12/10 Lake gardens
We set off from the hotel, feeling
our way West across freeways, rivers and rail lines. We took wrong advice from
one policeman and ignored good advice from a young chap but we got across to
the park, starting with the butterfly park. She who paid to go in reported a
heap of colourful butterflies in a tropical garden. She also elucidated on the
distinction between butterflies and moths (email her). I sat in the cool reception area and sharpened
up on some sudokus.
Getting around was uncomfortable
because it entailed a lot of up and down hill work and it was very hot. The
location of the attractions on our map did not necessarily dovetail with real
life and there was a measure of trial and error in our navigation. We found
ourselves going past the bird park but eventually came across the hibiscus park
and the orchid gardens, which was where we were hoping to reach.
They were very prettily laid out
with landscaping and fountains. The orchids spanned a wide range of full sun
and shaded types and some hung bare-rooted in the air while others attached to
tree trunks.
This was right at the top of a
hill, with roads curling around at significantly different levels, which made
for a much harder path than the way it appeared on paper. We had bought water
but by then we were very much looking forward to getting to the refreshment
kiosk at the Perdana Lake gardens.
Ais kacang is a Malaysian dessert
which is also common in Singapore and Brunei. Traditionally a special ice
machine is used to churn out the shaved ice used in the
dessert, originally hand cranked but now more often motorized.
Formerly, it was made of only
shaved ice and red beans. Today, ais kacang generally comes in bright colours,
and with different fruit cocktails and dressings such as attap chee (palm
seed), red beans, sweet corn, grass jelly and cubes
of agar agar as common
ingredients. Afinal topping of evaporated milk, condensed
milk, or coconut milk is drizzled over the mountain of ice along with red rose
syrup and sarsi syrup
We had enjoyed one such concoction
last year but on this occasion we had to settle for grape Fanta.
Getting across the roads back to KL
Central was quite challenging and entailed some dodgy stretches of walking
along freeway feeder lanes until we regained some form of pavement or secure edge. We
had Maccas and trained back to the hotel, arriving just before a humungous
thunderstorm rolled in. We are 5 storeys up, which left us feeling as though we
were right up among the lightning bolts. It was utterly awesome (to rescue a
much abused word). The thunder ground its way towards us, culminating in a
blinding flash with an instant CRASH, which then echoed, rumbled and
reverberated away across the city. We disconnected everything because we felt
very exposed up here.
The storm passed and the rain
gradually lightened. We had one more shopping trip to do, particularly to get
one of those red white and blue cross-woven raffia “Hong Kong suitcases” to
accommodate our luggage overflow. Back at the hotel, we transferred some
luggage to free up access into my bag to get the super-glue, which we needed
for some running repairs. Laundry, blogging etc.
More pics from butterfly park:
Look at the size of the alligator turtle
Rhinocerous beetle
Enormous millipedes
They are eating normal size pieces of cucumber.
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