What
I haven’t invaded? My blow-by-blow account of the invasion with the Difficults!
Malaysia, here we go!
Our
Malaysian tour was a product of excel and research, in short D.I.Y. Maybe
that’s one focal ingredient that made it 1forgetable.
The
game plan was to start the tour in Legoland, Johor Bahru (but this is for
another roll) and enjoy the succeeding in Kuala
Lumpur. After our LEGOxiting and LEGOtastic day in Johor
Bahru, we braced ourselves for a truly Asian treat!
We
started our day with a hefty breakfast in Areena Diner. Our plateful (of thick
and stuffy pancakes, tasty patty and eggs) was all we need for a 272
step-climb in Batu
Caves.
One Malaysian energizer
at Areena Diner.
Instead
of going by train to Batu
Caves, we commissioned a
taxi in KL Sentral which costs RM 110 (Malaysian Ringgit). From the city, Batu Caves
is just 30 minutes away.
The
steps seemed unassuming; we were enthralled by the golden Hindu (or maybe our
tummies were yet full) that we thought it’s going to be an average walk in the
park. But of course, 272 is 272. Along the way, monkeys play, eat or pester guests
that nonetheless, added to the thrill. I kept on looking at how far we've gone;
how in the middle of the city, there’s something as breathtaking as Batu Caves.
When we reached the summit, our friend Grace bought flavored water and to her
surprise she saw a snake meddling with business affairs, nice.
Upstairs was a vast temple, we walked through it and found (to our
surprise and dismay) another staircase with more statues. What’s remarkable about
it was the open-air ceiling, like this inside the cave:
As I don’t know how to
describe this nature’s feast.
It was easier going down, of course and only then did we appreciate
the birds owning the ground.
Our memento in Batu Caves
We didn’t have a hard time going
to our next stop, Genting Highlands, because our taxi was waiting for us. The
ride going to the Highlands was thrilling. We were literally scraping the
mountain. From Batu
Caves, it’s about an
hour's ride.
We were dropped of at
Highlands Station. From there, we took a cable car to the peak (2-way, RM 12). Forgive
me for repeating but the cable car ride was so thrilling! Naïve to it, we screamed
our up up and away. We had 15-minutes of 360 bird’s eye-view feast of Genting tropical
forest.
Although at the top, we were
kind of at the loss where to go but we did wandered in Resorts World (too bad
most of us donned shorts, we weren't allowed to look inside the casino) and Genting Theme Park.
We quite spent a considerable amount in Legoland that, it
might have broken the heart of my friends, but they have to let pass this ride:
According to Cha: the ride that
got away
As consolation (not me,
never mind the ride), we bought ourselves sweets from Baskin Robbins because it's not yet in Manila. Yum yum!
I screeeeeeeeeam!
We didn't stay long in Genting Highlands because we already booked a 1:30pm trip
back to the city. (Next time, I’ll make sure to see the Chinese temple and strawberry
farm).
WHOAH!
We only had drinks and sweets
in Genting that famished, we went back to the city. We had our super late lunch
in a Chinese Restaurant (I forgot to mentally take note of the name of the resto
and foods) near Petaling Street.
We rate the yummy foods three thumbs up!
The best noodles ever! It’s served as a
pancit but it’s the tastiest. It was stir-fried to perfection I hope I get to
eat this again soon. So yummy I'll never forget how so taken I was!
This is Squid with salted egg. The
ingredients sound ordinary but what a calamari this is! This made us conclude
that dishes in this part of the globe are fusing with flavor.
What is Malaysia without a curry? This is
just way hot for my taste buds, but definitely for the spicy goers, this is a
good dish.
Our tummies were once again
full. Since it’s still early to rest, we tried a tour-around the city via a
hop-on hop-off concept. We started our course in Petaling Street since we were already
there:
Our KL Hop-on-Hop Off map
This bus takes anyone to 23 major
tourist spots in the city. That we started late, some parks were already closed by 6pm (but the ticket is good for 24 hours & can be used again the next day).
We found this bigger than
life I <3 KL in Kuala Lumpur City Gallery when we went down for Merdeka Square and
so this cute back-drop where we posed:
Mik & I in Kuala Lumpur City Gallery
The tour ended in the famous
Petronas Twin Towers.
And at night, it's truly a sight to behold.
My favorite shot of the twin towers
At the back of Petronas was Suria KLCC. We had our dinner in the peri-famous for peri-hot meals, Nando’s.
Choose your own adventure in Nando’s
Since not all of us are hot
& spicy fans, we opted for the safe level: Lemon & Herb. We enjoyed the
meal, but we were bashed for being cowards. :D
Notes from our meal: Not so brave!
But we braved our adventures
and misadventures in Malaysia.
Especially our Amazing Race going back to the Philippines. In hindsight, we laugh
about it now and we banked it already on experience but for those giddy-travelers
like us, a piece of advice: tickets are in military time. 1:25 H is not after
lunch, but before dawn or else the plane will take off without you :P
