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Malaysia Islands Penang and Langkawi Click on the pictures to see high quality videos |
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We usually stay in Batu Ferringhi, a resort town a short way from Georgetown, on the east coast of the island. The best hotel without doubt is the Rasa Sayang. Expensive but worth it. There are two wings, the most recently rebuilt is the Rasa wing, but also the most expensive, the Garden wing is still extremely pleasant and more affordable. I have some as yet unedited film from our last visit which I will try to add in later, the film alongside dates back to two earlier visits. The town has plenty of restaurants bars and night clubs, plus market stalls lining the main street.
Langkawi This was our most recent Far East holiday, and we also had a few days in the refurbished Rasa Sayang in Penang at the end. The hotel we chose in Langkawi was the Malay owned Holiday Villa, Tengah Beach which was very reasonably priced, but offered much the same amenities as the international chain hotels.
The hotel had a small business arcade which included a company that did tours by minibus. You can choose your own itinerary, we chose to include the Skywalk, an amazing structure high in the mountains to the north of the island, reached by cable car.
We went by taxi to a night market, which starts in the afternoon, so it's still daylight:) Lots of things to buy and food to eat.
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Penang We have been here several times for holidays, and in some ways it deserves a page of it's own. The main town is Georgetown, very chinese, and rapidly being modernised. It does still however still have a very chinese feel to it. Lots of temples, including the Kek Lok Si, and the Snake Temple, and the Chinese Clan houses are well worth a visit. Here's a link with details of many of Penang's temples, far more than I have visited.
The rest of the island is quieter, a lot of places are easily reachable from Batu Ferringhi, even by bike, which you can hire from the hotels. Hire a car to see the rest of the island, and don't miss Penang Hill, reached by a funicular railway.
Just opposite the hotel was a small restaurant, Cactus, basically a large tin hut, but the food and atmosphere was great.
The same excursion included a boat trip around the northern coast, and took in a fish 'farm', a cave and a sea eagle and red kite (mostly red kite) feeding area.
We also took a trip from the port area of the main town out around the many small islands to the south, Langkawi is in fact the name of the whole collection of islands, although only the large one is developed. One island has large interior freshwater lake, on which you can have a pedalo ride. There is also a beach visit for snorkelling, and another sea eagle feeding area, this time with more sea eagles than kites. Langkawi is named for the Eagles, Lang being short for 'helang' meaning eagle.
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