Thunder, lightning, rain - and Sunway Lagoon

Post script for previous entry: while Plane Boy had an afternoon siesta, Nerdia jumped on the monorail for a bit of an explore.

So, yesterday we headed off for Sunway Lagoon, a gigantic Vegas-style resort (minus the casino). Inside was yet another huge mall - this time with an open ice rink at the bottom - but we weren't there for the high-price resort shopping, we were there for the theme park.
This turned out to be several big theme parks covering a deep valley behind the hotel - perhaps a former quarry? We skipped the top range roller coaster park etc, the main thing Nerdia wanted was the water park. Yay, water park!
Some of the tube slides were not available but there were plenty of other water-based amusements on hand, such as a speed slide (speedy indeed, shrieks aplenty) and a big pool with a wave machine - surprisingly fun with a big inner tube Giant tip-bucket tower for timed soakings etc etc.
Figuring we'd seen all of the 'water features', we wandered around a corner - and found a whole new section of the park with a much bigger pool. Beach Boys music blasting from the speakers, artificial beach, surf simulator (no, we didn't hang ten), long flying fox and bungee line above...
...and then the storm arrived. Within seconds it was dark, thunder rumbled right overhead and we were pelted with heavy, cold rain - great fun in the big warm pool, we loved it! All of a sudden it passed some secret threshold and the life guards ordered us all out of the pool, whistles 'pipping' everywhere. (A common sound in KL!)
Onto the beach we ran, lightning flashing directly overhead now and rain chucking down. Then apparently the beach wasn't safe either, and hundreds of us were herded under the huts on shore as the rain got even heavier. A couple of local blokes were most impressed by Plane Boy's stature (one was heard to gasp "Oh my God, giant hand!" when he went to shake), so a photo session amused us all for a few minutes.
And then, just as suddenly, the tropical deluge was over. Rain stopped, sunshine returned (though the stormcloud rumbled on for a while) and everyone went back in. Brilliant fun!
Water park done, we wandered through a surprisingly large wildlife park, containing everything from impressive black panthers lounging in trees to weird hairless guinea pigs in the pet exhibit. The forest section was really quite good, lots of birds wandering around freely and pretty decent enclosures for everything except maybe the mandrills, whose area looked much like Perth Zoo's ape enclosures used to do some 20 years ago. Sleepy tigers waiting for their show (we skipped that), ginat porcupines, tiny mouse deer, a huge tapir (those things are massive!) - and, to Nerdia's delight, a mongoose.
By this stage Plane Boy was just about done, but Nerdia insisted on checking out the milder amusement park included in the tickets, just in case there were any more water slides. The round canyon boats were quite good (if a little bit tame), and the log ride was actually a little scary in points, she hates to admit. Once she'd finally had enough, we headed back to the hotel.
Both pooped and Plane Boy a little under the weather, so it was room service for dinner (yummo beef rendang and laksa) then sleep.