A Day in Kuala Lumpur

We started our first full day in Kuala Lumpur with a mad dash to the Petronas Tower in KLCC. We wanted to be in line for tickets by 7:30 so we can go up the Skybridge before lunch.


picture-picture at the train station

(My mother calls that my 'girl scout' dress. She hates it.)

We got to the ticketing center just before 8am, and there was already a long queue for the free tickets, even if ticket distribution wasn't until 8:30. We got tickets at around 9 am and were scheduled to go up at 11:15am. We hadn't had breakfast yet, so we had a quick meal at KFC in Suria KLCC, the sosy mall adjacent to the towers.


nasi lemak enak at KFC
I had nasi lemak enak with one-piece chicken. Nasi lemak or coconut milk rice is one of Malaysia's most popular dishes and is usually served with anchovies with sambal (chili paste), sliced cucumber, and peanuts (the one in KFC didn't have peanuts).

We still had time to spare after breakfast, so we went around the mall while I ogled the display windows of luxury shops: Chanel, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, Jimmy Choo... oooh la la! My eyes feasted over beautiful items I can't afford. We also checked out Kinokuniya, the Japanese mega-bookstore chain that we first experienced in Singapore, but we didn't buy any books yet.
We went back to the Petronas ticketing center 15 minutes before our scheduled time and browsed the gift shop while waiting for our visit.

Before we got to go up the Skybridge, we had to watch a short 3D video about Petronas Company and the towers and then had to go through a security check. We then took the high-speed elevator to the Skybridge on the 41st floor, 170 meters above street level. Visitors only have 10 minutes on the bridge.


There are interesting exhibits about the towers on the way out from the Skybridge visit. Afterwards, we window-shopped some more until it was time for lunch.

Lunch was at Nando's Peri-Peri Chicken. Nando's is a Portuguese restaurant chain whose specialty is chicken in either lemon and herb, medium, hot or extra hot peri-peri sauce, pero-peri being the humble siling labuyo. It's sad that the Philippines is not among the 26 countries in 5 contintents that Nando's has branches in, because the food was really good. Sigh.


1/2 chicken in lemon and herb sauce, corn, coleslaw

chicken kebabs in hot sauce, Mediterranean rice, and potato salad

I took home a bottle of one of their sauces. This is my best friend during my diet days when I eat nothing but boiled chicken. :D

Beside Nando's was Famous Amos, the cookie shop, and the smell wafting from its direction was just heavenly, we just had to buy some cookies.

free smells

After lunch, we were off to the KL Bird Park. On the way there, however, it rained. We had to cancel. I guess I'm not meant for bird parks. We had to cancel our trip to Jurong Bird Park at the last minute went we went to Singapore last year (we ended up on the Singapore Flyer) and now this. Drat. Anyway, look at the design of this train station, the Kuala Lumpur station on the KTM line. It's an attraction in itself:

Since we had no where else to go (the rest of the places in our itinerary were outdoors), we proceeded to Pavilion Mall in Bukit Bintang where we planned on having dinner anyway. We got some books at Times Bookstore.

We wandered around the mall (again, more designer stuff) until it was time for dinner. Ah, we waited to have dinner here for months, and it was one of the things we were most excited about with our backpacking trip: Carl's Jr!!! Yep, the burger chain that we sadly no longer have here in Manila. I'm such a fan of Carl's Jr back in college, I celebrated two birthdays here--including my 18th birthday! We were so excited to eat here that we didn't get to take any pictures of the food. This was after we wiped everything out (and we ordered a lot):


Dessert was at Baskin-Robbins, our first time, and I had another one of my "why-don't-we-have-this-in-Manila???" moments. We shared a bowl of Pralines 'n Cream, Jamoca® Almond Fudge and Rum Raisin:


My boyfriend was a happy, happy boy.

After dinner, we walked towards nearby Jalan Alor to buy more dried meat to take back home.

It was a good day, even if it wasn't exactly the day we had planned. We went back to our hotel happy and full and excited to read our books. Back in our room, we enjoyed our Famous Amos cookies, with beer for him (!) and with Yakult for me.

Afterwards, we got a good night's sleep to prepare ourselves for another adventure-filled day ahead.

Domesticated

My heart skipped a beat when I read this in Nicquee's blog:

What: Corningware, Corelle, Pyrex and Visions sale up to 70%
When: November 12-15, 2009
Where: Kitchen World, 3rd Level Eastwood Mall

I didn't realize I've gotten so domestic to get all worked up over a sale on cookware! I think it's partly thanks to all of the baking I've done lately (but I haven't really baked in months), but I know it's mainly because I get excited when I think about our future home. Yeah, I know, I'm thinking way ahead. I'm probably more excited about having our own home more than our wedding, haha!

Abet and I have agreed that we will not be one of those couples who have the nice wedding and then go back home to live with the parents. It may work for some, but it's not for us. Besides, Abet will be 30 years old then, which is really too old for a married man to still live in his parents' house. We'll probably be in a tiny, tiny shack, but it will be our own (albeit rented) kingdom where we're king and queen. I'm scared and excited at the same time.

We bought some stuff for our future home during our recent trip, and I'm already planning on accumulating stuff over the next two years before we settle down (and just stash them in Abet's room for now), things we probably won't prioritize once we start paying rent and bills. I want to start buying pretty plates and glasses, so that on those evenings when we'll just have jolli-jeep takeout for dinner, we'll still be pretty fancy. I made Abet promise that once we're married, our bed will never have less than 350-threadcount sheets, I guess now is the best time to get a few sets (I have very few indulgences and good sheets are one of them). I think I'll start buying luxurious bath towels while I can still afford them. I've always wanted a stick-on clock like Frances has in her home, I want to have one now na. I want an oven, a pretty birdcage for my future Gouldian finches (another thing I made Abet promise to get me--I'm not as demanding as this sounds, I swear), a beautiful Mama Mary statue, bookshelves... Ooooh, I could go on and on!

I hope I'll score some Corelle plates at this sale, it would be a good start.

Batu Caves

Batu Caves is in Gombak district, 13 kilometers north of Kuala Lumpur. These limestone caves is a sacred place for Hindus. Every January, up to 800,000 devotees and spectators gather here for the Thaipusam Festival:

Images above from http://www.malaysiasite.nl/thaipusameng.htm.

To get to the caves, you'd have to climb up 272 steps and get past macaques. A 42.7 meter statue of Lord Murugan, a Hindu deity, stands near the base of the steps.

Bich Duyen Hotel, Ho Chi Minh

We chose Bich Duyen Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, because of the stellar reviews on Tripadvisor.com. It met all our requirements for a hotel: clean, airconditioned, central, and most importantly, cheap. Double room was $18 including breakfast.

Of the five hotels we stayed in during our trip, this was the smallest--smallest bed, smallest bathroom, smallest room, but it was definitely big on value. Room has a fan, aircon, TV, ref, a tiny closet, and did I mention the complimentary breakfast? I don't have a pic of our room without Abet in it. :P

Breakfast was basic, just the ubiquitous baguette, eggs, fresh dalandan juice, green bananas and coffee:

Of course, the coffee was the popular Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk, which was very good. I was very pleased with the bananas, we used to have this everyday when we were still living in Cagayan de Oro, but I don't think I've had this since we came to Manila. Breakfast wasn't much it was good, and it saved us a few thousand dongs every morning.

The hotel is on Pham Ngũ Lão, right smack in the backpackers' area on District 1 (where most of the tourist attractions are) and is surrounded by bars, cafes, restaurants, banks, and street food stalls. Cho Ben Thành (Ben Thanh Market) is just within walking distance.

The manager, Chanh, was energetic, friendly, and extremely helpful. He arranged the Cu Chi Tunnels tour for us at 11pm, we were picked up at the hotel the next morning. He also arranged for a car to take us to the airport for $8 (pick-up from the airport is $14).

There's a computer with high-speed internet at the lobby which you can use for free. We abused this on our last evening there when we were trying to get updates from friends in Manila about storm Santi and checking Cebu Pacific's Twitter for updates regarding our flight.

I feel that at Bich Duyen, we got more than what we paid for. If I visit Saigon on a budget again , I'll definitely stay here.

--=-=--

Bich Duyen Hotel
283/4 Pham Ngu Lao Street, 1st District, 84, Ho Chi Minh
bichduyenhotel@yahoo.com

The Jalan Alor Experience

Jalan Alor in Bukit Bintang in Kuala Lumpur is a side street dedicated to hawker stalls and is a popular foodie destination. When we went to Singapore last year, some of the best fare we had were the ones in hawker stalls, so Jalan Alor was definitely in our itinerary. In fact, it was our very first stop right after we got settled in our hotel, this is where we had dinner on our first night in KL.

Just stroll along this street and find something you like. The stalls serve pretty much similar stuff and were all full of both tourists and locals, so it was safe to assume that they were all the same and were all good.

We missed the food we loved in Singapore, so those were what we ordered in Jalan Alor. The dishes we got were from 5RM (P70) to 10RM (P14o).

hokkien mee


bak kut teh

satay

ais kacang

Was the food just like what we had in Singapore? No. The hokkien mee tasted more like char kway teow and had bits of chicharon and meat in it. The bak kut teh wasn't as peppery but had vegetables in the broth. The satay didn't come with rice cubes, and the peanut sauce tasted different. The ais kacang wasn't served with colorful shaved ice. But was the food good? DEFINITELY. The food was different from what I expected, but everything was really yummy. I especially loved the ais kacang (3RM/P42).

We had our first Tiger Beer (7.50RM/P105) of the trip here:

Tiger Beer & pineapple shake

Their fruit shakes (3RM/P42) was just fruit blended with a bit of water and ice--no sugar. I loved it. I also got a watermelon shake.

After our meal, we got some jerky/dried meat and pork floss for pasalubong from this stall:

They smoke their meat right there on the street:

Look at these goodies!

We didn't buy as much as we wanted because we'd have to lug the meat around for the next 10 days.

There were several fruit stalls in Jalan Alor and I wanted to get some durian to take back to our room, but Abet reminded me that durian is not allowed in hotels. I settled for some jackfruit and pink dragonfruit. The jackfruit was extra-orange and extra-sweet.

Jalan Alor is a vibrant street in the heart of Kuala Lumpur that is truly a feast for the senses. Every foodie who finds himself in KL needs to include a trip to Jalan Alor in his itinerary.

Tune Hotel, Kuala Lumpur

Abet and I did all of our planning for our trip online, and travel forums such as the one on PinoyExchange and GirlTalk, as well as travel blogs, have been a great help to us. We wouldn't have pulled this off smoothly (notwithstanding the bus accident and flight delay) if not for all of the tips, advice and recommendations we got online. I want to give back by posting all about our trip--accommodation, itineraries, food, costing, destinations, transit routes, etc. for anyone planning a similar trip.

I have been asked several times if we took a packaged tour: no. I dislike packaged tours. I want to choose where to stay, when and where to eat, and how long to stay at a particular destination, and I don't like being herded like sheep. I highly recommend doing a DIY trip--it's not as much of a hassle as it seems, and you'll have control over your travel. There are a lot of travel resources online, and I hope my blog can help a bit.

But I majorly digress. On to my hotel review. Please bear with me with my backpacking posts as I am not a travel blogger, and I still (STILL!) can't work the DSLR.

I highly recommend Tune Hotel for anyone looking for cheap, clean and central accomodation in Kuala Lumpur. Tune Hotel's concept works for the budget traveller: they don't have a sauna, pool, gym, meeting room, or other amenities you probably won't need, and the non-essentials such as airconditioning (all rooms have fans), towels and toiletries, and in-room internet come are charged extra, which means a much, much lower price. Book in advance and you get an even better deal.

A towel can be rented at RM5 (P70) with a RM10 (P140) refundable deposit (comes with free shampoo, soap and shower gel--no, we didn't avail of this), wi-fi internet is at RM12 (P168) for 24 hours (we didn't avail of this as well--there are several computers at the lobby you can use for free), and airconditioning can be purchased in sets of 12 hours and 24 hours: 12 hours is at RM13.49 (P161.76) and 24 hours is at RM21 (P294). The prepaid airconditioning works like cellphone load--the hours are programmed into your key card and is deducted upon use and can be topped-up at the front desk.

We paid for our room online five months in advance, and for a double room for two nights with 12 hours of airconditioning, we paid only RM87.43 (P1,225). That's just a little over P600 per night! And the room was not bad at all, it was actually much bigger than a standard hostel room:


The bed is outfitted with 250-threadcount sheets. Pretty decent for the price we paid. See those ads on the wall? Those help bring the cost down, they are all over the room, even inside the bathroom. The walls are care of Nippon Paint:

What I loved most about the room is the bathroom, it was larger than what I expected for a hotel room of that price. When I stayed at a P1800-per-night hostel in Hong Kong 2 years ago, I had to sit on the toilet to take a shower, but this wasn't the case with Tune:

Tune prides itself on its showers: high-pressure heated showers with a rainfall showerhead.

The hotel is conveniently located, just a few minutes' walk away from the Medan Tuanku monorail station (three stops away from Bukit Bintang) and is on the Star Shuttle route from LCCT, so you can take a bus from the airport and get dropped off right at the hotel doorstep.

There's a 7-11 and a Subway shop on the ground floor, as well as Uncle John's (a local kopitiam chain), perfect for grabbing a quick breakfast of kaya toast, soft-boiled eggs and white coffee.

The things I disliked about the hotel was its dilapidated elevator, the unfriendly reception staff (maybe friendly service costs extra, too) and the fact that they don't let you leave your luggage with them after you've checked out, which caused us to make adjustments to our itinerary. But other than these, I wouldn't mind staying here the next time I go to Kuala Lumpur. Its value for money can't be beat.

--=-=--

Tune Hotel - Downtown Kuala Lumpur

316 Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman

50100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

http://www.tunehotels.com/downtownkl_room.aspx

Back from Backpacking

Abet and I are back from an 11-day SouthEast Asian adventure across five cities in three countries: Kuala Lumpur and Malacca in Malaysia, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap in Cambodia, and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) in Vietnam. We had the time of our lives.

We ate hawker food, went up the Petronas Towers Skybridge, ate at Nando's Peri-Peri Chicken, Carl's Jr. (which we sorely missed), and Baskin-Robbins, found the books we were looking for (Stiff by Mary Roach for me, a book I bought years ago and lost, but want in my library; Hemingway's For Whom the Bells Toll for him), lugged our backpacks all over KL's train stations, visited the Batu Caves, experienced vibrant Jonker Street in Malacca, got lost, visited the Killing Fields, Genocide Museum, and the Russian Market in Phnom Penh, ate crickets, ran out of clean clothes and underwear, toured the temples of Siem Reap, got sunburned, got insect bites, enjoyed a Khmer buffet, watched an Apsara performance, saw the sun rise over the Angkor Wat, saw how fine handicrafts were made, ate ice cream at Swensen's, figured in a bus accident that left several people injured (who had to be carried off in an ambulance), spent 15 hours on a bus, met other backpackers, met fellow Filipinos, became millionaires (P2,700 = VND 1M), ate a ridiculous amount of fruit, ate a ridiculous amount of French bread, drank beer almost nightly, squeezed our ways through one of the Cu Chi Tunnels, visited the War Remnants Museum, survived a sea of motorcycles, enjoyed bowls of pho, haggled at the Ben Thanh market, bought even more books, ate even more ice cream, got items for our future home, bought coffee, nuts and dried fruit for pasalubong, suffered from upset tummies from too much streetfood, and slept at the airport because our flight got majorly delayed due to typhoon Santi (we were still lucky, PAL and Vietnam Air flights were cancelled). We took a bunch of great photos, and thousands of crappy photos. It was a great adventure, and I can't say enough how happy, thankful, and lucky I am that I got to experience this with Abet, just the two of us. Travel is one of our ultimate favorite bonding activities.

My recent trip validated two things:

1) There really is no place like the Philippines. After seeing the different sights in Malaysia, Cambodia, and Vietnam, I realized that the sights, the food, and the people of the Philippines are the best. We have three trips abroad planned for next year, but I'll make sure to squeeze in some local destinations.

2) Abet and I make a great team. Ü I've known this from the very start, but travelling puts our team and our relationship to the test, and I'm glad that for this one, we passed with flying colors. Being alone in a foreign country makes us cling to each other a little tighter than usual and makes us more patient and understanding. We were each other's world for eleven days, taking care of and being responsible for the other. We feel closer than ever, and I learned so much about myself, about him, and about us as a couple. Actually, I'm currently experiencing withdrawal symptoms from my boyfriend--we were attached to the hip the entire duration of our vacation, I think we were apart only during trips to the restroom.

I have lots of stories and pictures that I'll blog about in the next few weeks or days. Hopefully, I'll be able to help out someone planning a similar trip, just like how travel blogs have been helpful to us during our planning. More travel posts coming up!