Posts Tagged ‘Langkawi’

I was rather lucky to be able to go on two trips to Langkawi in 2009 and both of them were complementary. This time round, I stayed at the Sheraton and I was quite surprised by how nice it looked. Instead of flying using AirAsia, this time we decided on flying by Firefly which was a bit more convenient for me because it flys off from Subang Airport.

Langkawi Day1 001 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Langkawi

Langkawi Day1 002 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Langkawi

Because they were propeller planes and do not have jet engines, the flight takes longer as compared to Air Asia or MAS flights and the one thing that was quite unbearable for me was that our flight was the very first flight of the day and the airplane was extremely hot and stuffy inside. I was literally sweating bullets throughout the flight and it was the most uncomfortable flight.

Thank God the moment I arrived at Sheraton in Langkawi, the atmosphere was totally different. I was literally blown away by the service we received and the size of the chalet rooms we had.

Langkawi Day1 008 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in LangkawiThe chalet’s were a little different than usual, it was located a bit of a distant away from the lobby so everytime you needed to go back to the lobby, you can either walk or call a buggy to pick you up. But of course, being a little bit further away from the lobby meant that you get a little bit more privacy and you also get larger rooms.

Langkawi Day1 004 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Langkawi

Langkawi Day1 003 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Langkawi

Langkawi Day1 005 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Langkawi

Langkawi Day1 006 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Langkawi

The view outside the chalet was quite nice as well.

Langkawi Day1 007 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Langkawi

Langkawi Day1 009 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Langkawi

Definitely one of the nicer hotels to be at in Langkawi. If you get the chance, I would definitely recommend staying in Sheraton hotel.

Langkawi – Day 2

August 7, 2009

To be honest, after being to islands like Phuket, Bali and even Singapore (no, I am not talking about people with an island mentality), I have come to realise the vast difference between Langkawi and these other tourist destinations. Seriously, the place could definitely use something to spruce it up but then, what does Langkawi really have to offer?

 Langkawi   Day 2

No, I don’t think the escaped Ian is always there in Langkawi as captured above!

 Langkawi   Day 2

No, there aren’t that many escaped jumping humans about. Perhaps you might catch a glimpse of some other interesting life forms there.

 Langkawi   Day 2

No, there aren’t that many beggars sitting by the sidewalk waiting for their other halves while they shop for 4 hours. (ok I was just kidding about the 4 hours).

 Langkawi   Day 2

I don’t think people usually come to visit the water bottle carrying man from Penang who hides in the deepest of alleys in the streets of Langkawi as well.

 Langkawi   Day 2

Like every other island, the relaxing sound of waves hitting the shores whilst the cool breeze skims through your hair is enough to melt away all of our tensions. Perhaps that is what people might head to Langkawi, to catch a little rest and relaxation. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was in Langkawi for a shoot and then for a little bit of R&R with the WeddingStory team. After a very very tiring first day, I totally overslept and skipped breakfast. That aside, I woke up definitely in time for lunch :)

After lunch, we all decided to walk along the beach and after several sessions of banana boat rides and watching Nigel and Lai Yeen defy gravity and got dragged across the ocean on a para-sail. It just took me 15 minutes standing under the bright sun to note that I was being cooked alive! Yes it was that hot so our time on the beach was cut short because we were heading out for our own photo shoot!

Yes, Grace and Alex planned that we needed to all dress up for a private shoot and did I really come unprepared. Whilst Munz brought a nice dress, I wore a polo shirt and shorts which she definitely made me change into something a little more formal. Oh well, I guess I had to suffer in the hot sun with slacks and a long sleeved shirt. After the whole fiasco with my clothes, we arrived at our destination.

 Langkawi   Day 2

We started off shooting and shooting and trying out various types of shots with various techniques. Personally, I was trying to utilize the natural lighting as much as I can and to use it to my advantage as well. Here are some of my shots from the session.

 Langkawi   Day 2

 Langkawi   Day 2

Took a couple of photos with Munz for a while whilst trying to figure out how to pose her for a couple of those shots. Not easy trying to pose your girlfriend especially when I am sweating like mad and my sweat was stinging my eyes! I must bring a towel on my next portrait shoots.

 Langkawi   Day 2

I liked this photo of both Alex and Grace because of Grace’s expression.

 Langkawi   Day 2

Now who says you can’t do some serious shots in padi fields?

After taking even more photos of the rest there, the sun was setting and we quickly headed back to our hotel (which was conveniently next to the beach). Since we were on the west coast of the island, we wanted to capture some sunset shots by the beach. This was when I could change back to my shirt and shorts which was much cooler!

 Langkawi   Day 2

 Langkawi   Day 2

Ok, we arrived there a little too early and it was still extremely bright. Good time to shoot a couple more portraits on the beach while waiting for light to diminish.

 Langkawi   Day 2

The sunset was totally awesome. One of the nicest I have seen around Malaysia. The other occasion was when I was in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, atending Louis Pang’s workshop.

 Langkawi   Day 2

I even managed to get the sunset as well as the crescent moon as well. Was a tough shot to take because I had my 50mm attached with me at the moment.

After spending two days in Langkawi and eating overpriced food which was still good, I guess the main attraction over here was the statues on the beach. Some say that orcs erected them up to celebrate the crescent moon, or maybe elves wanted to erect landmarks to guide their ships correctly.

 Langkawi   Day 2

All I know is that, these statues have a story to tell.

Now try and guess what they are saying,

Langkawi – Day 1

July 27, 2009

* Apologies for the confusion, I am trying out a new desktop publishing tool and it seemed to have screwed up the entire post and I have lost everything! *

The one thing I really hate to do is to retype an entire blog post which I have spent quite a fair bit of time writing. It saddens me that a simple mistake or being totally oblivious to the new tool which I am trying out can cause about 30 minutes of work down the drain. Nevertheless, the post must go up! Let me try to recapture what I have written in my earlier post.

I wonder how many people out there get up on a Monday morning, feeling worn out and said to themselves,”Wow, its going to be a great week ahead!”. Most of the time I hear from my desk is that people are either feeling the Monday blues or they are updating their Facebook status about what a wonderful weekend they had recently. Personally, my weekend was the bomb!

Together with the WeddingStory team, we headed to a part of Malaysia I have not been in over 10 years, and that was the island, Langkawi. Feeling excited about Stuart & Amy’s wedding, I took the 8am flight to Langkawi on Friday and I can safely say is that, don’t fly so early in the morning. Why? Think about it, if your flight is at 8am, then you would probably need to be at the airport by 6.30am to check-in. Which means you have to leave your house at 5.30am by taxi. Hence you need to be up at 4 something in order to get ready.

And that was what happened and I have to thank Alex and Grace for hosting me and Mun Tzin the night before so that I didn’t have to take account the time needed to travel from my house to their place. Also I have to thank Mun Tzin for waking me up in the morning by rubbing her wet fingers against my face. That really didn’t give me a shock at all.

By the time we arrived in Langkawi, rented two cars, checked into the hotel, the first thing I did was sleep! Yes, sleep was the first thing in my mind and after a quick nap, whilst Alex and Mun Tzin went to pick Kee Sitt and Sharon up from the ferry dock, I felt hungry. A quick walk along the main road where our hotel was located, we found ourselves in a cosy restaurant ordering some dishes and eagerly waiting for our food to arrive

 Langkawi   Day 1

Kee Sitt then decided to try out Nigel’s camera while we were waiting for our food to arrive.

 Langkawi   Day 1

By the time the first dish arrived (fried rice in case you were wondering if this was some special Langkawi grown rice), we were all too hungry to take more photos of the rest of the food. Ok, I admitted that once I started eating, I didn’t stop until the food was gone!

 Langkawi   Day 1

The one thing I remembered about Langkawi was that it was a duty free island, meaning that all alcohol, chocolates and cigarettes were very cheap. It was so dirt cheap that they even served my chinese tea in a beer mug.

 Langkawi   Day 1

After lunch we decided to walk about and check out some of the stalls across the street from the restaurant. Apparently Alex and Nigel found a new toy, Langkawi Poken!

 Langkawi   Day 1

Kee Sitt loved playing with his new toy so much so that he took loads of pictures and videos with it. Can’t wait to see all of them when he is done with it.

After lunch, the team got ready and drove about 45 minutes up north of the Island to the famed Andaman resort. There we were to shoot Stuart & Amy’s beach wedding. I will leave more details about the shoot in a separate post. :)

Langkawi Day 1 007 Langkawi   Day 1

This was the view from the bride’s room. Look how lovely the scenery is.

 Langkawi   Day 1

And last but not least a view of the beach side where the ceremony is to take place. The decoration and the lovely sea breeze was just amazing, makes everything feel so romantic. The wedding lasted from 4pm all the way till past midnight and it was just so much fun!

I was totally wiped out by the time we got back to the hotel which means only one thing for me. I need more exercise!

Stay tuned for day 2 of the Langkawi trip.

Off to Langkawi

July 24, 2009

It is 7am here now in Kuala Lumpur and I am feeling extremely sleepy. Getting up at 5am is something I don’t do too often, of course sleeping at 5am doesn’t count. So the title probably gave me away. Here I am sitting at the newly refurbished Taste of Asia restaurant at the LCCT airport surfing the web (using my Maxis 3G line because the wi-fi here is near impossible to connect to!) whilst waiting for my flight at 7.30 together with the WeddingStory team.

The team is flying up to Langkawi to shoot a wedding later today as well as spend a little time to have a nice R&R. Personally, I do hope to catch up on my sleep as I have been having less than 5 hours of sleep for the past two nights. More photos to come of the trip as well as I have planned quite a number of posts to post up some of my photos as well.

Langkawi here I come!

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