Langkawi - Part 7

Farewell paradise...

We had a great time in Kedawang.
The stay in Teratak Damai was awesome.
If we were to make the Langkawi ride an annual affair, we would consider a repeat stay at this accommodation facility.
Now, comes the time to cherish all the good memories and roll back into reality.

Getting ready to roll

Saying goodbye to our host

Our lovely kampung house

Old friends

The Ninja-cat

Destination: Kuah

It's a short 20km ride to Kuah from Kedawang.
After saying good bye to our wonderful host, we cycled towards the junction to Padang Matsirat.
We found a Nasi Lemak stall and had some makan there before hitting the busy road leading to Kuah.
The fare was pretty decent and after a good fill, we headed towards the junction.
Even on a Friday, the traffic was pretty heavy.
We rode past a car workshop and found a graveyard for damaged vehicles. A reminder of drunk driving with cheap alcohol.
Barely two kilometers into Kuah, we stopped near an Indian restaurant, probably the one and only around to take some readings on Google Map.
Our intended location was Motel Seri Mutiara.
I managed to track down this cheap accommodation via Booking.com and did a Google search to get its phone number.
From there, I booked a room for a night at RM70.
And for a brief moment, I did thought of heading straight for the mainland, throw everything into the car and shoot off to Penang or Ipoh for a night.
But the motel has been booked, so, I don't want to ruin the opportunity to spend a night in Kuah.
It never felt right at the first place, but I pushed on.

At the motel in Kuah

We arrived at Motel Seri Mutiara at 11:45am.
There were plenty of time to burn since we've used up nearly half the day.
When I got to the reception, the owner was asleep on his reclining chair.
Two young backpackers were waiting for him to wake up.
I politely called him and got the man out of his power nap.
We could see the relieved faces on the backpackers.
I told the guy about checking in and his immediate reaction was: "Oooooohhhh yang berbasikal tu ya?" (Are the one with the bicycles?).
They had some vacant rooms and I took the one on the ground floor.
This motel is quite bike-friendly and is a choice accommodation for cyclists from the mainland and also foreign touring cyclists.
The rooms checked out to be allright and later, I had a chat with Encik Radzi, the owner.
He was car mechanic before going into car rental full-time.
From his earnings, he built Motel Seri Mutiara three years ago.
Today, the business is expending with a new lot behind the existing accommodation complex.
En Radzi said his guests are mainly from the mainland including some foreigners.
The longest stay person in Seri Mutiara was a gentleman and his wife from Italy.
Their high currency gave them a three-month stay in Langkawi.
We talked a bit about getting group bookings and since we were at it, En Radzi told me that he can arrange for car rental packages, island hopping tours and transfers to the jetty terminal and airport.
After chatting with him, we rode out towards the ferry terminal to purchase our tickets.
Its meant for the next day at 10am.
With that done, we had a confirmed passage back to Kuala Kedah.
We had lunch and a Chinese coffee shop after that.
It was the most horrible meal ever.
After a few days of eating Malay food, Michelle said she got fed-up.
So, Chinese food it is!

And we thought we ran out of hills!

Not the usual happy camper..

Bring on the night...

Okay, we have the rest of the day to ourselves.

So, we went back to the motel to chill out, weather out the heat of the day in the air-conditioned room and waited to ride out for dinner.

I wanted to have a meal at the Fishing Village restaurant near Pantai Beringin.

Michelle said we should not blow our cash. So, it's back to Kuah town.

I knew of this makan place can Kauboi.

It's quite a popular pork-free seafood restaurant. I've eaten there before, so, instead of going around like headless chicken on a bike, we decided to chow down there..

Sunset in Kuah

At Langkawi's Pekan Rabu

Kauboi seafood

Teochew styled steamed garoupa

Chicken feet kerabu

We had two bottles of beers, four dishes for dinner.

The Teochew styled steamed Garoupa came at RM37, the most expensive of the lot. Next was Kerabu Chicken Feet at RM10 a pop, RM8 for the Horr Chien and RM8 for the fried Kangkung with belacan.

This is pretty pricey because we could get the same back in Subang Jaya.

But hey! We're on a holiday and in Langkawi...

If we would have taken the 1pm ferry to Kuala Kedah, we wouldn't have ended up with crappy food. But that was the plan, so we stick with it.

Locking the bikes

Checking out Langkawi Mall...

Smoothies for a night cap and tourists from Klang

Michelle and I rode out towards the Langkawi Mall.

This is one of the most happening places in Kuah. But it was Friday. And it became too quiet. Like Kelantan, Terengganu and Johor, Kedah observes Friday as a public holiday.

There's much more happening in Cenang that there is in Kuah. We've pretty much resigned to our fate of getting "trapped" in Langkawi for another night.

At the mall, we had some smoothies at Secret Recipe before calling it a night.

While parking our bikes at the motel, I met an elderly Malay Lady.
"Dari mana?" (Where from?), she asked.

I told her that we were from Subang Jaya and learned that she and her family came from Klang, Selangor.

We engaged in a conversation and later, I met her entire family.

They came in from Kuala Perlis a few days earlier and were on the last leg of their stay in Langkawi.

I wished the friendly lady good night and retired.

The thought of lugging the bikes onto the ferry without damaging them lay heavy on my mind.

After making sure that all was good, we retired for the day..