As we couldn’t get any last minute flight reservations, we had booked for a night train from Singapore to KL. We boarded the train in Tiong Bahru railway station(the railway station is still under the control of Malaysia). The train station reminded me of old town side Indian railway station(unlike of Singapore). We had to get down in the immigration checkpoint at Woodlands MRT, Singapore for a stamping in our passports. That was the exit point from Singapore. The funny part is we had got a stamping in our passports for entry into Malaysia in Tiong Bahru station at the time of boarding itself! This is some lousy system that can be changed. At late in the night, we got out of the trains, leaving the luggages in the compartments and stood in a long queue to get our visa stamping for exit from Woodlands MRT, Singapore. But, the whole process was so organized that the entire train passenger’s stamping was completed very fast and people were allowed to board the train again soon. We crossed Singapore border and reached KL next day early morning. It was nice to travel cross-country in a over-night train . It reminded me of my frequent Bangalore-Chennai overnight trips I used to do way back in 2006.
I was advised by my Malaysian colleagues that KL is not friendly to tourists and we need to be very watchful of our bags and the local taxi’s might cheat us. We were advised to take the pre-paid taxi service in KL station and used that to reach the 2bedroom serviced apartment in “Holiday villa apartment suites” in which we had got an internet reservation done. As we were 4 adults traveling (first time with elderly inlaws), we wanted them to get a feel of a homely atomosphere and it also worked cost effective instead of taking 2 separate rooms. This service apartment was based on my own google search( without any prior friends referring this place). It was not that bad(or my expectations were little too high??). But, we got to know later that there is another service apartment called “Crown regency” in KL, which is supposed to be very good in terms of the service(though slightly on the higher side in cost compared to the one we stayed). The good thing about this service apartment is it was surrounded by lots of embassies and was quite safe to walk even in the night, considering KL is not friendly to tourists! This apartment is also quite close to the Petronas towers. Immediately checking-in to the apartment, myself and S walked to get to the petronas towers to get a booking slot for viewing the sky-way bridge of the petronas towers (limited tickets available for each day and cant be booked in a day advance). There was a long queue by the time we reached there. We managed to get tickets for evening 4pm. We found out that the local MRT connectivity is good and it’s the best/faster mode to travel in KL considering the traffic is quite bad (I felt it’s just like Bangalore.). We used the MRT from Ampang station to Masjid Jamek station to reach “Merdeka Square”, which is the place the Malaysians first hoisted their flag after getting independence from British in a 100m flagpole. We then walked to Jalan Masjid(little India) of KL. We could see road side shops in that area just like how we see in Pondy bazaar of Chennai or Serangoon road of Singapore. I had googled and found out that hotel saravana bhavan had lot of branches in KL and they do have free home delivery of food packets as well. We visited their Jalan masjid branch and found it to be mediocre standards as it was a franchisee! I was a little disappointed with the lunch arrangement considering the amount of effort we had put to locate this hotel in Jalan masjid area. We spent some time in the park in the petronas campus and then headed for the skyway bridge not to miss our designated timeslot. 
It’s the world highest 2 storey skyway bridge and was amazing to walk in the skyway bridge (need to appreciate the architect for designing this) connecting the petronas twin towers and click a few snaps there for our memory. Spanning 17 acres (69,000 m2) below the petronas building is the KLCC park with jogging and walking paths, a fountain with incorporated light show, wading pools, and a children's playground. Suria KLCC is one of the largest shopping malls in Malaysia. We then headed back to our service apartment in the evening. We found out a supermarket near to the hotel and bought some curd and other food stuff for the next day breakfast. We made plain rice for dinner with the limited vessels in the service apt kitchen and used the home made powders and pickle along with the curd to have a feeling of home food away from home!
The day-2 of our trip started with 4 of us sharing a single toilet and in a hurry to get ready to start our trip to Genting and Batu caves. It was a little annoying for a two bedroom service apartment to have only one toilet! We took a cab to Genting enroute Batu caves. Batu caves is a limestone hill which has a series of caves and cave temples.It has the world tallest murugan statue in the foothills. We headed next to Genting highlands. It’s a hill station and it took almost 45 min to reach there from Batu caves. Genting highlands has different attractions for all age groups. There are the famous casinos for adults to the theme parks for the kids. We headed to the casino and were properly dressed with formal pants/shoes for gents and presentable attire for ladies for the security guard to let us in. All my excitement to be in a casino and to gamble was lost the moment I entered there. There was a cloud of smoke because of cigarettes(thanks to the chain smokers, who love this place as there is no restriction for them to smoke in the casinos). We did try to gamble in a few card games and did make a few Malaysian ringgets money. As myself and MIL were feeling very stuffy, the gents also decided to push out of the casino in search of some fresh air! We tried to explore if there is anything else to do in the highland and got to know there is a tour to a Chin Swee Caves Temple(mid way to the foothills of genting from the highlands).It was a nice Buddhist temple with a huge Buddha statue and few depictions of Chinese belief of after life punishment for different sins caused by humans. It reminded me of garuda puranam(courtesy: “Anniyan” film). We then headed back to the highland in search of a good veg. lunch. We found an Indian and middle-eastern cusine restaurant(I think the name of this restaurant is Spice Garden). The food was awesome and we got good roti/veg. sabji there. After a sumptuous lunch and roaming around a little in the highlands and getting a good scenic view, we decided to head back to our service apartment. We explored the skylink(cable car) from genting highland to the foothills. It was an unmanned cable car with no vicinity of other cable cars seen because of the mist everywhere. It was very scenic at the same time very scary as well! We headed back to our hotel in a cab and was terribly stuck in the KL traffic. Reached the apartment and we were completely drained out of energy. The final day of our trip was just relaxing and to catch our return day train from KL to Singapore. We had been on the week of F1 grand prix (end of march) in KL. As we had planned only last minute, could not get affordable F1 tickets. We ordered lunch from Hotel saravana bhavan over phone and they promptly delivered the food to our hotel. The food was good and upto the mark of Hotel Saravana bhavan. We headed to the KL station in a cab and reached the station on time. The KL station was quite huge and well maintained. We enjoyed our day train(A/C comfy chair car in Indian terminology)passing through all the local towns of Malaysia and reaching Singapore late evening.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment