Escape the urban lifestyle with a change of scenery by exploring some of Malaysia's finest parks and gardens, writes David Bowden
MALAYSIA has numerous parks and gardens, including expansive national and state parks as well as urban parks and botanic gardens. Most of us interact with the latter while the larger parks are places for extended visits and stays.
New York has Central Park, the Prater in Vienna, Hyde Park in London and Centennial Park in Sydney. These great cities value their parks and gardens as an asset and one that's difficult to put an economic value on.
How do you put a value on parks for children to play in, flowers to admire, trees to seek inspiration from, expanses of grass to picnic on and open spaces as sources of fresh air and sunshine?
Interestingly, the concept of municipal parks for the public, with paths, trails, landscaping, formal gardens, recreational facilities and ponds dates back only to the mid-19th century.
Before that, people often went for walks in graveyards as they were relatively open — citizens often visited the grave of a relative and got some recreation in the open air at the same time.
It takes vision and foresight to allocate valuable urban land for recreation — the parklands associated with KLCC right in the centre of the city are one such example that could easily have become office towers.
There is possibly no better time to escape the urban lifestyle most of us lead and explore some of the nation's finest parks and gardens. Here are 10 of my favourites.
CITY FAN, MIRI
JAPANESE GARDEN, BERJAYA HILLS
LAKE GARDENS, SEREMBAN
LAKE GARDENS, KUALA LUMPUR
TROPICAL SPICE GARDEN, PENANG
RIMBA ILMU, KUALA LUMPUR
TAMAN BOTANI NEGARA, SHAH ALAM
SABAH AGRICULTURAL PARK, TENOM
TAMAN BOTANI NEGARA, PUTRAJAYA
PENANG BOTANIC GARDENS, PENANG