#1618 – 2015 SEA Trip (Part III: Langkawi (1))

ENGLISH

Previous post on the 2015 SEA Trip series:
1. Part I: Bandung.
2. Part II: Kuala Lumpur.

Previously on 2015 SEA Trip: After Bandung, Zilko went to Kuala Lumpur to start the Malaysia leg of his trip where he met his friends. After spending two nights in the capital of Malaysia, they were not ready to set off to the highlight of this trip: Langkawi.

***

Getting to Langkawi

Flight: Malaysia Airlines MH 1446
Equipment: Boeing 737-800 reg 9M-MXL
ATD: 14:10 WIB (Runway 14L of KUL)
ATA: 15:25 WIB (Runway 03 of LGK)

We took a taxi with a very chatty driver on the way to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). The traffic was okay today where it took us around 1 hour to get to the airport.

Upon check-in, the agent informed us that our scheduled flight of MH 1436 at around 13:00 was cancelled (we were not informed about this!) and the closest available flight to Langkawi for us was flight MH 1446 which would depart at 14:10. No other option, we took it. But it meant that we had plenty of time to kill at the airport. So we had brunch first at McDonald’s, haha.

My first ever flight with Malaysia Airlines!

Long story short, boarding commenced at around 13:40. The airplane was a Malaysia Airlines’ Boeing 737-800 reg 9M-MXL. Yay, my second time this year (and ever) flying with a Oneworld alliance member (after my Japan Airlines Paris – Tokyo Narita flight in March), and my first time ever with Malaysia Airlines! 😀

We took off from runway 14L of KLIA and directly headed towards Langkawi. It was not a busy flight today (thus the flight cancellation, maybe?) with load factor of just around 50%, I estimate. Anyway, being a five star airline, to be honest I expected some service on board the flight. Instead, we only got a small back of peanuts and drinks with the choices of orange or apple juice 😦 . The IFE was good though.

Penang

About 50 minutes into the flight, we passed the island of Penang. Seeing this island reminded me of my 2009 trip there, haha 🙂 . From there, the weather turned bad. It was raining very hard at Langkawi. It was so bad that we were put on holding position above the sea between Penang and Langkawi for a good 20 minutes.

Once the weather died down a little bit, we approached Langkawi International Airport. We landed at runway 03 of the airport at around 15:25 during rain. Here is the landing video:

Landing during rain, unsurprisingly it was not a smooth landing. But no worry as it was normal. But apparently a friend of mine was so scared that he kept bringing up this landing until weeks later! Lol 😆 . Even that evening I was asked to give him a lecture on how a plane can fly and what safety measure has been implemented to face such situation. Lol 😆 .

Passport (Panic) Moment!

Instead, a memorable experience from this flight was that I left my passport in the plane! So I, somehow, put it in the seat pocket in front of my seat (stupid, I know) and forgot to take it with me when disembarking! Lucky while we were waiting for our luggage, I was looking for it and so immediately realized my mistake!

I went to the lost and found counter, asking the officer to allow me back to 9M-MXL where it was already boarding time for her next flight back to Kuala Lumpur! The guy was so calm though. He brought me back to 9M-MXL and asked the ground staff to let me in. I went back in, along with the boarding passengers, and walked back to my seat.

Lucky 9M-MXL was still there!!

I was so relieved when I saw my passport in the seat pocket, haha. Then I tried to get off the plane against the flow of new embarking passengers! You can imagine how difficult it was to get off, haha. Eventually I did, and walked back to the arrival area.

Thank you a lot Malaysia Airlines!! 🙂

The Beaches of Langkawi

Pantai Cenang (Cenang Beach)

We stayed at a hotel in Pantai Cenang, one of the main beaches of Langkawi. So after dropping our stuffs at the hotel, we went to the main road which was parallel to the coastline.

The road, somehow, reminded me of a less crowded version of Kuta in Bali. In some way, it was similar to Ao Nang beach in Krabi, Thailand. Overall I still prefered the road in Ao Nang though, even though the beach in Cenang was more scenic.

The main road of Pantai Cenang

The beach of Pantai Cenang

I bought a pair of sandals at a duty-free shop there (I forgot to bring sandals with me even though I fully knew I was going to a beach 😛 ) and we spent the rest of the evening around the area. We went to a small bar in front of the mall, where it was funny because I was the only one who drank, lol 😆 .

Island Hopping

The main highlight of our time in Pantai Cenang was this island hopping. At first I expected it to be a full day affair like the one in Krabi. But then it turned out to be just a four-hour trip, haha 😆 . Anyway,

We were picked up at our hotel at 9 AM. After picking a couple from another hotel, we were brought to the pier where all the tours would start. We were assigned our boat for the day, and our island hopping tour started

1. Pulau Dayang Bunting (Island of the Pregnant Maiden)

First, they took us to an island with name “Island of the Pregnant Maiden”. Why the name? Well, because from a certain angle it looks like this:

The reason why the name of the island is “Dayang Bunting” (pregnant maiden)

Can you see the pregnant maiden? 😉

Anyway, from this spot, they took us to a side of the island where we could dock. From there, we had one hour to explore it, with the main attraction to be a lake that in the middle of the island. To get there, however, we had to climb up and down a long series of steps over a small hill! Haha 😆 .

So we arrived at the lake which they suggested we could swim in. I saw some other people swam as well. But the green-ish color of the lake somehow was not that inviting for me to jump in, haha. Plus, I was not really prepared for swimming in the first place so I decided to just stay on the dry side. The view around the lake was quite good though.

Docking at the Dayang Bunting island

A lake in Dayang Bunting island

After what we thought had been one hour, we went back to the dock. But then, we could not see our boat. We feared that we had passed the one hour mark and the boat guy left us 😦 . But we were a little relieved to see a few other people from our group who were also there with us, which meant it was not just us! Haha 😆 .

After about fifteen minutes of nothing, we realized that apparently our boatman waited for us at the end of the pier! Sorry that we did not see you! 😛 .

2. Eagle feeding

From Dayang Bunting island, we were brought to a certain sea region where a lot of eagles were flying around looking for preys in the sea. Some boatmen threw some bread as baits for some fish to come up so the eagles would fly down and catch them.

Eagle feeding in Langkawi

It was quite cool, even though we were there only for a really short period of time.

3. Beras Basah Island

Our third and final stop was the Beras Basah Island where people could swim or enjoy the beach. Unless you were okay with walking through the forest without even a footpath, there was just one main beach which not very big where everyone went to, haha.

Beras Basah beach

We spent about another hour in Beras Basah island before they took us back to Pantai Cenang.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Next on 2015 SEA Trip:
– Kuah, the capital of Langkawi
– More of Langkawi
– Singapore
– Universal Studio Singapore
– Johor Bahru

A Malaysia Airlines’ Boeing 737-800 reg 9M-MXL prior to departure at KLIA

My seat on board my first ever Malaysia Airlines flight

A Malaysia Airlines’ flight attendant

Taking off from runway 14L of KLIA

On board Malaysia Airlines’ Boeing 737-800 reg 9M-MXL with Sky Interior!

Complimentary snack and drink on board a short Malaysia Airlines flight

The winglet of Malaysia Airlines

We were on hold for a good 20 minutes between Penang and Langkawi due to weather

Langkawi Permata Kedah

A seafood dinner

A seafood restaurant in Pantai Cenang

A pier at Pantai Cenang

Langkawi and its sea

Another side of Dayang Bunting island

Another side of Dayang Bunting island

Dayang Bunting lake

Dayang Bunting lake

A rushing boat

Another eagle feeding on fish

A handsome eagle!

Some Malaysian boats at Beras Basah island

Beras Basah beach

Getting my lower legs wet 😛

A monkey drinking soda

BAHASA INDONESIA

Posting-posting sebelumnya dalam seri 2015 SEA Trip:
1. Part I: Bandung.
2. Part II: Kuala Lumpur.

Sebelumnya dalam 2015 SEA Trip: Setelah Bandung, Zilko pergi ke Kuala Lumpur untuk memulai bagian Malaysia dari perjalanannya kali ini dimana disana ia bergabung dengan teman-temannya. Setelah menghabiskan dua malam di ibukota Malaysia itu, mereka kini siap banget untuk melanjutkan perjalanan ke tujuan utama dari perjalanan ini: Pulau Langkawi.

***

Ke Langkawi

Penerbangan: Malaysia Airlines MH 1446
Pesawat: Boeing 737-800 reg 9M-MXL
ATD: 14:10 WIB (Runway 14L of KUL)
ATA: 15:25 WIB (Runway 03 of LGK)

Kami naik taksi dimana sopirnya cerewet dan suka ngomong banget untuk pergi ke Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Kuala Lumpur (KLIA). Kondisi jalanan pagi itu lancar sehingga kami bisa tiba di bandara dalam waktu sekitar satu jam.

Ketika check-in, petugasnya memberi-tahu kami bahwa penerbangan MH 1436 kami yang dijadwalkan berangkat jam 1 siang dibatalkan dong (kami tidak diberi-tahu lho masalah pembatalan ini!) dan penerbangan terdekat selanjutnya adalah penerbangan MH 1446 yang dijadwalkan berangkat jam 2:10 siang. Ya udah deh, nggak ada pilihan lain kan, kami setuju. Tetapi ini artinya kami memiliki banyak sekali waktu untuk dihabiskan di bandara. Jadilah kami brunch dulu deh di McDonald’s, haha.

Penerbangan pertamaku dengan Malaysia Airlines!

Singkat cerita, kami naik pesawat sekitar jam 1:40 siang. Pesawatnya adalah sebuah Boeing 737-800 milik Malaysia Airlines dengan registrasi 9M-MXL. Hore, ini adalah kali kedua tahun ini (dan seumur hidup sih) aku terbang dengan anggota aliansi Oneworld (setelah penerbangan Japan Airlines Paris – Tokyo Narita Maret lalu), dan kali pertama aku menaiki Malaysia Airlines! 😀

Kami lepas landas dari landasan pacu 14L-nya KLIA dan langsung mengarah menuju Langkawi. Penerbangan kali ini sepi sekali deh (mungkin makanya penerbanganku dibatalkan?) dengan load factor sekitar 50% aja, perkiraanku sih. Ngomong-ngomong, sebagai maskapai bintang lima, sejujurnya aku mengharapkan mendapatkan servis yang lebih deh di penerbangan ini. Malahan, kami hanya mendapatkan satu kantong mini kacang dan minuman saja yang pilihannya adalah jus jeruk atau apel 😦 . IFE-nya sendiri lumayan bagus sih.

Penang

Sekitar 50 menit setelah terbang, kami melewati Pulau Penang. Melihat pulau ini langsung mengingatkanku akan perjalanan tahun 2009ku kesana, haha 🙂 . Dari sana, cuaca memburuk. Ternyata di Pulau Langkawi sedang hujan lebat sekali. Saking lebatnya, kami diminta menunggu di udara (di-holding) berputar-putar di atas laut di antara Penang dan Langkawi selama sekitar 20 menit.

Begitu cuacanya sedikit membaik, kami langsung mendekati Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Langkawi. Kami mendarat di landasan pacu 03 bandaranya sekitar jam 3:25 sore ketika hujan deras. Berikut ini video pendaratannya:

Namanya aja mendarat ketika hujan deras, nggak mengherankan pendaratannya tidak mulus lah ya. Nggak masalah sih toh situasi ini adalah situasi biasa kok. Tetapi ternyata seorang temanku ketakutan dong dan topik pendaratan ini diungkit-ungkit terus olehnya sampai berminggu-minggu kemudian! Huahaha 😆 . Bahkan malamnya itu di kamar aku diminta untuk memberikan kuliah mengenai bagaimana pesawat bisa terbang dan sistem keamanan yang ada untuk menghadapi situasi seperti itu, haha 😆 .

Momen (Panik) Paspor!

Justru sebuah pengalaman tak terlupakan dari penerbangan ini adalah pasporku ketinggalan di pesawatnya! Jadi ceritanya pasporku aku taruh di dalam kantong di kursi depan itu (bodoh, memang) dan aku lupa mengambilnya ketika turun dari pesawat! Untung banget ketika menunggu bagasi, aku mencari-cari pasporku sehingga aku langsung menyadari kesalahanku!

Langsung aku pergi ke bagian lost and found dan meminta petugasnya untuk mengizinkanku kembali ke 9M-MXL, dimana waktu itu sudah waktunya boarding untuk penerbangannya selanjutnya kembali ke Kuala Lumpur! Nah, bapak petugasnya beraksi dengan kalem banget deh. Ia mengantarku kembali ke 9M-MXL dan meminta petugas darat disana untuk mengizinkanku masuk. Jadi masuklah aku, bersama dengan para penumpang yang sedang boarding, dan kembali ke kursiku tadi.

Untung 9M-MXL masih disana!!

Lega banget rasanya ketika aku melihat pasporku di dalam kantongnya itu, haha. Lalu, aku mencoba keluar dari pesawat yang artinya aku harus melawan arus penumpang yang sedang naik pesawat! Jadi kebayang kan susahnya keluar dari pesawat itu, haha. Akhirnya aku berhasil keluar, dan kembali ke area kedatangan.

Terima kasih banyak Malaysia Airlines!! 🙂

Pantai-pantainya Langkawi

Pantai Cenang

Hotel kami berada di Pantai Cenang, salah satu pantai utamanya Langkawi. Jadi setelah menurunkan barang di hotel, kami menuju jalan utama di Pantai Cenang yang sejajar dengan garis pantainya.

Jalannya sedikit mengingatkanku akan Kuta di Bali tetapi versi sepinya, haha. Di satu sisi, lebih mirip ke suasana di Pantai Ao Nang di Krabi, Thailand sih. Tetapi secara keseluruhan aku lebih suka suasana yang di Krabi, walaupun pantai yang di Cenang sebenarnya lebih indah.

Jalan utama di Pantai Cenang

Area pantai di Pantai Cenang

Aku membeli sepasang sandal di toko duty-free disana (aku lupa bawa sandal dong padahal aku tahu aku bakal pergi ke pantai 😛 ) dan kami menghabiskan sisa malam kami di Pantai Cenang. Kami pergi ke sebuah bar kecil di depan mall dimana agak lucu soalnya yang minum cuma aku doang, haha 😆 .

Island Hopping

Hal utama yang kami lakukan di Pantai Cenang adalah island hopping. Awalnya aku kira ini bakal seharian gitu kayak yang di Krabi. Lah, ternyata acaranya cuma empat jam aja, haha 😆 .

Kami dijemput di hotel jam 9 pagi. Setelah menjemput satu pasangan dari hotel lain, kami dibawa ke dermaga dimana tur-turnya akan berangkat. Kami diarahkan ke kapal kami hari ini dan tur island hopping dimulai.

1. Pulau Dayang Bunting

Pertama-tama, kami dibawa ke pulau yang namanya “Dayang Bunting” (iya namanya memang gitu amat, haha 😆 ). Kok namanya begini sih? Ya soalnya dari satu sudut pulaunya nampak seperti ini:

Alasan nama pulaunya adalah “Dayang Bunting”

Bisakah pada melihat dayangnya yang bunting? 😉

Dari lokasi ini, mereka membawa kami ke sisi lain pulaunya dimana kami bisa mendarat. Dari sana, kami memiliki waktu satu jam untuk menjelajahi pulaunya, dimana atraksi utamanya adalah danau yang ada di tengah pulaunya. Untuk kesana tapinya, kami harus menaiki dan menuruni banyak anak tangga yang melewati sebuah bukit kecil! Haha 😆 .

Singkat cerita, tibalah kami di danaunya dimana banyak yang menyarankan untuk berenang disana. Memang sih ada beberapa pengunjung lain yang berenang juga. Hanya saja, warna airnya yang kehijauan gitu kok nggak mengundang untuk dicemplungi ya, haha. Apalagi aku juga memang nggak mempersiapkan diri untuk berenang hari ini sih sehingga aku memutuskan untuk kering-kering aja deh sekarang. Pemandangan di sekeliling danaunya sendiri lumayan indah kok.

Mendarat di pulau Dayang Bunting

Sebuah danau di pulai Dayang Bunting

Setelah kira-kira satu jam, kami kembali ke dermaga. Tetapi kemudian, kami tidak bisa melihat kapal kami. Kami takut kami ditinggal karena siapa tahu kami melewati waktu satu jam itu kan 😦 . Tetapi lega juga kami melihat beberapa orang dari grup kami yang juga berada disana bersama kami, artinya kami nggak ditinggal sendirian! Haha 😆 .

Setelah lima belas menit tanpa kabar, kami menyadari bahwa ternyata petugas kapalnya menunggu kami di ujung dermaganya dong! Ya maaf ya Pak kan kami nggak liat situ ada disitu! 😛

2. Memberi makan elang

Dari pulau Dayang Bunting, kami dibawa ke sebuah area di lautan dimana ada banyak burung elang yang terbang mencari mangsa di laut. Beberapa nelayan melemparkan roti sebagai bait untuk ikan-ikan sehingga elangnya akan turun dan memburu ikan-ikan itu.

Memberi makan elang di Langkawi

Lumayan keren juga lho, sayangnya kami cuma sebentar aja disana.

3. Pulau Beras Basah

Tujuan ketiga sekaligus terakhir kami hari ini adalah Pulau Beras Basah dimana kami bisa berenang atau menikmati pantainya. Kecuali kita nggak masalah dengan masuk ke hutan belantara yang mana jalan setapak aja nggak ada, cuma ada satu area pantai utama yang nggak besar-besar amat dan semua orang pergi kesana, haha.

Pantai Beras Basah

Kami menghabiskan sekitar satu jam di pulau Beras Basah sebelum mereka membawa kami kembali ke Pantai Cenang.

BERSAMBUNG…

Selanjutnya 2015 SEA Trip:
– Kuah, ibukotanya Langkawi
– Lebih banyak lagi tentang Langkawi
– Singapore
– Universal Studio Singapore
– Johor Bahru

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