Discovering langkawi Islands

I had allocated two complete days for the Langkawi visit. I aimed for not wasting even an hour in traveling in those forty eight hours. We arrived at Langkawi airport at 6:00 PM. We headed straight to the hotel. By that time it was quite dark and late. We took a stroll in the hotel, had dinner and dozed off.

Day one started quite early. I had already figured out the places to be visited on the day one. I had convinced the same taxi driver who dropped us from the airport for taking us to our first destination. So the destination lined up for day one were

1. Mangrove Tour
2. Cable Car Ride
3. Pentai Cenang Beach
4. Cenang Mall

We finished our breakfast at the hotel and left for the Mangrove Tour. The taxi driver settled for 20 RM for taking us to the Mangrove Tour spot from the hotel.  Now the catch is if I will let this taxi drop off and go, I might not get another taxi for my next destination as majority of the tourist take the taxi for the whole day which I didn't as the charges were way too high. I was scared what If I didn’t get any taxi after finishing the tour. The tour was for complete two hours. I discussed the same with the taxi driver and he agreed to wait for us for charging 10 RM extra. I thought it was a fair deal and I asked him to stay back. I didn’t pay him for dropping till the Mangrove spot as I thought he might leave if he gets another lucrative offer. He also agreed to it.

1. Mangrove Tour

The Mangrove spot would look more like a deck of a ship which is full of people roaming around in their live jackets. I enquired about the packages and they had different prices based on the number of spots you visit during the tour. I went for the standard package as I didn’t want to miss anything. I spent 300 RM for the Mangrove Tour. So the concept is you will get a private boat and a driver. The driver will then take you to all the listed spots as per your chosen package. The boat was big enough to accommodate ten people but we were just three so it went a little out of budget for me. Following spots were covered in the package that I took:

• Bat Caves
• Fish Farm
• Eagle watching
• Anak Tikus Island
• Andaman Sea

Our boat arrived in no time and we hopped on. We all were very excited. Our driver was also a happy go lucky guy although we didn’t understand a word he said but he smiled every now and then which was nice. We reached out first spot Bat Caves in just ten minutes. The boat moved quite fast and we could feel the water thrashing up to our faces. We went into the caves and there were thousands of bats hanging up in the caves. It was pitch dark and we had rented a torch in order to move safely inside the cave. It isn't something very exciting. It is just a small walk into the caves where you can witness hundreds and thousands of Bats.

Bat cave was over in less than twenty minutes. We were now heading to our next destination which was Fish Farm. My father is a fish enthusiast so he was very much looking forward to this spot. The Fish Farm actually looked like a proper farm with meshes hanging at every spot. There were four sections in the fish farm having unique fishes with unique characteristics. The moment we got down at the farm one guy came running to us to show us all the sections. I guess they have tie ups with the boat drivers. Our guy took us to all the sections and we clicked a lot of photos with all the fishes. Fish farm took more time than Bat caves.

More than the spots the journey in the sea was breath taking. Just blue water all around you with unknown islands, the sound of the engine driving the boat and the cold wind gushing into your face. The expereince is sublime and cannot be expressed in words.  Next we headed for the Eagle Spot. there is nothing much in this spot. Your boat would reach to a point where you would be able to see numerous Eagles flying here and there. I didn't find it that interesting.

After spending few minutes watching Eagles we were ready for our next spot Anak Tikus Island. The boat dropped us on the island and the driver asked us to go inside and he would wait there. We went inside, after a long walk and climb of countless stairs we reached to a jungle. My mom was quite tired and we couldn't see anyone else there so she inssisted on going back. I also thought there would be nothing more inside, but later I got to know there was some water fall inside the jungle. So we took an about turn and came back, we clicked many pictures and hopped in the boat. The driver was ready to take us back to the starting point and while returning he offered us to drive the boat. Me and my father grabbed the opportunity, mum was a little hesistant in the begining but she also held the steering for few minutes.

2. Cable Car Ride: Without wasting even a single minute, we hopped in the taxi and headed for the next destination for Cable Car Ride. Just a small trivia here, a lot of scenes of the new Don movie was shot here. So basically we had to go to Oriental Village from where we had to get the tickets for the cable car. The ride had two levels with one stoppage in between. You can choose if you wish to venture the heights or you just want to settle down with the first level. We obviously went till the top. The charges were 30 RM per person. We were thousands of feet up from the ground handing in a small unit which was suspended by a cable. It was scary.I have to give it to the Langkawi Tourism for such great thought into it. It was one of the best rides of my life.

3. Pentai Cenang Beach: We enjoyed some ice cream at the top and then took the ride back to the Orietal Village. Mom did some souvenir shopping while I clicked some more pictures of the village. We all were very tired. I manage to find one taxi which agreed to drop us to the Pentai Cenang Beach for 30 RM. It was a ride of twenty minutes and we all were quite until the driver broke the silence by asking "Are you from India?" We all said "Yes" in chorus and then he started telling us how big a fan he is of bollywood and how much he appreciate the Indian beauty. The ride finished in the chit chats and in no time we had reached Pentai Cenang Beach.

4. Cenang Mall: After relaxing for sometime at the beach we decided to make a move. We were hungry and at the same time we had to visit out last spot lined up for the day. Now you would think why would somebody go to a mall at a tourist place? Cenang Mall is famous for selling all the duty free items at throw away prices. If you ever go to Langkawi do visit Cenang Mall for buying duty free alcohol and chocolates. We did a little too much of shopping there and then we returned to the streets to get some dinner. There are many authentic Indian restaurants near the Cenang Mall where you can enjoy sumptuous food and drinks. After the dinner we took a taxi and got back to the hotel.  This was a wrap for Day 1.

Read about the Langkawi Tour – Day Zero (Planning) here.

Happy Travelling and Happy blogging.