My mum took me to the Ritz-Carlton Langkawi a while ago. I went to The Eco-Discovery Centre (or EDC) when we were there. It is a place for kids to learn more about the flora and fauna that can be found at the Ritz-Carlton Langkawi.
The EDC is a part of the Ritz Kids programme and is located right next to the Ritz Kids center. The EDC has a lower floor which has several visual learning tools and specimens from the resort. The upper floor is an observation deck where people can (well, attempt) to find animals like butterflies, birds, or monkeys. It is rather tough to find them though or it could be that I just had bad timing.
Sea cucumbers and butterflies
One activity offered at the EDC is the eco-rangers programme, which includes two lessons; one on sea cucumbers and the other on butterflies. The eco-rangers activity is roughly two hours, since some kids may not ask questions (hence it will go faster) and some kids may ask a lot of questions, making it longer.
The point of this eco-rangers activity is to make kids more aware of the environment around them and why we should make an effort to live peacefully with nature without disrupting it.
The eco-rangers started with a little exploring in the EDC; I had time to look around and get familiar with the place. The EDC was actually surprisingly big and looked nice.
Once I was ready, the eco-rangers activity started, with a mini lesson on butterflies. Personally, I felt like it was going to be boring but it turned out to be fairly interesting; we learnt about the life cycle, the body parts and also how they’re valuable to/in the environment. They, rather interestingly, show whether a certain forest (or wherever they are) is healthy or not. Butterflies were once caterpillars, which means there has to be a good amount of flowers and leaves for them in the forest, which shows whether a certain environment is currently sustainable or not.
After that, while walking to the sea-cucumbers nursery, I was given a net and a box to ‘catch’ butterflies. It was hard and I didn’t bother after a while; especially with the sun shining mercilessly on that day.
Dare to touch a sea-cucumber?
Eventually, we reached the sea-cucumber nursery where there were several sea-cucumbers (or as the Ritz-Carlton calls it: super sea-cucumbers) in a big tub. There, my guide took out a sea-cucumber and invited me touch it. I refused to hold it though. We spent about 20 minutes there and my guide taught me about the sea-cucumbers, such as how they eat, etc.
To go with the ‘how they’re important’ theme, I was informed how they play a critical part in the ocean by cleaning the ocean floor of detritus (dead animals on the ocean floor). This allows corals and seagrass to grow better, since the floor is cleaner and the water has more oxygen available without the detritus. They also filter the sand and make the sand a lot cleaner, making them an important animal in the ocean environment.
After the visit at the nursery, we went back to the EDC where I filled in the sea-cucumber part of the worksheet. Once it was completed, I was allowed to just relax on the observatory deck of the EDC and look out for animals. Sadly, I couldn’t find any, but I was fine with that.
I also got to know that during the lockdown period, the staff made several changes to the resort to make it more environment friendly. They planted new types of flowers, made a greenhouse to grow their own herbs and also build a pen for ducks. This was nice to know, since it shows how committed the Ritz is to make this resort more eco-friendly.
Would you like to know what my mum thought of the hotel? Please find her review here!
This article was written by Caleb. The 12-year-old son of MakanMama was so eager to write about The Eco-Discovery Center, that he couldn’t wait to share his experience. Great job, Caleb!
