Bukit Merah Laketown Resort in Bukit Merah, Perak

Assalamualaikum,

Back in March, I wrote a post on The Carnivall, a water theme park in Sungai Petani, Kedah. Recently, we had an opportunity to go to another water theme park that is located in the northern region as well. It was an unplanned trip. My son was suppose to undergo a minor surgery on the last week of November, but my wife and I decided to postpone it by a week. We made the decision to postpone a day before the surgery! Talk about great planning. Well, that's how thing goes sometime.....At the end of the day, we shift the date because we thought that it will be best for our son.

That adhoc decision meant that family members that made plan to pay us a visit, had to make the trip regardless. My mak, abah, and my little sister (with her family) freed up their weekend for that trip. My brother, who earlier booked flights for him and his family decided to proceed with the travel. Since all of them were here and the surgery was called off, we decided to go for a short family trip instead. My brother brought up the idea to go to Bukit Merah, and since none of us been there before, everybody gave the resounding yes. Who can say no to a trip to a water theme park!

The drive to Bukit Merah took less than an hour from Penang. So, it is not a long journey. It's good when you are ferrying young children. Upon arrival to the resort, you'll notice that the parking lot is HUGE! To avoid family members (especially the elderly) walking quite a distance to the main entrance, what I can suggest is that you drop them off at the main entrance first before you go to look for parking. Unless you are there early and manage to get parking space right in front of the entrance, it will definitely not be an issue.

Below was how the main entrance looks like.

Since Christmas is around the corner, the resort decided to put up Christmas decorations. Note the Christmas trees. I personally like the high ceiling concept, it makes it feel airy and big.

On that day, we decided to take the waterpark and ecopark combo. Looking at the entrance fee table, it seems that the resort made amendment to the pricing for children. I do not know whether they hike up or lower down the price, so my advice is to call them up or check their official website to get the latest pricing. I do not see any ATM machine at the resort, so bring along adequate amount of money. Take into consideration that you might need to pay for the foods at the resort itself. And the food sold at the resort were not cheap!

That was the main ticketing center. It was pretty close to the main entrance. There was another ticketing counter at the entrance to the waterpark.

When you paid your entrance fee, you'll be given a water proof wrist strap. It was more comfortable if you wear it a bit loose. Once you glued it on, there was no way you can adjust it again.

Hmmmm.......where shall we go first?

We decided to head to the ecopark first. With children on tow, it will be difficult to drag them out of the waterpark to go the ecopark later.

From the main ticketing counter, you will need to walk between 5 to 10 minutes to reach the entrance to ecopark. The route was covered in lush greenery. I can say that it was a nice place to have a picnic. Considering that the food served at the resort suck big time (and expensive) the idea of having a picnic where you bring in your own food is not a bad idea at all.

Picnic beside a lake? Why not? The view was simply awesome and mesmerising. I'll definitely have a picnic whenever I decide to come to the resort again.

When you approaching the ecopark entrance, you will notice a few chalets on your right hand side. It is open for booking to those that plan to stay there. You can check out their website for the price. It will be cool to wake up in the morning and lounge at the chalet's balcony. I'll bet that it will be relaxing.

.....and that was the main entrance to the ecopark.

When you climb up the ramp heading to the ecopark entrance, you can see on your left a chairlift ride. If you pick chairlift ride for your combo ticket, you can take the chairlift to go to the waterpark instead of walking there. Convenient huh?

So, what was inside the ecopark? It was basically a mini zoo. You can find considerable amount of animals within the park. I did not snap pictures of all the animals though. Below are some of them.

Below were the wooden walkways that will "guide" you through the ecopark. Be careful when walking on them. There were a few that were not properly maintained. My mom fell while stepping on them because screws used to bolt down the wooden planks came loose. It happened near the pets park.

At 12:30pm everyday, the resort will held an animal show. Do check out the timing of the show, because the resort might change them due to adverse weather or some unforeseen circumstances. They had 4 parrots and an otter strutting their stuff during that show. It was quite entertaining to be honest. My sons loved the show.

You can get your pictures taken together with the "stars" of the animal show. It is not free though. You need to cough up RM2 for that. You need to use your own camera to take the pictures. Make sure that you bring along your camera.

Well, that was it at the ecopark. We then head to the waterpark. Getting to the waterpark, we passed through row and row of shops. Most of them were selling memorabilia and souvenirs....and plenty of toys as well! So cover your children's eyes while passing through those shops. Else, you will be poorer at the end of the trip.

Now, we reached the foodcourt. Seatings were limited. They used coupon system. That means you need to buy coupons to pay for your food. So search around for the coupon counter. It was somewhere at the center of the food court. My dad actually paid using cash at one of the food stall. The owner still accepted cash. But I'm not too sure whether all stalls will accept cash though.

There were plenty of food on offer. But do not put high expectation on the taste. You might get dissapointed.

With a full stomach, we head to the waterpark.

Here are the main attractions inside the waterpark. I grab the pic from Bukit Merah official website.

Remember the chairlift? Here they were again in action.

The first place we went while inside the waterpark was the the kids adventure river. One thing that I like about it was how shallow the water was. My 5 year old has no problem wading through the river.

The next 3 pictures were taken at Perak mining. It was a water playground for children. I believe that the resort need to do some maintaining work at that playground. I can see plenty of rust covered metal all around that area.

Below was the giant wet bubble. We decided to skip going on that bubble because the queue was long. We rather spent our time in the water instead of wasting our time queueing up. There were height restriction to climb up that bubble. So your young ones might not be able to join the fun.

There were plenty covered seats all over the waterpark. But, be ready to share with other families there.

That was the lazy river. The water was shallow as well. No problem for your young ones to take a dip there.

Now we come to the best part of the waterpark. Sandy beachfront wave pool. We spent chunk of our time there. That pool was huge. The water was warm and nice to be in especially when the wave machine was turned on. Letting your body battered by the waves felt relaxing indeed.

Here was the kids adventure river again.

There were a couple of slides along the kids adventure river. And the slides are only for kids! No adult allowed on the slides. We tried sneaking onto the slides but the guard on duty chased us down. Malunya!!!!!

Near the kids adventure river, you can rent a small chalet. That was a good option if you do not want to fight for seating with other families at the resort. Do ask at the ticketing counter for more details.

Another look at Perak mining from the kids adventure river.

There were a couple of slides specifically designed for the adult and not so young children. Some required for you to go down the slide on a float and some without. Do take note that you need to rent the float.