Langkawi via Seremban -- Part 2
by prudence on 06-Jun-2010
A nice little excursion can be done from Seremban, taking in the Istana Lama at Sri Menanti, then Kuala Pilah, another very pleasant and historic Negeri Sembilan town, and finally Seremban's little museum, which is a few kilometres out of town. (See the pics in the second half of the Seremban section.)
This route takes you through the beautiful wooded mountains that we'd seen from various windows, and past many distinctive traditional houses. They don't necessarily have the full-blown horns, but many cast a nod in that direction with a graceful little upward tilt of both ends of the roof-line.
There's stacks more stuff to do in this area, including forest walks and megaliths (must come back, that old refrain...), but we had a sleeper booked on the night train north.
First-class sleepers are not fancy, but you do get a compartment to yourselves, plus a wash basin, a chair, a table, and a very efficient air-conditioning unit. You also get a free drink and cake, and I know you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, but it would have been better if these hadn't been delivered at 20 past midnight, when we were already asleep.
Well before cake and drink delivery time, we'd admired some of the sights of Kuala Lumpur -- the hugely impressive Petronas Towers, for example, and the Kuala Lumpur Tower, and the "Moorish" colonial railway station. Well afterwards, I woke up when we were in another big and historic station -- Ipoh -- although I couldn't see much of it from inside the train.
This is the thing about night train travel. It really feels like travel. It really feels like you're moving through history and geography. OK, you don't sleep that well -- there's far too much creaking and grinding and swaying and banging for a peaceful night -- but by the end of the night, this grunging, grumbling, grunting old train has dragged you hundreds of kilometres up the Malaysian peninsula. The early morning is full of rice paddies.
We got out at Alor Star, which would have repaid a more detailed visit, I'm sure. But time was short, so we taxied to Kuala Kedah, and caught the ferry to Langkawi.
You can't see much from the ferry -- the seats are too low for short people to see out of the window -- so I caught up on a bit of sleep. Once we were nearly there, however, it became clear that Langkawi was spectacular beyond our imaginings. Think big, sharp, pointy mountains, looped and folded, covered with thick forest, and topped off with delicate little wreaths of mist. Think big bays, and scatterings of islands. Stunning.
We stayed over at Pantai Kok, the quieter end of life. Just 10 minutes' walk from our hotel, you can take a vertiginous cable car ride up a large and imposing mountain. The views are stupendous.
One day we hired a car (70 ringgit for the day), and pretty much toured the island. It's hugely scenic. There's another, even bigger mountain you can force your poor car up, to gain yet more excellent views. There's a whole area of karst. And beautiful coastal scenery. The nice thing is that the heavily touristed stuff has been confined to just a couple of areas -- Pantai Cenang and Pantai Tengah. There are still plenty of little villages with paddy fields and water buffaloes, where you can get a nice, freshly cooked lunch, plus drinks, for less than 10 ringgit (S$4).
It's a moody little island, weather-wise, though. Two out of our three nights involved cracking thunderstorms and heavy rain, and we were glad we'd gone up our nearby mountain when we first saw its peak was clear -- it wasn't clear for long after that.
We flew home to Singapore. Very functional. (If your flight coupon tells you to turn up two hours before your 9 am flight, by the way, don't bother missing your breakfast. Check-in opens about 7.20, and immigration about 8.00. Not sure when the shops and cafes open -- they mostly hadn't by the time we left.)
If you've arrived by train, as we had, the official takes away your entire immigration card, and handwrites by the exit stamp that you arrived by KTM... Makes you feel kind of special...
I find Malaysia a very pleasant country to travel in. I have heaps more trips in the planning stages. Just need time, and propinquity -- and right now, both are running out...
This route takes you through the beautiful wooded mountains that we'd seen from various windows, and past many distinctive traditional houses. They don't necessarily have the full-blown horns, but many cast a nod in that direction with a graceful little upward tilt of both ends of the roof-line.
There's stacks more stuff to do in this area, including forest walks and megaliths (must come back, that old refrain...), but we had a sleeper booked on the night train north.
First-class sleepers are not fancy, but you do get a compartment to yourselves, plus a wash basin, a chair, a table, and a very efficient air-conditioning unit. You also get a free drink and cake, and I know you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, but it would have been better if these hadn't been delivered at 20 past midnight, when we were already asleep.
Well before cake and drink delivery time, we'd admired some of the sights of Kuala Lumpur -- the hugely impressive Petronas Towers, for example, and the Kuala Lumpur Tower, and the "Moorish" colonial railway station. Well afterwards, I woke up when we were in another big and historic station -- Ipoh -- although I couldn't see much of it from inside the train.
This is the thing about night train travel. It really feels like travel. It really feels like you're moving through history and geography. OK, you don't sleep that well -- there's far too much creaking and grinding and swaying and banging for a peaceful night -- but by the end of the night, this grunging, grumbling, grunting old train has dragged you hundreds of kilometres up the Malaysian peninsula. The early morning is full of rice paddies.
We got out at Alor Star, which would have repaid a more detailed visit, I'm sure. But time was short, so we taxied to Kuala Kedah, and caught the ferry to Langkawi.
You can't see much from the ferry -- the seats are too low for short people to see out of the window -- so I caught up on a bit of sleep. Once we were nearly there, however, it became clear that Langkawi was spectacular beyond our imaginings. Think big, sharp, pointy mountains, looped and folded, covered with thick forest, and topped off with delicate little wreaths of mist. Think big bays, and scatterings of islands. Stunning.
We stayed over at Pantai Kok, the quieter end of life. Just 10 minutes' walk from our hotel, you can take a vertiginous cable car ride up a large and imposing mountain. The views are stupendous.
One day we hired a car (70 ringgit for the day), and pretty much toured the island. It's hugely scenic. There's another, even bigger mountain you can force your poor car up, to gain yet more excellent views. There's a whole area of karst. And beautiful coastal scenery. The nice thing is that the heavily touristed stuff has been confined to just a couple of areas -- Pantai Cenang and Pantai Tengah. There are still plenty of little villages with paddy fields and water buffaloes, where you can get a nice, freshly cooked lunch, plus drinks, for less than 10 ringgit (S$4).
It's a moody little island, weather-wise, though. Two out of our three nights involved cracking thunderstorms and heavy rain, and we were glad we'd gone up our nearby mountain when we first saw its peak was clear -- it wasn't clear for long after that.
We flew home to Singapore. Very functional. (If your flight coupon tells you to turn up two hours before your 9 am flight, by the way, don't bother missing your breakfast. Check-in opens about 7.20, and immigration about 8.00. Not sure when the shops and cafes open -- they mostly hadn't by the time we left.)
If you've arrived by train, as we had, the official takes away your entire immigration card, and handwrites by the exit stamp that you arrived by KTM... Makes you feel kind of special...
I find Malaysia a very pleasant country to travel in. I have heaps more trips in the planning stages. Just need time, and propinquity -- and right now, both are running out...