Langkawi Night Markets (Malaysia)

One of my favourite parts of our (now distant) holiday to Langkawi was visiting the nightly food market. As Langkawi is quite small the markets move location each night of the week - a roving troop of food vendors delivering tasty happiness to locals and tourists alike.

Depending on the location you may get more or less stalls...but there always seems to be fried chicken and let's be honest, that's all I care about!

Our first trip to market is on a Saturday night - probably the biggest market night of the lot given that it's held in Kuah Town, the major town on Langkawi. Every taxi driver on the island will know where the markets are but if you're driving keep your eyes peeled for this pretty snazzy looking building....

The markets seem to kick off at around 7pm (ish) each night. Again, we're on island time here so I think it's more like "the markets start when we feel like it". Thankfully once the sun sets on Langkawi the temperature becomes bearable and it's really nice to wander the markets stuffing your face. Bring the Aeroguard though - the mozzies are up for a feast too!

On our first visit I little spazz out at all the amazing food and + drink and make a pig of myself by eating nearly everything in sight including three pieces of fried chicken (pass on the Durian though). Dave and I also bought some things to take back to the villa for lunch the next day. All in all we spent around AUD$15.

The satay chicken was AMAZING, fried chicken was artery cloggingly GREAT and anything on a stick gets two thumbs up from me. Like I said we gave the Durian a wide berth but made multiple visits to the drink stalls to top up on Coconut Juice or Sugar Cane Juice - both are super refreshing and help to de-grease your tummy if you've eaten too much Ayam Goreng.

Our second market visit is on a Sunday night, to the much quieter Padang Matsirat. The market is set in a carpark nestled up against rice fields and a mosque. It was really nice wandering the markets (eating fried chicken, ahem) as the call to prayer rung out.

 
There wasn't a lot of food on offer as this location (espeically when compared to Kuah Town) but we noticed that Durian is EVERYWHERE!

We basically ate fried chicken here and took home some tasty Mutabak to have for lunch the next day. Our villa didn't have a microwave but this is suprinsgly nice eaten cold...

Your hotel or villa should be able to tell you were the markets are each night -- but if not here is a little list:

• Sunday at Padang Matsirat - in large car park area near the Field of Burnt Rice
• Monday - Ulu Melaka
 • Tuesday - Kedawang
 • Wednesday - Kuah Town
 • Thursday - Pantai Cenang (Tamoyong Village)
 • Friday - Padang Lalang (Air Hangat) • Saturday - Kuah Town

Langkawi (Malyasia)

During the Easter/Anzac Day break this year Dave and I jetted off to spend six nights on Langkawi, a small island in Malaysia.

 

Unlike other places I've visited in South East Asia Langkawi was SO laid back. There's a notable absence of touts trying to sell you everything and anything as you headed out for a walk. This made window shopping for fabric (and other goodies) an absolute pleasure!. During an entire stay we only had "taxi" shouted at us twice (and one lot of taxi drivers told us they couldn't take us right now as they were eating...love it. It's always makan {eating} time in Malaysia)! 

We stayed in a quiet area on Langkawi, Pantai Tengah, that is a short walk from the main beach (and most developed area of the island, Pantai Cenang). We stayed in a lovely, and very small villa which means we had to head out for lunch each day (breakfast was provided and they had two restaurants for dinner...but at lunch you're on your own). Sounds simple right? Wrong! On our first day we walked for 1km in the stifling heat and humidity and hardly anywhere was open. It was so bizarre and so unlike anywhere else we'd been to in South East Asia! I think many visitors stay in large resorts here, which they never leave hence they have no issue getting themselves fed.

Never fear...we didn't starve. We did find a nice, open-air, place for some "proper Malaysian food" (at tourist prices) not far from our digs...

Speaking of breakfast, our villa offered a selection of cooked Western Style or Malaysian style fuel to get you going for the day. Any guesses what I went with each day?

Our villa was home to about 6 kitty cats and it was always a highlight if they came to visit us during breakfast!

Malaysia is pretty famous (to me anyway) for it's Ayam Goreng (fried chicken)...and we made quick work of sampling every piece of it we came across.  Newsflash: in Langkawi your KFC is served on a PLATE! Mind. Blown.

Whilst we're on the "junk food" side of things shall we have a look at what's on offer in the local 7-11s (yes I like chips...a lot)!

We found a very good restaurant one night that was in a villa not far from where we were staying. The restaurant, Fat Cupid, served a small collection of super delish Nonya-style Malaysian food. I think the highlight of the meal though was watching a herd of water buffalo stampede through the field not too far from our table!

Isn't it always the way that you discover the best thing on your last night. For us it was this great bar right on the beach...just 500m from our villa! We headed down to the beach for a sunset walk and saw this place buzzing. We sat, had some nibbles (Ikan Bilis for me and and satay for Dave) and a drink whilst we watched the sunset along with a myriad of parasailers take off and land on the beach.

Oh, and here's a tip for young players. That coconut you buy to drink on the beach whilst admiring the view. It's probably warm!

Langkawi has an excellent night market which I'm going to write about in a separate post...so stayed tuned! I think we've all had enough to eat for now.