Mangrove Tour in Langkawi

This was my very first mangroves outing...
never in my ever imaginable mind that I'll do this but heck it was FUN!!!!!

Baby Wei booked us a 4 hours tour with a licensed guide
Mr. Guide thought we were from Hong Kong......
with one papa-san and all his chicks -_-

and off we go...the 4 of us + Mr. Guide + Abang Mat Boat
weather was extremely lovely
very good for photography :)))

1st stop was a bat cave....
my first visit to a bat cave....yes I know I'm a city slicker :P
so Mr. Guide was pointing to us and explaining the formation of stalactities and stalagmites

u are forbidden to touch these beautiful solidified minerals
bcoz the residue/oil/dirt fr your hands can disturb its growth
and it takes a hell long of time to grow a milimetre

when we were inside the bat cave Monkey was fanning and squealing like a mad woman
everyone was -_-"
Chris da Boss: "I shy to bring u out man!!!!"
"NO!!! but look they are flying and pissing everywhere!!!!"

think I'm more scared of all the poisonous snakes under the wooden plank we were walking on
the smell bats urine and shit were horrible

but hell u dun get to see this everyday don't ya????
it's cute to see the formation of baby bats clinging onto the ceiling of the cave
and another group of adults bats on the other side...
each marking their territory

and alas we saw lights and were out of the cave
it was quite claustrophobic inside

next was the bird watching
*this one GOE's favourite*
sorry folks no pics, coz the moment I wanna snap...the beautiful bird just flew off
no wonder GOE alwiz taught me the rule of 4 seconds...just need to stay still and be ready with all your gears
we saw many beautiful ones....in different colors
and Mr. Guide gave us a catalogue to identify them

this one was the flower of the mangrove tree
the whole stick hung on the tree and when it's ripe, will drop off
with the law of gravity the whole stick will drop vertically onto the mud, lodge there
and ready to root

and the fruit part will open up and ready for photosynthesis and survive!!!

mangroves are very important to the coastal line

Mr. Guide also explained its role during the 2004 tsunami
the reason that Langkawi was not hit at all *except one man died due to heart attack then*
was the multiple islands "wrapping" the main Langkawi island which broke the waves of tsunami
and the vast mangroves which covered 3/4 of the island

the mangroves acted as a "breaker" and decreased the size of the tsunami
folks in Langkawi only suffered very low tide followed by extremely high tide during tsunami
with almost zero casualty....well except that only one man

but the most important role of mangroves was the ecosystem of the sea organism
bcoz it offers a very unique and quiet marine base for the young organism to survive
small fishes, crabs, shrimps called the roots of the mangroves their base...
without these small organism there won't be bigger ones which in the end ended up on our dining table
:P

the stick of the fruit is rather sturdy and can survive for a very long long time
Mr. Guide then peeled it to show us the multiple layers

Mr. Guide: "See the soft part here...this one is monkeys favourite part"
at this juncture everyone shifted their eyes to me

-_-" I don't eat this lar!!!!

Baby Wei said she wanna try first

so sedap or not?????

it was a very educative tour...
thank you Baby Wei for arranging this :)))
we had heaps of fun!!!!!!!