Rewinding KL: BIRD PARK

Kuala Lumpur, February 19th 2011

The government of Malaysia must for Air Asia a great deal. When I asked a friend to travel with me to Malaysia, she refused. She suggested other countries, but not Malaysia. I sought for another friend, but immediately said no right after I finished the pronouncing "Malaysia". We ended up traveling to another country and I gave up my wish. However, since I still remain a budget traveler with an extraordinary dream, I'm bond to Air Asia. One day I wanted to fly to Hanoi. Of course, I had to fly to Kuala Lumpur first to get on a flight to Hanoi. And, that was the time when I fell in love with KL.

I learned that there was a bird park in KL. "World's Largest Free-flight Walk-in Aviary", I read. On September 2010, I purposely took the evening flight back to Jakarta after flying from Chengdu in order to visit the bird park. But, I didn't expect it to be that large. Next time, I said to myself, I'm going to spare one whole day to explore this park.

December 2010, I made my dream come true. But, a few days later, I accidentally deleted some of the photos I had taken in KL Bird Park. Therefore, when Air Asia threw a big promotion for Jakarta - Kuala Lumpur flight (165.000 IDR one way), I grabbed the chance. February 19th 2011, I flew back to KL. Not for a stop over, but for KL only.

I was very thankful that Air Asia flew me to KL on schedule and in fact, we arrived at LCCT 15 minutes ahead of schedule. I took the first flight and was really worried Air Asia might practice their habit of "retime" for I wanted to catch the bird show at 12:30 PM.

From KL Sentral, I went straight to look for My Hotel @Brickfield which I had booked in advance via Agoda. I intentionally book a hotel within walking distance from KL Sentral Terminal in order to save time and money. Having done with the check in procedure -- which took rather long, I rushed to Seven Eleven nearby to buy a bottle of cold drink. It was really a hot day. Next, call a taxi. I arrived at KL Bird Park at ten to twelve. I still had time before the show. So I decided to visit my Rainbow Lorikeets first.

The previous time I came, I had been looking for this particular one. The color of the feathers aren't so "rainbowny", looks a bit rough, and the bird has only one eye. The first time I came here, the caretaker told us that this bird had lost its eye in a fight. Oh, that's unimaginable for such cuties.

The Bird Show was started by a duck parade. It looked like a parade of ducks from all generations. Some ducklings made attempts to wander off, but Mother Duck made sure they followed the rule.

Greeting visitors and telling how it feels.

Cycling to school.

Driving to work.

It's a pity I missed the shot when the car broke down. I did get it the previous time, but oh well... ah, forget it lah.

Worked hard, play hard now.

I wonder, is it the shape or the color that it pays attention to?

Good guesser!

The man signals two numbers with his fingers. And then the bird will sum the numbers. If the answer is, let's say 12, the bird will ring the bell 12 times.

Good show, good education. Don't litter!

A Brahmanian Kite is ready to fetch a snack.

After the show, I went for lunch at Hornbill Restaurant. It's pricey, but there's no other choice in this area if you wish for a full meal. 

This is chicken with rice. It was a big portion, so I asked the waitress to wrap up the rest. I ate it for dinner.

Malaysian coffee. Not bad, but not so special either.

The term "rewinding" stuck on my mind so strongly that when I edited the photos and typed a watermark, I wrote "2010" instead of "2011". Since I had already quite many photos like that, I felt reluctant to edit the watermarks one by one. Ah, let it be. If I hadn't loose the shots I made last December 2010, it would have been "2010" anyway.

So was it with this Scarlet Ibis. It was one of the shots I mistakenly deleted and missed so much, because I think this ibis is very attractive and outstanding with its bright scarlet on the greenery.

You can find more about Scarlet Ibis here.

I also made several shots of a peacock in December 2010, but carelessly deleted them from my camera. So here I re-shoot it again. I had almost given up that the peacock would spread it feathers.

Before the bird show I had already visited the cockatoo and after the show I visited them again. I think cockatoos are my favorite of all birds.

You know what, I stroked this Moluccan Cockatoo's chest with my finger. "Halo (not 'hello')..." I said. Several seconds later it opened its mouth and I heard "Hahwo..."

Moluccan Cockatoo clung still on its giant cage in front of me as if it enjoyed my visit. I tried again. Stroked its chest with my finger and greeted, "Halo."

Once again I heard, "Hahwo..."

Ah... Moluccan Cockatoo just made me love it more.

At the owl section, a Buffy Fish-owl.

This was from a photo booth. When a staff first placed the parrot on this girls shoulder, it immediately poked on the flower on this girl's hat. The parrot poked and poked but then stopped. It seemed to realize that it was a fake flower. It was a funny but arrgghh... I failed to capture that moment.

From left to right:

Barn Owl, Superb Starling, African Grey Parrot, Asian Fairy Blue Bird.

A special note about the seemingly sleepy Barn Owl. Interestingly, the Malaysian name for this was "Burung Hantu Jampok Kubur". In Indonesia we also call an owl "burung hantu" which means "ghost bird". But "jampok kubur", I didn't know that. I don't know what "jampok" means, but "kubur" means "grave". When not in the state of sleepiness like this, barn owls actually look very cute. I don't understand why such a cutie is given such an eerie name. Do barn owls actually play in a cemetery instead of in a barn?