Costa Fortuna - Day 3 - Porting at Langkawi

Dec 26^th – Our first day of porting was at Langkawi, Malaysia

We woke up early and sensed that ship has stopped. Quickly ran to our balcony and the view outside was amazing. 

I had never seen something like this before. Jetties passing by tiny mini islands. Then we quickly googled to find out about Langkawi. Basically this is an archipelago made up of 99 islands on the west coast of Malaysia. This really pumped up our excitement for the day. 

We then quickly freshened up, got ready and headed to restaurant for breakfast. We had breakfast (Yummy Indian style) which was arranged by Chariot group especially for us. We were asked to assemble at the exit gate of the ship sharp at 9 am so that we all could leave together as a group. Security staff onboard scanned our room keys at the exit and we started walking down the movable ramp to the Langkawi parking lot. We saw lot of tourist buses parked and people were looking for their tour buses.

We quickly got off into our Chariot Tourist bus and started our journey towards the first stop Eagle Square. Journey from the Langkawi cruise line to Eagle Square is very pleasant with less traffic and lush green trees on both sides of the road.

Eagle Square

We reached Eagle Square Parking lot and as we got down from the bus and started walking, the main attraction of this place a large sculpture of an eagle poised to take a flight caught our attention.

A local tourist guide was there with us to take a tour around Langkawi. According to him, Langkawi’s name came from two Malay words – “Helang” (eagle) and “Kawi” (reddish brown); hence Langkawi.

You can take a round of this sculpture and take breathtaking views of the island with turquoise green water, mountains around and small ferries passing by the harbor.

Note: Please ensure you plan to visit this place in the morning or in the evenings since in the afternoon the scorching heat will be hitting you strongly on your head.

Langkawi Sky-bridge cable car

We saw some cable cars moving around the mountains and we inquired with our guide if we could go there in order to get an aerial view of the Kuah Town. Our tour guide told us that this was not included in the trip. However, most of our co-travelers signed up for this and agreed to pay for their tickets. Upon reaching, we got to know that tickets were sold out till the 3 PM ride slot. People were already waiting at the ticket counters to pick tickets for the next slot. Since we had to head back to ship before 4 PM, we dropped this plan and headed towards our lunch place.

Note: If you are a nature lover and mountain person, plan this first at the start of your day and then you can decide rest of the places based on your itinerary.

Lunch – Best part about travelling with Chariot group is that food is always arranged at Indian restaurants whichever part of the world you travel with them. In Langkawi, lunch was arranged at Maroush restaurant for us. Food was tasty which included Indian starters (veg, non-veg), main course, deserts etc.

Some people hesitate to travel outside India only with the aspect of how to manage food. Well, you do not have to worry when you travel with Chariot J. It will be taken care of really well.

Galleria Perdana

Interesting place for museum lovers. Sorry to disappoint my readers. I hope by now you know that I am not a museum person. Also after having heavy yummy lunch, immersing ourselves in history is too much to ask for.

There are different sections in this museum for each type of collection like porcelain products, weaponry, plaques, gift items made of wood, stylish chandeliers etc. Well if you are a museum lover, then you can easily dedicate almost 2 hours to see all the exhibits in this museum.

We quickly moved through all these sections and finally came down to the last section on the ground floor, which had huge collection of cars and bicycles. We were amazed to see distinctively designed bicycles and cars with different colors. We finally clicked some pictures here since they were irresistible. Guide told us that each of these antique items were gifted to the Prime Minister of Langkawi back then. We even saw a formula one car there.

Finally, we came out and had to wait for our bus to pick us up. The vast stretch of area around the museum with landscaped gardens is a good place for relaxation. While our tour guide was calling the driver, we took a stroll along the paved pathway to enjoy some cool breeze.

We boarded our bus and headed back to the ship since we had to cover another half an hour journey from here to the cruise terminal.

Back to the cruise terminal

After we got down from the bus, we finally got time to click some pictures of the island and the cruise since in the morning we were in a rush to start our sight-seeing. This is the first time we got to see a closer and complete view of the ship and only then we realized how magnificent it is.

We quickly went on the top deck to get a view of this Malaysian island from all sides. It was so calm and serene.

Since we had soaked ourselves enough in Langkawi heat, our first refreshment zone was Jacuzzi for a much needed soothing relaxation. It was a heavenly experience. We spent around 2 hours there and suddenly realized that at its 7 PM and time for yet another spectacular performance in theater. We went to our cabin, freshened up and headed to theater. We got yet another doze of entertaining evening with amazing performances by Latin American dancers.

We then went to have dinner at restaurant where Chariot had arranged Indian food for us. Post dinner, our guide briefed us on our plans next day. He asked us to wake up early since we have a long day to spend at yet another beautiful place and lots to cover.

We bid good night to our fellow travelers and reached top deck to take a stroll since the ship had started sailing by now. Finally hit the bed for a good night’s sound sleep.

So here goes day 1 of island hopping. Please wait for my next blog to read where we docked the next day J.