As the morning sun kissed the sparkling south Andaman sea water, we started our voyage to Malaysia’s one of the most beautiful islands, Langkawi. It is almost an hour’s journey from Quala Perlis. Buses ply to Quala Perlis from Kuala Lumpur, the beautiful capital city of Malaysia. Quala Perlis is the port from where you need to board a ferry for Langakawi. Langkawi is also well connected by air from Kuala Lumpur. Tourists make it a point to visit Langkawi since a trip to Malaysia is not complete without touching this beautiful island. Tioman, Redang and Pangkor are other well known island destinations in Malaysia.

As our ship kept moving on, we — myself and my friends Ashish, Bhanu and Purna — started feeling drowsy. [Ashish is into IT and has been staying in Malaysia for more than two years. He was our virtual guide.] We had reached Quala Perlis early in the morning after a five-hour drive from KL by car. On the deck, there were people — Chinese, Indians, Malays, Europeans and many more, all with the same spirit and enthusiasm — enjoying nature’s beauty all around. The cool and salty sea wind, and the glimpse of Langkawi in the horizon led me to photograph the beauty. I thanked God and said to myself: “Oh nature! You are so beautiful.”

We had pre-arranged hotel accommodation and as we landed on the island, Eddy was waiting for us. He drove us to a beautiful hotel in Langkawi town. A peripheral road encircles Langkawi, which is connected to several other roads. After taking bath, we had our breakfast. Nasi lemak, nasi kandar are preferred breakfast in Malay tradition, but we ordered roti pisang, vegetable curry and coffee. The very tasty roti pisang is similar to our paratha but stuffed with ripe banana and fried in butter.

We hired a car, and collected a route map from the hotel, for our trips to places around. Ashish drove while Bhanu acted as the navigator. Langkawi’s waterfalls are major attractions for nature lovers. We also stopped at Oriental Golden Village, a hill resort to have a look at Langkawi from the air. After boarding the Skyway cabin, as we started moving up the way, we looked down and felt, one cannot deny Malaysia’s richness in vegetation, after seeing the dense forests.

As we reached Seven Wells, it started raining. Tourists — boys, girls, couples and kids — were enjoying nature’s bliss, getting themselves wet in rain and waterfall. We too joined. The Sky Bridge is an engineering marvel, suspended from a single pole that provides a spectacular view. This bridge is curved and provides triangular platforms as resting areas for visitors. Hindi film Don has several scenic moments shot on this bridge. By the time we came down it was late in the afternoon and we were hungry. On the way to Pantai Cenang, the well known but little commercial beach, we all thought of having our late lunch and had rice with chiken curry in Malay style and some vegetables.

The next day, we booked a boat for island hopping. Malaysia is an archipelago of approximately 100 small islands. Of course, it’s not easy to cover all of them in a short span of two or three days, but an island trip covers some of these beautiful islands. In island hopping, eagle feeding is an important event one should not miss. Langkawi was a native place for red eagles since centuries. Now, though their count is less, still you can find a good number of them. In Malay, lang means eagle and kawi means red. A huge statue of red eagle welcomes you at the port once you reach Langkawi. As the boatman started throwing small fishes to the sea, eagles started coming from around, to grab their shares. It was a thrilling experience.

Scattered small and big islands, with lonely beaches of white and golden sand, lush green forests, hills,... it all seemed like a paradise. We adventured into a cave in an island and also did some snorkelling in crystal clear waters. It was a different and beautiful world under water! Our next hop was Pregnant Maiden Lake amidst the hills in an island. The lake is full of freshwater cat fish.

By night, we were all tired, though we thought of eating out and to have a last visit to Langkawi town. Next day, morning at 9, we left Langkawi. As we moved away from the shore, slowly, I kept watching the hills, the beach, the houses, the boats, the statue of eagle, people of Lankawi from the deck and whispered spontaneously, “Langkawi! You are fabulous.”

Dhrubajyoti Kalita