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Published: November 5th 2006
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All Aboard
Here's us chugging along on the craky old bus :-) In case you're wondering what on earth today's blog title means, it's supposed to sound a bit like everyone's favourite brand of not-quite-butter, Utterly Butterly, but if you read on, it'll make a bit more sense - I promise!
Today's adventures started early for us and we were ready to go at 9.00am. Our plan was to head to the Melaka Butterfly and Reptile Park (an obvious combination?) with our new South Korean friend, Andy. We flagged down a bus going to Sentral easily enough. We had a bit of a wait before catching the next bus to the outskirts of the city where many of the bigger tourist atractions are located, including the zoo and mini-Malaysia theme park. It was a pretty long bus ride but we told the driver where we were going and he pulled over on the main road and pointed vaguely in the direction we would need to walk from there.
Crossing the busy highway was tricky and reminiscent of being stuck in a game of Frogger but we made it across safely, only to not really know which way the bus driver had suggested we go. We took the most obvious route along
Lost
Jude wonders who moved the butterfly and reptile park cos she can't seem to find it! a newly constructed and impressive looking road but gradually noticed that it was almost devoid of traffic. We wandered on but all of us had a nagging feeling that it was the wrong way, so when Andy spied a lone motorbike buzzing along the other side of the road, he legged it over and began frantically waving his arms about and shouting 'Save us, save us'. Glynn and I just pissed ourselves laughing but the man on the bike did stop and gave us directions (and yes, we were going completely the wrong way).
The butterfly and reptile park only cost 6RM (less than £1) each to get in when we finally tracked it down. Walking through the main gate, we were surprised to see an assortment of caged birds as well as gibbons and guinea pigs. There a chatty mynah bird that could wolf whistle, and say hello and Happy Birthday in a number of languages and we all had lots of fun talking to it. We then entered the butterfly enclosure and watched as Andy stood mesmerised by all the tiny beautiful creatures. Glynn rescued one pretty black and yellow butterfy who had fallen to the ground
Rescued
Andy flagged down this poor unsuspecting motorist to ask for directions. Thankfully, he knew the way! injured and was being attacked by evil ants (I'm sure you'll agree that all ants are evil). The poor thing just flapped about in his hand so Glynn placed it delicately on a nearby leafy stem and we kept our fingers crossed it was an ant-free zone.
Elsewhere in the enclosure were more surprises including turtles, scorpions, some extremely cute and cuddly creatures we wanted to take home but can't remember the name of (see photo) and the newest arrivals - leopards! We then walked through to the reptile enclosure where we were treated to views of all sorts of wonderful beasts ranging from alligators to king cobras, from iguana to tarantulas. There were loads of different snakes to see and we even got to walk through a special room full of mangrove snakes that were dozing in the trees right above our heads. It was excellent. There were so many more animals to see as we wove our way through the well laid-out park, including white peacocks, marmosets, giant squirrels, toucans, bear cats and our most favourite of all the animals, the smooth clawed otters. They loved being fed seeds and clung to the mesh of their cage
Monkey Business
Glynn gets friendly with the local gibbons. Cute aren't they? (yes, I'm including Glynn in that!) squealing with delight every time we passed them something to eat. There was a particularly sweet young otter that made just the funniest noises to attract our attention - if he had been up for adoption, I know there would have been a 3-way fight between me, Glynn and Andy as to who would get to keep him! On the downside, there were some emus that didn't look to be in the best of health and a tapir that was clearly injured but we wonder if perhaps they were once part of the zoo but have been moved to the park for respite as all other animals looked to be well cared for.
We must have spent the best part of 4 hours at the park and enjoyed every moment. Debating what to do next, Glynn and I decided to head back as none of the other attractions appealed to us. Andy came with us to catch the bus back at first and joined us in expertly dodging the traffic again. We saw the bus approaching from Sentral but it turned off before we got to it. We figured it wouldn't be too long before it turned around to
Who's a Pretty Boy?
Andy tries bribery with seeds to get the mynah bird to wish him a Happy Birthday but instead gets wolf-whistled - lucky boy! head back to Sentral again, so we stood at the roadside and waited.....and waited.......and waited. After about 10 minutes, Andy gave up and said he was going to walk over to the mini-Malaysia theme park, which was a long, long way away (and he later told us it was really crap). Glynn and I remained where we were in the brilliant sunshine and waited.....and waited...and waited. 30 minutes after Andy had left us, the bus finally pulled up.
Back at Sentral, Glynn and I decided to check out the massive Tesco superstore nearby. We were starving by now so took ourselves straight to the food court for a good, cheap feed. We then mooched around the supermarket for a while, coming away with nothing more exciting than drinks and a big yellow melon that was only 99 Sens (less than 14 pence) but it felt strangely good to have contact with something recognisable from home. The irony with that however is that you forget for a moment that you're really on the other side of the world in a country very different from England and a long way from everyone you know and love. Still, at least it's hot
Flutterby
This is the pretty butterfly that Glynn rescued from the evil ants. and sunny over here!!
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