Timeless Elegance: Hello World!

Saturday, April 02, 2005

Hello World!

It's been a long time since I updated. Haha...feeling so slack lately, and I have a dozen things I want to do before sitting in front of the computer and do updates. Not to mention that my work is so draining, all I want to do is to go home, eat, and sleep. Sounds like a pig! Anyway... day 2 of my KL trip...I should write it all out before I forget and before I procastinate till it's too duh to continue. Haha...

On a sidenote, did I mention that my PC has spoilt! -_- Again! 2nd time in 6 months. And all my computer experts are having attachment overseas...so no one to fix it for me this time...sheesh~ Damn sad.

My Monkeys and My Key Cards =)

One of the photos I took when I had nothing much to do lar...

Some of the photos I took on the 2nd day before we set off...

The View from My Room

Our view was quite limited, but it's nice enough anyway. The swimming pool is shared with another hotel, Le Meridien, so that's why it is so big. The Le Meridien is right beside Hilton.

And so, we went out after admiring the scenary! We didn't set out very early, because we were both pigs and enjoying the beds, so the sun was wayyyy up. Haha. But we did settle for MacDonald's breaky (clement forgot to book the hotel with the breakfast lar!!!). MacDonald's in Malaysia was pretty cheap! So, it was good also. Anyway if we had breakfast counted in for our hotel, then we would have to wake up early to eat, which, on several occassions, we found it hard. LoL~

We found our way to the KL Sentral Station, the one which we came from the airport the night before. We didn't know that it was so near the hotel till we asked the porters hanging around by the lobby. Hehe. People there were really friendly, when we stepped out they were asking whether they can help us with anyway. Maybe it's because it's a new hotel, so impressions are important, that's why the impeccable service. Anyway we soon found our way to the station, and were told that there's a KL Monorail which can bring us around the city of KL just beside the central station. Thus we ate at the KL Sentral Station (the Mac) and then proceeded to look for the KL Monorail lar...

While crossing the road, we found a very interesting Walking Green Man traffic light! Hehe~ So being boliao I made clement take photo lar.

That's me taken at the traffic light. Behind me, the horizontal long building is the KL Sentral Station, the 2 tall buildings are the hotels, Hilton on the left and Le Meridien on the right. That's how close our hotel is to the KL Monorail. And on the top of the picture the funny looking structure is the track of the monorail lor. It runs on electricity, similar to that of the Sentosa's.

Anyway, our first stop was the KL Tower, that tall spaceship-looking tower as shown from the above photos. After looking at the maps, we found out that one of the station is nearest to it, so we took the monorail there.

While waiting I took photos at the station. (It's always me because clement wants to hold the camera... -_-)

Looks very crowded isn't it? It was very crowded when we took the monorail, probably because it's the 1st stop...but since people were getting to work, the crowd thinned out. And I wanna add...the ticket prices were relatively cheap! Haha...at least cheaper than in Singapore lar...

Anyway we could take photos when more people alighted from the train. And Mr Clement was holding our tickets...so I made him pose with it. Haha.

That's the interior of the train. It's quite an odd layout because it seems like the center strip faces the door. Anyway unlike the Sentosa's, this monorail is almost like Singapore's LRT system, except that it has a driver. But it runs on a single beam of track...so it's like a hybrid of the Sentosa's monorail and also the LRT lar...

I have somemore photos of the monorail...but I will put it on the other posts because I took more photos on it on our last day. Heh~

Anyway when we got to the station, we asked the station control the directions to KL Tower. And she said that we have to take taxi there. When clement asked if we could walk there, she said it would take very long. This was quite unexpected for us, because from the map the KL Tower looks so near...And so, we decide to be adventurous and follow the map and try to walk there lor....

It was indeed, a long long walk, we both were sweating like nobody's business. Haha~ But then we consoled ourselves by saying it's high time we exercise. -_- Like so duh! Haha. Come all the way to Malaysia to exercise! Sheesh~ But we fooled around with the camera anyways....so...

The bo liao us decided to take photos of ourselves at the Dang Wangi station...and we were lamenting why we didn't take the train instead of the monorail...because after walking for about 10 mins from the monorail station we saw this train station across the road. By the way, KL has so many train lines...that we were a bit blur. Almost all of them start from the KL Sentral Station, and the monorail was like, a new line, but seperate from the station.

Anyway we saw the SIA House building and we were like, Oooh...saw something from Singapore at last. -_- So duh...but we were trying to entertain ourselves while walking to the KL Tower mah...At this point we still didn't know where's the KL Tower hor. But we never thought we could get lost. Haha...Keep the faith man!

And so, we finally found our way to the elusive KL Tower after walking for almost 20 minutes lor. Hehe. We saw this 2 ang-mohs with maps and all that...so we assumed that they should be walking towards the same destination as us lar! And so we followed them...hehehe.

The 2 ang-mohs led us here, and there were taking photos of them pointing to the KL Tower and so we stopped to have a photo too! But you see those greenery surrounding the tower right? Haiiz. It's actually a hill lar! Hill-park sorta...the tower is located on a hill and so we have to climb! -_- Imagine, walking in the sweltering hot sun for 30 minutes already still have to climb a hill?!?!?! But no choice, we were so near yet so far...so we had to proceed on and climb....

We were lost as to how to get into the hill-park (there were so many roads leading everywhere) so we approached the security guard at one of the buildings. Most of the buildings there were churches I think, or half-way homes. Anyway the security guard recognised us as Singaporeans, then assured us that we continue walking straight sure will see the entrance to the hill park lar. And so we slogged on...

Luckily we brought the bottled water out from the hotel, if not I think the both of us would have died of dehydration...we didn't even pass by a single 7-11 store during that 30 minute walk! -_- But we wept for joy when we saw the sign....haha.

We were so close! Yay. And at last we reached the end of the hill park after climbing up the very zig-zagging road....

Made it! Yayyy. Haha. And so we decided that the taxi wasn't needed after all, since we could find our way there. We both felt very clever. LoL~

Heh~ Posed for a bit of photos before going out. We certainly didn't look very sweaty, but we were. And we were both darn tired also lar! Hehe. And so we quickly went up le lor.

We were foreigners lor, so we paid RM15.00 each. If you are a Malaysian I think you pay RM8.00 each to go up. Oh well, guess it doesn't make any difference. Haha. Most important is that we made it there. Haha.

It was very funny though, when we passed through the gantry, both me and mr clement were greeted by 2 ladies. As I walked through the scanner and all that, the 2 ladies told me, "Welcome to KL Tower". When mr clement walked behind me, they told him, "Konichiwa" the Japanese-equivalent of "Welcome". I heard it, mr clement heard it, we both laughed about it in the lift. Haha. I can't believe it. They must have thought mr clement was Japanese, since he had small eyes with that toot hairstyle. Whahaha. We both pengz...LoL~

Anyway after that, we reached the top le. (Also known as Observation Deck) They gave us this little recorders which was supposed to act as our tour-guide. It's supposed to be a pre-recorded guided tour of the views we were supposed to see anyway.

Recognise the last pic? It was the Dang Wangi station which mr clement and I took turns to take photos while walking to the tower. Haha. So we were close, but surrounded by the hill and trees so we couldn't take a direct short-cut to the tower lar. The 2 tall buildings on the top-right are the world-famous Petronas Towers lar. We didn't managed to go up that building, because we didn't wake-up early enough to queue for the tix! Bleah~ But still, we could see them from the tower, so it ain't no matter! Hehe.

That's the pre-recorded guided tour player that mr clement is wearing on his neck lar. There are many channels on it, so depending on where you are, you can press the number on the keypad. That yellow flag behind mr clement with the ear-phone graphic and the number is the place where you should stand, and press number 11 to listen to the voice-recording for that section. Pretty cool right? Hehe. In the past when I came there wasn't such thing.

Anyway the views was quite good, since it wasn't very cloudy that day, but according to the information board, one can see as far as Genting on a very clear day. Hehe. So powerful sia.

So we waited on, waiting for the clouds to clear, waiting to see even more, waiting also for the crowd to ease. It's quite hard to see actually, because there were so many people, and many more people kept streaming in too...so it's quite terok lar. So have to wait for crowds to clear, so that can spot all those buildings which the sound-recording was talking about. Hehe. But actually hor, right now, if you ask me, I also cannot remember liao. Hehe.

That's us, but taken on seperate shots. We were trying out the camera 2-shot function whereby 1/2 will be taken first and the other half taken after. This is one of the more "successful shot". Hehe. It looks seamless mah...if not it is very obvious that the photos were taken twice, because the backgrounds do not match.

Actually we were scared to ask people take photo for us, for fear that they may just run off with the camera. Haha.

Anyway we spotted our hotel from high-above! So must take photo of course lar! :p And that's me pointing the Petronas Towers, because it's THE shot for anyone who visits the tower lar. How we know? The souvenir photos from KL Tower says so! Hehe~

So we hung around the tower for about 2 hours, before we went down because we were just too hungry. Hehe. There wasn't anything up there to eat anyway...only a cafe but it's not good enough for lunch, so we went and hired a cab this time (we don't want to walk back to the monorail again >.<) and went to one of their shopping centres, Lot 10.

Taking a cab is damn funny over there. You don't just hop on to 1 when you see 1. You have to go to the cab station, tell them where you want to go, and then they will quote you a price. You pay up, they will give you a receipt, and then call one of the cab drivers to drive you to wherever you said you want to go in the 1st place. And so the driver will drive you to your destination, and you need not pay again lar.

Anyway, we had lunch, and then we started to go shopping lor! Yay.....

We shopped at Lot 10 a little, think they have Isetan and Esprit and all those shops that we normally see in Singapore lar. But I can't remember liao...I think I bought clothes from Isetan, but ignored the MNG part inside there...although they were also having sale. The MNG was damn ex lor! After the 50% off the price is still the same 100% price of Singapore's, meaning that in Singapore, during the sale, the price will cost only a quarter that of Malaysia's. So I didn't buy lar. Hehe. Can come back here and buy lor. :)

Anyway we got out of Lot 10 and went to the other shopping centres along the stretch lor. And then found a 24-hour KFC there. Okies, actually one of mr clement's colleagues actually drew him a map and told him where to eat the best food and all that...and the 24-hour KFC is so-called the best because it is opened 24 hours lar! -_- Anyway in Malaysia, must always eat the KFC there, because the chicken there is sooo much better than that served in Singapore.

It's 10 times more tender than the Singapore's, and much more jucier. So it's really nice, even when you eat the breast meat. I told mr clement, and once he bit into the chicken he could tell the difference liao...and he said that KFC must have exported all the old chickens to Singapore, leaving the young chickens behind so that's why the meat tastes so different. Hmmm...I think it might be true yah!

This is the interior of Times Square. Doesn't it looks so...tall? I think there were at least 9 storeys of shops for you to shop until shiok shiok lar. But of course, there were lots of blank shops also, because no tenants lor. They have Debenhem's, a UK departmental store at the basement, whereby mr clement and I walked in and left after a mere 3 minutes. Because the things there were so expensive lar! I believe it's an up-market departmental store lar, because a blouse there costs RM200.00 okies. I will never pay more than S$50 for a top leh. It's excessive. Hehe.

Anyway, by then we had walked for the whole day and it was already 6pm, so we had Kenny Roger's for dinner. The restaurant is different from the one in Singapore, because they actually have menus and people who will serve you lar. The food is of course the same though. :) Both mr clement and me were darn sian of serving ourselves lar, so we decided to take Kenny Roger's so that people can serve us. Haha.

We discovered an indoor theme park after our dinner! Which is a waste because I was feeling darn full and didn't want to sit through an exciting roller coaster ride, because I was thinking I might really throw everything out. So we had to content with taking photos lor...

Doesn't it look exciting? Too bad we didn't have a chance to take the ride lar. Actually it's quite scary, because everytime the roller coaster starts rolling, they will cause the building to shake, the floor to shake...at first while shopping in the basement I didn't know why the floor was shaking the way it was, then realised it after our dinner lor. Hehe. So duh.

Anyway after shopping till all the shops wanna close liao, we decided to head back lar. And mr clement was whining about supper because he's just mouth-itchy. So upon consulting that mag I kapok from Genting the other time, we realised there's this famous Hokkien Mee near one of the monorail stations. So we went there and bought 1 pack lor. :)

That's the signboard, and the mee. It's a 5-10 minute walk from the monorail lor, and luckily it was pretty straight forward. Just walk straight all the way. Both mr clement and I were rather worried, because it was threatening to rain liao also. And it had rained a bit in the day, so the roads were wet. And there were lots of booby traps on the pavements and roads, because there were so many potholes so we have got to be very careful lor. And although it was by the road, the lights were dim and all that, so must be very careful. :)

Anyway the noodles are very nice lar! Malaysian hokkien mee is black in colour, unlike that in Singapore, I also dunno why. But this pack is enough for 2 persons (for us mah) and the chili was darn good! If I ever go there again I will buy lar. Hehe.

And so it's home-sweet-home on the 2nd day in KL. Hehe~

Stunningly Gorgeous Y 2:30 PM