Easter weekend in Langkawi, April 6-9, 2012

We arrive at the island of Langkawi before noon. The terrain looks mountainous.

It takes good 30 minutes for us to get by taxi to the Andaman Resort in Teluk Datai, the remote northwestern corner of the island. We are first seated at the lobby bar and served some refreshing ginger flavored tea while we wait for the check-in process to be completed. The lobby looks like any Malay or Indonesian resort we've been to.

We are given a nice room on the fourth level with both a bathtub and a shower. The shower does not work, though.

While they fix the shower, we head out to a walk on the beach.

Sand bubbler crabs are everywhere. Despite their tiny legs, they are very fast. They seem like flying on the sand.

Fishermen. The water is quite shallow.

Another sand bubbler crab stopped to be photographed.

When back in the resort, we have a quick shower (which works now). We head to the beach bar to read. Not much later the rain starts.

And it pours for quite a while.

We quickly return to our room before the dinner. We find a huge puddle of water in our room that is leaking from the bathroom through light switches. We notify the management. When back in the room, we find this note, and the whole room has been messed up, for instance some furniture has been removed. We are relocated to another room, on the first floor. The room smells bad and it does not have all the nice amenities as the original room, like an espresso machine. We are offered a bottle of wine as condolence. They suggest sparkling, but we choose red, and we get white.

We start the next morning with a long run. The morning is cool and shady down deep in the rainforest. After a few kilometers from the hotel we pass this artificial road tunnel with a sightseeing platform on top.

The "rocks" at the platform are already breaking down. Overall it seems that no one has taken care of this sight for ages.

The morning light is quite impressive.

Nearby the fake road tunnel is Malaysia's largest man made waterfall, but at least the rocks are real.

It is quite a steep hike down to the bottom of the fall and then back up. However, we are treated with a cool breeze.

The terrain is quite hilly, which is also a blessing since the undulating landscape keeps us in shade from the sun most of the time. The morning traffic heading to the resorts is frequent and fast.

Later in the day we hire a taxi that takes us to the cable car to Gunung Machinchang (708m)

We queue for a while for the ride that takes us to 700 meters above the sea level.

It is sunny and the air is clear so we can see pretty far.

The hanging bridge is not for those with fear of heights.

When going down we share a car with a family from Hong Kong that is a bit loud; every time we pass a tower the atmosphere gets a bit "screamy" in the cabin. We get an explanation soon: the daughter was once stuck in the similar cable car in Taiwan for two hours.

From the cable car we go to the Friendly Farms cheese farm, behind the Buffalo farm.

Cheese!

Cutting cheese.

We have a quick lunch at the Buffalo farm: buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes with fresh basil and olive oil.

And the same without toast.

The last stop of the day is at the highest peak of the island, Gunung Raya (881m)

From the top of the watch tower we have almost an unobstructed view to all directions.

Down below is the mangrove forest we are planning to cruise tomorrow.

Tomi and our very talkative taxi driver.

Before returning to Andaman, our driver takes us to this beach in Tanjung Rhu in the North eastern corner of Langkawi. He claims it is because of the gorgeous scenery. (rhu means pine and tanjung a cape)

All we can say is that it is very hot and bright.

We return to the beach bar in our resort, and again a thunderstorm rolls over. These are the geckos on bar ceiling.

We start Sunday morning with a longish run. This time we head west of Andaman. The road winds up and down steep and short hills. Unlike yesterday, there is practically no traffic on the road.

This day is spent on mangrove cruise.

Besides two of us, the guide and the boat captain, there is a British family (also living in Singapore) of four.

Having seen quite a few mangrove forests before and especially after the magnificient billabong cruise in Kakakdu, there is nothing special that impresses us in this mangrove.

Other boat load of tourists are there to feed birds. As soon as they stop at a specific spot, the birds appear.

Sea eagles.

When the other tourists are gone, it gets quite quiet.

We see some long-tailed macaques, which our taxi driver yesterday called cheeky monkeys, since they play tricks on people.

A monitor lizard.

Monkeys are only interested in food that the visitors bring along with them.

High tide.

We visit a fish farm.

We also visit a bat cave.

We end the cruise with a boat ride in the open sea.

And then back to the Andaman beach.

A funny little bird, not much larger than a humming bird.

The most interesting event of our trip is the guided inter-tidal walk on the coral reefs right in front of the Andaman resort. Most of the reef was destroyed in the 2004 tsunami, but the resort is working with the help of volunteer (hotel guests) to revive it.

We head out about an hour before the sunset.

Bubbles and the crab that is making them.

Beach monkeys.

We see a lot of dead coral.

Some live coral.

Some more live coral.

Our guide.

with a giant clam.

The Andaman resort from the sea.

When sun is down we head back. We are served beer and soft drinks to end the interesting and informative tour.

The colors at the sunset are also impressive.