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Flights were great (although no seat allocation wasn't ideal). Both hotels are fantastic (Park Royal is very family orientated - thank goodness for the adults pool). All in all, a great trip.
We have had assistance from Jonathan on a number of occasions and he has always delivered prompt, courteous and supportive service. The costs through DialAFlight are always competitive and everything is always explained fully. I always recommend this travel company
So happy with the booking process and our holiday. Will definitely be back! Freddie was great.
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Excellent flights as always. Huge thank you to Alex and his team for taking care of every detail. Looking forward to the next time .
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Fantastic response to resolving an issue whereby our Qatar flights were cancelled at the last minute when we tried to check in at the airport.
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Superb organisation and communication from Owen to get this amazing trip booked quickly and exactly to our liking. Thank you!
Good and effective liaison as always. I wasn't impressed by Air France - (delays, poor provisions on board, lack of entertainment but good staff) otherwise all good.
Wonderful company, so helpful. Best I have ever dealt with.
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There is a reason I keep coming back to DialAFlight but this holiday exceeded expectations. Langkawi - what a place. Wayne did us proud. Truly the trip of a lifetime.
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Michael did a fantastic job. We were well taken care of and it was excellently planned.
Excellent seats in Business pre-arranged by Curtis. All smooth until return from Mongolia but even then Curtis was on the case and noticed we had missed the connection in Istanbul & contacted me. Very impressive. We highly recommend him and DialAFlight and have put several friends his way in past years!
The third time I have booked through DialAFlight and have received an excellent service. A very friendly and professional company.
As always, the service and attention to detail was perfect. Thank you Grant; here's to my next trip.
This is our 6th trip booked through DialAFlight and have recommended to family and friends who have also booked multiple trips with them now too. Can’t recommend enough!
The morning’s topic of conversation has turned to the strangler fig. The parasite in question stands there tall, defiant, wrapping its sinuous energy around the ironwood tree which has found itself the choking focus of its attention.
Five yards away, Irshad Mobarak breathes deeply and prepares to play devil’s advocate. 'In the business world, this would be fully understood,' he muses, arm extended, tracing the long shape of the arboreal aggressor to his left. 'Just think of it as a hostile takeover.'
A powerfully built man, well over 6ft, he says these words with a composure that is impressive for two reasons. The first is that, directly behind him, a five-star resort swimming pool shines in the 10am daylight, the sun-worshippers around its fringes listening as they lie on loungers. The second is that one of Britain’s most fabled botanists is his main partner in this discourse. David Bellamy nods quietly as Mobarak speaks. He knows this stuff, of course – but he's happy to hear it from a fellow expert.
'The strangler fig has a terrible image problem,' Mobarak continues. 'It can take up to half a century to kill its host. Yet it has a positive effect. It only picks on trees which are past their best, which are going to die. The death brings nutrients and renewal which benefit the surrounding ecosystem.'
This might seem an odd topic for just after breakfast on a warm Friday in a luxury hotel. But then, the Datai is no ordinary hideaway. It is slotted into thick foliage on the north-west corner of Pulau Langkawi - the tropical island in the north-west corner of Malaysia.
This is Bellamy's second visit to the Datai, having stayed 13 years ago when he was a speaker on conservation at the 2002 Asia Pacific Ecotourism Conference (Apeco). The two men forged an immediate connection – and Mobarak was meeting his hero.
'I grew up watching David on television,' he grins. 'I was weaned on his shows. When I was nine, my father asked me what I wanted to be. I recall pointing at the TV and saying "I want to be like him". His enthusiasm was infectious.'
Now 82, Bellamy still looks at nature around him with a fascinated eye and the jungle still holds great allure for him.
He is staying at the Datai with Rosemary, his wife of 55 years. Mobarak has been The Datai’s resident nature expert since it opened in 1993. The resort revels in creature comforts – 125 rooms, villas and suites; a small spa near the beach of powdery white sand; four enticing restaurants, including The Dining Room, where miso-glazed black cod is served under the tutelage of executive chef Richard Millar; and the Naga Pelangi, a grand wooden schooner, anchored and ready to take guests on genteel cruises in search of orangeade sunsets.
Mobarak's nature walks are popular and informative. An evening amble with the Bellamys has barely started before Mobarak spots a local character. The colugo is an odd beast – a winged mammal which seems to be a close relation of the bat, but is nearer in genetics to the primate clan.
Camouflaged against a tree trunk, she suddenly - Mobarak can even tell the gender - switches from stillness to motion, racing up the bark before spreading her wings and gliding some 50ft down to the next cluster of branches. 'I’ve only ever seen these animals in books,' Bellamy admits, with a broad smile.
On verdant Langkawi there are options for exploration further afield.
Mobarak joins the Bellamys for a voyage along the Kilim River, chattering with his childhood hero about the cycads – fern-like plants so old that dinosaurs used to eat them – that hang on the rock walls here, and the crab-eating macaques which dart down to the water to grab crustaceans. Above, a pair of white-bellied sea eagles swoop and soar.
The day’s crowning episode is saved for last. Gunung Raya rears up at the heart of Langkawi – a 2,890ft granite bluff, 204 million years old. Its peak is a fine spot from which to watch the sun go down, when some of its bird population are at their most active.
And so it proves, midway up the mountain. Mobarak calls the car to a halt and beckons its passengers on to the roadside verge. A group of great hornbills – brightly exotic birds, with extravagantly curved bills, common and colourful inhabitants of the Malaysian heavens – has gathered in the canopy.
As the light starts to slip, they take off one by one from their perches, floating without any perceptible effort across to a meranti tree with ripe fruit. There they dine amid a whoosh of wings as the entire flock flutters in.
On the ground, the two naturalists stare at the scene in raptures.
First published in the Mail Online - January 2016
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