Langkawi Cable Car - posted from Rebak

One of Langkawi's tourist attractions is the cable car (actually a gondola) leading to a mountain top overlooking Telaga harbour and the west of Langkawi.   Since our first arrival in Langkawi in November 2008 we have made several attempts to go up.  These have been thwarted by various impediments - too windy, too misty, Wednesday morning (closed for maintenance) to name a few.  It is somewhat reassuring that it is regularly maintained, unlike many things in Malaysia which suffer from a severe lack of maintenance.

Well - we finally made it!  We arrived shortly after opening time to find a short queue heading for the turnstiles and the steps up to the departure platform.  We bought our tickets and joined the waiting line.  What we hadn't appreciated was that the stairs did not lead directly to the gondolas but to a large waiting area through which the queue snaked, controlled by barrier, similar to the queue at an airport immigration area but longer than most except LAX.  A visual assessment led to the estimate that there were around 600 people waiting  Each gondola took a maximum of 6 and they left at 30 second intervals so we were in for an unanticipated lengthy wait, made longer as the staff were having limited success in ensuring that each car left full - groups wanted to stick together.  It was a Saturday and a holiday weekend at that so our timing was particularly poor.

Telaga harbour & anchorage, airport & protective
breakwater & Rebak  (top right)

When we eventually got to the top patches of cloud were drifting over the observation platforms, but clearing sufficiently to give us some good views over Telaga, the airport and the north of Rebak.



Aerial walkway

 As well as the gondola itself, which is quite impressive, there is a walkway suspended out over a sheer drop of some 500 metres, affording good views of the cliffs.

On descending (no queues) the crowds at the bottom had virtually disappeared!