Paul was able to take this weekend to relax after his trips to Hong Kong and Perth, so we finally made it to the bird park here in KL. We didn't expect much more than the "rubbish" we experienced at the crocodile park, but the Bird Park turned out to be a pleasant surprise. The park is spread over 20 acres, and I believe it's the largest free flight bird park in the world. So there only a few birds actually in cages. The rest are walking and flying all over the place. It was ridiculously hot and humid I think because we were practically in the middle of jungle. But we saw all sorts of birds and I was able to take plenty of pictures and we weren't without the usual mishaps and surprises.
After we both got over our run in with bird feces, we made our way to the parrot area where we purchased food and coconut milk to feed the parrots. For some reason the parrots liked us much more than the other people around us and we became like the pigeon lady from Home Alone.
We were told we needed to go sit at the cafe to watch the birds fly below us while we sat at the balcony. So we did. We had no idea that when they said the birds will get close that they would get this close. This was without any zoom.
He was practically in my face and wanted to be in Paul's face so that we would continue feeding him french fries, which was a bad idea to begin with. I thought it was particularly interesting that he wanted nothing to do with the onions we tried to feed him, but gobbled up the fries. Apparently birds are picky eaters. While we kept feeding this one french fries, another bird was rather upset that it was not getting hand fed a feast. I would probably be mad too if I had to eat papaya for every meal. So I was getting the hairy eyeball from this guy.
On the way from the butterfly park to the orchid park, we were walking up the street on a sidewalk, and monkeys started coming out of the woodwork. Or rather, the jungle. The road was paved in case you're wondering how remote of a place we were. But, on either side of the road was pretty much jungle. So we literally almost tripped on two monkeys sitting on the sidewalk eating their lunch. Then we realized that the entire monkey clan lived in the plants on the other side of the street. One by one they started coming out of the trees and climbed on the light posts to hang out at the top. Others started crossing the street and before we knew it, we were in the middle of about 20 monkeys of all sizes walking around us. One looked like it was going to attack us, so we decided it was best not to make eye contact. Again we helped out all the Malaysians who don't want wild animals to rely on tourists for food by trekking back to the bird park to buy cookies in the gift shop, and brought them back to feed the monkeys. One large monkey really enjoyed the cookies more than the others, and Paul started playing catch with the monkey. Paul would make a clicking noise to get the monkey's attention while it sat about 2 feet away from us on a fence post, and then he would toss a cookie at the monkey who happened to be a very good catch. Then, the monkey must have been worried that we were dirty people, which was a little accurate seeing we both had been pooped on by birds, so he would rub each cookie thoroughly before eating it. All our fun ended when we were out of cookies and it started raining.
After being ambushed by monkeys we took the 20 minute taxi drive home, and I started thinking. If monkeys come out of the jungle on the way to the bird park, what kind of friendly creatures will come out of the jungle on the way to the elephant park? Should I pack some steaks in my pocket for hungry tigers?
November 14, 2010 at 9:14 PM
Nice story Kat, and awesome photos. I am so glad you blogged again. I was missing your updates.
See y'all soon.
Alvin
November 14, 2010 at 10:50 PM
Beautiful pics Kat. Can't wait for your arrival next Saturday. I wish Paul was coming as well. We really miss you two. Luv Mimi