The Pretty Perdana Botanical Garden

MALAYSIAEARLY RETIREMENTSLOW TRAVEL

Liz

2/16/20263 min read

Today’s outing is to head over to the Perdana Botanical Gardens, which I have read are really pretty and worth visiting. Our reasoning for this is partly due to the uncertain weather forecast for the rest of the week, which indicates some rain and thunderstorms. Although we have come to realise that these forecasts are not always accurate, and even if the rain does come, it usually doesn’t last very long. Being Scottish, we are, of course, very used to rain, and we have our brollies in R’s backpack.

Of course, the only other itsy-bitsy concern that I have is to do with the heat and how long we can cope with being outside. However, I’m an optimist, so we pack our bags. We both have our insulated water bottles (incidentally, one of the best buys we have ever bought!), and I have my little electric fan that R bought for me, so we are good to go.

We take the green MRT line from Bukit Bintang to Muzium Negara, and from there it is an easy 5-minute walk behind the Museum and into the park. We thought that we would cover the park first, and if we were able to, then we might visit the museum afterwards. Spoiler alert: we didn’t visit the museum.

Perdana Botanical Gardens, formerly known as Perdana Lake Gardens Lake Gardens, and Public Gardens, is Kuala Lumpur’s first large-scale recreational park. It was established in 1888 and covers 226 acres. This colonial-era park was the brainchild of Alfred Venning, the British State Treasurer of Selangor in the late 19th century. Venning laid out the plan for a park of 173 acres, which included an "experimental economic garden" and a lake. Venning cleared the area and planted ornamental flowering trees and shrubs in the garden. The scheme attracted public support. An ornamental lake was created, now known as Perdana Lake. The project took nearly ten years to complete and served as a place of refuge from the hustle and bustle of the city during colonial times.

Among the attractions located in the Perdana Botanical Gardens are the deer park, Hibiscus garden, Orchid Garden, Kuala Lumpur Bird Park and Kuala Lumpur Butterfly Park. It also contains large sculpted and manicured gardens. The park is located near the National Museum of Malaysia and is within walking distance of the Muzium Negara MRT station

The park is huge, and we were right to worry about the heat, as it was exhausting despite there being some cover with the trees and walkways. However, we really enjoyed walking around it. The number and variety of plants and trees are very impressive. The lake is beautiful, and some walkers and runners were doing their laps around it. We were a little disappointed that there was no place inside of the park to stop off to have something to rest for a little bit, have a bite to eat or something to drink as that would have been really helpful. The park map indicates toilets and food areas, but the food areas appear to be locations outside of the park, which was a real shame.

We also spoke to a lovely old Chinese lady who was located near the sunken gardens – she certainly had the best spot in the shade with a light breeze. We must have chatted for about 30 minutes, and she was very interesting, asking us lots of questions and giving us her insight into the world. I’m sure she probably visits this area often, as she seemed to know the area very well, and she had also visited Scotland a few years ago, so we had some fun talking about that.

Once we began to flail, we made our way out of the park, and instead of going back to the MRT, we decided to head to the Nu Sentral mall (at KL Sentral) and cool off there as well as get something to eat. We did get a little lost trying to make our way to KL Sentral, but then found a walkway leading to KL Sentral from one of the buildings across from the museum. It was quite busy by the time we arrived at the shopping mall, as the schools were out, so we ended up just grabbing a McDonald’s and a few groceries before we took the monorail back to Hung Tuah station. Thankfully, this ride was not too bad as it didn’t feel as fast as the previous time, but I’m still not really keen on the tilting train at the bends.

Today's route:

Day 78: 10 February 2026

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia