Review: Langkawi Nature Tour

I just got to know recently that Penang.cc (Penang Community Centre) has a Blogger’s Appreciation Programme, "Travel With A Green Heart Campaign", sponsored by Langkawi Saga Travel & Tours, which basically, to create awareness on our environment.

My usual visits to Langkawi is mainly for relaxation and food, but this time, I was able to admire the nature that God has created, moreover, it is sponsored by Penang.cc. Moreover, since I'm a local, I hardly engage with the local tours to visit places.

My friend, Pei and I had a chance to travel together with five other bloggers. 
(Now, all my pictures has her face all over in this blog post)

Getting there
Since it is a local tour departing from Swettenhan Pier, we drove and parked our cars there.
For non-locals, there do have hotel pick up arrangements.

It was almost a 3 hour ride getting to Langkawi Island, but the 8.15am boat would stop at Payar Island first. As soon as you reach Payar Island, you would be able to see a bunch of shirtless beach boys waiting at the platforms. It took another 30 mins to reach Langkawi.

Eating there

We reached at the Jetty point and we were greeted by our van driver. Very quickly, we headed to the The Royal Langkawi Yacht Club for lunch at Charlie's Place.

Needless to say much, it was great ambience, overlooking the yacht parked at the club. The club has a variety of western and chinese cuisine. The focus was not really on the food, but more of the view, and we were seated at the platform on the sea.

First Destination: Oriental Village - Langkawi Cable Car
Dessert missed to hurry for the Langkawi Cable Car / Suspension bridge at the Oriental Village.

We walked and marched and arrived at the ticket counter. Sadly, we were told that there was some technical problem that they had to halt the cable car service for at least for an hour or two.

It always happen.

Sometimes, due to the weather condition, it just wouldn't want to move!

It happened to me during my last visit to the suspsension bridge, that the weather was bad, and all I see was just mist and mist all over the area.

Else, there will be some fun hiking and walks up at the Gunung Mat Cincang.

Plan A failed.

Don't worry, there was a PLAN B.

Second Destination: Langkawi Underwater World

We went to the Langkawi Underwater world!

A couple of years ago, the sea creatures in the waterworld were poisoned and all died. Am glad that its back again!

I have always fancied penguins (lots) and have always wished to see them in action.

Problem with this place was everything was behind the glasses.!! (except few animals like the parrot).

I wished I could touch and feel and communicate with them in the sea world...

It was a short 1 hour tour since it was a small place (the fee was quite expensive though - RM38 for walk-ins). I sort of left earlier for some chocolate shoppings at the Zon, though the tour guide did not encourage us to shop (afraid that we might end up spend hours choosing and browsing other products).

I was really running late, and forgot to snap more pictures, and I tried hard to shoot from the back of the van, but failed totally.

Third Destination: Kilim Karst Geoforest Park
Then, we went to Kilim Karst Geoforest Park for caving and eagle feeding.
During the boat ride to the cave, the tour guide explained how Langkawi was able to survive tsunami due to the mangroves grown (and also the water barriers build). Not only that, we were able to appreciate the river alongside, which got widen due to erosion.

We went to Gua Kelawar (Bat Cave), which was a limestone cave. It was dark and were shocked looking at the expressions of the bats at the ceiling of the cave. At the same time, I was pretty much afraid of some naughty bats droppings!

Sad that there were not much conservation and preservation as seen in other countries. We are so rich with land resources and we are taking things for granted.  I hope our government would look into this matter.

Boat ride got a little more exciting when the driver started to speed with waves of river water splashing on my camera lens. We headed to another place for eagle feeding (with KFC)! That day, the eagles were quite full that they refuse to eat their baits.



We went to a fish farm. There were friendly sting rays and other fishes.

It was my first time seeing SPITTING FISHES (archer fish).
Got the video from youtube.



The other way to feed the fish was using covering the bread with our fingers.

After all the spitting and feeding and drinking (oops), we headed back to the Eagle Square, which is situated next to the Jetty Point.

Langkawi was named after the Eagle (Burung Helang).

Shopping There
Oriental Village is one of the best place to shop for souvenirs, while the Zon/ Coco Valley is the best place for chocolates and duty free products like alcohol and tobacco.

Departing Langkawi..
And, it was time to say bye-bye to Langkawi. Dining KFC at the freezing cold boat back to Penang. We didn't had any jackets, we improvised our hand towels as our shawls :)
The best part of the boat ride was the amazing sunset and moon view, while escaping ourselves from the cold air con in the boat.

I was home, tired and salty (due to the seawater)

For more info about the Green Tour,  kindly visit Penang CC's website.