West Malaysia loop ride

Day four.

I did not sleep much last night. It was great fun chatting and staying up late. I finally got to sleep at 3pm and woke up this morning at 7am. I am excited though because we would be going for a very special adventure today!

Morning view out the balcony (Photo by Chris)

The day started quietly, and to be honest, quite slowly. Everyone was getting up a little more lethargic than usual. The funny thing is that I had told the guys that we would be doing water activity and Anthony was completely prepared to head out this morning just in his rash guard and swimming tights. I did tell him when I saw him that he might want to pull on a pair of shorts…just in case. Hahaha!

Bala came by with Nasi Lemak and Kuih Muih for breakfast around 830am. I always enjoyed the Nasi Lemak Bungkus here in Malaysia. The rice is steamed with coconut milk and has a very distinctive and addictive aroma with just the right hint of coconut flavour. The rice also comes with sambal, ikan bilis, peanuts and boiled egg. I just love the simplicity and robustness of the flavour of this local favourite…and definitely one of my favourites!

Our breakfast spread!

An assortment of kueh kueh

More kueh kueh

Can’t wait to see what is inside

So much variety!

How can anyone not LOVE this simple nasi lemak?

Chris enjoying his breakfast

Breakfast definitely perked me up! The news that the owner will be changing the air conditioning unit for the room downstairs was added bonus. I did think it would be tough to get it fixed that late on a weekend in a slow and relaxing place like Langkawi. In any case, our pickeup arrived at 9am as planned! So armed with little knowledge of what is in store for the guys, we set off!

The ride to the Kilim Geo Park where we would embark on our exciting journey was a relatively short one. In a matter of minutes, we turned into the jetty and were promptly advised to wait till our guide arrived. There were many people at the jetty…many more than when I was here back in January. Perhaps it was the usual weekend crowd. There were also a bunch of people wearing what looked to be white T-shirts with a Germany flag printed on the front. They were people of Malay descent…strange to see what looked to be a family wearing Germany flag T-shirts.

Waiting for our guide to arrive (Photo by Randy)

The Kilim Farst Geoforest Park map (Photo by Randy)

In any case, Khirien – our guide – arrived not long after. He brought along with him four others: a young couple from Japan, and two girls from Penang. After a short briefing, our party of 10 joined the throng of people walking onto the platform and stepped into our boat. We set off slowly as everyone was busy putting on life vests…and eventually sped away from the jetty and the crowd…only to arrive moments later at another platform full of people.

On the boat heading towards the first activity (Photo by Chris)

Our boatman! (Photo by Chris)

Enjoying the short ride (Photo by Chris)

Khirien shared with us that this was the entry point to what is known as the Bat Cave. There were two major types of bats in the cave. The insect bats with ugly faces (according to Khirien) and the fruit bats with pudgy faces. I jest. The insect bats have large ears and nostrils that open to the front. They look a little nasty to be fair. Fruit bats, on the other hand, have really cute little faces. Big eyes, small pointy ears and nostrils like a little doggy. The first time we saw the bats hanging down from the cave ceiling was quite awesome. I would never have guessed those were bats! So many many many of them! He shared lots of interesting facts about bats with us…including how they were nocturnal, how they would hunt, how they slept upside down and not fall down etc. I will not share those here so you can have a chance to hear it directly from him when you visit the Geo Park!

A short briefing before heading to the cave

Let’s get inside!

Magnificent bats! (Photo by Randy)

Hush…they’re sleeping soundly! (Photo by Randy)

Listening to what Khirien was saying (Photo by Randy)

The cave was also home to a magnificent display of stalactites and stalacmites. Stalactites hang down from the ceiling of caves while stalacmites rise up from the ground. These formations are formed when water seeps through the ceiling of limestone caves. The water collects calcium carbonate and when this comes in contact with air, solidifies and forms the stalactites. Water that falls to the ground before solidifying form stalacmites. They grow at an average of 9mm every 70 years! That means those stalactites we saw started growing more than 30,000 years ago! Awe inspiring!

Stalactites & stalacmites in this cave! (Photo by Randy)

Watch your heads!

Smile guys!

Gotta crouch across!

This fella is always taking photos! (Photo by Randy)

Look at the stalactites! (Photo by Chris)

We walked on the boardwalk outside the caves and saw the mangroves of Langkawi for the first time. There were many monkeys around. Khirien explained that some of these monkeys can get quite aggressive and that we should avoid eye contact with them…especially when our teeth are showing. Apparently they take that as a sign of aggression.

While the monkeys were certainly interesting, what was more interesting to me were those strange stalactite formations that seem to bend. For some reason they did not form straight down but seemed to bend outwards like how a tongue might bend out should we stick it out of our mouths. There were a couple possible explanations for that…but the one I liked best had to do with the effect of the wind.

This stalactite seems to be bending… (Photo by Randy)

Back to the jetty! (Photo by Randy)

We got back to our boat after that and the boat headed out at speed…for a bit longer than just now. We eventually entered a channel where several sailing boats were moored. There were some nice looking boats here for sure! We were headed for a place called the Hole in the Wall restaurant and fish farm. What a quaint name! The owner of the establishment shared with us later that the name was coined up because this entire area used to be a cave formation…thus…hole in the wall!

Woohoo!!! (Photo by Chris)

What a pretty sight! (Photo by Randy)

Approaching the “hole in the wall” (Photo by Randy)

Welcome to the Hole in the Wall floating restaurant (Photo by Randy)

This entire place is floating on the water! (Photo by Randy)

Waiting to get onto the next activity (Photo by Chris…or Khirien using Chris’ phone)

We were paired up for the kayaks. Anthony partnered with Randy, Chris with LPG and I with Eric. We had to put on life vests and choose our paddles, then it was kayaking time! I brought my phone along so I could take some pictures along the way. Khirien passed us dry bags too in case we wanted to keep anything dry while out in the water. I could not wait!

I spy something blue!!! (Photo by Chris)

Can’t wait to get on board!

We’re all set!

This picture reminded me of the show “American Gladiators”

And we’re off!!!

Eric was really good with the kayak. I was sitting behind and could see how he was paddling. The paddles gliding into and out of the water without fuss. Effortless. Smooth. Quiet. It was a pleasure to watch. It was even more pleasurable when we realised we were the fastest kayak of the bunch! We did get bored at some point and decided to ram some of the other guys just for a bit of fun…hehehe…

Our guide, Khirien.

LPG & Chris shared a kayak

Love the view!

Anthony & Randy shared a kayak

The only bit that was a bother were the powered boats that criss crossed the channel. There were so many of them going in and out, leaving wakes that would upset the direction of the kayaks every now and then. But I guess that is par for the course. Everything became a lot better when we headed into the mangrove channels. It was calmer. Shadier. Cooler. Quieter. Much more relaxing. It was really amazing that there were no mosquitoes or sand flies! Unfortunately, the tide was kind of low that day and many of the channels were inaccessible. The ones that we could access were also too shallow after awhile so we touched bottom and needed to turn back. It would have been nice to kayak through the channels…next time!

Cooler in the shade!

Because of the low tide level, we spent quite a bit of time in the open channels. One of these open channels were a popular spot for the powered boats and their passengers. The boats would speed over to the crook of the channel, raise the outboard motors and rev the engines hard to churn the water. I was amazed that this turned out to be a call signal for the Brahminy Kites! There were so many of them flying all around, soaring, cruising, diving, all over these powered boats. Khirien explained that these boatmen would come with bags of chicken skin and feed the Kites with them. Some of them bring up to 4kg per day! My goodness! According to him, there would be hundred over boats every day heading here. This was really sad to hear because these magnificent birds will eventually lose their ability to hunt naturally. They will also become a lot weaker due to the unnatural diet of chicken skin. They will also accumulate too much fat. They will lack calcium. So their eggs will have shells that are too soft. Which also means new hatchlings will not have sufficiently strengthened when they hatch. All in all, this is not a good turn of events for Langkawi!

Cooling off in the mangrove…while the power boats were outside feeding chicken skin to the kites!

So quiet and peaceful in here

After this we headed to a part of the waterway that was unique in that one side was mangrove while the other side was a stunning wall of limestone. As we were paddling through, a Brahminy Kite followed and watched over us. I felt very protected and privileged to be able to see that spectacular bird at such a close distance! We stopped here for awhile as Khirien shared with us a bit more about the mangroves. Why they were important. How they propagate. What fauna one could find in them. There was so much to learn about them!

Love these high cliffs

Resting a little bit and having a laugh

Resting before the long paddle back

Let’s try a kayak we-fie!

Now let’s get Eric into the shot!

On our way back to the Hole in the Wall, we stopped by the crook of one of the open channels for a bit of a rest. Chris, Randy and the Japanese decided to have a dip to cool off. Eric went in for a dip too…though he went in due to a pressing need…hahaha! It looked like they were having lots of fun…until they tried getting back into the kayaks. At that point, those of us already in the kayak had more fun. Hahaha!!! I bet they all found new muscles that day!

Do you know what he was doing in the water?

Now there are three of them!

This is a giveaway expression!

Rafting to help them get back up

It was soon time to head back to the Hole in the Wall. After putting away the life vests and paddles, refreshing ourselves with cold drinks and water, it was time for lunch. Everyone had fried rice with Tom Yam soup. I guess everyone was hungry by then and polished up the food in record time! After lunch, we had a chance to look at some of the fish that they farmed here including garoupas, stingrays, tilapias and the wonderfully sleek trevalis. I swear I saw some banner fish as well…I wonder if those were also for consumption.

Simple lunch…at the hole in the wall

A scary looking bowl of tom yam soup

Here’s a professional we-fie with the entire gang!

Relaxing after lunch

I had the opportunity to chat with the owner of the Hole in the Wall. He was easy going and shared with us that the entire place was put together by hand…and how maintenance was always on-going but not complicated…and how he was training his kids to do more of the work. I was struck by his simplicity, humility and generosity.

The owner of the establishment…build by hand!

I also saw here a group of people who were having their high school reunion. They were commemorating 30 years after graduation! I spoke with one of them and realised that they were my age! Then I realised that their T-shirts had the Germany flag colours on the sleeves as well! Turned out those were the colours of the Sarawak state flag…but they came from a school in Kedah. Maybe those were their school colours? In any case, it did solve the puzzle of why so many people wearing these colours.

With lunch over, it was time to head back to the jetty and our home stay. We showered quickly and put the clothes into the washing machine so we could finish the laundry and hang up the clothes to take advantage of the hot sun while we head out for other activities…and boy did we have activities planned!

Time to head back!

We headed first for Cenang Beach. It was a hot sunny afternoon and we were all feeling the heat by the time we got to one end of Cenang Beach…especially since the traffic slowed to a walking pace here! We had to ride to the other end of the beach to have the BEST fruit based ice cream in the world…according to me at least.

Ready for some killer ice cream! (Photo by Randy)

This place looked like a fruit stall. Smelt like a fruit stall. Sounded like a fruit stall. OK…a fruit stall does not really have a sound does it? Anyway, the point is that you would never guess that they served some of the best ice cream around just looking at it from the outside. I ordered three different flavours for the guys to try: Banana, Mango…and DURIAN! I gotta tell you that I am not a big fan of durian ice cream. I mean, I enjoy the fruit…but I do not really like it when made into ice cream. Still, this version of it was superb! Even Randy, the guy who does not eat any durian, tried it and found it to be good! More than that, it was at this point that Eric began making strange sounds that seemed to have stemmed from his obsession with the ice cream…and hamburgers!

Looks like a fruits shop! (Photo by Randy)

They’ve got all sorts of fruits!

Why are there people sitting at the back? (Photo by Randy)

Ohhh…there is someone making ice cream!

Now we ALL want some ice cream!!!

Look at that super duper ice cream! Durian flavour too!

Randy does not like durian but he enjoyed this ice cream!

We also ordered mango and banana ice cream (Photo by Randy)

By this time, LPG was low on fuel so we headed for a petrol station to fuel up. Chris noticed that some guys who were there tried to pick up some girls who were pumping up their tires. I guess this is a popular pick up joint in Langkawi!

We headed back towards the north east after this to ride on the cable car. They called it the Sky Cab. This is apparently the steepest cable car ride in the world and the incline at one stretch was 42 degrees! Not only that, this ride had the longest free span for a single rope cable car in the world at 950m long! We simply had to ride this. Unfortunately, tickets included…and mandated…a visit to the Sky Dome as well. I welcomed the Sky Dome when I stepped in though as it was nicely air conditioned. It was welcome relief from the hot and humid weather that we were experiencing the entire day!

Enroute to the Sky Cab! (Photo by Chris)

LPG riding solo (Photo by Chris)

Love the empty roads are Langkawi (Photo by Chris)

Those clouds looked menacing! (Photo by Chris)

Can you see how steep that rise is for the cable car? (Photo by Randy)

Waiting for the tickets… (Photo by Randy)

Still waiting for the tickets (Photo by Randy)

We were looking forward to this bridge! (Photo by Randy)

Waiting waiting waiting… (Photo by Randy)

Lots of waiting today…

Enough about the Sky Dome. We were lining up for the Sky Cab. While there were quite a lot of people, the fact that we were there at this time of the day (around 6:30pm) meant that the crowd was thinning. We got to our gondola quite quickly and the best news was that each gondola could take six! Perfect!

We’re next!!! (Photo by Randy)

Our gondola is here! (Photo by Randy)

Let’s go guys! (Photo by Randy)

We’re in!!! (Photo by Randy)

The ride up was amazing! Started off a bit like a roller coaster, then the swinging came to a stop and all we could hear was the sound of the wind whistling softly as it blew through our opened windows. The quiet was the perfect soundtrack to the magnificent view that unfolded as we climbed higher and higher. We could see not only the cable car station, but the coast line of Pantai Kok, then the islands beyond, and the islands beyond that. It was a really spectacular sight!

Nice view there…Eric…move aside man! (Photo by Chris)

There were two highlights to the cable car ride. One being the viewing platform at the midway point, the other being the Sky Bridge at the end point. We stopped at the midway point to have a better view of the landscape. There were quite a number of people here taking photographs and selfies. It did have a magnificent sight! Unfortunately, we learnt that the Sky Bridge was closed. This was a curved suspension bridge spanning two summits supported by a single structure. It would be quite the adventure to be able to get on! Too bad it has been closed for all my visits (since September 2014) and is still closed!

Time for a we-fie!

Now this is what I call a view! Man!!!

These mountains remind me a little of Titiwangsa!

Bright shirt! Hehehe…

The entire platform… (Photo by Randy)

The Sky Bridge…that was unfortunately closed! (Photo by Randy)

We bypassed the top station and headed back down as there was really nothing exciting there except for the Sky Bridge. We rode off towards the airport area for a grilled fish dinner at Restoran Najjah.

They sure open late! (Photo by Randy)

Waiting again…this time for food!

I discovered this place on my last trip to Langkawi back in January quite by accident and found the food to be delicious and reasonably priced. We ordered plenty of dishes including TWO grilled tilapias! Man…we must have been hungry…I think. Anthony commented after ordering that he would like to have some dessert after dinner as he saw someone bring out an Ice Kacang dessert. I remember mentioning that he should wait till the end of dinner before deciding as he may not have the stomach for it by then!

Simple omelette…it takes skill to make this taste so good!

Tom yam soup!

Ayam Masak Merah…a wonderfully tasty chicken dish!

Sotong in a Spicy Sauce

Fried prawns!

Long beans…

Grilled fish!

Halfway through dinner, Anthony mentioned that he can still have dessert…if we all shared. That was before the fish arrived. By the time we were halfway through the two fish, he surrendered! It was that much food! Fantastic food too!

We went straight back to the home stay after dinner as we would have an early start tomorrow. So it was that we wound down and got ready for the night. Tomorrow would be a long riding day!

Day 1: 511km
Day 2: 568km
Day 3: 161km
Day 4: less than 100km