RTW Redux ... 2023

New-to-us Port #43.

Langkawi, Malaysia … the last of the three new ports added to the itinerary when Myanmar was canceled.

While today’s destination was different from what the original itinerary called for, the temperature wasn’t all that different from what we would have experienced in Myanmar. It was a hot day … high of 93F … with a feels like of 109F … mitigated only slightly by being at a high elevation during the worst of it.

For this tender port, I opted to organize a tour … more of a car and driver arrangement with a loose, customizable itinerary. Our friends — Sonia & Boris and Younga & David — joined us … and we were off on the first tender to the Resort World pier around 10:00a … a ½ hour before the first O tours were even scheduled to meet up.

Mount Machinchang — Gunung Mat Chinchang to the locals — is considered the birth place of Malaysia, with the oldest rock formation in SE Asia … formed 550 MYA. Tradition has it that Mounts Mat Chinchang and Raya, and Sawar Hill, were once humans who transformed themselves into their present form. Regardless of how it was formed, this second highest mountain of Malaysia — 2,790 feet high — was our first stop.

While you can hike through the rainforest to reach the summit, we took the easy way up today by riding the Sky Cab. The bottom station for this cable car is at the Oriental Village … a theme park of sorts. It consists of colorful buildings situated around a central lake. We didn’t dally, however, opting to go directly to the ticket office to exchange our booking voucher for real tickets. Then onward to the skip-the-line queue included in our private gondola ticket.

Glassed in all around, the gondola afforded us lovely views of the scenery as we rode ever-higher above the lush green canopy of the rainforest blanketing the mountain. We briefly hopped off at the first station to see what was there before continuing up to the summit station.

Once at the top, we decided that we wanted to do the Sky Bridge, a 410-foot long curved pedestrian bridge described as being a cable-stayed bridge … at 2,170 feet above sea level. Spanning a gorge between two hills, the Sky Bridge received the Prix Acier — the Swiss Steel Design Award — when it was built in 2005 … for outstanding construction that exemplifies architectural quality and technical proficiency of steel works.

I was under the impression that access to the Sky Bridge was in addition to our Sky Cab admission. So, we got in line to get tickets. But when we approached the window, the woman said we didn’t need to pay extra for it. Yay!

There are two ways to get to the Sky Bridge from the summit station. One can hike down through the rainforest … and of course, back up again on the way back. Or one can use an inclinator called the SkyGlide. The queue to ride the latter was fairly long, so four of us decided to do the hike while the Gelmans got in line for the SkyGlide.

The hike through the rainforest wasn’t too difficult, but there were a number of steps to negotiate with some steep stairs at the beginning. Luckily the walk wasn’t too long — just about 10-20 minutes depending on one’s pace — and there was shade. But we still had to contend with the humidity … ugh!

It was worth it, though. The scenery — even though we had already seen it from both the cable car and the first station platform — was breathtaking. The color of the water was amazing … and would have been even more so without the marine layer that seems to be ever-present in these humid Asian countries.

Once we all had our fill of the scenery, we returned to the summit station for the ride back down to the Oriental Village. Any hope we had of wandering around the village was dashed by the mid-day heat. So, we decided to check out “Art in Paradise — 3D Art Langkawi” instead … admission included in our Sky Cab tickets.

We had no idea what to expect. And were quite surprised that we were required to take off our shoes. As it turns out, the exhibit featured over 100 3D paintings with which visitors can interact. Quite surreal at times. But lots of fun and well worth the time.

It was almost 2:00p by the time we left the exhibit. Rejoining our driver at the van, we asked him to take us to a restaurant for lunch. Despite the odd hour, The Roof, a nearby restaurant that caters mostly to the locals, agreed to accommodate us. Seated in a private room, we were grateful for the A/C that managed to cool us down. The food was excellent … and plentiful; the beer icy cold. A perfect respite before continuing with our tour.

Next up was to have been a stroll around Kuah Town, the main city in Langkawi. Considering how hot it was, however, we decided to just do a drive through the city. But we couldn’t resist getting out when we arrived at Dataran Lang (Eagle Square) to check out for ourselves Langkawi’s iconic eagle statue.

Tradition has it that the name Langkawi is derived from two terms … ‘Lang’ from the Malay word ‘helang’ … which means eagle; and‘Kawi' … from a word that means marble or reddish brown. The reference here is to the red-backed sea eagles that can be seen in the skies over the archipelago. We’d seen eagles flying far off in the distance, but the statue gave us our only close encounter of the day.

Our tour concluded with a stop at Pantai Cenang … a beach described as vibrant and popular. We intended to find a café and relax a bit with some cold drinks. But the ambiance we found at the beach was not one that encouraged us to continue with those plans. The entire beach seemed quite dead … the sand uninviting. Maybe it was the heat. Maybe it was because we got there at low tide. Anyway, it was getting on towards 5:00p, so we decided to return to Resort World and catch a tender back to Insignia.

By 6:00p we were back in our cabin, a refreshing shower foremost on our minds.

Next up … Phuket.Les mer

Under different circumstances, today would have been the first of two days in Bangkok. Instead we had a short day in Brunei. All because of the big switcheroo to this segment due to China being closed to cruise ships when we set out on this voyage. No worries … we will get to Bangkok … just a little later than initially planned.

We visited Brunei, one of the three countries that share the Island of Borneo, on RTW2017. Having seen the highlights already, it really didn’t matter to us that this time we’d be arriving at 11:00a and departing at 4:30p.

Because it was a short day, we almost decided to make today a “sea day” and stay on the ship. But then Mui read that the mosque we had been unable to enter in 2017 because our visit fell on a Friday would be open today.

So, we took advantage of the “On Your Own” ship’s tour that was put into play at the last minute after our sister ship, Nautica, had problems with the complimentary shuttle that was supposed to transfer DIY explorers from the port in Muara to Bandar Seri Begawan [BSB], the capital city … some 17+ miles away.

Our “tour” was the last one scheduled to leave. We collected our bus assignments at 11:45a and it was about noon by the time we were finally moving. The bus had definitely seen better days … the A/C was barely working; seats were ripped up. Not what we would have expected from a country that is one of the richest in the world. The guide could do little more than apologize and explain that public transportation is practically non-existent here. After all, with gas cheaper than water, people prefer to drive themselves.

The bus followed the old road into BSB. Not sure why since we returned to Muara by the faster highway. In any event, it was about 12:45p when we arrived at the Yayasan Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Complex — a shopping center. With instructions to be back at 3:00p for a 3:15p departure, we did not dally in the mall.

The Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, named for the 28th Sultan of Brunei (father of the current sultan), was right across the street from the Yayasan complex and easy to walk to. We expected to wait until the 1:30p opening for visitation, but the guy at the door let us in early when we told him we were from Türkiye.

A man who identified himself as a “Friday Teacher” — not sure what he meant by that — gave us a few tidbits of information while we looked around and took photos.

The construction of the mosque was completed in 1958. It is in the Mughal style and has a dome covered in gold. He explained that the minaret-style chandeliers came from London; the marble from Italy; the handmade carpets from Belgium and Saudi Arabia; the heavy bronze doors from Hong Kong.

I found the interior to be surprisingly simply decorated … not as opulent as I thought it would be … especially for a state mosque. That said, the building has a “presence” and sits on beautifully manicured grounds. The pre-prayer bathing area is quite distinctive with its white column surround and a central pool that reflects the mosque. There is a manmade lagoon on the grounds with a concrete “artificial barge” that is said to be a replica of a 16th century mahligai — aka, royal barge. At one time, Quran reading contests were held on it.

We had not walked out on to the “barge” in 2017, so we did so this time. Good thing we did as we would likely have not run into Thomas otherwise. We first met Thomas on our 2015 Antarctic expedition to the Ross Sea. It really is such a small world.

Despite the ever increasing heat — 91F … with a feels-like of 100F — we continued our stroll around the city. First we stopped at the big mural of Dewan Bahasa. It is on an exterior wall of the public library. What I remember from 2017 is that it is dedicated to education and the people of the country. We later found a new mural on the side of a tall building. This one was more “touristy” in scope with representations of some of the iconic sights.

Our meandering walk next took us to the Tiang Yun Dian Chinese Temple. This place of worship, the name of which translates as the Temple of Flying Clouds, is the oldest of its kind in BSB. It was originally built on the waterfront, facing Kampong Ayer, the water village on stilts across the river. It was moved to its present location when the land it was sitting on was acquired by the government.

The temple is as colorful as the other Chinese temples we’ve visited. The incense and smoke from the joss sticks were a little stronger. I later read that the faith of the worshippers at this temple is given credit for the temple surviving a WWII bomb that did not detonate when it hit the building.

It was getting on towards 2:30p when we finally walked along the waterfront and made our way to the frame in Taman Mahkota Jubli Emas Park. Over 30 feet high, you can use it to get a framed photo of the Saifuddien Mosque. From the reverse, you can frame Kampong Ayer, but with the buildings small and distant, I’m not sure that works well.

The return trip to Muara was a lot faster since the driver took the highway back. We arrived at the port around 3:45p. The A/C on the ship felt like heaven.Les mer