Friday, January 16, 2009

"Langkawi Day 1 ~ Cable Car!"

The end of 2008 had a pretty long stretch of holidays. Christmas, Awal Muharam and New Years Day. Take another 4 days and we have a cool 11 days stretch! Anyways, most people were having shut-downs and our US counterparts were already on vacation. At first was thinking of hibernating in Melaka, but then just a few days before the holiday started, we booked Firefly to spend New Year's Day in Langkawi! Omg, it was so sudden. Some last minute research and off we go!

Firefly is pretty cool. Ok, propellers don't inspire much confidence but it is a good alternative to driving+ferrying there! The flight was delayed 45 minutes :-S but once on board, it took less than 30 minutes to reach Langkawi Int' Airport. The best part is, you can get straight to the action! We chose to book the hotel stay with Firefly as well. Cost RM798 for the flight tickets and the 3D2N stay at Hotel Helang, just beside the airport.

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Huge room~~

We setup our trip based on the recent declaration of Langkawi as the 52nd UNESCO World Geopark. Three of its main Geopark components are Mount Machincang Cambrian Geoforest Park, Kilim Geoforest Park and Pulau Tasik Dayang Bunting. For the first day, we're going up Mount Machincang, via the Cable Car!

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The cable car ride can be summed up as both spectacular.... and scary! The view is truly spectacular. It feels like flying. But when the carriage goes past a connecting point, in the silence, it gives a metal creaking sound. And it shakes a little. :-S Yeah, the mind will be wondering: what if it falls.......... The final ascent to the first station is at 45 degrees~~ gf can barely watch!

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And here's the view from the first platform... can see many smaller islands. And in the distance is the Skybridge.

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Gf keep buggin me to go back down.. She's really afraid of heights! :P Ok, line up for the ride to the peak. This time it's not so scary, no more 45 degrees ascent. When we reached the peak platform, we took a short 10 minutes hike down to get to the Skybridge.

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The Skybridge! Truly one of the most amazing walks!

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Can see the cable cars going upwards to the peak..

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Hiked back to the top and you can get a good view of the length of the Skybridge.

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At the highest peak... can see the many other peaks of Machincang, covered with clouds..

Ok, took the ride back down. Gf was worried that it'll rain /thunderstorm etc. But one thing though, our carriage did stall (!) on the way down. I'm not sure it was some malfunction or maybe they stop long jz to give us a good view of the place. At that time, I started to doubt the cable car! Hahha..

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Back on the ground at last. The cable car is part of this Oriental Village place. They have a Geopark info centre where you can learn more about the different rocks found here.

After Machincang, we drove around, getting familiarize with the roads. The signboards are pretty helpful. Can see paddy fields around.

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We went to Pantai Cenang to catch a sunset... The beach isn't exactly superb or even clean. It's passable. Then at night time, went to Kuah town to search for food. But scared kena potong, so end up eating KFC! Hahah :P

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Then went to the Jetty to snap some pics of Dataran Helang at night. Went back, slept early, tomorrow's adventure awaits!

Next: Day 2: Kilim Geoforest!

2 comments:

Amanda said...

the skybridge really amazing, i love the view there, and the wind very strong and cooling. :P

ya, the cable car will stall if the wind is too strong, for safety purpose, i think.

Leopard said...

Yup, it's really memorable place!