Howdy all. This post will appear on your feeds after I am back (touchwood) from my three week break to South-East Asia, a brief trip to Philippines, Singapore (ever so briefly) and Langkawi, Malaysia. And so this post I’ll be giving a short summation of our time on Langkawi, a largish island off the north-west coast of Malysia, basically just south of the border with Thailand – so much so that we could at times see Thailand from Langkawi.

I wasn’t sure exactly what I was expecting on Langkawi, I guess I thought overall the island was probably a bit upmarket and I think that wasn’t the right expectation. We certainly had very comfy digs at the Pelangi Beach Resort, a video review of that is following next year, but I think there are a range of accommodation options on the islands for different budgets.

A few days of relaxation were on the cards, but I went out a few times too to make sure I had content lol! Such is the life of a travel vlogger/blogger I guess. The first venture was to the main town of Pentai Cenang, which was right on our doorstep and I will be honest with you – is not up to much.

However I did go to Underwater World which was an aquarium in town, and as a collection and place to visit I was surprisingly impressed with all the sealife they had there, a great selection of fish supplemented with reptiles, penguins and birds, including flamingos which was really cool. Some of the fish were super big and very cool, and of course, I found Nemo! However, never feel 100% happy with myself when I go to a place to look at wildlife that is, you know, not in the wild.

Another day we headed out to the Telaga Tujuh, the ‘Seven Wells Waterfall’, which is quite impressive. Except we didn’t see it from below lol, we dragged ourselves up over 600 steps in the humidity past many monkeys (the island is teeming with monkeys and other wildlife – we saw monkeys everywhere we went!) to the top of the waterfall, where there’s a sort of lookout and people were bathing. I put my feet in the water, that was enough for me!

Not far from there, past many more monkeys, the ‘Skycab’ – a cable car/gondola or whatever you might like to call this sort of attraction, with one section being the steepest climb for a cable car at 42 degrees! Actually it wasn’t that scary inside the gondola as I was expecting.

That connects to the ‘Skybridge’ – a 125 metre curved bridge up in the mountains, the longest one of its kind in the world (as in ‘curved’). The views were okay but basically we had cloud cover for the whole week we were there, so views and colours were never what they might have been!

On another day I ventured out to ‘Crocodile Adventureland’ – and I do feel guilty about visiting it to be honest. They boast to have the most crocodiles in Malaysia there, and they certainly have a lot. Do they look happy? Well, does a crocodile ever look happy (maybe after eating a good meal or two)? But it was a bit sad. The ‘feeding show’ was a guy chucking whole (dead) chickens over the fence to the crocs, who wouldn’t even move towards them if they weren’t dropped right on their mouths. Then there were baby crocodiles being used as props for peoples’ photos. I didn’t see any sort of conservation message emanating from the place, it just seemed to be built for the tourist Ringgit.

Not so far away was the bizarre ‘Coconut Kingdom’ – a place to take selfies, as far as I could understand. 25 hectares of coconut palms and rubber tree plants with spots to take you photos. But I suppose people like it. I was the only one there and actually I found it a relaxing place to spend 45 minutes.

On the final full day I took a Mangrove Tour, which is the popular thing to do on Langkawi as a tourist. It was a rewarding day actually, I wasn’t sure it would be but a knowledgeable guide certainly helped. They let the monkeys on the boat – these ones a lot more circumspect than the others I had met. Also saw eagles, a man feeding a sting (?) ray, and walked through a cool cave filled with over a thousand bats! And we finished on a lovely bridge!

And then suddenly it was time to board Air Asia once again to begin the journey home via Singapore. It was certainly.. a ‘time’. Before you know it you are in the air and wondering where the three weeks went, it passed in a flash! And folks, it’s December and nearly Christmas! Thanks for reading of course, take care wherever you are in the world, there will be more about this three week tour in proper detail in the New Year!

May the Journey Never End!