2022
One of the most important green lung in the middle Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, is the Kuala Lumpur Botanical Lake Gardens (https://g.page/perdana-botanical-garden-kl?share). I personally have probably visited here only twice, and many of the members of the Malaysia Local Guides community, may not have visited here before. It's our first time having a meet-up in this location. It has been over 6 months since the limited movement control order had been initiated to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, and we were really trying our best to get out more, get more sunlight and fresh air, and to support small local businesses where we could.
So, this meet-up, on a Sunday morning, at the green lung in the heart of the city. Entrance is free.
Our RSVP link: https://maps.google.com/localguides/meetup/exploring-kl-botanic-gardens
[Picture below] Of the many people registered, at the end, 3 of us turned up, since it involved a lot of walking. We had myself, Chee Weng and Nabeel who all were long time contributors for Google Maps in Malaysia.
[Photo below] We arrived separately and the first location we explored was the Lake Gardens (https://goo.gl/maps/HTBmqbu7guxBjukM7 ). It is a most beautiful lake, and it's an incredible place for exercise in the morning and evenings. The lake is clean and is theming with fish and live. We went round the lake taking lots of photos and enjoyed seeing the greenery.
[Photo below] One of the things I wanted to do is to get more Street View imagery throughout the gardens, and we had 3 persons, all with different 360 panoramic cameras ready to help out.
[Picture below] I had taken some time to trace out roads where Street View isn't present, and shot along those roads, just to fill up the gaps.
[Photo below] One of the major highlights of the Botanical Gardens is the Laman Perdana (https://goo.gl/maps/pa1b4LJkg7aZfXEF9 ), which is a geodesic architecture almost like a green house built right in the middle of the gardens. It's a like a congregation point. We were mindful to social distance and wear masks where possible.
[Photo below] 3 of us basically went on exploring, learning names of plants, taking lots of photos of the location for Google Maps and Street View. The good timing was that it wasn't blazingly hot that morning.
[Photo below] Some of the things that interest us most were the giant tall trees found throughout the botanical gardens. From the giant Balboa trees, to tall hardwoods, to giant palms, we were mesmerized by the height and sight of these. There was a feeling of awe and wonder, when we were around these trees.
[Photo below] Plenty of flowers scattered all the the garden, of many myriads of color, shapes and sizes. We too were busy taking photos of these, so we can share data to help machine learning of image recognition of Google.
[Photo below] Then there were fruit trees. So many amazing ones such as the cannonball tree (top left), the African sausage tree (top right), the Noni (bottom left), and the local belimbing (bottom right) and many others.
[Photo below] I was always fascinated by ferns, or in local language "paku". These plants can reproduce without mating or flowering. Just amazing facts of nature.
[Photo below] So many other plants which we cannot get time to explore. There were orchids, bamboo plants, and more.
[Photo below] We had so much fun exploring, and it wasn't just plants. There are small man-built mini waterfalls throughout, walking paths, interesting objects and more. The note caught my eye, "Take nothing except photograph" is a very meaningful message.
[Photo below] Ending this recap with a beautiful reflection of plants over a small pond, one of my favorite spots throughout the garden.
We had such an amazing time, and got a lot of sun and fresh air, and were able to stretch our legs after such a long time. We needed to get out more often, even as we recover from this global pandemic. There is a lot of interesting things to do and explore which virtual meetups just cannot provide.
Malaysia Local Guides will continue to explore and update Google Maps and Street View.
Thanks all for joining
*Note: all photos in this post are self taken.
@StephenAbraham Great recap and a friendly wave to @nabeeltirmazi ! One day, I hope to join you all for a meet-up once I'm able to get to KL!
Nice to see photos of the Botanical Lake Gardens since I don't think I've been there before. The gardens certainly look amazing and is now on my to-do list! 😊 By the way, seeing that everyone has a different 360 camera (Insta360, Samsung and Xiaomi(?)), was there a discussion on the pros/cons of each model and which is the better one? Just curious... 😅
