NEVER TOO FAR AWAY

Just a short flight from Singapore, The Ritz-Carlton, Langkawi offers a surprisingly immersive escape into nature, culture, and sensory indulgence.

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“MAMA, WHY IS he walking?”

I turn just in time to see a buggy slowing to a stop beside me. A little girl with plaited hair is sitting in the back with her mother. It’s the fourth buggy to pull up alongside me. Like the three before, the driver—and their passengers—gesture for me to hop on. And like the three before, I smile sheepishly and decline.

You see, The Ritz-Carlton, Langkawi is a sprawling 42-hectare resort. Only the bold, or foolish, attempt to walk from one end to the other. But for the sake of giving you, dear reader, a true sense of its scale, I’m happy to play the fool.

It has been 25 minutes since I first began walking from Hai Yan, the ritzy Chinese restaurant located at its southernmost end, to the arrival lodge. If you’re a single-minded traveller, you’ll easily put that time to shame. But the resort, with its vibrant manicured greens, teeming wildlife, and towering trees that provide ample shade, makes it easy to slow down to a leisurely stroll and take in its flourishing flora and fauna.

A Sprawling Garden

The Ritz-Carlton, Langkawi is only 10 minutes away from the island’s airport—a fact that is difficult to compute once you arrive. Surrounded by a thick, 10-million-year-old rainforest, the resort has a way of enveloping you in nature, drawing you into its quiet rhythms and making you forget just how close you are to the outside world.

This effect, of course, is accentuated by the lush greenery that is interwoven within the resort. Appearing to live symbiotically with the buildings, pathways, and structures, the flora here has an almost subdued exuberance, as though every plant and tree has been carefully maintained to look organic. I later learn that the resort has over 50 landscapers who are dedicated to shaping and pruning every inch of its grounds.