Our Underwater Experience

Everyone has gone out for lunch. Since I’m on my fasting marathon (12 more days to go!!), I’ve decided to take a breather and update my blog. I promised all of you a recount of our family trip to Aquaria KLCC, so here it is.

We had heard about the exhibition from some office mates and had decided to take the girls since they loved animals and we figured they would get a kick out of seeing live sharks up close. Watching them on Discovery Channel just doesn’t do much justice to these magnificent creatures.

So we headed out to KLCC around 4pm. The whole exhibition was indoors, supposedly in an air-con environment so we weren’t worried about the girls getting too hot. We debated about whether to park inside or out, coz inside the parking rate is hourly (and we had planned to spend quite some time there) but parking outside, we would have to make quite a walk to the exhibition hall. Finally we decided to park indoors and pray that the rate wouldn’t be too extravagant.

After going up the escalator and going through the tunnel to the hall, the first thing we noticed was this looooooooonnnnggg line of people queuing up to buy tickets. Great!! Fortunately the girls were in relatively good moods and there were other kids lining up with us, so the whole 35 minute process of getting the tickets wasn’t too painful. Tickets were RM20 for adults and RM10 for children, but I think these were special pricings until end of August. Luckily, both Dania and Dina got in free.

However, once we got in, it was a whole different story. For one thing, the place was dark. The only illuminated areas were the glass panes were the animals were showcased. I kept running people’s feet over with the stroller which caused me to keep saying “I’m sorry. Forgive me. Excuse me.” like a mad parrot.

Secondly, the people who managed this exhibition must have really underestimated the number of people who would visit. You’d think lining up for 35 minutes to buy tickets was bad. Try lining up and being ushered like herds of cows, trying to catch a glimpse of the fish and other animals they were showing. It was madness!! And extremely frustrating, especially for my daughters coz they couldn’t see anything. A picture of the crowd is below, just to give you an idea.

Arghhh!! Cannot see anything.

Why there are Tarantulas is beyond me

Managed to push through and take picture with this fish

If that wasn’t bad enough, the underwater tunnel (where you can see all the sharks swimming overhead) had no air-conditioning!! People were made to stand on this conveyor belt and watch the sharks and other fishes swim about in sweltering heat. The entire trip must have taken not more than 15 minutes but it felt like the longest 15 minutes ever. Some pictures of the sharks (who were totally cool, by the way) and hubby with Dania looking hot and bothered.
Cool shark #1

Cool shark #2

Cool shark #3

Hubby trying to be cool..but actually rather pissed
We were already kind of tired and rather hungry by that time so we just strolled along with the rest of the herd to the end of the hall. I managed to take some pictures of the seahorses and ribbon eels. We zipped through the souvenir shop (I was kind of mad about having to pay RM40 for the entire experience, I wasn’t about to give these people a single cent more) and made it out of the hall alive. After prayers, we had dinner at KFC then decided to call it a day. Parking charges cost us another RM7. Good grief!!

Many friends have been asking my opinion on the Aquaria and whether they should take their kids and families there. For RM32 for adults and RM16 for children, (I’ve heard those are the new pricings) there are better and much cheaper places for you to do some family bonding. However if you desire the feeling of having a shark swim over your head, then go to the KLCC Aquaria. But if your intentions are to educate the kids on fishes and other types of aquatic life, you’re better off watching the Discovery Channel or taking them to the local fish market.