As it doesn’t seem that many of us will be travelling anywhere exotic for a while I’ve been looking back through some of the more lovely places I have been lucky enough to call at down the years, and this morning was remembering Langkawi, an archipelago made up of 99 islands on Malaysia’s west coast. Just four of these islands are inhabited.

What a sensational place it is. I’d never heard of what is sometimes known as the Jewel of Kedah before I reached it by sailing yacht, but the incredibly scenic main island (Pulau Langkawi) is one of the most stunning places I’ve ever visited.

Langkawi was historically home to seafarers, such as the orang laut or sea people originally from the southern part of the Malay Peninsula, as well as pirates and fishermen. 

We arrived shortly after Langkawi Island had been given a World Geopark status by UNESCO. Three of its main conservation areas in Langkawi Geopark are Machincang Cambrian Geoforest Park, Kilim Karst Geoforest Park, and Dayang Bunting Marble Geoforest park (Island of the Pregnant Maiden Lake). 

We took a tour that sped us through rice paddies and rubber plantations to eventually reach some steep mountains where we were introduced to a precarious looking cable car that appeared to ascend to heaven. 

The vast multi-course lunch that followed repaired my feelings of vertigo, and it was with great enjoyment that I later leapt aboard the crazily fast speedboat that took us out through mangrove swamps to see the sea eagles that are Langkawi’s national bird.