Visit to Butterfly Park and Forest Eco Park, Kuala Lumpur

I chalked up yet another totally new experience when the Oldies paid a visit to the Kuala Lumpur Butterfly Park. I’ve spotted the occasional red admiral and cabbage white in Europe, but these Malaysian guys are proper fancy pants. And some of them are huge! If it hadn’t been for the fact they were flying around in bright daylight, I might have been convinced that they were bats, not butterflies.

I wasn’t the only one going a bit batty. You should have seen His Lordship trying to photograph the flighty critters. He’s not the quickest mover at the best of times, but those butterflies kept him hopping. They rarely stayed still for a second. And when they finally did land, it was often in the most awkward of places!

Her Ladyship and I took the sensible option, choosing instead to avail of the many alcoves and gazebos dotted around the park and relax in the shade of the lush vegetation. While His Lordship worked himself up into a sweaty mess, we two spent a wonderfully peaceful afternoon, enjoying the sound of the babbling fountains in the balmy tropical surroundings. And watching the next butterfly flutter by. Poetry in motion!

Not long after our interlude with the butterflies, the Wingless Wonders made a beeline for another park – this time, the KL Forest Eco Park. This is apparently the only remaining patch of tropical rainforest in central Kuala Lumpur. ‘Lovely’, I thought. ‘I’m game for another dose of nature!’ That was until I spotted the warning signs about all the dangerous snakes, scorpions, spiders and insects that visitors might encounter along the way. Ooooh! Perhaps not so lovely after all…

The treetop walk was great. Apart from the amazing views, there was a relative feeling of safety up there. But then the Dynamic Duo decided to continue the rainforest walk on ground level. Mmmm. Now I was a tad outside my comfort zone.

Although I knew we were only a stone’s throw away from KL Tower and civilization, I could only see green, green, and more green.

I wasn’t the only one who had lost sight of the towering landmarks. The Oldies appeared to be rather disorientated, and I am pretty sure we were going around in circles.

This was rather unnerving. It was even more unnerving to hear the screeches of monkeys hopping around in the trees close by. As far as I was concerned, it was time to call it a day. The Wingless Wonders, however, were determined to spot one of the two species native to the park: long-tailed macaques and silvery langurs. I kept well out of sight, I can assure you. Long-tailed this or silvery that, whatever the species, any of those cheeky monkeys could have grabbed me and had me up those tree tops in seconds!

In the end, of all the terrifying rainforest creatures we might have encountered that day, it was the mosquitoes that finally drove the Oldies back to built-up Kuala Lumpur. Once Her Ladyship had been bitten a few times, that was it. No more monkeying around. We were out of there.

Fine by me!