DAY 9: VIENTIANE / KUALA LUMPUR

Another day, another flight. We left the hostel at around 6:30 AM because our car was super punctual. We left without even eating anything so we were super hungry during the entire flight. We waited a long time at Wattay Airport that I wish we took advantage of the free breakfast at Avalon B&B. Everything was smooth-sailing at the airport and I was asleep the entire flight. I think we arrived in KLIA2 around noon. First order of business was currency exchange, then lunch.

We ate at NZ Curry House, since it’s located at the transportation hub where we’ll take the bus going to Kuala Lumpur. Ok, again, I think the restaurants we’ve been going to all have big servings! I ordered this spicy fried rice with fried chicken and egg and I didn’t get to finish it. I think the guy who made it put two cups of rice. I’m serious. I really enjoyed my cold Milo, too. ^^

After lunch, we went to the ticket counter to buy our bus tickets. We bought tickets going to Pudu Central, which is RM11 each. It’s a lot cheaper than KLIA Express, which takes you to KL Central, which is priced at RM55. That’s super expensive! Sure, it’s a lot faster but I wouldn’t shell out that huge amount when there’s an alternative that’s 80% much cheaper. The bus leaves every 30 minutes so we only had to wait a few minutes before our bus arrived. I had time to buy some snacks at the supermarket. The bus arrived on time – just like the shuttle going to MOP. There are seat numbers on the ticket but it’s actually free seating. We were seated behind this nice old Singaporean couple. ^^ The bus ride took about an hour and a half and since I had a pretty good sleep in the plane, I was awake during the entire bus ride going to KL. There are definitely a lot of trees in the areas going to Kuala Lumpur, LOL. And then I got really excited when I started seeing glimpses of KL Tower and Petronas Tower. <3

We got off at Pudu Central, which is nearer our hostel in Bukit Bintang than KL Central. Ok, I totally got the wrong hotel. The one we stayed in is farther from Pudu Central, but nearer KL Tower and Petronas Tower. I had no idea that the hotel I booked is like in the red light district area of Bukit Bintang. I felt like I was walking along Burgos in Makati. LOL. We stayed in Hotel Sixty Changkat – ok, not the best choice – it totally looks better and cleaner on pictures. There were two double beds (since there were 4 of us), the bathroom definitely needs cleaning, the toilet flush doesn’t work that well, they have no adapter that we can borrow – this is partly our fault though since we didn’t bring a universal adapter. (We were able to borrow one though from our hotel in Sepang.) We were actually a little bit scared that we made sure to lock the bathroom window and placed the table to bar the door. I mean, it’s better to be safe than sorry! The taxi driver warned us that it’s a dangerous area and actually, the guy I met at the hotel the next morning confirmed the same. He said that there was a fight in the area the night we were there so it’s a good thing we didn’t go out to party. It’s a good thing that #TitasofKL hit us after dinner and decided to go back to the hotel and get some rest. My friends were kind of freaked out by the Iraqi owner but I got to hang out with him and his Algerian-Spanish friend and I was fine with them. I actually thought he was hilarious. The perk of waking up early is you get to meet other friends at the hotel and you get to talk to them over breakfast. I even got to do shisha and drank tea with them. It was pretty chill.

Anyway, back to our first afternoon in KL, it started raining after we checked in. I was so bummed because it was already late in the afternoon and if it keeps raining, we won’t be able to go anywhere. Good thing it stopped after 30 minutes or I would have cut a bitch. So we finally set out on our city tour! Our taxi driver advised us that KL Tower is near our hotel so we decided to walk going there, I was holding the map and we just figured out our route along the way. It’s super exciting cause you can see the KL Tower as you get nearer. So when you get to the gate of KL Tower, there’s a free shuttle that’ll take you to the tower itself. If you’d like to go up, there’s a lot of packages to choose from. But we really just wanted to take photos so we went around once and then out to take more photos. Upside Down House KL is also located there. Once we’re satisfied with our photos, we waited for the shuttle that took us back to the gate.

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We decided to walk to the Petronas Towers as well cause as per our map, it’s not too far and taking the MTR would just complicate things. We got lost a bit though, roads in Kuala Lumpur are super complicated. Also, there was a point where we could already see one tower but we didn’t know where the other is. Turns out, we had to go around. It’s super surreal though. It’s super bright and majestic. I definitely took a lot of photos and it’s my second favorite now. My favoritest would still and always be Mayon Volcano in Bicol. Hahaha. We also did Mannequin Challenge in front of the Petronas Towers.

Ok, I definitely have a lot of photos of the / at the Petronas. Here’s a few:

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After spending some time at the Petronas, we decided to go back to the hotel cause I think it was already 9PM then. We took the train going back to Bukit Bintang and I think it’s just as tiring as walking. Their trains aren’t really connected when you transfer from one rail to another unlike Singapore or Hong Kong. You’d have to walk a long distance before you can transfer. On the way, we encountered these two friends who asked us for directions, and we asked them as well. See, we weren’t the only ones confused! So that was the only time we used the train in KL. I like the design of the second train we took though – the one going to Bukit Bintang. Anyway, so we got off at the Bukit Bintang station and walked to Jalan Alor, which is the food street!

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There’s a long line of restaurants in there! We couldn’t choose which one, but being tired from walking and hungry, too, we didn’t really think much on where we wanted to eat. We basically just settled for the nearest and most convincing one. LOL. Which was a mistake, I’d say, since I wasn’t really satisfied with what we ate. Also, I wish I was able to try coconut ice cream. I couldn’t though cause my cough was bad that night. I really liked though that there are street bands playing for the people and there was even a couple who just randomly danced to a song. It was so spontaneous and super cute.

We walked back to our hotel and tucked ourselves in for the night. My phone is super lowbat though cause we don’t have an adapter. My cough was super bad that night so I kept waking up. I was still able to wake up super early though.

DAY 10: KUALA LUMPUR

I was the first one to wake up so after washing my face, I went to the reception to borrow an adapter and get some water for my cup noodles. (I had bad sore throat and wanted to eat some hot noodles.) There was no one in there when I first went down and I sort of poked around but didn’t find any hot water. The second time I went down, there was a guy at the reception so I was able to get some hot water for my noodles and have my phone charged.

I ate my noodles at the reception and talked to the guy at the reception while waiting for my friends to wake up. We went out at around 9:00 AM to have breakfast. We checked out and left our bags with the hotel owner. We first went to exchange some more RM before anything else. I didn’t since I still had enough left from the previous day. It was a good decision though because the exchange rate was better at the money exchange place we went to in Sungei Wang Plaza in Bukit Bintang – which easily became our new favorite mall in KL. LOL. It reminded me of Centrepoint in Kota Kinabalu. Hahaha. We had breakfast at KopiClub and I ordered my favorite breakfast – coffee, soft boiled eggs and kaya toast. My favorite part of all time is boiling my own egg. LOL. We found out that there’s a Giant supermarket in Sungei Wang Plaza so we checked out the prices of chocolates and other snacks that we can bring home. We decided we’d go back there once we’re done with our city tour.

After breakfast, we started our city tour, our first stop is Merdeka Square where pretty much everything is. We took a cab from Sungei Wang Plaza to Merdeka Square for RM20. We thought it was fine since there’s 4 of us and it would be too hot to take the MRT going there and I know that we have to transfer trains since there’s no direct route going there. Merdeka Square is right in the middle of Sultan Abdul Samad Building and Royal Selangor Club. If you walk some more, you’ll reach the Kuala Lumpur City Gallery and National Textile Museum. Behind Sultan Abdul Samad Building is Jamek Mosque, which is a little small. We only saw it while on the way to Chinatown. So if you go there, you’ll see 5 landmarks in KL right away. It was just super hot when we were there – it was noon! So we didn’t really get to explore the area and just took some photos. Ok, the buildings around it definitely suck. They were photobombers. 🙁

We then walked to Central Market (Pasar Seni) to buy some souvenirs. In all fairness, the souvenirs were quite cheap if you just look hard enough. It makes sense that the goods are cheaper outside. I was able to buy a 10RM tote bag though from one of the stalls inside. I think that was the only thing I bought there. Hahaha.

We then headed to Chinatown. On the way, we passed by Sri Maha Mariamman Temple, which is a temple right in the middle of a street in Chinatown. The entrance looks really beautiful. We just took photos from outside and I was able to see a colorful graffiti where I had my photo taken. I wish we stayed in Chinatown instead! I’m sure the hostels there are much better than the one we chose. There are also really cute cafes around. The thing is, I think we spent all our research time in Laos that we totally crammed when it came to Kuala Lumpur. Heck, I only planned our route when we were already in Vang Vieng! That’s a note the next time we find ourselves in KL. I will definitely go back and visit Batu Caves next time. 🙂

After another turn, we’re finally on Petaling Street for another round of shopping! It’s our last stop! I didn’t buy anything from here – Det did. She definitely bought a lot! Hahaha. I think the deals here are pretty much the same as what’s being sold at the Central Market. It really is like our very own Tutuban or Divisoria. I really liked the red lanterns, which decorated the roof of the street. The variety of people we encountered is also pretty interesting. Once we’re done shopping, we flagged a taxi going back to Sungei Wang Plaza for some grocery shopping at Giant. I went to buy some chocolates and snacks. My priority though is the tiramisu coated almond chocolates, like the ones I bought in Singapore last year. I was able to find it, only with a different brand. And of course, I bought Malaysian coffee – it’s a must!

After having fun at the grocery, we had tea time (definitely a lot of team time during this trip!) at Pak Hailam Kopitiam. I wasn’t really hungry so I just ordered green bean soup, it’s like our very own monggo (which is my super favorite!), only it’s sweet. It was super appropriate cause it seemed like it was going to rain so it was perfect to warm me up. During our tea time, my friends also sung the Happy Birthday song to me, in a very hushed tone – come on, it’s super embarrassing if it were any louder. LOL. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that huh? Our last day of trip was November 13th – my 31st birthday. My friends bought a cake for me at a bakery in Chinatown, which I ended up eating at the airport before checking in. Hahaha!

After our tea time, we went back to our hotel to get our stuff. We decided to book a GrabCar to take us to KLIA2. It’s the most convenient way to go and even on a RM65 flat fare plus tolls, it’s not too bad. We were super lucky because the driver who got assigned to us knew how to speak English and even helped us with our luggage. We also didn’t have to wait long cause he was just in Jalan Alor when he accepted my request. I realized that it always rains in the afternoon in KL but only for like 30 minutes or less. It rained so hard when we were on the way to the airport. It was already done though when we got there. We arrived pretty early, I think at around 6:00 PM and our flight is not until 9:00 PM. Well, it’s better super early than cramming and getting all agitated about not being able to catch the flight.

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It’s good to be early because we had to re-pack our bags and I had time to eat my cake. Hahaha. The lines were super long – both at check in and immigration. Good thing I had a lot of stories to tell. LOL. I think there was something on the tea I drank that morning. LOL again. Also, the boarding area was super far. The boarding area when we went to Vientiane was so much nearer. Anyway, we bought some sandwiches for dinner at Dunkin Donuts – that was the only place to buy food from. I wasn’t able to eat my turkey sandwich – it was a little to salty for me. I enjoyed my fruit cup though. 🙂

The flight back was hell though. I sat in front a really noisy kid and behind a woman who kept moving her seat – I got hit on the head several times. I definitely didn’t get any shuteye and I was pissed the whole time. It was a terrible flight. The baggage also took a really long time to come. But even if that’s the case, I really enjoyed the whole trip.

All in all, I love how this whole trip was super relaxed. We were all well-rested, despite being sick most of the time. We pretty much just saw the same people all over Laos. I might have missed out on the night life, but it was then when I realized that maybe it’s just not for me anymore. Sure, I like doing that once in a while but I’d rather choose to sleep than go out and drink. Like no one can convince me to go out and drink if I feel sleepy. #LolasofLaosand KL

I will definitely go back to KL though. There’s still so much to see – I will probably go on the tour bus next time. Here’s my loot from this trip – not much since I’m not so big on buying souvenirs, I prefer buying snacks. :0

Credits to my friends Mine and Celine for some of the photos! <3