Had been to Malaysia last month. A 10 day trip, of which a week was official and the rest dug a deep hole in my pocket. Surprisingly, I managed to reach the airport 3.5 hours before the flight! That should have been a warning to this unsuspecting soul that the thrill and tension would come later but the soul in question was too excited about the first overseas trip, to worry about all that. The 3.5 hour flight was actually terrible. Pathetic food and on top of it the seat was too inconvenient to sleep. Boarded the bus from KL International Airport to the domestic airport at 6.10 am. We reached at 6.25 am. The next 2 days were to be spent in Langkawi. Our flight was at 8.10 am. Got down at the domestic airport and after chatting away to glory for about a minute, I realized that I had left my bag, containing my laptop, some clothes and a whole lot of cash, in the bus itself! :( The next one hour included a mad chase behind the bus, a wasted amount on the taxi for the same and a hell lot of worry if we(P & I) would retrieve the bag be back in time for our flight. Thanks to J & A’s help, the authorities at the bus station had retained the bag safely for me. Which left me wondering what would have happened in a similar situation here!!
Looks like this is a year of some lovely holidays for me. We began our sight seeing in Langkawi with the Underwater world. This, I think was the longest day in my life. It seemed like we had more than 24 hours and managed to do sooo much in one day! I was completely in awe of the place. Never before had I seen such an extensive variety of fishes. I could write a separate post about this place! Of course, I doubt if I could remember even 10 species’ names. The jelly fish moving was an awesome sight. And we were lucky enough to watch the keeper feed the fishes. The way they all pounced on their prey and fought with one another was an incredible sight.
The next thing on the list was the cable car ride. Located in Oriental village, this was another highlight of the trip. The ride is from sea level to 700 m height with 2 stops in between and it offers a magnificent view of the Andaman sea. The view from the car is breathtakingly beautiful. :) Thanks to the friend who suggested this place.
View from the cable carOne can also see the Seven Wells waterfalls during the ride. Not too interesting a place when you actually get to the falls. Okay to miss if one does not have time. The day ended with us haggling with the Snorkeling agent for an hour to fix the snorkeling trip for the next day.
Snorkeling was a first and a much awaited experience. Wanted to do scuba diving and water sports too but didn’t have sufficient time. The snorkeling spot was Pulau Payar Marine Park, about 45 min by ferry from Langkawi. White sand! Water is a very clear, light green near the shore and the color slowly transforms to darker shades of blue as you go deeper. Unfortunately, the snorkeling equipment was a little bit of a pain and kept coming off half the time. We spent about 3-3.5 hours in water of which about an hour was gone in enjoying the swim (I was swimming after a veeeery looooong time) and the rest in chasing after fishes.
Pulau Payar Marine ParkThe next one week in Kuala Lumpur passed in meeting many new colleagues, lot of window shopping and a night-club visit. The induction program was organized extremely well. Every bit as enjoyable as it was lengthy. In that one week, the word ‘networking’ took a whole new meaning considering the amount of emphasis the training team placed on it!! Finding good vegetarian food in KL was challenge in itself! The evenings were memorable...spent mostly with 4 other girls, giggling at the silliest of jokes, trying to decide which place to visit next and who to go with for atleast an hour before we actually made a plan for the evening. :P The week seemed to end pretty fast.
Only P and I extended our trip by 2 more days. Not many spots to see in KL. We just visited the Petronas towers n KL tower over the weekend. A short trip to Genting Highlands and Batu caves concluded sight seeing in KL. The 130 ft Subramaniya Swami statue in Batu caves was astounding! This limestone hill attracts millions of Hindus during Thaipusam. The festival is celebrated in a very grand manner here. The actual temple is situated inside the cave and we had to climb around 300 steps to reach there.
Batumalai Sri Subramaniar Swamy DevasthanamWe put up with some friends in Seremban (capital of the Malaysian state of Negeri Sembilan) for the night before doing some actual shopping the next day. Good thing was that these friends drove us around the city & showed us all the right places so the whole experience was less strenuous and their company made the experience much more enjoyable!
