Parks and Gardens, Kuala Lumpur

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Ride on the world largest portable wheel, souring 60m above the water of Titiwangsa lake in Kuala Lumpur, and keep your Eye On Malaysia.

The “Eye on Malaysia” provides stunning views across Lake Titiwangsa to the Petronas Towers and KL Tower. This astounding viewing wheel consists of 42 fully air-conditioned gondolas, 39 of which have the capacity to carry a cosy eight passengers in the 12-minute ride.

An exclusive VIP gondola has also been outfitted to include plush leather seats, a mini fridge, a DVD player, a plasma TV and a mobile telephone. There are also two specially designed gondolas, fitted with unique features making it friendly to our wheelchair-bound and handicapped visitors.

Operating hours are 10am to 11pm Sunday to Thursday, 12 midnight Fridays, Saturdays and before public holidays. Tickets are available for RM15 Adult and RM8 Child.

How to get to Eye On Malaysia?

By Bus
From KL Sentral
Take bus number 109 to Titiwangsa Terminal then take bus number 120 to Lake Titiwangsa.

From Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC)
Take bus number 121 to Lake Titiwangsa.

By Monorail/Light Rail Transit (LRT)
From KL Sentral
Alight at Titiwangsa Station, after which take bus number 120 to Lake Titiwangsa.

From Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC)
Alight at Titiwangsa Station then take bus number 120 to Lake Titiwangsa.

By Express Rail Transit (ERL)
From KLIA
Alight at KL Sentral then you can choose to either take a bus or train to Lake Titiwangsa.

Eye On Malaysia is a ferris wheel that Malaysia Tourism Board has rented from a Germany company for one year in conjunction with Visit Malaysia Year 2007. The ferris wheel is located at the lake shore of Taman Tasik Titiwangsa. Personally, I don't see anything so special about it except that it provides a good photo opportunity.

Duration:
each ride consists of 4 rounds on Eye on Malaysia = 10 to 15 minutes
long queue on weekends and public holiday = uncertain

Ticket price: RM15 (Adult), RM8 (Child, Senior Citizen, and Disabled), RM100 (for Private Gondola, max. 8 persons)
Operating Hours: 10am til 11pm (Weekdays) 10am til 12am (Weekends and Holiday Eves)

To get there:
1. nearest Monorail and LRT Station is Titiwangsa, followed by bus no. 120.
2. from KLCC, take bus no. 121 to Lake Titiwangsa
3. KL Hop On Hop Off Bus

Catch it while it last! It's been extended to August 31, 2008.

FRIM is one of my favorite park. It surprises me that we have forest reserve like this so close to the city. It's about 15-20 minutes drive from KL. It's kinda odd, usually city and jungle just don't quite come together.
One of the highlights of the park, apart from the jungle trekking, is the canopy walkway among the trees. The trail up to the canopy walk through the hill can be quite exhausting, bringing drinking water with you is not a bad idea. But it can be pretty rewarding, if you are lucky, you get to run into weird looking creatures in the jungles. I saw a big black milipede crawling on a rock. Kewl.
Not to be missed while you are there also, is the "WOW" Spot on one of the Jungle trail. The trail has a rather hidden entrance. A short visit to the information office to get a map of the trail will surely help. When you're standing at the "WOW" spot, look up tho the canopy and you see the leaves at the top form a very nice mosaic, they don't touch each other, hence maximizing their chances of getting sunlight. It's tough out there in the jungle.

Well, this is me having a stroll at the canopy walk. The canopy walk is about 1000 ft from the sea level and 200m long. You can have a good view of the city from the walkway, but the Twin Towers are no where in sight. Tickets are needed to get to the walkway, price for adult is RM5 and kids are RM3.

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Most of the museums in Kuala Lumpur are situated around or close to the Lake Gardens, which makes it easy to combine the visit (or get into one of the museums if the weather is not the best for a park visit). Unfortunately, there are many parks in Kuala Lumpur which are called Lake Gardens (especially the ones in Titiwangsa in the north of the city which has a theatre resembling the National Mosque), but the one usually meant is the one to the west of Merdeka Square and the train station. Lake Gardens (or Taman Tasik Perdana) is the oldest park in KL and one of the most popular. You will see locals of all ethnic groups as well as tourists jogging, walking or just relaxing. Within Lake Gardens, you will find many smaller parks and gardens, such as the deer park, orchid gardens, hibiscus garden, butterfly park and many more. As the name suggests, there is also a lake in the gardens (indeed, there are even two). This means that you'll not only enjoy different types of foliage, but also water life like nymphaea or waterbirds. Indeed, a good place to relax.

On the other hand....the Butterfly Park was a definate hit! :o) What a variety of butterflies!! It was so nice walking through the little rainforest and trying to capture them on camera :o) I highly recommend this place.

If you thought Janine and the monkey looked cute.....check this out haha!! Howie made a friend too! ...... or was this cute little butterfly trying to escape? ..... ;o)

Again, thanks to my friends here on vt, I learn't that the Lake Gardens are a definate must do whilst in KL. We took the Monorail to KL Sentral and then a taxi from there.

The Lake Garden has a whole two day's worth of activities to do and we only had half a day so we had to make a tough decision. In the end we picked the Orchid gardens and the Butterfly Park as they were across the road from eachother. The Orchid gardens were not that good - the one in Singapore is so much better. But still, it was nice to have a bit of shade to walk around and the monkeys were cute :o)

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The Lake Gardens are close to central KL and are a peaceful spot to escape the bustle of the city.

The gardens occupy 92 hectares. We went round on foot but this was tiring in the heat. There is also a shuttle for getting round. If you do walk, wear a sun hat, sun screen and bring plenty of water with you.

The gardens most famous site is the Bird Park. Open 9am to 7.30 pm. Adm Rm 28. There is also the Taman Rama Rama - the Butterfly Park. Open 9am to 6pm. Adm Rm 15.

We did not actually visit either of these sights. Instead we visited the Taman Orkid - the Orchid Garden. Open 9am - 6pm. Adm free. We also visited the Taman Bunga Raya - the Hibiscus Garden. Open 9am -6pm. Adm -free. Both were beautifully laid out and filled with colourful flowers.

The park also contains a lake where it is possible to hire boats, the National Monument which we visited on a previous trip and the Hotel Carcosa Seri Negara which was once the luxurious residence of British Government Representative, Frank Swettenham.