My family spent close to a week just in KL, Malaysia. I am amazed that we could stayed there for such "long".
We left home in the early morning. I saw lightning flashes to my far west and when we were about to board the coach, light rain started. We took not much notice on the wet weather but only later then we found that the worst flood has occured at Orchard Road during that morning.
We took one of the luxury coaches, Aeroline, for our trip. I will blog on Aeroline separately. After checking in Radius International Hotel which is conveniently located close to Bukit Bintang, we changed to our swim suits to enjoy a dip.
A trip to Chinatown (Petaling Street) is almost a must for us. We enjoyed squeezing in the crowd with both locals and tourists at the alleys filled with goodies. There were plenty of food stalls offering delicious local food along the streets. We had a bak gu teh dinner.
We have heard so much about Putrajaya and Cyberjaya. People said the existence of these places was the brainchild of an ex-Malaysia PM. J decided to go to Putrajaya. From Bukit Bintang subway station, we took a train to KL Central Station which is the main railway station. This is also the place where Express Train from KLIA (KL International Airport) called KLIA Express or KLIA Transit starts and ends. Putrajaya and Cyberjaya is located somewhere along the journey from KL Central to KLIA. The fare on this posh train does not come cheap. A return fare costs RM19. In about half an hour, we reached Putrajaya station. We took a bus (almost all the buses) to Precinst 1. Putrajaya seems to be divided into 20 Precincts and this station where we have just alighted is located at the edge of Putrajaya. The journey was quite long to Precinct 1. The fare is ONLY RM0.50 - really value for money and unbelievable! Along the journey, we had a closer look at some of the government buildings. Passengers in the bus were few, probably because many drive or already working in the office.
The main attraction to Putrajaya includes a visit to one of big mosques called Putrajaya Mosque, located within walking distance to the Prime Minister's Office. Although I was dressed in a short-sleeved shirt and long pants and J in bermudas, we were asked to put on the pink coats before entering this sacred place. It is an experience to enter a mosque to experience its serenity.
We took a 45 min cruise on the big man-made lake right in the heart of Putrajaya. This cruise is pretty expensive and costs RM50. We bite the bullet and spent RM135 for 2 adults and a child. When cruising in this big lake, we saw magnificient designs of various important buildings such as Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Accounting Department, Labour Department etc and bridges! There was a live commentary on the various buildings around the lake in both English and Malay. If only a cup of hot drink was included, then I would say this cruise is perfect.
Plenty of shopping to be done at many shopping centres along Bukit Bintang. The popular ones include Lot 10, Sungei Wang, BB Plaza, Berjaya Times Square etc. During this trip, we "discovered" a new posh shopping mall called The Pavillion, located diagonally opposite to Lot 10. There are about 6 storeys in this mall. On the 6th floor, there is a real spacious Times Bookstore - a perfect space to spend hours and hours, either reading, browsing the books or surf internet via its wi-fi.
In each shopping mall, there is at least a food court besides numerous restaurants. The stalls in the food court in Lot 10 charges an additional 5% for government tax on top of the listed prices for food. Just outside this food court, there is Isetan Supermarket. The japanese bento was going on offer and we bought a big bento for only RM 7.50, considered cheap in our context.
From Bukit Bintang, we took rapid kl bus 103 to Suria KLCC. We found Petrosains at the top floor but maybe it was due to weekend, it was simply too crowded. The admission ticket is RM 12 for an adult, RM 7 for a kid. A family package for 2 adults and 2 kids costs RM 24. Obviously we would go for this package but definitely this is reserved for our next trip.
We were walking aimlessly in KLCC; we wanted to go to the 2 storey Kinokuniya but we knew we would walk out hours later, missing shopping at other shops. Then I saw a familiar face! My heart almost missed a beat; is she Patricia? I counted the number of children around her; not really right but then I saw her hubby - short spiky white hair. I am quite convinced that she is Patricia, even if I made a mistake, I will just apologised and walked away quickly. I summoned some courage and asked " hello, are you Patricia X?" She turned around and admitted. I quickly introduced myself! I was really happy to meet her as I always enjoy reading her blogs. And this is really a coincidence to meet at the same place at the same time. I told her we would be returning home soon. Her family would be going to other parts of Malaysia before heading home.
The variety of food available in food courts located one floor below and same floor as Petrosains was enough to make us continuing more and more food into our tummy. The hotplate chicken with yee mee costs RM 6.50, a decent plate of roast chicken rice costs RM 5.50 etc definitely cheaper than the food court in Lot 10 or even Jalan Alor.
Talking about Jalan Alor, it is just a street with food stalls on both sides, Business is especially good during the night. Men will be showing you their menu to hope that you will stop at their stall. J enjoyed its char kuay tiao at RM 5. He bought it for 2 consecutive nights as supper. Each stick of satay (chicken, mutton or beef) costs RM 0.60. We forgot to try the roti canai at RM 1.00 which is similar to our roti prata. This is Isa's favourite but she has been feasting on other food that she did not mind missing roti canai at all.
Stalls along Jalan Alor usually do not list their prices for food which made me very uncomfortable and I prefer to eat elsewhere.
Our hotel offers a buffet for seafood steamboat at RM 19.90 for an adult and RM 15 for a child. For such prices, we feasted on crabs, prawns, squids, slices of fish, clams, cockles, different types of meat-balls, fried rice, fried noodles, just to name a few. During that night, the little restaurant has no customers other than us! We were just too happy to have the restaurant to ourselves. Everything is self-service; the food is on the tables and we simply take whatever we like or want and place it in the steamboat which has 2 slots for different types of soup. The waitress appeared once a while to clear our plates. To end our feast, we topped up with a few cups of chocolate ice cream. We spent slightly more than 2 hours in this restaurant. When we left, we were simply holding our tummy because we were just too full.
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