Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | May 2015

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

Petronas Pictures!

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. =)