LANGKAWI - THE HOME OF TOURISTS'

Nama Penulis: Nursyafiah Naziha binti Aelmy (A169100)

        Living a life of an almost twenty years old, I think it’s fair for me to say that there were quite a number of places that I had the privileged of stepping my foot onto. though most of those so called vacation were very different from the others, I think what kept it all at its best were the fact that I was blessed with the best company one could ever asked for; a family. Vacation is kind of

our family thing, like when others went excessive shopping for the fun of it, we chose simple, short and budget friendly getaway. Ayah and mama don’t actually have any sort of restrictions on our choice of destination, most of the time it were always ‘then and there’ kind of decision – which is pretty cool, if you asked me. Of all those little places that we went together as a family, I would say Langkawi Island is our favorite of all.

        What makes Langkawi a tad bit special than many interesting places in Malaysia was that this Island hold too much of our small, little moments that we treasured as a family. The mere memory of my first time riding a plane to Langkawi was very exciting that it was carved deep in my mind. The trip happened when I was a ten year old girl, rocking those iconic two way ponytails adorned with the bright, pink sundress that matched my little sister’s dress as well. I remembered how amazed I was, watching all those unfamiliar faces of foreigners flooding through the gate of arrivals. The trip was relatively very short, it took us around 45 minutes to get there which I thought worth all those extra expenses we spent on transportation. I mean, time is the only treasure money couldn’t buy, right?

        Right after arrivals, we spent a little time getting ourselves pretty comfortable in the hotel room, while mama and ayah did some quick research on good places to eat. You does not want to make two little girl cranky while you’re playing tourist. I’m pretty sure they both had quite a fair share on what an ugly experience that was.

        Regarding the trip, our first visit was the Kilim Geoforest Park. It was exhilarating. Like, literally exhilarating. Personally, this is where everyone should at least put on their next ‘places to go before I die’ thing. Here, visitors are going to enjoy an approximately an hour ride on the boat, sight-seeing the area. This park was surrounded by the largest and oldest mangrove species I’ve ever seen before. As a Malaysian myself, mangrove was something that I’ve heard of before, both in school and on news. But, the chance to actually enjoy the first-hand experience was really, really amazing. I learnt a lot about nature as well that day, on how crucial mangrove are to the green society- in which explains why this park was declared as the world heritage site by the UNESCO. Along the ride, we were allowed to feed the eagles that flying through the air. I won’t say that was my cup of tea, since it’s pretty scary for me to feed a big, flying carnivore. Who knows what they’ll do next? We were also given the chance to visit few caves over there. One that I still remembered was the Bat Cave. Do you know that not all bats are blind? Well, I know. The caves visit was the highlight of that day. It was a fresh, exciting experience that I’ve learnt quite a lot from it. Though the trip itself was simply memorable, I thought personalized moments like these that make some place a little closer to your heart than the other.

        Our next stop was the famous Kuah Town.  And it is what everyone else’s says about. Good food with nice ambience, awesome shopping center and comfy spot to hang out. I mean, the fact that this is a duty free area was what drawn people to come over, and you won’t be disappointed.  This is the place where you bought souvenirs for your cousins, friends, long lost enemies , what is and what not. It is simply tourists’ spots and an awesome one at that. Let’s not forget another iconic benchmark that sets this place as famous as it is, the Eagle statue. It was big, and pretty cool actually. We did snap few pictures of us under that good looking eagle.

        Moving on, we visited one of the biggest entity that makes Langkawi becomes what it is today, the Mahsuri Complex. Mahsuri Pandak Maya was one of the most famous legend of Langkawi.  According to the native over there, Mahsuri was betrayed and thus, was sentenced to death by her own people and that complex was the very place her body was buried.  The tourist guide did told us that due to the betrayal that she received, right before her last breath, she did swore that Langkawi will suffer for as long as 7 generations. Surprisingly, her blood that flooded her body when she was killed was white instead of the normal red. The white blood were meant as a symbolic that Mahsuri was really innocent and betrayed. Regardless of the originality of this story, I was adored by the history of this amazing place. This value is the essence that will immortalizes the eccentric value of a home. Though with vast advancement of technology nowadays, historical identity is still my go to value I would like to see in my every place visit.

        Another visit that stays unforgettable in my head was when Ayah brought us to Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace (LIMA) exhibition.  It was an out of the world kind of experience. Malaysian or not, LIMA is something that you probably have heard of before. LIMA was a very high class exhibition where traders, businessman, big corporates companies and mere tourists like my family and I came for the amazing airspace exhibition. LIMA will be held every once in two year in March which makes it even more interesting. I’m pretty sure my interests in jets started here. It was so much fun and I can’t think of any place that can par with the educational values I’ve come to learn over there.

        Closing my short ranting, all I can say was that Langkawi Island has everything that it takes to be anyone’s favorite place to be. Right from its historical values, nature appreciation and technology advancement; everything is on top notch. It has been years since my first time visit, but these tiny memorable details that I can’t seem to forget is what makes me always came back. It was undeniable that there were many more other beautiful, historical and modern places all over the world, but what makes Langkawi special was that it is part of us, the identity of Malaysia.