It seems strange to say this, but it has taken until we arrived in Malaysia for us to have an electronic lock on the door of our accommodation. All through Sri Lanka and even in the Maldives, all our accommodation – hotels, tents and a villa, had old fashioned key locks. Once we hit Malaysia it was a swipe card for our airport hotel and fancy nf (near field) wrist band here in The Datai.
Day 23 2 March 26
We started our day with an 8am Jungle birdwatching walk. Our guide was Dev, a passionate local and had been employed, or one way or another involved in the resort since it very beginnings.
He started by giving us a brief rundown on the area. We are in a UNESCO World Heritage National Park, a pristine 110-million-year-old rainforest. No trees have been lost on the island due to logging, but many have been lost in the clearing of the land for rice fields. The island across the bay, the Andaman Sea, from us is Ko Tarutao, Satun, Thailand.
Since the end of Covid, Langkawi has had a wild dog problem. People who bought dogs during Covid found it difficult to keep them after, so they let them free. No packs of dogs are causing issues for the native wildlife. Culling of the dogs was forbidden by the Queen of Malaysia. Other methods of control are being tested.
Our walk commenced in front of the resort where we were introduced to Christine, a 180 year old tree, standing very tall just to the west, a type of Meranti. He expects that she will be in fruit very soon. As we walked out of the resort and to the right and up the road we were introduced to other proud ladies, 200 year old Josephine and 300 year old Roberta, both Meranti, their tap root goes 25% deeper that height. There was a very big Brahminy Kite (the official bird symbol of Langkawi) nest in the top branches of Roberta, the bird wasn’t home.
As we walked up the road we came across a small group of Macaques Monkeys. There were many males including the Alpha. Dev told us that if human males had testicles like the Alpha, they would be the size of basketballs, now that would be uncomfortable!
We saw a tree, a Saptaparna (Alstonia Scholaris) that grows very quickly, but to do so it grows hollow and then when it has reached a sustainable height the trunk begins growing inwards and outwards, so mature trees are not hollow.
We heard lots of birds, but saw very few. We saw a few Dollar birds (a small dark bird with a bluish green gloss about it), some Common Tailorbirds(small brown birds with yellowish heads), some local pigeons and a brown female Sunbird. We heard the call of the local Greater Slaty Woodpecker, the largest woodpecker in Malaysia getting up to a 95cm wingspan.
Dev gave us a brief talk on evolution and how animals that evolved in similar habitats and old similar food tend the evolve looking the same – alligators &crocodiles, bird species – hornbills and toucans, etc. We had not consciously considered that before, but it made sense.
We saw the canopy walk, which we might have a go of it later in the week. The walk finished by passing through a mangrove. Dev told us interesting stories of snakes and how they live in the mangrove. And the tour ended near the Eco hut, his inside office. It was agreat way to start the day.
We went up to the dining room for breakfast and eventually made it back to our villa close to midday.
We had a quiet afternoon, not doing a lot other than relaxing.
At 7pm we met a guide, Ham, down by the Pool Bar for a Rainforest Night Walk. We had high expectations after our morning walk with Dev.
It started well, sunset wasn’t until around 7:30pm and it was light fir a while after that. Any way, we started our tour and within a minute he had us looking at a small group/family of Short Nosed Fruit bats, a mother and two babies. The easy way to tell fruit bats and flying foxes apart is that Fruit bats have Long noses, big eyes and small ears, where flying foxes have short nose small eyes and big ears.
Some Long Tailed Macaque Monkeys, aka The crab-eating macaque, came down for a quick visit and were gone again in no time.
Then we set off towards the Rainforest, along the way Ham pointed out some small spiders Asian Hermit Spiders, black with red spot on their belly, not poisonous. There were numerous Viola Hermit crab in tree holes around the forest floor. These crabs don’t live in water, but on the forest floor and they eat fallen flowers and fruit. They hide in tree crevices during the day and come out at night.
We saw a couple of eagles flying around over the forest, two different species, a Brahminy Kite we saw in the morning and a white bellied sea eagle.
WE crossed over the mangroves and saw some small Mangrove Root Crab, the Mud Crabs were hiding. We saw some mud markings on tree left on a tree by one of the wild boar of the area, they are the largest mammal living in the rain forest.
As darkness descended on us we began finding Malayan colugo, or “flying lemur” in the trees and most often clinging to tree trunks. The were about the size of a small possum and can glide between trees, managing flights of up to 120m with just a 10m loss of height. Their main predators are eagles, owls and pythons, they are nocturnal. I guess we ended up seeing about 6 to 8 of them, male and female, and a couple of babies.
Some black monkeys were eating high in the canopy as we approached the main pool area. To survive they must eat 10% body weight a day, so eating is a lot of what they do.
We also got to see some tokay geckos, they are known to be a pest 8n the resort at times, they are nocturnal, and the males make a very loud mating call!
Our final critter were Scorpions, two different species, both found by using UV light, their bodies glow under the UV light. We saw about 4 Bark Scorpions and a couple of other types. It was a bit spooky the way they glowed u der the UV light.
And that’s where our tour finished, not so much of a Rain Forest walk, as a walk around the resort. I think we were spoilt on our morning walk.
And that was a lot to remember and write about.
Day 24 3 March 26
We are back to brunch! Called a cart to take us to brunch at 9:30. It was busy in the main restaurant, what is it with people on holiday starting their days mid morning!
Just before we left we saw our first squirrel playing in the garden in front of our villa, but it took off very quickly when it saw us. On animal visits, Deb said she heard monkeys on the roof of our villa early this morning, but we haven’t seen any around it yet.
Brunch was nice, and relaxing. We were done by 11, we spent a bit of time relaxing on a lounge up near reception taking in a new view out to the water, and playing a bit of Ingress. (fyi: we got 2 of the 3 portals here to EP8 using ADA & Jarvis, and a couple of Battle Beacons – welcome to Ingress speak for the uninitiated )
We had a quiet afternoon, some time spent on our day bed looking out into the jungle and i side escaping the humidity.
Dinner tonight was at The Gulai House, the resorts authentic Malay / Indian restaurant. The meal was delicious, I can highly recommend their Beef Rib Rendang, the meat was so tender, a bit more spice and it would be a 10/10. Deb had a seafood curry, big juicy prawns and fish pieces, just a bit too much spice to her liking. To finish were share a Malay Sago Pudding in coconut cream with a molasses sauce, a great way to finish.
We got a cart back to our villa, and took time to get a glimpse of the full moon through the jungle canopy. The end of another great day.
#retiredlyf done our way.
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