Kuala Lumpur Bird Park

KL Bird Park is big, covering an area of 21 acres, 3000 birds from 200 species, and what we like the most- it's free flight concept. Two third of the bird park is literally covered under a big aviary. Some rare species or aggressive birds are kept in smaller aviaries, sub-set to the big aviary. With this free flight concept, we have the chance to get really close to the birds, especially the storks, egrets, pelicans, peafowls, parrots, and pigeons. For us, it is a must visit site in KL, especially for the nature lovers.

Ficus trees outside of KL Bird Park (upper left), just opposite to the ticket counter (upper right). Station 14 of KL Hop-On Hop-Off (lower left), while taking a taxi is not a problem here.

Upon entering KL Bird Park, we were greeted by Love Birds in Love Aviary. Friendly green cheeked conure and Indian ring-necked parakeet warmly welcome all the visitors with their chirps.

Sun conure (upper left), green cheeked conure (lower left), and Indian ring-necked parakeet are some of the parrots in Love Aviary.

Our photo in Love Aviary.

The pond after the Love Aviary leads to the T-junction. Left, zone 3 and 4. Right, zone 2 of the park. So, left or right? Our advice, right first, where you will meet with pigeons and doves, and peafowls such as peacocks. Along the way, you will be greeted by song birds now and then. At Brahminy Land, eagles and owls awaits. After Brahminy Land, the main alley leads a round trip through zone 2, with a stream dotted with water birds- pelicans, storks, ibises, herons, etc. flows beside the alley,

The pond after Love Aviary. The T-junction is just at the bridge far left of this photo.

Black-naped oricle is one of the song birds available in the aviary (upper left), Victoria crowned pigeon (upper right), peacock the peafowl (lower left), and great argus pheasant are some of the free moving birds in zone 1 and zone 2. Btw, the Victorian crowned pigeons are a little too fat and lazy to fly :-p

One of the peacock is following Betty, wish to get some food (left). The park is wheelchair friendly.

The stream for the water birds.

Yellow billed stork (upper left), egret (upper right), scarlet ibis (lower left), and you might come across a cute tame pelican rests on the bridge and stays for photography sessions.

The highlight of zone 1- Flamingo Pond and Bul Bul Land, both opposite to each other. Flamingo Pond, filled by water birds, backgrounded by a waterfall. Bul Bul Land is a well-landscaped small aviary with cute birds. We like the Mandarin Ducks the best.

Mandarin duck really knows the best place to stay during hot afternoon (upper left). Superb starling (upper right), red-crested pochard (lower left), and golden pheasants are some other birds available in Bul Bul Land.

Well landscaped Bul Bul Land (left). A carolina duck is resting beside the waterfall in Bul-Bul Land.

A side view of Flamingo Pond from Flamingo Kiosk.

Zone 3 can be reached from zone 1. What we were able to see in zone 3- two oriental pied hornbills and a rhino hornbill flying freely in the aviary, while the rest of the hornbills were caged. The best part of this zone is the Hornbill Restaurant and Cafe. The restaurant has an open space corridor where we can dine with the hornbills. We took a stop for lunch at the restaurant. The taste of the food, exceeded our expectation. The price... exceeded as well (around RM25 - 30 per person).

Doorway to zone 3- Hornbill Park (left). The oriental pied hornbill is one of the three hornbills that we noticed to fly freely in the aviary.

Hornbill Gift Shop, with the Hornbill Restaurant and Cafe on the third floor of the wooden building (left). A view from the open air dining area of the restaurant.

Lastly, zone 4, the largest zone for the bird park. Most of the area in zone 4 occupied by flightless birds, eg. ostrich, emu, cassowary are not covered with net. However, still the aviaries are the highlights here. First, the World of parrots- an aviary where we met with many human friendly parrots. Beware, as they will treat all the food that we brought as a free treat from us.

The rainbow parakeets and red lory are well domesticated without fear or shy to the "food bringers".

The World of Parrots is one of the gathering place for visitors.

The Waterfall Aviary exhibits a really nice landscape with waterfall and lakes around the aviary. However, about the birds, nothing more special than storks, peafowls, and some flamingos.

Our photo behind the waterfall.

The bird show at amphitheater, although it is not the 5 stars stuff of performance, but at least guaranteed some entertainment.

Some other cages of birds in zone 4 (upper left). Most of the alley is covered by sunshade. Bird gallery and the education station is not very attractive (upper right). More materials should be added in future. We can take photo with various birds in the photo booth in zone 4 (lower left). The food kiosk, resting area and toilets are handicap-friendly.

The strategic location of KL Bird Park at Taman Tasik Perdana (Lake Garden) make it a most accessible bird park in Malaysia, with just 30 minutes by foot from KL Commuter Station, or from KL Central Station. Taxi from KL city center costs RM15, which will take around 10 minutes, without traffic jam. KL Hop-On Hop-Off? The bird park is on station 14. The entrance fee, for Malaysian adult and child are RM20 and RM10 respectively (don't forget to bring your MyKad), for foreigners, RM45 and RM35 respectively.

The opening hour of the park is 9 am - 6 pm daily. The bird park is big and for us, we spent more than 3 hours in it. Please take note of the feeding hour for eagle at Brahminy Land at 2:30 pm (most interesting for us), and the bird shows on 12:30 pm and 3:30 pm. While the ostrich feeding and lory feeding (both in zone 4) are open whole day long. Ostrich feeding is free, while the lory, RM2 per package of food.

Food and beverages are available in the park, but expensive. Bring along some snacks and drinks are highly recommended. Besides, a hat to block the blazing sun and the direct hit of the bombs" from the birds atop, and sport shoes to cruise over the slippery floor are necessary.

For more information of KL Bird Park, please visit the official webpage of KL Bird Park. Or call the park hotline +603-22721010.

Other attractions nearby the bird park are the Butterfly Park, National Planetarium, National Museum, National Mosque, Merdeka Square, and the historical building of Sultan Abdul Samad and Keretapi Tanah Melayu (Malayan Railway). All the attractions mentioned are within 30 - 40 minutes of walking distance.

For our sharing on the attractions nearby, please visit:

[KL National Planetarium] [KL National Museum] [Aquaria KLCC]
[All Our Destinations]

National Zoological Park

Zoo Negara or National Zoological Park is BIG- 110 acres with more than 5000 specimens, crosses over 450 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes. We spent a solid 5 Saturday hours there, from 10:30 am to 3:30 pm, and yet with last one hour "running with a brief glance" through the zoo, chased by exhaustion. The zoo was crowdy on the weekend, but yet to reach to maximum limit of 3000 visitors per day. Limiting the number of visitors is a good practice to spare some privacy for the animals.

Our photo at the main entrance of Zoo Negara.

Our first stop was the exhibit with giraffes. The giraffes were active, moving here and there in the exhibit. Then, we moved to the amphitheatre for the animal show. The main actors were two sealions, a "senior" parrot, a "young" hawk, and a "freshy" binturong.

 Our photo with giraffes. They were active and like to "march" in their exhibit.

Amphitheatre was full with visitors. Make sure that you come early to secure a nice seat. The theatre is nicely shaded.

After the show, we visited Tunku Abdul Rahman Aquarium with tropica fishes, the bee museum (run by private company from Malacca), and many species of animals before we took our lunch at The Wild Cafe. The cafe serves western food with reasonable price (around RM 8 per person). The aquarium was bigger than what we had expected, with good air conditioning, and most of the aquariums were well decorated and maintained. While for the bee museum, it looked more to a shop selling honey than a real museum.

Betty and Kelly at the entrance of the aquarium (upper left), inside the aquarium (upper right), the forest reserve beside the aquarium (lower left), and our photo just ourside the bee museum.

We continued our journey to Reptile House and Amphibian World, Savannah Walk with a really large area of grassland, with zebras, ostriches, sable antelopes, scimatar horned oryx, and white rhino, Ape Centre with Orang Utans, and Insect Zoo with mostly dead specimen.

Our photo at the entrance of Reptile House.

Aldabran Tortoises from Madagascar, the second largest tortoise in the world after the Galapagos Tortoise in Amphibian World (upper left). Camouflaged iguana in it's comfy Reptile House (lower left). Sable antelopes and scimatar horned oryx grazing on grassy plain in Savannah Walk (middle), white rhino with toy (upper right), and orang utan in Ape Centre.

Cute entrance to Insect Zoo (left) with the specimen of tarantula, the largest spider in the world from South America (middle). Butterfly garden in Insect Zoo was lack of butterfly as it was still under development. We hope we can get more butterflies in future.

The Mammal Kingdom is just beside the Insect Zoo, with the exhibits showcasing small and cute raccoons, capybara, sunda loris, and leopard cats, and fierce pumas, leopards, and hyenas. Along the road leading us back to the zoo's entrance, we had the opportunity to say hello to Bengal Tigers and African Lions before we made our final stop at Bird House.

An aftermeal nap in hot lazy afternoon is good. Capybara, the largest rodent from South America knew that well (upper left). A puma was grooming under the shadow of the trees (lower left). Unsettled Bengal Tiger was deciding whether to keep itself dry or to take a refreshing dip in the water.

Aviary in Bird House allowed us to get close to the birds. Used to the regular visits, the storks showed no heed to our appearance.

We were amazed by the biological control of mosquitoes applied by the zoo. We didn't get a single bite during our visit. The food and beverages, as well as the souvenirs available in the zoo were reasonably priced. All the pedestrian path were well shaded and covered by trees.

We really have to put both of our thumbs up to the management of the zoo, Malaysia Zoological Society for the excellent management and the designs of the caged habitats for the animals. It is in fact an excellent zoo if we put into consideration that the zoo is run by a non-governmental organization.

Vivid coloured electricity powered shutters offer quiet and confortable lift minus the air pollution. We need to pay RM 2 for the ride.

The Wild Cafe is one of the F & B stalls offers good and reasonably priced food (left). Souvenirs are available at the shops beside the amphitheatre and at the main entrance.

The lake that sits in the middle of the zoo dotted with free roaming storks, ibises, egrets, swans and pelicans. The birds are well fed and have no intention to leave their sweet home in the zoo.

Malaysia Zoological Society had prepared a great website for Zoo Negara with almost everything that you need to know. So please take a look. Btw, the map for the zoo is provided at the entrance with RM 2 per copy. If you wish to get a free copy, please download and print the map from here.



Back to All Our Destinations.

Kampar

We have visited Kampar twice and we want to share some of our personal experience, especially with the future students, who might wish to get more information about Kampar, before depart from their hometown. Students? Yes, with around 70k population in Kampar, a quarter of them are university students.

Kampar oldtown (photos contributed by Bryant).

As a small town in Perak, Kampar was famous in 1890's because of its tin reserve. Then, in 1940, Kampar was famous because of the Battle of Kampar, which marked the first Japanese defeats in World War II. Now, long after the tin had depleted, so as the war left far behind our memories, the town blooms again, by the establishment of Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR). The university brings young and lively immigrants.

Kampar KTM station, offering Intercity Commuter service (2 hours to KL). Exact ticket price? Check here for Intercity KTM.

Kampar is unofficially divided into two different sections. The oldtown consists of several rows of "historical" shoplots, police station, post office, hospital, mosque, church etc., with KTM railway station at the southern edge of the small town. The nightlife at oldtown hits nearly nil, but wakes up early, especially the market and the coffee houses. Kampar newtown, under vast development, reside mostly by university students, is opposite to the old counterpart with dazzling nightlife.

Photo taken early in the morning (around 8 am) in Kampar oldtown. The town is just beside green hills that offer peaceful mind.

Upper rows of black and whites were displayed in a coffee house opposite to the bus terminal, showing the mining scenes in Kampar in 1887. Coffee, tea, or Milo? You will get them all in the coffee house (lower left). Old folks are the majority, especially early in the morning, talk with dialect, which sounds cordial but unfamiliar to us.

Tesco (upper left), modern kopitiam (upper right), restaurant (lower left), and shop with western food at the newtown of Kampar. By the way, we tried Sin Yong Kee, reasonably priced and so the taste. For the rest of the eateries, we just stopped by and snatched the photo. So, please try at your own risk.

New apartments, with mostly university students (left and middle). Some of the staff and students might choose to stay in landed houses, rather than apartments. By car or bike, all the houses shown above are just a few minutes away from UTAR. Accomodation should not be a problem for university students as there are a lot of houses in the surrounding area. The rental? Floating with supplies and demands, within affordable range.

UTAR by the lake. The lake was formed by tin mining activities.

"The Liang-Ti Stone" at one of the entrances of UTAR.

Photos taken inside UTAR. It doesn't look like an university at all. It looks like.....

We can get all sorts of food in Kampar. Chicken rice, mixed rice, pork rice, fried rice, noodles, western, eastern, Malay style, Indian style, Chinese style, etc. So, food shall be the last thing to worry about.

Pork served with egg (left) and mixed rice (right). Photo taken at Sin Yong Kee.

How about hotel? There is one (if not mistaken, that is the only big one, for now)- Grand Kampar Hotel in newtown, not far away from UTAR (below). Posted as three stars hotel, the hotel looks ok on the outside. We haven't stay there before. So, please stay at your own risk. You can see what did other people had commented about the hotel at Tripadvisor.

Kampar, distance away from major cities, might be a good place to study. If you have this kind of opinion, you might be right. However, as we have not tried any of the courses yet, so, please enroll at your own risk :-p More sharing on the places in vicinity are available too. Please follow the links below.

[Ipoh Old Town] [Ipoh Food] [Ipoh Limestone Caves]
[Kellie's Castle] [Tin Dredge at Batu Gajah]
[Nice Food in Kampar] [A Short Stay in Kampar]
[All Our Destinations]

Putrajaya Agriculture Heritage Park

Showcases the commercialized crops in Malaysia, Taman Warisan Pertanian, or Agriculture Heritage Park is unique over its kind, where the park serves not only for leisure, educational and tourism purposes, but as a living museum. From major Malaysia comodity crops such as rubber, cocoa, oil palm, coconut, to more locally available fruits and herbs such as jambu (guava), jackfruits, mata kucing (longan), serai (lemon grass), sweet corn, pineapple, delima (Punica granatum), roselle, durian (the king of fruits), pitaya (dragon fruit), black pepper, coffee and many more, the park is simply a good place for a plant biology lesson.The photo above shows Ling Shing standing in front of an orchad of jackfruit trees.

Information center for the park. The right photo shows the staircase to the guest resting area.

Our photo at the guest resting area, just a few stairs away from the information center.

Expecting a free admission, we were paying RM 2 entrance fee per person. Of course, with that amount of money, we had spent more than one and a half hours inside the park, non-stop walking for most of the time.

Uphilling walking path after the entrance, with both sides flanked by guava trees. The buildings far behind are the apartments in Putrajaya.

The whole park is built on a hill. After 30 minutes of climbing uphill on winding concrete pathway (lower left), we reached the observation platform (upper row), where we took a short rest to catch our shortening breath. We could see Putra Mosque afar, from the platform.

Jackfruit (top), lemon grass (lower left), pineapple (lower middle) and roselle that can be found in the park. In the park, we have the chance to take a close observation on the fruit trees (below).

The most interesting part of the park should be the rubber tree plot with different clones of rubber trees. The plot features how the whole process of latex, from the collection of latex in milky colloid, coagulation with formic acid, and lastly the compression of coagulated latex into pieces of rubber.

Rubber tree plot (upper left) with more than 70 different clones of rubber trees. The latex collecting method was demonstrated in the plot (upper right). The hand operated machine, used to compress the coagulated latex into thinner pieces of rubber (lower left) and the completely dried rubber pieces at the end of the process (lower right). A kampung look hut is built at the middle of the plot, serves as the rubber exhibition center with some nice beautiful flora nearby (below).

Heavily ladened feet always make us hungry. Agriculture Heritage Park provides our need with food stalls, ranged from local delicacies, chicken rice, roti John, fruit juices, to famous Satay Kajang Haji Samuri.

This park, for us, is more worth a visit than Putrajaya Botanical Garden. At least, we would have the chance to get to know how the trees, where the fruits come from look like. For example, for the first time, we knew that pitaya is the fruit from a kind of cactus tree, and how are longan and jackfruit trees look like. The park is definately a place where we can learn something new.

We were in fact "lured" to the park by the "Karnival Jom Makan Buah", or "Come and Eat Fruits Carnival" held in front of the park's entrance. The carnival, held on 8-9 August 2010, was not as interesting as the park itself. With around 20 to 30  of stalls selling local fruits, the carnival was lack in discounts, nor the variety of local fruits. However, we still managed to bought some sweet corn, mangosteen, mango juice, and a lime tree for our garden from the carnival.

Fruit stalls and the fruits in Jom Makan Buah Carnival.

Located in Precinct 16, Putrajaya, Taman Warisan Pertainan orchard opens from 9.00 am to 7.00 pm (closed temporary 12.15- 2.45 pm every Friday). The food court opens until 11 pm. The best way to get to the park is by car. Or, you can hoop onto a ERL to Putrajaya Station, and get a bus from there to the park. If you are from afar, our advice, take a Putrajaya tour from local tourism company, and look for the package with Agriculture Heritage Park. For further information about this park, you can visit Malaysia Vacation Guide and official site of Putrajaya.

More places in Putrajaya on our list:

[Botanical Garden] [Ministry Precinct] [Perdana Park] [Wawasan Park]
[Floria 2010] [All Our Destinations]