Photo Morsels goes jet skiing to bring you this post featuring Langkawi’s Dayang Bunting Marble Geoforest.
Prior posts have introduced Langkawi and visited the Machinchang Cambrian Geoforest and Kilim Karst Geoforest Parks. These parks along with Dayang Bunting Marble Geoforest make up the three three major geopark sites on Langkawi.
Dayang Bunting Marble Geoforest is a collection of islands on the southern side of Langkawi and a popular day-tripping location by long boat. For the more adventurous, the area can also visited by guided jet ski tours which is what my family elected to do. We shared two jet skis between the four of us and set off with four other riders (also sharing two jet skis) plus our guide, a young Thai lad who, we discovered, had spent several years living in Melbourne, Australia before returning to Asia.
First up, I’ll quickly recycle a photos from the Gunung Machinchang post which shows off the general Dayang Bunting area.
This view from Gunung Machinchang’s summit overlooks the island of Dayang Bunting together with surrounding smaller islands. Dayang Bunting is the largest of the islands on the horizon slightly to the right of centre.
Departure point for the jet ski tour is Langkawi’s most popular beach, Pantai Cenang. I wasn’t ready for my near new dSLR to disappear into the Andaman Sea, so for this trip, the Pentax gear was left back at the hotel and my smaller Samsung NX 1000 camera with its 30mm F2 prime lens was pressed into service.
On Pantai Cenang, kitted out and ready for action. No need to run the gauntlet of a naval blockage to head out to sea as the ‘U-boat’ on the horizon is a low rocky island that delivers a surprisingly realistic impression of a lurking submarine.
After scooting about for an hour or so working our way from Pantai Cenang into the island archipelago, we pulled up for a swim at an area known as the Fjords. Some of the island scenes along the way were wonderful, but driving a jet ski at speed and taking photos (with a non-waterproof camera) at the same time wasn’t exactly practical, so photo-wise we start at the Fjords. Between Pantai Cenang and the Fjords, the weather decided to cloud up quite heavily, so a number of the following images are somewhat lacking in dynamic range.
As with the Kilim Karst Geopark, Dayang Bunting’s karst geology is its defining feature. The rocks here are a mix of limestone and marble formations.
This would have to be one of the world’s more beautiful and tranquil yacht anchorages.
Swimming at the Fjords was a straight forward exercise. Step 1 – stop jet ski. Step 2 – jump in.
After our swim we headed to Tasik Dayang Bunting, the Lake of the Pregnant Maiden.
I love the smell of two-strokes in the morning…
What this tranquil scene doesn’t shown is the horde of millimeter long blood sucking midges that were hovering over the water anywhere within a couple of hundred yards of this landing. Evil little beasts that descended upon my arms and legs for a feed. For the next two weeks, I looked like I had chicken pox. Definitely my holiday lowlight!
To get to the lake, it was onto a set of steps to go up and over a small ridge. The odd monkey was lurking about waiting for any food snatching opportunities.
First view of the Lake of the Pregnant Maiden coming down the stairs on the other side of the ridge. The lake is freshwater and is encircled by towering cliffs and hills. The hills that form the far side of the lake form a shape rather like a pregnant woman lying down and folklore of the place is that a fairy princess became pregnant after swimming in the lake. It is a popular swimming spot for newly married couples.
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