Wawasan Park Putrajaya

A Hidden Gem! That's what we felt on our first visit on Taman Wawasan Putrajaya. "Wawasan Park" is our direct translation, Wawasan means Vision. The garden was named align to the Malaysian "Vision 2020", a vision for Malaysian to push our country to become a developed country, on or before 2020.

Come back to the park. It is really a huge park, touches the Boulevard on one end, while the lakeside of the Ministry of Foregn Affair, flanking Lebuh Ehsan (Ehsan Evenue) on another. Still have no idea how big it is? Well, if we jog slowly, we might have to take 1 hour to make a full round of the garden. Got it? Nevermind, visit on your own and you will know it for sure :)

Pond with water lily is an antidote for pressured mind (upper left). Peaceful and greenery surrounded walkway is the main theme of the park, with some nature blending landscapes.

The landscape beside the Ministry of Finance at Putrajaya, with a tidy row of yellow flowered tree (upper and lower left). Staircase lead to the Hibiscus Courtyard (upper right). The water fountain which is not operational during our visit.

The garden is a gem. Of course, the flora, the design, the maintenance, and the landscape count. But the best part, the tranquillity- very very few visitors. As far as we could go, we encounter many fauna, but zero human being. Quiet and peace, interrupted only by chirping birds, buzzing bees, whirling lepidoptera and darting odonata.That was 5 pm, on a nice Sunday afternoon.

A nice theater without audience. An ideal place for you to practice for the next Malaysia Idol :p

Jogging track checked, resting gazebos checked, flowers checked, shaddy walkway, fresh air, fountains, lily ponds and beautiful lakeside, all checked. So, why don't we endulge our weekends with a quiet full-of-nature experience at Putrajaya? Bring along your sport shoes, small towel, drinking water, and maybe your DSLR. Most importantly, find one or two companions, to cleave the feeling of alone-in-the-garden.

Nice landscape with resting area around the park.

Flowers available around the park.

Hibiscus is abundant at the Hibiscus Courtyard.

Fountains at the Hibiscus Courtyard. The building on the right is a part of the Ministry of Finance, while the staircase on far left leads to the rest of the Taman Wawasan.

How to access to Taman Wawasan? Several ways. First, from Masjid Putra at Precinct 1, walk down the Boulevard towards the building for Ministry of Finance. The Hibiscus Courtyard, which is a part of Taman Wawasan is on the left, just after the bridge. Secondly, drive to Ministry of Foreign Affair through Lebuh Ehsan. The parking area is located right on the opposite of the main ministry building.

Do not want to drive? Hop onto a Nadi Putrajaya shuttle Bus from Putrajaya Central ERL station and get to Putra Mosque of The Ministry of Foreign Affair. You can access to the park from that two locations.

A scene from Pebbled Beach in Taman Wawasan, with Perdana Putra- the office of Prime Minister well reflected on the calm lake.

A nice view downcast from the top of the hill in Taman Wawasan. The Boulevard starts with the bridge span across the lake.

If you are a visitor from another country, for frank, please forget about this park. You should fill your itinarary with more fascinating places such as Petronas Twin Towers, Aquaria KLCC, KL Bird Park, KL National Museum, etc. However, it is a good place for our locals to spend a whole afternoon, instead of lying lazily at home.

Some advices, no hawker nor vendor, no food nor drink is available in the park. So, please bring along your own supplies. Mosquito repellent is essential to keep the mosquitoes away. You might regret without it, if you are the kind of mosquitoes attractor. The park is quite hidden from public, so try your best not to be alone in the park (although security guards are available at some points). The toilets, clean and well distributed. So, no issue on that.

More places in Putrajaya on our list:

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

Aquaria KLCC

Second week of May 2011, Aquaria KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre), two of us, second time. The main purpose was not the aquaria, but to shoot some night scenery at KLCC. However, with 2 hours left before night fall, we decided to get something "fishy" at KLCC. The aquaria has retained its standard, well-maintained, friendly staff, and gave us same feeling in our heart- it is a must visit place in KL, just second to KL Bird Park. We spent about 2 hours in the aquaria.

Walkway at the concourse level of KLCC that leads to Aquaria KLCC (left). Illuminated directory at the entrance is vivid around the dark background.

Weekends, Aquaria KLCC is still as hot as its old time. Students with uniform, families with young and old, couples, and some lone riders. All of us were greeted by Piranha just after the entrance. Then, the DNA Zone where we can touch some of the water creatures, and the electric eel. The first zone ended with the exhibition of water rats and the otters.

The DNA Zone (on the bottom left of the photo) is the touch pool offers "first hand contact" with live starfish, bamboo shark, and other cute sea creatures. Far left is the entrance of the aquaria.

Piranha is the first species that we met in the aquaria. An ornamental skeleton might be a good way to illustrate the nature of that species (upper row). The giant eel that can release 700 volts of electricity and stuns a bull in no time (lower left). Betty with big fat water rats, which their size will definitely dwarf many cats. (lower right).

We entered the Jewels of the Jungle section with mostly insects specimens, lizards, arachnids, and several amphibians. This is the out-of-the-theme section that, in our opinion, not so interesting. At least, some of the creatures exhibited in that section were the last that we would expect to see in an aquaria. Along the jungle themed area, there were exhibits showing coatimundi and frog life cycle as well.

Don't get deceived by its look. That's the most dangerous turtle in the world- alligator snapping turtle (upper left). The smallest species of caiman- smooth-fronted caiman (upper right). Butterfly specimens are available in the jungle area.

Help, a coatimundi in an aquaria!!! Is it a refugee escaped from National Zoological Park or simply a part timer?

The visitors-packed-walkway across the Jewels of Jungle. If you turn back, you will find the coatimundi exhibit on your right.

Then, we moved one floor down by following a walkway that leads to a staircase beside a ground-to-ceiling aquarium. That's an amazing view, with fish swimming around a tree in the middle of the aquarium- with some illusion that the fish were flying. Another big aquarium exhibiting some giant sized freshwater fish from Amazon is located just after at the end of the staircase on the lower level.

Aquarium with the theme "Amazon Flooded Forest" exhibiting big fish like arapaima and red tail catfish from Amazon.

Our photo in front of several aquaria showcasing Malaysian Flooded Forest.

Malaysian Flooded Forest flanks the staircase connecting two levels of Aquaria KLCC.

The big aquarium with freshwater fish, which houses a legendary Tapah, the very indigenous species from Sarawak, marks the end of the freshwater section, and the starting point for the saltwater section. First, the fish available near the seaside is available in the aquarium themed "The Coast". Then, the highlight of the aquaria- 90 meters tunnel that runs right below an oceanarium. Ten feet long sand tiger sharks, 100 kg fantail ray (and still growing fatter), giant garoupas, several active sea turtles, with hundreds of other fish swimming freely around the tunnel is an amazing experience. We were so excited that we travelled the tunnel twice, again.

The scene in the middle of the oceonarium.

A garoupa for dinner? Nope, all the sand tiger sharks are well fed that show no aggression to other creatures (upper left), a shipwreak (lower left) and other scenes in the oceanarium.

This is really a scene where the little Mermaid will pop up behind the the rocks and say, "Gotcha!" Anyway, you can always replace "little Mermaid" with "Mr. Jaw".

Other sea creatures available including the seahorses, octopuses, jelly fish, etc. The last point of the aquaria- giant jaw, which is just a replica for our photo taking session.

"Nemo" the clown fish, sea horses, jelly fish and so on are available and scattered all around the aquaria.

Replica of the giant jaw is the last place for you to take photo.

Aquaria KLCC opens daily from 11am - 8pm (last admission at 7 pm), while 10:30am - 8pm on public holiday. The fee, RM35 and RM25 for adult and child with MyKad respectively. RM45 and RM35 are required for adult and child without MyKad respectively. There is a zone named Aquazone, designed for fish therapy. With the charge of RM38 for adult and RM22 for child, we feel that Aquazone offers a highly over-charged service.

To reach Aquaria KLCC is easy, for its location at the concourse level of the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC). A 10 minutes walk from Putra LRT KLCC Station, or Monorail Raja Chulan Station is really convenient (can be accessed through Suria KLCC). KL Hop On-Hop Off stop for Aquaria KLCC is at KLCC Garden Park stop. Driving there? The underground multi-storey carpark at Suria KLCC will take away all the pain in finding a carpark.

Before you depart, make sure that you are not too late for the feeding frenzy. The feeding time for the sharks (Monday, Wednesday and Saturday) and aquatheatre is at 3pm. The stream (freshwater area) is at 11:30am and 5pm, piranha tank is at 4pm, the deep forest, the coast, and the living reef at 5:30pm. Our advice, start your journey around 2pm will be just nice for you to catch most of the feeding frenzy around. Don't forget that the feeding frenzy for the sharks is only available on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. By the way, don't forget to bring some water as there is no vendor machine or stall selling food or water.

A food court is located at the entrance of Aquaria KLCC. With not much variety, we can always opt for more at Suria KLCC, with just five minutes walk from the aquaria. In case of visiting the aquaria early, you can spend the rest of your day in shopping Suria KLCC, or visit the tallest twin towers in the world- Petronas Twin Towers.

Aquaria KLCC is just one floor below the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (upper left), on our back is the Suria KLCC and Petronas Twin Tower. We took 10 minutes walk from the carpark of Suria KLCC to the aquaria. The food court at the concourse of KLCC was not impressive. We tried the bread with curry, the taste, far from being good. There is a Starbuck right at the entrance of the aquaria. Anyway, you can always opt for another one with better view and location.

Aquaria KLCC is really an excellent place to visit. Several nearby attractions that worth a visit is Petronas Twin Tower and KL Tower at Bukit Nanas. Petronas Twin Tower is just a hundred meters away from the aquaria (where you can access through the underground walkway), while you might need to take a taxi or other public transport to KL Tower.

For more information about Aquaria KLCC, please visit the Official Site of Aquaria KLCC, contact number 60323331888, email marketing@aquawalk.com.

Want to know more about other attractions in KL? Please visit:

[Aquaria KLCC] [KL Bird Park] [KL National Planetarium] [KL National Museum]
[Find out all Our Destinations here]

Kuala Lumpur National Planetarium

Kuala Lumpur National Planetarium was built in 1994. We went there once back in year 2000. What we can say, it is getting much better now! The planetarium cannot be considered as very attractive, but might serve as a touch and go point. At least, we gained information about the involvement of Malaysia in space programmes there. A full trip without watching planetarium shows, more or less one hour.

Stairs.... that's the price to pay before you can visit KL National Planetarium (left). The planetarium is complemented with an observatory tower, which can be reached through the lift inside the main building.

As we visited the planetarium in the middle of the day, we skipped all the outdoor Ancient Observatory Park. The exhibition galleries were a mix of everything. Anyway, we try to categorise them into the Solar System right after the entrance, the history of space exploration, the history of Malaysia space project, and the observatory tower.

This is the statue that welcomed us at the entrance of the planetarium. Who is he? Al-Khwarizimi, perhaps.

Your weight at different planets in the Solar System (upper left). The robots that mimic the vehicles for Mars exploratory (upper right). One of the robot is capable to take your picture. The composition of the stars (lower left) and photo gallery of the space from earth.

Viking engine used in Ariane 4 launcher (left), and our photo with replica of Soyuz Capsule for Soyuz spacecraft by Russian.

The exhibition shows the space science experiments done by the first Malaysian Angkasawan (astronout), Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar.

The lift to the observatory tower is not easy to notice from the main building. The way that leads to the lift is just between Red Planet (with robots) and Made of Stars. High above the rest, the tower promises great view over the Lake Garden and KL area. The binocular is provided free of charge during our visit (middle).

Our photo at the observatory tower, backgrounded with KL city center.

The planetarium opens daily from 9.30 am to 4.30 pm (except on Monday, Hari Raya Puasa and Hari Raya Haji). The admission for the gallery is RM1 per adult, while free for child under 12. If you wish to watch the planetarium shows (which is off on every Friday), the maximum fee is RM3 for adult and RM2 for child under 12.

We went there with our own car, ample of free parking space available. Anyway, the planetarium is about 20 minutes walking from KL Central Station. You can take taxi from KL Central as well. If you take KL Hop-On Hop-Off, the station is number 14 (share with KL Bird Park). For more information about KL National Planetarium, you can visit the Official website of the planetarium.

Our suggestion, do not visit the planetarium alone in a single trip. You can visit the attractions nearby, including National Museum (just 200 m away), KL Bird Park (approx. 400 m away), while the National Mosque, Merdeka Square, Sultan Abdul Samad Building, and Malayan Railway Station just 20 minutes away by foot.

For our sharing on the attractions nearby, please visit:

[KL Bird Park] [KL National Museum] [Aquaria KLCC]
[All Our Destinations]