Putri and I @ Pulau Payar Marine Park

– Putri and I are downstairs getting ready for our bus to pick us up to bring us to Jetty Point, Kuah Town.

-- We’re pretty excited about heading to Pulau Payar! One of the most highly anticipated adventures. Have really high expectations for this trip.. I hope its not disappointing!

Pulau Payar Marine Park is located 19 nautical miles south of Langkawi Island. If coming from Penang Island, it is located 32 nautical miles north of Penang Island. It is also approximately 15 nautical miles west of Kuala Kedah. This island still remains unspoilt until today due to its status as a marine park and is South East Asia’s first 1 stop snorkeling, diving and water activity floating platform. In a form of a massive two tier floating platform, due to the government’s tireless efforts to preserve marine life around the place, the fish in and around Pulau Payar seem to be totally at ease with tourists!

Booking day trips usually include pickup from your hotel, lunch on the island and use of snorkelling and diving equipment. Two dives are arranged. Total time that you need to allocate for this trip is from 8am to 4:30pm.

Once we had arrived at Jetty Point, Putri and I along with the rest of the tour group were escorted to the boat docks to where we were ushered into a large ferry boat with both indoor and outdoor seating. I must admit.. it looked pretty swank! J

A short 40 minute ride later, I noticed the boat starting to slow down, and out of nowhere, an overly excited Puteri (who chose to sit outside) ran into the indoor seating area where I was calmly reading my book screaming ‘Woooh! Where here! Come see!’

I must admit, the Pulau Payar Marine Park platform looked like something out of Star Trek! Anchored in open sea, just around 200 metres away from the island shore, the massive structure had a bridging area where boats can connect, a huge area (resembling a food court seating area) with round tables scattered everywhere, a diving centre and an equipment hub and even an underwater observatory!

Wow.. I was so excited I had to stop myself from screaming ‘BEAM ME UP, SCOTTY!’

Sun, Snorkeling, Sea, and Sci-Fi. My dream has come true.

After being led to our designated tables, we were briefed by our tour guide/dive instructor on the guidelines following the island. And they went a little something like this;

No fishing or killing of fish.

No collecting of corals or other marine organisms.

No collecting of sand, dead shells or dead corals.

No polluting or littering.

No anchoring on reefs.

No building or erecting any type of structure on the water.

Keeping strictly to these rules and regulations will ensure that this park will remain unspoiled for many years to come. Comprising of numerous uninhabited islands such as Pulau Lembu, Pulau Kaca and Pulau Segantang, this park is surrounded by coral reefs and many kinds of endangered marine species. Payar Island is the biggest island in this park measuring 2 km by 1/4 km.

Snorkelling, swimming and scuba diving are the main activities on the island. Being a marine park means that most of the marine life and vegetation in the sea are still thriving. The most popular diving site is known as Coral Garden and is located at the south-west of Pulau Payar where bright and multicoloured soft corals can be seen. The fascinating feature of this park is that there are many artificial reefs built from old boats, concrete blocks and tyres that have developed into mature reefs with plenty of sea creatures around them. Baby Shark Feeding is also a memorable experience, as we literally were able to swim with these baby sharks in about 4 feet of water!

Jungle Tracking is another activity that you can do over here as the island is a self-sustaining island with virtually no concrete except for walkways, and changing areas at the beach area of the island. I think it was great how they try to avoid over “commercializing” it at the cost of taking away some of its charm!

The moment I reached the island shore (via flippers!), I was reminded of that old TV show “The Swiss Family Robinson” with vast stretches of white sand, punctuated by rocks towards the shores, crystal clear water and a hilly (and very green!) zone just off the cost! Ok! excuse my overdone use of movie examples.. at least I’m not ranting on about food!

After a full on day of snorkeling, shark feeding, jungle trekking and photo taking, Pu

teri and I were pooped and ready to head back home to rest up for dinner.
I must say my trip to the Pulau Payar Marine Park definitely lived up to my expectations and is definitely one of the highlights of my trip. I felt like a little kid in a big, wet jungle gym all over again! It was really something else.
For those keen on doing something fun and memorable in Langkawi Island, the Marine Park is definitely on to go for.

Till The Next Post..Harith The Trekky Beach BumKindly Sponsored by Rahsia Estates Sdn Bhd

Island Hopping!!

The weather is gorgeous today!

Fully recovered and utterly excited about the day ahead of me, I hurriedly gave the cute suit the wake up call I had promised her...

.. 10 minutes early! Hehe.

But it didn’t matter though. She was already awake and probably just as excited as I was about our island hopping adventure!

It is worth mentioning that the Island Hopping Tour is one of the more popular activities in Langkawi, and that almost every resort or motel will offer this package. Although this tour is available almost everywhere, the price of this tour package varies depending on the agent selling it – so do try to look around for the best prices. Prices will range between RM35 – RM55 (even though almost all the packages are exactly a like!)

The tour that we chose consists of touring 3 islands off the main island of Langkawi; Pulau Dayang Bunting, also known as the Isle Of The Pregnant Maiden, Pulau Singa (Lion Island) and Pulau Beras Basah (The Island Of Wet Rice).



A van picked us up from The Sunset Beach Resort around 9.35 a.m. to bring us to the jetty where we would begin our island hopping adventure. The jetty was about 10 minutes away from Pantai Cenang and was already filled with van loads of tourists by the time we got there! Designated stickers were handed out to different groups (depending on their package) and each group had to wait at certain areas of the jetty to keep order and to eliminate total chaos! Yeah, imagine being as excited as Shasha and I were… times 100 people! Yikes!

Once we were allocated to our respective speedboats, our tour guide/boatman whisked us to our first destination; Pulau Dayang Bunting. On the way there, he stopped at a certain area in the open sea, where the formations made by the mountains made it clear to me why this island is named the Island of the Pregnant Maiden. The mountain range depicted a shape of a pregnant lady, lying on her back. There is also a lake in the middle of the island where, according to local folklore, if barren woman swims in the lake and drinks the water, she would get pregnant! Well, hope that folklore only applies to girls cause I intend to swim in that lake!

Wow, now I understand why Langkawi is so mythical and legendary. As our boat slowly made its way to the shore of Pulau Dayang Bunting, a calm feeling swept through me and I felt excited and curious to explore the island.

Stepping up onto the island pier, we saw that it was very crowded (as it was a combination of a weekend AND school holidays) but that wasn’t going to stop us from visiting the famous Dayang Bunting Lake.

I must admit, even for a rugby player like myself, the hike to the lake was pretty challenging! With steep and unleveled steps, and constant up-down hill paths, it wasn’t a stroll in the park I tell ya! Especially when there are 20 other people behind you, eager to get there as well, it’s hard to stop to catch your breath! But thankfully, there are a few rest spots along the way.

After the long hike, we finally arrive at the lake! Stepping out of the beaten path and walking onto a pier where lots of people jumping into the lake, swimming, running around and obviously enjoying themselves, I felt as though I stumbled upon a lost civilization! Everyone was completely in the moment, having lots of fun. For those who were not looking to get pregnant.. whoops, on swimming I mean, paddleboats were available for rental.

Shasha and I discovered a very unique and new feature at the lake; a real cat fish spa! Yes.. I kid you not. 4 foot long, large cat fish sucking on the scum of your feet. If that doesn’t say ‘Ahhh this is the good life’ to you, I don’t know what will! Hehehe.

After dipping my feet into the ‘NO CATFISH ALLOWED’ part of the lake to cool off, and to enjoy the wonderful scenery, Shasha and I said our farewells to Dayang Bunting’s Lake and made our way back to the group’s meeting point to carry on to the second part of our tour.

My suggestion is that, if you’re keen on visiting Pulau Dayang Bunting avoid school holidays and weekends. That way, not only will you be able to take your own sweet time without having to worry about holding other tourists up, you’ll also appreciate the island more as it’d be way more intimate! But nevertheless, it was fun and definitely a place my buddies would love to go to!

A short boat ride away from Pulau Dayang Bunting is Pulau Singa. We were told that we would not be getting off our speedboat for this leg of the tour, instead, we were going to to feed eagles! Hmmm I smell a photog opportunity!






Pulau Singha which is a mangrove island, is inhabited by different species of eagles.

The last item on our agenda was a chill out session at Pulau Beras Basah!

We arrived at the island of Beras Basah around 12.25 p.m. The Sun was out, it was breezy and the tourists were out to play! There were kids making sand castles in the sand, college students playing volleyball in the water, couples walking down the beach hand in hand Shasha chasing the waves on the shore and me -- the utterly stereotypical tourist, with camera in one hand, and tour booklet in the other! Haha, I felt as thought we were on one of those cliché ‘Wish You Were Here!’ Postcards and it was great.
All and all, I think for RM40 per person, the Island Hopping Tour lived up to its expectations and money well spent.