TSH's excursion

TSH had booked to go on the Langkawi Island Discovery trip which began with a fifty minute coach ride to the place to board a little boat for the main part of the excursion. During the drive it rained. The rain made a British thunderstorm look like drizzle. The drains, roads and surrounding areas quickly submerged under this deluge. The guide was unfazed and said he expected the destination to be free of rain and so it proved.

The guide pointed out some buildings the coach passed which were said to house hot seawater springs.

Before boarding the boats a comfort break was taken in the new facilities available for this purpose – the only thing they lacked was anything to dry your hands with but at the temperature outside this was not an issue.

The number of islands which make up Langkawi is variable – partly due to some only being islands at high tide and some being artificial – the lowest number is said to be ninety-nine.

The boats, which travelled through tidal mangrove swamps, held ten people (interestingly the advertised details for the excursion said eight seaters and that life jackets would be worn) and were covered, so shade from the sun was welcome. Life jackets were in evidence but not worn. After going for little more than a hundred yards everybody got off to walk through a bat cave. Also observed were crabs, crab eating monkeys and strange fish that come out of the water and moved around on the mud under the mangrove trees as the tide goes out. It was claimed that the presence of the bats meant that there were no midges and certainly none were seen. Then it was back to the boat – or at least a boat as they all looked the same.

Next visited was a fish farm – except it was not really a fish farm but a floating platform where various sea creatures were kept for showing to tourists. The fish ranged from the very large to the quite small and included some that had long tongues to get food from above the water. TSH got to hold a horseshoe crab and see a stingray. Then it was back to the boat – TSH believes he got back in the same boat again but two people had to transfer to another as the quota of passengers was exceeded.

The boat navigated through the mangrove swamps where white- bellied sea eagles and         brahminy kites were observed, the latter picking up food off the surface of the water very close to the boat. TSH took many photos of this and as yet does not know if any will be of a standard he will consider worth keeping.

TSH was then taken back to the ship but not before seeing a balloon fish near the jetty. TSH expected Diva to be back before him but this was not the case so he had to hope that Diva made the last shuttle back to the ship before it sailed.