Langkawi, Malaysia

Mara, the Guest services manager, called last night to offer us an upgrade. She was a bit late and appeared harried. She is an excellent Guest Service Manager who has been faced with challenges that were not of her making ie., she had no responsiblity in the decision to not sail through the Red Sea. Guests seem to continue to shoot the messager.

After Mara showed us some staterooms, we returned to the stateroom until Jenni called and said that she was heading down exit the ship. At this point, Bob and I made our way downstairs.

The Port of Langkawi is located in an absolutely beautiful setting but the walk to the buses was very long, hot, and windy-think blast furnace conditions.

Upon boarding our bus, we were greeted with an excellent guide. He gave us a detailed background of Langkawi. He meantioned that there are 120,000 people living in Langkawi who work primarily in the tourist and fishing industries.

We drive to the Kilium Geoforest Park which is a UNESCO designated geoforest.

Here, we divided into groups of 8 and boarded our boats.

Our first stop was the bat caves. We disembarked our boats and walked on elevated walkways. Our guide pointed out black bees who made their hives in the rock face. These tiny bees make honey just like their larger yellow bees.

Along the walkway our guide also pointed out Walking/Lung fish. These fish have both lungs and gills. We also saw mud crabs.

We then walked into a cave that was full of bats.

The second cave had a very low ceiling so there were no bats in this cave.

We reboarded our boats and traveled through the mangrove forest. These mangroves are protected because they protect the coastline from Tsunamis. These mangroves have a UNESCO Geopark designation.

As we made our way on the river that is surrounded by mangroves, we turned a corner and were greeted with an extremely large flock of eagles.

There are two species of eagle commonly seen in Langkawi. They are the reddish-brown eagles (also known as Brahminy Kites) and white bellied sea eagles.

We spent some time taking pictures of the eagles before heading to the mouth of the river. Once in the ocean, our guide pointed out various islands of Langkawi and where Thailand is located.

Next we headed to a "fish farm". This fish farm was essentially a tourist attraction/restaurant where one can choose a live fish and the restaurant will use it to prepare a meal. If you look at the pictures, you can see how dirty the fish tanks are. I would be hard pressed to eat a fish from hear. Although I did put my hand in the water to feed a ray. After feeding the ray, I promptly headed to the sink to wash off my hand and arm.

We then headed back to the dock, walked to the bus, and drove back to the port.

There is a lovely restaurant with spectucular views at the port. Dave and Karen asked us to join them for a beverage. We declined as we were hot and sweaty and desperately needed a shower.

My impressions of Langkawi:

It has a wealth of natural beauty.

The housing and resorts are modern and lovely.

If one doesn't mind hot, humid weather, Langkawi is a lovely place to visit.Read more