It is 03 June 2006 and yesterday evening I went and walked around the Lake Gardens until it got nearly dark. The gardens were an interesting place, to look at. The park is very colonial in design and it was in complete up roar as it was being over hauled. In true Malaysian style they were late, there was a notice up telling about the upgrades going and the end date was meant to be 26th Mei (May) 2006, and this is 2 June and the works were a long way from being finished.

There were groups of workers all over the place not working on various parts of the upgrades; most activities were being done by hand. The day had been very hot and clear, probably around 34 Degrees C. I do not blame the guys and girls for not working particularly hard as it was too hot and they are dressed in park uniforms and the most the ladies have the long black trousers, sleeved tops, and the head scarf on.

A couple of amusing things I found in the park, that make it fairly and squarely a Malaysian park, there were probably about 20 workers around the park in groups of 2 to 5 sweeping up the leaves from the grass. They were packing them in sacks and a small truck was coming around and picking up the leaves to remove their mess from the wooded areas? This in itself is quite a strange activity as we are not talking about large lawns this park is mainly a wooded area. Just a little bit off the walk ways there is a huge amount of rubbish strewn, plastic bags, old clothing, cans bottles the normal human effluent that we disgorge when we are not trained to use rubbish bins. Nobody was bothering to pick this mess up at all. At one place there was a group of 5 women sweeping the leaves near a road way and next to them was a rubbish bin that was completely overflowed and rubbish was thick all around it. The truck was beside them loading leaves but they completely left this rubbish bin a lone.

At one stage along the path in some very small trees, I saw a French mans delight, absolutely the biggest snails I have ever seen in my life, They were about half the size of the hand, I could not help thinking how filling a meal of these giant Escot would be and how the they would go down on a dinner plate in France, You can see from the picture adjacent just what I am talking about, oh boy finger licking good would you not say.

In a place close to this was there usual signage with all the things you can not do in the park like; light fires, have dogs, run stalls, drive cars and motor bikes and kissing? Yep kissing in the park was completely banned, so much for a romantic place to go and have a picnic lunch with your most treasured companion. No wonder the park was empty all the romancing couples would be giving it a wide birth, you would be better meeting at Central Station were kissing is allowed by default, well there is not sign up at Central Station saying “No Kissing” so I assume it is allowed.

Another thing I found interesting as around and about there were groups of monkeys in the trees, like we would have flocks of parrots in the trees they had troupes of monkeys in the trees. I did feel a little vulnerable, walking under the trees, as these guys could throw things at you and worse of all they had no nappies on and so it was possible the could, well you know drop their load so to speak as you were passing, or is that better said as they could be passing while you were passing.

The walk was a huge work out as the lake park is a gully basically and the walk is down to the valley floor and then back up to the car park. My whole body was wringing wet, I took water but I consumed that very quickly and had to purchase a second bottle part way through my walk.

I was amazed by the lack of people in enjoying the park, it is school holidays and I would have expected to find family groups all over but there were almost none. The park spans some 92 hectares and is close to the heart of KL and all its bustle and people, it is a lovely spot for a respite for all from that.

The park contains:

• the largest covered bird garden in the world, half a hill side is cover in as a bird park
• The National Orchard Gardens
• The National Planetarium
• A children’s Fun Park
• A Deer Park
• A Hibiscus Garden
• The National Monument.
• A small Museum and a linked walk way to a much larger Museum

There is a manned taxi stand at the bird garden so you can get to the park by taxi and be sure of getting one to go home as well, this makes the place even more appealing however it was still very empty. I thought damn, as I did not bring a camera this trip that is so typical, however I apologize I tried to capture what I could on my phone. Oh well there is plenty to see and I will go back to this place.

I just walked the gardens and did not look at the other attractions, the walk took me 2 hours and I was exhausted at the end of it and I needed a sit and a drink at the end of this.