Malaysian Memories

I loved Genting Highlands because the temperature was always cool there. When I used to go there, I used to take rides on the Genting Highlands Skyway, from which I could see green rain forests and emerald scenery to the far horizons. Dramatic views but a bit scary: it was so high up in the Skyway that I always got a bit giddy peeking out at the views. 

Viewing the rain forests at Genting Highlands gave me an idea what the jungles of southeast Asia would have looked like in the old days before modern development took place.

I never stayed at the Genting Highlands but just went for day trips there from Kuala Lumpur. A lot of tourists used to visit this area and it was expensive to stay there, so i just went up for the day. You could always buy some souvenirs at the little shops at the Skyway.

In the Four Seasons Temperate Garden in the Shah Alam Malaysia Agriculture Park, at the Malaysian town of Shah Alam, you could enter one building and experience all four seasons -- while undercover!

Each of the four seasons was exhibited at different times of the year, as follows:

• Spring season garden: March-May.
• Summer season garden: June-August.
• Autumn season garden: September-November.
• Winter season garden: December-February.

I visited in December, so I was able experience the winter season, complete with snow flakes falling down and a snow man smiling at everyone!

Outside of the Temperate Garden display, I enjoyed looking at all the plants with the displays explaining how they should be cultivated. For example, there was a display showing how to cultivate tomatoes inside.

When I visited the zoo in Malacca, you could ride a train around the zoo to see the different parts of the zoo and the different animals. There was a song being played in the train which went as follows:

Let's go to the zoo
There's lots of things to do
And the food
Is finger-licking good!

There were birds of different kinds, monkies, gorillas, snakes: just the usual range of animals, I suppose, but I enjoyed seeing them all. 

We passed over a little bridge with water flowing underneath. On one side of the water there, I saw what looked like a statue of a crocodile (it was so dry and so gray a color -- just like cement). But to my surprise, or should I say, shock, the "statue" was walking along, going to the water! The crocodile was real!

These days I understand that the Malacca Zoo houses many local southeast Asian animals, including the critically endangered Sumatran Rhinoceros.

In Sitiawan in the state of Perak, I particular remember the abundant birdlife.

In the morning at about 7 am you could see a lot of birds flying along in one direction and then in the afternoon at about 5 or 6 pm you could see them all flying back again. An old lady me that the birds were like people: going to work in the morning and then returning home in the late afternoon.

I remember scanning the different species of trees and looking in them for the different kinds of bird nests. Among the nests you could see elaborate ones and also very simple ones. The old lady told me that the elaborate nests were the homes of the rich birds and that the simple nests belonged to poor birds. I learned a lot from that old lady when she used to compare the life of birds and of people.

Each morning I would see dead snakes outside of the back door of the bungalow where we were staying. The snakes had been found and killed by the dogs of the bungalow owners: we were so close to the forest and the snakes often would come out of the forest and into the backyard which the dogs were guarding. Scary!

One day trip at Shah Alam Malaysia Agriculture Park
Last month, june june tell me that she wanted to cycle in Shah Alam Malaysia Agriculture Park.

Malacca Zoo
Malacca Zoo is a 54-acre (22 ha) zoological park located besides Lebuh Ayer Keroh (Federal Route ) in the town of Ayer Keroh in the state of Malacca, Malaysia.