Discover Kuah, Langkawi

Discover Kuah, Langkawi (19 February, 2017)


B. Melayu

Map of Kuah, Langkawi

Sights in Kuah

Streets in Kuah

Introducing Kuah, Langkawi

Kuah (GPS: 6.31991, 99.84948) is the main town in Langkawi. It is also the administrative capital of the Pulau Langkawi district of Kedah. The town is located on the southeastern part of Pulau Langkawi.

Until the 1950's, Kuah was nothing more than a collection of kampung houses, not much different from other kampungs in Langkawi. Since then, it has seen rapid growth, particularly from the early 1980's, with new buildings and commercial shophouses being built.

By year 2000, the population of the mukim of Kuah has reached 26,000, making it the most populous mukim in Langkawi, followed by Ulu Melaka. Most of the commercial businesses are run by Chinese traders who moved there from Kedah mainland and Penang. There aren't any big shopping malls in town of the same calibre as those in Alor Setar or Penang. One of the big ones is Langkawi Fair Shopping Mall.

There are only a few main roads in Kuah. Persiaran Putera is the coastal road. Most of the government departments are located along this road or within its vicinity, including Langkawi Anti-Corruption Unit, Langkawi Development Authority, Cooperative Development Department, Langkawi Lower Syariah Court, Langkawi District Education Office, Langkawi Public Library, Langkawi Traffic Branch Police Station, and Langkawi Fire & Rescue Unit.

Many of the tourist sights of Kuah is also located within sight of Persiaran Putra. This includes Eagle Square (Dataran Lang) and Lagenda Park, two of the biggest sights in town.

Dataran Lang, Kuah, Langkawi (6 June, 2005)


Persiaran Putra starts from the Kuah Jetty, and proceeds westwards where it becomes Jalan Padang Matsirat after the junction with Jalan Air Hangat. Jalan Air Hangat is the other main road in Kuah, as well as Langkawi. It goes north to Air Hangat on the northern coast. Three roads linked Persiaran Putra are simply called Lencongan Putra 1, 2 and 3, a reflection of the haste in which Kuah was developed.

Kuah town does not have a very long documented history. Until the mid 20th century, it was still nothing more than a collection of kampung houses. Most of the commercial buildings in Kuah date from the late 1970's. Its proximity to Kuala Kedah was the main reason that Kuah was chosen to be the main town of Langkawi. There are other villages on the island such as Padang Matsirat and Ulu Melaka that are probably had a longer human settlement.

The name of Kuah, which means "gravy" in Malay, goes back to the legend of the fight among two clans of giants Machincang and Mat Raya, represented today by the mountains Gunung Machincang and Gunung Raya. The daughter of Gunung Machincang was supposed to marry the son of Gunung Raya.

A quarrel erupted during the wedding, when the groom farted twice, producing the two islands Pulau Kentut Kecil and Pulau Kentut Besar. The groom claimed that he suffered the indignity because of the half-cooked rice served by the bride's family. This caused a fight to break out, and in the turmoil, gravy was spilled at Kuah, hot water splashed at Air Hangat, and crockeries broken at Belanga Pecah. The wedding ring was tossed off at Tanjung Cincin. Eventually the fight was broken off with the intervention of a mutual friend, Mat Sawar, who is represented in the geography of the island by the hillock, Bukit Sawar, standing between the two mountains.

Getting there

Most people arrive in Kuah by ferry from Kuala Kedah, Kuala Perlis and Penang. The telephone number of the Langkawi ticket counter at Kuah Jetty are 04 966 1125 and 04 966 1126. There are ferry services from 7:00 am in the morning to 7:00 pm in the evening. Check with the ticket counter on the schedule.

Eagle statue at Dataran Lang, Kuah (6 June, 2005)

Going to Kuah from Kuala Kedah

The trip takes approximately 1 hour 45 minutes. The fare (as of Feb 2017) is RM23 one way and RM46 return.
Kuala Kedah Ticket Counter: 04 762 6295, 04 762 6296

From Kuala Perlis

The trip takes approximately 1 hour 15 minutes. The fare is RM18 one way and RM36 return.
Kuala Perlis Ticket Counter: 04 985 1899, 04 985 2539 and 04 985 2690

Going to Kuah from Penang

There are two ferry services with Penang daily. The one from Penang leaves at 8:15 am (stopover at Pulau Payar) and 8:30 am (direct). The return trip from Kuah leaves at 3:00 pm (stopover at Pulau Payar) and 5:15 pm (direct). The trips take 3 hours, and the fare is RM70 one way.
Penang Ticket Counter: 04 264 2088

Going to Kuah from Satun

There are 4 daily ferry trips between Kuah and Satun in Thailand. The trips take approximately 1 hour 15 minutes, and the fare is RM30 / Baht 300 one way and RM60 / Baht 600 return.
Satun Ticket Counter: +66 74 725 294

Arriving in Langkawi by Flight

If you are arriving at the Langkawi International Airport, you can easily catch a taxi to Kuah town. The fare is around RM15, not too bad considering you are going right across the island.

Kuah is on the Map of Places in Langkawi

Back to Discover Langkawi mainpage; list of Towns in Kedah and Towns in Malaysia

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About this website

Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.