My friends and I had a dream back when we were younger that we would reach a certain point in our lives that we could just go on a trip abroad anytime we want simply to have coffee. I guess we made it come true. Well, sort of.
It was my first out of the country trip, and I couldn't be more excited. It was a kind of spur of the moment thing when we booked our tickets to Kuala Lumpur. Thanks to Cebu Pacific's promo fares. Our roundtrip tickets only cost a little more than Php 4000.
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| A little too excited |
We arrived in Malaysia at around past midnight of September 17, 2013. We landed in their Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT), and it cost us around 30 minutes more to get through immigration, and wait for Michael's luggage. We did not have any baggage allowance, but because there was a problem with the tube at NAIA when we left, they offered to check in his luggage for free.
We exchanged a few Pesos to Ringgits in the airport, despite the low exchange rate, for obvious reasons, then we headed straight to the exit. Towards the exit doors, there are counters from where you can get bus tickets from LCCT to Kuala Lumpur Sentral. There were only two counters open at the time. The lady in the counter of Aerobus was shouting in a panicky voice for us to get the tickets because the last bus was leaving. Without second thoughts, we bought two roundtrip tickets for MYR 14 each, and ran outside to look for the bus. True enough, it was the last one, and we were only seated a few minutes when the bus started to leave.
The bus was comfortable, with wide leg room. The air conditioning was also very cold, but I'm not complaining. I wanted to sleep during the journey, but I wanted to savor the first time I laid eyes on a new country. And also the morbid thought that we could be driven to our deaths in a death camp for all we knew. It took around an hour or more from LCCT to KL Sentral. Based on what I've read before, we were supposed to be dropped off at KL Sentral station, and from there we can take the train to Medan Tuanku where our hotel was. For some reason, the bus stopped somewhere I didn't exactly know, but all the passengers alighted. We did too. From there, I was about to insist to Mykel that we find the train station, but seeing that it was almost 3 in the morning, we agreed to take a cab. The driver asked for MYR 30 to drive us to Prescott Hotel, where our friend Jude, who had flown in from Singapore the day before, was waiting for us. Michael haggled, and they agreed to MYR25. I don't know if that was reasonable or not, but we couldn't care less, because we were exhausted, and there were not enough choices anyway. While in the cab, the driver asked us where we were from, how many days we were staying in KL, and he also offered to be our private tour guide while in KL. We politely declined.
After 15 minutes, we arrived at the hotel, and asked the receptionist for our room. We told him our friend had already checked in, and was waiting for us. He said he had the instruction to let us in when we arrived, and gave us the room number. The thing that bothered me was, he didn't even ask for our ID's. What if we were serial killers pretending to know that person who was checked in at that hotel? Then again, I was too exhausted to overthink.
Our room had two queen beds, a cable TV, a bathroom, a table and chair, and most importantly a hair dryer. It had a huge window with the view of the KL Tower. We had a few minutes of catching up with Jude, before dozing off to prepare for the long day ahead.
Day 1: Batu Caves, Little India, Central Market, Chinatown/Petaling St., Suria Mall, KLCC, Petronas Towers
The plan was to leave the hotel at 8 AM to go to Batu Caves, but we succumb to the exhaustion from the night before, that at around 8 in the morning, we were still having free breakfast at the restaurant downstairs. Breakfast was bread with choices of kaya jam, butter, cheese, and sausages to go along with coffee, tea or juice. We also had the option to have two eggs each cooked to our liking. It wasn't much, but it was enough to give us our fill before heading our way.
After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel, and left our big bags for safekeeping at the reception. Free of charge. We walked a few meters towards Medan Tuanku station. We caught the KL monorail to Titiwangsa interchange, and then walked some more to Putra station where we will take the KTM Komuter. The last stop of the KTM Komuter was Batu Caves station.
We almost got lost having boarded the wrong train, thanks to the person we asked at the station. But all was well, as a helpful Filipino on the train gave us the correct instruction. Turned out, we were just weren't paying attention to the signs when we boarded the first train.
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| Me with the majestic Golden statue guarding the Batu Caves |
It was an awesome sight at Batu Caves. Giant Hindu deities will greet you as you enter the gates. There was also a Hindu temple where you have to remove your slippers as you climb its steps. But the main attraction was the cave on top of a hill, accessible by climbing the 270 or so steps guarded by the golden Hindu god. Be careful with the monkeys on the steps who will try to steal your food! To be honest, the monkeys kinda freaked me out.
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| Inside the Batu Caves |
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| Enjoying with the doves |
After Batu Caves, we took the same train to KL Sentral (not to be mistaken with Kuala Lumpur Station), the main transportation hub of Kuala Lumpur. All the trains interchange at KL Sentral, and all major buses, including those plying the Thailand-Malaysia or Malaysia-Singapore route, leave from KL Sentral.
A few minutes walk from KL Sentral are Little India, China Town/Petaling Street, and the Central Market. Had we not been lost, we could have done a walking tour from Central Market to Little India, but we walked this way, instead of that, and that way instead of this. You get the picture.
But you can actually start a walking tour from Central Market, where you can find all sorts of souvenirs from keychains, to scarves, to shirts, and accessories. Then walk towards Chinatown, and buy some more souvenirs. You can get pashmina scarves for MYR 15, and you can even haggle some more if you will buy a lot. You can also find fake luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, etc. Souvenir shirts range MYR10 to MYR20 depending on the quality and the quantity you will buy. Not far from China Town are two beautiful temples (that we only realized was there on our last day at KL when we decided to do a bit of last minute souvenir shopping). One was the Guan Di Temple, one of the oldest temples completed in 1888, and dedicated to the God of literature and war of the Taoists. The other was Sri Mahamariamman Temple for the Hindus. A little farther down, you will find Little India. I wanted to try authentic Indian food, but my fellow travelers were not in the mood to try something adventurous, we opted to have lunch at the first familiar fastfood we could find--KFC. But they served the chicken meal with coleslaw that had lots of chopped onions for some reason, and mashed potato. So much for adventurous.
I actually forgot which route we took to go to KLCC or Kuala Lumpur City Center, but I am sure you can take the Kelana Jaya Line from KL Sentral and alight at KLCC Station. There are two exits at KLCC. One will bring you directly to Suria Mall, while the other one will bring you to the other side of the road from Suria Mall, the fancy shopping mall near the Petronas Towers. Alas! Following the herd of people from the train, and our guts, we took the wrong exit, and had to cross the road to get to the mall.
We went around the mall, without buying anything, because we were saving all our money for Singapore. I couldn't resist going inside Kinokuniya, though, one of the biggest bookstores in KL. The assortment of books was amazing! At around 5PM, we went outside for a photo op with the Petronas Towers as the background. One simply can't go to Malaysia, and not have a photo with the famous twin towers. We had initially planned to go up the bridge connecting the two towers, but for MYR80 we decided it wasn't worth it. Instead, we enjoyed the view outside, which in my opinion was how you should enjoy the Petronas Towers.
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| Michael and me pretending to be Bea and John Lloyd (LOL) |
At around 6PM, we went back to Prescott Hotel to get our bags, because we would be heading for Singapore at 11PM. We took the KL Monorail from Bukit Nanas Station to Medan Tuanku station. After taking a short rest, and light snacks, we left Prescott Hotel. The weird thing about the Medan Tuanku Station was that there was no foot bridge to cross to the other side if you want to take the train back to KL Sentral. So with our luggage in hand, we literally ran across the 8-lane highway, with approaching cars, to get to the other side of the road. I'm happy to still be alive at this point.
We bought our dinner at (wait for it!) Mcdonalds, and waited for our train to Singapore. We were taking the KTM Intercity Train, and had booked our tickets in advance via www.ktmb.com.my. A one-way 2nd class sleeper ticket cost MYR40 for the upper berth, and MYR46 for the lower berth. It was a fairly comfortable 7-hour journey albeit a very cold one. We slept through the entire journey, and woke up at the other side of the border, content and happy, because we had saved one night on accommodation.
In the next blog: Welcome to Singapore!
