Langkawi is a group of about 99 islands lying off the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, right up near the border with Thailand. This area is one of Malaysia’s top holiday destinations, but there are still plenty of anchorages that have not become part of the tourist track, and so it is also a favoured cruising ground. Our cruising there was broken up into three parts – about a week on the way from Thailand to Penang (further south on Peninsular Malaysia); about 3-4 days on the way back from Penang to leave the boat at Rebak Marina (one of the Langkawi Islands) when we went to Laos; and then 4 weeks after we got back from Laos.
There are some similarities with Phang Na Bay in Thailand. The Langkawi islands are also limestone casts, and are dotted around within relatively close proximity to each other. The water is also not particularly clear in most parts- not due to pollution though. However, the Langkawi Islands are more highly vegetated with less exposed cliffs and rocky outcrops, giving the whole area a greener, softer feel. Quite a few of the islands have small beaches. We saw much more wildlife here than we did in Phang Na Bay. Overall while Phang Na Bay was awesome and dramatic, the Langkawi Islands were very pretty.
The Hole in the Wall in the Kilim Geoforest Park on the west coast of the main island (Pulau Langkawi) is probably the best known Langkawi anchorage and for good reason. The anchorage itself is in the downstream reaches of a river system that has three mouths to the ocean, two on the west coast of Langakwi, and one on the north. The entrance to the anchorage is very difficult to spot amongst the high green hills- hence its name. The approach and the anchorage area are really beautiful- surrounded by verdant hills with some rocky outcrops.

Approaching and entering the Hole in the Wall

This is one of the anchorages that we had to share with the “land-based” tourists, as there are lots of day boat trips that leave from further up-river. These speed boats really zoom back and forth past the yachts all day, but they do stop in the late afternoon and don’t start up until after 9am usually. It can be quite fun watching them, as the drivers do a bit of ducking and weaving which makes the girls aboard squeal and laugh. Then there are the groups of kayakers who are also quite entertaining to watch. It’s a beautiful area. We explored the river in the dingy, spotting many eagles soaring above, and a few blue and white kingfishers darting back and forth. The tourist boats feed the eagles in one of the tributaries several times a day and it is a great spectacle to see lots of the Brahminy eagles (Langkawi’s symbol) and a few large white sea eagles soaring overhead when they hear the boats coming and then swooping to the water’s surface to pick up the fish pieces.

We dinghied through this rock tunnel to the view on the other side

We went ashore in search of phone credit one day, and searched in vain among the few establishments. In the course of our search, we stumbled across Galeria Perdana. This rather elaborate building with its Islamic themed decorated ceilings houses the thousands of gifts and awards presented to the former Prime Minister. Dr Mahathir. There were 3-4 floors holding showcases full of well curated articles from many different countries and organisations. It was very interesting and certainly worth a visit.
Langkawi is full of legends, one of which is associated with the Lake of the Pregnant Maiden, Langkawi’s largest fresh water lake which is on the west coast of Pulau Dayang Bunting, a large island to the south of the main island. As the legend goes, a fairy princess married an earthly prince and their first child died soon after it was born. The heart broken princess buried her child in this lake and blessed the waters so that any childless maiden who swam there would conceive. Luckily, I’m not a childless maiden so I could swim there without any hesitation! It was certainly a gorgeous spot to cool down and we enjoyed the boardwalk along one edge of the lake.

A couple of views of the Lake of the Pregnant Maiden

Our favourite anchorages were a bit further away from the tourist trail, around the south of P. Dayang Bunting. Phil had discovered one of these when he was sailing solo. He had seen the most magnificent blue kingfishers there and so much wanted to share it with me. This anchorage is nestled between the southern tip of P. Dayang Bunting and two other smaller islands lying off the tip. We were surrounded by the three islands covered in beautiful trees of varying green foliage and it was just so delightful.

Beautiful Dayang Bunting

There were indeed many birds in the trees, but alas the blue kingfisher was not to be found. We did however see quite a few brown winged kingfishers with bright orange beaks, along with many eagles. I watched in amazement late one afternoon as a white sea eagle that was sitting on a rock enjoying a fish was approached by a fairly large monitor lizard, and actually gave up its fish to the lizard! Phil spent hours in the cockpit scanning the trees looking for the elusive blue kingfisher and one afternoon he noticed a lot of movement in the trees. There was much excitement when we identified a troop of dusky leaf monkeys foraging through the forest canopy. P. Dayang Bunting is a very steep island, at least that side of it is, and so there was not really any chance of going ashore to get a closer look at them. Sometime later when we visited the Lake of the Pregnant Maiden we managed to get up close to a group there- they are very cute with their white tufts of hair on their heads,  white hair encircling their eyes and white lips.

Dusky leaf monkey

I much prefer them to the common brown monkey which you see everywhere in Malaysia and which can be quite aggressive, especially in the tourist areas where they are used to being fed.
Just around the corner from this anchorage were a couple of small white sandy beaches which we visited for a walk and a swim. On our way to the beach one day, we spotted an otter swimming near our dinghy and we spent quite a while just bobbing in the dinghy watching it. It was wanting to get to the beach but was keeping a wary eye on us and would swim away if we made a move to get closer. He eventually made his destination and we watched him running along the beach for a bit before he headed back into the water.

We discovered another gorgeous anchorage around on the south west coast of P. Dayang Bunting- this time in the channel between P. Bunting and a smaller island, P. Gubang Darat. This was even more peaceful as there were fewer fishing boats passing through.

Waterfalls are another feature of the Langkawi islands that we enjoyed not just for their beauty but for the very practical purpose of cooling off on some of the very hot days! One of these was on P. Singa Besar, an island off the south west tip of Langkawi. There is a beach on the north east of this island where a Malaysian guy called Zen lives in a rather elaborate beach hut. He is rather a character and the day we were there a whole group of his friends turned up for a music jam. We left them to it and headed off to the waterfall. Phil had warned me that the start of the track was rather muddy as it winds through the mangroves, and then at the end, climbing up some steep rocks using a rope is required. Forewarned is forearmed as they say so I had worn suitable shoes and old clothes. Once over the muddy start, the walk through thick rain forest was lovely and the climbing at the end was not too daunting. We spent ages sitting on rocks near and under the foot of the falls soaking ourselves in the cool water.

P. Besar waterfall and view on the walk

Similarly, we spent the best part of another day soaking ourselves in the rock pools of the Seven Wells falls which are not far from the chair lift on the west side of Langkawi. However, the walk to the Seven Wells was very challenging being about 3-4 kms and ending with some 300 steps up to the rock pools. It was worth it though to soak in the cool crystal clear water and enjoy the view.

Seven Wells rock pools

One of the joys of cruising and stopping at places that are not mentioned in any cruising guides is that you never know what you are going to discover. Again during his solo sailing up here, Phil had stopped at Pulau Bidan to break the trip from Penang to Langkawi. Here he discovered a group of young people staying in the “renovated” remnants of an Australian army base. It turns out that a young Malaysian has initiated a project to build a small community to protect and conserve this previously uninhabited island, and to host a place for fisherman, visitors and travelers to visit in a sustainable way. Travelers find their way here through a website called WorkAway, and stay for varying periods of time to help establish and maintain a vegetable and fruit garden, and to turn the old army buildings into lodgings. We spent a few interesting hours there chatting to the group of young people who were currently on the island, and learning about how the community runs.
We do find that the cruising life can be a bit isolating at times, and so it is always a joy to catch up with friends from home or other yachties with whom we have formed a bond along the way. While in Langkawi, we have caught up with couples from three boats that did the Indonesian rally with us, another couple who Phil befriended while in Rabak Marina for a while, and a couple from our yacht club in Melbourne. These are always joyous occasions with much chatting and laughter and usually involving a meal together.

There will be more joyous occasions soon when we get back to Australia at the end of June and are able to see family and friends again. We are having our last few days enjoying the quiet anchorages near Kuah before we take the boat back there to put it on the hard stand and pack it up for the 6 months we will be home. So this will be the last blog until we resume sailing again early again in 2018.