Although we were due into Port Klang at 08:30, we were already berthed at 07:00 when the sun rose. Apparently, during the night, we had changed our berth and were now in a completely different part of Port Klang, at a quayside in a container port named Westports, on an island called Pulau Indah.
No explanation was given for the change, but I suspect it was because tour buses could come right on to the quayside, whereas at the other port there was a ten minute walk to the buses. This presumably became even more of an issue once the Malaysian authorities issued an extreme heat warning – its got to be hot when Malaysians are being warned about the heat!
I don’t what our other berth would have been like, but we had a good view from our balcony as there was a muddy inlet with mangroves between the mainland the pier, and a flooding tide as we arrived. Birds included Black-crowned Night-herons, Little Egrets, Eastern Cattle Egrets, Striated Herons, Grey Herons, Great Egrets and a Pacific Reef Heron. There was also a single Common Sandpiper. Birds which weren’t waterbirds were harder to see – there were, inevitable, Javan Mynas, House Crows and Tree Sparrows, plus a few Pacific Swallows flying around, but otherwise there was a single Yellow-vented Bulbul and a hidden Asian Koel in song.
Now, I had plans for Port Klang. The Shah Alam National Botanic Gardens are excellent for birds and were a must visit location, especially after I was given directions for a Blue-winged Pitta which was coming for mealworms offered by photographers. Then, I discovered they were closed on Mondays! Except during the school holidays. A quick Google suggested that we may have connected with the holidays but no – I was informed that the holidays were last week.
So, I needed an alternative plan but everywhere was a long way away. The Shah Alam Botanic Gardens were the closest good site, but they were at 45 minutes away by road. There was a good site up the coast at Kuala Selangor but that seemed a bit far. Kuala Lumpur also had some botanic gardens, but they seemed to be quite difficult to get to even once we got there. There was a ship’s excursion to Kuala Lumpur, and some parks that could be visited, but none seemed outstanding. Then, I discovered there was a wetland reserve near a place called Putrajaya and it sounded good – but that was also closed on Mondays!
In the end, I booked a ship’s excursion to Putrajaya, influenced by the facts that it was described as a garden city, it had a good wetland reserve, and it was built around a lake, albeit an artificial one.
We had to gather on the ship in the Palladium, as we were not allowed on the quayside unaccompanied due to it being a working port. As we queued to get off, I was shown a photo of a Blue Whistling Thrush that had been on board the ship in Hong Kong.
We boarded our bus and set off through the outskirts of Port Klang. Cruise companies seem to insist it is Port Kelang, but all the road signs we saw said Klang. An Oriental Honey Buzzard was soaring around just before we crossed the bridge that connected Pulau Indah to the Mainland.
Our guide on the bus was Carol, who was a very proud Malaysian. The only problem was that she seemed shocked that no-one on the bus knew very much about Malaysia. She told us of the former importance of tin in the Malaysian economy, and of Royal Selangor who apparently manufacture upmarket household items out of pewter. “Unfortunately, we do not have the opportunity to buy any today, but you will have it on the ship,” she proclaimed confidently. “No!?” – her mouth formed a perfect O.
She also told is about a former Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, who was still alive and cycled every day (on a tandem) at the age of 98. “But of course,” she said “the British will know of him, as he visited Britain several times.” No-one disavowed her of the notion or told that a visit by the Malaysian PM probably wouldn’t even make the news.
She explained how the Malaysian flag has 14 stripes and a star with 14 points, which represent the 14 states, then told us how there are nine states with sultans and four other states, which, last time I checked, adds up to 13. I later established that the 14th stripe and star point represent the Federal Territories (of which there are three).
Malaysia has an elected head of state, who is also termed king, who holds the position for five years. There can’t be many elective monarchies in the world. The catch is that only nine people are eligible to stand in the election, the nine sultans, and the position is selected on rotation, so each state has a turn at having the king, and only the leaders of each state have a vote. So, it’s a very limited election.
Our journey to Putrajaya took almost an hour, mainly through fields growing the dreaded palm oil trees in various stages of growth. At least these were lowland fields that I assume had been in agriculture for many years (or I hope so) rather than virgin forest cleared for the crop.
Putrajaya, our destination, is a newly built city, created to take some of the pressure off the overpopulated sprawl of Kuala Lumpur, the capital city. It is now one of the three Federal Territories, along with Kuala Lumpur and a small island. Labuan, off the coast of Borneo. The land Putrajaya is built on was purchased by the federal government from the state of Selangor.
Putrajaya is now the main administrative centre of Malaysia, and most governmental institutions have been moved there, although Kuala Lumpur remains the capital and still houses the parliament. We were taken to see one of the institutions that had been moved – the Court of Justice. The coach stopped and Carol leapt up, puzzled that the rest of us did not show the same degree of enthusiasm. We wandered across the road, which was nicely tree-lined, befitting the city’s description as a garden city. Black-naped Orioles, Ornate Sunbirds, Oriental Magpie-robins and an Asian Brown Flycatcher were in the trees.
Our group began to disperse. Some headed back to where the bus had parked. I went looking for birds. Others went looking for toilets. Our guide was bemused: “I thought you were all following me!” The bus had moved to pick us up, and people had found the toilets, which Carol initially told them not to use (“no, at next stop!”), but we eventually relocated everyone. While we were waiting, a Crested Serpent-eagle flew over.
Our next stop was the Millennium Monument or Monumen Alaf Baru, which was beside the artificial lake and so we saw it again later, on our cruise. It is shaped like a rocket we had been told. It had been oversold.
There was then another short journey to embark for our short lake cruise. The boats were moored near Putra Mosque, dubbed the pink mosque, and the ostentatious Prime Minister’s Offices.
We went outside on the boat. Inside may have been air-conditioned but it also had heavily-tinted windows and lots of seats that were not even near the heavily-tinted windows. It was oppressively hot by now – back at the ship, we were told that the thermometer on the bridge recorded 37 oC and it will have been warmer inland where we were. The breeze once the boat moved was a blessed relief.
The cruise round the lake was relatively uninteresting. We got views of the pink mosque and Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin Mosque, also known as the the steel or iron mosque and which is unusual in that it does not have any minarets.
There were some quite architecturally interesting bridges, although I just kept thinking that someone should have told them that if they hadn’t made an artificial lake they wouldn’t have needed all those bridges. The lake shores were, however, very carefully manicured and a few (a very few) herons and egrets were all that were to be seen, although they included a Purple Heron. There were also two Blue-tailed Bee-eaters were hawking insects over the lake.
At the end of the cruise we were given “free time” in the one shop next to the moorings. It was, fortunately, under the bridge, so it was (relatively) cool there. The shop was not designed for a coachload of tourists though. The only till was reached by going through a narrow gap, wide enough for one person, with a queue snaking around the shop, and no way out for anyone completing their purchase except by barging their way back through the queue. They sold ice cream and cold water though!
Then we reboarded our coach and returned to Port Klang. We can’t have spent much more than 90 minutes in Putrajaya and we were back at the ship at 14:45, presumably within the limits that are deemed to be acceptable for not providing lunch.
The worst of it was that when we got back to the ship, there was not really anything else we could do. The shuttle bus service was going all the way to Shah Alam, 45 minutes away, and the last one was scheduled to leave Shah Alam at 16:00. We weren’t allowed to walk around the port and there seemed to be no way of getting to the port gate on our own (and there did not seem to be much immediately outside anyway). So, we were stuck on the ship.
We had a good view of the creek from our balcony, but the birds there were almost the same as the morning. I got some more accurate counts – at least 20 Black-crowned Night Herons which were flushed from a day roost by two people walking under the trees and at least 60 Eastern Cattle Egrets, some in splendid breeding plumage, came in to roost at dusk. The Pacific Reef Heron was still present but spent almost all its time out of sight on the near side of the creek.
The only things that I had not seen in the morning were some mudskippers and fiddler crabs out on the mud, an elusive Collared Kingfisher and a huge Water Monitor. House Crows were gathering to roost, and there at least 1000 of them in trees around the port by sunset. Apparently, they are not native here, although they have not spread far from the nearest part of their native range, so it is a moot point whether they count as introduced or if it’s just a range expansion facilitated by man.
As could have been predicted, there were delays with people getting aboard. All aboard was at six, but the last shuttle bus did not arrive until half six and the last excursion bus was not back until seven. It meant were a little late leaving and so it was getting dark as we left, with just views of the illuminated, industrial shoreline of Port Klang.
In the evening, at dinner, there was further evidence of the eccentricity of cruise line desserts. Every ship we have been on has served desserts which neither resemble the description on the menu, nor the accepted taste and appearance. They are all slightly a la mode. This evening, I was intrigued by the bitter chocolate mousse which was, according to the menu, served warm! I wondered how this could be achieved. A warm mousse!? In the end it was more of a chocolate sponge – but it was warm.
So, our time in Asia came to an end. With the exception of Hong Kong, which was excellent (although everyone else on the ship complained because it rained) the birding has been a bit frustrating. Rain in Sulawesi, no birds in Vietnam, places we wanted to visit closed in the Philippines and Malaysia and, of I am honest, birding a little more difficult than I anticipated in Singapore. I still feel that I haven’t birded South-east Asia yet, just scratched the surface. Cruise birding is like that anyway, you never get more than a taster, but I have unfinished business in this part of the world. But, there are so many other places to visit!
When I Grow Up I Will Go There 