Langkawi 2015 Day 3 – Underwater World and Home Sweet Home

The last day started early, just like any other day since Jr. came along. Woke up to quite a few mosquito bites on Jr. and my wife, apparently the mosquitoes had found a good food source. Unlike in Bintan where there was a mosquito net over the bed, the beds here were exposed and there weren’t any anti-mosquito fragrance.

After feeding and cleaning up, we proceeded to breakfast at the Spice Market restaurant near the reception. It was filled and we were told to go over to the Meritus club instead for the breakfast, where the similar buffet was set up. As we entered the classier setting and cushier seats, I felt that the buffet on offer had slightly less offering than the main buffet. After breakfast, we returned to the room for our final preparations, which included preparing baby meals, storing the expressed milk and bathing the baby. Of course we couldn’t complete these in time and so we overstayed for a good 30mins. The recept had to call us to remind us and asked if we needed a buggy, to which we said yes. The buggy was here in a flash, the fastest I have seen the 3 days we were here. Still we took some time before finally leaving the villa.

Meritus Club
Meritus Club
Cushy seats.
Cushy seats.
Buffet spread.
Buffet spread.
View from the club.
View from the club.

Brought a fridge-to-go for us to bring back the expressed milk. These we couldn’t bring along during the afternoon trip, we left it at housekeeping which they said could help us store in freezer, along with the luggage that was left with their temporary luggage storage.

Drove the car back to same location as the night before and parked just at the entrance of the Underwater World building. Purchase the tickets for 40RM per pax and entered the building, thankfully airconditioned. As Jr. had yet again pooped, we walked through the exhibits at the front swiftly, seeing some marine life along the way. When we reached the nursing room, we found it run down, without any facilities except a sink. It was a far cry from the beautiful nursing rooms we had in Singapore but this was expected. We quickly changed the diapers on Jr. by the sink (whom by the way made a mess by peeing while we were changing the diapers) and proceed on with the rest of the exhibits. Wife thought that the place was going to be huge so we rushed through the remaining half of the Underwater world, only to realised that it wasn’t as big as we thought and then we made a U-turn back to Eden cafe to have lunch.

Tickets to the Underwater world.
Tickets to the Underwater world.
Arapaima fish at the entrance.
Arapaima fish at the entrance.
One scary snapping turtle.
One scary snapping turtle.
Mamoset monkeying around.
Mamoset monkeying around.
Lazing fur seal.
Lazing fur seal.
Hopping Penguin standing tall.
Hopping Penguin standing tall.
Nursing room in the attraction.
Nursing room in the attraction.
Starfish.
Starfish.
Spider crab.
Spider crab.
Lobster.
Lobster.
Reef sharks.
Reef sharks.
Box fishes.
Box fishes.
A waterfall in the rainforest theme.
A waterfall in the rainforest theme.
Rainforest theme.
Rainforest theme.
Hexagonal tank.
Hexagonal tank.
Only eating cafeteria.
Only eating cafeteria.
Chicken nuggets.
Chicken nuggets.
Nasi Lemak.
Nasi Lemak.
Underwater world.
Underwater world.

There was quite a few stuff on the menu but what was really available was only Nasi Lemak. We bought for 2 of us and some nuggets to supplement the main dish as it didn’t looked filling. We had planned for my wife to pump at the nursing room while Jr. and I wait for her. This plan was quite important so as to ensure that there was enough food for Jr. for the whole afternoon out till we arrive back in Singapore, and also for my wife to relief herself. So she left for the unimpressive room while I brought Jr. to the hexagonal tank. This was particularly amusing as he could see many large fishes swimming everywhere and it kept him amused for some time until he got cranky and I had to feed him.

After 30mins, I went back to meet up wife and we left the Underwater World, exit led through a huge store selling souvenirs and food stuff. The visit was only so-so though I did saw a few other marine life that I thought I saw for the first time.

I drove back to the Nasi Kandar coffee shop and we ordered some Roti Canai to eat, having already digested the Nasi Lemak for lunch and also remembering the delicious Roti Canai from the dinner the night before. It was a short tea break before we left for the hotel to pick up the luggage and the milk and also to use the restroom. When the resort staff returned with the milk, it wasn’t frozen. It was disappointing but at least it was a little cool. This meant that the milk had to be taken soon after arrival in Singapore.

Drove to the airport about 10mins away and went into the carpark and parked near the departure hall. Called up the number that was on our rental sheet and went on to shift stuff from day bags to luggage for checked in a while later while wife and the baby went into the airport first. The car rental company staff arrived while I was still doing the packing and the handback was settled really quickly.

Went into the airport and had to go through the Xray machine first before going to the counter at Tigerair. There was quite a queue going on with 3 counters opened. However, we chose the right queue that had 2 counters serving the queue and checked in was done. Went through to the departure gate thinking that there should be some shopping at the waiting area but was seriously mistaken. Immediately after the gate, was the immigrations officer and thereafter was the waiting area, with a single shop serving F&B mainly. Therefore we couldn’t get anything else after that.

Small waiting area at the gate.
Small waiting area at the gate.

As we were one of the front few to board, since we were seated near the front and had a baby in arms, the boarding took some time to complete. However, the plane left on time and even arrived early in Singapore. The whole journey was quite ok, except that we felt the uncomfortable ear pressure much more than the Airasia flight and that could be the cause of Jr. crankiness for awhile. We gave him milk and he fell asleep for most part of the journey. Wife had to carry out some pumping on the flight itself. Otherwise, it was quite a easy flight home.

After touching down, unlike the past where we would almost zoomed past immigration with the auto gates. It was different this time and we had to queue to get through. There was a Singaporean line but was as long as the all passports line, difference being only that it was a tad bit faster – 10 mins to clear. We had no duty free allowance since we came back from Malaysia and so we got through the arrival gate after retrieving our luggage, meeting my parents have had came to fetch us back, the perks of bringing their grandson out for a trip.

This trip gave us the experience of having a baby on the flight with us which we deemed a nightmare, having sat through a few non-stop crying from angry babies. Now that we were on the other side of the scenario, this gave me a different perspective altogether. But this didn’t change my thoughts for crying babies, I still disliked them though I knew what was it like to be parent of one.

Learning from the last overseas trip, this trip was actually more enjoyable, having to be able to move about more and see more stuff. Maybe it was because the baby became more manageable, logical. Maybe because the wife was more mobile and compromised on pumping outside rather than limited in the hotel. Maybe because Langkawi offered more to see than Bintan. Still this gave us more confidence in venturing out with Jr. the next time. Next on the list would be during the long weekend holiday for the SG50, looking forward to it.

Escape plan to Langkawi April 2015

A brief summary on the itinerary

Escape Plan to Langkawi April 2015:

Total duration 3D2N
Singapore is on the same timezone as Langkawi.
Flight time is 1hrs 30mins on Air Asia from Singapore to Langkawi and return flight on Tigerair. This airline combination gave better timing options compared a single airline combination.

Morning flight on 3rd April at 11am and arrival in Langkawi at 1225pm.
Return flight is on the 5th April at 6pm and arrival in Singapore at 735pm.

Day 1 Arrival in Langkawi and Eagle Square
Day 2 Oriental Village and SkyCab 
Day 3 Underwater World then Home Sweet Home

This escape plan was planned as our 2nd trial trip with baby. As a follow up on a holiday trip 2 months before to Bintan, we were chose to visit Langkawi because we wanted to get a feel of how our baby would react on a plane and therefore find an overseas trip where a flight time was short. Langkawi is about an hour and a half away, which would be ideal and it was somewhere that we hadn’t visit before. It was a Good Friday long weekend and a great excuse to escape.

Budget nature: Affordable costs of living offsets fairly expensive plane tickets.

Langkawi has a low cost of living and therefore it was pretty cheap to travel in Langkawi. We got by for the 3 days with less than 300 SGD for all the food and car. Maybe it was low season?

Complexity: Easy with own transport.

As with all developing places, places of interests are not within walkable distances. Taxis might rack up the costs and might not be readily available. We chose the car rental route that enabled maximum flexibility, especially with an infant in tow.