Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is just a bus ride away from Singapore. So we
took advantage of the long weekend to visit. Besides, I’ve really been wanting
to go to KL to see the Petronas Towers.
We booked a roundtrip bus ticket (coach) online worth $68.25. We thought
of leaving Singapore at midnight because we wanted to be in KL early in the
morning so we would be able to seize the day.
29 May 2015
Textile Centre, Singapore
Carlo and I met with Dave at Lavender MRT station roughly an hour
before the departure and walked towards the Textile Centre. We got the tickets
first at KKKL office then grabbed a quick late dinner in a nearby hawker.
Quick dinner
Tickets
Bus
We were asleep all along. I guess that was one of the good things when
you travel at night – you are early in your destination so you can do a lot of
things within the day while you get to rest and sleep at night.
Before the trip! =)
30 May 2015
Itinerary:
Berjaya Times Square
Imbi Market
33 Star Hotel
Batu Caves
National Museum
Petronas Towers
KLCC Mall
Jalan Alor
Changkat
By the time we arrived at Berjaya Times Square – after 6 hours of
travelling the road and immigration stops – the sun wasn’t rising yet. However,
the boys wanted to make the most out of the trip so we thought of having an
early breakfast.
I told them that I read blogposts about this hawker-style place, Imbi
Market, which could be reached by foot from the BTS. According to the posts online,
it’s a must visit and a good place to have breakfast in KL. So I printed out a
screenshot of the Google Map so we can have a reference during the trip. The screenshot wasn't sufficient to easily roam around the area
though. We argued with each other but agreed at the same time when reading the directions of
the map. Hahaha!
And finally, we reached the market! It was a wet one with a hawker
beside it. The hawker part was small, crowded, and a bit dirty. I got worried
because the two boys might find the place disgusting and not a tourist-must-visit-place.
Good thing was, they’re not
maarte
and game to try the food out there.
Carlo got the Hainan tea which I recommended because of the post that I
read, while Dave ordered an iced coffee. We also got the following and shared these with one another: sticky rice, curry, omelette, fried popiah, spicy kway teow,
chee cheong fun with yong tau fu, and of course, kaya toast.
**sorry, pics were a bit dark because the sun wasn't rising yet that time
Afterwhich, we decided to check in early at the hostel. I booked 33
Star Hotel because it’s the cheapest one around Bukit Bintang area in
booking.com.
The reception people were nice and accommodating. They gave us a map and even
taught us the directions on where to go and what type of transportation we can
ride in. Since we checked in at around 8AM, they charged us an additional 20
MYR for checking in early. They also gave us an option to upgrade the room for
30 MYR – meaning, from triple room to double standard room. The boys preferred
the latter because the CR of the triple room only had cloth to serve as the
door! Whereas, the double standard room had a wooden door. Hahaha! The hostel was fairly good, however, downside was - there were a lot of small cockroaches roaming around the room.
=) Well, I guess, we got what we paid for. =)
routes of Go! KL bus shown by the receptionist
Hello from our room! =)
We all took shower before heading to our first destination which was
the Batu Caves.
First MRT ride: We had to use the machine for us to get a single ticket
which was in form of a circle plastic token. Then when we transferred another line, we were given a paper ticket.
MRT pictures =)
Selfie! =))
Batu Caves was quite far from the city and the MRT lines weren’t that
fast so it took us some time to get in there – around lunch time.
So here are the photos from the Batu Caves.
We challenged ourselves to get into the cave and climb the stairs! It
was freaking 272 steps according to the posts over the internet.
Hey Carlo, you ready?!?!
Yay!!! We made it!!!
By the way, women who wore shorts and short skirts are required to cover their legs
with pashmina or shawl. There was a group of women who waved at us saying that I
needed to rent a pashmina from them. We were not allowed to show off some skin
to respect their gods.
There were lots of monkeys wandering on our way to the top. Tourists were allowed to give food and drinks to them.
Dave's friend
Here are some photos inside the cave.
wouldn't miss a jump shot! =)
Second destination for the day: National Museum or Muzium Negara
It was a not-so-good-to-remember journey on our way to the museum. We
got a little lost at first and walked A LOT under
the scorching heat of the sun! That was quite a struggle!!! But you know what?
Best thing about the boys I was with was, they kept their cool, not pikon and just made fun of what was
happening to us. =)
We finally saw the structure of the museum so we had hopes that we were
close to it.
We bought ice cream in a bun for 5 RM. It was seriously hot that
day so we needed something cold to compensate the heat.
I saw a disabled person sitting beside the ticket counter doing
personalized key chains. I was interested so I told Carlo that I wanted a
string key chain with my name on it. And here they go.
Hi Aiza!!!
While I was waiting for the man to finish the key chains we asked him
to do, Carlo bought the museum tickets for us – 5 RM each.
We didn’t take lots of pictures inside the museum because 1) some
stations do not allow photography, 2) we were all exhausted by the heat outside
so we just took a rest inside the air-conditioned building. Haha!
We then remembered that there was a free bus roaming around the city of
KL. So from the museum, we just walked towards the main road and waited for the Go! KL bus. It’s pretty amazing because there were
connecting buses to your desired destination within the city and of course, it
was FREE! =)
Hello from the bus!
We hadn’t taken lunch yet so we decided to go back to Bukit Bintang
area and eat at KFC. We preferred a fast food resto because we’d like to eat
something familiar to us because we were soooo hungry that time and we cannot
afford to take risk of eating the local food and wouldn’t like it.
my KFC meal =)
Our third destination: Petronas Towers
From Bukit Bintang, there was another free Go! KL bus that took us to
Petronas Towers. It was like a 10-minute ride so we got there before sunset.
We really planned to just get the tickets for tomorrow’s viewing
because I read a lot of blogposts saying that it’s always sold out when you buy
tickets during the day. And yes, they were right. When we got into the ticket
counter, the tickets available were for the following day access. We chose the
7PM viewing because we wanted to have a glimpse of “between day and night” view
from the Petronas Towers. Ticket price is 84.80 RM with access to the skybridge
between the two towers and at the top of one of the towers – 86
th
floor I guess?
**I believe that Petronas Towers is now allowing online booking via this path: eticket.petronastwintowers.com.my
KLCC Mall is just right beside the office of the Petronas Towers. So we
went inside to check out some stuff and Dave went to the store selling the
famous donuts in KL – which I forgot the name. Hahaha
Then we went home after taking pictures outside the office of Petronas because
one of my colleagues back in Talent2 would like to meet up with us. We went to
Starbucks Bukit Bintang for some catching up.
Hi Clang and jowa! Hihihi
After few hours and lots of stories shared, we decided to get around the food street market – Jalan Alor, and bought some stuff there. It was a 10 minute walk from the Bukit Bintang crossing.
Right then, we walked through Changkat – the street known for
catering the night life. We had a few drinks in one of the bars there.
End of our day.
31 May 2015
Itinerary:
Petaling Flee Market
Central Market
Kuala Lumpur City Gallery
Merdeka Square
KL Big Kitchen
Petronas Towers
Chinatown
We woke up a bit late and just in time for the hotel’s checkout. We ate
breakfast at the hawker located at the ground level of the hostel.
First stop was the Petaling Flea Market. We roamed around the
divisoria-like-shopping place. Carlo was able to finally found a belt which
suits him! Hahaha! He got it for only 35 MYR. Not a bad catch.
It was freaking hot so we walked towards the air-conditioned Central
Market to lessen the scorching feeling. We passed by a chocolate store so we
thought of buying some goodies to eat while walking.
Few meters away is the KL City Gallery where the big signage “I love KL" is located. Then right beside the gallery is the Merdeka Square.
During this time,
the KL Big Kitchen was being held. It was a food festival in KL where a lot of
foods were being sold. We decided to enter and paid 5 MYR as fee.
We ate these foods
Soon after, we planned on returning to KLCC mall just to chill and kill time
before the 7PM viewing at Petronas Towers. We were waiting about half an hour at the bus stop but none was arriving. Good thing Dave was able to book a ride with Uber.
Sosyal! Lol!
Last stop was the Petronas Towers.
Here are the photos from the viewing deck.
Hello from us!!!
We then went to Chinatown as the bus will depart infront of a certain hotel there. Since
there's no accommodation area in the ticketing office, we decided to spend the last MYR we
had and grabbed a drink in the nearby bar.
End of our day.
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For the expenses, all of us three just spent less than $200 each for this trip. =)
