I initially took part in this contest from Golf Digest and meant it as a holiday for mum (& aunt) should she win. That being the case, then this post will surely never exist and I shall wash my hands clean and let them enjoy a free & easy holiday with air tickets and accommodation thrown in. And since aunt speaks a reasonably good Melayu, I suppose they will be getting places easily.
Somehow, things took a turn, and mum wanted me to go instead, and that began my last minute research which I will be sharing here for people getting to Petaling Jaya, One World Hotel (not to be confused with First World Hotel in Genting, the two are classes apart), and the transit between KLIA and LCCT.
First and foremost, many thanks to Golf Digest Magazine, Nederburg (SA) and its distributor Distell. And of course, Distell's Amanda and Betsy, without whose seamless coordination, our stay in Petaling Jaya will almost certainly not be as pleasant.
Sime Darby LPGA was held at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club (KLGCC), as usual, golf courses are usually located way out of town, in this case, the suburb in Petaling Jaya, some 25 over minutes drive from KL Sentral. As such, we were given 3 nights accommodation in Petaling Jaya's One World Hotel, about 10 minutes drive away from the golf course but the route was not imaginable on foot.
KLIA & LCCT
KLIA Ekspres
Despite sharing a common airport code (KUL), KLIA & LCCT are actually different airport terminals situated a good 15 minutes bus ride apart (RM2.50). LCCT is mainly serving Air Asia flights while most other flights are served by KLIA. Buses interval is about 30 minutes, while taxi cost about RM30-RM40 one way, which is ridiculously high in my opinion. So here, buffer at least an hour if you are transiting between KLIA & LCCT by the usually congested shuttle bus, bear in mind, you'll have to clear custom twice.
Getting to KLIA via KLIA Ekspres from KL Sentral cost RM35 one way. The KLIA Ekspres does not go to LCCT, which is anyway just a temporary terminal. KLIA transit train will stopover at Salak Tinggi Station, from where there are shuttle buses connecting to LCCT (need not go through KLIA, it's a waste of time in my opinion), this will cost just RM12.50, including the connecting shuttle bus.
Now there's a trick here if you are heading for KLIA. Note that there's a vast difference in price here, you'll be paying RM12.50 from KL Sentral to Salak Tinggi, and from there, another RM3.20 to KLIA, a whopping RM19.30 saving compare to if you go direct from KL Sentral to KLIA! If you exercise some common sense, you may find the saving is more than 50% off the direct trip rate. The trade-off is perhaps just 20 minutes wait for the next train, but probably still slightly faster than taking a coach.
http://www.kliaekspres.com/
Shuttle Buses
From KL Sentral, there are airport buses serving both terminal for as low as RM9 (Air Asia, to LCCT), or RM10 to KLIA (other coach operators). If you book Air Asia's Skybus from their website, you can get some discount (but bear in mind credit card companies usually charge higher exchange rate if you are not paying in ringgit).
http://skybus.com.my/
http://www.airportcoach.com.my/
http://www.starwira.com/
Taxi
Cost about RM75 to the city (KL) for a budget taxi. But the same may not apply for taxi into KLIA (metered), maybe cheaper.
KTM Komuter (a.k.a. train)
While this is probably the most economical way, I'm not particularly sure how long it would take, and most likely, you would have to squeeze with other passengers throughout your journey. KTM Komuter from KL will have to alight at Nilai station (RM4.70, 58 minutes), from where, a shuttle bus will ferry you from Nilai to KLIA for RM2.50. I would suggest, for RM3 more, take the coach from KL Sentral.
http://www.ktmkomuter.com.my/index.php
Day 1: 11 Oct 2013, Fri
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| MH614 |
I deliberately chosen flights MH614 (from Singapore) that departs at 11:05HR and MH613 (from KLIA) at 17:25HR so as to maximise our holiday without the need to get up too early. But still, we had to board bus 985 around 7am in the morning for Kallang MRT to avoid the morning rush, tansferred train to Changi Airport and managed to checked in by 8.55am at T2.
Flight MH614 came agonisingly late, it only managed to depart Changi Airport some 40 minutes late, and as a result, we reached KLIA almost an hour late at 12.50pm, a fellow sarcastic passenger even grumbled he couldn't understand why an hour's flight would turn out an hour late, LOL!
The custom clearance was fast, and it's great we had a hotel limousine (complimentary from Distell) picking us up right from the airport, I chatted with the driver a little and learned that KLIA2 should be ready in about 4 months time, by when LCCT would be shifting in and thus eliminating that troublesome transfer between KLIA and KLIA2, where a monorail or something will be expected to link them up.
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| One World Hotel |
The ride took about 40 minutes, and by 2pm, we were awed by Bernard, who received us at the lobby entrance and brought us right up to our room for a very simple check-in. We were allocated room 1011, though the window view of KPMG Building and Sri Pentas were nothing to brag about, we were amazed by the size and facilities inside the room. Quite frankly, for a Superior Twin room, we really cannot expect to find room of this size in KL city center! (It was after returning home that I learned, our room was upgraded for free without our notice. It was suppose to be a Superior Twin Room, but that would be level 3-7, I suspect our room was Deluxe Twin Room)
The LCD TV had a welcome page displaying my name, it somehow made me felt like really a VIP, as if I was one of the golf tournament competitors. (As a matter of fact, the LPGA players are staying in the same hotel too).
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| Room 1011 |
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| Shower |
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| Bathtub |
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| Our window view was really nothing to brag about |
Truly a 5 stars accommodation indeed, room 1011 came not only with a bath tub, but a separate shower cubicle as well. And they have the roomiest wash room I ever encountered! Other amenities included coffee & tea making facilities, wine cooler, glasses, LCD TV, but I found the excessive wooden furniture probably 'betrayed' the hotel's relatively new (since 2007) existence, some of them appeared of considerable age, though I don't really mind. As for the bedding, although it was a twin room, I believe the beds are more likely double beds, and the hotel was considerate enough to include a bolster and two pillows to each bed! Talk about comfort, no hotel I came across had ever been so considerate! And I haven't yet mention, when the housekeeper noticed that I had two bottles of wine (complimentary of Distell), he was kind enough to put some ice inside the wine cooler for us! Now how's that human factor of a 5 stars hotel? Absolutely brilliant! Our room rate included free Wifi in the room, although I was told a maximum of up to 2 devices can be connected at no charge, I didn't see any real restriction, not even a password prompt.
Anyway, it was well over lunch time, we didn't wasted much time to decide going for lunch at the mega shopping mall next door, 1 Utama, the biggest shopping mall I ever visited! But before I carry on our visit to 1 Utama, let me touch on a little more on the hotel interior!
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| Main Lobby |
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| The glamourous main lobby with reception counter at the right corner of the picture |
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| Havana Club @ Main Lobby |
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| Concourse Level - Basement |
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| Lift, main lobby |
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| Rear door to 1 Utama Shopping Center on Ground Floor |
We struggled a little to find our way to 1 Utama, and wondered to the wrong KPMG building instead before asking a kind lady's help for direction. Turned out, the entrance to 1 Utama was just hidden beside the lift entrance, quite simply, just next to the hotel!
We didn't take long to find our way to the gourmet zone at basement. I won't use the term spoilt for choices, but it did offer a good variety of food there. Though the prices were a bit deeper than what I'd expect to get from food court back home, it actually resembled more of a restaurant.
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| Coriander Soup (RM11.90++) |
Mum had a Fish Ball & Bitter Gourd soup (苦瓜鱼滑汤) with machined made long noodles, while I had the Coriander Soup (芫荽汤) with hand tore noodles. My order comprised of 'home made' noodle dough blended with fresh coriander, fried anchovy, minced chicken, mushroom, fungus, and bean curd sheet. No pork. I can understand, they probably having problem hiring Chinese assistants, and some of their staffs were actually Muslim. It's weird though, most of the staffs there were either Malay or Myanmar Chinese, none could speak Mandarin nor English, yet their cuisine was apparently Chinese, and their menu was in Chinese & English! It was fascinating communicating with the waiter, reminded me of my Japan trips, we had to communicate in sign language! But such occurrences are getting rare in Malaysia, as most of its people actually speaks a reasonably good English, far popular than my previous KL visit more than a decade ago. Back to the noodle, I'm not saying it's excellent, but it was something very different and nice! Back home in Singapore, it's tough to find an outlet giving so generous portion of coriander leaves, which spiced up the soup somewhat. The hand made noodle, while lacking character, was at least chewy and kept itself from any unwanted alkaline reminiscence.
After our lunch, I had to rush back hotel to meet Betsy at 4pm, who would be handing us welcome packs to the LPGA tournament. Apart from the Sime Darby LPGA VIP Passes, I was surprise Betsy also passed me two bottles of wine, Nederburg of course, a 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon and a 2012 Sauvignon Blanc for our consumption during our stay here! She even told me that there would be complimentary BMW ferrying us to the golf course, some 10 minutes drive away. Oh great, then confirmed we would be there for the lunch in the next couple of days! :P But things just didn't always happen smoothly... and I shall explain in a little while.
Mum wasn't feeling quite well, so she retired to the room for rest while I set on exploring 1 Utama. I needed to reconnaissance for the bus to LCCT (1 Utama has a shuttle bus to LCCT by Air Asia, and we'll need to transfer Airport Liner shuttle bus for KLIA thereafter), as well as the buses to the nearest LRT station at Kelana Jaya, apart from getting some vaccine for my shopping addiction :)
1 Utama Transport Hub
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| Air Asia's Sky Bus for LCCT |
As it turned out, the coach bay was at the long end of 1 Utama, I spent some 15 minutes discovering it as I blundered according to the signage along the way before finding out it was on the basement level.
Malaysia had the intention to turn 1 Utama as a transportation hub to divert traffic from the busy KL city center, as such, there are some coaches terminating here from Penang, Ipoh, Genting, and even Singapore! But for airport, there is only Sky Bus from Air Asia. And since Air Asia is currently rooting in LCCT, naturally that's its destination. However, as I learnt, this so called transportation hub was a lacklustre one, I felt it desperately lacked the essential mass rapid transit system. And during the evening when I recce, there's only coaches for LCCT and Genting, the crowd was simply absent here. I would say, 1 Utama is more likely a transport hub for residents in the vicinity instead, that is the more appropriate definition.
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| This picture shows a good location of the coach bay and bus stop location |
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| Bus stop near 1 Utama |
I found out if one applies for 1 Utama's OneCard program, he may take a free schedule transport to Kelana Jaya LRT station, but I just don't know whether one can board it even if he's willing to pay for it. Other than that, there are Rapid KL buses plying between 1 Utama to KL Sentral, Kelena Jaya, Putrajaya etc. Just follow the covered linkway along the carpark behind the coach bay, the bus stop is about 3 minutes walk up slope.
I was fascinated by the digital timetable, Malaysia has definitely progressed much. But the agonising fact was, some buses interval can be as long as 30 over minutes or probably more, expect merry-go-round and a crowded bus particularly during peak hours. My understanding from the url below was that currently, Rapid KL buses U89 (Kelana Jaya LRT), T43 (Kelana LRT, Putrajaya Sentral), U82 (KL Sentral) are the most useful buses stopping here. I didn't need the trouble to test it out because One World Hotel provides complimentary shuttle buses to KLCC, Sunway Lagoon, The Curve, and more schedules for KL Sentral! This was just my contingency plan, in case I missed the hotel free shuttle.
http://www.1utama.com.my/TransportationHub.aspx
And one advice for hotel guests, it may be more sensible to take coaches (or any other form of transport) from KL Sentral to KLIA, not just it's cheaper, but also more convenient because the Airport Liner shuttling between LCCT and KLIA is not only crowded (you carry your luggage onboard, but very time consuming and not productive.
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| Oyster King's Lala Fried Mee Hoon (RM7.50) |
Alright, so much for 1 Utama transport hub, right after that, I simply window shopped inside 1 Utama until around 8.25pm before returning to the hotel, but not before having a late dinner of course. I was tempted to try Oyster King's fried oysters, but thought better had it with mum another day. Their mee hoon was much thinner than those I could find in Singapore, tastier in my opinion. Though the lala somewhat tasted rather mild, but the egg and prawns really spiced up the mee hoon. After that, I grabbed chengdol from Mr Cendol round the corner with a buy one get one free take away promotion at RM4.50, quite nice, but I won't call it spectacular.
Day 2: 12 Oct 2013, Sat
We woke up around 6am in the morning, and within half an hour, found ourselves in Cinnamon restaurant for our complimentary buffet breakfast. When we reached, there were lots of Caucasians, apparently, most of them were here for the LPGA tournament, competitors and their associates. I couldn't recognise any of them though, I hardly follow LPGA. In fact, I only heard of Michelle Wie (American of Korean descendant), but I couldn't remember how she looked like.
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| Muffins, donuts, and bread pudding |
One World Hotel's buffet breakfast at Cinnamon was very sumptuous. I won't brag to say all their entries were top notch, but they did have some very remarkable stuffs. Normally, I would start with confectionery. Their donuts and muffins were rather normal, so was the bread pudding.
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| Chawamushi, cold soba, and various pickles |
But their Japanese entrees were remarkable, tasted better than conventional breakfast I had at Toyoko-Inn back in Japan. I like the octopus pickles particularly, and could have gone a few more rounds on these appetising entrees had I not wanted to try their other cuisines.
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| Egg prata, putu mayam, and chicken siew mai |
Their Indian entrees were somewhat disappointing. I love putu mayam, but instead of serving red sugar, they served brown sugar here, which took away the much desired sweetness. I prefer their prata to be a little crispier, a little more roasted, but the prata here tasted a little mediocre. Forget the chicken siew mai, which I took from the Chinese dim sum section. I understand their staffs here were majority muslim, as such, they could not do with any pork entree. But knowing dim sum primarily comprises pork, any other substitute would generally render the replication futile, unless the chef would be of top grade, but unfortunately not the case here.
We had breakfast until around 9am, thereafter, retired back to our room for further rest before going down again for the LPGA at 11am, when I reckoned it was about time for our lunch despite the fact we were not really hungry yet.
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| KLGCC Reception Area |
Betsy told us there would be BMWs ferrying us to the KLGCC free of charge, and so, we proceeded to the concourse level (aka basement) for a pickup car. A black BMW picked us up and sent us to KLGCC in about 10 minutes. My intention was mainly going there to have lunch, and took a glance at the golf course, not really walking through the entire 18 holes. The car dropped us off at the reception area, where it was rather crowded when we arrived. Nederburg granted us VIP access to the Patrons Club (other sponsors will probably have their own club room during the tournaments), it was located on the 2nd level in one corner and took us sometime to find. Over there, we were entitled free meals, drinks (including their elementary red and white wines of course), and there were several large Sharp TV broadcasting the tournament live.
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| I was quite tempted by their nice pool, but I wasn't in an attire to swim :( |
I was rather surprise to see Singapore Airlines having Hospitality area there as well, why not sent us on an SQ flight then? Even though we would still logically be on that same flight (code sharing with MAS and Silkair), but at least we could earn some mileage points :P On the hind side, good thing we didn't, because MAS airlines provided me with priority boarding and convenience in boarding an earlier flight back home than scheduled. Anyway, I'll come to that later.
I did some research online prior to arriving, and noted that a standard 4 days pass cost about RM64, but there would be no pricing on any VIP passes, which entitled holders to certain privileges, such as free meals and drinks. Betsy actually given me passes for the entire tournament, but we only reached KL on the 2nd day.
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| Nederburg's booth inside the Patrons Club |
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| Buffet |
The buffet option was mediocre, probably because the guest size was small. Anyway, the quality was no way impressive. I actually found myself favouring the local pastries more. Yet I couldn't eat much because I was still rather full from the breakfast. There were free flow juices, bottled drinks, and of course, wines.
Although I have never visited a golf course before, but KLGCC really impressed me. It was quite a pretty sight, with stunning pool, great viewing balconies, and well-maintained path for a jolly stroll. We just casually walked around for about 10 minutes, more of digesting actually, before deciding to make our way back to hotel.
However, as we made our way to the concierge for a ride back, we were told only players and their associate were entitled for the free ride! They claimed there were some misunderstanding with the hotel and they would work to rectify that. I used whatever reasons I could think of and somehow managed to convince them for an exception. But that somehow ruled out my intention to visit for the next day. I didn't want to pay return taxi fare for the trip :D The food wasn't worth it, not to mention the unpredictable weather (it had been raining for the past few days).
So, mum's back to the hotel for more rest, while I set off for more shopping upon getting back to our hotel.
One World Hotel Shuttle Service
http://www.oneworldhotel.com.my/about/hotel-services/shuttle-service/
OK, I was set to utilise hotel's complimentary transport service. Before I begin, let me post a picture of the shuttle bus, so it will be easy to identify from a distance for arriving guest.
Right, I know, my apologies, a car blocked the left side of the shuttle bus so I wasn't able to capture a good image on the correct side of the shuttle bus, but maybe take a look at this picture from another fellow blogger:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvl12KnuJw3tyRm4WY7h8tTewFcUurBZ2nRpeuNw9RSGD8J8FnqFnpfU5cmJByoSh1qqmO6Z6wr5yaSHvRQeRZk6QpypAvKwCrNkmgFeFBdB2E9zonNeFAVc78y4coMso5Nprc49nr5xPw/s1600/Kidzania256+copy.jpg
Quite simply, the connection to KL Sentral would be essential, which can bring you to many spots in the city via KTM Komuter, LRT, KL Ekspres etc.
I booked the 2pm shuttle bus for KL Sentral. Somehow, the shuttle bus didn't turn up, and the concierge sent me to KL Sentral in a cab instead, assuring me that I won't have to pay for it. But that's clumsy, because the taxi driver dropped me off at the departure hall (P2 as indicated in the above map), which I assumed was the correct pickup point (P1 as indicated on the above map) and caused some unnecessarily confusion. The fare was about RM28, as I noted on the meter, which the driver probably on it to claim back from the hotel.
It took me a brief few minutes to figure out how to get to Mid Valley, a mega mall in KL I had long wanted to visit before LRT ply there. I bought a RM1 ticket from KTM Komuter counter, and proceeded to the platform for Seremban, and Mid Valley is just one station away. The train arrived rather promptly and relatively unoccupied, and the trip lasted just 5 minutes.
The Mid Valley station however, was a sorry sight. I thought with the crowd at Mid Valley, it should be significantly larger to accommodate the volume, but it's just a small station beside Mid Valley Mega Mall, at least it came with sheltered link way to the mall.
Mid Valley is indeed a gigantic mall, but smaller comparing to 1 Utama and also more congested. It's also link to Gardens Mall next door with a common underground shopping arena.
I window shopped at both malls until 5pm, bought some cheap bread from La Boheme back, in case mum wanted to eat.
I deliberately arrived KL Sentral earlier with some buffer in case the hotel shuttle arrived before designated time. Indeed it did, it came at 5.52pm, and I dashed out to wave it over once I recognised the hotel logo from afar. The driver looked surprise, but readily picked me up to the hotel. And we reached hotel in 18 minutes. I had enough shopping for the day, and stayed inside the room to watch TV program for the rest of the evening since mum didn't want to have dinner. Slept late though, gotta finish some 'homework' before I retired.
Day 3: 13 Oct 2013, Sun
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| I love the confectionery, and almost always start with them! |
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| Japanese seems their best entree |
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| Simple but nice porridge |
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| Lovely pancakes with honey and maple syrup (and cream!) |
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| I just discovered they serve Cuppuccino upon request! |
Woke up at 6.50am this morning, and had breakfast at Cinnamon at 7.30am. I tried to have a little different entrees today in a continuous effort to savour as much they have to offer. I love their Japanese breakfast, I could see they tried to offer a little variation in the ingredients that could easily overlooked not least one try. I made sure I had enough to skip lunch before retiring back to the room at 8.40am, but not before booking the 10am hotel shuttle service to KLCC.
We came back down a quarter before ten, and boarded their shuttle bus by 9.55am. There were two other passengers taking the shuttle to Sunway Lagoon too, and the bus had to make a big loop before dropping us at KLCC around 10.44am, at the pick up point between Burberry and Coach in KLCC. It was nice time to start shopping, before massive crowd began invading this popular shopping center. For me, it was nostalgic, I always visit KLCC whenever I am in KL, nevermind I never bought anything here before :P
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| Go KL Bus - Green Line |
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| Go KL Bus interior |
So, by 12pm, we were ready to leave KLCC and go downtown. Now's the interesting part, a couple of years ago, Malaysia implemented a new initiative of two free downtown bus routes, collectively named Go KL Bus, with one Purple Line, and one Green Line. The buses offer free wifi onboard too! We walked through the tunnel, came up at a bus stop along Jalan Ampang, and found a purple-coloured Go KL Bus waiting at the bus bay. Make no mistake, this was a Green Line despite its exterior colour, and KLCC is the terminal stop for the Green Line. We got ourselves a seat at the back, and it was 12.18pm when the bus began its trip.
The bus got relatively crowded even before it started its journey. I discovered that the name of the stops did not coincide with what specified on the map. I suppose one has to have sufficient local knowledge utilising this free service or fear missing your destination. So I couldn't help orientating myself with a map along the way.
Shortly before the bus turning into Berjaya Times Square, we witnessed two taxi drivers fighting in the middle of the road. There was a collision, and the bus had to stop for a few minutes as traffic was a little chaotic, fellow drivers and passerby had to pull the fighting drivers apart. Anyway, we reached Berjaya Times Square at 12.33pm, and this was where I decided to start my walking trip downtown.
Funny, in my previous visits to KL more than a decade ago, I had never managed to find Berjaya Times Square. This time, the bus just stop right beside it! I have to say, apart from a game park inside, Berjaya Times Square was a big let down. The upper levels are mostly fashion retailers, and the lower mostly restaurants. It is mediocre comparing to Mid Valley, let alone 1 Utama. Anyway, we had some herbal tea there, which was good for mum as she was not feeling well for this whole trip. After that, we left Berjaya Times Square and headed for Jalan Alor. I was lost for a quarter of an hour for a start, all this while, I thought Berjaya Times Square was along Jalan Bukit Bintang, I was wrong, it is actually situated along Jalan Imbi, no wonder I had never managed to find it before. After passing through Jalan Bukit Bintang, I was surprised by the change. I thought this avenue was much broader, but perhaps I haven't been here for a long while, what used to be Malaysia's version of Orchard Road, now look like a streamlined street.
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| Jalan Alor, more cars than stalls in the afternoon |
I thought of getting some nice and cheap local food from Jalan Alor, but I found we were here too early, many stores were not in operation yet. Whatever gave me the idea they began business after noon? There were a handful, but certainly not even a quarter of what I remember last time round. Disappointed.
We were far too away from the monorail, so I decided we should take a stroll to our next destination, Petaling Street (not to be confused with Petaling Jaya, they are miles apart). Along the way, we passed by Swiss Garden Hotel, where we used to stay. Mum and I still recalled they offered excellent buffet breakfast, but frankly speaking, it was still a far cry in comparison to what we had at One World Hotel. Then also, we saw the popular Puduraya Bus Station, now Pudu Sentral. There are still highway coaches plying here, but the frequency is definitely much reduced, not even a fifth of its former glory. I like it this way though, for this main road had three lanes with many coaches hogging one, and some trying desperately trying to cut in from the middle lane, leaving just the extreme right lane for other vehicles. Sometime, it took more than 30 minutes to pass through this sector, and now it only takes 1! The interior of Pudu Sentral has seen vast improvement too, much more comfortable with air-conditioned waiting area.
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| Jalan Sultan, entrance to Chinatown |
We cut through Pudu Sentral and there was the oh so familiar Chinatown in sight at 2.40pm. I missed the Ipoh Hor Fun I tried many years back, it was no longer there! Again, seemed like we were there too early, it wasn't as noisy as before. I couldn't help it, mum wasn't feeling well, and I had difficulty squeezing activities to justify taking the evening free shuttle bus back to hotel, which had to be pre-arranged anyway. While we were at Chinatown, we only bought a peanut pastry (面煎糕) and a cup of cool herbal drink. Mum also bought a minion (Despicable Me!) for her grandchild. But overall, I was no longer fascinated by those counterfeit products selling there like I used to, a visit to Chinatown was very much for nostalgic purpose. After visiting a temple at the edge of Chinatown, we thought we had enough, and decided to leave early for KL Sentral.
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| More Go KL Buses outside Pasar Seni LRT station, these were plying the Purple Line |
We were at Pasar Seni LRT station by 4.11pm, I was particularly awed by the number of Go KL buses there. We boarded the LRT for KL Sentral, which is just one stop away, cost a paltry RM1, and took just 3 minutes. It would take a good 105 minutes before the pick up shuttle arrived, I initially wanted to bring mum to Mid Valley, but she would rather wait at the station. Very well, I watched movie on my iPad, time fliew really fast!
The shuttle bus arrived 10 to five. The driver expressed surprise why we boarded the bus there, he exclaimed that we were waiting at the departure hall when we should actually have waited at the arrival hall. But it was here the taxi driver dropped me off the very first day! Anyway, we reached hotel ten after six, and decided to go for dinner at 1 Utama before getting back to our room.
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| Musashi Tsukemen (RM27+) |
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| Dipping broth for tsukemen |
Mum preferred some meal with soup, and we settled for Japanese ramen at Isetan's food hall, at Menya Musashi (麵屋武藏) to be exact. She ordered a Musashi Ramen in shiro (onion flavour oil) (RM26+), while I tried out their Musashi Tsukemen. I had never try tsukemen before, it is consumed by dipping dried noodle in a bowl of concentrated broth, so that noodle doesn't get soggy under prolonged soaking in the broth. The beauty of their tsukemen was, I was allowed to select the portion of noodle, betweeen 1 serving to 2.5 serving (in a step of 0.5), at no extra charge. I took advantage by having the largest bowl, and managed to finish all. It was quite filling, and my bowl of noodle came with 3 very large slices of lean char shu, half egg, black fungus, and spring onions. In contrast, mum couldn't finish her dinner though, she got sick of the pork scent in the soup. After dinner, we had a brief shopping before returning to room 1011 at 8pm.
Slept late.
Day 4: 14 Oct 2013, Mon
Coming into our last day in Petaling Jaya, I couldn't help beginning missing the hotel's sumptuous breakfast, though good or not was another matter altogether. I woke up at 6.45am, tidy up my luggage, before having breakfast at Cinnamon, at 8am. Today, I hardly saw any Caucasian ladies, I suppose that meant almost all of them were Sime Darby LPGA competitors who left yesterday evening.
That's all? LOL, no, don't be taken in by the number of pictures, I also had my favourite Japanese breakfast among others, and a Latte too! But I don't see a need to include similar pictures I already shared in this post. What was different from the previous two days were notably the local pastries, some nonya kueh. Seriously, I tried something better back home, and I'm sure elsewhere in Malaysia too! What I'm trying to reiterate is that, One World Hotel's breakfast offers much variety, not necessarily best in terms of quality, but not bad too. And I noted for some food, they alternate every other day, like the Japanese breakfast where I observed minor ingredients changed.
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| Air Asia's Sky Bus tickets to LCCT, RM15 |
We finished our breakfast at 9.40am, and decided to take a walk to 1 Utama's Air Asia Sky Bus booth to advance purchase our coach ticket to LCCT. Frankly speaking, I feel that 1 Utama (or rather Petaling Jaya) is closer to LCCT than KL Sentral. But if you take Air Asia's Sky Bus from KL Sentral, you pay only RM9, and they have more frequency there. There are other bus companies going KLIA for RM10. I thought it would be more convenient if we boarded the bus at I Utama, so I didn't mind paying extra to save the trouble, but I was wrong. That would be true if we were taking a flight from LCCT. As for KLIA, I'll leave it later in the post to elaborate why it would be a better idea to take a direct coach from KL Sentral. Right here, I was trying to confirm at that time, that Air Asia would have a bus WAITING at my desired time, and not coming late like our MAS flight here. Otherwise, last minute ticket purchase would be perfectly fine.
We were back at our room by 10.50am, I read the local papers until about 12.10pm, when we checked out from the hotel, and dragging our luggage to 1 Utama's coach bay. We reached there with much buffer, and I was glad the coach was already waiting.
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| Sky Bus & its interior |
I was shocked when I saw the label in front of the bus! I thought it was going to stopover at KL Sentral, but fortunately not, I really didn't build in time buffer for that. I guessed this probably was a replacement bus and they didn't bother to replace the label. Inside the coach, the seats appeared rather worn out, and many previous passengers conveniently disposed of their waste in the pouch at the back of the seat, what an ugly sight.
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| I really hate taking pictures with my luggage, but I felt obliged to take one on the LCCT |
Our coach departed for LCCT punctually at 1pm, we reached LCCT at 2.03pm on a smooth ride, no jam. But it took me a little while to figure out where to catch our connection bus to KLIA. Note the flag posts at the left end of the picture? The shuttle buses to KLIA were departing from there. I found LCCT larger than my expectation, and livelier than KLIA. We didn't have time to explore LCCT, and caught the crowded shuttle bus waiting there for @RM2.50. It was rather packed, but we managed to grabbed a pair of seats at the front of the bus, with our big luggages on our lap! Trust me, you won't want to leave your luggage in the bus' luggage compartment even if it's available in the first place. My understanding was that, the interval for the shuttle bus was 30 minutes, and it took us 16 minutes to reach KLIA on a good traffic. Late passengers really struggled to carry their luggage in that congested bus, without a seat! Moreover, the locations of the KLIA and LCCT is such, that vehicles approaching from town will reach some sort of a Y diversion, where the two terminals are at both pointed ends and no buses can simply cut across directly, so the shuttle bus would have to get back through the breakout point in order to reach the other terminal. Not productive. Beside, it could really take one hour to traverse between the two terminals if you missed one shuttle bus and encounter bad traffic.
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| Airport Liner plying between KLIA and LCCT, and I suspect, Nilai KTM station |
This is the picture I managed to snap upon alighting at KLIA. It's just a normal aircon bus, I won't call it a coach. Packed with standing passengers carrying their luggages, and I didn't notice any luggage compartment. With taxi plying between the two terminals charging sky high prices, I really don't recommend passengers with large luggage traversing between LCCT and KLIA unless totally necessary. Which is the reason why I regret we didn't take the hotel's shuttle bus to KL Sentral for a direct coach to KLIA, cheaper, more cost efficient and convenient.
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| KLIA |
We reached KLIA at 2.31pm, so our trip from 1 Utama took a good 90 minutes on a smooth traffic on public transport. Our flight MH613 was scheduled at 5.25pm, there would be a lengthy 3 hours wait. I have heard stories about shuttle flights between Singapore and Malaysia are flexible, and one can board any flight if seats are available. So I approach the airline counter asking on the possibility of switching to an earlier flight. The kind lady told me flight MH605 departing at 4.30pm still had lots of seats available, and there would be no charge if we were put on standby list (instead of a confirmed switch before hand). So, we gleefully switched to an earlier flight home. By 3.10pm, we already cleared custom and waiting in the duty free zone for our flight.
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| Duty Free |
I hope I'm not offending my Malaysian friends, but I found KLIA rather lacklustre comparing to Changi or Chek Lap Kok (HK). I don't even want to mention JFK, Frankfurt, Schiphol etc. It was small but efficient, at least didn't seem as chaotic as Changi airport at times. But we were very disappointed with the main terminal's duty free area, mum was trying to find some hot food, and all they had was just Old Town White Coffee. Outlets here were few and limited. I wanted to explore the Satellite Building but mum was reluctant. I only found out after arriving home, that there really were more retailing and dining outlets in the satellite building. Anyway, in my opinion, it was poor planning by the authority, there was no sign nor map to point out more shopping outlets there (despite my active search for any), I merely thought it was just a replication of their mediocre main terminal. I'm not trying to be biase, but there's really no experience like Changi!
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| MH605, at least it took off punctually... |
Alas, I finally come to the end of this post, we truly enjoyed what we called a gourmet trip (instead of LPGA trip), and for me, the shopping experience at 1 Utama was exceptional, not to mention Mid Valley, although I found KLCC relegated down my preference list now :P
I hope this post helps your planning in visiting Malaysia, but please do not reproduce any of my work for commercial purpose.
