KL Trip (21 - 23 Oct 05)

Day One – 21 Oct 05 (Friday)

Company of 7 ladies (or “fairies” like what one of my colleagues said).
Mission : Visit KL + attend ex-colleague’s wedding on Saturday night
Cost per pax : S$168 (includes transport to & fro, hotel stay, complimentary breakfast & theme park entry tickets)

Bus left Golden Mile complex at 0800am sharp. Reached Yong Peng (Malaysia) at 10.30am for a half-hour break. Finally reached Berjaya Times Square Hotel at 0200pm.

Impressive ! Gigantic hotel (heard its 5-stars rating), lobby is at 14th floor (wow !). 15th floor is where the gym and swimming pool is located. Our rooms were on 18th floor. Mine had a good view. I could see Petronas Twin Towers & KL Tower clearly. Room was considerable spacious although mine was actually the “Studio Suite”. Queen-sized bed (A little disappointed as I was actually hoping for 2 single beds but ok). Pillows were lumpy and not very comfortable but bed’s hardness was just nice (to me). Air-con is controlled individually in room, marvellous !

After settling down (and for me, having fun opening all the drawers, cupboards, fridge and doors and meddling/playing with the lights, switches and TV etc in the room), we met to go to Chinatown. Just outside our Hotel is the KL Monorail, Imbi station. We took the monorail to Mahajalelah station, read the instructions at the station upon alighting (quite clear actually) and arrived at Chinatown (Chee Cheong Street)

First thing I noticed was that the KL Chinatown is actually similar to our Singapore Chinatown. A very “touristy” place. Though they definitely still had many more hawkers or small little food stalls at each side of the road. We had our very late lunch at a coffeeshop (fried black-sauced hokkien mee, fried rice, thai fried rice and hor-fun) there. There was also a stall that sells very colorful tang-yuan too. But we didn’t eat cos one of my colleagues (a bit “tai-tai”) forbid us to eat from such hawker stalls as according to her, they are unhygenic. Oh well… anyway, it was after we had our lunch then we found the famous wan-ton mee stall. It was situated at another coffeeshop nearby that was not so well-lighted, with a little dirty surroundings, but boy was it crowded ! Some of my colleagues (me inclusive) were actually game enough to go for another round of food (afterall, we didn’t eat much earlier at the “cleaner” coffeeshop) but looking at the faces of my other colleagues, the answer was a big “NO”. Ok, we’ll come back another time then.

Next is the all-time favorite for ladies especially, SHOPPING. There are many shops along the sides of the road that sell clothes, bags and shoes. We went from shop to shop to browse and some of my colleagues bought clothes. Good for them. Me ? Not in the mood to buy anything plus didn’t see anything that catches my eyes (wah sei, me macam sound high-expectations hor ? Actually their designs are quite fashionable, but their sizes are more bent towards the smaller built customers though.. what a pity.)

We walked back to the monorail station and decided to go to Bukit Bintang station to shop at Sungei Wang and Lot 10. One of our male colleagues who is very familiar with KL (he drives up very often) suggested some good food places near Bukit Bintang, so we planned to try them out. Didn’t buy anything from Sungei Wang or Lot 10. But my colleagues did. (Obviously I am not a shopper, haha).

Had dinner along the streets near to Bukit Bintang. Steamed chicken (meat was a little hard), bean-sprouts (springy and crunchy, fantastic!), stingray with sambal chilli (I like it !), chicken satay (cos some of my colleagues do not take beef or mutton, sigh..) and kangkong with cuttlefish (cuttlefish was tender & fresh !).

By this time all of us were a little tired, so decided to head back to the hotel. Decided to walk instead of taking the monorail as it was only one station. We followed the monorail track. Not far at all. Maximum 15 minutes ? Maybe less than that. We saved RM1.20 each. Hee hee

Wanted to watch a midnight movie show, All About Love, at Berjaya Times Square (yes, that’s the same hotel I am staying in), but the only available seats were the first 2 rows. Decided against it. Slept at 10.40pm. Early hor ?


Day Two – 22 Oct 05 (Saturday)

Met for breakfast in hotel’s cafetaria at 0830am. Quite a good spread. Especially like the hot dogs, porridge and fried mee-siam (dry). Oh yes, their croissants are good too.

Went for a swim after breakfast. The hotel pool is huge. I swam 8 laps. Could have swam more if not for the time (my colleagues wanna go shopping). Tried out their Jacuzzi pool as well. However, the current wasn’t as strong as I would have liked it.

Went shopping at Berjaya Times Square itself. Many levels of shopping. There is a big food court (not all stalls are rented out yet), bowling alley (opened end 2004), cinema (9 theatres), digimax 3D theatre (similar to our Omni Theatre) and an indoor Theme Park. Again, didn’t spot anything that catches my eyes. My colleagues bought clothes, shoes, bags and foodstuffs plus gifts for family and friends. We decided to get a Chinese style figurine of a married couple as an additional gift for our ex-colleague whose wedding we will be attending tonight. It was cheap, only RM18 (after 50% discount), which is like S$8.20 (exch rate 2.2). Praise God for a good bargain.

Went back to our hotel rooms to unload our “presents & gifts” before embarking on our search for Bak Kut Teh as lunch (Imbi was supposedly to be famous for Bak Kut Teh). We walked down the lanes along the road and found a lane full of coffeeshops selling Bak Kut Teh. Finally settled on one of them. The one we had, their soup base was rather herbal (but I like) and ingredients included innards, beancurd skins, golden and button mushrooms and china cabbage, of course not forgetting the lead ingredient, the bak kut itself. We also ordered their claypot chicken and a plate of fried cai-xin as one of my colleagues do not take bak kut teh. After the heavy lunch, we decided to pop-by a nearby dessert stall. Lots of varieties and thankfully not very sweet. Great.

Almost 3pm. Went back to the hotel as some of my colleagues wanted to go to a saloon to wash, blow and set their hair for the wedding dinner tonight. Me ? Erh.. no need, dun waste money and dun touch my hair okie ?!! Haha… While the rest went to “beautify” themselves at the saloon, the rest of us decided to walk around the shopping centre a while more before going back to our rooms to wash up and prepare for the wedding dinner. Decided to buy tickets for a midnight show after the dinner. Seats available were good, so bought tickets for all 7 of us. Some of them had not watched midnight movies since their courting days ! So fun.

Wedding dinner was great. Food was normal (similar to local wedding dinners spread) . My ex-colleague was very beautiful (as all brides are, aren’t they ?). Midnight show was ok. We watched, All About Love (Cantonese !), by Andy Lau, Charlie Yeung and one of the gals from the Hong Kong singing pop group Twins (sorry, cannot remember her name). A little slow-moving but I thought the emotions were handled rather well by the director and the actors. The shots were interesting too. Thought I was going to cry, surprisingly I didn’t, although critics said it was a sad movie. Perhaps not sad enough for me then.


We went back to our rooms to retire for the night. But we were unable to open our room doors ! Funny, how is it that all the cards to our rooms were not working ? Don’t think there is a curfew as to what time guests should go back to their rooms right ? We were at the right floor as well. So what was the problem here ? Finally, after several tries, we realized that we were actually in the WRONG Wing of the hotel ! We were staying in the West Wing while using our room cards to enter the rooms at the East Wing of the hotel ! But of cos the doors would not open ! Duh ! hahahaha…. If anyone of you are thinking if any occupants opened the doors while we were trying to open the East Wing rooms, nope… no occupants opened their doors.. hahahaha…. Anyway, we quickly “escaped” and we had a good laugh while finding our way back to the West Wing and our hotel rooms. By this time, everyone of us were wide awake !

Day Three – 23 Oct 05 (Sunday)

Woke up at 8am for a swim at the pool with my colleague. Yes, only 2 (out of 7) of us. Water was cold as it rained in the early morning. Swam 8 laps and relaxed at the Jacuzzi pool again. Had breakfast at 9.30am at hotel cafeteria.

As there was not much time left for shopping (check out by 12noon, bus leaves at 0300pm), we decided to roam around the Berjaya Times Square itself instead. There are so many shops and levels that we have not finished exploring all of them by the end of the trip ! Finally went to the indoor Theme Park at 3rd floor. A little disappointed especially with the roller coaster ride. Seemingly exciting but actually not and very short thrill. Not happening enough (for me) although I went on it 2 rounds.

A little more shopping and I finally bought a blouse and 2 stuffed toys for my sis and her boyfriend. Nope, nothing for myself still. Had lunch at the 10th floor food court. Nothing fantastic. Maybe cos it’s the Puasa (fasting) period for the Muslims.

Managed to request for 1 room to extend its check-out time to 0200pm (instead of the normal 12noon) so rested till 0200pm and waited for 1 hour at the lobby till the bus finally came and left the hotel at 0300pm sharp.

Finally reached home at 0810pm. Praise God. I alighted at a bus stop along Taman Jurong road (we took 2nd link) and got on bus 30 that takes me directly home.

End of the trip.

Things to thank God for :-

1) Good company of colleagues (though some preferred to take LRT/Monorail instead of walking even though it was really just a short distance and we could see the building already, but generally very cooperative bunch of people).
2) Delicious food we all had and none of us had tummy upset after that.
3) Great weather. Some of my colleagues brought umbrellas with them. I didn’t as I was very sure (not by my efforts definitely but cos I know I have a Daddy God in heaven who favors me) that it will not rain during these 3 days while we were in KL and surely it didn’t. Praise Him.
4) Great hotel rooms, clean and service was prompt & polite and security guards were everywhere. Felt safe.
5) Daddy’s protection on all of us as we walked down the streets & shops etc.
6) Oh yes, a little finding too. The restaurant where my ex-colleague had her wedding dinner, they actually played Christian music ! Very sure of that cos I could even sing the song. But alas, I cannot remember it now… arrgh… but still it was like Daddy God telling me that He loves me and is always with me no matter where I am and what I do. Thank you Daddy God.
7) I thank God that He kept my family & loved ones safe and protected when I wasn’t around so I need not worry.
8) Thank you Daddy God for allowing me to go for this trip and for approving all our leaves (office was almost empty on last Friday). And You made sure we enjoyed ourselves too by making all things beautiful.
9) Thank you Daddy God for the comfortable bus journey to & fro. We took the executive bus ie. 26 seaters kind.
10)Thank you Daddy God for the good swim on those 2 mornings (though the water was a little cool, but we managed somehow, praise Him).
11)Thank you Daddy God for the good telecommunications network of all our handphones that has auto-roam services that we managed to keep in contact with our families during these 3 days.
12)God is good and I cannot praise Him enough. You are good, very good indeed.