Kuala Lumpur (12th-17th September)

Travelling is a new hobby for me. Every time I want to take leaves, I’ll make sure that I spend the time to the highest level of enjoyment. By that… I choose travelling!

As I said not so long ago… the remaining half of this year is the most awesome for me. I had a chance to visit my relatives in Philippines during July vacation, spent our last ‘bogus’ vacation in Kota Kinabalu last month and recently, travelled to Kuala Lumpur. Never did I expect that I travelled to these countries with short gap in between. Awesome!

It was at the end of July, that we booked our tickets during Consumer Fair at Bridex. Initially, our plan was to go to Bangkok but few days before that, there was chaos in Bangkok City due to politically instability. Bangkok is no longer in the list (maybe next year, yes?). We were standing at the RBA counters for more than 5 minutes and thinking where is the next best country in Asian to visit. Think. Think. Think. KL! That’s it.

I never go to KL before… my friend, Sherman, also hasn’t visited there quite a long time. I forgot when the last time he visited… was it in 93 or 94? He said to me earlier ‘the blind leading the blind’. Hahaha. I beg to differ. I did some research and digest all information about KL and interesting places to visit. The WEB is really helpful! Genting Highlands is on top of our list. Shopping too (really? hahaha).

Our trip to KL was from 12th to 17th September. Our flight departed from BIA at 12:30pm using Boeing 777. Awesome flight I must say! Imagine… only 70+ people on board and many empty seats. I sat next to the window. It took almost 2 hours to reach KLIA. I am truly amazed with the airport. They are the best. The arrival and departure terminals are way separated. Monorails are the only transportation connecting both building (err… correct me if I’m wrong).

We took a bus to go to our hotel. Thanks to Sherman for hotels booking and transportation fees. Hahaha. At 3:30pm, our bus departed from the airport. We were sitting at the last row at the back and only can accommodate 4 people. I changed my seat and choose to sit next to the left window. Sherman sat at the right window. Before the bus about to move, then came in 2 Indian guys. They sat in between of me and Sherman. Geez… they really talkative and I got annoyed all the way (-_-“). Then, the Indian guy next to me said “how long will it take to reach KL?”. I said “I don’t know. This is also my first time”. Hello~~

We reached KL Sentral almost 5pm. A van was waiting for us to send to our hotel, Coronade Hotel. Our driver is a Malay guy and very kind. Traffic was not so bad at that time coz it was still within first week of raya and I think people go out of the city. Balik kampong. The driver sent us to a wrong hotel. When I stepped out from the van and see the hotel. I was like… errr? Is this our hotel? Why is it looks so lame (-_-“). I asked Sherman if the address is correct. We checked with the driver. It was his mistake. Got confuse with our hotel, Coronade Hotel and Corona Inn Hotel. Sigh.

I met my cousin there, Alai. She is currently pursuing her degree in IT security. We’ve been replying each other messages in FB to exchange info like where we staying, shopping, best place to eat and etc. Her parent met me to send some cakes and a netball ball for her. Sweet. Haha. She is our tour guide. We went to the nearest mall around Bukit Bintang area until night time.

I also met my friend, liley, there. She was with the family on vacation for more than a week there. It was her last day spending with me at Starbucks that night. We really had some fun and serious conversations. We reached our hotel exactly midnight and I slept shortly afterward. Too tired and we need to take rest coz the following day we went to Genting Highlands.

I woke up early that morning. I set my alarm at 8:00am. For those people who had travelled with me, as of now… they already know I’m a morning person. If somebody ever cut into my line, I will scream on his/her face. Haha. Joking. We had a quick breakfast at Indian’s restaurant. I don’t remember the restaurant’s name but the front view is awesome. You can’t miss the view of a jeep coming out from the wall.

I ordered 1 chicken burger from Mc’D that morning. The queue was so long. Okay… what do you expect? It’s Mc’D! Everyone loves it. Hahahaha. The cashiers were all busy. When I got my food, we went straight to the hotel for final checked. I packed important stuffs into a small bag for our Genting trip. I checked my food… I thought I only ordered 1 burger but they mistakenly gave two! AWESOME!

Going to Genting Highlands is the trickiest part (not!). There are many ways you can go and reach there but I only know two options. The first one is from KL Sentral. You can go to one of the booth showing Genting Highlands either by bus or taxi. The cheapest ride is always by bus. Second option is.. You can go from Titiwangsa. Bus is the only transport. More cheaper! Take the bus. Feel the thrill.

While waiting for the bus to go at 3pm, we spent our time at Hard Rock Café, Bukit Nenas. The place, the food, music played is nice. The interior looked like a modern classic restaurant. My food alone cost RM30. Whew! Did I mention about the toilet too? Also nice! Lol.

Exactly at 3pm, our bus departed from the terminal. We had the best seats in the bus. NOT! HAHA. Normally, seats are positioned to see the front view same as the driver’s view. Ours are the only one positioned to see at the back view, which means we only starred at everyone face and vice versa. Sigh. The bus was speeding like crazily on highway. I don’t know if I’m the only person feels it but it was really fast. Until at some point, I imagined if the bus skid and we all throw out from it. Okay.. not funny!

The bus safely arrived at Genting Highlands resort after 1.5hours. The first thing that I realized after coming out from the bus was the surrounding air is cool. I forgot to bring my sweater. Hmph! We took a quick look around the area before proceed to our hotel, First World Hotel. Once inside the hotel, I was amazed of its size and every space filled with people. Sherman went to one of the counter to ask about our booking. Thanks to him that we didn’t have to wait for a long time for our room to be ready (I think he used agoda.com to book for our hotels).

Our room is at Tower 1, level 24. I didn’t know where our room is until we reached there. It’s the most AWESOME VIEW that you can imagine of. But still… Tagaytay still the best! Our room is located at the top level of Tower 1. You can see the highlands and clouds passing through the window. Seriously.. CLOUD! Our room is called world club room. Two single beds, sofa, a nice toilet, TV and etc. BUT NO AIR-COND!!! Okay.. They don’t even need one. The surrounding air is already cool and you can see a big digital sign showing the temperature at the lobby area. I remembered it was 19 degrees Celsius that time. Cool!

We went down to see what Genting has to offer to its visitors. They have indoor games inside the building such as sky diving, ghost house, roller-coaster, Believe it or not gallery, and much much more. They also have many fast food franchises. It’s all in one place for fun and dining. Outside the hotel, you can take outdoor rides such as our JP famous ‘Giant Drop’, slow caterpillar train that take you to see the surrounding area, and so on. I didn’t have a chance to explore more because of time constraint. We only had one night to spend there. If you are thinking to go to Genting, spend at least 2 nights there. You will never regret it. Believe me.

Our aim to go there was gambling. Yes, GAMBLING. They have 2-3 casinos. I don’t know which one is the best but we only tried at our hotel casino. We had read in the internet that you need to be appropriately dressed. F*ck it. They don’t even care what you ware. Even they bring handphone inside the casino despite of having posters on the wall not to bring electronic media. Sigh (-_-“). I think we were the only people who dressed smart that night.

I spent 4 hours and RM90 on that slot machine. Geez! WTH. I was addicted to it. There were many people sitting side by side and they won at least few hundreds. Me? I only managed to recover RM50. Fuhh.. I spent it on KFC after that. Hahahaha.

The next morning, I woke up at 8:30am. I walked to the window and saw nothing! NOTHING! As in.. WHERE IS THIS PLACE? WHY IS IT ALL WHITE? YOU ONLY SEE CLOUDS! Oh man… It feels really good as if you are close to heaven. You can even feel the cloud on your hand. Just wave outside the window. Awesome!

We had another half day to spend there and I took this chance to tour the place by myself. I didn’t know where the hell I was going; I let my foot do the walking. I entered to visitor’s gallery where you can see/read history of Genting. There were a lot of pictures too. I am amaze how Genting is transformed into a world class resort. If you want to know about the history click this link http://www.genting.com/history/index.htm or if you want to see how Genting looks like, click this link http://www.rwgenting.com/

We left Genting at 3:40pm to Titiwangsa. We reached our hotel at Bukit Bintang almost 6pm and fainted. Hahaha. We still stayed at our previous hotel, Coronade Hotel. I think it is best to stay in Bukit Bintang coz most of big malls are there. Pavilion, Berjaya Times Square, Lot10, Sungei Wang and etc. The famous nasi ayam is there too! VERY DELICIOUS! It is near to oldchangkee area. Forgot the name of the restaurant. All I know… I spent most of my money on food! Haha.

We met acai and sitah on our fifth day at Pavilion. Really glad to see some friends also on vacation there but they had other things to do. You know… women! THEY ONLY GO FOR SHOPPING!! HAHAHA. We didn’t have so much time to enjoy together. The only thing that I remember about Acai is…. She got lost finding her way to Hard Rock Café. HAHAHAHA. That woman is not just an ordinary type of woman. SHE CAN GO ALONE IN KL WITHOUT WORRYING WHATEVER HAPPENS IN HER WAY. YOU ARE AWESOME. Eseh! We ended our journey that night with FISH SPA! DO YOU KNOW HOW GREAT IT IS? THE FEELING IS SO UNREAL! I want to try it again! Oh oh.. Massage centre is everywhere at bukit bintang. Lol.

Most of our time spent around Bukit Bintang area. They have all kind of shops. Amazingly, I didn’t buy many things. I only changed BND250 cash. That was it. Enough to survive for eating/shopping for all 6 days. All in all, I only spent more or less than BND900 (return ticket, 2hotels, shopping, eating, transport and entertainment). I believe you can spend less than 500/600 if you are going in group.

It was an awesome trip! I enjoyed using monorail to go from one place to another. It’s a whole new experience again and again.

KL, YOU ROCK!!