Langkawi 2017 : Hotel Bahagia

The hotel provides service as good as its name. You do feel bahagia. Located in the heart of Pekan Kuah, it is appealing to tourists who have ‘shopping at Haji Ismail Group HIG MALL’ as part of their itinerary. It is a 25mins drive from the airport. The room rate at Hotel Bahagia starts at RM99 per night for a standard room. However, the more financially apt guests may prefer the Suites and Studios.

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Hotel Bahagia also has a ‘cousin’ – Villa Bahagia which is a different form of accommodation suitable for families and groups of friends situated a few miles away.

We were in Langkawi for 4D3N and we booked our package through the Malindo Air website. The total cost for our trip –  2 adults and 1 kindie kid was just above RM700.00 (return flight ticket + hotel room)

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Pros;

  1. Location is strategic to Pekan Kuah where all the shopping goes on – especially to locals who go there to find tax-free Luminarc, Corell and what not.
  2. Room has basic amenities like a kettle, hot shower, towels and hairdryer. Only, the lower room rates would lack a window. So you should just stare at your husbands eyes and see through the window of his soul or something.
  3. Breakfast is included in our hotel room rate and the menu is I felt, befitting to what we pay for. They also have a cafe next door, a convenience store with bakery and did I mention there’s a Thai Restaurant just down the block? Yup, all in one row.
  4. There’s an agency that provides island hopping packages and other island activites at the lobby. So it was very convenient for us. Price was negotiable and just like, in Krabi, they pick you up at the hotel with a transport to the jetty.
  5. FREE WIFI in every room

Cons;

  1. You need parking coupons to park at the hotel. They do not have a specific car park. You’d need to park in front of the shop lots. Thankfully, there are plenty of shops selling the coupons. Too bad the reception does not sell them.
  2. Housekeeping can be a bit sloppy. On one day they left their scrubbing towel in the toilet. The next day they forget to empty the trash – I mean they did remove the plastic bag from the bin but they forgot to bring it with them. When we arrived, they did not stock up the toiletries with shower foams. This however, could be an isolated incident so it’s OK.
  3. The coffee could taste better. It was agonizing.
  4. While its nice to have FREE WIFI – you need to get a new username & password everyday from the reception.

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At the end of the day, the good points won us over and it was overall a wonderful stay. We would probably pay for maybe a deluxe or Junior suite room for our next visit if we still choose to stay there. Heard there’s a massage chair in the latter room.

Excellent location.

Worth the money.

Clean facilities.

 

Langkawi 2017 – Long Term Car Park & Malindo Airlines

There is always a first time for everything. For this Langkawi 2017 trip – we decided to give the Long Term Car Park (LTCP) KLIA a try and Malindo Airlines a fly (as opposed to our usual Putrajaya Sentral and Air Asia)

LONG TERM CAR PARK (LTCP)

This open air carpark, LTCP is easily navigated with Google Maps.

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The rate per hour is RM2.50 and they charge RM 32.00 for overnight parking. The shuttle bus from LTCP to KLIA/KLIA2 however is FREE and is as frequent as 15 minutes. So I think if you’re travelling in a group – this would cost you less as opposed to having to pay for the KLIA Transit ticket from Putrajaya Sentral and what not.

It was still a bit costly for the 3 of us but it was sure convenient. Bag-hauling and waiting times were reduced to 50%, at least. The ride to KLIA was less than 10 mins. Which means we didn’t get to pose a lot of selfies in the shuttle. And it stops at its designated spot at the LG floor of KLIA.

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MALINDO AIR

Malindo is infamous for being an airline which has delays. I think they’ve got comfortable with the idea of customers knowing about this that they’ve become experts in managing delays, rescheduling flights and granting compensations. Yup, I experienced a delayed flight back from Langkawi to KL. Malindo informed us via text the day before. They can predict the future but we understood that our plane probably didn’t have that many passengers hence they decide to cram everybody into one flight.

Anyway, going Langkawi was uneventful. We checked in online from home so our baggage drop was pretty simple. They even gave us a complimentary newspaper at the counter. We get to choose our seats for FREE. FREE juice, no meals since its a very short haul flight (1 hour). FREE 15kg luggage allowance per person for domestic flights.

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The seats had spacious leg rooms. There was an inflight magazine to read as well. Not bad lah huh. I would even consider using this to go back Kuching – with a Plan B should my flight is delayed.

In Langkawi, we stayed at Hotel Bahagia ( a blog post of its own this one). Went Island Hopping and visited the wonderful Langkawi Geopark which I will elaborate on later. And of course we ate a lot of Laksa Kedah and its weird idea of cendol and bought loads of chocolate to bring back home to family and friends.I even allowed myself to splurge on a new set of china. *gasp at horror of my bank account balance*

A filler post until I get back on track

More than 10 days without a blog post despite having everything planned and laid out. Minci.. minci… tsk tsk tsk.. I was to write about my Langkawi holiday. I haven’t even started drafting the posts. Not even editing pictures.

Truth is, ever since I returned from my trip I have been swamped with things at work. And when you’re oncall on a weekend, it kind of disrupts the whole schedule. Laundry gets postponed, meal prep is out of the window because you just couldn’t be bothered. Especially when all you wanted to do was spend time with the husband and son. Then there’s this psychological need to conserve energy because you know that you’re the type of person when being oncall means sleepless nights and being on your feet the whole day.

On a side note – I decided to jump into the Goblins boat. Will write something on that too. How could you not love stories like this one. The soundtracks are just as amazing.

 

Imandatory, I’m a fan

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I can’t really have a Formula 1-like pitstop to buy the papers this morning. Even if I did, I wouldn’t have time to read it today because I’m scheduled to be in clinic. ALL DAY. They made me, a frisky kitten to sit still? I had to fake 3 toilet visits because I couldn’t stand being stuck to the table for more than 4 hours.

Once I was done for the day – I prayed hard that any newstand, 7 Eleven at least would have a copy of NST.

Thankfully, there it was at 545PM – the last copy of NST on the rack. Eureka!

I checked to make sure that Flair is still intact in between the pages as I look for my new favourite read – Imandatory. And the article today was uplifting and inspiring, as usual. I wouldn’t expect anything less than Iman Azman. She could be like what Marina Mahathir is to her generation. One day, Insya Allah.