Saturday, December 15, 2007

Langkawi, Kedah Darul Aman

Langkawi has been accorded the Geopark status by UNESCO, for its beautiful geoheritage features, consisting of stunning landscapes, karsts, caves, sea-arches, stacks, glacial drop stones and fossils. As someone in the oil and gas industry, it is essential to appreciate the geological point of view of the studied oil and gas reservoir before proceeding with reservoir simulation studies. Basically that explains my presence at Langkawi.
The Westin Langkawi, which offers spectacular views out to the serene Andaman Sea was our stopover for 7 days. I will just let the photos disclose the splendor of staying in the Westin.
It is acclaimed as the world's first duty free geopark so shopping is a must. Since the course schedule was very flexible, we had ample time to shop and wander around. Pekan Kuah is the island's main town with Kuah Jetty being the take-off point to the neighboring islands. It offers a wide variety of duty free goods such as tobacco, liquor, cosmetics and electrical items at attractive prices. Idaman Suri is another must place to visit for cheap CorningWare, Visions and Corelle and for cheap chocolates, get it at Hj Ismail outlets, which is everywhere to be found in the island.
We toured Pekan Kuah by foot, hopping from one shop to another. After that marched to Eagle Square and managed to snap a few photos with the magnificent statue of the reddish brown eagle (photos excluded), walked pass through Taman Lagenda and stop at Jetty Point for another round of shopping spree.
Well, it's not 24/7 of flit, fly and flatter okay. Daytime was work time, some of the days, the class dragged to the evening hour. Tuesday was time to discover Langkawi geoheritage @ outcrop trip. Pit stop #1 was Langkawi Geopark information center at Oriental Village. FYI, Oriental Village is one of the most unique shopping, cultural and culinary destinations. Langkawi Cable Car is just at this area. However, we missed the cable car ride. The queue was ridiculous. Outcrop #2 at Pantai Pasir Tengorak and Machinchang Cambrian, which is reputeed the be the oldest geological formation in the country. For lunch we had tasty ikan bakar at Pekan Keris and continues the journey to Outcrop #3 to see Singa and Chuping formations.
Indelible! I lurve the Westin Langkawi and will definitely come back!

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