Langkawi is a small island off the coast of northern Malaysia, just south of the country's border with Thailand. We figured we could use a bit of island relaxation before stopping over in the US on our way home, just like the break we took last year in Maui. The view at sunset from our hotel room was spectacular.
Langkawi is a small island, but it has several interesting sites to visit. One is the Langkawi Sky Bridge, which is a curved bridge that is over 2,000 feet above sea level. The bridge itself is amazing, but in some ways the trip up was even more so.
To get to the bridge, you take two cable cars up to the top of a hill before walking back down to the level of the bridge. The first gondola is one of the steepest in the world at 42 degrees, and has the longest free span for a mono-cable car. Shana and I generally do not have issues with heights, but this ride was a bit scary, even for us, as it feels like you are going virtually straight up the side of the mountain.
Once at the middle station, it is a much more normal cable car ride to the top, where the views of the bridge are really spectacular.
On the walk down to the bridge, which takes about 20 minutes, there are many monkeys near and even on the trail. We even saw some juveniles with their mother.
The bridge itself is very cool. A curved span over 400 feet long, it provides great views of both the surrounding jungle, and the island and ocean below.
After our time up on the bridge, we wandered through the 3D "Art" Museum at the base of the hill. The museum is a series of rooms with large pictures set up to allow you to take photos that make it seem as if you are part of the art. It was more fun than we expected, and it really was a big hit with the kids.
The next day, we did one of our favorite things: a jet-ski tour. Unlike our previous tour in Australia, the weather was fantastic and the seas calm.
With our guide and four others, we jetted around exploring some of the islands that are part of the Langkawi archipelago. Our first stop was an island that had a large, freshwater lake where we were able to swim (which was nice because the ocean itself had many jellyfish that we wanted to avoid). We also saw a number of other, smaller islands, and even maneuvered through a small cave.
One of the best stops was near an island where a large number of eagles live and there are boats that feed the eagles. This allowed us to observe them sweeping down to pick up food (mostly chicken) out of the water before flying back to the island to enjoy their meal. It was amazing to watch these majestic birds swoop around (somehow avoiding each other).
That was essentially the end of our Malaysian adventure. We flew from Langkawi back to Kuala Lumpur for one more night before setting off on the long trip through Singapore to the western US where we will spend three weeks seeing family and friends in San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles before returning to San Sebastian.
We found it very interesting to visit a Muslim-majority country and learn a lot about Islam. We also definitely enjoyed eating in Malaysia, finding all kinds of food options that are definitely not available to us at home. However, the extreme heat and (especially) humidity made Malaysia a difficult place to visit and enjoy. We honestly do not know how people live there. Overall, we would rate Malaysia below Japan, Vietnam and Thailand, but we are still glad we chose it as a destination to explore in depth.
Now, after spending more than nine of the last 17 months on the road, we are ready to get back home and return to a routine. This does not, of course, mean that we will not be travelling, but we will definitely be taking a break from the kind of long trips we did in 2022-2023 and 2023-2024.
More from Spain soon.
Jeff and Shana
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