Back from holiday!! ~ My holiday started on 17th Dec (Sun)... My family and I went back to our grandmother's house in Gurun, Kedah.. after visiting my grandmother, we went to eat in Alor Setar.. my dad loves to eat here as the food are good and cheap! we ate lam mee at one place and had their yummy ice coffee(although i wanted to have a caffeine free holiday)... before my mom, sis and I walked out of the coffee shop, my dad was already at the shop next door and ordered his curry wantan mee.. my mom and I had ais kacang and mixed fruit ice thingy.. my dad wanted me to try the laksa but i was quite full.. I had not gain my full eating capability yet... :( After more visiting of relatives, my family dropped me at my uncle's place and they went home.. I stayed overnight at my uncle's place in Gurun... wx, ky, xh n ws will be coming from KL...
The KL group reached at around 6+am and my uncle brought us to have dim sum before sending us off at the Kuala Kedah jetty.. The boat journey to Langkawi took about 2 hours!! o_O I felt rather sick halfway through and kept looking out at the sea.. After reaching Langkawi, we rented a car and got our hotel room in Helang Hotel (supposedly a 4 star hotel)... after checking in and droppping our luggages, we set off on our tour :) We went to the Summer Palace where Anna & The King was filmed but it was closed for renovation! :( Then, we visited the Oriental Village where there was quite a few things to see. We found the Anna & The King Gallery here.. for RM1, you can go in and enjoy the air cond while watching the movie Anna & The King..haha :) and of course see the things that were used by the Thai King... There was a garden where rabbits ran free.. and also Elephant Rides... We wanted to take the Cable Car, which looked interesting but there were too many people due to strong winds earlier on... the person at the counter asked us not to queue yet, so we didn't get to go up.. Next, we went to find Tun Dr. Mahathir's bakery- The Loaf... It was featured on a chinese newspaper a few days ago and my mom asked me to check it out.. the 5 of us in shorts and t shirts and backpacks looked kinda out of place in the bakery where there was a long table full of smartly dressed people having their tea.. the breads cost RM5 on average and cakes were around RM18... It's kinda like Deli france.. After more looking around, I realised Datuk Azhar Mansor was among the smartly dressed people at the long table.. After even more walking around outside the shop, we realised the couple sitting opposite Datuk Azhar Mansor was Tun Dr Mahathir and his wife! So, we decided to eat there too, sitting opposite Tun Dr. Mahathir's table..;) we tried the signature latte which is very special... The night was spent playing Bridge in the hotel room, watch a little of a Korean movie and then we went to Langkasuka Resort's beach.. the sky was filled with stars!! we laid on the beach looking at the stars.. so nice!! :D The next morning, 3 of us went for the buffet breakfast and sapu quite a lot of things.. haha.. next was island hopping and snorkelling! very refreshing to travel on a speedboat on the river and looking at the mangrove trees... and eagles feeding... fish farms where we met a NUS friend and 8tv crew filming!! ( I think it's for the show Trippin')... the tour guide was lousy! and fierce :( At the snorkelling place, he just threw us into the sea o_O and he continued with his fishing.. We ate at the recommended "Thai Restaurant".. the Tom Yam was very good! more Bridge at night..haha.. then we wanted to visit the airport which is just nest to our hotel as Helang Hotel is a Transit Hotel and mostly cater to those who go to Langkawi by plane... but the airport was closed!! we thought all airports are opened 24 hours.. not the Langkawi one though.. Helang Hotel has nice and spacious room with 2 queen size beds and a sofa bed.. it has many facilities too but not well maintained..sigh.. and the service is totally not 4 star standard.. lousy! (maybe cause we are local that they don't really care about us?) On the 3rd day, we went to the cable car place again but it was not opened due to strong winds :( So, we went shopping instead... chocs and alcohol :) I didn't buy a lot cause I'm trying to discourage my dad from drinking alcohol and my family don't particularly like chocs.. ws n xh bought so much! but mostly as gifts.. We left Langkawi at 2.30pm and travelled to Kuala Kedah to Alor Setar to Butterworth and finally reached Penang island at 8+pm.. We could have taken the speedboat direct to Penang island from Langkawi but I was afraid I would be sea sick.. Once on Penang Island, we went on an eating spree..trying all the local delicacies!! and driving along the stretch of Batu Ferringhi hotels... we stopped at Park Royal for a rest... we ended the day at around 1+am.. The next morning, we woke up early to have Dim Sum for breakfast.. then it was more driving around and last stop was the latest mall in Penang (and also the biggest in Penang), Queensbay Mall... We dropped KY and XH off at the Sungai Nibong Bus station before i was dropped at the Jetty.. Below are some pictures taken using my camera phone's limited capability.. The other pictures are in KY's camera which I will not get till I'm back in NUS ..
