Family Holiday in Alor Setar 16-17 August

In 2006, my family and I attended a wedding reception of my friend's daughter at Teluk Intan, Perak. We stayed for two nights in one of the hotels in Teluk Intan town and took the opportunity to explore the town and it's surrounding during our stay there. After that pleasant outing, I have always dreamt of hitting the road visiting all the cities and towns around Peninsular Malaysia with my family. As part of the plan to realise this dream, I purchased a seven seater Hyundai Trajet in 2007. However time had always been elusive for me to realise my dream.
However, the opportunity came when one of my staff invited me to attend his wedding reception at Sintok, located about 52 kilometres from Alor Setar, the state capital of Kedah. I then planned that I would be able to stay overnight in Alor Setar and visit the city as well as its surrounding areas such as Kuala Kedah and Changlun.

We hit the road Saturday morning 16 August and took the North South Highway. We passed through Permatang Pauh at about 11 am and saw the roads and overhead bridges were ordained with parties' flags and banners. We did not stop and went straight ahead towards Alor Setar. We reached Alor Setar at about 1.30 pm. We stayed at Alor Setar Seri Malaysia hotel, which was near the Darul Aman Stadium and Wat Nikrodharam (a Thai Buddhist monastery). We took the family room at an expensive rate of RM180 per night. I wish either the state government of Kedah or the Federal Government would ensure that room rates in Alor Setar would be as affordable as possible for local tourists to contribute to the state tourism industry. However the lunch at the hotel restaurant was reasonable with the delicious local meals and nice ambience.

It was raining after we had lunch so we were trapped in the hotel. After the rain stopped in the evening, we went out for dinner. We had a simple dinner and explored Alor Setar and Kuala Kedah. We passed through the modern Alor Setar Tower and the historical Balai Besar, Balai

Nobat, Mahkamah Tinggi Negeri, Masjid Zahir, Pekan Rabu and Muzium Diraja Kedah.

The next morning, we visited Pekan Rabu again. Pekan Rabu specialties are it's many stalls selling a variety of items from delicious tidbits, traditional Malay costume to beautiful handicraft. We had our breakfast there and tasted the otak-otak. Then we went for a pre-Eid Hari Raya shopping. My sons had their full baju Melayu attire with songkok, my wife bought some tudungs, my daughter had her beautiful kaftans and I got myself two high grade but very cheap (compared to KL's price) kopiah.

Then we headed to the hotel to freshen ourselves. We checked out from the hotel at 1 pm. We attended the wedding and along the way to Sintok we saw endless padi fields. We then left for KL. We intentionally went out of the North South Highway at Permatang Pauh to see for ourselves the by-election fever where Anwar Ibrahim is trying to gain re-entry into Parliament. Then we followed the old road to KL until we reentered the North South Highway at Changkat Jering. The journey was worth the time and money spent.