Precious Memories: Beautiful Langkawi, Malaysia

Port Malai, Langkawi, Malaysia -- February 26, 2016

2016 HAL Volendam Asian Adventure, Day 11

Weather: Fresh breeze, clear, 28C/82F

Our ship docked at Port Malai around 7:43AM. We had breakfast at the Lido and ready to go on shore by then. It was a gorgeous day and just by looking at the port, this seems to be more of a resort island, quite different from Myanmar.

Tour buses were waiting at the pier.

Apparently, this is the Star Cruises Jetty in Langkawi.

Some taxis were waiting by ship side also. As we walked off the ship, they tried to get business from us but they wanted whole day tour. We were planning on just going to the Sky Bridge which they had no intention to take us just there. These were the first eight taxis that were allowed into port each day. Some of them waited through the night to get to the head of the line of course they would want to make good profits for that day.

We followed the other passengers out to the port gate. I knew that if all else failed, there should be a beach near the port gate where we can spend some time.

BTW, HAL provided shuttles to go to Underwaterworld, for a fee I believe.

Walking away from the ship.

As soon as we were outside the port gate, we were swamped by many more taxi drivers who did not get a chance to go near the ship. We finally decided to go with a driver who agreed to take us around for the whole day for $210 RM, til 3:00PM. A price we could accept. He was going to take us to the Mangrove where there are many different activities going on, like the bat caves, fish farm, crocodile farm, etc. I told him we were only interested in going to the cable car for the Sky Bridge, maybe a beach, and then to the town of Kuah. I knew we would not have enough time to do what we wanted if we go to the mangrove. He was fine with it but I could feel that he wasn't totally happy. I wonder if they get kick backs if they take people to the mangrove?

As we were driving up to the Oriental Village (Hmm...still using that word?!) we saw a lot of monkeys along the highway and some taxis slowed down so their passengers could take pictures. Not ours. So I did not get a single picture of monkeys.

Panorama Langkawi--Sky Bridge and Oriental Village

We arrived at the cable car entrance and our taxi would be waiting for us in the parking lot.

Entrance to the Oriental Village, still very quiet.

This is actually a very nice place with shops and restaurants in a beautiful setting.

Most stores were not opened at that hour.

Continued our walk to find the cable car station.

Cable car ticket counters and station near the pond.

After purchasing our tickets, we entered here.

There are different types of tickets, the regular ticket, the fast track, and the VIP. We just bought the regular ticket because we did not see that many people there yet and the fast track was like double the price for the same thing.

http://www.panoramalangkawi.com/

First stop was this Sky Dome where they showed a 10-minute 360 degrees 3D movie.

This is included in the ticket and the purpose is to reduce waiting hassle at peak period.

We could have skipped the Sky Dome and get in that short line but it was interesting to find out what the Sky Dome is anyway. They also took our pictures as we walked up, like the couple behind us in front of the green background.

The movie begins.

As we walked out from the Sky Dome, we noticed the HAL excursions arrived. I believe they had the fast track tickets.

Waiting in line, we were in the slow lane and the HAL groups in another line.

I must say that the young people in charge did a great job getting people on the cable car without holding the regular ticket people too long. Actually it seemed that both lines moved along rather quickly.

They were not using the 'glass bottom' ones for some reasons.

We shared a cab with a mother and daughter pair from Brazil.

This Sky Cab is one of the longest cable car rides that we have been on and the steepest also.

As reached and saw that the middle station had a long line of people trying to get back on the sky cab, we all decided not to get off there but continued our ride to the top station instead.

View of Sky Bridge from the top station.

After we reached the top station, we had to purchase our tickets to get to the Bridge for RM $5. To get to the Sky Bridge, we could either buy tickets for the Sky Glide for RM$15 or walk the trail for RM$5 in addition to the entrance fee of RM $5. We thought the 15~20 minute walk should be doable and would be a good experience. Little did we know...

When we paid for our 'walking' tickets, they actually had us signed a paper acknowledging the difficulties of the walk and that we are responsible for our own safety.

After we paid for the entrance fee and the walking fee, we went up to the top deck of the top station and this was what we saw. Absolutely breathtaking! This photo really does not do justice.

Observation deck of the top station.

With two observation decks.

and a walkway in between.

Then we went for the walk. It looked fine at the beginning...

then it got worse with uneven steps and loose gravel. So my suggestion is...take the Sky Glide for RM$10 more instead.

I am sure if we could get a one way ticket here to go back up, I would gladly pay for it!

This is the Sky Glide.

Magnificent Sky Bridge

This can be intimidating if you are afraid of heights.

If you are brave enough you could look down through these glass panels on the bridge.

We made it back down to earth after the strenuous hike back up to the top station. Then we shared a cable car with a couple from Britain on our ride back down. A very friendly couple who were spending a week on the island. We were busy chatting away that we missed the scenery on the way back.

Pond at the Oriental Village

Tanjung Rhu Beach

After meetingt up with our driver, he drove us to Tanjung Rhu Beach, on the north side of the island.

Beautiful white sandy beach, just gorgeous!

We are not water sports people and did not plan on going into the water, but I certainly wanted to dip my feet in the water. After taking a few pictures we were ready to leave. The taxi driver was surprised that we were done in such short time. Then he drove around the east side of the island to the main town of Kuah.

Eagle Square

This 12 meter eagle sculpture poised at the southeast corner of Langkawi in the town of Kuah by the bay. The word "Langkawi" is made up of two Malay words meaning reddish brown eagle. So this is a symbol of the island.

Picture-perfect!

Colorful boat at Kuah Bay

Then we were dropped off at a department store (Langkawi Parade Mega Mall) so we could browse around a little before getting back to the ship. This is the largest mall in Kuah, and everything seemed to be quite expensive, even the simplest and low quality items. MOR was trying to see if he could buy a pair of leather sandals but found those to be double the prices of what we could find in California and not the best quality either. We are generally not shoppers when traveling but we like to check on prices and merchandise in other parts of the world. After buying a couple of items at the supermarket at the basement we found this on our way up...

durian cream puffs! I had notes about these cream puffs for the port of Malacca and did not expect these here. Oh, so tasty! We got four of the durian ones and two with regular cream.

This is called "Taste Better". They had the Taiwanese TV program introducing their puffs showing continuously which caught our attention when we were walking by.

If I remember correctly, these were 6 for RM $10.

We met up with our driver who was waiting by the entrance of the department store. Returned back to port at around 2:50, and paid the driver his RM $210. He said he planned on staying at port overnight so he could be one of the first eight taxis that can go ship side the next day. Apparently another cruise ship was going to dock there the next morning.

HAL provided icy cold drinks, like lemonade or water, and cold towels at the gangway in most ports. A very nice touch.

We did not really have any lunch so we were hungry by then. A Cannonball from Dive In sounded so good! Come to think of it, we did not even think about lunch while we were in town.

It was sail-away by the time we finished our late lunch so we went out to the open deck behind the Lido to watch our ship leaving port.

The port entrance and Resorts World.

Langkawi is such a beautiful place!

Ready to set sail.

I guess that will be the first taxi in line?

Zooming in a beach resort as we were sailing out.

Heritage Dinner Menu at the Lido

That afternoon we took the opportunity to do a couple loads of laundry. We had no problem finding washing machines. There are four washers and four dryers in the laundrette on deck 3. HAL provided liquid soap but we needed coins to operate the machines. We were able to get change from the front desk though. To our surprise, we also bumped into a woman who was with us on the Sinorama tour to China last November, doing laundry at the same time. What a coincident!