Langkawi Island

Beras Basah Island

During my internship, I have the opportunity to explore some beautiful island in Langkawi within 8 days when I had been chosen to join the "AEROMEET Travel Mart" . One of the most known islands of Langkawi Pulau Beras Basah (The Island of Wet Rice) is located at the west end of Langkawi. The best way to get to the Island is to have a 4 hours Island Hopping tour, provided by almost every agent in Langkawi. It offers to take you to three different Islands which are Dayang Bunting, Singa Besar and Beras Basah.

The boat that bring tourist for the tour.

All you need to do is to get to the Pantai Cenang - located 25 km west of Kuah and you will find boats ready to take you to the tour.

Pulau Beras Basah is famous for its beautiful white sandy beaches with crystal clear blue waters and the rich mystifying forest with magnificent mountains in the background. It an ideal place for you to get away for a while and indulge yourself in the beauty of nature.

Swimming at Beras Basah Island

Besides its pristine white sand beaches, it offers other interesting activities too including Para sailing; snorkeling, banana boat ride swimming or you can just bathe and relax under the sun. You might be able to see a group of around 40-50 playful dolphins as they show up only occasionally. Pulau Beras Basah is a point covered in the popular Island Hoping Boat Tour operated by virtually every travel stall in Pantai Cenang and Tengah and by almost all hotels. Depending on the season, the rate can be between RM35 to RM55 person. The usual stoppage time is about 1 hour. If you want to spend more time snorkeling here, you can go down to the Awana Porto Malai Terminal and take a boat only for Pulau Beras Basah. You should carry your own Snorkel items. There are toilet facilities available at Pulau Beras Basahas as well as stalls selling soft drinks & water. But there is no food. Note that there are lots of monkeys that roam about this place and eating food here is not advisable. 

When the sea is perforated by strong waves, the mountains surface of this island makes it an appropriate refuge for fishermen to protect themselves from the stormy winds.

Pulau Beras Basah is an uninhabited and not well-developed Island which has enabled it to maintain its beauty and peace. There are a few basic facilities available like stalls of soft drinks and washrooms. This island is also a home to monkeys and you must be careful with your food and other stuff as they have a tendency to sneak and grab your things.

Beras Basah Island is also popular with Caucasian tourists who are ready to catch some sun. Paragliding and 'Banana Boat' rides are offered at this stop. This is an ideal place to unwind and to relax. With the crystal clear sea water, exotic sandy beaches and breath taking views making this place a perfect spot for a memorable holiday. Visitors can spend a calm and leisure time on the pleasant beach here. 

Pulau Payar

Pulau Payar is located in the southern part of Langkawi near Kulala Kedah and the most popular tourist destination. It is one of the four islands which altogether make up the Pulau Payar Marine Park including the islands of Pulau Payar, Pulau Lembu, Pulau Segantang and Pulau Kaca.

The Pulau Payar Marine Park, stated as a marine park in 1985, is the oldest, the only in the West Coast of The Peninsula Malaysia and one of the best diving spots in the world. It is rich with exotic marine creatures and the place also provides protection for its assorted marine life.

It is spread in 2 miles and the best place for snorkeling and diving and the waters around the park exhibits splendid corals and marine species such as Lobsters, black-tip sharks, moray eels, mollusks, rock groupers and clown fish. This marine park abounding with interesting marine life and vegetation also serves as a study center for the marine research workers. It does not have any accommodation facility so a day trip is the only option.

Payar Island measures 2 km by 1/4 km and the largest island of the Marine Park. The other islands include Pulau Lembu, PulauKaca and Pulau Segantang which are situated on the busy Straits of Malacca between Penang and Langkawi Geopark. It takes about 1 hour’s boat ride to get to the islands from Kuah. These uninhabited islands do not provide accommodation facilities but visitors are allowed to set up camps after they get permission from the Fisheries Department located at AlorSetar (Kedah).

Both Pulau Lembu and Pulau Payar are densely covered with vegetation while Pulau Segantang and Pulau Kaca are with scarce vegetation.

Payar Island with its crystal clear waters is a good picnic point also provides two hiking trails to further explore the flora and fauna of the island. Other facilities are also available at selected areas such as picnic tables, Gazebos and restrooms. Old boats, concrete blocks and artificial reefs built over the years from tyres are some additional attractions for visitors to see. The Island is surrounded by tropical forest, mangroves and breathtaking sandy beaches around the coast.

The most popular diving site Coral Garden starts several meters away at the south-west of Pulau Payar, covered with bright and multicolored soft corals and said to have the greatest number of coral kinds in Malaysia. While snorkeling or scuba diving, you can see exotic fish like damsels, lionfish, roc cod, snappers, sea perch and big groupers. It is also interesting to see numerous shellfish, seashells and slugs that are scattered all over the bed of the ocean.

Look into the rifts and fissures to have a glimpse of washed shrimps and pretty cowries.

At Coral Garden you can also have an unforgettable experience of Baby Shark Feeding and have a close encounter with up to 25 black tip baby sharks snapping at each other for food.

Next to Coral Garden is Grouper Farm on the South end of Pulau Payar, well-known for its various groupers, jacks, snappers and even barracudas.

It is the clearest and perfect spot of all the diving reefs in Puala Payar with very low current, making it easier for the divers. The reef goes down to 15m deep to the sandy ground. Hard corals are found which of them mostly are tree Corals. Group Farm is a home to small fish trying to protect themselves from a larger no of groupers present there.

Lembu Rock also known as Sunken Boat Point is a rocky and sandy dive spot with a good variety of sunken fish draggers in order to set up an unnatural reefs around Lembu Rock. The other diving sites in this area are Rock point and Goodyear Reef where rocks are covered with hard corals and are home to countless shoals of fish. The rock formation in these areas is also very interesting and worth-seeing.

Pulau Kaca is a favored and perfect spot for shallow and easy crash diving. The Island also has many draggers of sunken fishing around it, for creating unnatural reefs and providing shelter to a variety of marine species. The island is all full of wrecks and scattered vessels in almost every direction. You will find hard corals here on the sandy bottom and many small reef fish, mangrove snappers, clownfish, sea slugs like nudi branch and mollusks. You should try to maintain lightness on the sandy seabed as there are many sea urchins scattered all over.

Pulau Segantang is 12kms to the west of Pulau payar with a steep rocky landmass plunging 20 meters into the sandy bottom of the sea. Here you can have a memorable experience of swimming along with exotic leopard sharks, barracudas, jacks and big groupers. It is full of various marine fish such as scorpion fish, lion fish, puffer fish, butterfly fish and lobsters are also commonly found on this Island.

Tyre Reef is the best site within Pulau Segantang where abundant fish life is observed including red snappers, Javan rabbit fish, mangrove snappers and huge shoals of barracudas. Black Coral, Whip corals and sea fans are common in deep waters.

Another site in this area is Anemone Garden which also contains sea fans and a distinctive number of hard and soft corals. On the northern side marine polyps cover the skin of most of the boulders and rocks. Large Murex shells, spiny lobsters, moray eels and helmet shells are commonly found here.

Beautiful Nature Journey in Perak

Nature is one of the Taiping main attraction. Few of it which is the Maxwell Hill/ Bukit Larut, Zoo Taiping, Taman Tasik and also the Burmese Pool. With all the place are close together, it will give you continues experience rich of nature without hassle.

Maxwell Hill/ Bukit Larut.

Maxwell Hill, which now known as Bukit Larut are good for those who likes fresh air and exercise. The cold ambience has always attracted lots of visitor to this place. Many people walk and jog up the hill. Good for fitness and health as well. This is recommended for fitness and bush walking enthusiasts. There is a conventional road going up as well as short cuts. Do take advice or follow the regulars when you want to try the short cuts. There are people serving free drinks on "pondok" 2 and 3. You will be a very fit fella if you walk up regularly. If you is not a thrill person so you do have the 

other way, that is to take the jeep run by local authorities. This is the quick and easy way which we opted for. They charge RM6 per person for a return ticket. (last 2 years it was RM4.00).

The hill is a heaven for birds such as the rhinoceros hornbill, large moths and butterflies, beetles, monkeys and Pope's Pit Viper. You can also see beautiful Tulip Flowers. A visitor will take 11 minutes to reach the 1,250m peak of the resort from the bottom of the mountain, compared with the 30 minutes, 13 km ride ride via four wheel drive or government Land Rover. 

Taman Tasik Taiping

The best hanging out place in Taiping Lake Gardens is the biggest urban parkland in Malaysia. At 222 acres, the gardens is about as big as Taiping Old Town, such was the size of the recreational comfort enjoyed by the folks of Taiping today. Within it is housed massive ponds, lakes, and reputably, the best zoological gardens in Malaysia. Lake Garden used to be the biggest tin mining in Malaysia.

There was an oldest golf course in Malaysia within the vicinity, but it was closed in the year 1995 due to hazard it posed to the users at the lake garden. The course has since been converted to parks where trees, flowers and playgrounds have replaced the common sight of a golf course. Supposedly there was another land nearby the lake garden almost created as a new golf course, but the plan stopped too for the same reason.

In Taiping Lake Garden, the is a boat house named Pusat Rekreasi Dayung, where boating services are provided. It is a must place to visit because you can enjoy the scenery of the lakes in a relaxing way. The boat house has a restaurant for visitors to dine-in and also souvenirs counter. 

Ferry can accommodate around 10 person. I will take you one round trip in the lake gardens. It costs RM4 for adult and RM3 for children. Swan boat is a 2-seater pedal boat. It costs RM10 for 2 adults for a 30 minutes duration ride. You can also include a child for an additional of RM2.

Zoo Taiping.

Taiping Zoo is special in its own way. It is located in a lovely natural setting in Taiping Lake Garden close to the foot of the Larut Hill and contains rare animals such as Malaysian tiger, lion, seaman, deer, nilgai, night heron and many others. 

The entrance fee during day time is :

RM12/ adult (15 years and above)

RM10/ senior citizen (above 55 years old)

RM8/ child (4 years and above)

While the special Night Safari, in which the only night safari in Peninsular Malaysia, the visiting time would be from 8pm to 11 pm. It opens for every night including Public Holidays. For those that hate hot weather, this would be you best choice to overcome that problem so that you can spend quality time with your family sightseeing animals in the zoo more comfortably.

Night Safari entrance fee (RM) :

RM16/ adult

RM12/ (above 55 years old)

RM10/ child (4 years and above)

More info:

tourism.gov.my

The Batu Caves Gombak.

Here is the story about the religious caves for Indian in Malaysia. I went there to bring a group of people from Oceania, Europe,and USA during my practical at Tourism Malaysia Putrajaya, The event called "Aeromeet Travel Mart". Batu Caves are located outside the city of Kuala Lumpur called Gombak. It is about a 30 minute taxi ride assuming no traffic from Kuala Lumpur city to Batu Caves. This is one place all the travel guides say is a 'must see' when visiting Kuala Lumpur. At the site, there are many steps leading up the side of a mountain, which enters into large open-air limestone caves. The site has Indian religious site and has many temples and statues around. I have been back to this site once more with some visitors to the city. It is a neat place to visit.  There is also a 100% chance to see lots of monkeys, which is also exciting to most people (at least the first one or two that you encounter). Enjoy the caves!

Fact about The Batu Caves that we do not know.(Om Saravanabhava).

Batu Caves is an interesting place where it is made of 30 caves, but only a few caves are developed. The main caves are the Temple Cave, Dark Cave, Cave Villa and Ramayana Cave. The highest cave is called the Temple Cave. It has small shrines to Hindu gods and a Tamil-style Hindu temple. The Temple Cave has a vaulted ceiling of 100 meters high. Right above the cave is an opening where ones can see the cloud or the sun. A flight of 272 steps lead up to the Temple. The stairway is divided into sets of 17 steps which each lead to a landing.

Dark Cave is located just below Temple Cave. The entrance is located at step number 204 of the 272 steps leading up to Temple Cave. The cave is made of 2km of surveyed passage and has 7 chambers, each with its own special features for example the stalagmites, stalactites, flowstone, cave pearls, curtain, column, cave straws and other features. Some of these formations take thousands of years to grow.

Plants growing here make up an important part of the flora. One of the interesting plant found at the entrance of the Dark Cave is the Monophyllea "single leave plant". The plant consists of just a thick succulent stalk with a single large leaf at the end.

Cave Villa, with a total built-up area of approximately 50,000 sq feet was established in 1986.

Cave Villa is located at the main entrance, at the foot of the caves. Statues and wall paintings depicting Hindu deities and mythology are displayed here. The walk to the entrance is quite a pleasant experience through a lake and ponds filled with hundreds of colorful koi fish, river terrapins and tortoises. The entrance to the Cave Villa beckons good fortune with a koi pond leading to the outdoor gallery that features a 10.4m-long veenai (Indian classical musical instrument) and tranquil surrounding.

There are three indoor galleries, which are illuminated by colourful lights to set the mood. The first gallery, is the Valluvar Kottam, which is similar to the one in Chennai, India, where all 1,330 verses of the Thirukkural – the epic by the Tamil poet and saint Thiruvalluvar – are inscribed on the walls. The other two small caves which have individually themed displays, namely the Art Gallery and the Reptile Galore.

At the Valluvar Kottam, cave walls are covered with statuary exhibits, murals and inscriptions of Thiruvalluvar’s couplets. Thiruvalluvar is a great Indian Sage from Tamil Nadu who wrote 1,330 pthy couplets in Tamil touching every aspect of good conduct. The exhibits are used to illustrate relevant couplets from the Thiruvalluvar’s Thirukural, with two lines poem totaling 1330 literature that had been uniquely whittled on white marble stones.