Malaysia Stint

Got the chance to visit Malaysia (JB and KL that is-to be more exact) last weekend with Arlene and Carlo. Aside from being curious to see the place, it was Rosenelle's birthday celebration too. We were all excited with our Malaysia adventure but got very disappointed the minoot we stepped in Malaysia Immigration, in Johor Bahru (JB). We had to queue for 30 minutes just to pass through their immigration. We were soo drenched in sweat! It was soo hot (it seemed like their aircons were not on), crowded and gloomy-grrr..... We met Rosenelle and Papa P (our welcoming committee) at the immigration's exit at around 5:30pm and immediately rode the "teksi" to Larkin-JB's bus station, where we took our ride to KL. We were hoping to catch the 6:30 bus but it was fully booked (since it was a long weekend)-next bus was at 9:30pm.:( We had no choice but to wait for 4 hours-which we spent on non-stop chika and tawanan.

The bus ride was ok. We didnt really notice it as we were sleeping most of time- we think the bus driver was asleep too (there were times when we would feel the bus swerve then stop on the shoulder of the freeway without any reason). We arrived KL at 2 am and headed straight to Corus Hotel (thanks to Rosenelle's company-hehehe!!!). Then we had our dinner (at 2:30 am) and our first taste of Malay food at a near by 24 hour fast food joint. It was Rosenelle's first birthday treat (later followed by breakfast and dinner treat). By the time we got back at the hotel it was almost 4am. We called it a day and dozed off to prepare for our Petronas tour at supposedly 8:30 am.

As expected, we didnt get up on time. Ate breakfast at 10 am (breakfast was only til 10:30am-we buzzed Carlo at 10:25am for some reason-hehehe!!!) and immediately dressed up for our "gala." First stop was the Petronas Twin Tower, KLCC, the tallest building in the world. We were lucky to get tickets to go up the bridge, at the 41st floor, and ride the fastest elevator in the world.(Trivia: only 1,000 tickets are issued per day-lucky ticket holders get the chance to go up to the bridge). There was a good view of KL from there that we couldn't get enough of taking pictures-feeling Catherine Zeta-Jones and Sean Connery in their "Entrapment" movie. It was a short tour of PTT but worth it-just the fact of seeing Petronas personally was already overwhelming, especially at night when all the lights are on-awesome!!! Next stop was in one of the food courts in KLCC where we had our late lunch. This time KKB. After lunch, we couldn't decide whether to go buy souvenirs or hear mass. Since it was already past 4 (time flies soo fast when your having fun) and mass was at 5pm, we opted to go to church first. However, upon reaching St. John's Cathedral, we found out mass was still at 6pm. We wanted to go buy "pasalubongs" first but it started to rain and we didnt have parafernalia to protect us from the pouring rain. So, our beauties had to wait-it was time to do some catching up and sing together (our all time past time favorite). Yup, we sang in church-first in our repertoire was "sing praise..." Then we tried "munting along" but we couldnt remember the lyrics, so we decided to ended concert with "stay with us..."-pathetic ba?

Anyway, after mass, we bought our bus tickets, ate Papa Roti (yum!! :)) and went to one of KL's night market (according to Rosenelle that was somewhere in KL's chinatown)-but the place was terrible!!!! It was packed with all sorts of people and things and it was dirty (syempre market nga eh!!!). Arlene had her moments there. Didnt stay long at the night market, Carlo and Arlene just bought some cute shot glass souvenirs and I bought a bell for my folk's bell collection. Our last stop was at the KLCC where we met Rosenelle's friends and had our last meal in Malaysia (in Chinoz). Carlo, Arlene and I just had soup, ice tea and tasted the pasta and salad that Nene ordered-we werent that hungry. Though we (Curly, Arlene and I) thought of taking away Smoked Salmon Sandwiches in case we get hungry in the trip back to JB. Before leaving KLCC, we had our final pictures with the Petronas as our background.

We were scheduled to leave KL at 10:30 pm, so we made sure we were at the bus station a few minoots earlier. However, before leaving KL, we had our last unforgettable experience. While buying mineral water for our trip, a lady, who was a few feet away from us, shouted (in malay) "magnanakaw! magnanakaw!" and at once there was a commotion. It was freakin scary!!!!! Arlene and Carlo kept on laughing at me. According to them they saw the Assumptionista side of me-hehehe!!!! I guess that was my moment. It took me sometime to get over the incident-im glad i did with the help of Arlene and Carlo.

We arrived JB at 2 am. It was difficult to get a "teksi" from where we got off, but we had fun laughing our hearts out in the empty streets of JB (para kaming may "sapi" in the wee hours of the morning). We stayed for a few hours in Rosenelle's place-again laughing at our experiences and at non-sense things. And at 6 am, we finally left for Singapore.

Our Malaysia stint was rather tiring and disappointing. I guess it was because we saw the dark side of Malaysia, particularly the dark side of KL. On the other hand, inspite of the unsightful things we saw and encountered (aside from the Petronas Twin Towers), we still had fun. It was indeed a very rare experience and I guess one way or another, we wouldn't have want it any other way-hehehe!!!!

If you want to see more pictures, just click on the title of this entry. Feel free to click on any of the pictures there to see the captions. Have fun viewing our pics!!!!