The Sands Restaurant

This was where we had our lovely breakfast buffet. And lunch. And dinner while we were at Tanjung Rhu. It was about 300 meters away from the rooms, having to walk by the hot beach as there were constructions and renovations in between.

This way to lunch!It certainly was hot there when exposed to the elements ....Thank God it can be quite windy at times ....Stopping over for lunch when we arrived ...No smoking. Good!Very friendly and helpful staffs - mainly Malaysians. Right next to it is a separate more formal fine dining restaurant. Right next to the pool were where we had dinner. Nice sea breeze. Great view and great food.

Relaxing drinks after sunsetAfter a long day ....Irfan wondering what that was ...Dinner was served ..... and it was nice!Time for breakfast ....Great selection on the buffet spread By the pool, they served Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food. We stayed a bit after dinner to enjoy the breeze, although I must stay it was still warm. Great evening.

The Anjung Suite

We had a few choices when we planned for the Langkawi trip. Since the boys and Anita preferred to take the boat, we planned to stay a night in Alor Setar to avoid rushing to Kuala Kedah from KL. The stay worked out well. The hotel we stayed at was really nice. We wo ke definitely come back to that particular hotel - The Grand Alora - should we stay in Alor Setar again.

But for the couple of nights in Langkawi, the choice of hotel was not that straight forward.

View from the beach balconyIdlan finding his spot straight away ...We would definitely not want to stay near Pekan Kuah. Not near the airport, where many hotels were located. That left us with either the Datai or Tangjung Rhu area. And that were four of the more secluded hotels were located.

We asked around amongst our friends if they had stayed at any of those hotels. They have had a mixed experience. Mainly along the line of being treated as a second rate visitors since they were Malaysian. A common scenario unfortunately.

Then we started exploring the room. We started with the toilet.Welcome drinks servedThe table for dinnerAfter some thoughts we decided to go for Tanjung Rhu Resort. It was secluded enough and the beach was private and huge!

We got a great deal on the room - we booked the biggest suite, Anjung. It was damn nice and cosy. But the main drawback was it was on the third floor. And there were no lift directly to the room floor.

We didn't need to order an extra bed as the sofa at the sitting room opened up nicely into a bed. The room has a huge bathroom complete with a jacuzzi - which the boys sampled on the first evening of course. There was also a separate dining area where we had dinner on the second evening. There were also a couple of balconies on the opposite sides of the room.

The view from the suite? Amazing. It was directly in front of the famous sand bank which appears on low tides - where sometimes you were able to walk to a small island nearby.

Unfortunately there was no wifi. There is a common lounge next door equipped with PCs for the patron to use. But no wifi signal in the rooms. Luckily there were strong LTE signals there - on both Celcom and Maxis.

Too hot to venture out yet ....Apart from room service, the subset pool was quite near if you wanted a snack. The main restaurants however were quite a walk. With the stairs, it might not be suitable to our parents should we plan to bring them to Langkawi.

Would we come back again? Most definitely! With the deal we had, it worked out really well.

Looking for Eagles

Feeding eagles was not part of our original plan. But taking a ride amongst the swarm was. We were lucky that plenty of eagles showed up during our boat ride the other day. Unfortunately I did not bring my zoom along. No eagles close-up I'm afraid.

They were hunting for foodThere were flying in in groupsThe boys were discussing eagles. Naturally!We then went past some swamplandsThe hot weather did not help matter as we were sweating in the heat. The boys turned grumpy and right on cue, our guide sped up for them to enjoy the wind. We went on to snake through the swarm before returning to Tanjung Rhu.

I was surprised to see the number of private hatch and boats at the mouth of the river there. Certainly a suitable spot to anchor as the breeze was quick but the water was still. There was also a small jetty for boats to moor right on the other side of our hotel.

On the way home, we passed by a dockThe boats were parked here during off-peak seasonThe famous ape mountain in the backgroundBack to the hotelSince the water by the beach in front of our hotel was shallow, the guide was able to drop us right in front of our hotel. But it was not without incident as Irfan managed to get himself wet while alighting the boat! Served him right for being a diva. Quite impressive but quite expensive ....

Tanjung Rhu Fish Farm

It's a fish farm. It's a floating restaurant. It was our next stop after feeding the fishes at Pulau Dangli. It was small and the restaurant was only in full swing in during lunch and dinner. We were there around tea time. And there were hardly anybody there.

And as such, we were given a nice tour of all the fish. The boys loved it.

Docking ....Feeding the leopard shark. Best to leave it to the professionals.Here comes the menace .....Anita holding tight to make sure Irfan doesn't fell down. We didn't bring a spare shirt!The stingray needed some loving too ....But my personal favourite was the baby leopard shark. Tiny and cute. It looks like a shark definitely but the mouth was small minus the menacing teeth. The pattern on its torso though was unmistakeable.

Anita loved the stingrays and she was able to feed and pat it.

Our guide who spoke surprisingly good EnglishThere is a shark in there somewhere ...Such a hot day ....Irfan asking what was in that pond. I told him it was dinner ....Something caught Idlan's attentionTime to head back out .....We then had some iced tea there before leaving. Apparently the seafood dinner there was rather good according to my friends. I saw some crabs there in the pond and we can order them fresh. Nice.

Pulau Dangli

After much convincing, the boys agreed to join us for a boat tour. The original plan was for 3 and a half hours. But the combination of the hot weather and Irfan entering diva node, we cut that short to a couple and a bit.

It was a compressed journey in 3 parts.

Waiting for our ride ....Making sure we got one of those For good luckWe actually got the hotel to organise the ride for us. In a boat with just the four setting off at around 3 pm. It was hot but while speeding in the boat, the wind was breathtaking and one did not feel the heat at all.

The first part was feeding fish off Pulau Dangli, about 20 minutes away from the hotel on the boat. Irfan was still warming to the idea then but as soon as he started feeding the fish, he was super excited. We had to make sure that he didn't fell off the boat when feeding the fishes.

Speeding thereAn earlier group was already thereTesting the waterGetting the hang of it ....We were armed with some bread provided by the guide. The water was still and as soon as we arrived, there were plenty of fish around our boat. They were going all out for our bread and the school we saw easily contained around 200-300 fishes.

Time to goSuch serene sight ....We could wait for too long as there were more boats coming - plus we ran out of bread. I thought Irfan especially used too much bread trying to entice the fishes. Idlan was more sensible, but ending up using less quota!

Off to the second part, the fish farm!