After a few days in KL, we headed for the island of Langkawi for some rest and recuperation, at the end of a long 2017. Langkawi lies off the west coast of the Malay peninsula, close to Thailand, in the Andaman Sea. Until the 1980s it was an undeveloped backwater, but then the government scrapped all duty taxes there. The aim was to kickstart tourism, and the move was wildly successful. The island is now buzzing not only with tourists but also with mainlanders coming over to shop for bargains.

The airport is still fairly small, and flights are mostly local. We opted to travel through KL as we wanted to see the capital too, but there are direct flights to Langkawi from Guangzhou, and that may be a quicker route from Beijing. It’s a dramatic arrival, with the plane descending over the sea, and you can almost see the holidaymakers on the beaches below.

(A low budget alternative is to take the bus and the ferry from KL, but we decided that was a step too far even for our travel-hardened and long suffering kids.)

There are two main settlements in Langkawi. The capital Kuah is a small town, with not much to recommend it to visitors. We went there to check out the Langkawi Parade “Megamall”, but it’s small and dingy by Chinese standards, and not really worth the trip.

Better shopping is available in the duty-free stores of Pantai Cenang, which is the main tourist town. (“Pantai” means “beach” in Malay.) The main drag along the seafront is packed with shops, restaurants and “tourist information” offices selling activities and excursions.

Beyond Pantai Cenang are many smaller beaches and self-contained holiday resorts. There’s not much in the way of public transport on Langkawi; taxis are cheap if you can find one, but most people rent scooters or cars to get around. Make sure you have your driving license with you! Police checkpoints are common. And remember you’re no longer in China – they drive on the left, and seatbelts are compulsory!

The beach at Pantai Cenang

The beaches are wonderful, with soft sand and gentle waves, but you need to be careful of jellyfish (more on this later). Because of its location sheltered by the mainland, there is no real rainy season in Langkawi. When we visited, at the end of December, there were a few days of heavy rainfall, but for the most part glorious sunshine. The hottest part of the day, we discovered, is not around midday as we expected, but from 2 to 4 in the afternoon. Most parents will want to keep their kids out of the sun during this scorching period.

Although the coasts are developed, much of inland Langkawi is still virgin rainforest. In my next post, I’ll write about some of the wildlife you can expect to see there.

Photos: Andrew Killeen

In my last post I described our exploration of KL’s Muslim heritage. “Not very child-friendly,” you may have been thinking, and my kids agreed. So to make it up to them, we took them to the Bird Park.

Admission to the Bird Park cost us 67 ringgits each for adults, and 45 for the children (RMB 110/ RMB 72). We might have been happier paying this had we not been overcharged by the taxi – we should have insisted on paying the amount on the meter, but in the heat and confusion we got suckered.

However it turned out to be good value. The Bird Park advertises itself as “the world’s largest free-flight aviary”, and it certainly offers plenty to see on its 20 acres. We’d intended to also visit the nearby Butterfly Park and Deer Park, but in the end the birds took up almost an entire day.

Not all the birds are free to fly around, which is probably just as well, since the hawks and the pigeons have not yet learned to live together in sweet harmony. The park is divided into three main zones, with other sections for different types of bird, such as parrots and bulbuls. There are many birds wandering around though, and the peacocks are happy to display their tails for photographs, although this can make it difficult to get past them on the paths.

The park also misses no opportunity to get more money out of its customers. However I couldn’t resist spending a few ringgits on having my kids pose with parrots (see above), and we also indulged ourselves with a fish spa, letting the doctor fish nibble away at the dead skin on our feet.

The fish spa attendant finally chucked us out with the warning that we’d be late for the show. I’d sworn we wouldn’t go to the show, grumbling that I really didn’t need to see a parrot riding a bicycle, but in the end it proved irresistible. The parrots didn’t ride bikes, but they did play on a slide, and display impressive mathematical abilities, adding up numbers and ringing a bell to indicate the answer.

We spent so long at the park that we ended up eating lunch there. We usually avoid restaurants with captive audiences, but the Hornbill cafe offers decent food at reasonable prices (as elsewhere in Malaysia, local food is significantly cheaper than western dishes.)

I have written before about the moral queasiness I feel visiting places where animals are confined for the entertainment of humans. I refuse to go to any more aquariums, and I’m wary about zoos. However none of the birds seemed distressed, as I have seen other animals appear in Chinese parks, and if your kids love wildlife as mine do, then the KL Bird Park will send them away with happy memories.

Photos: Andrew Killeen