Langkawi Nature - Nature trips in an adventurous way

Dry season has started now and this means a lot of sunny days and hardly any rain. For me the beauty of Langkawi is at its best during these weeks. At the end of the rainy season it is so beautiful and green and that is exactly what I personally like about this island. We have been very busy preparing ourselves for the coming season. We have trained some new staff, we bought some extra kayaks and produced some new promotion material. We would like to introduce you to Hafizan and Selva, two very passionate guides and real nature lovers. Hafizan teamed up with us last month after working free lance for many years. He is experienced in all sorts of nature trips and you might meet him on one of our trips. You might meet Selva during a boat trip in the mangroves or during a walk and he will be able to entertain you endlessly about all the nature treasures of the mangroves.

During the kayak trip one of the stops is the bat cave. When Mandy and Hafizan were walking around at the bat cave they saw a python hanging on a branch. It was at a safe distance and all the guests were watching this beautiful snake of about 1.5 metres. Suddenly a young male monkey came out and he jumped on the same branch as the python was sleeping on and he started to jump on that branch. He was really intentionally trying to annoy the snake and of course he succeeded in this. The snake woke up and started to move, which was a sign for the monkey to run off as soon as possible and for our group to move on as well. It was an incredible view to see how nasty the monkeys can be and what smart ways they use without being harmed directly.

Another incident was during one of my evening walks. The chance of spotting flying lemurs during these walks is 100% and most of the time we also see the flying squirrels, be it the red giant or the pygmy. The pygmy flying squirrel is quite difficult to spot as they will be hiding directly after landing on a tree. This evening it was one of the rare moments that the whole group could see the pygmy flying squirrel gliding and landing on a tree. A few seconds after landing, the squirrel was picked up by a collared scops owl flying by. The owl took the squirrel in his mouth, smashed it against the tree and swallowed it in 2 times while really enjoying his dinner. You will not be surprised to hear that all our guests (including me!) were watching this with open mouth!!

We often are having trouble how to determine the differences between a flying Brahminy Kite and Black Kite and most of the time we were not too sure what it would be. Our friend Tom Reynolds has managed to make a photo of both birds chasing after each other and please note the differences between the birds. They have a different tail shape which you can see very well on this photo.

It is a few days before Christmas while I am writing this last column of 2008. It is always a good time to make up the balance of what has happened last year and to make plans how to proceed the next year. We would like to express our gratitude to everybody for supporting us in many ways, for sending us animal photos, for exchanging thoughts about nature with us through mail, phone and of course during the trips. As much as you have expressed your gratitude towards us for giving you an unforgettable nature experience, all our team members would like to thank for you for everything that we have been able to learn from you. On behalf of Aida, Hafizan, Mandy, Selva and Anne-Marie I wish you a prosperous new year 2009 in good health and with a lot of good nature experiences.

We are almost at the end of the rainy season and you can already feel and see the changes as the migratory birds are coming in. The last weeks we have spotted some birds that are rarely spotted on Langkawi like the Common Hoopoe and the Red Collared Dove.

The Purple Swamphen is breeding very well on Langkawi and couples with their chicks can be spotted on various places. We have added some beautiful new bird photos in the photo gallery, so please have a look there.

We are very ex cited about the fact that one of our friends, Ian Roberts, has left a camera trap after his last visit to Langkawi in September. This will give us the opportunity to check on certain areas in the jungle and to look for animals that are normally hard to spot. As working with this equipment is new for us, we are still trying to find the best location and position and hopefully we can get back to you in our next columns with more information about what we have experienced. So far the long-tailed macaques seem to be everywhere and the camera made already a lot of photos of them.

A few weeks ago a dead dugong (see cow) has been found in the Kilim area, possibly injured by one of the boats. We know about their existence in this part of Malaysia, but it is always good to hear that there is any proof of their existence.

During trips we often get the question if monkeys are able to swim. Of the four existing monkeys on Langkawi (Dusky Leaf Langur, Slow Loris, Colugo and Long-tailed Macaques), only the long-tailed macaques are able to swim. They are also called crab-eating macaques as under normal circumstances crabs will be their staple diet. Unfortunately a lot of these macaques are completely depending on what tourists are feeding them and they will eat now anything they can get.

We are also compiling photos of snakes and we hope to add some new photos soon in the photo gallery. Langkawi has more than 40 species of snakes which are mostly living up in the trees and most of them are nocturnal. There might be a chance of spotting a snake during one of our trips (especially in the mangroves) but we will always keep a safe distance with the boat or the kayak, so there is nothing to worry about.

With the dry season (and the busy season) for Langkawi ahead of us we hope you will be able to visit our beautiful island (again) and to join of our eco-friendly trips. Our team is ready to give you an unforgettable nature experience and we hope to see you soon!

One of the most fascinating animals on Langkawi is definitely the flying lemur (colugo). Langkawi has many of them and it is easy to spot them in certain areas of the island after sunset. I would like to dedicate this column to this beautiful animal.

The flying lemurs are arboreal gliding mammals found in South-east Asia. Their most distinctive feature is the membrane of skin that extends between their limbs and gives them the ability to glide long distances between trees. They are clumsy climbers and they will grip onto the bark of trees with their small and sharp claws and they are as comfortable hanging underneath a branch as sitting on top of it. They are not strong at all on the ground as their weak hind legs are not able to hold up the animal on the ground. Another distinctive feature is their pair of large forward-facing eyes, required to gather sufficient light for interpreting its surroundings, being a creature of the night.

They are territorial, quite shy and generally solitary, except for mothers nursing young. They are certainly herbivores, eating mostly leaves, shoots, flowers and sap and fruit as well.

Flying lemurs are marsupial-like in their breeding habits. The young are born after a gestation period of 60 days in a tiny and undeveloped form and spend their first six months of life clinging to the mother’s belly. Breeding is fairly slow as the young do not reach full size until they are two or three years old.

The males are mostly brown with white spots; the females are greyish with white spots.

If you would like to see this animal we highly recommend you to book our jungle trek / evening walk combination, starting late afternoon (about 5pm). The first two hours you will spend in the jungle, following a nice (and leech-free!!) trail with a lot of interesting information given by one of our naturalists. The last part of this trip you will experience the shift change of day to nocturnal animals which is fascinating. The chance of spotting this flying lemur is 100%.

If we would have the time we would write a column every week as so many things are happening in the nature of Langkawi that we would like to share with you. And even after being almost 20 years on the island I am very happy to discover for me new animals. Last month we did teambuilding with various groups. The kayak trip in the mangroves is a great teambuilding activity and one of the groups requested for some extra caving during the kayak trip. In preparation on this activity we thoroughly inspected the cave ourselves and we saw 2 amazing animals. The first was the tailless whip scorpion. This animal may range from 5 to 40mm and their very thin modified legs can extend several times the length of body. This non venomous scorpion is often moving sideways. I was breathless seeing this scorpion for the first time.

Another insect that we encountered in the same cave was the cave cricket with its very long hind legs and long slender antennae. Their long hind legs allow them to jump high and far and although they can appear a bit intimidating they are basically harmless to humans.

As we are working on a promotional DVD we hosted a film crew from the UK during a few weeks to shoot our trips and the wildlife that you might encounter during those trips. It was a pleasure working with them and it brought us to many unique situations and locations and they have managed to make shots of a lot of animals that are living on Langkawi. We will definitely come back to this subject in one of the next columns.

The orange colored frog and the spider we saw during one of our jungle trekkings in the cable car area. The other frog we saw during a trip in the mangroves. We are not very well known with frogs and spiders and we would really appreciate if somebody could give us more information about these animals. Whenever we get more information we will update you in one of the next columns.

Birdwatching on Langkawi is a bit more challenging at the moment as most of the migratory birds are not on the island. But some birds of which we thought that they were migratory are still here and that makes us doubt if these birds should not be called resident birds. Examples are the grey wagtail, the black-shouldered kite, the cattle egrets and the orange-breasted trogon. In fact our bird list is never updated 100% as the situation is changing all the time, but we do our best to give you always the most updated version.

We have some busy months behind us and we have met so many different nationalities during our trips. Our naturalists are really enjoying it taking them on a trip and let them experience the beautiful nature of Langkawi. We also appreciate the many reactions we get through e-mail, mailbox and in other ways. This is really encouraging for us and a proof that we are on the right track.

We will be back to you in September and please do not hesitate to contact us for anything ( info@langkawi-nature.com ); we will be pleased to exchange thoughts with you.

Saving lives has been the order of the last weeks; lives of animals, lives of trees and even lives of human beings. It started a few weeks ago with the commonly heard but very hard to spot blue-winged pitta. This beautifully colored bird is one of Langkawi's residents and lives in the forest. The bird did not see the window of the building I was in and crashed into the window, completely dazed. After a few minutes the bird was ok and could go on and the dizzy minutes gave me the opportunity to make a photo of this bird.

Then we got a call that on one of the resorts a colugo (flying lemur) had died and that she has left a baby of a few weeks old. The volunteer of the resort has been taking care of the baby by feeding it, by trying to keep it warm, but unfortunately we did not manage to save the life of this little one. The colugo is one of the monkey species found on Langkawi and this nocturnal animal is active during the night. The colugo will climb up the trees and can glide from one tree to another. The babies are born alive and are carried by the mother on their belly until the moment they can be on their own, which can take up to three months.

We have also been involved in saving some bigger turtles that were caught in fishing nets (in the mangroves) and we are regularly involved in monkey cases. Mostly it is to catch monkeys to give them treatment for their injuries or diseases but it is very difficult to give them the right treatment as there are no professionals on the island to assist in cases like this. The only thing that we can do is our utmost to help the animal and sometimes the best decision is to put it down to avoid unnecessary suffering, but this is always the last option.

There have been quite some cases last month of people getting lost in the jungle and the worst case even led to a 48 hours stay of 2 persons in the jungle (including 2 nights). The jungles of Langkawi are really beautiful and absolutely worthwhile to visit. There are certain trails that you can follow and there are a lot of areas without any trail. We highly recommend everybody who is not well known in a certain area, not to leave a trail while trekking on your own, better still to hire a guide to bring you to certain areas. The guides will know the beautiful spots and will also know the possible dangers. If you still want to go on your own, inform your resort or guesthouse always about your plans and take always enough water and a mobile phone with you. Do not bring yourself (and others that are looking for you!) into unnecessarily dangerous situations.

70% of Langkawi is still rainforest and this is one of the biggest assets of the island. We would like to share our worries about the preservation of the jungle. More and more trees are being cut down to make space for new buildings and healthy trees are just cut down without reason. If we hear about certain plans for cutting trees we always try our best to save what can be saved, especially when it is on a resort located in the middle of the jungle where a lot of animals are living in, up and around trees. They still need a place to live and that is why we all should do our best to avoid any kind of felling.

After a few weeks of a bit less business, it is picking up again. We are looking forward to the next months with a lot of visitors to be expected on the island to spend their holidays on Langkawi and we are really keen on showing them the most beautiful natural parts of the island.

In the last weeks we have been extremely busy designing new walks on an island south of Langkawi. Many things are involved in designing a walk, e.g. safety aspects, inventory of animals, mainly birds, studying the flora in the area, etc. But this new challenge is exciting and we hope to succeed in highlighting the environmental aspects here.

More and more requests are coming through Internet and our website which means that our website is well received by a lot of people. We also experience that people tend more to be on an eco-based trip instead of the more commercialized trips. Being in nature and learning more about

it, seems to be more popular and that is exactly what our company is providing. All our guides are real nature lovers and we realize that they are a very big asset to our company and a very important factor for our guests to make the trips a success. As we have been growing quite fast in the last months, we are now working with more team members and I would like to take the opportunity to introduce all of them in this column.

Hairun has been working with us since November last year and he is the youngest in our team. His never ending enthusiasm and passion about nature will make even the non-eco tourist aware of the beauty of the nature on Langkawi. He is specialized in handling snakes (his nickname is Cobra) and he is able to give you more information about nature in a couple of hours than you have heard in your life so far. With his Geopark certificate, Hairun is very versatile and you might meet him on any of our trips.

Mandy has been an Outdoor Instructor and Facilitator before she joined our company. Besides running an activity desk in a resort, she is one of our guides for the mangrove kayak trip. She is a great kayaker and in 2005, she was a member of the Women's Doubles Team in the Island-to-Island Kayak Race during the Langkawi Water Festival. She recently completed a four-week expedition to Borneo with World Challenge Australia and has received training in Wilderness First Aid. The mangroves are her 'second home' and we are sure you will never get lost with your kayak with Mandy around you.

Aida is an outdoor adventure enthusiast who is very keen on nature. Now a registered 'green batch' guide with the Ministry of Tourism, Aida is also a member of MNS (Malaysian Nature Society) and an alumnus of Raleigh International expeditions. She is a well rounded, well traveled person and has a passion for the skies. Aida has done many hours paragliding. She is running a recreation desk together with Mandy and on the other days you might meet her on a mangrove trip, during a jungle trekking or on a walk.

Last but not least: Anne-Marie is my business partner and she is the one that made this company start. She is running the daily business by handling the bookings, making the planning and the necessary preparation for the trips and the accounting. With her extensive experience in different fields she is the anchor of our company. She is a good wildlife spotter and keen on birdwatching and you might meet her during one of the birdwatching trips or an evening walk.

A few weeks ago I spotted a slow loris, one of the four monkey species on Langkawi (besides the long-tailed macaque, the dusky leaf langur and the colugo/flying lemur). It was walking on a wire in the evening and I could not manage to make a clear photo of this very difficult to spot animal. During one of the boat trips we saw plenty of dolphins around us, at least 30-40 were playing around and the guests of that trip thoroughly enjoyed this spectacle and they were lucky as during the same trip we also spotted the always cute otters.

We have added some new photos in the photo gallery. Please feel free to send us a mail if you feel like talking about nature of Langkawi or somewhere else. We are always keen on new and interesting facts in the amazing world of nature.

Time is flying, even on Langkawi and the year 2008 brought us already some good and interesting things. We have been very busy since Christmas and actually it is still going on. We have people from all over the world on our trips which makes it very interesting for us as we are learning a lot from each other. We also had journalists from Germany and Japan on our trips with the intention to write about our company as well as some Russian and local travel agents that were very enthusiastic about our trips and especially our mangrove kayak trip. We were also visited by an Australian nature guide and it was a real pleasure to have him on a few of our trips. We have learned a lot from each other and we will definitely be working together with each other in the future. We also did a very nice island safari with some teambuilding activities for an international group which was successful. All our teambuilding activities are nature based and can be adjusted with any activity on request and this seems to be a good combination especially for companies that have a full indoor program for the participants. With our company they get the opportunity to explore parts of Langkawi's nature while working together in a team.

As more and more guests are booking more than 1 of our trips we have made special eco-packages. All the eco-packages are combinations of our day (or half-day) trips and the total price will give you a discount. So you will pay less for booking more trips at the same time and still benefit from the high quality nature trips that we are offering. For bigger groups we have special group discounts and please contact us for more information about this. The eco-packages can be found on the page of our trips.

We are still very excited about the fact that we now regularly can spot the orange-breasted trogon. What a beauty of a bird is that! Our good friend and great photographer Tom Reynolds made a photo of this bird. We also spotted the plain-backed sparrow in the last birdwatching trips. Every birdwatching trip will start at the Gunung Raya and after 2.5 hours we mostly have already about 20 birds on our list. We have spotted the intermediate egret on Langkawi too. This bird can be distinguished from the great egret by the black spot at the end of his beak. As we did not spot this bird on Langkawi the last years we would really be happy to hear if others have spotted this bird too.

As one of the most important factors for making a successful trip is the quality and knowledge of our staff we are re-arranging the pages about us at this moment. We would like to introduce you on this website to our staff with some background information and a photo of them. We are very proud of having real nature lovers as naturalists working for our company and meeting each other is always full of exchanging information about the latest nature developments (which is never ending..).

We are always looking for new ideas for trips and we regularly are trying out some different things. As we really had in mind to make a boat trip in the southern part of Langkawi (including a few islands to visit) we have made various boat trips. The trips were nice and the scenery was beautiful but to our opinion there was not enough wildlife and nature to talk about to make a trip out of it that will be high quality enough to add to our current trips. So we will keep on looking further and any suggestion for something new will be welcome!

After two very busy weeks there is finally some time left to keep you updated about the nature of things on nature in Langkawi. The weather is perfect with 32 degrees, a lot of sun and no rain at all so a lot of guests enjoyed their stay on Langkawi and joined one of our trips. In the last weeks we spotted some really nice new birds like the orange-breasted trogon and even the oriental scops owl in the mangroves. The oriental scops owl was on its migratory route and the bird could be seen in the same tree for about one week. We are very happy with the photo one of the guests has sent to us and after checking literature and Internet this is definitely the subspecies Otus sunia malayanus. To give you an idea what birds to expect on Langkawi we have put the bird list on our website; we divided the list in migratory and resident birds which is about 50/50. Most of the migratory birds are coming to Langkawi during the dry season (November – April).

Last month we was curiously surprised although not shocked by seeing a very big, almost pig-tailed macaque size, long-tailed macaque in Belanga Pecah (next to the mangroves). There was a man in the nearby village who kept a male pig-tailed macaque and an adult female long-tailed macaque. Could this be the offspring of the two? Any remarks or answers to this matter are highly appreciated as this is quite a rare phenomenon. Pig-tailed macaques are frequently brought into the island to help with coconut-picking, but we have seen two pig-tailed macaques loose, 1 in Berlanga Pecah and the other up Gunung Raya. In the pictures below notice how straight the hind legs are, also the facial color, being slightly lighter colored. Also notice it has a bigger jawline. Also take note the upturn tail connected to the abdomen. This monkey was living in a troop of long-tailed macaques and was twice the size of the rest.

Another rare animal to spot is a frog in the mangroves. We know there is one specie of frog that lives in mangroves, but we do not know the scientific name. If anyone could kindly enlighten us after seeing the photo below, please feel free to contact us. It was the first time we saw a frog in the mangroves and we did not see it again the last months.

As the dry season has started, there is a lack of water and the deciduous trees on the limestone outcrops have begun to drop their leaves. Also the spathoglottis hardiginia started flowering last month and this wild orchid is only found on Langkawi (see a photo of this flower in the photo gallery).

We really hope to get some feedback from our readers on the monkey and the frog matters mentioned above and we hope to be able to give you some more information about it in our next column!.

We finally finished a good part of the photo gallery to be put on our website and all the photos give a good idea of the nature of Langkawi and of our trips. The rainy season is heading towards an end and from November on we expect less rain than October. Fortunately the rain did not affect our trips that much. Most of the trips could go on and if a trip was cancelled because of the weather conditions, guests could do the trip one day later.

We did some great birdwatching trips on Langkawi the past weeks. During 4-5 hours birdwatching we spotted more than 40 different species and guests were very happy with the results. We are working with a list of birds and during the trip we tick off all the birds we are spotting and the guests get the lists after the trip. We also went to Perlis for our 1-day birdwatching trip and this was a great day. There were not that many birds at the moment (but still enough and different than what we see on Langkawi) but we were very happy to spot the stump-tailed macaque. This monkey is beautiful with his red colored face which makes it look like he has used red make-up. It was the first time for me to see these monkeys in the wild and that made the trip very exciting. We also saw some otters in the paddyfields and even a mongoose. Perlis is a beautiful, green and clean state and only 1-hour boat ride away from Langkawi.

From now on we are also able to offer you another 1-day trip on the mainland. Langkawi is part of the state of Kedah and this full day trip gives you a good view of the mainland which is really worthwhile to visit. During the trip you will visit the well maintained remains of the fort of Kuala Kedah, the very informative and extensive rice museum and in the afternoon you will visit Gunung Jerai, a mountain of over 1200 meters where you can enjoy the jungle and spot some wildlife and/or birds. For more information about this new trip please check on our page with the trips.

In preparation for the coming peak season we have expanded our staffing. Besides some freelance guides we are now working with 1 full-timer. He has great experience guiding in the mangroves and we are now training him to do our other trips as well. Our company is slowly expanding and we have managed to get a job with another resort. The contract with Berjaya for the nature walks has also been extended for another year, so we are really happy and proud of all the positive developments after 1 year of hard but very satisfactory work.

We are always open to any constructive suggestions from your side and please feel free to contact us by mail if you would like to share your nature experience with us. Keep in touch by checking our website on a regular basis and hope to meet you on this site next month!

Long-tailed macaques in the mangroves

We have had an incredibly busy month in August and we did a lot of trips for all our guests. Guests staying on Langkawi for a week or even longer took the opportunity to join more than 1 of our eco trips. The mangrove kayak trip is still the most favorite and slowly, requests for birdwatching trips are coming in again. During the last week, more and more migratory birds are coming to Langkawi and we have seen the egrets back again as well as cinnamon bittern. I also finally managed (after 21 years of birdwatching!) to spot a trogon. During one of our mangrove kayak trips we could see this orange-breasted trogon. A couple of days later some friends confirmed that they spotted this bird in the mangroves. The next months more and more migratory birds can be expected to visit Langkawi and that will be very interesting for all bird lovers. Birdwatching on Langkawi is always very challenging and can be very surprising. During our birdwatching trips we are working with the book ‘Birds of South-East Asia’ by Craig Robson. We have been able to buy a couple of these books at a good price and if you need this book during your stay on Langkawi you can buy this book at 100RM each.

Tourists from all over the world have visited our island in the last months and we were deeply saddened by the rubbish some people just throw away into nature. It is not possible to put dustbins everywhere because this will give the long-tailed macaques the possibility to go through it. This means that everybody has to keep his empty bottles or packages or other garbage with him until he returns to his resort but unfortunately many people still have other opinions about this.

We are very happy and proud to inform you that we finally started the photo gallery on the website. This gives us the opportunity to share with you the beauty of Langkawi through our website. We started with photos of animals and the next step will be more focused on the nature itself (mangroves and jungle). Also, photos of the Belum Forest will be coming soon on the website. To the Belum Forest we are organizing a 4days/3nights jungle trek. This is still an undiscovered area in the north of peninsular Malaysia where much wildlife is found. During this trip we will do jungletreks, birdwatching, visit waterfall or cave and we are staying 1 night in a camp with the orang asli, the aboriginal people. For more information about this trip please check the page about more days trips on this website.

Our guests are coming from all over the world, but the majority is still from Europe (UK and the Netherlands). More and more Australians are visiting our country and of course the Chinese (Hong Kong) and Japanese market is still a growing market. We have had guests from Yemen, Palestine, Kazachstan, Tanzania, Egypt, Texas and many other countries. We are really interested in the culture, nature and wildlife of their country and this makes our trips even more interesting. One of our guests spotted the otters that were finally back after an absence of a few months and these animals were a sight for sore eyes.

Most of the photos that we are using on our website have been sent to us by guests and friends and we would like to thank everybody for sending us the photos and allowing us to use them on our website. We are sure that the visitors will enjoy the photos as much as we have done and still do and please check our site regularly as we will add more and more photos in the coming months.

We are very happy with the fact that Unesco has chosen the Kilim area as a Geopark. This means that the area will be protected in a better way and which hopefully will lead to a reduction of the speed of the boats, to a stop of the eagle feeding and to a reduction of using the Kilim area as a haven for sailing boats. A lot of work has to be done, but we are very proud that Unesco has chosen Langkawi as the first Geopark location in South East Asia.

At this moment a lot of orchid species are flowering, especially the slipper orchid (paphiopadilum) is really beautiful to see. This orchid can be spotted during one the mangrove trips. Also many butterflies are flying around, in the most beautiful and amazing colors. It is also season for the mango tree at this moment and that means that we have a lot of mango fruit, which is for me still one of the most delicious fruits I know.

Our company has attended the International Bird Race at Frasers’ Hill. What an amazing number of bird species we saw there and there are complete different species than we are used to on Langkawi. As Frasers’ Hill is located in a mountain area (up to 1,500 meters) it is very different

(and difficult) for us to identify certain species. Totally 100 participants were joining this race and within 24 hours every team had to make his own list of birds. We finally finished with 46 different species (of which 16 species were new for me) and that was enough to win a price in the beginners category. We were the 4th best in this category and our price were some nice books with a lot of photos of Frasers’ Hill birds. Most of the teams were from Asia, but there were also teams from overseas and finally an British team won with 92 (!) species.

The walks at the Berjaya resort are a great success. A lot of guests of Berjaya take the opportunity to join this walk and guests of other resorts have asked off this walk and for them we prefer to choose for an extra evening. The chance of spotting the flying lemur is 100% and spotting the flying squirrels (red giant or the pygmy) is almost 90%. The evening walks are more based on spotting the nocturnal flying animals and the morning walks are based on trees and birds.

At this moment we are working on some interesting and long term projects. This is taking a lot of our time as it needs preparation, but it is a good investment for the future extension of our company. We are also busy preparing the photo gallery for this website and this gallery will be activated soon, so keep in touch with our website!

The last month we have been busy with various teambuilding activities for different groups. Through our website and through different resorts and agents we are working with we are getting more and more request for teambuilding activities. Last month we organized a jungle treasure hunt with some tasks during partially climbing the Mat Chinchang. We also organized a mangrove treasure hunt and beach games ending with a BBQ. Both days have been very successfully and at this moment we are preparing some new requests. We are actually able to organize everything the groups wish to experience, so feel free to contact us for any further information.

The Easter holidays gave us a short peak in the day trips but that weekend was on the same dates of the opening of Waterfestival on Langkawi which made the island full of locals that were only here for the Waterfestival, which was a great and well organized event on this island. The season has fully changed by now which means a regular (sometimes very heavy) rain shower, mostly during the evenings and nights and sometimes on the day, which will never last that long. The island is becoming greener and greener and more beautiful by that.

We started the nature walks for the guest of Berjaya Resort. Twice a week we organize a morning walk and twice a week an evening walk which is free for the guests of Berjaya and which will give them a good view on the nature and animal life on that resort.

In the meantime we have visited ourselves Perlis state and we found out that this smallest province of Malaysia is a wonderful state full of nature and a perfect birdwatching place. That made us decide to add a new day trip on our list and from now on it is possible to book a full day birdwatching trip to Perlis. Comprared to Langkawi a lot of different species can be spotted and we spotted over 60 different species on 1 day, like the lineated and blue-eared barbet, stork-billed kingfisher, black-and-yellow broadbill, black-thighed falconet and many others. As Perlis is only a 45 minutes boat ride from Langkawi it is a perfect day trip for birdwatching lovers.

During one of our kayak trips in the mangroves we were very lucky to meet some dolphins a few meters away from the kayaks. Our guests were very excited about this and some Scandinavian guests jumped directly into the water to swim with them and to make a video shot of these beautiful animals and this made this trip a very memorable one for all of the guests and of course for us as well. Being in the nature is never boring and will always give you many surprises, especially when you do not expect this and that is exactly the reason why we like to do our trips. Not one single trip is the same and it is always a surprise what we can be spotted. For any further information about our trips please have a look a the page about our trips and please feel free to contact us for any further needed information. Hope to meet you on this page next month.

We are proud and happy with our newest trip: nature cycling trip. This trip leads you in 3/3.5 hours through the paddy fields, kampongs and forest without using one of the main roads. We tested the trip ourselves thoroughly and it is a complete different experience of Langkawi while riding a bicycle and we trust that our guests will enjoy this trip as much as we enjoyed it ourselves! For any further information about this trip please check the page with our trips.

During the last week of February it started raining in the nights and this was more than welcome after a few dry months which made the nature less green than it used to be. The temperature is quite high with a reasonable level of humidity which made us decide to provide the guests with more water during the trips. Especially during mangrove kayaking and jungletrekkings it is very important to keep on drinking enough. The month of February was a steady month for our company and we have had a lot of variation in our trips. During the celebrations of Chinese New Year we had a peak in our bookings and a lot of Asians coming from China and Hong Kong joined one of our trips.

We did several birdwatching trips with guests without any birdwatching experience and we were really happy to hear that after the trip of 4 hours they seemed to be totally in for birdwatching and were asking which binoculars they had to buy for themselves as they expect to develop their birdwatching skills more and more in the future. But with or without experience everybody is able to spot the most beautiful and even rare birds. So was the black shouldered kite spotted (that seems to control the airport area now) as well as the banded kingfisher. Even the woodpeckers gave us the possibility to spot them. The Great Slaty Woodpecker, the Greater Flameback and the Laced Woodpecker have been spotted and this was almost 4 months ago that we spotted them, although we could always hear them.

The Dipterocarp (medium hard wood tree) is beginning to flower and some even to fruit. And also the Eulophia Andamanensis (orchid) is flowering, which is normal for this time. Usually the flowers are totally green, but strangely the flowers are now not totally green but have a purple lip which makes it very special. During different trips we spotted also a lot of Ratufa Bicolors (giant squirrel of 90 cm with black and tan colors) and this might have to do with the fact that different plants have started to fruit.

We have a lot of other ideas for new trips, but this will take a lot of time to investigate all the possibilities before we can sell it to our guests. In case of any ideas or remarks about our website or about eventual new trips you are more than welcome to give a reaction. We are open for any suggestion as long as it will fit in our company policy and nature thought. Feel free to send us an e-mail and hope to meet you again next month on this column page.

After a very busy beginning of the year with almost two trips every day the rest of the month January was quieter. Despite this, January turned out to be a good month for our company and we are slowly growing and getting more volume. The comments that we get through the feedback forms are also very positive. We have also guests coming on subsequent trips which we think as a great compliment. Through the response on the feedback forms we found out that the food served during the mangrove boat and mangrove kayak trip did not get the results that we had expected and therefore we decided to add a Thai soup to the existing package. We are now awaiting the results of this addition.

We have done a lot of interesting birdwatching trips last month and every trip resulted in an average of 30 spotted species of birds. We run the birdwatching trip in the morning but also at the end of the afternoon/beginning of the evening and both trips are giving different, but interesting results and it is hard for us to make a choice for the departure time. During the birdwatching trip we are working with a bird list with the names of all the existing birds on Langkawi and after the trip the list is for the guest. The highest number of spotted birds during one trip was 36 till now. We even spotted the white breasted waterhen with 3 chicks on one of the trips.

Our guests are mainly coming from Europe and we noticed that the guests on our trips are very nature minded and that means that we have exactly reached the right group of people. Last month we had some Russians on our trips and also guests of other east european countries (Poland, Latvia, former East Germany and Czech Republic) visited Langkawi. At this moment we see a number of butterflies on the island and we even spotted a flowering slipper orchid which is strange in this period of the year. Near the bat cave we discovered herbenaria and nervillia; these are terrestrial orchids, quite rare. Both species have not been recorded on Langkawi till now.

During one of the latest mangrove boat trips we were very lucky to see some dolphins, jumping in front of the boat and this was a really exiting view and the guests really enjoyed this. I am still doubting if I have spotted a dugong as it was not clear enough for me to make sure. During the mangrove kayak trip we are now regularly spotting otters. These small sea dogs are very afraid and can make a lot of noise, but on the other hand these animals are very curious.

During the next weeks we expect to be very busy as Chinese New Year will be celebrated and a lot of Asians will come for a holiday to Langkawi. In the meantime we are working on some new trips and I hope that I can inform you about at least one of the new trips in my next column that will be on our website in the beginning of March.

Last month was a quite interesting month for a lot of people on Langkawi. Normally December is a month without rain but till now there have been some heavy rainfall which we always welcome with open arms as this will keep nature greener. Also the high season is starting later than we are used to and many people seem to await the big discounts of Malaysian Airlines for 2007. For Christmas, Langkawi was almost fully booked and lots of guests have enjoyed some of our nature trips.

These last weeks our mangrove kayak trip and jungletrek seemed to be the most attractive trips for the guests. We did several jungletreks in different areas with different duration (from an easy 3 hour trek to a quite difficult 6 hour trek; everything is possible on request) and there were also some children (under 12) joining these trips and the children really loved to be in the jungle. At the end of the trip it is always very hard to get them out of the jungle. During the different treks we spotted a very big monitor lizard (2 – 2.5 metres) and also a fruit bat was spotted. We also made a new trip, that is a combination of a jungletrek and an evening walk where we can spot flying squirrels and flying lemurs. This trip is especially suitable for families with children to get a good impression of the jungle and evening life in the jungle within a few hours.

In the meantime I went ‘back to school’ for a nature hospitality course for 2 days. These courses are held regularly to update the knowledge of guides in Malaysia and are always very useful and interesting. The Government also decided to plant 1000 new mangrove trees in Kuala Teriang where we have been to help them. During the latest tsunami the mangroves worked as a shock absorber and showed to be good protection to save Langkawi from a lot of damage and the planting was now mentioned as an extra protection for the area of Kuala Teriang.

It seems that the great hornbills that used to be in the area of Gunung Area have moved to the Datai area. In this area we now regularly spot one of more great hornbills and we even happened to spot wreathed hornbills. In the night we were even happy to have spotted a buffy fish owl which is quite rare. As most of the migratory birds can be spotted on Langkawi up to February we hope to do a lot of birdwatching trips in the next weeks.

Thanks for visiting our website and welcome to my first column. In this column I will try to give a monthly update of the various natural experiences on Langkawi. Actually I really do not know where to start as every day is full of beautiful experiences: an orchid in bloom, a migratory bird or a meeting with an unexpected animal; it is all possible on Langkawi.

As we have just started this company my business partner and I have been very busy establishing Dev's Adventure Tours. The coming months, which will be high season in this area, we will focus on our eco trips like exploring the mangroves by kayak or by boat, birdwatching, jungletrekking and evening/morning walks. In the meantime we are working on other new 1-day and more-days trips on Langkawi and the mainland of Malaysia. Another important part of our company is organizing teambuilding activities and you will find more specific information about our nature trips and teambuilding activities on the other pages.

I have seen a lot of migratory birds in the last weeks like the common buzzard, grey faced buzzard, black capped kingfisher. But the big surprise of this month is the positive identification of 3 orchids, i.e. Hebenaria, Nevrillia and an Alba of the sphatoglatis. During the last trip to Belum Forest on the mainland (for more information about this jungletrekking please refer to the page of more days trips) we were lucky to see a wild elephant and hundreds (approx. 600) of plain pouched hornbills. During my evening walks I regularly spot different types of flying squirrels, the flying lemur and there may be evenings that I am able to spot another pygmy flying squirrel, still not positively identified. As I really love to tell the guests about the animals and to show them, it is actually much more easier to talk about and show a plant or tree and that is only because of the fact that they are still on the same place every time and are not able to run away...

As we really appreciate your opinion about our trips, the website and other information given by us please feel free to send us an e-mail with your comments and/or questions. This will give us the opportunity to improve our quality and service level. I hope you will visit our website regularly and hope to meet you in my next column.