Langkawi Island

January 16, 2024

We did not want to get hot and sweaty before our flight today, so relaxed at our hotel before our mid-day flight from Penang’s airport to the nearby island of Langkawi. The flight took about 20 minutes. We were met at Langkawi airport by a hotel representative who drove us from the south side of the island to the north, where our resort is located. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting acclimated to the resort. We were told that the land mass we could see in the distance from our bungalow is part of Thailand, not Malaysia. 

Here is the view of the beach from our room with Thailand in the distance.

January 17, 2024

After breakfast we read on our porch for a bit and went on a late morning tour to the mangrove. Mangroves are located in a UNESCO Kilim Karst “Geopark” and feature limestone karsts in addition to the mangrove trees. On a trip of about 2.5 hours, we saw a monitor lizard, a snake, several types of crabs, two kinds of eagles, a fish that walks on land and many long tailed macaques (a type of monkey common in Asia).  We were told many times that the rock formations on Langkawi are the oldest in Southeast Asia and part of the reason for the UNESCO designation. Here are some photos from the mangrove tour.

Here is the strange fish that walked on land. Below, a couple

langur monkeys.

We spent the afternoon relaxing and reading by the beach and took a dip in our swimming pool.

Dinner view that evening.

January 18, 2024

After breakfast, we took a one hour speed boat tour of the three islands in the bay near the resort. The first island had a nice sand sculpture. We then went to a cove on another island that had many colorful fish. Finally, we cruised back toward the mangrove river where we visited a fish farm that had pens showcasing many local fish species. This has been created for tourists and to provide jobs, as fishing is no longer allowed in the UNESCO area.  Here are some photos from the bay tour.

January 19, 2024

Before breakfast, we went on a one hour nature walk around the resort with a naturalist. We saw birds, unique squirrels and were introduced to many native plants, including a number of herbs used in Malaysian cuisine. After breakfast, we spent several hours at the “adult quiet pool” which offered a different view of the beach area. 

After a rest, we took a long walk to the north side of the resort, which we hadn’t seen yet and was built against the karsts. We encountered dusky langur monkeys. Another inactive day in paradise.

That evening’s sunset was beautiful.

January 20, 2024

We were driven about 25 minutes across the north side of the island, to the base of the highest mountain on Langkawi, Gunung Machinchang where we visited the Cable Car and Skybridge. We rode a cable car to the first station, where we had a view back down to our starting point. From there, we took a continuation cable car which didn’t gain much altitude but crosses a deep gorge. The altitude at the top was about 800 meters above the easy to see sea level.

At the top, we took another people mover, SkyGlide, a sideways elevator on a train–type track down to the Skybridge, which was billed as the largest curved single cantilevered bridge in the world (built in 2004). We were surprised at how secure and steady the bridge was. We had nice views of both north and south shores of the island.

Cable cars approaching the top station, left, and the “Sky Glide” down

to the skybridge, right.

Looking down on the skybridge, left; look at how steep the cliffs are, on the right.

We descended to the base of the cable car and during our drive back to the resort, stopped at a scenic black sand beach. 

We spent the afternoon alternating from the inside of our room to the outside, reading and relaxing. Our iPhone reported the temperature felt like 95F.  It is definitely hot.

Tonight we will have our last dinner in the resorts very fine Malaysian restaurant, for tomorrow we fly to Kuala Lumpur.  Here’s the sunset from our final evening.

Langkawi offered everything we would want in a beach resort, great hotel and things to do besides lounge around.  We probably liked it better than Phuket, another popular Andaman Sea resort island, because it was less commercially developed, although that can certainly change.

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