KL, Genting Highlands, Kuala Gandah, Deerland
Trip Start
Unknown
1
4
11
Trip End
Ongoing
Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Monday, February 1, 2010
Arrive with Silkair from Singapore to KLIA. Airport looked pretty quiet, immigration was fast, bags were out within 15 mins. Custom officers were all out for lunch, I guessed everyone no one missed their absence and took advantage of the green lane, including myself.
Had booked a transfer from KLIA to the Hilton with the concierge. After about 15 emails with them, I just had the feeling that something was not going as planned (nothing new in malaysia anyway..)- as expected, no one was there at arrivals. Had no KLIA Express ticket since the Hilton was going to buy them and charge it to the room. Looked around, and after 5 minutes, approached the hilton counter at the arrival hall. Lady apologized, saying they didn't have my booking, made a quick call to the Hilton and escorted us to the KLIA express on Level 1. Boarded the train without a ticket....
I just LOVE the porters from KLIA Express. They stand there outside the train, joyfully and happily grabbing our luggage and bringing them unto the train and up on the racks. The porters stayed on the train with the luggage all the way to KL Sentral. Journey to KL Sentral was smooth and quiet with great views of putrajaya and cyberjaya. Arrived at kl sentral punctually, porter was already rushing out to grab trolleys for the luggages and loading them, pushed the luggage all the way up to KL Sentral arrival where the Hilton team was thankfully there with our train tickets. Porter mentioned it was a KLIA express free service, but gave him a small tip for handling our over 92 kgs combined luggage (hope the chap's backbone didn't suffer too much!). Hilton team consisted of three concierge and a driver with his van. Assisted us to the van and up to the hotel without any problem. Friendly Agnes was at the front desk as usual, check-in was fast but the room wasn't ready yet till another hour.
Went to the station downstairs, bought Two maxis hotlink Prepaid SIM cards from chubby Ah Beng at the entrance of the LRT. Each costs Rm 20 with RM 20 airtime, valid till 2014.
Bought a cab coupon from KL Sentral to Suria KLCC for RM 14, wasn't bothered to walk and take the lrt at that time. Bad decision, the whole city was choked with traffic, stuck at puduraya for 20 mins, arrived at suria klcc after 30 mins.... headed to edwin, boy, he wasn't in a very good mood that day... had too many customers I guessed. Although I had made an appointment with him earlier, he handed the highlighting job to a girl, came over after that and did a few snips at my hair and that was about it. Maybe I'll return when he is in a better mood..... but luckily color turned out perfectly great and the haircut was not too bad. Did a few rounds of shopping at the mall – bought clothes from isetan, a few pairs of wedges from nine west, wanted to have lunch at little penang cafe and madam kwans but the queue was over 20meters long so couldn't be bothered. Wanted to take a cab to metrojaya BB since I needed to buy some stuff from East india company clothing store, most of the drivers wanted RM 20 for that short distance, so I took the lrt/monorail instead. Rained dogs and cats, spoilt my stilettos completely (another excuse to buy new shoes!). Managed to grab some stuff at Metrojaya, got out of that mad place unharmed. Much too many shoppers around for CNY. Headed to Starhill and Pavillion which wasn't any less busy, got a few pairs of stilettos from Dior and Chanel, really can't be bothered to shop any more with those people. Took a metered cab back to hilton without any problems from the pavilion cab stand. Dinner that night at Le Meridien Latest Recipe. Great selection, restaurant was full to the brim – Chinese, western, Indian curries were great, Malay food, great desserts, lots of authentic Malaysian stuff you wouldn't be able to find in KL city (anymore) such as putumayam, laksa sarawak, otak bakar, gulai nangka etc. price was about RM 300 for 3 adults, quite reasonable.
Next day – Bird park and butterfly park- A good experience for families with children except for the face that it was hot and hot and hot and hot. Walked over to sooka sentral from KL Sentral through the overhead bridge for dinner at Oriental spoon, great selection of dim sums and chinese food. Dropped by the Skybar at Traders after that (shuddered at the sight of traffic, but the the cab price was fixed at RM 14, so can't complain).
Flew from Kuala Lumpur to Bali with Malaysia Airlines on their first flight at 08:45, got a really good deal on the Malaysia Airlines Grab-A-Deal site. Since I was staying at the Hilton Sentral, made life a lot easier for access to and from the airport.
KL CAT opens at 4:30am everyday, mondays to Sundays public holidays included.
Had informed the Hilton Concierge the night before. They had all the KLIA Express tickets in their drawer so could charge it to our room, did not have to run down to the station and purchase them at night. Enquired if we could leave two large suitcases at their luggage room and come back to collect them in a week after Bali (did not have to pay for left luggage nor drag them to the airport), they were very accomodating and immediately took note of it. Luggage was kept safely although I had a few good bottles of Ice wine and XO in them, nothing was stolen despite the bag was not locked, Hilton team is honest and professional as usual.
Porter came at 6am the next morning to collect the rest of the luggage, by the time we were down to the lobby, luggage was already all up in their volkswagen van, same driver than picked us up from the station. Very friendly and happy to see us despite the wee hours. Conciege got up with us to assist with luggage. After the usual twist and turns around the hotel and station, arrived after 3 mins right in front of KL CAT check-in. Conciege and driver got us trolleys and pushed everything to the check-in counters. Driver and concierge offered to wait for us and bring us back to the hotel, but we said we could walk the 2 steps and hope we would be awake by then. Check-in counters were practically empty, 3 were open. There is a 2 hour minimum check-in for flights with baggage. Lady at check-in counter def friendlier than the usual ones we saw at KLIA, did not say anything although we were checked-in one 29 and one 31kg suitcase each under the cheapest MHSmart ticket (with air asia, it would have been HELL). Check-in was through within 5 mins, lady even reminded us kindly to take the train at 7:30am to the airport because DH had to go through "other passports" immigration queue and its usually quite busy at that time of the morning. Thank God for the Autogates! Went back to the hotel at 6:15am, had buffet breakfast at Sudu downstairs, went back up to collect handcarry, checked-out at 7:20am which was very quick. Everyone from receptionist to doorman and concierge said goodbye and have a great holiday, how we loved the hotel and their team. KLIA Express and porters was already waiting to take our handcarry and load them unto the luggage tracks. Train left exactly on the minute, could watch some TV on the train and enjoy Putrajaya/Cyberjaya by dawn. Was at the airport by 8am, took the lift up to Level 5 Departures, went directly to immigrations and security checks and was at our gate by 8:15am, half an hour before flight departure. Departure gates closes 10mins before flight time. Flight was on time, I cannot complain about Malaysia airlines for the price I paid for the tickets (cheaper than air asia) - got hot breakfast of tea, roti canai with curry, fruit cake, nasi lemak. Cabin crew came by often enough to refill our cups and were smiling enough. Plane was practically empty so lots of space and chairs were comfortable, arrived a few mins ahead of schedule. Great thing about flying first flight MH to Bali (vs SQ from Singapore) was that we arrived first a denpasar a few minutes ahead of the fully loaded SQ and we were the first ones to clear immigration before the whole circus arrived a few minutes later. on the way back to KL, another good flight with hot lunch. Got the Accord from Hawk Rent a car, tried to drive back to the Hilton but "I think" I should have exited Sungei Besi toll and come in from the bukit jalil stadium sdie instead of taking the huge round to Jalan Duta (just too used to that toll plaza). Collected the bags from Hilton without any problems, nothing was lost. Just that traffic in KL is getting from Bad to very very worse.
Part two of KL (sheer madness of the chinese shoppers, it happens once a year).
Back from Bangkok and Bali, rented a car Hawk Rent a Car from KLIA. Very reasonable price and a great car, would have costed me twice from avis or hertz. Only complaint – had to cross over block D from the airport all the way to get to the car, not very convenient with all the luggage. First stop was petaling street which is evidence on how terrorizing the place can get during chinese new year. Hippo had warned me (thanks girl!), so I parked at Central market car park, and bravely walked over... could barely walk 3cm per minute, people pushed from left, right, front and back (ok, it was 4 days before cny..). Took me 3 full hours to gather whatever that was left of the few cans of kuih kapit, pinapple tarts, waxed duck, bak kwa, sweets and sausages and tiffin baskets from peter hoe. Must have been 40°C plus at that place, broke a few traffic rules trying to crawl out of that mad traffic jam, no way I was going to be stuck down jalan tun hs lee with all those people so made a few u-turns and misread the signs pointing one way street...... managed to get out of chinatown alive, had to head back to ipoh first to drop all the stuff. Had to stop by hilton since I left most of my luggage there before heading to bangkok and bali. Traffic heading into bangsar and Jln travers was sheer madness. accident near jalan duta, took another 2 hours to get out of KL.
Next day -genting highlands. Drove from north with NSE, took Bukit Beruntung exit, through ulu yam to genting highlands. Bought a full day pass for All park for RM 51 per adults. Some rides had to be paid extra such as the flying coaster. Was bloody hot up there, got burnt to death while waiting 2 hours for the space shot, but the wait was worth it. Buffet dinner at Genting hotel was good.
Next day, drove down to Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary from genting highlands. Took the Karak Highway and Lebuhraya timur something, journey to lanchang toll plaza took about 1 hour from Awana genting, toll charges about RM 6.50 in total for karak and the east-west highway. After exiting Lanchang, turned right followed the road to nowhere. No people at sight, only houses and forest. Came to the end of the road at some t-shirt shops and construction. Loads of policemen everywhere. Went into the office, registered and collected the yellow stickers for the elephant ride and bathing session. Was early around 11am, so plenty of stickers still availble. Since the activities only started at 2 pm, went to the Deerland first. Loads of policemen there as well – reason – Minister of Natural resources as well as a number of VIP Datos was there was well the same time. Paid RM 10 per person for entry, well worth it, fed two sun bears with milk and honey, lots of other animals to see, spent most of the time feeding the deers with potatoes. Workers were extra friendly with Yang Berbahagia standing around us LOL!
Went back to the Elephant sanctuary at 1:30pm. Just in time to change – PLEASE BRING TOWELS ALONG!! Had toilets where you could shower and change. Loads of tour guides standing around including people from NKS. Told me some people are willing to pay RM 280 per person just for this trip. Honestly, better to rent your own car for RM 150 nett a day, much cheaper and less rip off, or call Razali to come pick you up & donate the money to the conservatory instead. Paying Rm 280 per person so the tour guide can sit around and smoke while you do the activities is really not worth the money. Activities were worth the drive, started with feeding of sugar cane and peanuts to the baby elephants, fruits to the huge female elephants which ate at an amazing speed! Then queued up for the elephant riding session, elephants took one round around the compound. After that, queued up for the elephant bathing session. Sat on the elephant and they would throw you into the shallow water where you could wade and stand around with the other smaller elephants. Very very wet, so please bring towels or buy some from the gift shop there. Take off your shoes or they will get lost in the muddy river. Activities ended at 4 pm, shower and changed. Had lunch along karak highway near bukit tinggi at nice chinese restaurant called Bukit tinggi Gardenview restaurant. Drove into gombak KL and towards Batu caves for a short picture stop of the golden statue. Jalan batu caves was not so badly jammed up yet, was there within 10 mins after exiting karak highway. Batu caves shops and stairs newly repainted after Thaipusam. Did not bother climbing up since the interior of the caves weren't really that special compared to the Ipoh cave temples. Took DUKE to Jalan Duta, stopped by Sooka for dinner at Kelantanese Delights, loads of traffic up north and loads of speed cameras and policemen.
Thats about it from this first part! Hope its of help to someone and that you've enjoyed it. Second, third parts coming up for Perak (Gua tempurung, Ipoh cave temples, kuala kangsar, lumut/pangkor, Bukit Merah Orang Utan sanctuary), Pahang - Terengganu (Cameron Highlands to Kuala Terengganu/tanjong jara) as well as trip reports for Bali, Singapore, Bangkok. TATA!!!
