Money

1 USD is equal to 3.77 Malaysian ringgits. Some prices for example: you can rent scooters at about 35 ringgits (9.30 USD) and use a public toilet for 1 ringgit (.25 cents USD), while most basic meals come in at 10 ringgits (2.7 USD).

SIM card

You can get SIM cards easily at little shops. The best for this area is Celcom.

Tourist Area

10 minutes from the airport is Cenang (Pantai Cenang) which has many hotels, tourists, western fast food alongside Malay street food, spas and a nice beach with all kinds of water sports.

We used Naam tours, which cater to luxury or comfortable travel. We didn’t have any issues with this company and our driver, Azmann, was really cool.

Duty Free shopping

Langkawi became a duty-free port in 1987. There are many duty-free shops, so you’ll be able to get great deals on imported things you may need. If you’re here on vacation it’s still not cheaper than home but for us, it’s cheaper than India.

Monsoon season

The rains are in the months of March until November, but it is not a big monsoon like I have in India. It may rain a couple of hours each day or not at all.

Beaches

You have many options but Datai Bay is a “don’t miss”- ranked #9 of 10 best beaches in the world by National Geographic.

How to dress

Practice what I preach, not what I do. I wore tank tops but really you should probably wear a t-shirt (although most tourists and some younger local girls wore tank tops). It’s mostly a Muslim country and most tourists are from Saudi so you don’t want to wear clothes that look revealing. For swimming, I wore a swimsuit with shorts overtop and kept my lifejacket on to keep covered more.