Langkawi - Mangrove Tour - Part 1

*I seriously in need to wrap up my Langkawi trip already. I mean, it’s been almost 2 months and I’m just beginning on Day 2. I’ll definitely get it done, hopefully by end of the month.*

So, after the simple night eating by the quay, chatting up, the next day, it’s time to get eventful. I mean, we need to get something done, to do something everyone ought to do when in Langkawi and since we had failed at the cable car, we went for the mangrove tour. After our breakfast provided by the hotel, we arranged with the hotel receptionist for the mangrove tour. By 9ish (supposed to be 9am but Malaysians being Malaysians…), a van was here to fetch us off to the Kilim terminal where the expedition to the wildlife began.

Jetty at Kilim river

First stop, Gua Kelawar (Bat Cave), not to be confused with the one that housed the Batmobile. It goes without saying that the main attraction here is the bats themselves. There were indeed hundreds of them, thousands even, hanging upside down at the top of the cave, sleeping the day away (as bats are nocturnal animals, it makes sense that they rest in day time) while us humans staring in awe at them. Not all of us though for there were some morons making a lot of noises and taking photos with flash on, both of which we were warned not to do as it would disrupt their sleeping. Our environmentalist friend snapped at the some fellas behind us when we were about to enter the cave for talking/laughing loudly. Go, Audrey!

This is the only decent shot out of many

Mangrove plants

Group shot

Besides bats, monkeys too are abundant

Our guide was very enlightening, providing a lot of information on these bats (there were two types of them in the cave, one having a dog-like face while another bearing resemblance to pigs, though which species are which, I honestly forgot already) as well as the mangrove plants surrounding the cave.

You'll see quite a number of these plates outside the cave

Scenic view of nature

The floating fish farm

After some time in the cave, absorbing and expanding our mind on nature, we were off to the floating fish farm which was about 5 minutes of cruise from the Bat Cave. This was where the fun really began as we got to be up close and, well, not personal, with the aquatic creatures. We got to feed the fishes and watching them swimming as carefree as they can in the limited space they had. The best part of it was that we got to feed and pet stingrays. Stingrays are quite benign creatures and feeding them were so much fun that it might have been the highlight of the tour if not for the best part which I will talk about later. Everyone dabbled into feeding them. Well, almost everyone of us.

Fish!

Stingray!

So cute!

Horseshoe crab! Now I know why I had stomach pain that time I ate it

Us feeding the stingray..it's amazing!

*TO BE CONTINUED*

Sharing is caring. A word of advice and a piece of information.

Langkawi is an archipelago of about 99 islands and islets and island hopping tours and mangrove tours are two famous activities worth going to at least once. There are a lot of tour agencies that you can go to for arrangements and each of these tours, while basically are the same, have different prices attached to it. You can also choose how many hours you want to spend on it, from an hour to four hours of cruising. If you preferred to have it easy, just inform the front desk of your hotels to have them arrange for you.