Mesmerising Malaysia

An endorsement in TV once showed, Malaysia is ‘Truly Asia’. I did not pay much attention to it until I experienced it myself. On 19^th July, 2013 I, along with three of my close  pals Tomal ,Bhaskar and Bhupesh went to explore the country. Our trip included two places- Kualalumpur and Langkawi Islands.  We reached Kualalumpur at 12.00am and checked in to our hotel, Citin Pudu  which is located at the heart of the city.

On the morning  of 20^th, we were taken around the city by our tour guide which comprised of visit to King’s Palace called Istana Negara.  We were awestruck by the huge sprawling campus and the architecture of the palace. We also went to see the National Mosque, KL city Gallery, the Independent Square, Beryl’s Chocolate Kingdom, the Pewter Factory and many more.  The taste of Chilly Chocolate in the Beryl’s Kingdom,  the methodology of making alloy in the Pewter factory and the artefacts and the city model in the KL Art Gallery deserves a special mention .

In the afternoon of 20^th we visited the Batu Caves. We had to climb around 400 stairs to see the temple located inside it. The Murugan God is the deity  worshipped in Batu. Returning back from Batu we moved around the malls of Kualalumpur. The Low Yat Plaza which houses the latest gadgets and phones glued us for  quite a long time. 

Next day we took a flight and went to the Langkawi Islands in the afternoon. It took an hour and fifteen minutes to reach the destination by air. From the flight we could view the breath -taking wave- breaker where the popular Hindi Movie Don 2 was shot. Getting down, our cab took us to the Bella Vista Spa Resort which is spread over a large area facing the sea, resembled like a castle. The first look of the resort left us almost breathless. The swimming pool, the garden and the breakfast house  along with the lush green lawn in front  gave it the feel of regalia.  In the evening we went to see the pristinely beautiful Kedah Beach and  spent quite a few hours there. The glistering white sands stretches, the blue sea and the green mountains , indeed,  looked stunningly beautiful.

On the 22^nd we were taken for a city tour which comprised of visit to ‘Selamat Datang’- the Painting on cloth factory, and the fived coned eagle view point. The huge eagle placed on the pedestal surrounded by the turquoise see presented a bewitching sight to behold! . Afternoon was rather more special as we went to see the Mangrove forest. It’s a two hour boat ride where a visitor is taken through  several spots including the Bat caves. Exploring a bat cave is a grueling and tedious experience as one has to creep inside the gory dungeon, which is pitch dark, low and narrow ,so much, that one cannot even walk with ones backbone erect. The exciting part of the boat ride was the halt at eagle flight point where pieces of flesh are thrown to attract hundreds of eagles. The eagles come in huge numbers, fly, to pick the pieces of meat thrown in the Kilim river. The place Langkawi is renowned for eagles- ‘Lang’ means ‘brown’ and ‘Kawi’ means ‘eagle’ and hence the name Langkawi.  The experience of the zephyr throughout the tour was extremely refreshing. Before ending our journey across the Thailand border where the Kilim river conglomerates with the sea we also witnessed the various  uniquely shaped mountains resembling ‘monster’ , ‘turtle’ and ‘shoe’. 

On the 23^rd we booked a cab  for a city tour of the picturesque land. Ty Ady, our driver had almost become our friend accompanying us whole day to the various scenic and picturesque locations- The Telaga Harbour which was a port for big boats, the Oriental Village which was a sort of theme and recreation park, the Black Sand Beach where the sands of the was black in hue,  the Tanjung Ruh and Wave breaker point. But the highlight of the day was the Cable Car experience. The glass cubicle which took us to a height of 700m is an exciting and adrenaline-rush experience. What a view from top it is! It looked like those beautiful wallpapers when we type natural scenery in Google! The only disappointment we had, was that, we couldn’t walk the Sky-bridge connected between two mountains as it was undergoing repairs.

On the 24^thwe were back to KL. We rushed to see the majestic, the unique Petronas Tower. It is the largest twin towers in the world. Photographers like anglers waited with bated breath to capture its view in twilight. From there we went to the Malaysia’s tallest communication tower called the Kul tower. Should I now miss the opportunity to see the China Town in Petalin Street which was just a fifteen minutes drive from the KL Tower?  Obviously no, as I am a born shopaholic. But you really need to be a veteran bargainer to shop here. After this whole day of stress we had a voracious appetite and we had our dinner at a hotel in 38 Jalan Pudu. Next morning , we rushed to the KL Bird Park which is the largest in flight bird park in the world. We had our flight to Kolkata in the evening so we had to rush from one segment to the other. We bought some mementos and returned back to hotel. At 12.30pm our driver arrived to take us back to the airport. The road to airport itself is a beautiful experience. The serpentine uphill and downhill pathways is truly a traveler’s delight. We had a overview of the Sepang Race- Course Circuit, the Putrajaya city and other scenic locations around , on our way.

Malaysia, is an abode people of various traditions from Asia. One can also tickle their taste buds with delicacies from South India, Arabic nations. Chinese and many more countries of Asia. It ,surely, is a connoisseur and a gourmet’s delight. Such an enriching experience did the ‘Truly Asian’ country offer that we will cherish this splendid week forever.

Photo courtesy: Tomal Bhattacharjee