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Deciding what to do each day on my travels can be a bit of a conundrum. With only my self to cater for, you’d think that this would make things a little simple, but it doesn’t….

When I don’t stay somewhere for very long, it’s quite easy to pick what to do as there will usually be one specific activity that I have chosen to do (Pontianak – Visiting the Equatorial Monument), or I might just be visiting the historic sights in that town or city (Malacca). Each place I have visited so far has had a multitude of options and on the rare occasions when I am in a place for more than a couple of days, it can be hard to decide what to do each day, and how to equally spread everything out so that I use my time as efficiently as possible.

My stop of four nights in KL has been the longest of the trip so far and considering the sheer amount of stuff there is to do, I am glad I made the decision to have an extended visit here. It’s conceivable that you could spend ten days to two weeks here and never get bored.
I feel like each day so far hasn’t been completely crammed full with activities, as I have been able to space them out over a longer period of time, and that has allowed me plenty of time to relax, rejuvenate and continue to plan for things further down the line.

I definitely could have wedged lots of things into a shorter space of time, but I think the decision not to do that has been beneficial to me. It would be easy to do that everywhere I go, but particularly in cities where there’s a lot to do I think it is best not to over do it on any one day.

Having made the decision to come to all of these places on my itinerary there are a variety of things which may have drawn me there, but I’m pretty convinced that in most hospitable cities in the world I could entertained myself by visiting shops, restaurants and cafes – or just by generally soaking in the atmosphere. It’s not an option I would often choose on a holiday, but by now most tourist-friendly areas have cinemas, a zoo or an aquarium so these things can also be used to fill up the day when required.
Today was a cross between a unique experience and a way to fill the day as I was heading to KL Bird Park. My last day out involving animals didn’t go too well, so today as I was getting ready I crossed my fingers that unlike Sea World in Jakarta, the place I’m visiting would actually open!

My last full day in the city today was going to be concentrated just outside the centre in an area about twenty minutes away from the central market which I walked around yesterday. I was considering taking public transport to get to my destination, as I haven’t used the train, monorail, Bus or MRT since I got here, but as it was another beautiful sunny day I decided instead to walk and catch some rays.
I headed in the same direction as the market and the mosque, but kept walking instead of heading towards the lush green fields of Merdeka Square, which looked as impressive as ever.

Before going into the bird park I was going to find the Malaysian national monument which I knew was in the surrounding area of the park. As well as the attration at the centre - the monument itself - I'd also read about an orchid garden, a deer park and also a botanical gardens – all of which I was hoping to catch sight of today.

Thankfully signs in KL are a little more forthcoming then in Manila for example and I came across one just as I reached the corner of the botanical gardens. I turned to the right and started walking up a little hill with some sculptures in there. I followed the path around and at the top of the steps was the National Monument standing their proudly with many people in a nice little area taking photos:

Known as Tugu Negara by the natives, it was built to honour the heroes of World War I and II and is around fifteen metres tall. There are seven men in bronze as part of he statue holding the Malaysian flag to represent the seven qualities of leadership, unity, strength, vigilance, suffering, courage and sacrifice.

I walked down and back through the gardens and then started to follow the signs towards the KL Bird Park. The path wound up and down as I went past the Botanical and Orchid gardens before eventually I was at the entrance. This was going to be a slightly new experience for me as I’m not sure I have ever been in a walk-in aviary before. I have been in small sections of open air like in Busch Gardens in Florida and at Chester Zoo there are areas where you walk through sections with butterflies flapping around as well as another one with bats, but I don’t think I’ve ever been in an attraction completely dedicated to birds.

I had a feeling it was going to be a bit of a novel experience; animals at the best of times can be unpredictable and I was looking forward to seeing the reactions of startled people when some of the birds decided to flap or fly towards them – you know, like birds do.

It cost 48RM to get in which isn’t too bad and after wrapping my wristband on I headed in through the first set of doors.
The are four sections to the Bird Park, each one separated by a set of double doors, I presume to stop the birds from transferring from one section to another. Almost immediately the place lived up to its expectations as there were plenty of birds walking around on the floor, and some sitting in branches above my head.

There were many different varieties, but in truth I didn’t spend much time reading the information which was displayed through, and instead just tried to take in the experience. It felt like the first section was like a test to see how much you could cope with. There were only come paraquetes in there, but in zone one there started to be some more ornithology.

The first thing I rather alarmingly encounter was a peacock which had just decided to spread it’s feathers out to impress a mate. I was standing looking at a sign at one point as well when I realized that there was actually a bird sitting on top of it; from that moment forward I was very cautious about where I was stepping, and constantly checking my peripherals for animals I hadn’t spotted.
It was really interesting to see the bird flying around freely, and although slightly daunting at first, once you realize that the birds are probably highly scared of humans, you start to become a little bit more bold and less worried when a bird looks you in the eye or starts walking towards you.

Navigation throughout the bird park wasn’t the easiest, as despite the use of zones, signs and several maps, you had to backtrack a couple of times in order to head in the right direction. It didn’t seem to be the most intuitive of places, but I was taken in by the amount of different birds and how they were just free to go wherever they wanted within their zones.
I continued walking through and then found that some of the more delicate birds which actually work in cages. I’m glad though as I’m not sure anyone needs to be dealing with an ostrich running 65 miles an hour in open spaces!

There was a smaller section with some different kinds of birds in, and on top it looked as though some rather sneaky peacocks were trying to make their way in there to perhaps grab themselves a tasty snack.

Once I had made my way down to the bottom of the second zone, there was a path to take you back up to the top and then to go back on yourself slightly to reach zone three and four. Zone three was filled with a couple of different exhibits – one featuring lots of parrots where you could pay to hold them, and then a second part where there was some hornbills, ostriches and emus all in cages.

I came to the final section which was open area with a beautiful waterfall and also a large pond where there were lots of flamingos and a couple of pelicans too. There was another area where bird shows take place throughout the day, but my time in the park was coming to an end so I started walking back towards the exit.

Before I did however I came to a little section where there were some monkeys. They looked like the silver-tailed ones I had seen in Bako National Park, or like the ones which were so adept at stealing mens sunglasses in Uluwatu. The first one I was actually holding what looked to be a silicon cover from someone’s iPhone, and between us and the monkeys there was only a small fence and a little boat which I figured they could easily hop over. 

The monkeys seemed to be in a very playful mood, and I took a couple of good videos of them running around trying to catch each other. I didn’t fancy getting my expensive camera stolen by these kleptomaniacs so I made sure it was thoroughly wrapped around my neck!

Eventually I stopped being entertained, and walking through the gift shop I exited the bird park and decided to walk through the gardens on my way back to the main road. 

As I was walking out there was a guy who worked at the Bird Park with about seven or eight parrots all over his arms and his head. I presume he was taking them back to where they stay in the evening, as there are certain parts of the park where you can get your photograph taken with them. Rather hilariously as he was balancing all these animals on his body, one of the parrots appeared to try and attack one of the other ones which sent all the birds into a fury, and for a while, him and his buddy just stood between the two sets of double doors trying to coax the parrots back onto the original mans shoulders. As he was walking through the door, the man without the parrots was talking (in Malay of course – the language of parrots) and then he flicked it on the beak, I presume to make it more obedient as this was the one that lunged towards the other one, and caused all the chaos. I didn’t realize that flicking a parrot on the beak was a way of making is be more obedient, I wonder if this works on all birds. I am someone who often laughs when its inappropriate, and this was definitely one of those moments. I think just the fact that there was a brief thirty seconds where there was genuine confusion as to what was going between the two of them, and then to see one of them scolding a parrot is funny enough, but to then see him actually flick it in the beak, pushed me over the edge. I definitely let out a laugh so was quite lucky not to get a bunch of parrots set on me, or even worse, flicked in the beak.

After the hilarities of parrot discipline I started walking back the way I’d come, but innocently sitting at the bus stop was a monkey chewing on a lollipop which is had clearly gained from a person’s hand. It was pretty hilarious to see it just sitting there trying to chew through the wrapper and presumably after trying, but failing to eat it, it proceeded to go to the bin and then start picking things out of there to see what was available. What’s funny is that there were a bunch of taxi drivers standing about a metre away from the monkey and they didn’t even seem slightly fazed by the fact it was standing there.

I had no idea if it had escaped from the Bird Park itself, but as it disappeared off into the trees and as I started walking back towards my hotel, I saw another couple of them sitting on the net that surrounded the waterfall area of the park. There was another one on there as well who certainly looked to be up to no good, but he scarpered off up into a tree, and the other two just carried on pruning each other.

The Bird Park was a really good experience and something I would definitely do again if I was here. One thing I have read is that it isn’t the best kept place, which I agree with, it does look like it can be updated and I was a bit worried as I had read mixed reviews online. A place like that is always going to divide opinions with those who see it as cruel to keep the bird locked up outside of their natural environment, and those who enjoy the opportunity to see them in a mocked up version of their habitat. I will point out that the park is way more than a tourist attract and is used by researchers to study the animals, including their nesting and behavior patterns. It is a place of conservation for all the species contained within and the birds don’t seem to be too phased by everything despite the presence of lots of humans.

I feel like going to the Bird Park was one of the more logical and straight forward decisions whilst I have been on my travels – firstly because I enjoy such animal encounters, and secondly because I felt like it was a great experience to be able to get that close up to birds which you might not get to otherwise encounter.

So tonight brings to a close my stay in KL which has been one of the most enjoyable stops on my trip. I think that combined with my experiences in Malacca, Malaysia has so far exceeded my expectations, and I hope that I will one day return to relive my stay here, but also add to it. I can understand why KL is such a popular destination, and I feel in many ways it is similar to somewhere like Singapore with plenty to do, good transport links, a wide variety of food and a comfort level for foreigners which can often be difficult to find elsewhere in Europe.

Thank you very much to the city of KL for making me feel so welcomed, filling up my four days with plenty of different activities. It’s a place I cannot recommend highly enough for people who enjoy all the things I have mentioned and I hope that I have potentially inspired at least one person in wanting to come here.

Birdie Song
The Tweets (1981)