Langkawi Malaysia 12th April 1980

When I first started working for Blue Circle Cement in 1970 one of my fellow geologists had just come back from an assignment in Langkawi Malaysia. I was impressed by his stories of this island paradise in the Strait of Malacca near the Thai border but never thought I would ever go there.

Wind on 10 years & I was living in North Sumatra and discovered that a short flight from Medan to Penang followed by a shorter flight by light aircraft northward would take me to the small airport at Langkawi.

It was well worth the trip and the unspoilt island was a delight.

It remained a quiet backwater until 1986, when the Malaysian Prime Minister transformed it into a major tourist resort. A large international airport was built and the island rapidly grew as a tourist destination, and by 2012, it received over three million tourists a year.