Malaysia was a cruise stop on the Seabourn Encore in December 2023 — we docked at Porto Malai on the island of Langkawi, on our way down through the Strait of Malacca toward Singapore.
We took the Langkawi Cable Car (the SkyCab) up to the top of Gunung Mat Cincang, the second-highest peak on the island. It is one of the steeper cable car rides in the world, and the views back down over the rainforest and the Andaman Sea were genuinely incredible. There is a Sky Bridge at the top — a curved pedestrian bridge cantilevered out over the valley — and on a clear day you can see all the way to Thailand.
After that we did a tour through the rice paddy fields where we learned about how rice is harvested and processed, which sounds boring on paper but is genuinely interesting in person. We sailed out of Langkawi that evening through what is sometimes called the 99 islands — a beautiful cluster of small uninhabited islands you cruise past en route to Singapore.
Langkawi is not somewhere we would book a dedicated trip to from the US, but as a cruise stop it was perfect — a low-pressure day, beautiful scenery, and a chance to set foot in Malaysia. If we were planning a real Malaysia trip we would add Kuala Lumpur and probably Penang for the food. If you find yourself in Langkawi for a day, do the SkyCab and the Sky Bridge first thing in the morning before it clouds over.