraping them off the boat that my grandparents used to have while they were living in Pulau Tekong.
The “No Toilet here” is amusing. Especially with the 5 exclamation marks. There were at least 3 of the signs while we were exploring. I get it! I get it!
Camwhoring as usual. Hur hur hur.
It’s so lovely here, that I kicked myself for not bringing an extra set of clothes with me. My dad on the other hand just jumped into the water and swam happily about. He didn’t even had any other clothes with him! I should have followed his style.
This is such a gorgeous place. That I felt a little sorry that we had to leave it.
Pulau Singa
Our next island stop! Translated, Pulau Singa means Lion Island (Perhaps there used to be a lot of lions here?) And here is where a lot of boats stop by to feed the hawks with chicken parts and tourists could see the hawks up close if they are lucky.
To be honest, I am not sure if I support this activity so much, because feeding wild animals will only make them dependant on humans. Like the cats in Rome for example, they are fed so much that they don’t even catch mice anymore! (Plus the mice grow fat from the leftover cat food. Yikes!)
But ecotourism is a catch 22 situation. You know, tourists bring in income and create jobs, but destroy the ecology.
In any case, I didn’t really take much pictures as I don’t have one of those super high tech camera. So here is a video instead.
Just realised while editing the video, my mum was singing Sharifah Aini’s Terbang Helang (Eagle, Fly) Hahaha! She’s really feeling it, huh? It’s a very pretty song by the way 🙂
(And now I’m having an earworm while editing this post)
Pulau Dayang Bunting
Can you see the figure of a pregnant woman lying down in the picture below? Well, Pulau Dayang Bunting, means Pregnant Maiden Island when translated.
There is a legend that there was a bunian (I suppose its a sort of Asian Fairy?!) who fell in love with a human. She was about to give birth, but the baby didn’t make it shortly after it’s birth. She decided to bury her baby in the lake there.
It’s been said that if you drink the water (or bathe) from this lake, your wishes will come true. I am very sceptical of this, although I had a number of relatives telling me that they got pregnant soon after visiting this place, or their illnesses went away …
Getting here, you will be greeted by loads of monkeys. You should be careful at this point of time, because these monkeys aren’t scared! They will just grab anything that attracts them. One tried to steal my water bottle, but luckily my hands were latched to it.
At one point there was a monkey that grabbed and ran away with a woman’s bikini. I have no idea why!
I don’t like monkeys.
There are also mudskippers here. Those are quite interesting to see.
Getting to the lake is quite perilous as there is a very steep decline and I don’t recommend anyone wearing heels, not even a little bit! My mum slipped and hurt her ankle while we were about to leave, but luckily there was a hospital in the mainland and we were relieved that she didn’t get any fractures or anything serious.
And here is the lake! A freshwater lake, where there is no hint of salt, even though we were so close to the sea.
You could go boating here if you like, although we were all content at just dipping our feet in the lake. My dad on the other hand, jumped in the water and went swimming! And he looked so happy at doing that too!
Remember the legend about those who drink the water here, will get their wishes come true? Well, I got a water bottle and filled it up. It’s now left in Singapore though! Aww!
In any case, I did drink some (my brother Haikal was cringing though, “Why are you drinking water with a dead baby in it?”) just to satisfy my cynical mind. In case you were curious, I just wished for something generic – Happiness, Riches and Health.
Yeah balls!
All in all, I had a very pleasant day and if you are in Langkawi, I highly recommend going island hopping.
Cable Car
The next day (our last full day), we got up early to head to the other side of the island (Datai bay area) so that we could get on the cable car.
Driving through the roads, you will be greeted by scenes like these :
Loads and loads of water buffaloes
And rice paddy fields. We were lucky that we managed to see one harvesting rice that day.
In any case, to get to the cable car, you’d have to pass through an area called the Oriental Village. It’s a pretty place, just rather manufactured looking and touristy. But there are loads of picture ops that you could do here. Like how the village looked like with the hills behind
We noticed something interesting by the way … a rabbit petting area, which I guess is great for kids. What amused me a lot was that big pot at the side. Is it for cooking the bunnies?! Oh my!
One big tip while going here is to always carry cash with you. While they do have a credit card machine, it wasn’t functioning that day which frustrated Cart and I a lot.
The cable car appears to be a very popular spot, and the day we were there, we had to wait for a while just to buy the tickets and then a very long time queuing up for getting on the cable car itself. Urgh.
t
But as soon as you reach the top of the line, you’d see these placements on the ground where you were supposed to stand at. It was cute to see the row march forward one by one.
But at length, we were off!
And going up, you should be able to see a few of the 7 Well waterfalls along the way.
By the way, the cable car ride is very high! It’s the highest one that I’ve experienced to date! Even higher than the one in Capri. (Although the one in Capri would technically be a chair lift instead of a Cable Car)
I don’t recommend it to anyone who is afraid of heights. From the highest point of the cable car to the bottom is a good 700m. Almost a 1km drop!
This dude isn’t scared though. He’s chilling in his personal cabin (with no glass) like nothing.
From the top here, you should be able to see a panoramic view of the island with Thailand in the background.
Unfortunately for us though, it was a rather hazy day and we could hardly see anything. Oh well!
Nevertheless, the air was slightly fresher and cooler up here.
(Another Microsoft Powerpoint Template)
Hey, what’s this random lock doing here? Is there someone trying to start the trend of a love lock? Speaking of which, I saw one in Singapore and I was so surprised, I don’t know how to react.
After spending some time here, it was time to go to our final stop of the day
(As a sidenote, what do you think of different pricing for locals and tourists? A lot of the monuments have special pricing for locals)
Makam Mahsuri
Our last stop in Langkawi is the Mahsuri Tomb. While Tripadvisor doesn’t seem to give it a high rating, I think that it’s an interesting place to go to anyway.
Remember the legend about Mahsuri? It’s been said that when she was struck by a kris, while blood poured out and birds flew to cover her body (Odd legend, but who am I to judge?)
In any case, as soon as you enter the building, you’d be greeted with a group of girls playing the gamelan :
And then followed by a diorama, one of them being the condemnation scene.
And then there is the tomb itself, where she was buried.
Luckily, that wasn’t the only things to be seen (It would’t be worth paying $10 RM if that were so) There was also some traditional Malay village recreates here.
Like this platform, which was where people sat and chit chatted.
(By the way, I’m kind of iffy about the use of “Buka Kasut” Personally, I don’t think that’s right and “tanggal kasut” should be used instead)
Congkak! I really enjoyed playing this when I was a kid! It’s pretty easy to play. There are 14 small holes and two big houses. You put in 7 marbles in each small holes. And two players play simultaneously. Picking up the content of one small hole and putting a marble clockwise. The player with the most marbles in their house wins (It sounds complicated, but is really easy when you play)
And here is another place where villagers hang out
And here is a random picture of my dad playing on the swing
There is also a re-creation of the house where the chief, the general and regular villagers lived and this is where you could see how life was like then. I quite like it.
Unfortunately, a lot of the houses were closed to public. But there was still a few where we could go in and explore. Going around, it feels so secondlife-y! Haha
There are a couple of instruments for farming, which I am not too familiar with. But I’m sure that they have something to do with rice since there are a lot of rice fields in the area.
There was a house which was reportedly belonging to Mahsuri herself.
Pretty aye?
You could see that it’s very spartan in here.
This was her bed
This was her mekap table
This was the entrance to her kitchen
By the way, Langkawi, being on a tropical area is a hot and humid island. There were times when we felt quite uncomfortably sticky on the island. But believe it or not, it was very cooling in the houses.
This would be from all the ventilation in there, from the holes all around the house which is a great form of engineering considering the lack of technology during the time.
No need for aircon! Or fans for that matter!
I don’t mind living in a house like this (just as long as there is wifi inside)
(This happy little girl kept running in my shots and photo-bombing me, so I’m putting her in my blog. Hehehe)
Oh! Before I forget, this was the well where Mahsuri bathed in, which was said to give her her beauty and radiance. My sister and I immediately washed our faces when we read that. Hahahaha!
There was even a counter nearby where you could buy a bottle of the well water (a clean and treated version)
(Ohai! I am Steve Urkel the snake. Uhyuk!)
Night Market
Oh wait, now this is our real last stop for the day. A night market! You could find a lot of things here and it’s a feast for the eyes, seeing all the colourful wares. We were full from our dinner, but it was still nice to just walk around and burn off some fats.
The one that we went to was located in Kuah and it operates once a week. There are other night markets in other areas in Langkawi and you might want to check with a map that you could get at the airport.
You could get loads of things here ranging from clothes, to toys, to food. Like corn drinks (Which I doubt is popular outside of Asia)
Apam balik which is a type of peanut (not peanut butter) pancake
Fresh seafood?! That’s something new, even for me!
This scene is amusing. Instead of fanning the satays, they used an electric fan instead. Man, I would have gone for some nice satay if we weren’t stuffed.
And that was some of the places that we’ve seen and experienced in Langkawi. If I could turn back time, I wish that we could have done it differently so that we could have visited and done more things. Nevertheless, I had a very enjoyable time in this beautiful island and will always have fond memories of it 🙂
(Freaking heck, almost 3k words in this post? Okbai)
While we were in Langkawi, there were a number of eating places that we tried there – ranging from the swanky to the really off beaten places.
Like this platter from Arabica Restaurant. It was tasty, but rather pricey.
For today, I thought I’d share with you two of the food places that we’ve been to that I adored so much, that I wouldn’t mind returning back to Langkawi just to eat these foods again.
Firstly dubious burgers.
Dubious burgers are basically what I call for burgers which are made from a makeshift stall sold from the side of the road. There are loads of these in Malaysia. While they are many different kinds, typically, they are Ramly burgers, and they are absolutely delicious!
I was craving for a dubious burger, so we headed out to look for one. We looked around for one in Kuah, but we didn’t see any, so we had a quick dinner at McDougals near the Eagle Square in the end.
I didn’t eat any as McDougals is quite standard everywhere in the world.
Dejected, we headed back to our apartment once we were done. And that was where I noticed something that looked like a makeshift stall at the side of the road, somewhere along “Persiaran Putera” road.
It was a makeshift burger stall! I was so happy! My heart just sang!
Here you could choose different types of meat like chicken, fish, beef, lamb (No rabbit or deer or ostrich burger though :P) While it wasn’t Ramly burger, the style was still the same – they would add in various condiments like mayo, worcestershire sauce, BBQ sauce, cheese and topped with a fried egg.
But what made the place extra special was that they had a grilled version. Which was why I had to double check to make sure that it was a burger stall instead of a satay stall. I was so intrigued that I ordered one for each one of my family member. (Minus Cart who is a vegetarian)
(Speaking of vegetarians, it’s not that easy to get street food for vegetarians in Malaysia. A number don’t seem to understand the concept. Or even worse, give you a stink eye)
While there were not a lot of people around and the burgers took a while to make as grilling takes a longer time. And at $6 RM a piece, it was more expensive than your regular street burger. But it was totally worth it when I started biting into it.
I know that from looking at the picture, it doesn’t look very convincing, but the meat was thick and juicy and combined with the taste of the tangyness of the mayo and the BBQ sauce. It was the juiciest, meatiest, most satisfying burger that I had in a long time. It was exceptionally good. A piece of heaven in the palm of my hands.
I was probably ingesting a lot of calories, but it’s worth each bite. After all, it’s not every day that I’m on vacation and it was so delicious that I kept thinking of it for days and days after.
When you are in Langkawi, if will be a shame if you left without trying out their seafood. But with the numerous amount of seafood joints, which one do we go to?
Cart decided to check out on foursquare where we saw that Wonderland restaurant had the highest ratings for seafood. It wasn’t too far away from our apartment either, so we decided to give it a try on our last evening in Langkawi.
The place looked very nondescript – your basic stall with metal poles and plastic chairs. Nevertheless, you could tell that the place is very popular due to the amount of people there, while the other stalls on the other side were practically empty.
Coincidentally we were hungry, after spending the day trying to squeeze some last minute excursions before our flight the next day. We didn’t have lunch, so we had a good appetite! I think we practically ordered at least one thing from each segment.
The funny bit was when the lady who came to take our order quipped, “That’s a lot of food. Are you sure you guys could finish this?”
And here are what we got for ourselves :
Dry Chilli Mantis
I think these are Ginger and Spring Onion Clams
Sambal Squids
Fried Kangkong
I think these are Oyster Sauce Chicken
Cereal Prawn
Red Snapper, Tom Yam Style
Most of us had plain rice, as it’s better to taste the dishes with. My dad and my brother asked for an additional fried seafood rice instead.
The nice thing is that you could even ask for a vegetarian version of some of their dishes and here was what Cart had :
Omelette with veggies
Stir fried veggies. I think he also had a plate of fried veggie rice, but I think I forgot to take a picture of that, or I was very engrossed in eating the food in front of me.
The food was so good. Think of the best seafood that you’ve had, and imagine it twice the flavour, twice the deliciousness and twice the juiciness. Every morsel that I ate, was such a joy. I was compelled to eat as much as I could, fighting with the rest of my family. If you eat slow, you’d left with nothing.
As strange as that sounds, I don’t mind it as there is just something very satisfying eating with your family. And in no time at all, we’ve devoured everything.
The lady came back and I was amused to see her look of bewilderment when she saw all the empty plates. Funnily enough, my brother Haikal chose that time to get for himself an additional plate of noodles.
The food left such a great impression on me, that I declared that this was the best seafood that I’ve ever had in the WORLD at this point of time. Cart seemed offended by this and huffily asked, even in Italy?
But at $193 RM for a group of 7 people, (about $8.5 USD a person) I don’t think you could get this fantastic seafood experience anywhere else in the world. I think it even beats the one I had in Pengerang.
So worth it. I wouldn’t mind going back to Langkawi just to eat this seafood again.
After we’ve booked for our Air Asia flight, it comes the other task of searching for lodgings. As always, I prefer staying in bed and breakfasts or homestays over hotels as they are generally cheaper and could accommodate more people comfortably.
And thus, I did some research online and stumbled upon Eylizar Homestays (the website is in Malay though) and poured over the different lodgings. I was finally intrigued in a serviced apartment called, Century Suria and wrote in an inquiry. They replied quite speedily and we got a quote for 250RM + 100RM a night for lodgings and a 7 seater car, which seems reasonable.
It was a bit of a challenge to make booking payment however, as for the moment, they were only able to do inter-banking payments and none of us had a Malaysian bank account.
We managed to solve this issue by using Western Union in the end, to transfer the money to their bank using a Swift Code.
—
It was a sunny day when we reached Langkawi and of course, I was very excited to be there, raring to explore this beautiful island. We were welcomed at the arrival hall, and the first thing that we did was to get a SIM card for our phones.
My brother Nazry and Cartcart got a Hotlink prepaid card each. It was pretty easy to get one by the way – just show your passport and they’ll handle the rest. I’m not too sure if it’s worth getting though, because the signal connection here seem very erratic. Although I have to admit that getting one would be useful just for having GPS to guide us on the roads.
After that we followed our usher to our rented car and , which is a Toyota Avanza. After checking Cart’s international license and the handing of our receipts and whatnots, we were off to drive to our lodgings.
Cart had to take a while to get adjusted to the gear by the way, as it was automatic while we’ve been driving manual cars all these while. But it was not a big deal, I think it would be more challenging for an automatic driver to get used to a manual! But I think the biggest thing that we had to get used to, was to get used to driving on the left side of the road. It’s the opposite for Europe.
By the way, you could also rent motorcycles there. My brothers got for themselves a 125cc scooters each for 40RM a day. I think it’s a great way to explore the island.
Oh! And before I forget, check out the prices for fuel in Malaysia :
Nice! I like that the Malaysian government gives subsidies for fuel, which is unheard of for in Italy and in Singapore. I guess the price has raised a little at this point of time, but you could never get 10 litres of fuel for 5 euro in Italy …
In any case, Apartment Century Suria is located in an area called Kuah, which is a good 20 minutes drive from the airport. Nevertheless, when we reached there, I thought that it looked quite pretty.
I liked seeing the high rise building and with the pool outside, it looked quite classy and modern and gave me a condominium feel. There was also a little corner shop where you could get snacks, which I appreciated a lot. We hanged out there for a bit, while waiting for the owner of the apartment to bring us to our lodging.
It was only when we reached our apartment which made me a little disappointed. I asked Mr Lai, the man who was taking us to our apartment (Translated from Malay)
Me : Which level are we staying at?
Him : Level 2
Me : Can we please have a higher level?
Him : Sorry, this is the only one available
That’s fine. We just have to bear with a lack of view. But the closer we reached our apartment, the most disappointed I got. The path leading towards the front door had broken tiles on it, and the apartment had this strange musty smell, as if no one’s lived there for a while.
There were missing remote controls and holes in the ironing board … Suffice to say, the place was just not complete. but what bugs me the most was that the floors were very dusty. Which was unacceptable to me, because we did booking in advance, which means that the place should be taken cared of at least a day in advance, right?
I’m not that fussy when it comes to lodgings, but cleanliness is very important to me.
Which is such a shame because I think that the apartment had such a great potential and would be so classy and be more inviting, if only the management did just a bit more maintenance on the place.
So I did read from tripadvisor but I didn’t really believe the bad ratings till I saw it for myself.
In the end, we called up Eylizar to give them our feedback and they were very apologetic about the whole situation, saying that they were not aware that the apartment management has changed owners and we were supposed to get the 5th level (with complete facilities as reflected on the website)
The next morning, we got to change to another apartment in another location in Kuah called the Sri Lagenda Apartments.
It was actually a blessing in the end as I liked the location better. While we didn’t have the view of the sea being on the 4th floor nor an elevator, there were a lot of facilities around us as we were in the heart of the town of Kuah – it was easy to get to the market, the shops and the likes.
I was starting to have sore throat (probably from my 15k run a couple of days before) but there was a pharmacy just a short distance away from the apartment. Oh! And I had the most awesome food in this area! And I’ll blog about it soon 😀
Our apartment was really cosy by the way. It was like being in someone’s house, so you know things were taken cared of. Everything was complete there – there was a functional kitchen, complete with basic needs like a water heater, rice cooker as well as condiments, which I appreciated)
(But even if there wasn’t, I know my parents enjoy going marketing in Malaysia and get more than enough stuff to fill the fridge up anyway!)
There was even a washing machine there where we could do our laundry. Cart and I travel light, so it was a big advantage to reuse the clothes that we have and wear clean outfits on a daily basis.
(Freshly laundered clothes takes a short time to dry anyway, due to the hot climate)
In the living room, the sofa was really comfortable to sprawl on as we watched their flat screen TV. There was supposed to be Astro, a Malaysian cable but we had no idea how to use it, so we managed to watch the accompanying DVDs instead.
I tell you, it was so comfortable just lying there that I dozed off while my siblings and I were all watching Fast and Furious 6.
And something very important to Cartcart … there was air conditioning in the living room as well as all our rooms!
I love how pretty the entire apartment is furnished, with little touches of roses here and there. Our beds were comfortable to sleep on and probably an odd thing to notice, but I liked the bedsheets and there was a towel ready for each of us.
(Speaking of which, the pictures below are taken on the last day, so it’s not pristine … ehm)
But most importantly though, is that the place was clean.
One small critique though, is that the bathroom should have a completely closed window to prevent the mosquitoes from coming in. In a humid tropical climate, there is always a risk of getting bitten by mosquitoes.
All in all, I enjoyed our accommodations. It was really like home away from home to me, especially during the mornings when I saw kids in school uniform running off (presumably to school) and it brings happy memories to me, thinking of when I had to do the same too, once upon a time.
If you liked this post, you might enjoy my lodgings writeup at :
It seems that each time when Cart and I go for a visit back to Singapore, it is starting to be a tradition for us to do a family vacation.
The last we did it was in Cameron Highlands and I enjoyed that tremendously. This time round, the decision was a fierce toss up between Langkawi and Brunei (I can imagine you raising an eyebrow, but I think it’s an interesting place to go to)
Langkawi won in the end, as it is faster to reach to from Singapore. Moreover, no one in my family has ever been there so it’ll be something new for all of us.
I shot this at one of the many smaller islands in Langkawi. Gorgeous isn’t it? But because this post is going to be quite long, so I’ll divide it into different posts and today I’ll blog about getting there via Air Asia.
There are many ways of going to Langkawi – by car or by train (I would have tried this option if we had more time. I love taking trains!) Either way, you’d need a connecting ferry to reach the island.
Or you could go there directly by flight, which was what we did.
There are a number of alternative budget airlines in Singapore, but it seems only Air Asia is the only one that connects from Singapore to Langkawi with daily flights. By the way, they also connect you to places not only in Asia, but also to Australia and Saudi Arabia(!)
(I heard of rumours of a possibility of budget airline connecting to Italy but it has been a couple of years since and nothing seemed to materialise out of that)
I was a little nervous because I’ve heard a lot of feedback in my social stream about Air Asia suddenly just cancelling a flight and not refunding fees. Yikes! But we crossed our fingers that nothing wrong will happen that we’d miss our flight back to Rome.
By chance we were able to get our tickets for the summer offer and we managed to get their promo price.
The thing about budget airlines though, you’ll never know the final actual price until you hit the booking button – there will be security fee, service fee, tax fee, levy fee, fuel surcharge, insurance fee, baggage fee, processing fee … BLA BLA BLA BLA! Heck you even need to pay for choosing a seat.
In the end, don’t be surprised to see that you’d need to spend more than twice what you thought you’d pay.
(On hindsight, we should have removed the 20kg additional baggage since we travel light anyway)
On the day itself, we took a maxi-cab to take the seven of us to the Changi Airport – terminal 3.
All the Air Asia check in counters looked very busy, and there were already loads of people queueing up there. It was rather chaotic. Luckily for us, we arrived early so there were plentiful of time for us should we have queued there. Nevertheless, before we even started to walk towards the counter, we managed to get ourselves ushered in another smaller queue which was reserved for groups. And in no time at all, we were all done!
Here is my boarding pass!
It’s the first time that I’ve ever had a slip of paper as a boarding pass. Cost effective, yes?
We had quite a bit of free time, so we explored the terminal a little bit. There was this area called the social tree, where you could take selfies, put stickers and then upload it for everyone else to see.
This is one of me :
And this is one of my sister and mum :
It reminds me a lot of those neoprint machines which was popular in Singapore about 10 years ago.
Apart from that, I find it adorable that there are a lot of these types of machines asking you how the service was. There was even one at the toilet! (Which is beautiful by the way. But I didn’t snapped any pictures because I am self conscious when there are others inside)
(Take note that it is sanitised regularly 😛)
We went through the gate (and waited for a bit, but there was wifi there!) and finally boarded the plane (on an aerobridge!) and quickly searched for our seats.
The seating space for the were alright. You can’t move the arm rest up, but it wasn’t such a big issue since it was a short 2 hours flight (I think you’d have to pay extra for that?) Which was also the reason why we didn’t get for ourselves any in-flight food either – although the menu did looked interesting.
(Which idiot tore this out?)
It’s been said that the in-flight menu is based on where you were going to. Since we were going to Malaysia, I remember seeing Satay and Nasi Lemak in the menu.
Also another thing to note was that there are seats with red covers, which I assume are the ones with bigger legrooms. The interesting thing was that, no one were sitting on them on both the times we were on board.
I managed to get a window seat and the entire duration of the flight, I kept looking out of the window and admired the view outside. It’s a really pretty view the entire duration – seeing urban landscapes changing into the rural. Cart on the other hand, played Candy Crush. His latest obsession and my new nemesis.
I’m not sure what the rest of my family were doing as they were sitting quite a few rows away from us.
Speaking of seats, I’d recommend you go bring your own pillow on board since they don’t provide one. It’ll be more comfy. Cart got me this cute travel pillow which looks like a krueller, a flower doughnut where you could twist it into different shapes, which I thought was cool.
In a surprisingly short time, the captain announced that we were about to reach Langkawi. It could be from all those long haul flights that I’ve taken, but my first thought was, “Woah so fast!”
Nevertheless I was so happy I clapped my hands as we landed, excited to be in this beautiful island for the first time, safe and sound. Haha! I am slowly embracing this strange Italian culture of clapping while landing. IRONIC because Cart NEVER does that! :p
All in all, I had a pretty good first time experience with Air Asia. We were lucky that we didn’t experience the bad luck that some people had. The steward/ess were all polite and professional and unlike those horror stories of how budget airline pilots driving t the planes bumpily, I found the experience comfortable. Just as if we were taking a bus.
I’d take Air Asia again, but of course, we’d have to cross our fingers as always …
If you liked this post, you might enjoy my posts about :
While Cart and I were passing the Lakeside MRT station, we both saw a most interesting sight – it was a double tiered bicycle stand and it made us so intrigued, we had to stop and look closer.
I liked how rather space efficient it is. You could put twice the amount of bicycles in the same amount of space. I remember some years back, the area would be all full of bicycles, haphazardly strewn around. This looks so much tidier.
We were puzzled however, on how it functions though. Are you supposed to lift the bicycle up on the second tier yourself? That sounds challenging for me, considering that a regular bicycle can weigh about 10 – 20 kg.
It was only later that we found out that you could pull and slide out a lever to the ground where you could just push the bicycle in. Genius! And I think it’s free to use too.
There is also an interesting way how bicycles are parked in Japan, which I really like. Here is a video explaining about the process. It’s about 4 minutes long, but I was so impressed the entire duration.
The service is not free, but the good thing is, the bicycles will be protected from natural elements such as rain, and also the risk of thieves running off with it.
I really like that there are so many people around the world that use the bicycle to commute. I think it’s a very cost effective way as well as a very healthy way of travelling. It’s not only an Asian phenomenon, but also in certain European countries such as Finland, where Juli was at, not too long ago. And she told me how almost everyone there cycled everywhere.
I don’t really see much of this in Rome though. Not to say that there isn’t, there are. But the amount is minuscule. It seems that most prefer to commute using cars or scooters. I don’t even see kids and teenagers using bicycles to get to school. Instead, the vehicle of choice (apart from public transportation) would be a 50cc scooter or a those 50cc microcars.
It probably has got to do with the frequent strikes that we have in Rome that makes people lose faith in taking public transportation. Or perhaps the risk of bad weather in Autumn and Winter.
I myself don’t have a bicycle as I travel a significant amount of distance, which makes a scooter (or the car when it is raining) more practical.
Nevertheless, I’d love to have my own bicycle (one with a pannier would be ideal) at least for going around the neighbourhood, getting some groceries and whatnots – it doesn’t seem to make sense wasting petrol just for the sake of getting some milk and bread.
In any case, I see more and more people in my neighbourhood each day, taking bicycles while going around. It’s a good sign.
After landing in Singapore, it took a while for me to get adjusted to the place again – not that much the weather (although the high humidity was what really got me perspiring buckets) but more the amount of changes that I see.
(No more Jurong Entertainment Center, but JCube)
I can hardly recognize my neighbourhood anymore – the empty plot of land near my parents house now has almost complete 18 storey building and not too far away, there was an area with at least 4 high rise buildings, is now completely a flattened land – my mind was struggling hard to connect the changes – My eyes sees it, but there is a nagging feeling at the back of my head that something was off.
One of the biggest change I noticed is how very crowded everything seems. The neighbourhood where my family is living has a significant amount of traffic now, even during non working hours. While before I migrated to Rome, I had fond memories of riding my scooter in the evenings where there was hardly any cars on the road.
(I like this design though, you can fit twice the bikes in the same space)
And heading to the smrt and the bus terminal for example, has more people than I ever remember. Being in big crowds in a contained space tends to makes me anxious. I feel like I’m a teeny tiny ant with an entire colony in front of me.
But when I tell my Singaporean friends about the changes, I’m flabbergasted as the typical response that they give me, “Changes? What changes? I don’t see it!”
Of course for them, the changes are very gradual compared to someone who visits the same place, say … once every two years?
(Janet the evil cat. I wont forgive you for clawing my new bag!)
Anyway, the point of this post is that, I just feel a little apprehensive that with each change, I’d feel more and more disconnected each time I come back. Kind of like Tarzan (the book, not the Disney version) After growing up in the jungle and then returning back to human world and picking up new habits, when he returns back to the jungle, he doesn’t feel like he belongs to either one.
It’s kind of like how I’m feeling right now. After living in Rome, you just naturally pick up some habits (Not to sound pretentious) that when you come back, things seem incredible. Like seeing women going out in public with wet hair. That’s really strange to me now and uh … rather unattractive #sorrynotsorry
One could say that change is inevitable, especially in the name of progress and that change is an evolution for the quality of life. Nevertheless, I think it’s nice to have something from the past to remember by.
But I’m still thankful to have my friends and family. I’m drifting away, and they are like my anchor. Without them, I don’t think that I have much to feel any connection. Maybe this is what all people living overseas long term feel like.
I’m back in Rome right now. To be honest I’m feeling a little down and I’ve lost my appetite to eat. I don’t think that I’ve spent enough time in Singapore and did everything that I wanted. So I guess I’ll just do a blog post to distract myself. Don’t worry, I’ll get over it in time.
For today I thought that I’d blog about Qatar airways which was the flight that we took to go Singapore this time round. I initially thought for sure that we’d take Air China again as it is reputed to be the one of the most economical one. So imagine my surprise that Qatar airlines came to be the one with the best price in the list when we did our research – about 1.6 k euro for the both of us for economy class.
The day before our flight, Cart and I were scrambling to get new hand luggages for the both of us – we’ve been travelling with a duffel bag all the while, but I think that it would be more comfortable using one with wheels that we can roll.
I like how you could flatten it down when you’re done using it. Also being of a soft material, it weighs less so you can carry more things.
We were driven to the Fiumicino airport, and we took our flight in the late morning in August which is probably the hottest month in the year in Rome. I was most surprised that we didn’t get to walk on the aerobridge and instead, we had to take shuttle buses instead – which to me, is quite old school.
Depending on the plane that you are in, you may get a small bag pack containing a mini toothpaste and toothbrush set, eye cover, a pair of socks and a pair of earplugs. Personally for me, I really like the small sling bag as not only is it pretty, it is a handy place for me to put my passport without having to fiddle with the hand luggage.
Kids get a small Spongebob backpack with sweets and an activity book which I find so adorable.
Sitting down, the size of the seats are decent with the folding tray just about fit Cart and with me to stretch my legs a little bit. Of course, I would have liked if the seats are a little bit bigger and also that the arm rests could be lifted all the way up – it was strange that it could only be lifted halfway, which made it an odd design.
In front of you, you’d have an entertainment screen, which again depending on your flight, could be a touchscreen or not. From here, you could watch the latest movies, popular tv series, listen to songs and such.
I busied myself watching The Croods, an Arabian Movie I don’t remember the title, Oblivion, Epic, Monsters University, Fast and Furious 6, Black Adder, Mad Men and others I don’t remember any more.
By the way, this is something amusing that I saw :
An interesting feature that I’ve never seen on other flights before, is their special meals – I requested for the low calories meal. You could also get other types of meal such as Vegetarian, Kosher, Gluten free – all of them halal. Considering that my meal was low-cal, I’m surprised at how tasty it is but I do wish that they would include the amount of calories somewhere though as I didn’t see it written anywhere.
Here are some pictures of my Low-Cal and Cart’s Vegetarian meals :
I was really excited as we approached Doha – everything on the ground looks beige and flat. I’ve never been in a desert before.
It took us about 7 hours to reach Doha from Rome. Personally for me, the time passed by more quickly compared to all the other flights where we had to fly 10 hours and more to reach the connecting airport.
Nevertheless, we still had 12 hours to kill at the Doha International Airport. I initially planned for us to explore Doha a little bit – perhaps the reputed Museum of Islamic Art or the State Grand Mosque. But just 5 seconds after landing, the heat hit me so bad that any plans of sight seeing was just thrown out of the window.
Doha was so hot in August! I reckon that it was easily 40 degrees. At first I thought the heat was emanating from the fan of the plane, but the heat continued even after we walked past it.
So in the end, we stayed in the airport for 12 hours.
An interesting place, the airport was like a huge mall and there were people all around – One area had food, another jewellery, another section for electronic devices. one for cosmetics and so on and so forth. I looked in fascination at the camel milk chocolates.
The chocolate was made of camel milk.
There was also a playground section where kids could play – I’m not a mother, but I thought that that was a nice touch. There were also prayer rooms – separated for men and women.
There was also plenty of places where you could charge your electronic devices and I like that they provided free wifi – you just go to your browser and click on a button, although connection can be erratic depending on the amount of human traffic.
With so much time to kill, we decided to have a meal there. I saw A&W which brings me a lot of fond memories and thought that I could get for myself a coney dog and a float. But as I looked at the menu, I didn’t see any of them so in the end, we got for ourselves a pasta, rice, veg burger and drinks.
The local currency charged is in Qatari Dirham but they also accept other currencies too – So we paid with euro and we found out that our meal totals for 38 euro – 14 euro for my rice and 6 euro for my bottle of water. Considering the low quality of the food, I thought that our meal was unjustifiably pricey.
(Speaking of water, the water from the fountain was unexpectedly hot. Not to mention in the toilet too. Imagine washing your bits with HOT water)
Doha airport is very expensive. I don’t think I’d like to get any more food from there unless necessary.
After all the exploration, we still had a bit of time left so we tried to sleep on the seats – but there were no stretched ones like we saw for the Airport in Beijing. We were both so tired.
Nevertheless I had the good fortune to meet a most adorable 2 year old girl though, and she was so expressive and sweet that I forgot to feel tired momentarily 🙂
At length we got on the transit flight going to Singapor and another 7 hours later, we’ve reached Singapore! It has been such a long time.
(10 020km in total)
With my family waiting for me at the arrival hall, it’s nice to spend time reconnecting with them all over again 🙂
t
