Langkawi Trip [19-21 September 2014]

I thought long and hard about Le hubby's birthday present.. This is his 1st birthday as my husband so I wanted to do something special for him.

For the previous two birthdays, I organised and paid for a high tea party and a Minion themed party. 

This year he told me "no party please" cos he want to spend it alone with me.

Actually he's not really a party person.. I am the party lover. His previous 2 birthday parties were mostly attended by my friends anyway.. Hahahahahaha! Also I promised him that after his 30th birthday last year, no more parties..

But how can I say no to parties! Heh heh! I'll most probably throw him a birthday party when he is 40! He is willing to compromise with me for his milestone age. So he'll have another one at 50, then 60, 70.. until he is too senile to know it's his birthday... or until I die or something. 

So.. no parties.... what to buy for him? He said he doesn't want anything, mainly because he is stressed that he has to 'return me the favor' during my birthday by doing something even bigger & better. And he knows he cannot outdo whatever I do cos I am a better planner than him and I have better ideas than him. I had to tell him a million times that it's not about the competition to outdo each other, but how I care and love him to do something nice for him..

Anyway, he has everything he needs and what he wants I cannot afford lah... like a sports car... 

(´･_･`)

I decided to book a surprise short getaway to Langkawi for the weekend!! Something we can both enjoy! 

I've been to the marine park off Langkawi Island when I was 10 years old. It's an excursion trip from Star Cruises and I remember going with both my parents.. one of the rare times where it's just the 3 of us without my siblings (they were too young and were at the daycare centre or something). I remembered that day vividly and it is one of my most cherished happy memories I had of doing something nice with both my parents before they were crazy & toxic and wanted to kill each other.

Le hubby went to Langkawi before many years before. His mum told me that they took a speedboat from Penang to Langkawi, but he doesn't have much recollection of the trip.

Langkawi is also very near to Singapore so we don't have to waste time flying! It's also easy to get around with a rental car and the language shouldn't be a problem cos most of them speak English and I can understand a bit of Malay to get by.

His actual birthday is on 19 September which falls on a Friday! So convenient! Haha! So I booked Friday-Sunday and only had to take 1 day off work! :) 

The best part of the surprise was that he did not know where we were going until the morning before we headed to the airport... I booked and finalized everything only on 15 September and told him that we are going on a 3 days 2 nights trip to somewhere.

His parents were also curious and asked me about it during dinner one day when he wasn't home. I told them after I asked them to promise not to tell. Haha!!

From the moment I told him about the surprise trip, he kept bugging me non-stop like a little boy who's really excited about knowing what he's getting for Christmas. He kept asking "Where are we going?" and will guess the cities and look at my reaction to see if he's correct. He tried to spring the question at me when he thought I wasn't paying attention hoping that I will let slip the destination but I just ignored him and smiled serenely. 

(๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و I can keep my mouth shut when I want to. Hahahaha!

We flew on Silk Air and arrived in Langkawi before noon! 

Rented a new Toyota for RM190 for 3 days and drove to the Meritus Pelangi Beach Resort from the airport, which is only 7mins drive away! It is a really beautiful 5 star resort and I am glad I chose this hotel!

Happy boy is happy. Haha! :.ﾟ٩(๑>◡<๑)۶:.｡+ﾟ

Waited at the lobby for a short while before we were driven to our room in a buggy! The usual check-in time is 3pm but they allowed us to check in early at 12noon! Awesome! :)

We stayed in the room that has an awesome seaview.

The room is located on the 2nd floor (it's either 1st of 2nd floor) and it has an awesome high ceiling! The aircon is really strong which is shiok cos the weather is so hot & sunny. I love the bed cos it's a king sized bed! We sleep on a queen bed at home and I kept complaining that it is too small because I've been sleeping in a king bed when I was living by myself and now that we are sleeping together the bed is smaller. He doesn't want to change it cos it's really new and expensive. Apparently he did not think he will marry a girl so soon and will be living a #foreveralone life, that's why he bought the queen bed instead of a king bed.

(︶︹︺) Hai. Ok lor.. when he says it like that he win lor.....

Balcony is huge! Our balcony is twice the size of our neighbour on the other side. Not sure why.. I did not spend much time outside cos it was so hot! I just stood at the glass door and look out at the pretty view with the aircon blowing on me. Perfect! Hahahaha! When we were in Maldives, I also hid in the air-con bedroom and looked out at the pretty ocean view. I miss the villa at Maldives! It was so awesome! Too bad we only stayed for 4 days.. :(

View from the balcony

The bathroom is huge! More than half the size of the bedroom!

There was a walk-in wardrobe in the bathroom too.

Usual amenities.. they refilled the water bottles everyday.

On the first day we went to Eagle Square to see the 12 metre tall Eagle statue. Up close it's not really impressive.. in fact, if you take a picture of it from the front, it looks like a skinny chicken.

(▰˘︹˘▰) #notimpressed

So sunny! o((*^▽^*))o

My friend Tanya who saw my Instagram picture commented that we were lucky because when she went a few weeks before us, the place was swarmed with tourists and visitors! When both of us visited, they were nobody at all. That's why I couldn't get someone to help us take a picture cos we were the only 2 people there. It's worth a visit lah.. because it's sort of a symbol of Langkawi.. But don't have too much expectations of it.

We had lunch at Kenny Roger's nearby because I couldn't find any nice local food around the area. There's a dodgy looking foodcourt at the shopping mall which was overpriced and there were flies hovering around the food... and the weather was so hot that we didn't want to go anywhere else to hunt for food, so we decided to eat at the chain restaurant. Safe and airconditioned.

Drove around a bit to explore downtown, went to this shopping mall which was advertised in the free Langkawi tourist map. The picture showed a very nice mall.. but when we drove there, the carpark was half finished (bricks lying everywhere), the lifts look haunted and the supermarket was damn dodgy lah.. Worse than the lousiest Sheng Shiong we have here in Singapore. But at least the people were friendly and we got what we wanted (drinks and tidbits).

I saw these coin operated machines at the dodgy mall.. I love them lah!! I had this crazy idea sometime back about buying one of these for my future kid. He/she can use it as a piggy bank to store coins! And everytime he/she put a coin in, he/she can play on it! So fun right?? I told Le hubby about it and he did not tell me I was crazy. He just tried to humor me, though I don't think he was really digging the idea. I grew out of that crazy phase liao.. but you never know when I will get another crazy idea again. Haha!

Went back to the hotel and just lazed around watching Big Bang Theory before we headed to dinner. Le hubby has never watched it before and he's hooked onto it after me, Wany & Nat kept referencing the show.. there's a total of 7 complete seasons, with season 8 coming up soon. That means he has a lot of episodes to catch up! I don't mind watching it again with him because I've watched the episodes a long time ago. I watched them mostly during the times I was doing household chores like ironing my clothes, doing laundry, etc. So sometimes I miss out certain stuff because I don't really pay attention to it.

I made reservations at La Sal (Casa Del Mar) for Le hubby's birthday dinner! It is rated as one of the best restaurants in Langkawi and it's just beside our hotel! Only a 5mins walk down the beach!

（⌒▽⌒）

While walking there, the sun was just setting and it was so beautiful!

Pink skies! 

 

 

The beach was quite deserted and we took many nice pictures! :)

A behind-the-scene shot taken by Le hubby.

#kittychandiaries

 We got a table on the beach! There were 3 rows of tables, but the first row is reserved for hotel guests so we got the 2nd row which was not too bad cos after the sun set, it was too dark to see the sea anyway.

♪(๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑)♪ 

Happy Birthday Le Hubby! 

 ( ๑ ᴖ ᴈ ᴖ)ᴖ ᴑ ᴖ๑)❣

The dinner was awesome! Le hubby ordered the beef rendang and I ordered some spicy chicken dish. So so so yummy! The service was good too! Only thing I didn't like was they charged me RM25 for a pathetic slice of soggy cake which wasn't very delicious. Considering how expensive the meal was, they could have given us a complimentary slice of birthday cake like many other atas restaurants. Oh wells.

Went back to the hotel and saw that they gave us a cake!

Sang another birthday song to Le hubby! :)

This free cake is so much nicer than the overpriced one at La Sal! pfft.

Next day we had buffet breakfast at the hotel's Spice Market!

The selection is not bad.. Le hubby is a happy boy cos there's foooood. Haha!

On the 2nd day we went to Mardi Acrotechnology Park.

Locals pay RM4 while foreigners pay RM25. T_T What a big difference!

I can't cheat cos they wanted to see local IC as proof. Dammit.

There are a lot of different type of fruits at the plantation.

Guess what fruit tree is this! 

Answer: Starfruit!

We sit in this truck-converted-into a buggy thingy vehicle and a driver drove us around the plantation so we did not have to walk. No commentary though.. just driving around and stopping at a halfway stop to taste some fruits (not nice one.. unripe and sour! bleah). The driver gave us these hand-made souvenirs!

Grasshopper! He was weaving the rings and grasshopper while he was driving us in the truck around the plantation. So dangerous lah! I saw him doing it while peeking into the cab of the truck.... -_-

Fruits tasting at the halfway stop!

The driver took this trick picture of us with a starfruit.. Haha!

Afterwards we drove to Oriental Village and took a cablecar up the mountain.

Too bad the Sky bridge was closed for renovation.

The waters are so pretty!

#kittychandiaries

♡(*´∀｀*)人(*´∀｀*)♡

If you noticed, we are both wearing Plant Vs Zombie tshirts! Haha!

Went back to the hotel and saw that they put some nice arrangements on the bed! Heehee! I told them that it is our Wedding anniversary soon and they remembered and bothered to do something nice for us. Awwwwww.. So sweet!

Dinner was at Spice Market! The room I booked came with a complimentary buffet dinner for two at Spice Market. I think it costs over RM100 per person for the buffet.. Cheap thrill! Haha! I won't pay so much for the food cos it wasn't really good lah.. The dinner at La Sal set the bar too high already. Haha!

Our flight back on Sunday was at 8.45pm so we had a lot of time to burn before heading to the airport. The official check-out time is 12pm but they allowed us to stay till 2pm. However there was still a lot of time left before the flight so I paid for a half day rate for the room so we can stay till 7pm before driving to the airport. We went to tabao KFC and watched Big Bang Theory until we leave..

Overall we had a great time! The trip costs over $1000.. so it's actually quite expensive for a 3 Days 2 Nights trip to Malaysia.. but since we flew on SilkAir, stayed in a 5 star hotel.. oh wells.

I am not sure when we will be going on a holiday again! :(

This year has been such a boring and uneventful year compared to the past 2 years. Being married comes with a different set of responsibilities now.. we have to "save up for house", "save up for baby" and all those adult stuff.

੨( ･᷄ ︵･᷅ )ｼ  So annoying. I don't wanna grow up!!