Bukit Gambang Safari Park, Gambang

Bukit Gambang Resort City (BGRC) is an integrated resort city sprawling across 727 acres of secondary jungle. Strategically located in Gambang, Pahang, it is the gateway to the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia and the capital city of Pahang – Kuantan. BGRC is also nestled amongst the many natural and cultural attractions eagerly sought for by tourists locally or from abroad. With easy access via the East Coast Expressway, BGRC is a mere 218km from Kuala Lumpur and just 35km before the famous beach town of Kuantan. By air to Kuantan, the flight to Sultan Ahmad Shah Airport is approximately 40 minutes from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), 90 minutes from Penang International Airport and 65 minutes from Singapore Changi Airport. BGRC is just a 35 minutes scenic drive away from the airport.

There are 3 theme parks in BGRC which are their famous water park which has been awarded as the “Best Water Park in Malaysia” by Malaysian Association of Amusement Themepark and Family Attractions (MAATFA). Next, a safari park for family who wants to stay dry. Lastly, active academy for team building, group activity and cooperate activity with exciting activities such as ATV Ride, flying fox, sky trail, paintball warzone, obstacle course and many more.

Their ticketing counters are located at different locations. The water park counter will be at the ground floor while the safari park counter will be at the first floor. No idea why they need to separate the counter. Maybe it was once there are a lot of visitors but as you can see now not many are queuing up and not many counters are opened. For your information, the day we visited this place was a weekend.

I just opted for their Safari Park only which is at RM68.00 (adult) and RM48.00 (child above 90cm). It is really not a cheap price to be honest especially when the child rate is so expensive and based on heights. My son just barely reach 3 years old already more than 100cm. You can get a cheaper price by combined purchase Wet Park and Safari Park together but I can assure you that you don't have time for both. Even you do have, I doubt your kids have that energy to do so. So not worth it.

We were greeted by this two love birds which were showing how lovely they are. I can spend all day taking pictures of them because they really have all kinds of actions in pampering each other. One thing for you to note is there will be a photograph booth where they will take your pictures and will process it to sell it to you when you about to leave the place. I have a comment about this is the booth is handled by two foreign workers who hardly know how to take picture and getting people to pose. The worst part was we can't even communicate with them in any languages. They just don't understand English and Malay very well.

One of the highlight of this Safari Park is their "Dining with white lion". There is a huge glass which you can see through a couple of lions while you are having your meal. Somehow I felt it is really a torturing for the animal to see you eat while they can't. For your information, this is first White Lion and Malaysian-born lion cubs in Malaysia.

Here we are at the petting kingdom for our first stop where we get to feed animals such as pigeons, goats and rabbits. You can buy a cup of food for RM5.00.

There is a big rooster which I consider it to be one of the luckiest rooster ever for able to live so long. It is 5 years old. You don't see chicken past 6 months nowadays. Isn't it the luckiest?

RM5.00 maybe is expensive but I can assure it is absolutely priceless. This is the chance for your kids to get up close and personal with the animals. Let them show their love and passion to those animals.

As a parent, I really encourage my son to learn not to afraid for every single bit of things. I will watch out for him by his side but never going to stop him from getting close with the animals. 

Even an animal as big as a goat, he was not afraid and was having a great time feeding them.

It was really cute and heart warming to see him trying his best effort to give every each one of the animals there something to eat. Every single one of the animals were getting his share of food.

There are 5 different live shows which you can expect here. They are Predator Instinct (3.45pm) which is an exhibit of Tiger, Lion and all other land predators. Secondly, will be Wonderful Birds (12.15pm* and 4.45pm) which is demonstrating all colorful birds they have in their safari. Thirdly, it is a Multi-Animal show (11.15am* and 5.45pm). Next would be African Yabara Fire (7.45pm) which is a fire show. Last but not least, it is the Tarzan Adventure (8.45pm) which is obviously a Tarzan show.

*Extra Shows: It is only available on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Public Holidays and School Holidays. 

This was the Multi-Animal show at 11.15am which showcase a series of exotic animals such as black bear, red panda, alpacas and many more. It was a decent performance which we really enjoyed it very much.

It can be better if they allowed a few lucky audiences to participate or have a photo session with the animals with a fee. It is a good business.

This is the stage for the Wonderful Birds show. It was started at 12.15pm. It is also an extra shows which is available on the Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Public Holidays and School Holidays.

The show was not well done at all when the parrot and eagles were not in the mood to perform. They keep flying back behind the stage and the trainer had to bring it out again and again.

It was quite disappointing and the trainer doesn't want to force the birds from performing anymore after that to avoid any unnecessary stress to them. Otherwise, this show could be really amazing when the birds are flying around and above your head. 

I arrived early in the morning which I only get to see 2 shows because my boy was already sleepy. If you have a kid, you should know that they will need their afternoon nap. So my advice is that you don't have to come so early. The best is to come after lunch time where your kids are getting enough sleep so you get to enjoy all the shows and leave at night.

There are a lot of feeding spots and the bird sanctuary is the most favourite spot for us. We like here a lot especially we can get so close to these colorful and beautiful birds.

My son obviously is the one that was enjoying the most. It is a very rare chance to get so close with the birds.

However, we do not appreciate the rare chance to be so close with a peacock. It is so fierce and it attacked my son and me. My son got some scratches on his hands when the peacock had its claw over him. I don't understand why would the management want to let this peacock goes freely in here. It is seriously untamed. It keeps trying to attack any human who is entering its territory.

My son did cried after the incident but he easily forgotten it when meeting a more friendly birds that will land on your shoulder, hand and even your head. It did land on my son's hand but he didn't feel comfortable about it and he shook it away. 

Aren't these birds cute? I really enjoying this moment the most. 

There are other feeding spots such as deer feeding which is also RM5.00 for a bunch of grasses. I didn't let my son to feed anymore after the trauma he had with the peacock earlier but he doesn't afraid of the deer at all despite he got himself injured. Seems like my son is a very forgiving soul which can be a good and a bad thing. The bad thing is he doesn't know how to judge when it is safe to get closer to an animal but I shouldn't have expecting too much from a 3 years old boy.

Another feeding spot is feeding the brown and black bear by using a white bread which cost at RM5.00 too. I didn't know bear eats bread until now. They really do love bread and will fight with each other for it.

I don't fancy the way of feeding the bear by kids because it is too high and the kids hardly able to see the bear that they are feeding. Basically, they are just throwing blindly over the fence.

There is a small section where you get to see a few kinds of sample which is in a jar with formaldehyde. It is quite eerie-some to watch especially for the kids. 

Would rather see the live one instead which comes with all kinds of sizes and colors.

This one is creepy with the lips stuck on the glass container and revealing its teeth.

There is one of the place where you get to see all the monitor lizards walking around freely. They are not afraid of humans and it is more frightening for the humans instead. Almost everyone who steps inside this area make a scream of it. However, my son still naively taking pictures with them. It is really a brand new experience for me to get so close with these lizards.

There are fishes to display too. Most of them are fishes that can be found in Pahang river. 

My son is more interested with this Fortune fish where it followed his finger wherever he goes.

There is no fences or glasses for the tortoises but there is a warning sign stating that the animal may bites. So just touch with caution.

There are a few paid rides available here such as the ATV is available for rent at as low as RM18 for two persons and we get to go around for three rounds which is a small round around the camels and llamas. Quite expensive but when you are having a kid with you, anything is worth it.

This is the spot where we go around it. If you would like to around the Safari Park with ATV, it costs RM98 for the first person and RM30 for the following person. The weather was too hot for me to do this adventure.

Guess who is the happiest one?

That's the llama that we were circling around with ATV.

The other rides would be camel ride, horse ride and pony ride which are all at RM10/pax.

The main highlight of all is their largest drive-through wild savannah featuring free roaming animals at their naturalists habitat. It is included in the ticket price for the ride. After the ride, you can end your day by paying RM2/pax which they will take you all the way to the exit.

The ride is air-conditioned with a tour guide to explain about the animals. Unfortunately, the tour guide only speaks in Malay. So if there is a foreigner, there is a problem to understand.

The ride only took about 20 minutes and the ride is very bumpy and there is no proper road for it due to it is a reserved forest.

Not many types of animals as you can see from the pictures and during the mid sun, they are mostly sleeping or resting. They are only active in the morning and night.

They have a pair of lions, a pair of tigers, a pair of hyenas and a pair of cheetahs. It is not that many to make you experience the same feeling like the African Safari Tour.

For me, it is another zoo. I do understand that keeping a carnivore is very high in cost especially each one of them needs to eat 4-7% of their body weight which is ranging between 5 to 12 kgs of meat a day.

Nonetheless, it is the best we got in Malaysia. We can't expect too much.

The ostriches here are very fierce. The moment our ride stops, the ostriches started to poke our windows non-stop until we leave. Luckily it was not strong enough to break the glass.

Here you can see the ostriches were poking another vehicle which was stopping by there.

Overall, I have to say the bird sanctuary and the lizard area were the most amazing part that I have enjoyed throughout this trip. There are a lot of maintenance need to do as I can see the building is running old. There are not much animals to be expected but if you really wanted to visit, I would suggest you to come by before 2.00pm and leave at night. That will make most of the ticket you have paid. I have to stress it once again, RM48 for a kid is way too expensive especially when the height limit for free ticket is at 90cm. Even there should be any charges for kids, it shouldn't be that expensive. Furthermore, there is no benefit for MyKad or MyKid holder. Usually we will get special discount for being a Malaysian but unfortunately it is not useful here. I really hope one day there is a Safari Park like Chimelong Safari Park in Guangzhou, China.

Total Damage: RM184.00

Ambiance: 1/5

Service: 2/5

Freakout Level: 2/5

Recommended?: No

Bukit Gambang Safari Park

Opening Hours:

Monday - Thursday: 12.00pm - 9.00pm

Friday - Sunday, Public Holidays, School Holidays: 10.00am - 9.00pm

(Monday off except Public Holidays and School Holidays)