For the week holiday we had off for Eid Al-Fitr, we decided to go to Malaysia - it was what you might call a tri-fecta - we spent time in the city, climbed a real-life mountain,
Mt. Kinabalu, and lazed on the beach. This trip will be set differently than the rest of the entries since there were various parts to the trip, so I'll split up each part.
Enjoy!
9 Sept 2010
We flew in to Kuala Lumpur on
Gulf Air. The experience was fine - it was one of the only airlines that flies direct from Bahrain - KL, so it works. Once through baggage and immigration, we were greeted by a man with a sign for our hotel -
Traders Hotel.
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| View of our hotel from the KLCC |
Our bags were taken from us and we were whisked outside only to be placed in a beautiful Mercedes and driven through the lush trees and countryside into the city. We were provided with cold towels and bottles of water for the drive - it was 5 star service!
When we arrived at the hotel, we were greeted and our suitcases taken from us again. Once inside the hotel, a cute Malaysian woman chirped "Hello, Mr. Bellman" before we had even said anything, she greeted us and asked if she could take us up to check-in - of course! We were informed of breakfast and other perks which came with our room and then showed to our room where the entire check-in process took place. I've never been checked in while in my actual hotel room, but it was very comfortable. We had an AMAZING view of the
Petronas Towers (KLCC) and for the price we were paying for a 5-star hotel you can barely get a room at La Quinta back in the US - it was ridiculous.
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| Our room at Traders |
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| Petronas Towers (KLCC) |
After freshening up we headed out to check out the hotel and then went to have lunch in the mall at the bottom of
Petronas Towers. Besides having a million Asian restaurants in their food court they also had McDonalds, Subway, etc (which btw, had the longest lines), but when you're in a place where Asian food is amazing, you need to eat the authentic stuff.
After walking around the ridiculous mall (seriously, what mall has 6 stories - and we would find this in every mall we went to), we went to the
Manara KL (KL Tower), we went up to the very top to see the entire city which was amazing!
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| Views from the top of Manara KL |
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| Manara KL |
Then we went to check out the street
Jalan Alor which is where we planned to eat dinner. It is a street full of street vendors with food! After that, we went to get our feet eaten by fish - yes, that's right. There are fish spas in KL and it is a huge thing there - it was awesome! My feet felt smoother instantly - no it doesn't hurt, it just feels like tickling on your feet, which Chris had to take a few minutes to get over. We also got foot scrubs and a massage.
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| The Fish Spa |
We went back to the hotel, had some cocktails at the hotel's happy hour and then headed out to dinner.
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| World's smallet vodka/diet coke |
We ate some tasty street food - dim sum and chili crab.
After that, we wanted to check out
Chinatown - which I loved! We would end up going there almost every night we were there. I bought a really cute purse and Chris got a watch. By then, most things were closing and we were properly exhausted so back to the hotel we went for a good night's sleep.
10 Sept 2010
We woke up early to eat at the fabulous breakfast buffet and then got on a city tour. It was actually in a small van type thing and took us to various places around KL - us and our closest 6 friends. Some parts were more interesting than others but we were able to see a lot of highlights such as
the King's Palace, Independence Square, War Memorial and the National Museum. They also took us to some factories (for us to spend our money no doubt) like the pewter factory, batik factory and leather store.
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| King's Palace |
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| National Museum (closed) |
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| War Memorial |
After the tour we headed to a massive mall, the
Mid-Valley Mega Mall to find gloves for me since apparently only had one and a hat for Chris for our trek up the mountain. We were successful in the ridiculous 6-story mall which was super crowded so we just went in and out.
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| The massive crowds at Mega Mall |
We headed back to the hotel to grab some cocktails
Then headed out to
Chinatown (again) and I got another purse as well as some gifts. We went back to
Jalan Alor for dinner where Chris had more chili crab and I tried my favorite Thai soup which wasn't very good. :(
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| Petronas Towers at night |
We had to catch our plane to
Kota Kinabalu the next day so we went back to the hotel and sat at the bar for awhile before packing and heading to bed.
A few things about Malaysia - sure the airfare might cost some extra cash but everything else there is super cheap. Taxis were "metered" but you are meant to haggle, no matter what the side of the taxi said, and "haggling" to go somewhere for $2 or $3 doesn't seem so bad. Food in itself was also super cheap and of course there was Chinatown :). The weather in September was nice, it was warm, don't get me wrong, and sometimes it drizzled in the afternoon, but the weather was pleasant in the 80s and such.
Kuala Lumpur is not a very touristy city, basically what we did on the first 2 days are what's it. But I know there are several places to see outside of KL, hence why we did the mountain trek and the beaches. More to come on that later.
