Langkawi is an archipelago of 99 rainforest islands off Malaysia's northwestern coast, where limestone towers rise straight out of jade-green water. The main island climbs to the sandstone ridge of Gunung Mat Cincang, and the walk everyone comes for is the curved Sky Bridge slung across the top of it, high above the canopy. Down at sea level are white-sand bays, tidal mangrove channels, and brahminy kites — the reddish-brown eagles the island is named after — dropping to the water between cliffs. The rock beneath all of it is the oldest in Southeast Asia, sandstone that began forming more than 550 million years ago.
Most visitors meet that landscape from above. A cable car climbs Mat Cincang in about fifteen minutes. It is a Guinness record-holder for the longest free-span mono-cable line, and steep enough at 42 degrees to press you into your seat. The ride opens onto rainforest, waterfalls, and, on clear days, the Thai islands across the strait. The Sky Bridge itself is a curved 125-metre walkway, hung from a single pylon 660 metres up with nothing but canopy below. Down at sea level a quieter Langkawi waits: the white sand of Pantai Cenang, the sheltered bay of Tanjung Rhu, and boat trips into the Kilim mangroves. A boardwalk there runs through a limestone cave hung with a few thousand roosting bats. The island is a duty-free zone and stays busy year-round, but a road climbs Gunung Raya, higher than Mat Cincang at 881 metres, through forest where hornbills cross the tarmac.