Diving at Langkawi

The island of Langkawi is not really much known of as a diving destination as it is more known for its beaches and duty-free shopping. Although the corals here may not be as impressive as, say, the corals at Redang island, Langkawi does have its share of underwater sights. Diving is a whole year round affair. During the Northeast monsoon months(October to April) when the weather is not conducive to diving in the Redang marine park area(off Terengganu), lots of divers will come to Langkawi to dive. Of course, the water visibility around Langkawi island is none too good, so most divers normally head out to the Pulau Payar Marine Park off Langkawi where the visibility is much better.

Eileen and I diving in the Langkawi waters.

Pulau Payar
Pulau Payar is a small uninhabited island and it takes about an hour to reach by speedboat from Langkawi. Because of the distance, a dive operator will normally take divers out for the whole day for two dives. After the first dive in the morning, the dive operator will provide lunch on the boat or on a nearby island. It is possible to land on Pulau Payar for lunch, toilets, and whatnots. However, nobody is allowed to stay and camp overnight on the island.

	Eileen holding a piece of fried chicken(actually her lunch) and playing with some fish at Pulau Payar. The fish here are friendly.
	The fish turned out to be little black tipped sharks which grabbed the chicken from her hand. Of course, one should know better than to play with her food.

Pulau Segantang
This island is only a tiny rock protruding above the water surface. It has a artificial reef made from discarded old tyres and one can see quite a varied sealife there. Of course, nowadays, tyres are not used anymore for artificial reefs as more environmental friendly materials are available.

	A shoal of anchovies swirling about in the middle of the tyre. A pair of baby moray eels lived in the tyre and obviously do not have to travel far for lunch.
	This huge lionfish was beautiful. It hovered almost motionless at the same spot and made quick lunges at the shoal of anchovies swimming nearby.

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