Langkawi trip report

A big tower comes to Cenang Beach, an inappropriate Dubai-like development, and yet another mediocre urban development that Malaysia does so well.

Langkawi is one of the largest islands in Malaysia, known for its natural beauty and eco-activities. The island has been recognised as a UNESCO World Geopark, so it would usually be an island that I leave off this site about urban development. There is one project, though, that looks completely out of place for this island, so I wanted to have a look for myself.

I wasn’t expecting to have enough to report about for Future Southeast Asia. I was island-hopping from Koh Lipe to Penang, and Langkawi is the island between these islands. As is usually the case, a boots-on-the-ground visit turned up more information than I expected.

I’ve made a list of the major projects at Future Langkawi, and this is my trip report for Langkawi in March 2023.

Cenang Beach

I stayed at Cenang Beach, which is the best area to stay in Langkawi if you want to be able to walk. I was surprised by how low-rise and undeveloped it is, though there are some new hotels here since my last visit. The Parkroyal recently opened, and Aloft has also opened.

The big project on the beach is Tropicana Cenang. There is a sales gallery on the site, so I went in for a look. The main tower will have 39 floors, and a Sheraton will be built next to it in the future.

Next to the Tropicana, the Nautilus Resort, Curio Collection by Hilton (the official mouthful-of-words name) is taking shape.

[Nautilus Resort, Curio Collection by Hilton]

Langkawi International Airport

Langkawi International Airport is close to Cenang Beach, so it’s a delight for planespotters to sit on the beach and watch planes land and take off. The airport has a mountain at one end, so all planes land and take off from the sea end of the runway.

There are not many flights, though, and I wondered where the flights come from. The only international flights are from Singapore.

It is near the airport where Widad Langkasuka is being built, so I rented a motorbike to have a look.

Widad Langkasuka

Widad Langkasuka is a land reclamation project that is shaped like an eagle. This has been compared to the artificial islands of Dubai. The project is a joint venture between Malaysian company Widad Business Group Sdn Bhd and Dubai-based Bin Zayed International LLC, adding weight to the Dubai comparisons.

Widad Langkasuka hasn’t started yet, so I knew that if I visited, I was just going to see a bunch of water. Despite that, I always like to see what these places look like before work begins. I also visited the watery site of the Penang South Islands project, so I can say that I remember when there was an open sea on the site.

I rode towards the airport and found that the area at the end of the runway has been boarded up in preparation for construction.

The boarded-up area continues along the western side of the airport. This is where the bulk of the land reclamation will be happening. After driving around the site and then flying out of Langkawi (because the ferry to Penang is not running), I fail to see the benefit of building this eagle-shaped project. Passengers on one side of the plane will get a glimpse of it for a few seconds, and perhaps some high-flying eagles will be confused about a giant eagle on the sea.

This is said to be inspired by the Palm and World island projects in Dubai. At least in Dubai, those projects are under the flight path of one of the busiest airports in the world. And even then, the World project has been an expensive failure. Then there is the environmental impact of burning fuel to reclaim the land, plus the dredging and untold amounts of imported sand to make the new islands.

Kuah

While Cenang is the main tourist area, Kuah is the main town of Langkawi. This is where the ferries for the mainland, Penang, and Koh Lipe (Thailand) depart from. It’s a typical small Malaysian town characterised by worn-out shophouses and streets that aren’t inviting to walk around.

Instead of building an enclave for rich people on reclaimed islands, Langkawi should put money into redeveloping the township of Kuah. This appeared to be a reality when I saw the advertising for Langkawi City. This is an urban development project on the main waterfront of Kuah. The project features the Maha Tower, which is the signature monument of the project.

The tower had just recently opened, and it looks good. I’m all for building monuments to make a city more attractive.

Unfortunately, the rest of the Langkawi City project is making the same old mistakes of urban Malaysia. Have a look at the feature image on the website, and you will see a row of shophouses to the left of the image. This row of shophouses is now completed, and here is what they look like.

The shophouses look like any other unremarkable shophouse row in Malaysia, and they are completely built for cars. It is surrounded by roads with no trees. The back of the block is a bare wall, and not somewhere you would want to walk around.

The planners had a blank slate to make something amazing here, and it appears they at least thought about it by building an architecturally interesting tower to anchor the project. This could have put Kuah on the map to the point that tourists would actually want to consider staying in Kuah instead of on the beach.

For example, they should have made a pedestrian plaza in front of the tower. You could then walk from the old city area towards the tower, and have a tree-lined pedestrian area filled with cafes. A wide pedestrian plaza would also serve to allow the city to get a good view of this expensive building (about $25 million USD). This Langkawi City is just going to look like any other boring city in Malaysia.