Langkawi

Langkawi, officially known as Langkawi the Jewel of Kedah (Malay: Langkawi Permata Kedah) is an archipelago of 104 islands in the Andaman Sea, some 30 km off the mainland coast of northwestern Malaysia. The islands are a part of the state of Kedah, which is adjacent to the Thai border. On 15 July 2008, Sultan Abdul Halim of Kedah had consented to the change of name to Langkawi Permata Kedah in conjunction with his Golden Jubilee Celebration. By far the largest of the islands is the eponymous Langkawi Island with a population of some 64,792, the only other inhabited island being nearby Tuba Island. Langkawi is also an administrative district with the town of Kuah as largest town. Langkawi is a duty-free island.

Etymology

The name Langkawi is thought to have existed by the early 15th century, although in the 16th century the island of Langkawi was also marked on maps variously as Langa, Langka, Lansura, and Langapura.

There are many suggestions for the origin of the name of Langkawi. According to one interpretation, Langkawi means island of the reddish-brown eagle in colloquial Malay. The Malay word for eagle is helang - which is shortened to "lang", while kawi is the name of a red stone used as a chalk to mark goods. This interpretation was used to create the landmark sculpture of an eagle as the symbol of Langkawi at Dataran Helang (Eagle Square) in Kuah.

Malaysia

Coordinates: 2°30′N 112°30′E / 2.500°N 112.500°E / 2.500; 112.500

Malaysia (ⁱ/məˈleɪʒə/ mə-LAY-zhə or ⁱ/məˈleɪsiə/ mə-LAY-see-ə; Malaysian pronunciation: [məlejsiə]) is a federal constitutional monarchy located in Southeast Asia. It consists of thirteen states and three federal territories and has a total landmass of 329,847 square kilometres (127,350 sq mi) separated by the South China Sea into two similarly sized regions, Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia (Malaysian Borneo). Peninsular Malaysia shares a land and maritime border with Thailand and maritime borders with Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia. East Malaysia shares land and maritime borders with Brunei and Indonesia and a maritime border with the Philippines and Vietnam. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. With a population of over 30 million, Malaysia is the 44th most populous country. The southernmost point of continental Eurasia, Tanjung Piai, is in Malaysia. Located in the tropics, Malaysia is one of 17 megadiverse countries on earth, with large numbers of endemic species.

Guide book

A guide book or travel guide is "a book of information about a place, designed for the use of visitors or tourists". Travel guides can also take the form of travel websites such as the free and open Wikivoyage.

It will usually include full details relating to accommodation, restaurants, transportation, and activities. Maps of varying detail and historical and cultural information are often included. Different kinds of guide books exist, focusing on different aspects of travel, from adventure travel to relaxation, or aimed at travelers with different incomes, or focusing on sexual orientation or types of diet.

History

Antiquity

A forerunner of the guidebook was the periplus, an itinerary from landmark to landmark of the ports along a coast. A periplus such as the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea was a manuscript document that listed, in order, the ports and coastal landmarks, with approximate intervening distances, that the captain of a vessel could expect to find along a shore. This work was possibly written in the middle of the 1st century CE. It served the same purpose as the later Roman itinerarium of road stops.

Langkawi Sky Bridge

Langkawi Sky Bridge is a 125-metre (410 ft) curved pedestrian cable-stayed bridge in Malaysia, completed in 2005. The bridge deck is located 660 metres (2,170 ft) above sea level at the peak of Gunung Mat Chinchang on Pulau Langkawi, an island in the Langkawi archipelago in Kedah. The Langkawi Sky Bridge can be reached by first taking the Langkawi Cable Car to the top station, where an inclined lift called SkyGlide takes visitors from the top station to the bridge.

The bridge was closed in July 2012 for maintenance and upgrading. The reopening was put off several times, but it partially reopened in February 2015. The bridge is now fully accessible.

Design and construction

Design and layout

The bridge is 125 meters long, and 1.8 meters wide (the middle section has a wider walkway), with two steel railings as well as steel wire mesh on either sides. It is designed as a curved walkway to maximise the viewing experience, providing shifting perspective as a visitor walks along the bridge. The walkway, formed of steel and concrete panels set on top of an inverted triangular truss, connects two hilltops at Gunung Mat Chinchang. The first 25m of the bridge is straight, following 3 curved 25m sections, then a final straight 25m section. At each end of the walkway, the bridge has a 3.6m-wide triangular viewing platform that serves as resting and viewing areas for visitors.

Skyway

In an urban setting, a skyway, catwalk, skybridge, or skywalk is a type of pedway consisting of an enclosed or covered bridge between two or more buildings. This protects pedestrians from the weather. These skyways are usually owned by businesses, and are therefore not public spaces (compare with sidewalk). However, in Asia, such as Bangkok's skywalks, they are built and owned separately by the city government, connecting between privately run rail stations or other transport with their own footbridges, and run many kilometers. Skyways usually connect on the first few floors above the ground-level floor, though they are sometimes much higher, as in Petronas Towers, SWFC, and Kingdom Centre. A notable exception in North America are the Saint Paul skyways, which are publicly owned, unlike most skyways in North America. The space in the buildings connected by skyways is often devoted to retail business, so areas around the skyway may operate as a shopping mall. Non-commercial areas with closely associated buildings, such as university campuses, can often have skyways and/or tunnels connecting buildings.