Having used Fodors once or twice I thought it was about time I made a contribution. We've just returned from a wonderful holiday and I thought that a few Fodorites might be interested in the above places, particuarly as Malaysia isn't mentioned that often on this forum, at least when compared to Thailand!

Myself and husband are early 30's and UK based. This was our 5th visit to the Far East, our 2nd to Singapore and 3rd to Malaysia, although we stayed in different hotels. We like a mix of city and beach and high quality hotels. This trip report definitely won't have the detail of some on Fodors but I'll do my best!

Singapore (4 nights): The BA flight to Singapore wasn't too bad as we managed to spread out over several seats. Changi airport is just the epitome of efficiency and it took just 15 minutes to get off the plane, clear immigration and collect our bags - a great start!

Hotel: We stayed in the Garden wing of the Shangri-La and the hotel kindly added breakfast. We're pretty sure it wasn't included when we booked so that was a nice touch. Upon arrival we were greeted by the pleasant staff and escorted to the main reception. Once we'd identified ourselves we were immediately taken over to the Garden wing reception but instead of checking in at the desk there, they took us straight up to our room with our luggage about 2 minutes behind us. Check in took place in the room and literally in less than 10 mins we were settled in our room, with the luggage with some complimentary tea and fruit delivered. Well done Shangri-La - excellent service for a busy city hotel. Also, I don't know about anyone else but a pet hate of mine is sitting in my room waiting for my luggage to arrive, so it was nice to have it delivered promptly.

The Room: Very nicely decorated and pretty big with a large veranda, and a large, full marble bathroom with a good shower. The decor was pristine, it seemed pretty new and the bed was very comfortable. Mini-bar was expensive though.

Communal areas: The garden wing is really pretty with a pond full of huge Carp (you thought I'd said something else then didn't you - I do mean Carp as in the fish!) There are also lots of flowers around. It's easy to get to the pool from this wing too. The lobby is beautifully decorated as to be expected from a Shangri-La. The pool was also large and well designed and very relaxing for a city hotel. My only gripe was that there weren't enough sunbeds during busy times, e.g. weekends. Week days were fine.

Restaurants: We only went to the Line and it's very impressive but not cheap. That said, it's worth it, with lots of variety including some great seafood. Choices included Indian, Chinese Japanese, European, Thai and Malay plus some wonderful desserts, and the crowning glory - the chocolate fountain, I resisted from sticking my whole head under but managed to scoff a lot of chocolate considering I'd just eaten my way across several continents. The Line is highly recommended. Make sure you have breakfast there too, although sadly there is no chocolate fountain, it's a pretty good spread.

I will leave you with the chocolate fountain for now and return with more on Singapore and then onto Penang - providing you've managed to read this without falling asleep that is! Bye for now...

Thanks for the report. Keep it coming. Your immigration and luggage pick-up made me jealous. I live in Boston and it can sometimes take more than 1/2 hour just to get the luggage from a simple domestic flight. It's gotten longer with the new cayy-on restrictions.

Gpanda...I'm glad you mentioned how long it takes to get luggage at the Boston airport. I had a carry-on suitcase last year to the GTG. Now with these new regulations it's going to be a mess. I'm not checking in a small carry-on size bag just to be able to pack toothpaste,lotion, and lipstick. I'll just have to do without those items since I can't no longer have them in a carry-on suitcase. Happy Travels!

great report keep it coming...

guen...check the latest regs before you leave, things change daily

....correction..."can no longer"...Happy Travels!

Ok, so onto sightseeing, eating and drinking in Singapore and more of the same in Penang.

Sightseeing Singapore: To be honest, as we'd visited before we focused on the things we'd enjoyed most last time rather than rushing around everything, so first stop was the Botanical Gardens and more specifically the Orchid gardens. I love orchids and the sights and smells were wonderful and a visit here is highly recommended and good value for money. We were lucky in that the weather was excellent - sunny and low humidity, so walking around was comfortable.

Other sights included shopping (of course), the smart colonial buildings around the cricket club, Raffles and a Singapore Sling (it has to be done - again!) and Chinatown with it's well restored buildings and temple, hawker stalls and general junk available to buy! We skipped Sentosa this time and Little India, mainly due to time constraints.

As for eating and drinking, we had a great time at the hawker/food court just south of Chinatown where we sampled sugar cane juice (refreshing but a strange taste), lots of cheap and tasty food and chatted to some locals about the history of Singapore etc, which was really interesting. I always find an alternative version/view of historical events fascinating.

We also went to Clarke Quay and Boat Quay for some more upbeat nightlife and had a good night out there. The food is reasonably priced here but I have to say that the quality was better at the hawker stalls.

Overall, a great time was had in Singapore. It might not have the culure that Bangkok has, or the panorama of Hong Kong, but for a great city break of eating, drinking and wandering anywhere, feelin safe etc, it's perfect. Plus it still amazes me how immacualte the place is. Also, the Shangri-La was fantastic, did I mention the chocolate fountain - you have to try it! One thing I forgot to mention was that whilst dining in the Line (on a Friday night), someone, in their robe walked through the restaurant and helped themselves to the chocolate fountain on their way! Who wears their robe to a restaurant in a smart hotel at that time of night? Anyway, I think he was asked to leave or come back fully dressed anyway!

So next stop Penang, flying with Sinapore Airlines and staying at the Grand Plaza Park Royal on Batu Ferrenghi (spelling?).

The flight to Penang was non-eventful, although delayed by an hour. At least the weather was good so it was a smooth ride. We had 5 nights booked in Penang.

It took about an hour to get to our hotel (Grand Plaza Park Royal) and along the way we were educated by our driver, which was really interesting. Throughout our stay in Penang, the drivers provided most of our information on the politics, cultural divides and people of Penang. Needless to say, we learned more on this visit to Malaysia than ever before, particularly about the different religious aspects of the country. Anyway, that's a different story.

Hotel check-in and the room: We arrived at the hotel and one member of staff in the entrance immediately asked us our dinner plans for that night. We explained that we hadn't even checked in yet. I understand the hotel advertising their facilities but standing at the main entrance asking everyone isn't really the best way. So we started to check in and it took ages, so we asked if there was a problem, and there was. Apparently we didn't exsist! So we were put in a room with 2 single beds for the first night and moved the next day. This wasn't too bad as it was late evening and we just wanted to eat and sleep. However the hotel weren't particularly apologetic. We'd had no problems with any other aspects of our holiday so we presumed it was the hotel's mistake. Other guests had similar problems too.

In the end it worked out alright, our next room was excellent with a full sea view and reasonable size. The hotel leave giant cookies in the room each night which is a nice touch, plus they tasted amazing! A special mention to our local representative who fixed our room situation and checked our other bookings. She (Anna) was excellent. i would recommend paying for a sea view room in this hotel, it's well worth it.

The hotel: 2 freeform swimming pools and plenty of shade. They were really nice pools with good food and drink service. The hotel lobby is smart too with a modern theme. We only ate lunch in the hotel as dinner and drinks were expensive. in fact drinks were ridiculously priced at around GBP5 for a beer. There is a happy 2 hours by the pool from 5pm which is worth taking advantage of. The food was good, but you can eat for a fraction of the price outside the hotel. The hotel has basically priced itself out of the food market and I can't really understand why.

Food: We went to Penang for the food and we weren't disappointed. The Hawker stalls about 100m down the road from the hotel (turn left) were excellent and amazing value. We went there most nights and loads - a special mention to the banana and honey roti!

The night market is pretty good too with the usual stuff, crafts, jewellery etc, and you don't get hassled too much.

We had dinner at the Jewel of the North restaurant also (on the main road, turn left outside hotel) which was very good, but more expensive than the hawker stalls. It was still reasonable though - around GBP15 for the the two of us with a couple of beers each.

I'll be back with the Penang sightseeing and afternoon tea at the E&O later, then onto the Datai in Langkawi. Bye for now...

Enjoying your report. We plan on visiting Malaysia next year...

Sightseeing Penang: We spent a morning visiting Penang Hill and the Kek Lok Temple. The weather was kind so we had a great view of the island. It reminded me of a smaller version of Hong Kong with the tall buildings emerging from the rainforest, although no where near as dramatic of course! There is a lot of building work going on at the moment in east Penang, apparently a lot of Japanese are buying second homes. We saw a huge spider up on the hill which freaked me out and plenty of monkeys playing on the tracks on the way down. Then we went to the temple. It is vast and ornate, but it needed some TLC in places. There is no charge to visit (unless it was included in our package), but you can make contributions. Again, we had a great discussion with our driver on religion and culture in Penang - very educational and interesting.

We also went to the Tropical fruit farm and gorged ourselves on jack fruit, star and dragon fruit and many others. Sadly the Durian season had just finished so we were unable to sample it. It was nice to see a quieter side of Penang.

We also spent a wet afternoon in Georgetown. I was really disappointed with the town. I was hoping to see some restored colonial buildings etc, but most were crumbling and dilapidated, with the exception of the E&O of course. There is some reasonable shopping there and we had a wonderful afternoon tea at the E&O at a very reasonable price - highly recommended.

In general, Penang was a bustling island with lively hotels. It isn't really a beach place as the sea wasn't very clean. The hotels are large with good pool facilities and the hawker stalls are fantastic. The newly refurbished Shangri-la (Rasa Sayang) looks really good. I'd stay there next time.

So, after 5 nights, it was time to move onto Langkawi. Direct flights between Penang and Langkawi are now in operation again which saved us some time. It only took 20 minutes and we were on our way to the Datai in good time. This was the most exciting part of our trip. We'd visited Langkawi 4 years ago and had a very relaxing time at the Pelangi beach hotel. But this time there was only one place for us! I'll be back tomorrow with the final installment. In the meantime, I'll just say that the Datai was amazing!

we have visited the datai but never stayed there so i am anxious to read about your stay there

There aren’t enough superlatives to describe the Datai and our experience exceeded our expectations, which were pretty high. Perhaps the best way to start is to describe the resort and then talk about our stay.

We visited the Datai for the day 4 years ago and had a spa treatment. I remember upon arrival wondering what the fuss was about. The lobby isn’t ornate and dramatic perhaps like the Andaman next door or other 5 star hotels, but it is lovely. It can be described as tropical minimalism. Limestone and wood dominate with a beautiful lily pond the centre attraction. Beyond this you have the lobby lounge and veranda where you admire the wonderful view across the pool, rainforest and bay towards the Thai mountains in the distance. There isn’t a check-in desk as such but I’ll come back to that experience later.

As you make your way down the staircase to the pool and on into the rainforest, you realise what this place is all about and that there is no need for ostentatious architecture. The architecture is all around you in the most beautiful and natural form – the rainforest. This resort really is nestled directly in the forest and is sympathetically designed with local and natural materials to blend into its environment. Even the roof tiles are wood. Yes, there is some structural concrete and pipes on view at times, particularly under some of the villas but I guess that can’t be helped and it didn’t bother us. Other than the wildlife around you (which is pretty loud at times), it is a calm and peaceful environment and perhaps not ideal for families, with children allowed in the beach pool only. The top pool is reserved for adults/over 16’s.

The rooms are spread over two wings in the main hotel building, with superior and pool villas set down in the jungle. Some of these are set in quite dense parts of the rainforest and I can imagine they are quite dark. We stayed in a superior villa, which was in a slight clearing with the river behind, so the light factor wasn’t an issue for us. I’ll describe the room later on. If mobility is an issue, then the hotel will ferry you around the resort on golf buggies, but I enjoyed walking around and listening to the sounds and spotting the abundant wildlife. I don’t think I realised just how close to nature you are in this resort. The noise at night was phenomenal and fascinating, although quite unnerving the first night! You can expect to see huge lizards, monkeys, flying squirrels, flying monkeys, lots of birds and butterflies and this is just around the villa. Not forgetting the cicadas, which never stop! Plus, we saw more wildlife on our evening nature walk.

There are two pools, again in a simple rectangular style with stunning views from the top pool across the bay. The design does mean you can have a really good swim though. Iced water and cold flannels are provided at regular intervals. There is also a gym, which has hot and cold Jacuzzis and is located underneath the main pool.

The spa has won numerous awards and it’s just stunning. The setting is unique with the individual villas opening out onto the rainforest and linked via walkways. They have a veranda with large baths and outdoor granite showers. Again, the style is tropical minimalism rather than the ornate, colourful designs found in Balinese spas, but it’s very classy!

The hotel has a good choice of restaurants with the wonderful Thai restaurant set on stilts, the main Dining room which has European and Malay cuisine and the beach restaurant which offers snacks and meals and themed evening buffets. There is also the opportunity to have a private dinner on the beach. Guests can also sign meals taken at the Andaman to their room. At night, the main building and pool are lit, as are parts of the rain forest and it looks beautiful. You also get fleeting glimpses of the flying monkeys, squirrels and bats as you dine.

The beach is lovely and very clean with white sand and warm, clear water (although after heavy rain it can get cloudy for a day) and is fringed by the rain forest. It was quiet too with no horrible jet skis! The hotel offer several complimentary services including non-motorised water sports, evening and morning nature walks, they will also drive you to the Andaman for dinner etc and the golf course.

So that’s the hotel and the beautiful setting and it’s hard to do it justice. I’ll start a new post later with our experiences.

We had 7 nights booked at the Datai in a superior villa. Our expectations were high based on a previous visit and rave reviews, in addition to the excellent service we had received in Singapore, which set the tone for our holiday. The Datai certainly didn’t disappoint us and overall, it exceeded our expectations.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by name, which was a nice touch although I guess it could backfire if wrong! We were escorted through the lobby to the veranda overlooking the top pool and Datai bay, where we enjoyed a welcome drink and cold flannels. We were left for about 10 minutes to relax, during which time a senior manager came over to welcome us and wish us a good stay – another nice touch. Then, we filled in a short check-in form and the hotel facilities were explained to us (from our wonderful vantage point). Following this, we got into a buggy to be driven to our villa – so far so good – very professional and a relaxing check-in.

We chose a villa because we wanted to make the most of the rainforest. We were located fairly near the main building and about a 5-10 minute walk from the beach. The villa had recently been refurbished and it was beautiful. I imagine the rooms will now often be compared to the Four Seasons and while they are less ornate at the Datai, I personally prefer the tropical minimalist theme. The villas consist of a dark wood interior with a vaulted ceiling and neutral colour soft furnishings. The large bed was extremely comfortable and there was also a large day bed, small dining table and desk. There was a large flat screen TV, DVD and CD player and a coffee machine. The lighting was all explained to us, as were the various appliances.

Then we were shown the bathroom, which was stunning and I couldn’t help but say ‘wow!’ I understand that these have been extended following the refurb. and they are big and also have a vaulted ceiling. There are limestone counters along each side with ‘his and her’ basins, and a bath, which is also set in a limestone surround under the end window. The showerhead was the size of a dinner plate and very powerful with a separate handset.

So, overall we were really pleased so far!

Dinner was taken in the Thai restaurant on the first night and it was delicious. We had a yellow curry with king prawns and cherry tomatoes, a green curry and a phad thai – all very tasty, good portions (at least adequate for us) and you could specify how spicy you wanted it. The service was top notch, without being over the top and was also very friendly.

Our first night in the villa was an experience with so many noises all around us; I’ll never forget it! Later I learned more about these noises from our nature walk.

We spent our first morning walking around the resort with lunch taken at the beach pool restaurant. The Datai burgers were excellent and reasonably priced. I also recommend the ‘smoothies’. Again the service was wonderful and the staff were friendly, taking time to talk to us and not just serve the food. We then relaxed by the pool on comfortable sunbeds, towels were brought to us and we sampled the Pina coladas!

We took dinner at the Andaman that night in the Japanese restaurant. The food was good but it was quiet so lacking in atmosphere a bit. We used the complimentary car service to get back to the Datai. When we approached our villa we noticed a huge lizard above our door and I mean about 2 feet long! Unfortunately we couldn’t get the camera out in time to record it.

The next couple of days were spent relaxing around the resort. I can’t recall an occasion where the service faltered once. It was fantastic. We dined at the beach restaurant where we had a Malaysian buffet – very, very good. We had spoken to the manager earlier in the day about the dinner and he reserved us one of the best tables, without us requesting it specifically. There is too much food to mention but I particularly enjoyed the chilli crab, the spicy salads and banana and coconut pudding.

We also went to the Gulai House where I had king prawn and scallop skewers with various chutneys are dips. It was good but perhaps not as flavoursome as I was expecting. We had breakfast in the Dining room once, which was lovely – Champagne if you wanted it and the eggs benedict were the best I’ve tasted. Generally, we made the most of our complimentary fruit in the mornings but also had room service once or twice.

We went on the evening and morning nature walk too. The guide, Urshad was brilliant with some really good stories and was very passionate about the rain forest. We saw boar, flying monkeys and squirrels, he pointed out the various lizards, cicadas, a tarantula and he also explained a lot of the noises as well as other wildlife we might see.

We also went to Pulau Payar, which wasn’t quite what we expected – not as clean as I thought considering it’s a protected area, but we did see some sharks! It was fairly stormy so the weather may have been in factor in terms of cleanliness.

We were midway through out stay at this point and so far it was excellent.

By this stage we were well settled into the villa and made use of the DVD player on a rainy day. The hotel has a DVD and CD library with a good selection of films. The coffee machine was great and the mini bar was reasonably priced – cheaper than Singapore. I think a mouse got in one night and tucked into our crisps!

We’d heard a lot about the monkeys too and seen them around the resort but a highlight for me was a family of monkeys playing on our villa roof one evening, including a baby monkey. We watched them for ages and managed to get some video and photos of them.

It was my husband’s Birthday while we were there and the hotel invited us to a cocktail evening mid week at the beach bar. I’m not sure whether all guests were invited, but it seemed to be those who had special occasions during their stay. We were offered a wide choice of drinks and opted for Champagne. It flowed freely (literally) for the next two hours along with the tasty canapés and we chatted to the staff and fellow guests. It was a really enjoyable evening topped off with dinner at the Thai restaurant again. This time I had red curry with chicken and green beans and it was delicious. Again, the service was impeccable.

We spent the rest of the week relaxing and enjoying the facilities. Dinner in the main Dining room was lovely, where we ate several Malay dishes. We also played golf and watched the monitor lizards amble all over the greens! The scenery was stunning. We also had a spa treatment, which was very enjoyable.

Overall, the atmosphere remained relaxed, the attention to detail was amazing, and the staff seemed to be mind readers. There are many things that make this resort so special and different from other 5 star resorts we’ve stayed in or had a nose around! I think it’s the attention to detail, consistent service, the professionalism of all the staff, the beautiful rooms and of course the rainforest. The whole place oozes class and quality and is a must if visiting Langkawi. It’s worth every penny and we’ll be back!

thanks for this report....i hope to return there one day...