Langkawi Island has many faces and even more islands. But whether you’re looking for thrills and spills or a quiet holiday, I have advises setting aside some time to commune with Nature

JUST 10 years ago, a holiday in Pulau Langkawi would have been very simple, with lots of time to hang out on the beach, swim, shop for duty-free items, drive around the island with stops at Mahsuri Tomb, Craft Complex, Crocodile Farm, Black Sand Beach and batik factory, and then gawk at the man-made eagle at Dataran Lang or Eagle Square — all done quite nicely over a 2D/1N stay.

This was a favourite laid-back island for many people and it still is today.

But now Langkawi has become more sophisticated with new roads, designer cafes and shopping malls bearing duty-free shopping neon signs sprouting up in its main town Kuah.

Hip joints have mushroomed along the popular Pantai Cenang stretch and are now creeping into Pantai Tengah.

Luxurious resorts dominate prime bays and beaches while hotels and chalets get whatever vantage points available.

Still, the beauty of the island remains largely untouched despite the increase in the number of visitors and more buildings popping up everywhere.

Certainly it’s more vibrant than before and tourists now have more places to visit and more things to do. You’d definitely need to stay longer now to enjoy all that the island has to offer.

But whatever you choose to do, don’t forget to include a quiet moment to appreciate the tranquility. There’s no lack of it — if you know where to look. It can be found in the other smaller islands where the waters shimmer under the sun and stunning geological formations command the seascape. Or on cruises along the mangrove-fringed river to catch a sight of soaring eagles and a breath-taking cable car ride that offers views of waterfalls and verdant jungle canopies below.

Langkawi is still where time stands still and where you can seek solace from Nature.

Sea & Islands

All around Langkawi, you can find long stretches of fine white sand and a vast expanse of sea. Swimming and sunbathing are tame options but water sports like sailing and jet-skiing as well as snorkelling and diving offer thrills.

Plan for an island-hopping trip. Langkawi is actually made up of a cluster of 99 islands (104 at low tide and only about 50 per cent have been named).

Except for the main island of Langkawi and Tuba, the rest are unoccupied, including the popular Pulau Dayang Bunting (Island Of The Pregnant Maiden) where operators at a lake on the island offer boating facilities.

As you approach Dayang Bunting, there’s no mistaking the silhouette of a pregnant woman lying on her back. According to local folklore, it is believed that barren women will be able to conceive after they bathe in the lake or drink its water.

One wonders if the alkaline properties of the limestone bedrock underneath the water have anything to do with it? While you ponder on the mystery, let your eyes take in the stunning karst landscape with the deep green waters of the lake. It’s a marvel because just outside the karst walls is the salty sea.

The lake is a shallow depression formed by continuous dissolution of limestone bedrock. The formation of a doline followed due to the collapse of an underground cave ceiling several thousand years ago. It filled with rainwater and eventually the lake was formed with a depth about the height of a four-storey building! Another special feature of the island is the fine quality limestone marble found here. Its unique geology has earned the island the name Marble Geoforest Park, part of the protected, Unesco-recognised Langkawi Geopark.

Spend some time too at other islands like Lima, Tuba, Bumbun, Singa Besar, Singa Kecil and Jong which looks like a ship. You can also liken the rock faces and shapes of most of the islands to things, people and animals and marvel at all the geological landscapes and formations that date back to more than 220 million years ago.

Show Of The Eagles

Hire a boat to cruise Sungai Kilim and its maze of mangroves. As the boat moves slowly along, watch out for playful otters or monitor lizards. If you are lucky, you’ll see frolicking dolphins.

Look up when you hear the cries of Brahminy Kites or White-Bellied Sea Eagles. Drawn by chicken skin thrown by boat operators or tourists, the eagles would swoop down, catch the feed and then fly away majestically. Langkawi is named after the Brahminy Kite eagle (helang or lang in short, while kawi refers to batu kawi, the brown stone found abundantly on the island).

The only drawback to eagle watching here is seeing tourists-laden boats with loud engines zipping fast along the river. Some boatmen make their engines roar loudly to get the attention of the eagles towards the chicken skin.

Try and use the services of registered nature guides who would coax boat operators to be mindful of the natural surroundings and to ply the river at a more leisurely pace.

These are guides who would go out of their way to point out the different mangrove species along the river and talk about their importance to the eco-system. They’ll also show you wild exotic orchids, blue and orange crabs on mud-banks, kingfishers perched on trees and even stop to watch colonies of monkeys and monitor lizards.

Along the river are several kelongs and one also serves as a floating seafood restaurant. Called Hole In The Wall, this is where you can have some of the freshest seafood on the island.

Sungai Kilim and the Kilim mangrove area are part of the Kilim Karst Geoforest Park with sea-caves, sea-notches, sea-stacks, arches and wangs as well as untouched freshwater and seawater lakes.

The river opens up to the sea where islands — home to ancient limestone rocks with exotic cycads, slipper orchids and colourful begonias — fringe the shores.

Nearby Pulau Langgun has a camping site and a lovely lake (Tasik Langgun) formed through years of accumulation of rainwater in a limestone sinkhole.

Opposite Pulau Langgun is a lovely unnamed bay in an isolated part of the main Pulau Langkawi. A small opening in the karst wall on the bay allows seawater to flow into a sinkhole on the other side. The sinkhole is surrounded by almost vertical karst walls and the trapped water forms a hauntingly beautiful blue-green lake called Tasik Langsuir (Banshee Lake).

The scenery is so breathtaking that your hair will stand on ends. From a walkway on stilts on one side of the lake, you will be able to see exposed fossils and several species of mangroves including kurap, minyak, berembang and nyireh. The bay is not far from the Kilim rivermouth.

Just across the river from the Sungai Kilim Jetty is Gua Kelawar (Bats Cave). Walking to the cave will take you through a boardwalk fringed by mangrove forests where myriad birds thrive. Look up and you’d see hundreds and hundreds of bats clinging on to the cave ceiling.

Dating back to more than 400 million years, Gua Kelawar has spectacular limestone formations and ancient oyster shells attached to parts of the wall just above the sea level.

Above The Fray

Imagine soaring in a gondola hanging precariously to cables over ancient ridges and forests. You hear the wind whistling through the small opening of the fibre-glass bubble and feel the air getting cooler as your gondola makes an almost vertical ascend to the peak of Gunung Machinchang.

The Machinchang Cambrian Geoforest Park is where you can find the country’s oldest geological formation (550 million years old) with unique sandstone ripples.

The cable car ride from the base station in Oriental Village near Burau Bay to the peak takes 15 to 20 minutes, a 2.2km route that is absolutely thrilling especially when you pass over the seven-tier Telaga Tujuh waterfalls. You will feel the tingling, dizzying sensation once more when you stand on the highest platform (about the height of a 180-storey building!) and extend your arms to embrace tiny islands, green lowlands and the vast expanse of tranquil ocean against the blue sky. That’s the magical, mystical Langkawi that you’ll never want to let go.