Day 7 - Arriving in Langkawi and the Cablecar

On Sunday, we flew from Penang to Langkawi. We thought the flight would be longer, so we had pre-booked a chicken curry and cup of tea each for about 10 ringgit ($3). The flight turned out to be only 25 minutes gate to gate, so they turned off the seatbelt sign while we were still climbing, gave us our curries, and when I had eaten two pieces of chicken, they announced that we were landing and told us to put our tray tables up.

We looked at each other and cracked up laughing and realised that we looked like idiots for having ordered a meal on such a short flight.

The hostess assured us we had plenty of time before landing, so didn't take our cups of tea back. Before we knew it, the hosties were strapped in for landing and we were stuck holding very hot cups of tea, without lids.

Matt pressed the call button and gave the hostess a look that said Are you sure you want to have two passengers holding scalding hot liquid during this landing? We'll turn you into an episode of Air Crash Investigations so fast you won't have time to put your life jacket on (let alone assist others).

She took the teas and we landed burn-free.

We arranged to stay at the same resort as Mel, another friend of Gan and Renu's. The resort is very nice and has a lovely beach and pool. It has lots of cabins spread out in the rainforest along the coast, and they run little shuttle buses to get you from your room to your lobby. Here's the view from our verandah.

Once we had checked in, we found Mel and headed over to the Langkawi Cablecar, which is very close to our hotel. I don't think I'd be exaggerating to say that the cablecar ride was longer than our flight.

Looking up at the other cars, it hadn't occured to me that we would be high up and I should be afraid. That happened later.

About now.

It was a breathtaking experience. We climbed to 700m above sea level, almost silently, and with a perfect view to the jungle and cliff faces below.

The climb up the cable was mostly gentle then ascended steeply before we got to each pylon. When we were almost at the second pylon, very high up and on a steep part of the cable, it felt like we were slowing to a stop and that was a little scary.

In the photo above it's hard to see the little gondolas but they are there, climbing up into the clouds.

The top station was entirely clouded in so when our gondola took off, we could see nothing but white.

I could spend all day on the cable car, and would love to go back when it's sunny.

We retired to the hotel's restaurant by the beach and enjoyed a drink and a cool towel.

We could watch the hotel's beach as a storm came in. It was spectacular to watch, but by the time we had to leave the restaurant to get to our foot reflexology massages, it was bucketing down and they had no umbrellas so we had to run for it. It's a tough life, but someone has to do it.

This is us after our sprint through the rain. 24 hours later, our clothes are mostly dry. It feels very tropical.