I received the message above from a friend way back in Med school via facebook last week. I thought of publishing my lengthy reply here that I also sent to her email for somehow, it may serve as a RAW-guide to any first-time-tourist visiting Kuala Lumpur (particularly those coming from Manila or Clark). Any suggestions and corrections to the information below will be appreciated.
hello! as promised, here’s a list of you can do, places you can visit when in malaysia (these are just based to where we’ve been to, of course, i cannot recommend the ones we haven’t tried yet hehe!). i also included some info which i hope you may find useful.if you’re (from Manila) coming from the airport -KL-LCCT (kuala lumpur low cost carrier terminal) via either cebu pacific that flies everyday but i recommend you take 10am flight from manila every tuesdays, thursdays and saturdays (the rest of the weekdays, cebu pac flies at 9pm so you’ll arrive 1am in KL -medyo hassle!), or via air asia from naia 3 or clark, you have to take a bus from LCCT to downtown KL called KL SENTRAL (a bus station).the buses kiosks are located just before you exit, after the immigration officers in the KL-LCCT. the fares are either 8 ringgit (RM1 =roughly PhP 14) in AEROBUS buses, or RM9 in Skybus of air asia. the buses are parked after McDonald’s at the airport (left side). they leave every 15 or 30 minutes from the airport and will take you to KL SENTRAL at about an one hour.when in KL Sentral, try to remember the spot where you will be dropped off by Aerobus. this will be the same place where you should take the same bus (leaves every 15 min to the airport) when leaving malaysia to airport again when you go home. Once you got off the bus, you take the stairs (makipot sya, hehe! walang escalator doon), then walk your way up to 1st floor (in malaysia, our 1st floor is their ground floor, so yung 1st floor nila ay 2nd floor na sa pinas!) and look for the TAXI COUNTER just before you exit KL SENTRAL.taxis (or teksi in bahasa melayu, Pinoy-slang! hehehe) from KL SENTRAL are provided with tickets, so you have to purchase the fare/ticket at the counter. Tell the counter, chinatown kayo or petaling street (assuming na doon ang hotel nyo) and the counter-staff will give you a ticket around RM 12 to 15 siguro ang fare of taxi cab. Then, the stub/ticket shall be given to the teksi driver who will take you to your destinasi (destination, hehehe!).yes, chinatown is a good choice –cheap and affordable hotels available (you can choose from agoda.com if you have not booked yet), then pagbaba mo, palengke agad, tyangge like recto and greenhills! dami restos, foods! malapit pa sya sa pudu raya or PUDU SENTRAL (a bus and train station that will take you else where).kami nag stay sa chinatown boutique hotel the last time we’re in KL. medyo maliit pero malinis naman at gabi lang naman kami nagstay doon, maghapong lakwatsa (*it’s a bit small hotel but clean, just enough to spend the night; anyway, you’ll wander around during the day) check it out if you like . if not, we tried breakfast buffet at SWISS IN HOTEL also in Chinatown, KL. that’s also nice to stay, i guess.since may kasama kayong 15 years old, she may like GENTING HIGHLANDS. it’s the theme park in KL but dont expect disneyland-like ha. ang ok doon, malamig kasi it’s on top of the mountains, you need 1 day at least or two, in Genting. May cable cars sa foot ng genting highlands where you can take after you ride bus from Pudu / KL Sentral to Genting. May indoor at outdoor theme parks doon, 5 atang hotels at madaming casinos and buffets. We took a bus direct from Penang to Genting when we went there 2 years ago kaya di kami nakapag cable car. here is the link to my post just in case you want to peek
http://docgelo.wordpress.com/2010/12/21/our-days-in-genting-part-one/i also suggest you go up the Skybridge of PETRONAS TWIN TOWERS. it’s a must-experience when in malaysia -or at least in my vocabulary, hehehe! We queued at 6AM, yes tickets sell like hotcakes at the basement of Petronas / Suria-KLCC Shopping complex, daming turista lagi, kaya go there before 6am then purchase your tickets, RM 50 per pax then you get to choose the time of your SKYBRIDGE VISIT –either morning, lunch time or gabi. We got the 9:15am visit; blog post and photos here http://docgelo.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/our-fun-homage-to-malaysias-magnificence/After nyo ng SkyBridge Visit, you can go shopping in Suria KLCC (mall in between the foot of Petronas).If you’re feeling like to indulge sa Suria, kain kayo sa Harrod’s kasi sa UK lang mayroon noon di ba? Pero 2 naman ang food courts sa Suria, dami choices, may mga restos din, Chilis etc.. here’s our merienda in Harrods’s http://docgelo.wordpress.com/2010/12/25/harrods-cafe-celebratory-indulgence-in-kuala-lumpur/ (photos were then taken using point and shoot kaya medyo blurry hehe!).Pwede din kayo punta sa Aquaria pero Manila Oceanarium in my opinion is far better. Nasa ilalim or basement sya ng Suria-KLCC.If you dig tourist spots and some Indian flares, you may want to go to Batu Caves too. I suggest you do that in the morning (before 9am para di pa mainit). You may take KTM Train from KL Sentral (so from chinatown, you may take a cab to KL Sentral), buy a ticket for 1 or 2 ringgit lang ata one way at KL Sentral to Batu Caves. Mga 40 minutes ang byahe. After Batu Caves, we went to Pavilion Mall and other malls in BUKIT BINTANG (it’s like the Ginza of Tokyo or Beverly Hills of Manhattan or Makati of Pinas). Bukit Bintang is accessible via cab from Chinatown or from anywhere. Ayos sa Pavilion Mall, malaki, but I still miss Greenbelt and Glorietta there, hehe! Here’s my blog post about Batu Caves and Pavilion Mall.There’s also KL Bird Park, Orchidarium and other Nature Park in downtown KL which we passed up kasi lack of time the last time we went there.I read from fellow bloggers that Malacca is so nice, when you like heritage/clan houses/old-world-appeal kind of thing. Never been there. It’s 3 hours from Kuala Lumpur or a 7-hour bus ride from Penang (Sungai Nibong).Then there’s Langkawi which I heard is the Palawan/Boracay of Malaysia. It’s near Penang but we haven’t explored it yet too.Let me know if you’re going to Penang and we shall talk. If you plan to go to George Town, I wish it’ll be on a weekend, para masamahan namin kayo umikot, kasi may work at weekend lang kami libre.
Hope this long suggested and info list helps.
-she might kill me for this!
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