Christmas. Ever heard of it? We get a holiday for it over here, so I went over to Malaysia for a bit, starting off with Kuala Lumpur.
I’d been to Kuala Lumpur before, back in 2008, but there’s a whole new park (kind of; we’ll get to it later) since then. Technically, I’d been far more recently (less than a month before this trip), but that was literally just a one-night trip to go to a Dua Lipa concert since I’m down with the kids and slightly extra.
View from the hotel:
The first day started with a walk from the hotel down to Independence Square, an area I’d somehow missed last time. I took loads of pictures, but they’re all very similar. There were also a couple of markets, but if you’ve seen one overcrowded Asian market, you’ve seen them all.
We walked around to the new stupidly massive building, Merkeda 118, but none of the public spaces are open yet. Officially, it’s the second tallest building in the world, but shoving that spire on it seems like cheating to me. Then again, the top 30% of the Burj Khalifa is also unusable vanity height, so if it’s so important to them, let them have it I guess.
It was early afternoon, and we were about a 15-minute walk from Berjaya Times Square, one of many shopping malls in the city, so I suggested heading there for food. It wasn’t because there was a coaster in there at all. Supersonic Odyssey (thanks autocorrect – I can never get that word right) is one of those quite clickbaity coasters that sometimes pops up in those “Wow! Can you believe this CRAZY Asian coaster?! Would you ride this?!” bulls**t videos. Admittedly, it does look very cool and is pretty major for what’s essentially a shopping mall cred.
I’d ridden this before, so I didn’t need the cred. It’s also a pay-one-price park, so I wasn’t really up for bothering with that either, but getting the ticket online though trip.com (or Klook – can’t remember) was only about 12 quid I think, so I ended up popping in and getting a quick few rides in since the coaster was walk-on.
I’d quite liked this last time. It was around 5 years old at the time and was really smooth and pretty fun despite the layout not really being particularly interesting. It’s turned to s**t though. I rode in the front seat for the first ride, and it was “fine”, as in you could tell it was a rough coaster but you were in the best possible seat to deal with that. Next, I went for the back. They weren’t using the back car at all, so I was in the one in front of that, and it was absolutely vile. I don’t know if they’ve completely stopped using the back car thanks to roughness, or whether it was just ride ops on that day not bothering to open all the restraints (very quiet, never enough people to fill a train etc.), but it’s just an awful, awful ride now. Such a shame.
We had more time to kill, so got a taxi over to KL Bird Park, the world’s biggest walkthrough aviary. It used to be anyway, not sure if it still is and can’t be arsed to check. Again, I’d been here on that first visit back in 2008 and really liked it, but it’s all very run-down now. There’s also not much in it anymore in terms of variety. It’s expensive for what it is as well at about 15 quid a ticket I think. Malaysia is also absolutely awful with their “foreigner prices”. It’s literally everywhere, including the bird park and the cred. Pisses me off.
Anyway, here’s a picture of a peacock. If you like peacocks, go the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park; it’s f**king saturated with the things.
Proper park day in the next bit.
I’d been to Kuala Lumpur before, back in 2008, but there’s a whole new park (kind of; we’ll get to it later) since then. Technically, I’d been far more recently (less than a month before this trip), but that was literally just a one-night trip to go to a Dua Lipa concert since I’m down with the kids and slightly extra.
View from the hotel:
The first day started with a walk from the hotel down to Independence Square, an area I’d somehow missed last time. I took loads of pictures, but they’re all very similar. There were also a couple of markets, but if you’ve seen one overcrowded Asian market, you’ve seen them all.
We walked around to the new stupidly massive building, Merkeda 118, but none of the public spaces are open yet. Officially, it’s the second tallest building in the world, but shoving that spire on it seems like cheating to me. Then again, the top 30% of the Burj Khalifa is also unusable vanity height, so if it’s so important to them, let them have it I guess.
It was early afternoon, and we were about a 15-minute walk from Berjaya Times Square, one of many shopping malls in the city, so I suggested heading there for food. It wasn’t because there was a coaster in there at all. Supersonic Odyssey (thanks autocorrect – I can never get that word right) is one of those quite clickbaity coasters that sometimes pops up in those “Wow! Can you believe this CRAZY Asian coaster?! Would you ride this?!” bulls**t videos. Admittedly, it does look very cool and is pretty major for what’s essentially a shopping mall cred.
I’d ridden this before, so I didn’t need the cred. It’s also a pay-one-price park, so I wasn’t really up for bothering with that either, but getting the ticket online though trip.com (or Klook – can’t remember) was only about 12 quid I think, so I ended up popping in and getting a quick few rides in since the coaster was walk-on.
I’d quite liked this last time. It was around 5 years old at the time and was really smooth and pretty fun despite the layout not really being particularly interesting. It’s turned to s**t though. I rode in the front seat for the first ride, and it was “fine”, as in you could tell it was a rough coaster but you were in the best possible seat to deal with that. Next, I went for the back. They weren’t using the back car at all, so I was in the one in front of that, and it was absolutely vile. I don’t know if they’ve completely stopped using the back car thanks to roughness, or whether it was just ride ops on that day not bothering to open all the restraints (very quiet, never enough people to fill a train etc.), but it’s just an awful, awful ride now. Such a shame.
We had more time to kill, so got a taxi over to KL Bird Park, the world’s biggest walkthrough aviary. It used to be anyway, not sure if it still is and can’t be arsed to check. Again, I’d been here on that first visit back in 2008 and really liked it, but it’s all very run-down now. There’s also not much in it anymore in terms of variety. It’s expensive for what it is as well at about 15 quid a ticket I think. Malaysia is also absolutely awful with their “foreigner prices”. It’s literally everywhere, including the bird park and the cred. Pisses me off.
Anyway, here’s a picture of a peacock. If you like peacocks, go the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park; it’s f**king saturated with the things.
Proper park day in the next bit.