Revisit Pulau Langkawi after 13 years

My last visit to Pulau Langkawi was about 13 years ago with Jo and my 2 sons Xiang and Zuyi.

We decided to visit Langkawi again which I spent sometime browsing through the internet for a trip. After much surfing I ended up at expedia.com.my for a stay of 3 nights in Kuah Town including return flight tickets for less than RM1,400 for both of us.

This time around we chose Malaysia Airlines instead of Air Asia like our previous visit. I have also pre-booked a rental car for 4 days which costed RM380.00 and was waiting at the airport when we arrived. And off we went exploring the island with a Nissan Almera.

Oh I forgot to mention we brought along our Brommies and we checked in to Adya Hotel Langkawi in Kuah Town itself. It is a 4 Star hotel, lovely and friendly Islamic hotel. It is very near to the duty free shopping area, banks and restaurants. Before arriving at Kuah we stopped by Cenang beach for a lunch.

In the evening we met up with Sandra Loh where she took us to Weng Fung Restaurant in Kuah, one of the oldest restaurants in Langkawi. We had a wonderful dinner with their signature dishes like fried fish with black sauce, fried prawns, squids and a veggie. The beer is cheap in the island and one must not miss it ... hehehe.

Day 2

We arrived to Pak Raja Villa earlier to test out our bikes before Sandra and friends turned up. We drove from Kuah to Ulu Melaka and found Pak Raja Villa (GPS : 6.358724, 99.777143) without much of a hassle in this modern day using Google Map.

By 8 plus Sandra and her two friends appeared with their mountain bikes the other two friends were Francios and Yani. The scenery of Ulu Melaka is beautiful with the sun rising from the paddy fields and amazing mountain lines at the back.

From the paddy field we began hopping from one kampong to another with continuous and interesting scenery to go through, this one with a row of shady coconut trees.

We have been riding along small kampong roads, some of them were gravel and some better ones with worn out tarmac track, suddenly we emerged at a main road and a bridge along Jalan Kuala Muda over Pulau Langkawi River. Francios had a loose pedal crank and at one time it dropped off.

All the bike shops we visited were all still closed and fortunately Sandra had other option where she contacted a friend for the rescue.

We then rode to her friend's place for the repair.

Here we were for the rescue at Seaside Guest House (GPS : 6.360795, 99.709823) to tighten the crank.

We stopped by a cherry tree, yes a Malaysian cherry tree and it is different from other abroad. Jo tried a fruit from the tree.

A close up of Malaysian cherry soft and juicy with lots of tiny seeds in it.

Let's move on as Sandra took the lead for another destination for the day.

Francios was good and back in action. I was impressed with his knowledge of the these interesting trails, he surely cycle a lot in Langkawi.

I was glad that Sandra took us to this water break as I wanted to visit after seeing her posting at Facebook before I came to this island. I bet not many visitors have visited this place in Langkawi.

We followed Francios & Sandra back to our meeting place which was generally along the periphery of the mountain sides.

At times it could be steep on and dismounting was necessary for non mountain bikes like ours.

It was nice to meet Yani from Lahad Datu and enjoying the ride with us. 

I remember passing by a buffalo park before riding along this stream back.

Yes we did see some big buffalo along the way and the heat is getting hot as we were about to finish the ride.

It was a relief seeing the paddy field again and sign of getting closer to Pak Raja Villa. Sandra & friends had to continue their ride back until Kuah while we were lucky to end the ride. Thanks Sandra for a lovely exploration of inner Langkawi and arranging with the Manager of Pak Raja Villa to park the car.

My lunch was a nice nasi campur at a warong near Pak Raja Villa before we headed back to the hotel. The "kuah" or "gulai" was delicious from fish curry.