From the diary – Langkawi

Aerial view of Langkawi

Taj Rebak Island

 Langkawi is an archipelago of 99 islands and is located in the Southern Andaman sea off northern mainland Malaysia. We landed in Langkawi on a hot friday afternoon, after a quick transit via Kuala Lumpur. As we were descending into Langkawi , we took in the the views from the airplane window and it was simply breathtaking. Emerald green and sapphire blue waters, laced with numerous lush islands gleamed in the dazzling sun.Langkawi airport is a quaint little airport , nestled in between lush green hills , with the northern end of the runway a few hundred meters away from the crystal blue waters. The arrival lounge and the airport by itself reminds you of the old HAL airport in Bangalore where everything ticks away at its own pace. Temperature of around 33 degrees c and a humidity over 90% greeted us. We were welcomed by the resort staff who was a friendly malay chap who knew a bit of hindi and so declared it very proudly. We had booked into the Taj Rebak Island resort. Rebak Island is a ten minute boat ride from the jetty on the main island of Langkawi called Langasuka. We drove to the Langasuka jetty where Taj have their speed boats ferrying guests to and fro from the main island to their resort at Rebak island. The resort has around 85 rooms with their VIP guest being a 10 feet monitor lizard who gets fed everyday by the doting staff at 3 PM. No, he does not have a room , but ambles around lazily in the dense undergrowth close to the resort.Our first evening at the resort was spent exploring the island. We cycled around a bit, got into the pool and then watched the sun set.By then, worked up a good appetite for a great buffet spread for dinner. The good thing about Taj was there was an ample choice of Indian spread and the chettinad spread was my favorite that night.

When you are on holidays you are torn between spending a lot of time lazing and not doing anything or getting around and making the most of your time, taking in asmuch of the place. So we decided to get early starts and relax during the evenings. The next day we headed off to the northern part of the main island of Langkawi for a mangrove tour by boat. The tour starts off in the backwaters and winds down to the open sea.The tour covers the Kilim geopark area of Langkawi. It was a fascinating experience as you get very close to the mangrove jungle that sucks to every drop of salt water coming its way and rooting itself firmly. It is a constant battle between the mangroves and the sea, the mangroves expand themselves slowly and steadily over the years and form land masses and eventually into islands that break off.Our guide for the tour was a local, whose english was quite good and had an irritating habit of saying bye bye to every thing we saw and left.So it was bye bye limestone caves, bye bye bats , bye bye monitor lizards and so on!

Kilim Geo Park

 The boat winded itself down to our first stop , an island which was famous for its limestone caves, stalagmite and stalactite formations.
A limestone cave with majestic formations was home to numerous bats clinging to the high ceilings. I feel sorry for the poor chaps who get disturbed the whole day by jabbering tourists and flashing cameras.

Limestone caves

The trail leading to the cave was filled with murky soil where water had receded due to the low tide. All along were tree roots fighting for space and new roots were springing everywhere in gay abandon.

Mangrove roots

We then continued along the mangrove jungle slowly in the boat and spotted monitor lizards ,a sleeping viper , kingfishers , monkeys en route to the open majestic sea where we sped along to an other island on the geo park where Brahmani Kites are fed in the open waters by the local boatmen and it is a well orchestrated part of the tourist attraction.

Mr Monitor

Our last stop of the tour was for lunch on a floating restaurant which had the local seafood being served Malay style. There were also couple of fish breeding areas alongside the restaurant. A jolly , chubby Malay girl was feeding some of the captive species and got me to feed a gigantic barracuda. The sting rays were acting like kids , they literally would pull themselves up on the side of the massive cement tanks and feed so gleefully on bits of fish. The restaurant was called ” Hole in the wall “. Could not figure why it was called that. I had a lot of issues as usual about this place and it was a tall order not to exhibit my displeasure on some of the local delicacies. I was assured that the fish in captivity were not served on the table.

After the tour, we went to the cable car station that starts in the oriental village of the northwest of Langkawi. This cable car ride was far steeper than the one I have been in at Cairns in Australia and at Hong Kong’s Lantau island.The views from atop are breathtaking.The last station is approx 780 meters high. What is even more interesting is the suspension bridge that has been built at this height connecting two mountains. The highlight of this bridge which I gathered from some of the local tamil sightseers was that the climax scene of Ajith’s movie “Billa” ( remake of Don )was shot here. The tourists were so excited that “Thalla” aka Ajith had shot for the blockbuster here. I do not miss any of Ajith’s movies either and I remembered the climax where Ajith does a lot of stunts on this bridge.

Suspended bridge at 708 mts

The next day was an early start yet again and we went on an Island hopping trip. We took a boat that started off at a jetty close to Pantai Cenang which is the main strip of Langkawi. Our first stop was to an island that had the most magnificent fresh water lake atop a hill.The lake is cradled in between emerald green hills. We took a paddle boat ( solar powered that is apt when you are tired of paddling )and drifted around the lake .

Freshwater lake

After this , we then sped off to another island which was secluded and found a beach that was not covered by the setting high tide as yet. We spent a good amount of time in the cool waters and soaked in the blazing sun. There were a few monkeys on the island who were interested in pulling the bags and clothes we had hung on the trees and so we reluctantly pulled ourselves out of the water and decided to head back.

A pristine secluded beach

We went back to the resort , had a great thali for lunch. Then we did a bit of kayaking around Rebak Island, very much in view of the resort as I was not exactly an expert at this. We lazed around in the resort that evening and then I pampered myself with a wonderful aromatherapy massage on the beach.The setting was serene, and I watched the low tide come in , otters came in to feed on struggling fish in the receding waters as the sun set over Langkawi.

Rebak island resort...

Dinner that night was a la carte and we tried some of the local malay curries.
The next day was our last in Langkawi , we hired a car and a driver and headed to Kuah town on the south east coast. The drive along the coast was splendid.There we did a bit of shopping, the batik dresses you get here are very pretty and different. The entire island is duty free by the way. Kuah has a big square called the eagle square where a huge eagle presides over the town.

Eagle at Kuah

We then went back to Pantai Cenang and had a great lunch at a local restaurant there. It was then time to bid adieu to Langkawi and we drove to the airport to catch an evening flight to Kuala Lumpur. As we took off , I watched the emerald islands get smaller, I was content that we chose to spend some good time in Langkawi. With deforestation so rampant in other parts of the world, the Malaysian government has enforced strict rules for preserving its natural heritage and people abide by the law. We have carried back some wonderful memories of this enchanting place and will be happy to visit it again soon.
 

Sunset over Rebak