KepOmg

I love weekends. To me, it signifies the end of the four things I deeply despise:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. (Friday, you’re all right).

This Saturday, i decided to celebrate the price reduction of petrol by escaping the comforts of the concrete jungle and headed to Forest Research Institute of Malaysia, better known as FRIM.

Founded by the British colonial forest scientists in 1929, FRIM today is one of the leading institutions of tropical forestry reserve not only in our country, but also abroad.

Armed with a full tank of petrol (Ooh!), a digital camera, and a badly-drawn map and incredibly undetailed map, I made my way to the 600 hectare site in Kepong, 16km northeast of Kuala Lumpur.

After a long drive, I finally reached the place and was greeted by a huge brick wall announcing the destination.

Going in costed me RM 6. Oddly enough, one ticket said RM 5.00 while the other RM 1.00--both saying 'bayaran masuk'. Now, I wonder how they counted that...

A parking spot, thank goodness, was easy to find.


FRIM is without a doubt huge. So, i decided to visit a dusty and slighty rusty signboard to get my bearings straight [as compared to the online version]

A helpful list of 'Places of Interest' and 'Buildings' was provided as well.




Now that we had our bearings straight, it was way too hot for a walk. Hence, i opted to drive around instead to enjoy the greenery.

The first signs of civilisation! White tents, stalls selling food, kids, and rubbish. You know the humans have been here.


An interesting human made structure. Stairway to heaven perhaps?

More trees and greenery.. Here's a nice parking spot though. Right in the shade!


And of course, the main attraction of families coming here--the river. Kids just love splashing about in the hot sun. :)
The water isn't actually very dirty..

Bumped into some interesting signboards as well.



The guards were jovial and were all smiles; but were still camera shy!

And, that was it. My big break from the concrete jungle of KL!
Not my cup of tea certainly.
Perhaps when pollution in the city gets too bad, i'll come here to give thanks to mother nature.

Remember those younger days when you and your family members fly kites joyfully?

Introducing Kepong’s most well-known kite flying site, Metropolitan Park. This park is located at the north of Jinjang and can be easily accessed using Middle Ring Road 2 (MRR2).

During weekends, especially windy days, you can spot hundreds of colorful kites with various shapes and designs soaring high in the sky.

Amazing, isn’t it?

However, the number of people/family there is also surprising enough to fill up ALL the parking lots. Well, if you want to easily acquire a parking spot, we suggest you get there by 3p.m. :P

Therefore, if you have lousy kite flying skills and need more free space to practise, DESA PARK CITY, Bandar Manjalara, Kepong is definitely your best choice!

Simply Google it and you will see how much Kepong people LOVE that place.

Speaking of kite flying, this ideal residential neighborhood has a mesmerizing park around the artificial lake.

Although the amount of kite enthusiasts are not as much as Metropolitan Park’s, you can still spot few kites flying around.

Unfortunately, the day we went was a rainy day, thus there weren’t many kite flyers at that time.

There are plenty of parking lots next to the park. Now, you do not have to worry about traffic jams or spend time looking for car park. By the way, parking is FREE. Woohoo.

The drizzling sky finally stops showering the ground. Many kites gradually flew on the sky.

We then spotted something special.

A Pirate Kite! How cute!

Have you seen something like this? A SUPER LONG KITE~ But I guess it is REALLY difficult to control it.

Other than kite flying, you can also go jogging there, take your pet doggies for a walk, cycle, or even feed the fishes!

See those ripples on the lake’s surface? No, it was not rain. In fact, it was the tortoise and all the cute fishes~

Right in front of the park, there are numerous food and retail outlets. Here’s the list of the shops:

Ground floor: MaxValue supermarket (Jusco), BBQ Chicken, One Noodle, Secret Recipe, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Windancer, Kluang Station, Natural New Zealand Ice-cream, Big Apple Donuts, Rakuzen, PetsMore, myNews.com, bicylce shop, DIY shop, 7-Eleven, and etc.

First floor: Beauty salon, hair salon, interior design outlet, babies’ stuff store, music school and etc.

Eager to fly a kite but don’t have one at home? Windancer helps you with your problem. They sell a wide range of kites as well as kite flying accessories. They even fly kites DAILY at Desa Park City~

Visit DESA PARK CITY for more information. MAP