streetsmartgirl: A weekend in Kuala Lumpur

Sunday, October 21, 2012

A weekend in Kuala Lumpur

If there’s one thing I love about being a bum, aside from waking up late, it would be gettingto travel to interesting places close to Singapore. Three weeks ago, we booked flights for Kuala Lumpur since it was a long weekend here because of their celebration of the National Day Parade.

On our way

We got flight via Tiger Airways from SG-KL for SGD 100 for two persons. For our return flight, we booked AirAsia tickets for SGD 109. These are the cheapest flights we got given that is another last minute travel plans like four days before the trip.

We took an 8PM Tiger Airways flightfrom Changi Airport Budget Terminal and arrived in Kuala Lumpur’s Low CostCarrier Terminal (LCCT) almost 9PM. After going through immigration,exchanging a few Singapore dollars to Malaysian ringgits, we took the Aerobusgoing to KL Sentral for RM 8. Their airport is far from the city approximately a 1-hrdrive. You won’t miss the booths selling bus tickets because they are right outside once you get out the arrival hall. There are other bus routes but since our hotel is in KL Sentral we took Aerobus which offered that route.

We reached KLSentral almost 12MN. Our hotel is just a walking distance from KL Sentral whichis Malaysia’s largest transit hub. It is connected to the six railsystems in Kuala Lumpur. There are also taxi and car rentals here, and businessestablishments like fastfoods, stores, money exchange, etc.

MyHotel

We kinda gotlost on our way to MyHotel @ Sentral. There are no signs leading you to whichdirection. We just relied on KL Streetdirectory map we downloaded. There was anongoing construction at KL Sentral which made it a bit difficult to find ourway. Good thing, there was a security personnel and we just asked directions.

We arrived inMyHotel and checked in. We paid RM 110 for the room for our first night staysince it was required. We’ve stayed in MyHotel Bangkok before and we likedit. So we opted to try another MyHotel, this time in KL. The moment we got intoour room, we noticed that it was noisy. And we wondered why, we looked into ourwindow and found that our room is situated in a side street where there is a bardownstairs. Ugh. I was looking for a quiet night to sleep. There was no fridgeand our cable only had five channels -all of them were about the Olympics.

De Luxe Room

other side of the room

I got bit disappointed. And yeah, nowarm water in the shower although it says its hot. Oh wells. The roomwasn’t so bad except I just thought. Fresh and clean sheets, firm bed, spacious and clean room..moved on!

the hotel entrance

Since we wereon a limited time, we carefully chose what we wanted to see in Kuala Lumpur. Wedid Genting Highlands, Petronas Towers, Batu Caves, streetfood dinner at JalanAlor, Bukit Bintang, and food adventure.

Petronas Towers

It’s best tosee Petronas Towers at night. The lights are all out and night shots are justglorious. You see all the lights illuminating from the towers and it’s a sightto behold.

We did all theshots we can think of. Good thing webrought a mini tripod.

streetsmartgirl @ Petronas

lovers in Petronas

just another Petronas shot

Jalan Alor

Jalan Alor islocated in Bukit Bintang which is the main shopping and entertainment area in KL. You will findan array of food stalls in both side of the streets. You may get overwhelmed atfirst because of the peddlers urging you to eat in their restaurants. We toohad a hard time deciding where to have our dinner.

But as they say, eat wherethe crowd is and so we did.

food coma :)

Jalan Alor istruly a foodie paradise where you can sample authentic Malaysian cuisine.We had chili crab, cereal prawns, and chicken fried rice. Fantastic street food!

Bukit Bintang

Bukit Bintangor BB is known as the shopping and entertainment center of KL. You will findhere a number of shopping malls. And when you say mall, I’d say BUY! We strolledaround some malls in the area like Lot 10, Fahrenheit 88, Pavilion KL, BB Plaza(like Greenhills), Sungei Wang Plaza, and Low Yat Plaza which is the one-stopshop for gadgets.

Pavilion KL - high end shopping mall 

Lot 10 - nearest mall to Bukit Bintang monoral station

Fahrenheit 88

I was able tobuy three pairs of shoes from Vincci or VNC as popularly known in Manila.

shoe shopping at Vincci

Batu Caves

The Batu Cavesis in Erick’s must-go places ever since we planned to visit KL in 2010. But itdidn’t push through. So he was delighted that finally we will able to go andsee Batu Caves.

Batu Caves is a sacred place for the Hindus in Malaysia. Itconsisted of three big caves and smaller ones. We went there by taking the KTMtrain in KL Sentral bound for Batu Caves. You won't get lost because the laststation is Batu Caves and from there the site is a walking distance.

Batu Caves

We alsoascended the 272 steps; these steps are kinda steep so be careful.

On the way up

There arealso monkeys along the way chancing uponyour belongings especially if you are carrying plastic bag with food inside.

monkeys are usual sight in batu caves

I was amazedby the structure of the Batu Caves. It was huge inside and there are many temples full of devotees.

One of the many temples

At the end of the biggest cave which is named Cathedral Cave you will see a large opening when you look above.

big opening at the end of the cave

Foodtrip

Any trip would not be complete without trying the local cuisine. We would not miss trying authentic Malaysian food. Here are some of the yummiest food we had while in Malaysia.

Penang Fried Kway Teow

This dish is made from flat rice noodles and stir-fried in soy sauce, chili, prawns, squid, mussels, bean sprouts, and chives.

Chicken satay

How could anyone miss chicken satay while in KL? It's one of the most popular dishes in Malaysia. The barbecued chicken is best served with rice but you can also eat it on its own.

Chicken fried rice

We also tried chili crab when we had dinner at Jalan Alor. The crab is stir-fried in semi-thick, sweet and spicy-based sauce. The crab that we ate was actually sweet and spicy.