Ferry, Train and palm oil plantations

We reluctantly left the beach resort at Langkawi to catch the 7.30 ferry to Kuala Perla. The journey takes just over an hour and costs around £3.50. We then got a taxi to Arau railway station to get the 11.34 train to Kuala Lumpur the cost of that was less than £20 for the 5 hour journey. It is almost as cheap to fly from Langkawi to Kuala Lumpur but we wanted to sit back and see some of the countryside.

As it happens most of the view was taken up mostly with palm oil plantations. Not surprising as Malaysia is the second largest producer of palm oil in the world, with Indonesia being the largest. You can blame the British for that, as they introduced palm oil trees to Malaysia in the 1870s.

Due to the concerns of the social and environmental impact of palm oil, the Malaysian government have pledged to limit palm oil plantation expansion. There are talks of an EU ban on palm oil due to the concerns of deforestation should this happen it could affect Malaysia’s economy significantly. Even Iceland (the company not the country) have stopped using palm oil in their own make products. Does make you think.

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur on time in a torrential rain storm, quickly got a taxi to our accommodation which is the Fraser Residence, we have a very nice apartment on the 17th floor, with views overlooking the Petronas Tower.



























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