Oh my Malaysia!

It may already sound too stale to write about it, but as I have promised (to myself) that I'll make an account trip, which I owe anyway to the fact that it was really a wonderful one, so I've got to tell!

I stopped at the Singapore train station I guess. Yeah, we moved to Malaysia via train, and used the Johor Bahru route. Remembering my first long train ride in Thailand, Malaysia is much closer to Philippines in terms of rural-ilty (if there is such a word). Of course, the countryside in Malaysia does not showcase shanties near train stations. And far, far more clean than Indian railways! No stinking smell and filth in sight. Johor Bahru I think is an economic zone, I saw some manufacturing plants on the way. But all in all, it's greenery in sight.

After four hours, we got down in Tampin station and someone picked us from there to take us to A'Famosa Resort in Melaka. The resort in itself is huge with quite a lot of things to do, including animal shows and the like. But we've just been through that in Singapore. It's a shame we stayed there overnight because the place is sooo nice to go, take a bike and tour by yourself around the resort. The food was 'accommodating' and provided a good number of Indian menu.

In the afternoon, we toured around Melaka. The place, being 'historical' evoked more than that, with the quietness and cleanliness, the city seems lacking of some 'verve' in it. I don't know, maybe we just didn't have enough time to see the whole place. We had good food as well, but it's not helping that we get stuffed with too much seafood!

Our accommodation was so spacious with terrace views and all, we found it such a good bargain! This place is good for family trips..for couples trying to get away too. ;-)

The next morning, another van picked us up at the hotel to take us to Kuala Lumpur. With so much traffic, we went straight for the city tour. There's not much to see. I didn't fancy much the Petronas Towers. The driver cum tourist guide took us to shops which he referred as 'factories' which turned out to be showrooms for shopping. The only shop I liked was the batik shop. I've always fancied batiks and of course, I bought a few items.

In the evening, we went around Bukit Bintang by monorail. We went shopping for sarongs and batiks (again!) and just ended hungry and tired. We were looking for some places to hang out, but it seems it's too expensive to go clubbing in KL.

The next morning, we left Grand Seasons Hotel early to travel to Genting Highlands. We stopped over to a Hindu temple and wen all the way up to a cave, 300 stairs high! I was gasping for breath, with monkeys looking at us, perhaps wondering how did it happen that these poor guys become a better version of themselves!

We reached our hotel in Genting via the Genting Skyway cable car. In Singapore I was freaking nervous whiel in the cable car, but this time, it was just totally relaxing. Passing by a 3km-long forest, looking down on canopies and getting that foggy feeling, I completely forgot I was up there. This one was really amazing.

Genting is more of an entertainment city, with all the rides (which I didn't like a lot anyway) and the casinos and what-have-you. The weather is good, and probably the city is the summer capital of Malaysia, much more like Philippines' own Baguio (except, again for the lack of pollution). The downside here is that since it's a bit cold, air-conditioned rooms are not required. Our host hotel for some reason also did not give us a room with a refrigerator. Our ready-made paranthas did not make it to KL airport.

KL International Airport is just almost as classy as Changi Airport, only it took us forever to get there, as traffic was really bad, approaching back to KL the next morning. I've seen lots of palm plantation and wide roads on the way to the airport. I've learned a few from our driver (who told me that Filipina women are very beautiful, and then after a long pause and aftetr thanking him, he added...those that live in their country, not the ones living outside of it!Har!). I've seen row housing on our way to the airport. He said it's Putrajaya. People live in those areas and work in KL. Somewhat like our Laguna/Cavite-Makati lifestyle.

So that's about it. By the way, just so you know, if you are hopping from one country to another, make sure that your luggage is within the limit of the airport where you are exiting. When we exited Dubai, we were allowed by Singapore Airlines to carry 35kgs. But when we were exiting KL to Manila via Spore in the same airline, we were allowed only 25kgs! We had to use 'we were not informed' (which is true) argument and charmed our way to carry our 26kgs extra, without any charges.

What a fashionable way to leave Malaysia. So Manila, here we come.