Woke up early and drove to Tanjung Rhu for the next part of the adventure~ Kilim Geoforest Park! This place is part of the Mangrove Tour found in a lot of the brochures distributed. I did a little research beforehand and it costs about RM280-300 per person for the 6 hour guided tour package. A cheaper alternative is to go to Tanjung Rhu and get one of the local boat tours. Tanjung Rhu is on the north side of Langkawi, which is about 20-30 mins drive from hotel.
My sis mentioned it's a beautiful place, but man, were we awe-struck by the first sight of it!
Notice the beach area actually links clearly to the unique U-shaped rock. At low tide, you can actually walk to these islands!
At this early in the morning (9.30AM), we found one tour operator which just opened. The price was RM170 per boat for a 2 hour trip. These tours are much cheaper because they don't come with the guide. We bargained that there's just 2 of us, so why not RM150? ;) She agreed and come to think of it, we got the WHOLE boat to ourselves! Hehehe..
Off we go, speeding towards these mini island/rock formations! The trip basically rounds the north tip of Langkawi and goes into the mangrove (bakau) rivers and back to Tanjung Rhu.
Fishermen waving at us. On the background is mainland Thailand!
Our first stop of the day, Gua Cerita. The boatman said we can walk the length of that white jetty to see the rock formation. Nvm la, we're not National Geographic :P
Climb the stairs up to the cave. Boatman gave us a torchlight (!) and we can explore the cave, Indiana Jones-style!
It's a pretty small cave, and you can see many of these weird stone formations. The atmosphere became very creepy when we pointed the light to the cave walls... there are pictures drawn on it, and faces..... gosh, I couldn't wait to get out of there!
Ok, back out in the seas, leaving Gua Cerita behind. Along the ride, the boatman pointed our several weird rocks, such as this one which resembled a whale (or a crocodile, gf said).
Then we reached an area which is the icon of Langkawi Geopark:
The Setul Formation and the "Kilim Geoforest Park" sign!
We move from the open seas into the mangrove rivers...
And this is the next part of the tour... Eagle feeding!
My sis mentioned it's a beautiful place, but man, were we awe-struck by the first sight of it!
Notice the beach area actually links clearly to the unique U-shaped rock. At low tide, you can actually walk to these islands!
At this early in the morning (9.30AM), we found one tour operator which just opened. The price was RM170 per boat for a 2 hour trip. These tours are much cheaper because they don't come with the guide. We bargained that there's just 2 of us, so why not RM150? ;) She agreed and come to think of it, we got the WHOLE boat to ourselves! Hehehe..
Off we go, speeding towards these mini island/rock formations! The trip basically rounds the north tip of Langkawi and goes into the mangrove (bakau) rivers and back to Tanjung Rhu.
Fishermen waving at us. On the background is mainland Thailand!
Our first stop of the day, Gua Cerita. The boatman said we can walk the length of that white jetty to see the rock formation. Nvm la, we're not National Geographic :P
Climb the stairs up to the cave. Boatman gave us a torchlight (!) and we can explore the cave, Indiana Jones-style!
It's a pretty small cave, and you can see many of these weird stone formations. The atmosphere became very creepy when we pointed the light to the cave walls... there are pictures drawn on it, and faces..... gosh, I couldn't wait to get out of there!
Ok, back out in the seas, leaving Gua Cerita behind. Along the ride, the boatman pointed our several weird rocks, such as this one which resembled a whale (or a crocodile, gf said).
Then we reached an area which is the icon of Langkawi Geopark:
The Setul Formation and the "Kilim Geoforest Park" sign!
We move from the open seas into the mangrove rivers...
And this is the next part of the tour... Eagle feeding!
The boatman revs up his engine as a call to the eagles in the area. He then drops chicken skin around and moves to the distance. The eagles are accustomed to the engine sound and associates it with feeding time. After awhile, many eagles circle the area and then with impeccable timing, they swoop down to the surface and snatch the meal! Actually the eagles look smaller than I imagined :P
Another tour boat arrives.. More food for eagles! After watching another session, we were off again...
Ever seen monkeys *swimming*?? Ok, next was another cave, this one called Gua Kelawar... yup.. BATS.
The bats are all over the ceiling of the cave. Everywhere. But dun worry, these are fruit bats. They can be seen hanging on one leg upside down. Cool. And they dun react to light, only sound. Try whistling and they'll move!
It's much less creepier than Gua Cerita, and basically has a platform that goes from one end to the other. Also, many weird and outworldly rock formations...
Still cruising along~~~ and see mangrove up close. These pokok bakau have some filters that allow them to survive in salt water. I recall studying it in school before.
Ah, the next cave, but this one we can go through it on boat. It was kind of congested, have to wait for our turn to cross it. Fortunately the time is right and it's not high tide, so we can pass through it just nice...
Towards the end of the trip, back to the seas... Mr boatman was getting a lot of phone calls "Where are you??". Hehe.. it was already more than 2 hours and his boss was anxious to get him back :P
The last part was to a nearby floating fish farm. They'll show you the variety of unique fishes they rear, like this yellow fish. The guy scooped it out of the water (won't it die?? Nope, it can last few minutes, but poor thing!) and asked me to touch the head, which was stone-hard! Then he showed us a blowfish! Rub it and it expands.... becoz it's frightened... :-S
Feeding a tame stingray.. I dare not try!
And that's it! We were back in Tanjung Rhu, 2.5 hours long trip, more than worth the price! I hugely recommend this activity if you're in Langkawi. Kilim has some of the most majestic rock formations in the world and the landscape is absolutely stunning.
Next: Day 2, Part 2!
No comments:
Post a Comment