langkawi magazine
Reviews SECTION
Slice of Island Life
The guidebooks will tell you that the Langkawi island group, 104 in total, is steeped in legend, mystique and mystery. Somehow all that mystique managed to elude us - but we did find a damn fine place for relaxing holiday.
The Sheraton Perdana Resort, just south of the sleepy capital Kuah on the main island of Pulau Langkawi, proved a terrific base for exploring the island where the village lifestyle has been relatively undisturbed by tourism.
Off the northwest cost of the Malaysian mainland and reached by air from Sydney, or via a two -hour ferry ride from Penang, the island has something for everyone.
Langkawi has managed to maintain much of its natural beauty. You can hire a car and drive around the main island in just a couple of hours, but it is well worth taking your time and exploring the rustic villages and scenic paddy fields. You"ll find water buffalo grazing in the fields and wild monkey ducking across the road.
There are rainforests, waterfalls and plenty of beaches, while Pulau Payar Marine Park is a favorite with scuba divers. The beaches, many of them close to deserted, provide the perfect excuse to pull up a deckchair and do absolutely nothing.
Best of all, for anyone with Australian dollars in their pocket, Malaysia is a downright bargain destination at the moment. You can rent a car for under $20 a day from several places in the beach resort of Pantai Cenang and Pantai Tengah (there don"t appear to be any road rules as such -stop sign and red traffic lights are treated as suggestions by the locals and then ignored).
A delicious meal of satays followed by hokkien noodles or nasi goreng is unlikely to cost more then $10per person at the open air restaurant, although you"ll pay more at top-notch places such as the Lighthouse at Pantai Tengah. Eat from hawker stalls, however, and you"ll pay even less. Wine can be hard to find outside the leading resorts but the local Tiger beer is a great alternative thirst-quencher. Duty free shopping in Kuah is also a great attraction for bargain hunters.
SERVICE:
It is often difficult for remote five -star resort to find staff of similar level to the fixtures and fittings.
No such problem here. Not only are the staff bright, friendly and attentive, everything seem to run like clockwork.
From the porters and the front desk staff, right through the waiters and the rooms service attendants, everyone was uniformly friendly and helpful.
Hasneze, one of the waitresses at Sambar Ria, was particularly lovely and made every meal a pleasure.
The cocktails come good and cold while the staffs at the business center (which offer impressively quick internet access) were equally helpful when I needed to do the print out.
DINING:
We fell in love with the food and service at the casual Sambar Ria restaurant overlooking the water, which serves Mediterranean-style and local dishes. The fresh seafood was exemplary, the wine list excellent and the service solicitous (although we had to ask for the endless Kenny Gee CD to be replaced after being tortured for just a little too long)You can also eat dinner The Grove (where a wide-range buffet breakfast is served in the mornings), enjoy snacks in the Bayu Lounge or from the Pool Bar, or eat at night in the Someplace Else pub/nightclub. Many guests have food served poolside. There are no offsite restaurants within walking distance but Langkawi"s main town of Kuah is just three kilometers away and taxis are always on standby.
ACTIVITIES:
Just about everything you need to get way from it all is available on site. The resort has a long private beach and the water is clean and calm. There are also two very pretty swimming pools, while you can enjoy a massage in the health spa or at the beach.
Add the fully equipped gymnasium with Jacuzzi and sauna, tennis and squash courts and kayaking, sailbording and catamaran sailing and there is plenty to do in the resort.
The private beach and the 42 hectares of gardens are terrific for strolling around. There is a daily list of organized activities, which might include eagle feeding, sandcastle building, a two-hour nature walk or beach volleyball for the more energetically inclined.
ACCOMMODATION:
The attractive, low-rise resort is a relatively small one with 200 room and suites.
All feature comfortable beds, bathrooms with showers and bath, in-room safe, cable television and in-house service, 24 hours room service, air conditioning, mini bar, tea and coffee making facilities, hair dryers and daily newspaper delivery.
The bathrooms are particularly comfortable with fluffy towels and excellent amenity kits. Our room was especially nice, with ocean views.
You can see monkeys playing in the surrounding bush land -and we spotted a couple of iguanas in the grounds.
6/6/2004
