Langkawi, Malaysia - Christmas 2009

We went to Langkawi, Malaysia for a week over our Christmas break. While it was very weird being away from family, friends and snow for Christmas, it was nice for us to just spend some time together as a family.

Langkawi is an island off the mainland coast of northwestern Malaysia. It is a world UNESCO Geopark, meaning that the island is naturally preserved. It was very quiet and laidback, so a perfect place to go and relax.

We stayed at the Sheraton, which was located in the Pantai Kok beach area. The views from the hotel were breathtaking.
The kids had a blast watching the monkey's run around the resort, swimming and playing on the beach.





On Christmas Day, a local wildlife center brought some birds, rabbits and snakes for the kids to play with. Sami wasn't fond of the snake.

We even tried sailing on a small catamaran.
More pictures from the hotel area can be seen here.

One afternoon we went to Oriental Village to walk around the shops and take a ride up the cable car to the peak of the mountain.
It was a windy day, and we took the cable car 710m STRAIGHT UP. Needless to say I had a bit of a panic attack.
The views from the top were amazing, however I can honestly say never again will I do something like this.


Once at the top, you take another cable car across the top of the peaks and then walk across a suspension bridge. This bridge swayed as you walked across it, while you could see between each slat in the floor. It took some bribing, but I managed to walk across the bridge. I just kept telling myself that the bridge was not being held up a thousand feet in the air with just cable ties.
Many more pictures from Oriental Village and the cable car can be seen here.

After the cable car ride, we went to shop and eat dinner in Pantai Chang. This area is busier than where our hotel was, but still is pretty quiet by beach standards. We ate dinner at a "restaurant" on the beach and had a great grilled dinner.
While it was nothing fancy, the food was delicious and watching the sunset was something I will always remember.
More pictures from Pantai Chang, as well as shopping and the night bazaar in Kuah Town, can be seen here.

The last excursion we took was snorkeling for a day in Pulau. It was an hour boat ride from Kuah Town and we snorkeled off a platform docked in the middle of the water. We then snorkeled all around seeing some awesome fish and corral.
You then could swim all the way to shore to go to a different area to swim with black tip reef sharks. All but Sam and I swam there, as we refused to get in with the sharks.

The rest of our pictures from our snorkeling time in Pulau can be seen here.

Langkawi is a predominantly Muslim country. However you could still see some decorated trees and lights around. Mainly for the tourists I suppose. Our hotel did a great job at decorating and having special activities for Christmas, such as the animal visits, special food stalls, presents and treats in our rooms, a Christmas Eve adult party and of course, a visit from Santa.