Malaysia Is Waiting

Trip Start Nov 22, 2008

Trip End Dec 09, 2008

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Where I stayed

Novotel Hydro Majestic Kuala Lumpur

(Kuala Lumpur hotels)

Flag of Malaysia Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia
Monday, November 24, 2008

As predicted Saturday was an early start that saw us depart home around 5am. After our parents had dropped us off we endured a predictably long queue to check in for our Air Asia X flight to Kuala Lumpur. Once we had completed this process we had little time to spare before boarding commenced. We were allocated the seats that we had chosen online when we had purchased the flights, at the rear of the plane where the fuselage narrows and thus there are only 2 seats on the side. The biggest shocks of the 3-week-old A330-300 aircraft were the narrow seats (9 across vs. the standard 8 across) and the seat back video screens available at all seats.

The onboard service was enjoyable, certainly better than expected. We had to pay to unlock premium content on the seat-back units but some things like the map system were free. Our pre-purchased meals arrived in good enough time and weren't bad. I'm glad we had purchased these in advance (at the time of booking the airfare) because the onboard purchase prices were significantly higher

On the SkyBridge

. The 5.5-hour flight was relatively uneventful and gave me a chance to evaluate the shell seats. I prefer this arrangement because when passengers recline they take up their own personal space instead of that of the person behind them.

Arrival into the Low Cost Carrier Terminal at Kuala Lumpur International Airport brought with it more waiting. It was nice to walk down stairs from the plane onto the tarmac and see it up close but our onward walk brought us to a large crowd trying to enter the terminal building (shed). It turned out that this crowd outside was just the queue to get through immigration control. It took us over an hour to officially enter Malaysia and, surprisingly, our bags were still on the baggage carousel after this time.

Unfortunately there were not ATMs inside the terminal building so we had to exit to have access to any local currency. It then took us a while to figure out that we needed to pre-pay for taxis and thus we began our search for the taxi counters. While the normal part of the airport has access to the KLIA Ekspress train to KL Sentral station in town, the LCCT is on the other side of the airport and does not have access to this service. The only public transport option from the LCCT are buses for 9 ringgit (roughly $4.5) but these only go to KL Sentral and we could not remember on which public transport route our hotel was located

Looking Down

. In these circumstances it was decided that a taxi for 60 ringgit (roughly $30) was the best option as we were tired, sick of waiting, and it would take us directly to the hotel.

The teksi (taxi) took about an hour to get all the way into Kuala Lumpur, which gave me a chance to get some sleep. We are staying at the Novotel Hotel near the Convention Centre, Petronas Twin Towers and the KL Monorail. The hotel had contacted us prior to departure to warn us that the hotel was overbooked and we may need to be accommodated elsewhere. Luckily this did not eventuate and we have been accommodated in a standard room on the 10th floor of this 27-floor hotel.

Although we were tired from the early start and weeks of inadequate sleep due to work, uni and parties, we did head out to explore the local area, get some food and see the city. This began with a walk to the monorail and adjacent Wendy's (American burger chain). This was a new experience for me, one that I must admit that I enjoyed and look forward to doing again sometime. Following lunch we returned to the hotel to check out local tourism promo material and maps. There is a string of shopping centres that run down along the monorail track from our hotel, making it convenient and comfortable to walk through the city. It quickly became apparent that Dome has a large presence here and although it's a slice of home you won't see us dropping in for some substandard food and a coffee.

As we walked the rain began to fall and it didn't let up all evening. The furthest we made it in our travels was the Times Square shopping centre, featuring an IMAX theatre and Cosmo's World amusement park

Enjoying the View

. Sadly the IMAX is currently only showing Madagascar 2 at the moment so we were unable to enjoy South East Asia's biggest screen. From the 6th to 10th floor of this shopping centre is Cosmo's World, featuring an Intamin coaster with a loop, barrel roll and corkscrew. There were also some adult flat rides and a few kiddie areas. Sadly the park is run as a one price for admission and then rides free system so it did not represent adequate value for us to make a visit just for the coaster.

With dinnertime approaching we decided to head back to the hotel. By this time the rain had intensified so it was easy to convince Charles that the monorail was the best way to get back. 2 stops later on this Malaysian-designed variation of ALWEG monorail technology and we found ourselves back in local territory. Dinner was had at ThaiExpress in the adjoining Pavilion shopping centre, which was like a Thai variation of Han's Caf� back home. This was followed by a quick visit to the 7eleven across the road, where we picked up some nice Tuborg, a fantastic beer that we're sadly missing back home. It was then time for a quick internet update and then a long night's sleep.

Sunday morning began relatively early for a holiday at 7:30am so that we could secure tickets for the free Petronas Twin Towers SkyBridge visit. These tickets become available at 8:30am in the morning so we needed to factor in enough time to get ready, walk to the towers, have breakfast and join the queue for tickets. The towers are only about a 10 minute walk away so we were soon at the adjoining shops for a modest breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts.

By the time we got the queue for the SkyBridge tickets it was already running beyond the standard queue area

From KLCC Park

. As what appears to be a frequent occurrence in Malaysia we queued for an extended period, receiving tickets for a 1pm visit. Following our 30 minutes spent in the queue we took the LRT train down to KL Sentral. From here we walked up through the large Lake Gardens. Within this massive park that runs down the side of Kuala Lumpur's CBD is the National Museum, Planetarium, Orchid Garden, the world's largest open flying aviary and other little enclosures. Just at the northern edge is the Parliament and National Monument. It took a few hours to walk along and around through the park so when we returned to Sentral it was back onto the LRT for the trip back to the Petronas Towers and lunch.

Following in the typical Charles and Tom holiday pattern we sampled the overseas menu of another fast food chain, KFC. It took ages for our order to be taken and then even longer for it to arrive. Thankfully we had a bit of time to kill so we could afford to put up with this poor service (at least it was amazingly cheap!).
Before long it was time for our SkyBridge visit, which involved a short and satisfyingly corny video about the government-owned Petronas company before the visit to the bridge linking the twin towers on the 41st level. Those of you who've seen the movie Entrapment with Catherine Zeta Jones will know the Petronas Towers and the SkyBridge linking them together. The view was nice, as was the architecture. This was a great visit to make, especially since it was free.

After the SkyBridge we walked back to the hotel through the adjacent park and the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. A little downtime was had before I convinced Charles that we could fit a visit to the Batu Caves into the afternoon

Batu Caves

. As a result we were once again on the move, this time on the monorail down to Sentral. Here we got our extremely expensive return tickets on the KTM (Government Railways) Komuter train to Sentul Steson (2 ringgit each). Without notice the train we had hoped to catch was cancelled and the following service arrived late without announcement. This service was really odd as it ran extremely slowly, especially after leaving the mainline. The last section was taken at 30 km/h.

Since we had already sat around at KL Sentral for 40 minutes doing nothing we weren't in the mood to piss around at the station in Sentul and so we took up the offer of a KTM employee for a "taxi" trip to the caves. We checked with metered taxis for the official price to the caves - 20 ringgit. Like Saturday, Sunday afternoon brought rain, the most intense of which was around the caves. A little tropical precipitation wasn't going to stop our holiday so we enjoyed this famous Buddhist site, beginning with the steep staircase leading up to the cave entrance. Inside the local Buddhists enjoy indulging in some tourist-pleasing "prayer" at very regular intervals. The caves themselves were impressive, the rain making them seem quite dramatic.

Plenty of photos and video was taken before heading back down to the ground in the constant rain for another taxi ride back to the station. Our luck at securing a decent wait struck again with the train that was due out 5 minutes after we arrived being cancelled, meaning another 20 minutes until the next service. Eventually we made it back to Sentral where we had dinner at... McDonalds, where they have shaker fries!

The monorail promptly returned us to Raja Chulan station, near our hotel. From here we had a short walk through the rain to the hotel, where I typed this blog before getting some shut-eye for the night.