Friday 2nd December, Langkawi, Malaysia

So today started wet.  That is, by the time we finished breakfast and went out on deck, it was raining, and it kept raining on and off throughout the morning.  We are on tour this afternoon, Peter is escorting and I'm a puckerjen ticket holder of the Mangrove Swamp and Batcave tour this afternoon. This morning I've spent my time up on the top deck enjoying the fantastic scenery and watching for the eagles that regularly soar over our heads and around the ship. 

There were two different types of eagles, the Langwaki Eagle, otherwise known as a brahminy kite  and brown and white in colour and white bellied sea eagles, which are bigger, and grey and white.  Try as I might, I couldn't get a decent photograph of either, but I did see a load of dolphins which cheered me up and managed to get a few pictures of some pacific reef herons - which can be either a "light morph" (entirely white plumage), or a "dark morph", which are charcoal grey.  There were three of the dark morph near our ship.

The rain had stopped by lunchtime, after which it was all aboard the bus for our tour. We drove through the surrounding paddy fields whilst the guide told us loads of useful information, such as the the fact that that Malaysia is 80% Muslim, something I didn't realise.  Their mosques are not as tall as the ones we've seen in Turkey and elsewhere, and I didn't see any minarets.

From the bus we were loaded onto speedy river boats and taken up river to watch the eagles feeding, and I managed to get pictures of both the Langwaki Eagle and the Sea Eagle.  I loved this bit. We also got to see Long Tailed Macaque (I think that's how you spell it) monkeys in the mangroves alongside the river and around the cave, but we didn't see any other wildlife, which was slightly disappointing. 

Amazing scenery alongside the river

Langkawi Eagle  - or brahminy kite

White bellied sea eagle

Our next stop was the fish farm.  A young Thai boy with loads of enthusiasm showed us some of the fish held in the farms.  He got people to get down on the deck and feel the skin of the manta rays as well as allow the horse shoe crabs to "comb" their hair.  Despite the fact that the fish pens seemed a little small for us animal welfare minded westerners to feel completely comfortable, it was an interesting and enjoyable half hour or so.

Laced or Honeycomb Moray Eel. 

Next we were taken to the batcave.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any usuable photographs (because it dark), but I think Peter might have managed to.  I can tell you that the cave is quite awesome in its own right.  The stalagmite/stalagtite rock formations were amazing and the bats just added to it.  We were through it all too quickly.  A tip for any future visitors.... the small cave didn't have any bats in and wasn't all that interesting.  If I was to do the tour again, I'd return to the entrance via the main cave and see the bats and cave formations for a second time. 

Long tailed Macaque monkey.

The tour took over 5 hours, and we didn't get back to the ship until 7.15pm, so we quickly cleaned up to get into dinner.  The show of the evening was Call My Bluff.  We thought that the contestants may include the Captain and the Hotel Director, as it had done with hysterically funny effect when we on this ship in March, but not so this time. Not that it made a jot of difference. It was another very funny evening, which we thoroughly enjoyed. 

Tomorrow we are in Penang.   No tours, so who knows where we'll end up...... it should be good though.