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2:30 AM was quite an early start, but at least it meant that the Bangkok traffic wasn’t too bad. I got to the airport in good time and got through with plenty of time to spare. I had some breakfast at the airport and also got a tea. Unfortunately, this was from a coffee shop where they think it’s appropriate to charge a comparable price for a tea bag in some almost-boiling water as for a fancy coffee from one of their machines.
The flight was good, I got an emergency exit row (extra leg room, yay) which again turned out to be completely empty so no one else in the group of three. The plane wasn’t overall super-empty though and there were many other rows with people sitting in the middle seats. Anyway, we landed about half an hour early, I grabbed a Malaysian Sim card from the airport, mainly so I could have data for interneting, and I was soon through. I decided to take the KLIA Ekspres train into KL. A bus would have been slightly cheaper, but the train is more efficient with a nice view of scenery too. Unfortunately this scenery was almost entirely palm
oil plantations.
I got into KL Sentral station and made my way across to the part of KL where my hostel is using the monorail. I’m staying in a dorm in a place called Sunshine Bedz. I got to the hostel at about 10:30 and a just dropped off my backpack before heading out by about 11 after grabbing an early lunch. I decided to go to KL Bird Park to start the morning and I did the lazy option of getting a taxi rather than working out the bus to get. I liked the bird park, the whole place is pretty much just a large free-flight aviary that you walk around with various small aviaries inside. I think they claim to have the largest free-flight aviary in the world. What I didn’t like though was the entry price: 67 ringgit! By this point I already felt that I was haemorrhaging money although I was always going to visit the bird park once and it was a necessary expense.
A couple of the highlights were a few unusual owls, Crestless Fireback, Malay Peacock Pheasant, and an unusual (sub)species of Eurasian Jay with an all-white face. Very different to
Barn Owl
KL Bird Parkwhat I’d see in Poland. (I haven’t checked which (sub)species yet). Unfortunately, it did however rain quite heavily in the early afternoon so I had to take shelter for about 30 minutes. It cleared up afterwards though so I saw the whole bird park fine. Also within the bird park and the surrounding botanic gardens I saw some Common Tree Shrews, a Grey-bellied Squirrel, and some Long-tailed Macaques. Also a few bird species, most interestingly for me Asian Glossy Starlings.
After KL Bird Park, I headed to Bukit Nanas Eco Park, a small area of rainforest with a canopy walkway in the centre of KL. Unfortunately, just as I arrived it started to rain so I sat in a covered area, hoping it would stop soon. It didn’t. It just got heavier. An hour an a half later, there was a slight lull where it just drizzled so I just decided to try an walk about in it a bit. The forest area itself is really nice with great views of trees as well as the KL skyline behind, although visibility was of course quite limited. The lull with the drizzle only lasted for about 15 minutes though, so
I decided that I should just go as it started to get heavy again. My plan was the cross the park because I had arrived at one end and I could get the monorail back to the hostel from the other. Unfortunately though as the rain got heavier and heavier, the paths all turned into streams and a few of the paths were blocked off so I had to go a bit of a way around. Eventually, I made it to the other end, absolutely soaking wet, and having seen pretty much nothing wildlife-wise, just a couple of Oriental Magpie-robins. It looks like a nice park though, definitely with potential on a good day.
However when I got to the exit on the other side, there were a couple of other tourists wandering around looking confused and also soaking wet who I had seen entering the park on the other side. All of the gates on this side of the park were locked and there was no way out with a fence blocking access to the road and the monorail station just opposite. There was no other choice but to climb up and jump the fence, which was just
about manageable.
Eventually I made it back to the hostel, by about 6, absolutely soaked. The main problem with the rain is that it really impedes my vision because my glasses just get covered in water and I can’t see through them anymore. I wouldn’t call it an enjoyable visit to Bukit Nanas exactly, but it was certainly interesting. It’s a shame that I didn’t manage to see any wildlife there though, because from what I’ve heard there’s quite a bit.
I got some dinner from various street stalls around the hostel so that was good and I am of course now exhausted and will be going to bed soon. Tomorrow I’m planning to do a day trip to Kuala Selangor which will be quite a long day trip with a 2+ hour bus each way but it should be good. That is, of course, if it isn’t appallingly raining tomorrow as it was today. There are thunderstorms forecast tomorrow from the early afternoon onwards though, so I’ll have to see how it goes. I’m really hoping that it won’t be as bad tomorrow as it was today. Unfortunately, my times don’t seem to align very well with
the rest of the people in the hostel. I want to get up at 6 and go to bed as soon as possible, though I don’t know how likely that really is. That seems to be the main disadvantage of dorms (breakfast is 8:30 to 11 for example which indicated the general timings, obviously that’s no good time-wise for me).
Certainly an interesting start to the trip!
New Birds:
House Crow
Crested Myna Asian Glossy Starling New Mammals:
Common Tree Shrew Grey-bellied Squirrel
Long-tailed Macaque
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Jean Kingham
non-member comment
A packed day
Gosh, you packed a lot into a day. Shame about the rain. That's the problem with the tropics! Hope you have better weather tomorrow.