I made a trip to the Putrajaya Botanical Garden during the Raya holidays and was indeed in awe with its landscape. It lies over 93 hectares of land and is divided into themes-based zones. (Clever idea, with such a huge area to cover, touristy me would need to mark the places that I wish to go so I can maximise my explore mission within such a limited time) Themes include Explorer's Trail, Palm Hill, Floral Gardens, Sun Gardens and the Lakeside. It's humongous. They can be further divided into sections such as the canopy walk, orchid path, fern garden etc.
I must mention that it was a Tuesday - maintenance day, so all Park services were not available. Happens every Tuesday, so take note. This meant, no cycling, no tram services, offices were closed, and no security guard. So we decided to drive, encircling the park. Pretty surprising that it was just our car, a lorry ferrying garden workers, and another car belonging to the restaurant staff. We only saw one runner.
So this boils down to my opening statement. Beautiful, but underutilised. It is plain sad to see a park like this go to waste. I may give it the slightest benefit of the doubt to say it is Raya and no one's around in town, but I'm fooling myself. The Medan Selera P16 nearby was pack.
My post is not meant to be a whiny complaining one. I'm just here to highlight the necessity of promotion, marketing, advertising, you name it. They had a copy of bulletin stating up to 4,000 people frequent this park per month but this was dated 2011. I had only heard of this garden recently, when it has been established for more than 10 years.
I dare generalise that underutilisation in many tourist attractions are not because they are not good enough but because they are not well marketed. Another example is Taman Tamadun Islam in Terengganu. I went there while still in high school and loved everything about it. The miniature mosque structures were jaw dropping. 10 years down the road I still tell people it's worthwhile to make a visit there! Sadly I've never seen any promotional activities and from what I last heard, the theme park is pretty run down and has little tourists.
Ultimately, I think Putrajaya Botanical Garden is world class. It is on par with Mcrichie reservoir in Singapore, if not, better. This garden deserves some passionate promotion :p Didn't take much pictures so here are some of it:-
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| Map of Putrajaya Botanical Park |
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| A quiescent stroll along the canopy walk, a part of the Explorer's Trail. |
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| Astaka Morocco |
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| Interior of Astaka Morocco. Read online that there is a entrance fee, but no one was around, so... |
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| Another noteworthy park in Putrajaya - Taman Warisan Pertanian. Requires entrance fee of RM2. Good place to see (and taste) tropical fruits, herbs and spices. |
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| Another park! Flamingo park at Putrajaya Wetland |
I hope more people will visit Putrajaya parks. You will love them!
