Travellers who travel to Taiping will know what is Taiping Lake Gardens (or Taman Tasik Taiping in Malay), for this is one of the primary reasons to be in Taiping.
The area that Taiping Lake Gardens — and the adjacent Zoo Taiping & Night Safari — occupies today used to be a tin mining ground. The abandoned ground was donated to become a recreation park during the British rule in 1884. Rain trees, plants and grasses were planted to beautify the park and became the first public garden in Malaya. Yes, Taiping Lake Gardens has been around for over 130 years.
Enjoy the photos of the beautiful scenery and the reflections in the lakes. These photos were taken just after noon time when the sun was high and bright — and scorching-hot too. But photos taken during this time are the brightest and most vivid.
You can visit the garden in the morning when it is not too hot but the sun will be right in front of you (that's towards the east if you are going from town). Or go after 3pm but do check the weather forecast for late afternoon showers. Being the wettest town in Malaysia, it rains almost everyday or otherwise have low-hanging dark clouds.
Rain trees are a sight to behold in the garden. The photo below shows an old tree with a large branch reaching out to the lake.
Yellow flowers (specie unknown) on a tree. This is not the flowers of the angsana trees although they spot yellow flowers too.
The Zigzag Bridge on a pond.
Check out the fishes in the shallow pond.
Taiping Lake Gardens is well-known for its rain trees (angsana), which line along roads around and in the garden. Some of the "ancient" trees have long branches that stretch out far and low.
And there are monkeys roaming freely around the park. I saw them just outside Taiping Zoo but the monkeys are not the "residents" there.
Good news for bird watchers and photographers! Taiping Lake Gardens has quite a number of birds too. I was travelling with a 105mm lens, so the birds were still too far for my camera even though the trees are not that tall. See what I have below.
A male flameback woodpecker (with red hair). The female flameback woodpecker will have black hair on its head instead of red. I had seen both before in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, Singapore. But this woodpecker was the closest to me.
A white-throated kingfisher on a low branch.
A Brahminy kite eagle that flew past me. I barely had time to react before it was some distance away.
If I were to go back to Taiping again, I will pack along my 300mm telezoom lens.
How to Get There
The Lake Gardens is very near to town. Walk along Jalan Kota all the way to the end of the road, passing McDonald's to your left. You can either turn left or right at the garden.
I was staying at Sojourn Beds & Cafe, so it was just around 600m walking distance from the hostel to the garden.
Next: Taiping Street Arts