Travel Around The World: Trick Art Museum and Red Carpet in i-City

Few months ago, I visited i-City, which located in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia. i-City is the best leisure part in Malaysia that I have ever been. It has a very interesting concept: a huge theme park that offers several attractions like Snowalk (biggest snow theme park in Malaysia), Trick Art Museum, Red Carpet, Water World, Ice Adventure, House of Horror, Under the Sea, and few more to mention.

To reach i-City, you can take KTM (one of the rail operator in Malaysia) to Padang Jawa station and take a taxi straight to i-City. If you are coming from Kuala Lumpur, you can take Rapid KL Bus U80 to Shah Alam Bus Station, and change to Rapid KL Bus U605 from Shah Alam Bus Station to i-City. 

i-City Map (Selangor Tourism)

i-City Attraction (Selangor Tourism)

I spent half day there and it's clearly not enough time to visit all the theme park. I was too busy taking picture with every object in Trick Art Museum and Red Carpet.

Entrance fee to Trick Art Museum is only RM 10 per person, which in my opinion, it's really worth it. Trick Art Museum, as the name implies, is a museum to show optical illusion art that turns two-dimensional paintings into three-dimensional images. To get better idea, let's take a look at some of my pictures below:

THAT'S MY MONEY!

Was riding camel in Egypt

OMG, chased by a gorilla!

Stairway to heaven

Colosseum

Was crossing a hole

Shaking hand with the baby elephant

I'm an angel :)

Let's get out!

Next, still located in the same park, I visited Red Carpet Red Carpet, which is the first wax museum in Malaysia. The entrance fee is a bit expensive, RM 35 for Malaysian, and RM 100 for non-Malaysian. Red carpet is a museum exhibits a collection of wax sculptures representing famous people from history and contemporary personalities exhibited in lifelike poses, wearing real clothes. You are allowed to touch them too!

Marilyn Monroe

President Obama

Queen Elizabeth II

Alexander Graham Bell

Isaac Newton

Bill Gates

Unknown lady. I forgot her name. Anyone knows?

Rowan Atkinson aka Mr Bean

James Bond

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie

Elton John

Arnold Schwarzenegger

And many more famous people that I don't post their pictures here.

For those who plan to go to Snowalk, it is advisable to wear a trousers or long pants and bring your own socks and gloves. Of course, there is a dedicated shop selling those, but it would be much cheaper to bring your own. You don't have to bring your own jacket as you can rent it for free (actually it is included in entrance fee). They say it's around 5 degree Celsius inside and the more you go in, the colder it will be.

Unfortunately, I didn't know that they have Snowalk. I was wearing short pants and wasn't prepared for that. Lesson learnt, I should have done some research!

Ah never mind, next time I might come again!

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Travel Around The World: Berjaya Hills

Berjaya Hills, also known as Fraser's Hill, is located in Bukit Tinggi, Pahang, Malaysia. Has anyone of you ever heard about Genting Highlands? Yap, the only licensed gambling spot in Malaysia. That's near Berjaya Hills!

The journey to Berjaya Hills from Kuala Lumpur takes 1 - 1.5 hours by car / by bus, depending on the traffic. If you are prone to motion sickness, please bring sleeping pills your medicine and plastic bags with you as the road is VERY winding.

Berjaya Hills offers few attraction such as Japanese Village, Adventure Park, Animal Park, Colmar Tropicale, Horse Trails, Sport Complex, and Golf. Please take a look at the picture below for the complete list of attractions:

Attractions at Berjaya Hills

There is quite a distance that separates one attraction to another. For your convenience, it's advisable to rent or drive your own car. Even though, there are few public buses, I am not sure about the frequency and whether all attractions are accessible.

Colmar Tropicale

This is Berjaya Hills Resort or also known as Colmar Tropicale, the most happening place in Berjaya Hills. It is very popular for its French-themed village and offers various restaurants, pastries, various entertainment such as 6D motion adventure, performers, and a live band.

Berjaya Hills Resort

Stage performance :)

View from Colmar Tropicale tower

Colmar Tropicale park

For those who stay in this resort, they might have a cheaper package for attractions. And if I'm not mistaken, there is a mini shuttle van that fetch residents from attractions area to the resort and vice versa.

Japanese Village

Japanese Village Attraction

As the name implies, this is a garden with a touch of Japanese nuance. It combines the basic elements such as water, rocks, and rustic garden with a tea house, where Japanese tea ceremony is conducted. In this place, you can rent a kimono for RM 20 (for a short period of time, as long as you are in this area) or you can also join Japanese tea ceremony for RM 30.

In front of Japanese House, where tea ceremony is held.

A small Japanese House

Japanese Garden

There is a big botanical garden next to Japanese Village. If you are into plants, you should not miss this opportunity to explore. But since I'm not a botanist, not a plant lover, I never barely care about plants, I didn't really explore much.

Here are pictures of some plants I could find. By the way, don't ask me what is the name of the plant or flower in any of the pictures below. Asking me that question is like asking me how many apples does Brenda have in his refrigerator. Obviously, I don't know, I don't even know Brenda.

Botanical Garden

Adventure Park

Berjaya Hills also offers few extreme activities, such as Flying Fox (they claim it's the longest in South East Asia), Canopy Walk, Rock Climbing, and Paint ball.

At first, I thought Adventure Park would be as crowded as Japanese Village. I was wrong. It was almost 5 pm when I reached and it was still open, but I barely saw anyone there, not even a ticketing officer. Then I figured out that this would be the main reason:

RM 78 / person for Flying Fox

RM 30 / person for Canopy Walk

RM 38 / person for Rock Climbing
I was so excited and really wanted to try Flying Fox. But after seeing this, I was disappointed. I lived in Kuala Lumpur for almost 8 years and based on my experiences, the prices listed above are super unreasonable. It's way too expensive for this kind of game. You can find similar games in KL with cheaper price, much cheaper. No wonder this park was so empty.

Animal Park

Also known as Rabbit Park, due to most of the animals here are rabbits. And before you get too excited, I tell you: This is not a zoo, not even a mini zoo. Animal Park is just a small park where few animals like deer, marmots, hamsters, rabbits, and donkeys are being conserved. But, it is still a very pleasurable place to visit, especially if you bring your children as they can play with rabbits and ride a donkey.

He hates it when his antler is being touched!

Wefie with a deer

Oops, I got you!

Horse Trails

There were around 10 horses when I was there, and each of them has their own name and stable. Visitors can choose wide range of services, from renting a horse for short duration to learning how to ride a horse professionally. But please do an advance booking beforehand if you plan to learn to ride, rent a horse (without instructor), or take an advanced route.

Since I just wanted to have fun, I took a short duration and the easiest route. Advance booking is not necessary in this case.

Action!

Sun set ended my incredible adventure in Berjaya Hills. I secretly wished that I could ride this horse all the way to Kuala Lumpur.

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Travel Around The World: Enjoying The View From Petronas Twin Towers and KL Tower

I love seeing view from such a height. Everywhere I go, if I can find a tower where tourists are allowed to go all the way up, with reasonable price of course, I will try to allocate some of my time to visit. So far, I've been to Eiffel Tower, Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur Tower (KL Tower), and Oriental Pearl Tower.

Since this post is about Kuala Lumpur, so I will only talk about towers that are located in Kuala Lumpur only.

Petronas Twin Towers (451.9 m)

Who doesn't know Petronas Twin Towers? They say you haven't been to Kuala Lumpur if you never been to Petronas Twin Towers. Petronas Twin Tower has 451.9 meter height and was the tallest building in the world for period of 1998 - 2004, before Taipei 101 and Burj Khalifa were built. However, until today, Petronas Twin Towers are still registered as the highest twin towers in the world.

Actually, I visited Petronas Twin Towers quite some time ago, around 2010. There was no entrance fee that time, it was totally free. But you had to come so early to queue and get the ticket. Believe it or not, the queue was already soooooo looong when I arrived at 6 AM in the morning.

But now, don't bother to queue, you can buy the ticket in advance by visiting their website HERE. For visit within the next 24 hours, you need to purchase the tickets at the Petronas Twin Towers ticketing counter. The entrance fee is RM 85 per adult, and RM 35 per child.

After being informed that visitors are only allowed to go to the sky bridge, which is located in the middle of the tower (41st storey with the height of 170 m), I felt a bit disappointed. I had too high expectation, I thought I could go up to the highest floor (88th storey) and enjoy the view up there.

Just before going up, visitors are entertained with a 10-minutes documentary about the history of Towers, how lightning rods were implemented, and what happen in case if the tower is struck by the lightning. It's quite interesting documentary knowing that two construction consortiums were hired to complete each tower. The west tower was built by a Japanese consortium, and a South Korean consortium for the other one. They hoped, by introducing a competition, both towers would be completed in six years. Soon after that, we were welcomed to go to 41st storey with a high speed elevator.

Each batch of visitors are only allowed to stay maximum 10-15 minutes up there. So, make use of your time effectively!

View from sky bridge

Inside sky bridge

From this point, you may continue your journey to Petrosains, Aquaria, or KLCC Park where you can take pictures with Petronas Twin Towers and KLCC fountain. All of those places mentioned are still located in one area and accessible by foot.

Kuala Lumpur Tower (421 m)

In term of overall height, KL Tower is shorter than Petronas Twin Tower. However, visitors are allowed to go up to the observation deck (276 m) and the revolving restaurant (282 m), which is around 100 m higher than Petronas Twin Towers' sky bridge (the highest point visitors can go).

KL Tower offers free (and good quality) telescopes for its visitors, which in my opinion, is its plus point. Most of the towers I have ever been, required me to pay a few pennies before I can use their telescopes. By using its free telescopes, visitors can enjoy a super beautiful view of KL for around 20 minutes.

View of Kuala Lumpur from KL Tower observation deck. Awesome, right?

Free telescope in KL Tower observation deck

Beside observation deck, Atmosphere 360: Revolving Restaurant is also a must visit place. This restaurant is located in 282 m and is the highest restaurant in Malaysia. In this restaurant, visitors are able to enjoy the view of KL without moving any single step, as the restaurant is slowly revolving. One full rotation requires 60-120 minutes. But those who have motion sickness, don't worry about that. I have a motion sickness but I didn't feel dizzy when I was there.

I'm not sure about the taste and the quality of the food. But one thing I know for sure, this restaurant looks super formal, elegant, and expensive (especially those who earn RM instead of dollars)! Moreover, with the superb view at night, this place is super romantic for dinner with your love one.

KL Tower Atmosphere 360 revolving restaurant

View from KL Tower revolving restaurant

If you plan to visit KL Tower, don't miss the Blue Coral Aquarium. It's located in the ground floor of KL Tower. Even though, it's not as big as Aquaria KLCC, it's still an interesting place to visit.

Any suggestion on which tower shall I visit next? :)

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