We also stopped for a shot of the Cement Factory which was along the way. The Cement Factory is apparently the only factory on the island of Langkawi. I'd seen smoke rising from the factory's chimmeys and the barges carrying sand and cement when our fishing boat was at Datai Bay and was curious how old and large this factory was. However, for security reasons, we decided to just take a picture from the main road rather than turn in the small lane leading to the factory.
I also took this picture of the sky when we stopped for the shot above, because I thought it was beautiful. I hardly ever get to see scenes like this given my sleeping and work habits hah.
It took us quite a while to find the crocodile farm even though we had a map provided by the car rental company. We took the right road - which is the road leading towards Datai Bay, however, contrary to what was shown on the map, the distance to the farm is rather far and we started to doubt if we were on the right road or if there was such a farm even. Seriously, the maps of the island are not drawn to scale and one should think long and hard before trying to walk/cycle to the attractions shown on the map. Anyhow, we finally came across a sign board which assured us that we were on the right track and we continued until we came to the lane leading to the crocodile farm. I didn't pay for the tickets so I can't remember the entrance fee but I think it is relatively cheap - about RM 15 max if I am not wrong.
You have to ASK the two folks at the gate for a map of the farm (which they provided after we asked) if you want to know what the attractions are instead of blindly walking in circles. And, I really doubt that there are a thousand crocodiles there as the farm claims, probably in the low hundreds but then again, they may have be counting those baby crocs/crocs in eggs/crocs hidden elsewhere. Anyway, using the map provided, we started off at the Breeding Pond which consisted of pens laid side by side with one or two crocs in each pen. The crocs are apparently at different stages of development. Like this fellow below which I took a shot off because it was missing a tail.
Not too sure why there is a monkey in a pen in the middle of the farm. I don't think it's bred to be fed to the crocs or there would be more monkeys in the pen. This doesn't appear to be a very friendly, attractive or special monkey so not much time was wasted on the creature haha :D
Then there are the large ponds which thankfully do not smell too awful. Crocs sunbathing, crocs in the water, crocs with their mouths open, crocs with their mouths close...u get the idea!
The star attraction of the Crocodile Farm is a deformed crocodile known as the Bujang Kawi and is said to weigh about 1000 lbs. I am not too sure what 500kg looks like but this croc doesn't look that heavy. Maybe crco meat is dense - I'm not sure, but maybe it's the same way this place is said to have 1000 crocs.
A close-up of the deformed crocodile, Bujang Kawi. Even with a snout like that (which I read, contains no teeth), I've never seen eyes as mean as that of a croc save on a snake's and have no wish to get close to this...thing.
The croc below looked particularly frightening so I took a close-up pic of it. I'm not sure if crocs sleep with their eyes wide open and their mouths too - the mouth was open for quite some time and the weather was turning warm which had me wondering how crocs don't get hang jaw or require saliva in the mouth. Reptilian creatures!
Of course, we crossed the bridge over the pond where crocs of all sizes lay around and in the waters. I prayed of course that an earthquake wouldn't hit langkawi when I was crossing the bridge - falling into the water with lots of crocs is low on my list of fun things to do before I die.
We went over to the feeding pond at 10.30am which was the scheduled time for the feeding session ( a different time from that stated on the map!). Using a pulley-like devise, the staff strings bunches of fish down the line to a level slightly higher than the pond (see the pic I took below) and the hungry crocs make the way to where the fish dangle above their heads. At first, the crocs didn't even seem to notice there was food so the staff shook the pulley and made some whistling noises. And then the crocs came. No hurry. No fighting. No pushing. Out of the about thirty crocs in the pond, only about 4 came for the food. Each croc circled in the water near the food before rising up magnificantly (do they stand on tails? How do they get the leverage in the water to rise their immense bulk up at such close range) to seize the food. Some of them actually chomped the food with their jaws above the water while others sank back into the water before beginning their feast.
We left after that so we didn't see any man-put-head-in-croc or man-wrestle-with-croc stunts, if these stunts were even performed given the rather dismal state of things at the croc farm, on a weekday at least.
The Slog Reviews: 5/10. This attraction definitely should not be rated high on a must-do or must-see list unless one hasn't seen crocs before (there IS a croc farm in Singapore afterall!). However, the fee for entry is reasonable enough and one can buy croc leather goods at the souvenir shops - be warned though that the prices of the leather products aren't cheap or at least, cheaper than at other places or even in Singapore.
The address of the Crocodile Farm is : Jalan Datai, Kubang Badak Mukim Air Hangat Langkawi 07000 Malaysia and the telephone number: 604 955 2559
Tel: 604 955 2559
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