Showing posts with label FAMILY TRIP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FAMILY TRIP. Show all posts

10 May 2012

College Visit To Langkawi Island, Kedah, Malaysia

A boat jetty at Kuah,Langkawi.

Two weeks ago (27 April 2012), my husband and I went to Langkawi Island, accompanying my students from Community College to do their entrepreneur activities there. The activities, simliar to the famous ' The Apperentice ' where the students need to sell their innovative products to tourist, finished on the first day of our visit. The second and third day, we round the island and took a few photos for my blog.
Langkawi Baron Seaside Restaurant

Langkawi sea water is not as clear as any of East Coast Island's. Most of Langkawi beaches have a murky water except a few at north part of Langkawi. The colour of the water is greenish, unlike Perhentian Island which is blueish. The beaches at north part of Langkawi have  clear greenish water and some parts are very beautiful like Pasir Tengkorak Beach, Datai Beach, Teluk Yu beach, Pasir Hitam beach and Tanjung Rhu beach. The further north you go, the clearer the water and you may reach Ko Lipe dan Terutao National Park, Thailand. These two islands can be seen from Langkawi very clearly. Langkawi is nearer to this two islands than Malaysia . As everybody know, this two island  and many others from Thailand have  very clear blue water, just like Perhentian's.

Sunset at Cenang Beach

It was quite late in the evening when we arrived at Cenang Beach. Our students have finished selling their products and we saw them walking along Pantai Cenang road to their accomodations. We went to the beach instead. Cenang Beach is the most famous beach in Langkawi. This beach is famous for water sports like parasailing, water scooter and banana boat. The water is rather murky but the waves is strong and the wind is very refreshing . The strong wind helps to push parasails up to the air. The sand is white in colour but not as clean as that of Perhentian's. The casuarina leaves scattered on the ground, so as the plastic, the bottles and tetrapaks, yet nobody cares. There are also many chalets and hotels, they built them so close to each other that we barely find any access to the beach. From the road, we barely see the beach and most of the tourists went to the beach through the private access inside the hotels and chalets area. 

A spiral 'mengkuang' at Cenang Beach
We saw this odd looking mengkuang tree on our way back. They make it look so nice by trimming the leaves. It looks like spiral staircase.


The famous 'happening' Cenang Beach with many watersport activities.
I managed to capture the last photo of Cenang Beach overlooking the whole beach area. I like this beach for one reason: the visitors are 'well dressed'....

Talking about the beach, ( well... I'm the beach lover)... You cannot get all the nice elements come together at one beach. You want a crystal clear blue water, where you can swim or kayaking happily, then there will be no refreshing strong wind included in the 'pakage'. Somemore the weather must be hot and the sun must shines very brightly and you will get burned by the ray. If you want a windy beach, where the refreshing wind blows non stop, and you feel like flying?  Yes you may get it with a strong waves and murky water. The former suitable for snokelling, kayaking and swimming, the latter suitable for parasailing, surfing and many other activities.

Black Sand Beach
On the second day, it started rains early in the morning. I felt very lazy to go out and I watched TV until 11.00 am. My husband pushed me to dress up and do the planned activity: round island by bike. I quite disagree because I was sure that we will get wet. However, when we leave our room, the sun started shining behind the cloud and the rain stopped.
Our first destination is Black Sand Beach. Look at the photo, do you sea the beach colour? It looks white but under the thin layer of sand, the soil is very black. Its due to the type of sediment from granite, I can't remember the name. There's only two place in this world that has this type of sand. This beach and the other one I cant remember it's name, but it's not located at Asia continent.

The Black sand beach: Overlooking Tarutaao Island (National Park) Thailand

Eventhough the sand is black, the water is quite clear. We nearly swim here but change out mind later for some reasons. Later we went further north to the famous Pasir Tengkorak Beach ( Skull Sand Beach). The name is very eerie, yet many visitors hanging around, playing happily. The beach is the cleanest public beach in Langkawi and the water is pristine clear. I salute the team who takes care of the beauty of the beach. I saw them sweeping and cleaning the place. The time we reached  the place, the rain started dropping.

Skull Sand Beach, Langkawi

The water is superb..

'Tarzan swing' - the nature gift.

Skull Sand Beach is actually a protected rainforest area that has a campsite. This place is taken care by the campsite team. It has facilities like washroom and a few chalet mean for camp facilitator. There's no tourist staying here. People comes and go back daily. This is a real nice place. This place is pristine jungle and you can hear sound of birds chirping, insect and monkey.  There's many hanging root that old enough and you can even sway on it. The water is actually very blue but the gloomy and cloudy day vanished the colour.


After that, we continued our journey to Kuah using the north route and we reached to this boat parking area. Rich Langkawian own the boats and I my husband was really attracted and planned to buy one... (lol) I think this is a dream that will remain a dream.


Snorkeling at Payar Island, Langkawi Marine Park
On The third day, we went to Payar Island. At this time our students have already gone back to college. We stayed for another one day.

Payar Island consist of 3 island under Langkawi Marine Park. These islands are famous with its marine life, infact it has the most marine species in Malaysia. It takes about 1 hour 30 minutes by boat from Langkawi to Payar. The water is clear greenish colour and there's a lot of fish including human sized reef sharks. The fish is so 'friendly', they surround you when you snorkel. There's one species, like to follow me, when I look at them, they look at me back, staring me. Maybe they asked for food. Actually, it's prohibited to feed the fishes. The reason is, once you feed them, they will crowd you in a second. At that time, the bigger size fish, normally reef shark  the predator, will also come to eat the fishes, if they failed to get the fish, they will get your hand. I interviewed a few life guard, they showed me their injured finger. All due to the shark feeding activity, once allowed and promoted, but later was banned by the authorities.

The fishes can be seen clearly..
That evening we went home and reach Langkawi at 5.00 o'clock. After having our tea, we went shopping at Kuah, Langkawi. Langkawi is famous for local because it's a duty free zone and you can buy anything at the unbelievable cheap price. The chocolates are awesome. You can also get dishes and cutleries from all over the world. On our way back to hotel, we saw this unknown object, the size of a boat and looks like a cabin with the opening on top. My husband suggested that this might be a long time ago submarine.

a long time ago submarine??

One of the Baron Hotel.
The last fascinating view was this flag painted hotel, namely Baron. Doesn't it looks nice? The next time I go to langkawi, this must be my place to stay..

Bye, salaammm..

14 April 2012

FAMILY TRIP TO PERHENTIAN ISLAND (DAY 1)

Teluk Dalam beach where we stayed.

Salam and good day to everybody,
I have dream very long to visit Perhentian Island. Eventhough Perhentian is not too far from my residential area (quite far actually, about 600 km from my house and it takes about 6 hours from my hometown at Penang to Kuala Besut Jetty) it located in Malaysia and I don't have to use my pastport or to get a visa to go. I planned many times to come here but failed because of my budget. That's why when my dream become a reality, I just can't believe it. We went to Perhentian on 29 th Mac 2012 and went home on 2 nd April 2012. Four days of unforgetable memory. No wonder why tourists chose this island as their vacation. I just can't put the memory out of my head. Perhentian is really a beautiful island. I can still feel the waves lullaby and myself floating, swimming, watching the coral....oh,no I need to stop thinking of all these.
Teluk Dalam view

We stayed at Teluk Dalam (Deep Bay) and I suggest this place to all tourists who came together with their family, especially the one with children.  I have a few reasons of saying this. First, the sea level is shallow, 20 meter into the water, the sea level is about your shoulder. Second, the sand was very smooth at the beach and inside the water.  I barely found dead corals  here. Third, the water was very clear and blue. Fourth, there's many budget chalets and the food price was reasonable. There's one burger shop that opened until midnight. Fifth, the scenery was like 'wow..wow' and the workers there were very friendly. I suggest that you stay at Fauna Beach Chalet, this chalet offer us a great deal. If you wish to stay here, ask for a beach front chalet, the cost was about RM50.00, you can contact the manager at 609-6911607 (Mr Asmadi).

Teluk Keke view

We arrived at about 10.00 am, check in at 12.00 and our first destination on the first day was Teluk Keke (KK bay). This place was nice and no inhabitant. Only tourists come and go. There's one foodstall selling fried food and junk food. We were given a few snorkeling sets by Fauna and we were asked to try them first and check any defect before we went snorkeling the next day. I was informed that the snorkeling set haven't been used before. Gratefully,we're given the new sets.

Teluk Keke water was quite wavy due to north wind
It was so happened that we met with north wind during our visit to Perhentian. A day before , weather forcast announced that there will be a storm around Sabah coastal area that will affect South China Sea. This storm was not supposed to affect Samui coastal area which include Perhentian, but somehow we still can feel the stong current of the waves.

Strong current at Teluk Keke

Natural beauty of Teluk Keke. Unlike Teluk Dalam, no one sweep the dry leaves on the sand ..
Teluk Keke is about 4 km from Teluk Dalam. We went there by boat. Actually we could jungle track from Teluk Dalam. There is a pathway, but we were very tired and tend to save our energy for snokeling the next day. There no one lives here except a stall which operates during day time, a camp, and an old jetty. Informed by my blogger friend, this land is owned by State Goverment. This bay is really pristine, the water was clear, the sun shines so brightly that I could barely open my eyes. Good place for sun bathing, provided that you really wanna get tanned (but please don't show all what you have. This is a muslim country. I do not suggest 'two pieces'. Cover yourself a little bit especially if there's Malay around or find a place seperate from crowd, that show how understanding and respectful you are) . Don't apply your sun lotion and kill all coral just to protect youself for a few days (sun lotion is believe to be one of the reason of coral extinction because it consist oil as major ingredient ). Ready to get sunburn or otherwise don't come here...

The sun shines very brightly

On the left side of Teluk Keke, where we test our snorkeling set..

On the left side of Teluk Keke Beach, the view was nicer and there was a lot of fishes at the beach. My husband snorkeled there and found that the fishes were quite big, about the size of his palm and brownish in color. The fish even bit him for not bringing any food (lol..) I was quite unhappy with my feeling of 'depth phobia' that prevent me to follow him any further. Actually I can swim quite well but everytime I feel that the sea bed is deeper that my height, I will panic and that spoiled everything. The panic causes by a drown memory  at Redang Island and I'm yet be able to vanish it.

Clear blue water...can u see my husband snorkeling?

My kids and my younger sisters (twin) enjoying the water...

How I wish that one day I will have enough saving to by a brand new outdoor camera. This photo is captured using my Sony Ericsson hand phone. Do you sea the colour of the water, how clear it is? Actually in real it's even bluer and clearer. My hand phone camera cannot produce the real colour when it exposed directly to sunlight. I brought my Sony Ericsson digital camera but it worse. Dear readers, suggest me the most perfect camera for outdoor ... and the price too. I'm going to start saving.

Actually the water is bluer than what captured using hand phone camera. I wish that one day I have
 enough money to buy a better camera suitable for outdoor.




07 February 2012

MY FAMILY TRIP TO REKRIASI AIR PUTEH, AIR TERJUN JUNJONG, KULIM, KEDAH

Last Sunday morning (5th February 2012) we went to Air Terjun Junjong at Rekriasi Air Puteh, Kulim, Kedah, Malaysia. the place is not very far from my home town, Simpang Empat Tasek. Just 5 Kilometres away. This place is very nice, clean, fresh and beautiful. It's near the hill side orchard. During fruits season, we can easily buy fruits from the nearby orchard. Actually, we always visit this place, almost every time we went back to my village. The place is quite big, I think it can accommodate hundreds visitors at one time. It has a huge pool for adults (actually 4 big pools but 2 has been dried for unknown reason, another one is half the size of the big pool), 5 pools for children, 2 streams, 2 waterfalls. I think this Lata is one of the nicest lata I've ever went. The villagers really take care of the cleanliness and freshness of the place. They clean the surrounding and the pool itself many times. The pristine jungle, the trees, the flora, the animals, all the elements combined together to create a wonderful natural recreational area. 

pristine jungle......

a small stream

two stream merging together..

smaller adult pool...

2 adult pools..

bigger adult pool

concreted pathway.

dried adult pool..

waterfall..

front view of the waterfall

adult pool close-up

pathway to children pool..

pathway to children pool

children pool..

another children pool

ferro cement bridge.

my car parked beside the pool

vier from the ferro cement bridge

adult pool close-up
You can also watch us at this youtube link:
http://youtu.be/_2v5iB5j4vY
http://youtu.be/2ZUl2aTwLpk
http://youtu.be/KByI-MK-Yx8
http://youtu.be/t54tZazUn7M
thank you, bye..salam.

28 December 2011

MY FAMILY TRIP - LATA CELAK, IBOI, KUPANG, BALING.

On 25 December 2011, we went to Lata Celak, at Iboi, Kupang, Baling, Kedah, Malaysia. This was the nicest fall I ever went. I love it because it far from develepment, not many people know the place, very quiet, very fresh and I feel safe because the water is shallow and I can see the bottom. Actually I've already experienced many Latas like Lata Bukit Hijau which is really steep and long, Hutan Lipur Sg sedim which is very wide and rough, suitable for water rafting (I'm quite afraid with the strong current), Lata Bayu which is deep and dark that come with a nice man made surrounding, Air Terjun Junjong which is small and nice, suitable for children, Hutan lipur Ulu Paip which is very famous, very nice and high. Among all, I like Lata Celak because it is very 'virgin', untouch and natural.  I recommend you yo come here. This place is easy to find. You just go to Grik Jeli highway, a few kilometres after the exit to Kuala Pegang at left, you will see Madrasah Khairiyyah on the right then after that you will see an exit to Iboi. Use the route to Iboi, you will find Kampung Bendang Pecah and after that, here you are... Lata Celak.

Abang standing infront of natural background...

Green, green, evergreen...
My mother- in -law. She looks 'ceria' everytime she join us for picnic.



Testing the water...


Tolong... ada orang terapung!!!

Ssssseeejjjjukkknye....

Abah tangkap 'kura-kura'..

Mencari batu untuk dijadikan hiasan rumah...

What are u 2 discussing??



Berenang-renang ketepian..


The water look ok but actually the current quite strong...

Like nenek like cucu...


Nangis, nangis. Itu je kerjanye...
Permandangan yang indah di Lata Celak
Indah sungguh ciptaan Allah SWT... Alhamdulillah..