Langkawi Nature Discovery Tour - A trip review

I participated in Langkawi Nature Discovery review trip on 20-Nov, 2010. This review trip is part of 'Travel with a Green Heart' campaign organized by penang.cc (Penang Community Center). It is a free day trip to Pulau Langkawi. This trip also made possible by Langkawi Coral Sdn. Bhd. So, thanks for the sponsorship!

Here is the review of the trip.

We met up with our tour guide of the trip, Jeff, at 8.15am and boarded the cruise at around 8.30am. The whole trip to Pulau Langkawi took nearly 3 hours. At around 11.15am, we arrived at Kuah Jetty at Pulau Langkawi.

After the arrival, we were taken in a van to the first destination of the trip - Royal Langkawi Yacht club for lunch. The club provides a nice and breezy environment for family lunch or just small group of lunch gathering. The restaurant of the club is named Charlie's Place.

This is the view looking out from our table during lunch. It was a sunny day and all of us cannot wait to have a good lunch here! Before the lunch is served, we were all over the restaurant to snap photos of this new place.

The lunch was also provided for this trip for free. We were served with Tomato soup, beef burger, chicken burger, club sandwiches, spaghetti, nasi goreng, fish and chips. We decided to share out the dishes so that all of us could taste each dish. If you ask me to give a score for the dishes there, I would give 5 out of 10. The taste of the dishes did not give me any surprises, i.e. below my normal expectation. I would only come here for the view and not the food next trip, given a chance in the future.

After lunch, we spent about 40 minutes on the road to go to the latest tourist attraction of Pulau Langkawi - Langkawi Cable Car. We  arrived at the Oriental Village where the base station of the cable car system is located. I was told that the cable car would bring me to the top of Gunung Mat Cincang to enjoy the panoramic view of the surrounding forest. Unfortunately, after we arrived at the base station, we were told that the cable car system was having some technical issues which required 2 hours to be fixed. This destination was supposed to be the highlight of this trip. I was really looking forward to the cable car ride. 
This photo below was the only scene that I can see from the base station before heading for next destination. I cannot remember when was the last time I go up a cable!

This Oriental Village is a duty free shopping haven. The tourists can shop for souvenirs and clothing there. The architecture of the buildings in this village is specially designed and built around a man-made lake. Thus, it would be nice to stroll around the village at the evening hours.

So, with a disappointed heart, we continued with the journey. Jeff gave a choice to choose whether we would like to visit the Underwater World first before going to Kilim Geoforest Park or the other way round. If we choose the latter, then we would not have time for a short shopping. Eventually, everyone agreed to take the former option as we did not think that shopping is a must. So there we go. We headed for Underwater World.

The road trip to Underwater World from Oriental Village was like taking forever. I lost track of the turns which we went through. But along the way, I can still see that many parts of Pulau Langkawi are still underdeveloped. Probably, it should be kept that way to preserve the greenery. As we were going through the winding roads, I can see the greenery (padi field) as shown in the photo below.

After about 40 minutes of driving and taking a few short-cuts (according to the driver) along the way, we finally arrived at Underwater World of Pulau Langkawi.

Before entering the aquarium, we were told that we only have 50 minutes before the van leaving for next and last destination. 50 minutes are actually too short a time to completely viewing all living things inside the aquarium. I could only manage to read a few names and description of the marine life. So for those who are into marine life, I would think that 2 hours would be sufficient here.

Giant fish!

After the aquarium, we went on to the highlight of this trip - bat cave and fish farm visit, eagle feeding and mangrove tour at Kilim Geoforest Park. This photo below shows the jetty where we boarded the boat to bat cave and fish farm.

Bat cave tour in pitch dark cave. There must be thousands of bat hanging in the cave. The smell in the cave is quite strong.

In between the cave and fish farm, we were fortunate to see some eagles swooped down on its prey. The sight is quite unforgettable to me. I think those eagles do not how to prey now because the tour operators there would feed the eagle everyday.

Fish farm tour. One of the participants in our group had the chance to feed the archer fish with bread sticking on her pinkie. She was thrilled when the fish jumped out of the water to get the bread.

Moments before we were supposed to board the cruise back to Penang, we were told that we can spend 10 minutes at the Eagle Square. Hence, all of us hustled across to the square to snap photos in front of the eagle. This photo is like one of the must have photos when you visit to Pulau Langkawi. 

I guess the trip back to Penang is the experience I would never forget for a long time to come. The interior of the cruise was freezingly cold because of the air-conditioner. The cruise operator told us that they cannot turn down the air-conditioner. So, for the 3-hour cruise trip back to Penang, we were trying to wrap around ourselves with the towel we brought and we were still shivering. Luckily, we were allowed to go out to the top of the cruise to experience the cool evening breeze.

It has been a long while since I last saw a nice sunset like this even though it was a bit cloudy. Thank God for this great creation!

We arrived at Penang at around 9.15pm.

From this trip, I have some suggestions for those who would like to visit Pulau Langkawi.

1. Unless you can find something interesting to do during the 3-hours trip in a boat, I would suggest that going there by flight is definitely a better option. The other option is go to Kuala Kedah and take cruise from the jetty at Kuala Kedah.

2. This day trip tour is quite rush for those who prefer leisure tour. For those who do not have much time to spare, you might want to opt for this tour as this tour brings you to most of the must visit destinations of Langkawi.

3. Check the weather before going for the cable car tour. The cable car would stop operating if it is too cloudy and the wind is too strong.