The Days of a Silly and Ordinary Girl! :D: June 2015

The Bustling KL :)

By Lasmarya Hadi Purwanto - June 29, 2015

The third day of our trip was spent in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia.

We rode a bus from Melaka Sentral to KL, another 2 hours ride and arrived at noon.

To be honest, it felt like a total opposite of Melaka, every corner of the city was soo crowded. It's like people everywhere, and people are rushing here and there, the traffic jam, a lot of queuing, and so on. It's not that I'm complaining, haha, it just felt very different, maybe because of the big contrast between the two cities :D

When we arrived at the TBS (Terminal Berspadu Selatan), the new bus station in KL, we rode MRT to Bukit Bintang and walked to our hotel. We stayed in Le Apple Boutique Hotel in Bukit Bintang, left our luggage, and went out to look for some lunch in 十号胡同 inside of Lot 10.

Though it's my third time in KL, but I had never visited most of its major tourist attractions. The first time and second time I was there, we mostly went to shopping malls in Bukit Bintang, sooo this time we had some sightseeing around the city :)

When you want to travel around the city in an affordable way, (without the taxi fare or several bus fares), KL Hop On Hop Off is a great choice. With only RM 45, the double decker bus will ensure that you experience all Kuala Lumpur has to offer. (this sentence was taken from their brochure, actually XD) And the ticket lasts for 24 hours, which means if you couldn't finish all the tour on the same day, you still have next day to go. This is also a very good choice of transportation for those low in budget, as they also make a stop at KL Sentral, where you can ride a bus to KLIA. Very profitable, right?

The bus will make a stop in 23 different spots, where we can hop off and on whenever and wherever desired with 30 minutes interval between each tour bus. So if we missed the first bus after we hopped off, then we could wait for another 30 minutes for another bus to come. All you need to do is to wait at the designated bus stop, and you're set to go. :) The bus has skyview and open deck on the upper part, and the whole tour is equipped with live audio commentary about every major attractions that we pass and stop by.

KL Hop On Hop Off's buses is so recognizable, because they're painted in bright colour. And the tickets can be purchased on the bus, travel agents, major hotels, or from any official agent displaying their logo. Ours were purchased at Bus Stop number 6, at Bukit Bintang. :D

Funny thing is, whenever we stopped, there were a lot of people coming near and took the pictures of the bus. I guess it itself has started to become another major attractions of KL. :)

We didn't make much stops, because the tour ended at 6 p.m and we started at almost 3, so we only took some pictures of the attractions from the bus.

(Dataran Merdeka)

(Istana Negara from the gate. Entry is prohibited, so this is all we got)

(The Almighty Petronas Twin Tower)

(The weather was super hot that day, but what's the point if we don't ride the open deck when the bus have it for you? Soo, here we are, getting tanned on top of a double dekker bus wkwk. Btw, that's not us. Haha, Those are another tourists sitting in front of us. Well, honestly, the weather was quite cloudy when we arrived at Istana Negara, that's why we could joyfully sit on the open deck, but after a while, the sun came back and we moved back in, there's air con inside you know wkwkw. I tried the open deck anyway, and if the weather was not hot, it would be fun sitting there for the whole trip :))

Dinner at Jalan Alor, Bukit Bintang. Found a really nice spot to have dinner with the view of illuminating KL Tower and Petronas Twin Tower in one frame. :) Spot recommended by my brother.

(Found this shop in Tokyo Street, Pavilion. They're selling baguettes with various flavors, and the baguettes are sooo crunchy and yummy :d )

Rusco

The next morning in KL at around 8 when activities hadn't started yet, (maybe because it's Sunday that they started late), and the road wasn't crowded. Another side of KL that I kinda like. Haha

Overall, the trip was quite fun! Well, although it's not as crazy as going out with friends, but my brother arranged everything so neatly for us, that we could travel so care-freely, so yeah it's really not bad haha. I don't know about you, haha but Melaka left more impression to me, than KL did. Would be happy to return to Melaka if I had the chance in the future. ;)

Thank you for reading,

whoever you are :D

xoxo

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Malaysia

Don't Mess with Melaka. (part 2)

By Lasmarya Hadi Purwanto - June 27, 2015

Soo, I'm back with the story of our second-day trip in Melaka. :)

We woke up at 5 something early in the morning because we heard some noise from outside. There's a drunken man in the room next door who groaned and made some sort of heavy breathing sound. It didn't really bother us, because we had planned to come out early so that we could register earlier at the hospital counter (so that we didn't have to wait too long, and could leave earlier for some tour around the city). But when we're all ready, at around 6 a.m, the sky was still so dark out there, that we decided to go out a bit later. At 7, with no more groaning and brighter sky, we set off to the hospital.

I thought that even 7 a.m was still too early for any activities, but I was totally wrong. The hospital's waiting room was soooooooooo crowded. People had taken their number and were waiting for their turn already. Waaaaaw.

Finished with the registration, all we had to do was wait. While we're waiting for 9 a.m to come, (the clinic starts operating at 9 am but we can register before that), with empty stomach, we headed off to the cafeteria. My brother had been saying a lot of good things about the cafeteria since he first came to Melaka. He told us that the food there was delicious, cheap and full of choices. There were bread, pies, cakes, meals, drinks, salads, fruits, waffles, and so on. And the best among all is the 'Nasi Lemak'. And it is indeed, satisfying. :d

(The nasi lemak was so tempting that I forgot to take pictures of it before I ate it. :p)

We spent our whole morning in the hospital. The waiting list was so long and we finally had our turns before noon. Had our breakfast and lunch at the hospital's cafeteria.

With a cleared mind and more relieved heart, because the test results showed that's everything OK, we headed out with lighter steps. Now, it's time for the real travel!! :D

1. Menara Taming Sari, a rotating tower showing you the view of the whole Melaka from the top. It lasts for 7 minutes. It cost us RM 20 per adult. We're given a bottle of mineral water and a pack of "genderam", a local snack, a sweet curly brown cake as complimentary.

(A bit of teaser of what's you're going to see on top)

(p.s:I'm not moving the camera around, it's the tower that's rotating)

(p.s.s: due to my fear of height, I dare not stand up and I just sat very tight. The video was recorded from my seat. Next time, if I had a chance to ride it again, I'll make sure standing up and enjoy the view from a better position.)

2. Melaka Duck Tours. This is an amphibian ride, which means the vehicle can ride on the land and also on the sea. It'll show you around the city, the story of each sight, and also bring you to Straits of Malacca. The ticket cost RM 45 each person.

(Do you see the island at the far end of the strait? It is called as "Pulau Besar", which is said to resemble a sleeping pregnant woman. As you can see, the head is facing right, and it has a bulgy stomach like an expecting woman.)

(Malaysia's traditional "rumah panjang", which is a long house for up to 8 families or even more. So lucky to have seen one in Malacca.)

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Masjid Selat Malaka
(The floating mosque, claimed to have a beautiful night view.)

credit to: wooferstorm.com

3. Kompleks Muzium Maritim (Maritime Museums Complex). This museum is in the shape of an old Portuguese ship that's been revived and transformed into a beautiful museum. The museum covers mostly about the maritime history of Malacca. Once you get down from the ship, you would see another museum building on the other side. Admission fee for adult foreigner is RM 6.

(The lighting was too dark inside, so I didn't take much good pictures. The museum is equipped with audio tour, that you can get with RM 3 in three languages, English, Mandarin and Malay.)

4. Christ Church and Queen Victoria Fountain

5. Jonker Street

The street shopping centre in Melaka. Opens only from Friday to Sunday. You can find various foods, clothes, fancy stuffs, souvenirs and a lot of things here. It's like China Town. Super crowded. The buildings around the area still bears its cultural and artistic design that gives another plus point to it.

All of these places can be reached by walking from Menara Taming Sari area, which is close to our guesthouse too.

This is what I really like about Melaka, where most of the main attractions are within reach just steps away. No confusing MRT route, no much traffic. :) And their nyonya cuisine too of course. :D

Oh, and btw, they have very cute pedicabs in Melaka. It shines with luminuous lights, decorated with dolls and plays loud music. So unique and attractive!

I didn't get a chance to take their pictures, so I copied one from Google. Forgive mee :(

Malacca is a place worth staying and visiting. Maybe not for too long if you like more adventurous trips or places other than museums to see, but if you like the no-rush and calm atmosphere here, why not? :)