Bird Park Lake Gardens

I remember we spent a lot of money a few years ago to get the Bird Park upgraded. So my expectation was raised when I recently visited the Bird Park, unfortunately on the same day as my post on 'Malaysian tourism and our Orchid Garden'.

Gosh, I was shocked to see that yeeesss there are a lot more birds now. But is that the point? I felt sick when I was there. The overcrowding of birds in an enclosed hot and humid environment in a public place. Have we not heard of bird flu or the avian flu? I felt like I had to go take a shower (with chlorox added) after the visit.

Any professional bird park management would know that sanitization is key. The place must be washed down each day to clean off the bird droppings. There were bird droppings on the footpath. Birds were wandering every where.

Instead of showcasing our local birds, we have too many imported birds. Why do we have so many imported birds of the same kind. Birds I could not relate to. There was even a sickly looking emu with hardly any feathers left. It is sad.

We have beautiful Malaysian birds. I remember there were some nice looking hornbills that used to approach us while we sat at Carls Junior. That is gone. We have stalls that sell coconuts at RM10 each. I had hoped to see more lovely colourful sunbirds that I see in my own garden attracted by the red seeds of the local palms. I had hoped to also see hummingbirds that love the red powderpuff.

Malaysian tourism and our Orchid Garden

I can't quite get a feel of our Malaysian tourism drive. I read a lot about our representation in the Chelsea Flower Show in England this year. Recently I had a visitor from England and we both love gardening and my friend said yes, he saw our Malaysian flower representation in England.

So I thought the obvious place in KL city to take my friend to is our famous Orchid Garden at the Lake Gardens. We drove to the Orchid Garden at Lake Gardens in the hot afternoon sun thinking it would be worth it to brave the hot sun to view the real Malaysian garden. When we got there, I was embarrassed. There was hardly any part of the garden that looked like it had been well attended to. It looked almost barren, forgotten and definitely not a showcase of the Malaysian flowers. It's really sad. I had been to the Orchid Garden some years ago and it has definitely deteriorated since then. We saw some stalls selling orchids and that was about it. Why are we going abroad to get represented in some international flower show when there is nothing sustainable in our national garden. I thought the Orchid Garden is our national garden in KL city centre. Or am I wrong? Or did we pluck everything out of our gardens and had them transported to England for the flower show and there is nothing left here in KL?

If there is nothing worthwhile to appreciate in the Orchid Garden, why don't we put up a notice to say that the garden is closed. It is a waste of time for a visitor on a limited stay to walk around a garden that has nothing worthwhile to see. Please close down the Orchid Garden in the meantime. If the garden has been shifted to somewhere else like the Botanical Gardens in Putrajaya, or Chelsea in England, please at least put up a sign to direct people to go there. Embarrassed does not describe how I felt that day.