Kuala Lumpur - Bye Bye Birdie

No, it's not a musical. Nor a comedy. Just a baby bird, learning to fly. A bit apprehensive, a bit curious, a bit tired. A lot tired maybe.

The mummy bird (or maybe it was the daddy bird; I can't really tell) could be heard tweeting and chirping, coaxing this baby to fly.

He did fly, maybe 15 meters and landed here, the bottom of an electronic sliding gate, and stayed there for a bit.

I was about to leave then but with that birdie squatting there, I hung about a bit. Because I wanted to take pictures, and because I was worried I might scare it if the gate started sliding. I needn't have worried though; he stayed put even when the gate moved. I guess he was too tired to bother. 

When we returned, the baby was gone. And apparently they never return. Not to say hi. Not even to have a look at the nest that held it safe and warm when it was just an egg. Ah well. C'est la vie I suppose. Bye bye birdie. :)

Tortoise

 

Such a curious tortoise! He stuck his head out, staring, staring, him at me, me at him, in total silence, until I had to fill the growing uncomfortable silence with mindless chatter. And he continued staring.

You can say hi to him too at the National Science Center in Kuala Lumpur.

   

  

 

Wat Pracacinaram, Kelantan - Bots and Cats

This isn't your regular wat picture I suppose, but I just had to put up a picture of these felines. They were almost all over the place at Wat Pracacinaram.

This is my first ever wat. Ever. Yaay!

I had no preconceived idea about what a wat should look like and I was blown away by what seems to be a wonderful balance of quaintness and over-the-topness, not at just this wat but at all the wats we saw that day.

Well, except for the last one we saw (Wat Chonprachumthat). That I'll save for another write-up. :)

There was on-going construction at the time of our visit (that was November 2009). I guess they would have finished by now. The construction, however, in no way dampened our visit.

I also first learned the word 'bot'. One of the men said we could enter the 'bot' as it was unlocked. I had no idea what he meant. I thought he mispronounced 'boat'! Haha, stupid me. And travel buddy said, no he said wat. I kept my peace. I thought I could differentiate the sound of 'b' and 'v'. Still, one never can tell.

Anyway, afterwards, back at our room in Kota Bharu, I googled 'bot' and found out it to be the prayer house, or I just googled it again, it defines a 'bot' as the finest building in a Thai Buddhist monastery. Talk about wow.

This picture does NOT do it justice tho :(

Anyway, we didn't enter this fine looking building since we weren't sure that we could. Lesson of the day; in case of ignorance.. ASK.

It also happened to be something like all souls day or something. There were Buddhist devotees placing offers and burning paper money. We tried not to be too intrusive and kept out of the way. Good thing they were quite nice about us (me rather) taking their pictures :)

A white antrium in Cameron Highlands

This fly spent some time on this white antrium, allowing me to experiment and re-experiment (taking pictures). What a lucky break (for me).

Butterfly Park Kuala Lumpur - cool winged ones!

The Butterfly Park in Kuala Lumpur is a favourite haunt. I try to go often, but haven't been as much this year. I just realised it's already December... and I've only been...  twice!!!

These pictures are from October. The time I went, there were a whole bunch of Atlas Moths. Amazing winged creatures! They were HUGE! I hadn't seen them on previous trips so that was a nice surprise. I should go again. Maybe the park has more surprises in store. :)

A Lotus and a Dragonfly

I frequent the Butterfly Park in Kuala Lumpur just because... :)

road trip : Taman Negara~ Lake Kenyir leg

We decided to take a chance and take a road that was marked 'under-construction' on the road map that we were using ~ the second east coast highway.

This road cuts across the peninsular from Kuala Berang straight towards Lake Kenyir - one no longer need go north all the way to Kota Bahru and then head back south towards Kuala Terengganu.  Pretty cool huh.

It turned out to be a wonderful surprise and we saw some amazing views!

To get there, take the road from Gua Musang heading towards Kota Bahru and take the right turn where there's a sign that says Taman Negara via Kuala Berang. The road is okay for most parts but there are some stretches that have not been laid. Luckily, it doesnt last more than 2 km in total. After some time, we came to a three-way junction. Earlier, down the road, there is a guard house, from whom we had gotten some directions. He advised us about this junction.. good thing we stopped to get directions. Don't want to end up taking the wrong turn and end up in Kota Bahru after all!! Hah. Anyway, take the extreme right fork and that will take you to Lake Kenyir, and the road from that point on is close to perfect! Hope it stays that way a long time.. :) hope it's not just wishful thinking :)

Check out the pictures...

The western part of Lake Kenyir... the environment is pristine...

The new second East Coast Highway ... it is like this most of the way ... traffic-free!! :)

I had rolled the windows down and was at once enchanted with the tropical sounds. I said stop, stop here. Let's listen to the sounds of the forest for a bit. And as we did, we heard them. Sounds of huge birds. We weren't sure what type of birds. I thought they might be hornbills... but I thought they couldn't be... hornbills only exist on Borneo!! Hah, good thing I dont know my ecosystems very well! It turned out that they were hornbill sounds!! Woot! We saw movement among the trees and then saw them!!!  It was such a special unexpected treat to hear the cry of these birds and then to actually see one fly from one tree to another!

The car park at Lake Kenyir... I just love the trees :) the way they seem to crowd overhead and form a canopy against the sky... like they are trying to share a secret with me:)

One of the many rivers we saw along the way, this picture doesnt quite do it justice...