Day 1

We arrived at Langkawi airport at about 8 pm, and the shuttle service to the Berjaya resort was waiting for us at the arrival hall.

I started sweating bullets and just wanted to get the hotel check-in done and over with quickly, and to get to my air-conditioned room and shower. So I told the counter staff that I was upgraded to premium on land chalet, even though my hotel voucher stated me as being assigned to a rainforest studio room. The check-in counter staff called someone in the back office and Jacqueline, the sales and communications manager came out to greet us. She proceeded to introduce the resort to us, where the café is located and the buggy system where we will be transported to our rooms. The resort sits within Burau Bay and is over 70 acres big. It will be quite tiring to walk to your rooms, unless you stay in those executive water chalet suites.

Our room is confirmed and we proceeded on the buggy system to go to our room. The room is tastefully decorated and there was a welcome fruit basket waiting for us. There’s also a tea making station and the obligatory mini-bar. The bathroom is huge. There was enough space to set up a table for four there. There’s a separate bathtub and shower room. There was also two basins so there’s no need to fight over who gets to wash up first.

The only thing I ate was on the plane, I wanted to order room service, but after I was told that I would have to wait 45 minutes for my order to arrive, we decided to just make our way to the Dayang Café ourselves. I ordered the Cantonese Hor Fun, and it tasted good! And I was presently surprised when one of the servers got us ice-cream complimentary from the buffet he said. I thought it was really nice of him to do that.

After having our supper, we went back to our room and feel asleep soon after.

Day 2

We washed up early in the morning and had buffet breakfast at the Dayang café. The range and variety of food available was good and my mother remarked that the nasi lemak was very nice. However, because the weather is quite humid and the café is non-air conditioned, we went back to our chalet to bathe fast before continuing with the day’s activities.

We don on our Class95 T-Shirt, bought tickets from the Berjaya recreation desk and made our way to the Oriental village, where able car station is located. It’s only when we went to the counter booth, did we realized that the tickets we bought from Berjaya has to be exchange for contactless entrance cards at the information counter. And we couldn’t do that when we reached there at 1 pm because there was a big crowd there and they have staggered ticketing times in order to prevent overcrowding. The next time slot was at 2:30p.m. So we rested ourselves in the air-conditioned café and ordered some drinks.

With much excitement, we made our way in the snaking queue and finally boarded the cable car. It got cooler as we got further up with the cool mountain breeze blowing at us through the open slit at the top of the car.

The moment we stepped out, it’s so cool up there, a welcome respite from the hot and humid weather at sea level. We are now 705 meters above sea level! From this vintage point, I can see the lagoon, the marina and all the sailing boats anchored close to shore – what a sight!

After a while, I and my mother made our way to a suspension bridge which looks newly constructed. It links the secondary peaks together. The bridge is made of steel and concrete and though it looks sturdy, if you were to stand still for a while, you and actually feel some swaying as the mountain breeze blows through.

Eventually we made our way down, and were lucky that the shuttle service from Berjaya just pulled in, having ferried some passengers from the resort. We were previously told that there will be no shuttle service back, but the shuttle driver was kind enough to let us get on.

We went back to our rooms and took a quick shower, rested our aching feet and went back to the lobby and requested for a taxi to bring us to Orkid Ria for a seafood meal. Initially I wanted to go to Kuah town for seafood, but I realized it was too far from the resort for my rumbling stomach and settled on Pantai Cenang town instead. The seafood at Orkia Ria is fantastic, and not too salty at all. It pleased my mother who has a low tolerance for high sodium foods. The price was also reasonable; it’s only 16 ringgit per 100g for tiger prawns!

After the meal, we went for a short walk at the Pantai Cenang beach, which is located just behind Orkid Ria. I saw two very cute cats kept in a cage by a Malay lady and a group of young men happily parasailing in the night. I also noticed that the sands at this beach are much whiter than the one at Berjaya Resorts. I might consider staying in this area the next time.

Day 3

As I walked to the balcony to take more photos before breakfast, I glanced to my right and I saw some Dusty Leaf monkeys. They looked really fury and adorable with white ringed fur around their eyes. I quickly took some pictures as they climbed along the branches towards my chalet. There were three of them and my heart skipped a beat as I thought they are going to climb onto the balcony. However, they climbed towards the roof instead and disappeared. I later found out from the flora and fauna guide that they only eat leaves and young bamboo shoots, and probably not interested in any food that I can offer them. I don’t advice feeding monkeys though.

We decided that for our last day at Langkawi, we will go shopping! We hit two malls, Langkawi Fair and Langkawi Parade in Kuah town, which is about 45 minutes away. We went to the lobby and got ourselves a taxi, and it was the same driver from yesterday! I must give credit to Syed Khalid, our cab driver; he was almost like our personal driver as he ferried us from place to place without charging extra! The cab fare structure at Berjaya works like this. There’s a fixed price depending on where you want to go. However, we didn’t expect that our driver would wait for us at every stop, hours at a time and drove us around for the same price. So the next time, if you are ever in Berjaya Langkawi, do ask for Syed Khalid.

Later when I went to the Teow Soon Huat supermarket at Langkawi Parade, I realized the food prices are higher than the Billion store at Langkawi Fair. So the next time, you want to do some grocery shopping at Langkawi, do check out Langkawi Fair first.

Time really flies when you are having fun. Soon, we have to rush back to the resort to pack after I bought my Mary Brown chicken to go. Yum! We arrived back to the room and it was already made, though I thought they wouldn’t because we are due to check out soon. And they also gave us a parting gift, peanut biscuits. That’s a nice gesture.

I would like to thank Class95 and Silkair for the opportunity for this unforgettable weekend getaway to Langkawi, and also to the hospitality extended from.