Various faces of Bukit Kiara

Bukit Kiara has many faces. Here I show a few.

First of all, for those readers not familiar with Bukit Kiara, it is one of the remaining green lungs of Kuala Lumpur, enclosed by residential areas. In the past it was a rubber plantation, later some tar roads were built for easier access, the grey lines in the map.

Most of the regular walkers limit themselves to these tar roads. That is the first, slightly boring, road face of Bukit Kiara

Related to this road face of KIara is the maintenance face. A landslide occurs, trees fall down during a storm, a drain has to be repaired.

Much more interesting is the maze of trails, created and maintained by TRAKS . They are doing a wonderful job. During weekends it can be busy with mountain bikers, but on weekdays you will hardly meet a living soul. Here is the trail face

Then there is the river face of Bukit Kiara. A river? Yes, the Sg Penchala has its source here. Along this budding stream runs one of the most attractive trails.

Then there are the birds, the flowers, the fungi. An occasional snake, squirrel,  tortoise. No deer or wild boar, so no leeches! The nature face

Is it therefore the garden of Eden? No, there are less pleasant faces. During the last year the authorities haven constructed a fence around the part of Bukit Kiara that has been designated to become a park. Ugly, expensive and useless. After protests of many people, the construction has been stopped, a discussion is now going on about the removal of this fence.  Personally I am not optimistic if that will happen. Here is the fence face

And unfortunately there is also pollution. Where not in Malaysia…:-( The (illegal) rubber tappers leave behind, plastics, empty cans, etc. So there is a rubbish face too

All the pictures were taken during a 1.5 hour walk, a few days ago. You can follow the walk with a slideshow of the pictures on EveryTrail .

Here is one more face, personally I think it is a negative one. I had noticed in the center of the tar loop big sheets of plastic, and I was wondering what it might be, so during my walk I went down the slope and discovered a BMX playground! Must have been constructed recently and I understand that TRAKS is not involved.So here is the BMX face. At least the covering sheets should be given a camouflage colour!

 

1 thought on “Various faces of Bukit Kiara

  1. Lovely place.

    Personally I avoid the tarmac as much as possible. Once a year maybe.

    TRAKS are great. Though not a mountain biker i admire their dedication. They know more about making trails than JKR or kampong people.

    As for the litter bugs a.k.a. dengue breeders I hope you get to enjoy a dose

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