Willy Wonka lives in Langkawi

Langkawi, also known as the Jewel of Kedah, is an archipelago of 104 islands in the Andaman Sea, is accessible by plane or ferry. 

To save time, we took the plane to get to Langkawi. But to save money, we drove 3 hours from Skudai to Putrajaya the day before our flight, park our car at the Putrajaya central (because as we all know, airport parking is a total rip-off. Duh!) and took the train from Putrajaya central to KLIA 2. From KLIA 2 we took the Air Asia flight to Langkawi.

What? Complicated? Naaah!

Waiting for the train at Putrajaya central

After riding the train, we shall wait for the plane.

We stayed near the Kuah town. First at the HIG Hotel, which is where hubby will be tending to his work thing. Oh yes, the main reason for this little trip was because hubby got some work here.

HIG Hotel is a 3 stars hotel, with a 5 stars service. I absolutely love this place. The staff are all polite and friendly people, the room is clean and comfortable, and the location is perfect.

You will be connected to everything here. Wanna shop? The HIG mall is right next door. Wanna eat local food? The HIG food court is right across the street. Need to rent a car? Just go to the lobby and they will hook you up. Need to book a tour, call the receptionist and they will work it out for you. And the price is very reasonable too.

I should probably mention that HIG is an islamic hotel, which means they do not serve alcohol and they do not allow alcohol in the premises. And durian. But then, islamic or not, most hotels in Malaysia do not allow durian, which in my opinion, sucks. Because durian is SOOooo yummy and consuming durians could totally lift up your mood and make you feel amazing!

Durian is good, people!

I really really really love durian.


Ok, I'm back.

View from our room at HIG Hotel

They thoughtfully provide clean prayer garments in their suite.

Now, lets talk about shopping in Langkawi.

Yeaaah, shopping.

If you love chocolates (who could not love chocolates by the way?), Langkawi is absolutely perfect for you. And this is one type of shopping that even kids would love. You can buy all kinds of chocolate at a very cheap price from any Langkawi's duty free malls because apparently Willy Wonka lives in Langkawi and he decided to bless the people of Langkawi and those who set foot on this land with cheap and yummy chocolates. Ok, I'm sure you all know I made that up.

Anyway..... guess what? The HIG mall is one of them duty free malls.

Other than the HIG (Haji Ismail Group) Mall, the Zone mall near the Underwater World is also a duty free mall. 

All the cheap chocolates you could ever imagine at the HIG mall.

Chocolates aren't the only thing that is cheap here however. You'll find cheap Corelle, Vission, Tefal, Noritake, Luminarc and many other well-known brands in culinary world.

So cheap! Momma wanna buy it all!

Happy boys.

I don't wanna go home. I wanna keep on shopping!

Chocolates!

More chocolates!

We stayed at the HIG hotel for two nights, then we switched to Westin Resort and Spa after hubby was finished with work so the boys could have access to a pool. Oh the thing we do for our children, right.

Westin Resort and Spa Langkawi is also near the Kuah town.

The Westin Resort and Spa Langkawi

Chilling out in the room on a super comfy bed

The Westin is a luxurious 5 stars chain hotel with a super comfy bed and tastefully decorated room. We booked this hotel just so the boys could play at the pool, and surprise surprise, this hotel have 4 pools! One big adult pool, one big children's pool, one ocean rock pool, and one heavenly spa pool which situated next to the spa sanctuary.

Bright and big children's pool

I gotta say, I've stayed at many hotel, and most of them (even the 5 stars ones) do not offer big and sunny pool for children. Most hotel treat children's pool like an afterthought, it's frustrating. So when I see how sunny and big the children's pool here, I can't help but smile. This my friend, is a good pool for children.

Anyway, we pretty much skipped most of the touristy stuff while we were in Langkawi due to time constraint. But we did managed to go to the Underwater World Langkawi, which is located at the Jalan Pantai Chenang. It was entertaining and educational for the boys.

Chili crab, anyone?

One of the best beach in Langkawi in my personal opinion is the Tanjung Rhu beach. The beach is not as busy as the Chenang beach. Plus, the sand here is powder soft and the water is crystal clear.  During our visit, the weather was gloomy, so we didn't get to exactly do much. But even then, I can still see how amazing the water looked.

View from the Tanjung Rhu beach

These boys, positively itching to jump in the water. I know I do.

You can see the limestone islands from the shore which is one of the unique aspect of Tanjung Rhu beach.

Moving on from the beach, let me tell you about this one place that I love to go to for lunch. Well, you can go there for dinner too, which ever suits you best. But me, I love going there when there's not many people around, which is at noon.

This place is called, Pia's the Padi. Located at Jalan Ulu Melaka, Pia's the Padi have this amazing setting of being surrounded by beautiful rice field. The owner is very friendly and they offers generous portion of food.

Enter here for amazing food and beautiful scenery

While waiting for food, you can easily spot a buffalo chilling out in the sun, or a couple of stork looking for food and birds chirping.

What did I tell you? Serene, isn't it?

I like to order their Masala dish. I've tried their lamb masala and seafood masala. Both are yummy masala!

Waiting for yummy food.

Delicious lamb masala

And that pretty much concludes our Langkawi getaway. Yes, just like this post, our trip was quick and short.

Until next time!