Buggy Ride @ Taman Botanikal Melaka

As I was in Ayer Keroh, I went to check out the Butterfly Farm and Reptile Garden. However, I decided not to visit it so soon after visiting the Penang Butterfly Farm last month. Then I came across some banners advertising Buggy Rides at Taman Botanikal Melaka. Knowing that my children would be interested in the buggy vehicles, I headed towards the area to check them out.

My boys tested all the buggy cars and bikes. We wanted to just walk in as entrance is free but S insisted on sitting on a buggy. So, we backtracked to the buggy operator and book one. The price was RM35 for a half-hour ride for a 4-seater car. There seemed to be quite a good response for the buggy. Every few minutes, there would be people signing up for the buggy rides.

As the driver, I was briefed on how to operate the electric car, before we started. I was quite concerned that there was no door and no seatbelts, especially when we had kids in the backseat. Anyhow, they were held by my mum and my maid. I started driving. I was advised to drive slowly, so that I don't complete the track too fast. I drove slower than 10 km/h. Since the car was running on electricity, it was very silent - no engine noises. There were some narrow slopes going down, and it seemed quite dangerous as we didn't have seatbelts.  I guess it all adds to the thrill.

Thus, we happened to come to a part where there was a woman jogger in front of us who had no idea we were behind her. We talked loudly, but she didn't hear us. As I needed to complete the track in 30 minutes, I couldn't just be tailing her, I had no choice but to press the horn. She jumped and frowned at us. I apologised and moved on.

While we were moving, the car suddenly stopped and the lights on the dashboard turned off. It was quite scary when that happened. At first I got worried that we would all be stranded in the forest, as I didn't have the phone number of the operator. My father asked me to turn off and on the start switch. Luckily I managed to start it again. The second time it died, I suspected that perhaps, I was driving too slowly, and that was why the car suddenly stopped.

Somewhere in the centre of the forest, I parked the buggy and we went down to snap some pictures.  There were many dinosaur structures and we snapped some pictures there. We spent around 10 - 15 minutes there.

After that, we headed back to  the entrance again. As I was driving back, I suddenly realised that Taman Botanikal was formerly Hutan Rekreasi Ayer Keroh, that had been renamed. No wonder, it looked familiar inside. It looked more like a forest than a botanical garden. My last visit there was in 1991. I wonder when its name was changed and why.