We woke up early this morning as P wanted to take his jump shot at the Petronas Towers, and we have to do it before our private tour start at 2.30pm. We'd even wanted to squeeze in a spa session but we could not find a good and cheap spa in KL city, therefore we gave up on the idea. Anyway, we were out of the hotel by 10.20am and we headed towards the Pavilion to make use of the KLCC- Bukit Bintang walkway.
 |
| View of the walkway from the Pavilion |
I've read up about the walkway before the trip, so I knew it started from the dining area of the Pavilion. In fact, we just had to walk straight and did not even need to go to a different floor to start our walk.
 |
| The start of the walkway from the Pavilion |
This walkway was just launched in 2012, I've seen the chaotic streets and traffic in the city and I think it's really a godsend for tourists and locals alike. It should be hard to navigate through all the buildings and cross so many traffic lights just to get to KLCC from Bukit Bintang. Along the way, I saw a few hotels that I had considered booking, Impiana and Traders hotel etc, but I'm still glad that we chose Park Royal for the good location, it also look more grand and newer than the other hotels.
 |
| Clear signs on the way to direct us |
As usual, P was walking really fast and we already reached the Aquaria within 10 min, there was clear signage around the place so it was really easy for us to navigate our way to KLCC. There were already other tourists utilising the walkway with us when we were walking through, I've also noted that the walkway is not opened 24hours, it is only in use from 6am to 11pm daily. Good enough for most tourists.
 |
| Greeted by the Petronas Towers |
We emerged at the KLCC park and were excited to catch a glimpse of the Petronas Towers. As we walked nearer, we could see that there were many other tourists taking pictures around the area. However, P was not satisfied with this view and he felt that we should walk around to the front so that he can take the jumpshot at the front of the buildings.
 |
| He felt that this side of the park is the back of the towers |
When we make a big round to the front, the sun was already out and shining brightly up there, the towers looked majestic but it was really difficult to take a good shot as the buildings were really tall and we were standing just in front. Even if we use a selfie stick to take the shot from the lowest angle, the pictures turned out quite dark as the phone is in the shadows with the bright sun up above us. We even tried to cross to another building opposite the Petronas Towers, but we still could not get a good shot. I was perspiring profusely and it was difficult to cross the roads and navigate through the traffics around the area as the town planning of the roads was really quite terrible there.
 |
| Our couple Jordan royal blues |
 |
| The shopfront |
We decided to reward ourselves with a hearty brunch at Johnny Rockets, a prominent American restaurant at the dining segment of the shopping mall. Even though I dont usually like to indulge, fries and milk shake sounded really good in the hot weather.
 |
| My grilled chicken sandwich with premium chocolate milk shake |
The portion of the food was quite big, so I did not finish some of the bread and the fries. The milkshake was served same style as billy bombers and we get the extra portion in the metal mixer jug. Someone left a comment in foursquare saying that the premium chocolate milkshake tasted like melted ice cream, I regretted not reading the comments before ordering. It was not really that bad but I prefer P's oreo milkshake.
 |
The crew dancing to music
|
 |
| Happy with our meal :) |
It was interesting as the restaurant crew played some catchy music every half an hour and they will dance to the tune. Kudos to their courage!
After the very good meal, we went back to the hotel room to get some rest before our private tour at 2.15pm. I did some research and the Batu caves is one of the listed place to visit around the KL area, but the review is rather mixed. I decided to engage one of the private tours with high ratings on TripAdvisor to bring us to the caves and then to fireflies tour at Selangor. The total cost for the private tour is RM430 and its quite worth the money as the transport was comfortable and renting a cab all the way to Selangor for the fireflies tour actually cost more.
 |
| The big statue outside Batu caves |
 |
| The guide helped with this shot (not sure what those behind us were trying to capture) |
 |
| The long flight of steps just like Lantau Big Buddha |
 |
| Monkeys feeding on scraps of food along the way |
 |
| One of the guys there cleaning up the statue |
 |
| The opening on top of the caves |
The weather at Batu caves was really nice, we took sometime to climb up the long flight of stairs and took a look at the caves before reuniting with the guide. Honestly, it was not worth the time and effort if we had traveled all the way out of KL city for the trip to the caves, therefore I'm really glad that I made it part of the guided tour. We slept on the way to the caves and fell asleep again once we got back to the car, and our guide kept asking us why we were so tired. We traveled for quite sometime on the road and got to Selangor, another state out of KL. We decided to have a early dinner as our next destination was quite crowded.
 |
| Traveled to Selangor for seafood dinner |
 |
| Horseshoe crab that I always tell my students about |
 |
| The fish trap that was common around Sarawak and Malayan kampungs |
 |
| Seafood dinner that was so nice that P asked for second round |
 |
| Seats nearer to the river had a nice view |
The seafood dinner, which is part of the guided tour package, was at this Chinese seafood place along the river. Our table was the nearest to the river and the next few tables along the stretch were also reserved for other tourists like us. The set dinner included fried rice, cereal prawn, sautéed vegetables, chili crab and a fish dish. The crab had a nice chilli paste but it was too spicy and messy so we didnt finish it too. hardly touched the fish dish as it didnt taste too good, but P ordered a second round of the cereal prawn (he liked it as it was oily but crunchy) and the fried rice.
 |
| Went to the peak of the place where there were more monkeys |
 |
| Like a boss |
 |
| Countless monkeys due to the feeding from tourists |
 |
| Monkeys gazing at the sunset |
 |
| Nice view and sunset |
 |
| Our selfie with the sunset backdrop |
We went to this place on Bukit Malawati, where there were tons of tourists... and monkeys. There were monkeys everywhere and tourists brought green bananas and other food to feed them. The view on top of the hill was really great as it was sunset when we were there.
 |
| Arrived at the right timing for the fireflies tour |
 |
| The sampan that we will be taking |
 |
| It's all dark except for the lights from the quay |
It was about 7pm when we reached the place in Selangor for fireflies watching. The timing was great as the queue was not too long when we reached, more and more people joined the queue after that and the guide was telling us it could get really crowded. Other than the jetty itself, the river was pitch dark and quiet. I was really glad they operated on simple sampans and not those motorised boats to preserve the environment. The surrounding was so serene and quiet as the boatman rowed along, he brought us near to clusters of mangrove and we saw many sparkling fireflies when we got close. We tried to take pictures but it was impossible to capture anything except for the darkness, so we gave up and just bask in the surreal environment. The tour itself was really short but enjoyable, we only rowed out on the boat for 30-45min and were back at the jetty once we were done.
As it was only 9pm when we got back to the hotel, P suggested we go to the nearby mall to watch Fast & Furious 7. However, after I got onto the bed and was so tired that I didnt even wake up to shower, I just knocked out totally. I was shocked when I finally woke up at 4am and there were sms from Singtel showing that I was charged for data roaming. The unlimited data roaming I've subscribed for the past 2 days had expired but I've left the data roaming setting on as I thought we would still be going out before midnight, and anyway I was too tired to remember that also. It was shocking as the bill had accumulated to $250 without a few hours!
 |
| Downright daylight robbery! |
I was appalled by the exorbitant fees and was puzzled that my phone had downloaded so much data when I was asleep, even though it was connected to the hotel wifi. Anyway, after I got back to Singapore, I immediately called Singtel to explain my situation, the operator on the other end refused to waive the fees outright and asked me to wait for the bill before appealing. I was so frustrated that I gave them a poor rating of 1 after putting down the phone. That was the effective enough to get the supervisor to call me back and set things right. Since I was connected to their partner network Maxis when the data was loaded, they just helped me to subscribe for another day of unlimited data roaming. Phew! At least that was just $15 spent instead of $250. -_-
 |
| The culprit of my diarrhoea case :( |
Another episode that happened on the last day was that I had a bad case of diarrhoea and took a day of mc after the long weekend. :( We arrived at KL airport and I saw assam laksa on the menu at Old Town White Coffee, I really missed the assam laksa from Penang so I ordered that. It was really a wrong move as the assam laksa tasted horrible, noodles of rubbery texture with just some sardines bits. I started to feel really unwell on the flight home, luckily it was just a short 50min flight and I rushed to the toilet immediately after we reached home. I went to the toilet a few more times,
slept for the rest of the day although we were back by noon, and still felt really weak thus took mc the next day.
No comments:
Post a Comment