I had designated 9 to 11 am in the morning for a walk around the Perdana Botanical Gardens. Of course, it was only tentative and I only rolled out of bed at 9+ am. And then I had to blow dry my hair after showering, organise my things which were strewn all over the place, arrange for some same-day deliveries to my hotel, and grapple with Malaysian eWallet apps only for them to not work for me anyway. It didn’t help that I felt too lazy to get out of the armchair I was sitting in. By the time I had finished sorting out all my administrative matters and set foot outside my room, it was well after 11am.
I still went, anyway, because I was still fresh and full of energy and not quite hungry yet. I wore a face mask because of the haze. However, I forgot to bring: water, an umbrella (yeah, it never occurred to me to bring the green umbrella I bought at the mall two days ago…genius..), and sunscreen.
As it was around noon already, there were very few people around, so I had the place mostly to myself. The first stop along the way was the Sunken Garden.
I went by the pond after that. I even spotted an otter swimming, though as it was mostly submerged except for its head, I didn’t bother to get a picture.
This photo reminds me of what a someone had said to me about nature shots: “when you see the pictures other people took, you will think, ‘wow, it looks so amazing‘ when you’re sitting at home in your comfortable chair with your air cond, but when you’re the one actually doing the walking, it feels like f****** hell, man”. Every time I see this particular photo, I think of how right he was. Hahaha. While I totally agree with him, I do enjoy looking at these pictures, because they’re mine. I was there. I took these pictures and lived those moments, sweat and humidity and sore calf muscles and all.
I was particularly keen on finding the Orchid Gardens. However, I couldn’t find it despite passing the same areas and routes several times. The third time I ended up looping back to the same crossroads, I decided to put the orchids on hold for later and went in the direction of the signage to the butterfly park.
Now, I thought the butterfly park was inside the botanical gardens itself. After walking for quite some time without seeing any butterflies, I realised I had to exit the park and walk against the flow of traffic for some distance to get to there. I’m not gonna lie, I was scared. I saw a tourist walking ahead and tried to walk closely behind him so passers-by wouldn’t think I was alone.
My feet were really protesting by then. Finally, I saw the butterfly garden sign. This was the entrance.
Thankfully, there was a snack vendor right inside the entrance. I ordered a drink and sat down immediately. This iced honey lemon drink was the best thing I had ever tasted in my entire life at that point. The last drink of water I had had that day was at 11+ am, and I had already walked 2-3 hours in the heat by then.
I think I have an unfortunate combination of time blindness and not knowing when to stop that adds unnecessary suffering to my trips. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to take a break to look for something to drink until I was well past the threshold for dehydration.
Anyway, on to the butterflies. I consulted trusty old Google Lens for species identification.
Above: Common Birdwing Swallowtail Butterfly
Above: Red Helen Swallowtail Butterfly
I remember watching as a kid this one episode of Pokemon where Ash’s Caterpie evolved into its final stage from its pupal form. He sent off his new Butterfree into the sunset to start its new life with its pink mate. Miyazaki’s “Tears After the Cloudy Weather” played in the background. I recall watching the episode again as an adult and crying so hard that I had a headache the next day.
Above: Common Jay Swallowtail Butterfly.
Above: Striped Albatross Butterfly. It looks like it’s wearing a white nightgown with black lace trim. Speaking of white butterflies, it reminds me of the time me and my cousins and family members were sitting at the funeral home burning joss papers for my late grandfather. It was probably the wee hours of the morning; we took turns sleeping in our cars so that there was always someone awake to keep the fire burning. According to traditional beliefs, the fire has to keep burning, without interruption, in the 3 days before his burial so that my grandfather’s spirit can follow the flame as a guide into the afterlife. A white butterfly/moth flitted along just a few feet away from where we were sitting. In Asian beliefs, butterflies represent the souls of relatives coming back to visit their loved ones.
Above, left to right: my size 11 clown shoes, Common Mime Butterfly, Redspot Sawtooth Butterfly. I felt like a third wheel, until I noticed the well-camouflaged butterfly just inches away from the butterfly pair.
Above, from top to bottom: Common Mime Butterfly, Redspot Sawtooth Butterfly, Great Orange-Tip Butterfly
I’m not gonna type out their names again. The first time I scrolled past this photo, I didn’t notice the third butterfly at first; it was only when I looked at the pictures again that I saw it. Google said it was a Great Orange Tip, which confused me, because it looked nothing like the Orange Tip pictured above. I continued reading and discovered that, believe it or not, it is indeed the same species: the inside of its wings look like the picture above with the orange tips, and the outside of its wings look like leaves to help camouflage it. Cool party trick.
There are like…six butterflies in the picture above. Well, five and a half. The small butterflies on the right side of the photo, clockwise from top left: 1) I genuinely don’t know 2) Common Grass Yellow Butterfly (might be wrong), 3) some type of mushroom according to Google, 4) Chocolate Albatross Butterfly.
Let’s play a game: which ones are butterflies and which ones are flowers? The pink one on the bottom left had me fooled, not gonna lie.
A Great Mormon butterfly landed on a bed of hibiscus flowers to drink. The red patches on its wings are almost the same shade as the petals.
There was a koi pond.
Turtle friends.
I like the accidental yin-and-yang effect here.
Nice try, but I see you.
After I had made a full circuit around the butterfly garden, I decided to walk back to the main botanical garden to continue searching for that elusive orchid garden. Except that I was now semi-delirious from the heat and fatigue and walked the opposite direction of where I came from. So, yes, I got lost yet again, and nothing looked familiar. I kept walking until I reached some sort of bus carpark. There was a shaded area with some stools to sit on, but this old man seated there was making uncomfortable eye contact and trying to beckon me over and talk, so I kept walking and saw an art museum with harmless-looking tourists around. I crossed the road and stepped inside the air-conditioned building. This is where any sane person calls it a day and goes back to their domicile. Not me, no, because I just don’t know when to quit. I took a ride back to the main garden because I didn’t want my efforts to find the orchids to be in vain. And there was no way I’m walking around alone in the streets trying to find my way back when I was already disoriented by my bearings and weakened by hunger (I hadn’t had breakfast that morning, either). I’m not 20 anymore! I’d happily pay that RM 11 Grab ride fare.
So, after the driver deposited me back at the garden entrance, I continued walking past the signboards that I was now well-acquainted with. Unbelievably enough, I ended up going down the wrong path yet again, though in my defense, the sign was sort of misleading. I had walked what felt like another 1 km of secluded but paved road among the trees before thinking, you know what, no orchids are worth this, I’m leaving. I wouldn’t continue walking to the end of that road even if there was the fountain of youth at the end of it. So I turned back in the direction I came from, and ran into some tourists who I’d also seen in the butterfly park; they asked me where the orchid garden was, and I said I didn’t know, it may or may not be at the end of the route I had just turned back on. They didn’t want to continue, either, and so we dispersed.
By the way, to give you some idea of how bad the haze was…that pointy thing in the background is Merdeka 118, the second tallest building in the world, after the Burj Khalifa. If you focus on any corner of this picture, the building more or less disappears entirely from peripheral vision.
By then, I was so hungry and thirsty and my whole body was aching, not to mention shivering (a bad sign when it’s hot). At that moment, I hated nature, I hated trees, I hated flowers, I hated orchids, I hated parks and especially parks with ambiguous signage. I dragged my tired feet along one of the paths, trying to find my way back to the entrance, when I saw it: the signs leading to the Orchid and Hibiscus gardens. I only had enough energy left to take some photos in the Hibiscus garden before calling it quits. The 3pm sun was beating down mercilessly on me, and my face was beetroot/sunburnt (as I had noted when I accidentally looked into the mirrored fixtures at the islamic arts museum). I was done, but I had to wait almost 20 minutes for a ride at the entrance, because nobody wanted to come my way to pick me up. Maybe I need to consider booking a personal chauffeur to wait for me next time I go to out-of-the-way places…
Anyway. Fun fact: The Hibiscus is the national flower of Malaysia.
This is one of my favourite pictures from the section. Behold the fallen petals lying scattered on the ground like my discarded dreams.
For lunch (if you could call it that..it was about 4pm by the time I hopped out of the car), I decided to try the first restaurant I saw (in Sunway), this Hakka restaurant called Ke Ren Lai (‘客人来’). I went to the one in Sunway Velocity Mall. I was so hungry I could eat a horse, and after quickly flipping through the menu at the front and deciding that the odds that this place would disappoint me were low, I settled into a seat.
I’m so jealous of how luscious and healthy their snake plant is.
Well, I was so thirsty, I ordered two drinks. The one on the left was a Yuzu lemon something. As for food, it was a little hard to decide. While I kinda wanted to try their lei cha (thunder tea rice), I didn’t feel like eating just rice and vegetables after my tiring activities from earlier, so I went with this Pan Seared Pork Belly rice. It. Was. So. Good. The meat was sizzling hot and juicy. That green paste was really tangy though, and it tasted strongly of vinegar.
Then I went to get an hour-long foot massage at this place called Health World Spa in Starus Hotel. It was a bit of an impromptu thing, but I felt like I really needed some self-care for my poor feet that had carried all 90 kgs of me around the park all day. I didn’t bother booking, I just walked in and hoped I would get a kind massage therapist.
I felt my body relax the moment I placed my feet in the stone basin with its warm, soapy water. I laughed when they soaped up my feet in the water. I like how they always look up at me and ask “is it ticklish?” while my feet are wriggling like startled fish in their hands. Then, we went to the reflexology room. Everything was so comfy, especially the massage chair. The darkness was comforting. If I had more time, I probably would have gone for 90 or 120 minutes and maybe thrown in a back and shoulder massage too.
The day ended with me getting a Chagee drink (white peach oolong as always) on the way back to my hotel. It was already 9pm, so I guess my brain decided one more questionable decision before bedtime wouldn’t hurt.