Malaysia - Exploring Kuala Lumpur Day 1

My sister and I left Melaka Sentral Bus Terminal by 5 in the afternoon and arrived at Bukit Jalil Terminal past 8pm. Unfortunately the rain poured just as the bus parked inside the terminal. It was hard to find the Bukit Jalil LRT Station since it was getting dark and it was raining. The terminal was actually only a car park with make shift tents. So we decided to ask the bus driver who was happy to show us the way. 


So from Bukit Jalil we took the train going to Hang Tua LRT (Malaysia Transit Network Intergration Map) then walked  towards the direction of Berjaya Times Square since our hotel was located near it. It took us a good 10 minutes walk from Hang Tua which was okay since we were sitting for 3 hours in the bus. 


I booked with Capitol Hotel based on a recommendation of an online friend. The hotel was nice and just right for its price since the room especially the bathroom was clean. The location was great too since it was in the center of the shopping district! :) I'll write more about the hotel after I finish with our trip. 


So anyway, check in was okay though the staff needs to go more customer service training. I think she was lucky I used to work in the front desk so I was more patient with her. Other guests would have a hard time. Story later. 


After checking in and settling down, I called up my Chinese Malaysian friend who is an ex - colleague. She and her husband picked us up and droved us around town. First stop was Jalan Alor - a street near by our hotel which was famous for their hawker center. True enough we had mee goreng and chicken and pork satay for dinner. 

Jalan Alor                                              

People from all races can be seen here

the place was really crowded

me with my friend, Angel

but i think my sister loved the pork and chicken satay
there were only two pieces left
when we realized we haven't taken any pics of our food.

we were hungry so we just digged in
i love singapore's mee goreng more though and the thing
looks different too.

After dinner, we went to see the Petronas Twin Towers. It was funny to find out that my friend though she was now based in KL for a few months have never taken a picture with the Petronas Towers as the background at night. She was just like a tourist as me and my sister were! The building was really a site to behold. Lucky we still had time to take pictures before the lights were turned off since my friend's hubby said that they turned it off by 12 midnight.

Since it was Chinese New Year, my friend also took us to the Thean Hou Buddhist Temple. The temple is one of the biggest in Kuala Lumpur and a lot of the locals visit the place during the Chinese New Year. True enough when we got there the place was full even if it was already past 11. I think this is the most red set of photos I have taken to date. A real experience for me and my sister.

As it was already getting late, Angel took us back to the hotel. But it did not stop us from taking more pics. :)

the KLCC Tower from a far

Menara Public Bank which is directly across the Petronas Twin Towers.

Melaka: Malaysia's UNESCO Heritage Site

We never really celebrate Chinese New Year as we are not Chinese. But Singapore do and that means I get additional 2 days off to my regular weekend rest days. So I thought why not go on a trip to Malaysia? I arranged my sister to fly in late on the 2nd of February. Slept a few hours in our flat and at 0645hrs we were on our way to Kovan Hub Station where the Citiexchange Express terminal was located.



Melaka was our first stop in our trip to discover Malaysia. though Kuala Lumpur is our main destination for this trip, I didn't want to pass up the chance to visit one of Malaysia's UNESCO's World Heritage Site. The ride to Melaka Bus Sentral Terminal from Kovan was comfy as the bus we took was actually a coach and the seats were big and roomy similar to a lazy chair. As we were crossing borders we had to go down twice at the Singapore Immigration pass by a long bridge to cross to get to Johor Bahru (the state of Malaysia that is nearest to Singapore). Go down again to get our Passports stamped by the Malaysian Immigration. Here we saw the Malaysian Tourism Center and got a ton of brochures!


Now they say it only takes about 3 hours to get to Melaka from Singapore but our trip lasted more than 4 hours! Later on I found out that this was the case if you go travel to a place where it's a public holiday as most Malaysians who live in the cities and Singapore would go back to their hometown on these days.  It was already 1 when we got to the Melaka Bus Sentral. From there we took a taxi to get to what my sister and I called 'Melaka proper' as the bus terminal was a bit far from where the tourist spots were. We told the driver to take us to Renaissance Melaka Hotel. The facade of the hotel was not that elegant but the exterior was nice.  Maybe because they were located in a tight space with other buildings surrounding the hotel.


After freshening up {courtesy of Renaissance ;) } . We looked around for a place to eat. Lucky we saw the Famosa Restaurant who serves one of the famous dishes in Melaka - the Chicken Rice Ball. So we ordered the Roasted Chicken with Chicken Rice Ball, drinks and Cendol for dessert!

Roasted Chicken with Rice Ball

Famosa's Menu

our cendol in two different angles

The roasted chicken tastes like the Filipino's Lechon Manok - only a bit blant for my taste. While the Cendol is like latik with crush ice and candied coconut. But that's not the reason why our lunch was unforgettable though. It was more because of the drink my sister ordered. She asked for lime juice which sounded pretty much normal until the drink was served and Cat took a sip. My sister's face turned from normal to puzzled. She expected her juice to be sour but found it too salty instead. I took a sip and true enough it was salty. We were both confused haha then she noticed that something was floating inside her drink so she opened the cup and found out that the floating object was actually kiamoy (or salted prune preserve). No wonder it was salty. 


After lunch, we crossed Jalan Munshi Abdullah and walked along Jalan Bendahara until we saw the red buildings which if you search Melaka on the net you will finds pics of. At this point the street name changes to Jalan Laksamana (check google )





























Parallel to the street full of buildings made of red brick walls is actually the Malacca River, where you can ride this boat that takes you to a cruise and see the town from a different angle. 

A few meters up the road and we reached the Christ Church Building another attraction to which Melaka is famous for. From their we walked around and found the other UNESCO Heritage Sites such as The Stadhuys, St. Paul's Church, St. Paul's Hill, and Melaka Islamic Museum .

Christ Church

The most flowery pedicabs I've seen
and they were not even  part of a parade

Rows of souvenir shops.

St. Paul's Church

Melaka Islamic Museum

Museum of Architecture

Cat thought this was an interesting:
 the symbol of Catholicism and Islam in one pillar.
Cool! 

Cat just can't resist taking a pic of our fave fast food chain.

yeps they also still have box type taxi's

By quarter to 4 we were ready to head back to the Melaka Bus Sentral to catch our 5pm bus ride to KL!

Not just threads and needles ~

Even before I went home for a vacation,I already knew what to give two of my officemates for Christmas. They were both into cross stitch and sewing. And they also like cute and dainty stuff so I know that if they will received these as my gift to them for Christmas they would surely appreciate it.

True enough, my officemate was so happy when they got it. The other one not being a Catholic was surprise to receive a Christmas gift from me when I got back. She said it was so nice she was confused where she would place it. She said that if she cannot put it in her drawer because it's so nice to look at but she also don't want to put it on her desk because it might get dirty. Haha I just laugh and told her that it's ok since dainty as it may seem these things last long. I know because I've had mine for more than ten years now. I have a big one in green to hold all of my threads and needles. And a much smaller one which I use as a jewelry box.

By the way the name of the stall is St. Jane's International. They are one of the companies located in the Mactan Export Processing Zone (MEPZ) in Lapu - lapu City Cebu. Yearly during the Christmas Holidays they join the bazaar just outside MEPZ. If you can't wait for Christmas time though, you can now check them out in their Facebook account.

My 2010 Christmas Gifts

It has almost been a month since I got this but up til now I have not been in the mood to write about anything. Maybe because I have been preety busy with a lot of things. But I don't want to let this pass by without writing about the things I got.



The first I got for the holidays is from my long time friend (yeps 2 decades can be considered long right?) who came to visit me here in Singapore end of November. Thanks for the Precious Moments Tumbler Cest! I love it! I new piece in my PM collection. But more than anything else, thanks for the visit :) I really had a good time showing you and your friends around. Hope our trip this year will push thru.











Now, December 24th was my flight back home to Cebu. I really wanted to bring home with me the gifts that I have received but figured that it will just take up the space I needed when I come back here so I opted to open the other gifts too.

Thanks roomies!





My boyfie this year decided to have a theme for his Christmas gift this year. I was surprised that he thought of it. And one of my favorite characters too!

Aside from the pillow he also gave me a cute pencil case still very 'pooh'ey and a pooh shirt! I know he got all these from the kids department but I don't mind. After all I believe nobody is too old for the lovable bear!


 I also got another pillow from one of my closest friend. It was all pink but I did not have enough space in my luggage that sadly I had to leave it behind.



This Christmas it seems like i hauled a lot of gifts since I also got these from more friends:

Indeed I have been blessed. Merry Christmas!