mercredi 18 mars 2015

16th March. Last day in Malaysia Kuala lumpur Bird park

For our last day in Malaysia we went to the bird Park near the center of the town. It was a symphony of colour in a luxuriant park full of tropical trees and plants. It took us all afternoon just to go around it and we could have stayed all day there was so much to see. The following photos are just a small sample from the 100 and something that we took, there all many different species of birds that we had never seen before, as well as the Emu ( very vicious) and the Ostrich which is very friendly.

One of the many owls . 


A beautiful peacock, the park was full of them, some standing in the middle of the path giving us a splendid show of its tail. They seemed to be showing off because the spread of its tail took up the whole width of the path. 

 A blue winged macaw with his personal trainer, each macaw has the same person training it. 
A sulphur crested cockatoo ' hello Jiffy ' , a green amazon and a macaw

This one can count !

A sacred Ibis 

Feeding time for the stalks , flamingos, pelicans and Ibis. 





This pelican has got a hugh fish in its mouth

Paul hand feeding some lorries. 




The colours are just fabulous


Endemic to Malasia , there are ten different species of hornbill in Taman Nagara, this one is the greater hornbill. 

Sorry Lou you told me the name but I've forgotten, .......headed parrots ( maybe pink headed ???)

Yet another Jiffy 

 Just outside the Bird park there are several structures representing different astrological places in the world, this is a replica of Stonehenge in the UK
A view of Kuala Lumpur from the Mosque
 Ju found a friend just outside the mosque
On the way up to visit the mosque I found this lady,   
 Water is very important in the Muslim religion and this Mosque is surrounded by pools and fountains
I have added another photo of Ju in her gown and headscarf because I quite like her look. 
The prayer room, the line on the floor represents the dividing limit between male and female worshippers. 


A little bit of Provence in Kuala Lumpur

The twin towers of Kuala Lumpur built by Petronas; Petroliam Nasional Berhad, and yes this is where Malaysia gets its income from, they also export soap and palm oil. 

And just in front of the towers a water display , yet another symphony of colour !

Bye bye to Malaysia and  Kuala Lumpur , our next destination being Katmandu in Nepal for the Manaslu trek. 

13 th to 15 th March Jungle and Elephant sanctuary

Après avoir passé une heure en bateau pour rejoindre la cote et quitter le paradis, nous avons pris un bus pour Kuantan (4h), puis un autre pour Temerloh (1h) et enfin un taxi pour Jerantut dans le Pahang en haut au centre de la carte. On se trouvant alors à proximité de Taman Negara le 1er parc National de Malaisie 

 La Malaisie est le second producteur d'huile de palme du monde après l'indonésie. Cette huile sort du fruit rouge plus gros qu'un ananas. Le palmier en produit environ 2 par mois, ils sont placés dans des container puis récupéré par des camions pour être pressés.
Taman Negara on trouve un bungalow à Kuala Tahan puis on traverse le fleuve pour aller au point 4 la canopée qu'on peut admirer sur des ponts suspendus à 40m du sol. C'est une forêt primaire qui a environ 1,5 Millions d'années.



Point 5 de la carte, le sommet de la montagne puis on redescend de l'autre coté (point 6). C'est là qu'on tombe nez à nez avec un aborigène qui chasse avec une longue sarbacane 


 Après une longue descente on retrouve un affluent de la grande rivière et on en profite pour s'y baigner, il ne semble pas avoir de crocodile ni de piranhas !

Traversée du fleuve pour rejoindre le village

Le lendemain bateau pour aller au point 19 de la carte 
en passant par le village des aborigènes 
On commence par apprendre comment faire du feu puis comment utiliser la sarbacane















Elephant Sanctuary visit, 
This sanctuary is funded by the government 
it is the home to 70 elephants which have been rescued because of injury. 
To visit the sanctuary it is free of charge , the only thing that you have to pay if you want to is to bath the baby elephants , this costs 2,5 euros each and 8 euros for a local guide per group which is an obligation if you choose the bathing ritual. 
Their trunks are very soft and they are very delicate when they take food off you. 

This baby elephant has its front left leg shorter than the other ones. it was amputated after having been trapped in a wire . A donation has been made recently and he will have a false foot fitted very soon. As you can see he rests his head on the trunk in order to take some weight off his other legs. 
Adult elephant bathing time



They have a show with their trainers and they appear to love showing the public what they can do. 


Two guides with Paul in the middle 






For more information you can consult their web site. A lot of tour operators charge a lot of money to visit this park which is entirely free , if you do go there with a tour operator you are only paying him for the transport. it is not that difficult to get there by yourselves. You need to take a bus from Kuala Lumpur which stops in Chanlang, 3 euros and then a taxi the 12 Kms to the park (15 Euros there and back to the main road for a bus either back to KL or onto Kuantan and the east coast).  It is a really super day out!