cable car

 

this is 7 o'clock in the morning, malaysia time

today, we were treated to a tour of the langkawi cable car. yesterday, the guide asked us to be at the meeting place by 9 o'clock in the morning so that we can leave early and therefore, won't have to queue for long, especially since there will be a large group from the sun princess coming in that morning. however, the site opened late today because of the early morning rain. that is why we were able to visit a shop where they make sea cucumber massage oil. they say that this is one of the best known langkawi products in the market and it was discovered mainly by fishermen.

the smell was really bad! but i guess it's the price you have to pay for when you want a massage oil

the cucumber shop wasn't very exciting for me especially since the sales person in the store doesn't speak english. i could ask what i would be buying but i was just not that interested (i prefer my katinko, betet, omega and salonpas, thank you), so i got back to the bus right away.

after thirty minutes, we were on our way to the cable cars, towards the machinchang mountains. on our way, we passed by the yacht club where we were told that waves from the previous tsunami reached the top floor of the buildings there. from what i can see though, the area is full of construction. what interested me the most here where the yachts and the fact that near here was one of the filming locations of Anna and the King.

the yacht club area

the trip took us about half an hour and when we got there, we were the sixth bus. that means, there were already five tour bus passengers from the princess ahead of us in the queue. luckily, when we got there, the line wasn't that long yet. our entrance pass was a sticker "pinned" to our chest and it was color gray. the malaysians have blue tags. i was told that this is because malaysians have discount when they ride the cars. as of this writing, i checked and the cost for foreigners to gain entry to the cars is 25MYR. not bad, i guess.

 

map of the complex

entrance area to the cable cars

the ride to the third (and last) station took us about fifteen minutes. one of our companions though, had to get out of the second station because she was having a panic attack. the first segment to the ride was a steep one so i guess she couldn't help it when the altitude changed very fast. the ride for me though was really exciting. although i thought we were going fast, i got the chance to see the very green mountains and the beautiful view of the sea. it was like a green earth sandwiched between two blues -- the sky and the sea. along the horizon, we can see scattered islands and it made me think where the country of thailand starts! looking down, we were able to spot the seven wells waterfalls to our right side and another falls, albeit a small one, to the left.

seven wells falls

going up, we were so excited that we just had to move around to see everything. it was a blatant disregard for our guide's suggestion that we do not move much so we won't have to deal with dizziness. lucky for me, my companions weren't that sensitive nor scared. even the two chinese guys we were with were excited (even if they cannot express it much in english :D). what amazed us most though were the granite formation of the machinchang and its structural complexity. going up, we could see large scale fractures all over and if we could only have days and the means to do it, i for one would have a field day doing structural readings. it was that amazing! oh well... that is, if they do not have the same angle and strike directions -- or else it would be pretty boring! LOL.

here are a couple of pictures from our machinchang mountain cable car tour:

going up and up!

looking back down

one of the longest suspension bridge 

(we were told that this was built by the brother of a famous race car driver who decided to settle in langkawi)

see the granite fractures? amazing!

the highlands and i love the fresh air!

yeah, we are 705 m amsl :)

written on 08/19/10