Malaysia: Langkawai

Friday, May 12, 2023, Langkawi, Indonesia


The ship arrived at 10 a.m. We had plans to get the first tender to shore and join 2 other couples to get a taxi and take a cable car up the mountain to the Skybridge. Things went well despite everyone jammed in the stairwells trying to get off the ship. All six of us made the first tender. Then we found out there was a fourth couple joining us and they hadn’t make the first tender. They didn’t make the second one either. We waited in the sweltering heat finding shade in the hotel’s open area.


The taxi drivers mostly wanted to take people on tours. Once we had all our people together, we agreed to have a driver with a van take us to the cable car, then another place. There was quite a bit of back and forth about which to do first. The taxi driver wanted to do the mangroves first. We all wanted the mountain first to beat the tour buses. We had him pull over while we discussed it. He was stubborn. We finally prevailed and finally arrived at the cable car. The taxi driver agreed to wait for us.


Buying tickets for the cable car was confusing. There was someone by the parking lot selling tickets, cash only. We had been told they took credit cards. We found out they take credit cards further along. Five of us went further along while 3 of our party bought from the parking lot guy.


The five of us got to the official ticket booth and were lucky—no line. We got our tickets and waited for the parking lot 3. By now there was a line, and the parking lot 3 had to stand in that line to exchange their parking lot vouchers for tickets. The rest of us waited for them in the slightly less sweltering shade.


The cable car ride was fun. We got off on the first leg, checked out the view. Then back on for the second leg. 


At the top of the cable car, there was a funicular that went up to a glass walkway. The wait for the funicular was 45 minutes. We opted instead to walk down the uneven concrete stairs through the jungle, to a glass walkway over an abyss to a spectacular view of the lush hills below. 

The sky bridge from higher up


Our funicular tickets came in handy on the way back up to the cable car. It was a wait, but worth it not to climb all those stairs back up in the sweltering heat. At the top of the funicular, there were stairs that wet up even higher and we took them to another spectacular view at the very top.




Back down the mountain on the cable car, we realized our tickets included a 3-D experience. We were the only ones interested, so while the others ate we zoomed through it. It didn’t include 3-D headsets, but instead painted backdrops with designated places to stand for the photographer and the photographed. Here are the results.

3-D experience

Back at the taxi, we determined none of us were interested in the mangrove tour. Been there, done that. So we headed back to the ship. Charlie’s one request is that the driver stop if he saw monkeys. Our driver was very good at spotting monkeys.


We didn’t see a lot of Langkawi, but felt like we made the right decision based on the time we had.

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