With free time to spare—we arrived very early in Langkawi from Penang and our room at Mercure Langkawi Pantai Cenang was still unavailable—we decided to visit one of Langkawi’s most popular tourist spots, the Underwater World Langkawi.
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| KID A AND BG AT PANTAI CENANG BEACH |
Located at the southern end of Pantai Cenang or Cenang Beach, it can easily be accessed by booking Grab cars, passing taxis, or simply by walking—that is if you’re staying along the Pantai Cenang area of Langkawi like us. So, walk we did.
BOOKING TICKETS
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| UNDERWATER WORLD LANGKAWI FACADE DURING EVENINGS |
Underwater World Langkawi tickets can be bought straight from their lobby or online via booking apps.
We had ours via Klook, which has discounts. Redemption was quite easy, we simply showed our online booking, they scanned it, gave us physical tickets, and we’re in.
UNDERWATER WORLD LANGKAWI
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| KID A AT THE UNDERWATER WORLD LANGKAWI |
Dubbed as one of the largest marine and freshwater oceanarium in South East Asia, Underwater World Langkawi hosts more than four thousand animals and aquatic life forms along its sprawling grounds. It is divided into three major sections, which are further subdivided into eleven areas.
TEMPERATE SECTION
The first area we explored was Underwater World Langkawi’s Temperate Section. It’s really not the first area you’ll see at the aquarium, but we entered UWL just in time for the penguin feeding, and those are located in this section.
To get there, we passed a few sectors, but backtracking is allowed, so no problem there.
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| AFRICAN BLACK-FOOTED PENGUINS AT THE UNDERWATER WORLD LANGKAWI |
The Temperate Section features around sixty African black-footed penguins, which you can see above and below water—they have a mini eight-meter aquarium tunnel where you can view penguins swiftly swimming underwater. These guys are fast!
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| UWL’S EIGHT-METER AQUARIUM TUNNEL |
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| THE HYPER-ACTIVE SOUTH AMERICAN SEAL |
They also have a separate enclosure for their South American fur seal, this animal is overwhelmingly huge and you can really feel its power underwater when viewed up close.
SUB-ANTARCTIC SECTION
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| THE FUNKY LOOKING ROCKHOPPER PENGUINS AT UWL |
Right along this area is another section featuring penguins, twenty five rockhopper Penguins to be exact. Their enclosure looks similar to their black-footed counterparts, however, they don’t have an aquarium tunnel underneath. These rockhoppers are much cuter though, sporting their funky hair-style—which are actually yellow and black feathers.
PREVIEW TANK
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| THE PREVIEW TANK AND RIVER ECOSYSTEM |
After the penguin feeding demo, we backtracked to the first section of Underwater World Langkawi, the Freshwater Area which has the aptly titled Preview Tank—a preview of what you’ll see on the oceanarium. But to be fair, this is hardly a cross-section of what Underwater World Langkawi has to offer, they have more.
The main attraction of this area is the so-called Jurassic fish, the arapaima. It is the largest freshwater fish on Earth and can grow to more than eight feet. There are also wallago catfish and freshwater stingrays.
RIVER ECOSYSTEM
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| CHINESE WATER DRAGON |
Just across is the River Ecosystem area, a series of three connecting tanks depicting a river ecosystem. Still part of the Freshwater Section, it features freshwater fishes from all over the world. Besides these, it also has a collection of unique reptiles such as Chinese water dragons, Indonesian blue-tongued skink, and a host of snakes.
TROPICAL RAINFOREST
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| UNDERWATER WORLD LANGKAWI’S TROPICAL RAINFOREST AREA |
Moving inwards, an open-air area simulating a tropical rainforest features pink flamingos—a favorite of Kid A—and free-roaming birds like cockatoos, macaws, ruddy shelducks, and colorful pheasants. Also, be on the lookout for cute marmoset monkeys scurrying above the trees.
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| PINK FLAMINGOS AT UNDERWATER WORLD LANGKAWI |
Right in the middle of the rainforest is a massive tank home to gigantic strange-looking fishes that looks straight out of Jurassic Park—knifefishes, giant gouramies, and arowanas.
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| HUGE JURASSIC-LOOKING FISHES AT UWL |
TOUR BREAK
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| THE REQUISITE TOURIST SHOT FOR KID A |
The rainforest exits into the penguin area, which we have already explored. Then to a photo gallery where your photos are taken for the requisite souvenir photo at the end of the tour. A mini café, and finally, to the oceanarium area of Underwater World Langkawi.
HEXAGONAL TANK & TUNNEL TANK
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| A VIEW OF THE HEXAGONAL TANK FROM THE TUNNEL TUNK |
The largest aquarium in Underwater World Langkawi is their Hexagonal Tank. It is 70,000 liters large and is home to black tip sharks, white tip sharks, huge manta rays, turtles, Pakistani butterflyfish, Madras snapper, and an astoundingly large 600-kilogram groper fish.
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| THE BIGGEST GROPER FISH I’VE EVER SEEN |
A fifteen-meter long aquarium tunnel cuts across the tank and from here, you can even see a sunken ship wreck. This, for us, was the highlight of Underwater World Langkawi.
KOI POND
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| A BREATHER AT THE KOI POND |
After that intense experience, we were able to breathe out at the Koi Pond area—a small open-aired section filled with tropical vegetation, a faux waterfall, and a pond. Along the water swims numerous Japanese native carps popularly known as kois. There are also sultan fishes and chichids, although, to my untrained eye, I only saw kois, lol.
INVERTEBRATE / CORAL REEF / VENOMOUS & POISONOUS SECTIONS
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| SHELL OF PRICKLY KING CRAB ON DISPLAY |
Before exiting, we passed through the final area showcasing sea invertebrates, coral reef fishes, and poisonous creatures. These are housed in smaller aquariums and display cases for taxidermized animals, which are no less interesting.
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| A TYPICAL JELLYFISH DISPLAY AND OF COURSE, NEMOS |
And a favorite for everyone is, of course, the tank containing clown fishes or Nemos. I also dig the jellyfish area, which was quite psychedelic.
SOUVENIR SHOP & SHOPPING AREA
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| DUTY FREE SHOPPING AREA |
Visitors exit through the Langkawi Underwater World souvenir shop and The Zon Duty Free shop. The whole of Langkawi is duty free, so you can find these tax-free shops anywhere. To be fair, even if it’s a tourist trap, The Zon is one of the more extensive duty free stores around Langkawi.
MCDONALD’S LANGKAWI
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| LUNCH AT MCDONALD’S UNDERWATER WORLD LANGKAWI |
And to cap off our tour, we headed to McDonald’s for a somewhat local lunch of Nasi Lemak McD + Two-Piece Ayam Goreng Spicy. Yup, they have nasi lemak in McDonald’s complete with spicy chicken and sambal to boot!
There’s also a Starbucks within the building, but we weren’t able to check it out, I wonder if they have iced teh tarik there too.
~ BIG THANKS TO KLOOK FOR MAKING THIS TOUR POSSIBLE, VIEWS & OPINIONS ALL MINE
Underwater World Langkawi â–º BOOK TICKETS
Address: Jalan Pantai Cenang, Kedawang, Langkawi, Kedah, Malaysia
Contact Number: (604) 955-6100
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GPS Coordinates Map: 6.287708, 99.728583
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