Eye On Malaysia

 

Eye On Malaysia… London Eye…. are they the same ? Well… apart from being a smaller cousin (1/2 the size???) to the London Eye, the Eye of Malaysia was quite a pretty nice experience… especially since we haven’t managed to ride the London Eye before. The day started off gloomy with slight drizzles and we choose to go today (17 Feb 2007) because it was just a day before the Chinese New Year. Most people were away from KL so the roads to Taman Tasik Titiwangsa were pretty clear. As such we  managed to get there relatively early at 10:40am or so. The Eye On Malaysia starts operation daily at 10am.

    

We didn’t have to wait long as there weren’t many people there but the line started to build up slightly after we got there. The loading however was pretty quick since they are able to load up to 8 persons into each of the 5 cabs simultaneoulsy. The view from the top wasn’t that great since it was gloomy and overcast. We did manage to see KLCC Twin Towers from up there though and we also got a good overall view of Lake Titiwangsa. I’m sure if it was nice, clear and sunny, we would have gotten a much better view… perhaps of even Genting Highlands. The entire ride didn’t take that long. I didn’t really time it butI did count the number of times we went round the ferris wheel. We managed to do five full rounds before the ride ended and to make things great, we only had to share the cab with another man and his chatty but pleasant daughter of 4 yrs. The cabs were also air-conditioned so that definately helps during hot sunny days! The were also speakers in the cab playing the Visit Malaysia Theme Song but that was about it… Would have been great if they blurted out some interesting facts and places of interest in Malaysia over the speakers. What a better place to promote Malaysia to visitors then when they’re stuck in the cab during the ride? Obviously they were not leveraging on this at all.

    

The structure is said to be about 60 meters tall so it is much smaller than the London Eye (which is reported to be 135 meters!!!) and the overall view wasn’t that great but its pretty worth the experience. As adults we had to pay RM15.00 each. One thing we did wonder was why weren’t there any souvenier stalls nearby, plus the lack of shelter also makes rainy weather (which is always the case in Malaysia) a bit messy and hard to move around. The place needs more stalls and more fun stuff to do at the locality. There was only one EYE CAFE there and a local “chinese” clown there. For a tourist I think something would definitely be lacking. More needs to be done in order to make it an experience to talk about. For a Saturday, the place sure had a lack of tourists and majority of the people present were locals. Its a pity really because I am sure it can be made into a wonderful tourist attraction.