We had reached the end of our 30-day visa in Thailand, so we had to move on from our amazing month on the islands. We had made our way south in Thailand, making Malaysia an easy next stop! From Koh Lipe, we were able to book a ferry to Langkawi, a small Malaysian island to the very northwest of Peninsular Malaysia. The ferry was scheduled for 10 am from Pattaya Beach, but we were told to arrive at 8:30 in order to go through immigration. We checked in at the check-in window and dropped off our passports. Then we proceeded to drop our bags on the beach in the appropriate section and waited to be called about 40 minutes later to go through immigration. We were given our passports back and a numbered card for boarding (we were 28 and 29 out of 152) from the initial check-in window only to then move to the immigration line, where we handed over our passports for exit stamps (they gave the passports back to us on the boat). After another 40 minutes, we were called to board, so we grabbed our bags from the beach and carried them to the longtail boats, which took us to the large ferry out in the harbor. Once on the ferry, we waited another 30 minutes for the rest of the passengers to board and then headed to Langkawi!
The ride was about 1.5 hours – there were bathrooms on the boat and large, comfortable seats. An easy trip. When we arrived in Langkawi, the bags were unloaded first onto the small dock and then passengers were slowly let off. In the time of COVID-19, the line took longer for immigration because they also checked every passenger’s temperature. Getting stamped into Malaysia was quick and easy (no visa required for under 90 days). There was a gas station next to the port with one ATM, so the line was long. Since we didn’t have a SIM card yet for the phone, we had no choice but to take a taxi from those waiting near the port.
We booked three nights at a newer hotel called Villa Paddy, which is located in the middle of the island. Although the location is central, the island is large and having our own transportation would have made exploring much easier. Aside from that, the hotel was great! The rooms are very nice with large bathrooms. We had room #C1, which has a private balcony that faces the main road (a little noisy) as well as shared porch space and shared pool with the other double rooms. The king suites each have their own pool overlooking the rice paddies and the queen suites share a pool between the four of them. Breakfast is included and there are several choices for meal types. We stuck with a traditional Malaysian dish of Nasi Lemak – coconut white rice with fried chicken, fried sardines, peanuts, and a hard boiled egg – delicious! We would definitely recommend this hotel to others.
As I mentioned above, our hotel was not near much. However, based on our drive from the port to the hotel, we decided that this island wasn’t a place for us to motorbike – large roads, mostly car traffic, and fast-moving. In addition, the distances we needed to travel during our stay weren’t conducive to me sitting on the back. Rental cars are about $25 USD per day, plus gas. But, Grab is very cheap. We spent less on Grab every day than we would have on the rental car and got to see quite a bit of the island. For example, an approximate 30-minute ride from Pantai Cenang to the Oriental Village cost $6.50 USD. Again, renting a car offers you much more flexibility for exploring, but we were fine with Grabs for our three-day stay. The activities we enjoyed the most are listed below.
- Beaches at Pentai Cenang:
Since we had just spent a month on the Thailand islands, we opted not to stay near this area, which is a popular tourist area. We did, however, want to check it out! There are a lot of hotels, restaurants, and shops in this area that we casually explored for a couple hours. We also sat on the beach for a bit, walking to Pantai Cenang and Pantai Tengah (beach directly south of Pantai Cenang, apparently a quieter area). Both beach areas were very quiet and not busy at all, likely due to the coronavirus and lack of tourists, particularly the Chinese. There are many water sport options along both beaches (jetskiing, banana boating, water skiing, parasailing, etc.) – all were a bit out of our price range but looked very fun! We also watched the beautiful sunset from the beach one night after enjoying the night market (see below).
Pantai Cenang 
Pantai Tengah
We purchased the basic ticket, which included the Sky Cab, 3D Art Museum, and Sky Rex for 85 RM each (or $21.25 USD). We started with the main attraction – the Sky Cab. There was a lot of permanent line queuing infrastructure suggesting that there are typically large crowds here, but we experienced practically no crowds at all and walked right onto the Sky Cab (gondola). The ticket prices offer a few different options for your Sky Cab experience – the basic (what we got) where you share the cab with up to six people, the private, and the glass bottom. For us, since there were no crowds, our basic ticket got us a private ride anyways! The rid took about 10 to 15 minutes to reach the top. On the way up, you get off briefly at a mid-way point to enjoy a viewpoint and then get back on the gondola for the remainder of the ride. You don’t stop here on the way back down, so best to enjoy it on the way up if you want.
The views at the top are great; if you climb up a few flights of stairs to the highest views, you can see a lot of the island and even across the water to Koh Tarutao and Koh Lipe in Thailand. Also, from here, you can access the Sky Bridge. The Sky Bridge is a separate ticket that you can buy at the top for 6 RM each. There is also an option to purchase the Sky Glide ticket if you want to take this inclined lift down to the start of the Sky Bridge. Even with few crowds, the line looked long for the Sky Glide, which is only a 12-person compartment that takes 10 to 15 minutes round trip. We felt it wasn’t worth the price since walking/climbing the stairs down and up only took about 5 to 10 minutes each way. The Sky Bridge is short, but worthwhile as it provides different views that the other spots. In total, the walk to, on, and from the bridge took about 30 minutes. We returned to the Sky Cab and rode back down to the Oriental Village.
Next up, the 3D Art Museum where we experienced many rooms filled with huge murals and instructions on how to pose with the art so it appears 3D with you as the subject. We had a lot of fun walking around and taking silly photos. Our last event was the Sky Rex, which was a 4D dinosaur ride (in a car that moves along with the screen). The graphics were surprisingly good – not Disney ride quality, but worth the 5-minute wait and 10-minute ride! Overall, we loved our time at the Oriental Village. It easily filled an afternoon and we could have spent longer exploring the shops and restaurants in the village.
- Enjoy the Night Markets:
On Langkawi, the night market was in a different location every day of the week – on Wednesdays and Saturdays, the night market was in Kuah, the main port city, and on Thursday, it was in Pantai Cenang. We visited the night market twice during our three-night stay. It was a great way to sample a bunch of Malaysian food dishes, especially since this was our first stop in Malaysia! Here’s what we got for a total of 32.50 RM (about $8.00 USD) the first night: two fried chicken skin skewers, three popiah (spring rolls), pasti sedap (chicken wrap with sauces), chicken and rice with red sauce, a roti filled with chicken, chickpeas, and other deliciousness (my favorite dish of the market), a beef burger (not a typical burger), two potato samosas, sticky rice filled with meat of some sort, slice of chocolate cake, donut, fried chicken leg, and a water.
