Thing to Do
Created by giggles
malaysia and singapore tour with friends
Wed 02/20/08 (day 1)
day1
On the night of Feb. 19th, me and four of my friends embarked on a trip to malaysia and singapore. Our flight was delayed so we arrived in KLIA around 2am. Luckily, the last bus going to KL Sentral was still waiting outside, so my friends and i hurried through immigrations and stuff to catch that bus. However, we didn't have any ringgit with us, and all the money changers were already closed. Luckily, they accept US dollars and they change your money at a fair rate ($1 to RM3 if i'm not mistaken). So off we were to KL Sentral.
The plan was at KL Sentral, we'll ride the train going to Bukit Bintang (where our hostel was). Too bad the trains start operating only at 6am, and it was only around 3 am when we got there. So change of plans, we'll just grab a taxi from there. But first we had a dinner/breakfast at McDonald's since we were all starving. After eating, we looked for taxis to bring us to our hostel. We needed 2 taxis because there were 5 of us and there's no way we would fit in one car with all our luggage. So we negotiated with the taxi drivers (negotiating is VERY important in Malaysia). They were charging us RM20 per taxi, that steep a price apparently due to the midnight surcharge they have. However we negotiated with the drivers for half the price but they only agreed to RM15. Left with no other choice, we rode the taxi in search of our hostel.
My friends and i booked the 8-bed dorm room at Pujangga. The place was in Bukit Bintang. Locating the place however turned out to be very difficult since the signage was so small. We circled the block around 5 times before finally locating the place! Anyway, the hostel was okay. It was clean, cozy, and near most of the places we wanted to visit. Since it was already around 5am, we decided to just take a bath and have some breakfast before heading out early and touring the city.
First we walked along the stretch of Bukit Bintang and Bintang Walk, on our way to the Petronas towers. It was a long walk, especially since we didn't have a map to show us the way. We only had the view of the towers to guide us. A few stops along the way for photo-ops, we finally reached the towers. It was majestic indeed...a sight definitely worth seeing. We had tickets to go up the bridge for 12:45, so we browsed through Suria first and had lunch there. At KFC we had an encounter with the woman taking our orders. She was really RUDE (malaysians are NOT the friendliest people), she was yelling at us and slamming down the food she was serving my friend just because my friend couldn't understand her english. Helloooo, we are paying customers here! We were just really turned-off by her attitude.
Anyway after our lunch, we headed for the petronas bridge tour. It was a clear sunny day so we had a great view of kuala lumpur from up there. After more picture taking, my friends and i decided to go see the Batu caves. From Petronas, we took a taxi to batu caves which cost us RM40. The driver agreed to take all 5 of us so we only had to take 1 taxi, but it was still very expensive. Once there though, the view was so awesome that we stopped complaining about the fare.
Going up the batu caves, you have to take 272 steep steps. Along the way there are lots of monkeys to greet you. It was an exhilarating climb, and the view from the top is well worth the effort. After climbing the batu caves, we were so tired so we rested at one of the eateries there and had ice cream to treat ourselves. Then we were headed back to the city, this time we rode the bus (no.11 if i'm not mistaken) which costs only RM2. We got off Puduraya bus station so we could buy bus tickets going to melaka.
Puduraya bus station was a real experience. Malaysians from our experience are really aggressive...the people there will harass you and pull you towards their ticket counter to sell you tickets you're not interested in. Good thing there were 5 of us...there is safety in numbers =p. After buying our tickets, we decided to go back to our hostel to rest for awhile before heading out again for dinner. However, after all that walking and climbing, the five of us didn't have the energy anymore to go out again that night. Once we hit our beds, we were done in for the day. The short rest turned out to be a 10 hour sleep.
The plan was at KL Sentral, we'll ride the train going to Bukit Bintang (where our hostel was). Too bad the trains start operating only at 6am, and it was only around 3 am when we got there. So change of plans, we'll just grab a taxi from there. But first we had a dinner/breakfast at McDonald's since we were all starving. After eating, we looked for taxis to bring us to our hostel. We needed 2 taxis because there were 5 of us and there's no way we would fit in one car with all our luggage. So we negotiated with the taxi drivers (negotiating is VERY important in Malaysia). They were charging us RM20 per taxi, that steep a price apparently due to the midnight surcharge they have. However we negotiated with the drivers for half the price but they only agreed to RM15. Left with no other choice, we rode the taxi in search of our hostel.
My friends and i booked the 8-bed dorm room at Pujangga. The place was in Bukit Bintang. Locating the place however turned out to be very difficult since the signage was so small. We circled the block around 5 times before finally locating the place! Anyway, the hostel was okay. It was clean, cozy, and near most of the places we wanted to visit. Since it was already around 5am, we decided to just take a bath and have some breakfast before heading out early and touring the city.
First we walked along the stretch of Bukit Bintang and Bintang Walk, on our way to the Petronas towers. It was a long walk, especially since we didn't have a map to show us the way. We only had the view of the towers to guide us. A few stops along the way for photo-ops, we finally reached the towers. It was majestic indeed...a sight definitely worth seeing. We had tickets to go up the bridge for 12:45, so we browsed through Suria first and had lunch there. At KFC we had an encounter with the woman taking our orders. She was really RUDE (malaysians are NOT the friendliest people), she was yelling at us and slamming down the food she was serving my friend just because my friend couldn't understand her english. Helloooo, we are paying customers here! We were just really turned-off by her attitude.
Anyway after our lunch, we headed for the petronas bridge tour. It was a clear sunny day so we had a great view of kuala lumpur from up there. After more picture taking, my friends and i decided to go see the Batu caves. From Petronas, we took a taxi to batu caves which cost us RM40. The driver agreed to take all 5 of us so we only had to take 1 taxi, but it was still very expensive. Once there though, the view was so awesome that we stopped complaining about the fare.
Going up the batu caves, you have to take 272 steep steps. Along the way there are lots of monkeys to greet you. It was an exhilarating climb, and the view from the top is well worth the effort. After climbing the batu caves, we were so tired so we rested at one of the eateries there and had ice cream to treat ourselves. Then we were headed back to the city, this time we rode the bus (no.11 if i'm not mistaken) which costs only RM2. We got off Puduraya bus station so we could buy bus tickets going to melaka.
Puduraya bus station was a real experience. Malaysians from our experience are really aggressive...the people there will harass you and pull you towards their ticket counter to sell you tickets you're not interested in. Good thing there were 5 of us...there is safety in numbers =p. After buying our tickets, we decided to go back to our hostel to rest for awhile before heading out again for dinner. However, after all that walking and climbing, the five of us didn't have the energy anymore to go out again that night. Once we hit our beds, we were done in for the day. The short rest turned out to be a 10 hour sleep.
Planned Activities
Wed 02/20/08 (day 1) - Kuala Lumpur
Thing to Do
Thing to Do
Thing to Do
Thing to Do
Thu 02/21/08 (day 2) - Kuala Lumpur, Singapore
Thing to Do
Thing to Do
Thing to Do
Thing to Do
Shopping
Thing to Do
Thing to Do
Thing to Do
Fri 02/22/08 (day 3) - Singapore
Thing to Do
Thing to Do
Hotel
Shopping
Thing to Do
Thing to Do
Sat 02/23/08 (day 4) - Singapore
Thing to Do
Thing to Do
Thing to Do
Thing to Do
Saeed
Regards.
Saeed
Regards
Saeed