Tita Belen (Ana's mom), Ana and I scoured their version of Cubao on Wednesday, Day 2. It was the night before we plan to leave for KL. It so happened it was a holiday in Singapore on Friday, which means long weekend aka out of town ang buong Singapore to Malaysia. It was sooo hard for us to find 5 tickets to Malaysia.
We hopped from one bus line to another in the hopes of getting tickets. When we finally gave up, the lady office we visited earlier said "HALLO HALLO!" while we walked outside their door. She magically had five tickets (she originally had four only so we walked away). LUCKY US!
Thursday evening we left for Malaysia. We had to go through immigration twice- one at the Singapore exit, second at the entrance to Malaysia. You'd really see the difference in the progress of the two countries. Singapore immigration was huuuge and clean. Malaysia immigration was old, third world and primitive. (Please don't judge immediately- read til the end. haha) No immigration photos pala coz it's not allowed. You don't want to violate Singapore laws- they're damn serious about it. I got so tense when an immigration officer escorted me from the counter and asked a few questions.
Officer: First time in Singapore?
Me: Yes
O: Where are you going?
M: Kuala Lumpur
O: What will you do there?
M: Oh, sightseeing!
Then he let me go. HAHA Kaloka!
On board the SUPER VIP Coach, we had our own televisions, reclining seats with leg rests, and a towel/blanket and free bottled water. I planned on sleeping but Ana picked a super good movie Ip Man 1. It's Chinese but has subtitles naman. Super good movie- it's the story of Master Ip, Bruce Lee's mentor in real life. Calculating that, I think I only had less than 2 hours of sleep.
We also had a stop over in some Malaysian bus station like that stops of carinderias in provinces. Ana and I had to pee so we got off the bus. GRABE KADIRE YUNG BANYO. It was all squat rooms. (We should have peed in the cubicle in the bus.)
Not the actual photo- but it did look something like this. This one's a cleaner version.
Good thing we found two 'normal' cubicles. But it was still icky. FEELING NAMIN MAGKAKASAKIT KAMI. When we got back to the bus, we slathered sanitizer! haha Ana said 'I hope KL is worth that banyo trip.' I couldn't agree more. It's enough for me to not go back to Malaysia because of that banyo.
Anyway, we arrived at Bukit Bintang station at 5 AM. I was so groggy when Tita Belen said we have to get off the coach already. Indian teksi (taxi) drivers immediately approached us to offer a ride. DON'T RIDE TAXIS IMMEDIATELY. On the car they post 'THIS IS A METERED TAXI' but the truth is, you have to negotiate with them before you hop in. THEY CHARGE PER HEAD! hellooooo??? Sana jeep or bus ka nalang diba?
Good thing there was a Malaysian guy who was in the same trip as ours. Tita Belen asked him how we can get to Petronas. He said we can take the train. We waited til 5:30 or 6 for the station to open. Their train is so small!
Shot of their train station. I'm standing at the other end. See how small it is?
Petronas is three stations away from Bukit Bintang. Hop off at Bukit Nanas and you'll see Petronas. You can walk from Bukit Nanas.
Shot from Bukit Nanas train station
Tita Belen led us to Petronas. I initially thought she was super in a hurry (hello it's 6-ish in the morning only) but when we got to the sky bridge lobby, WOAH, the line was THISLOOOONG. I thought we were early. NOT.
We sat because only one representative was allowed to line up for a group- that's Tita Belen. A lot of Caucasian backpackers, Indians and Filipinos were there too. We were so lucky because only a few people away from Tita Belen and then the line was cut off already! They limit the number of visitors per day. Something like 20 people per batch and then 10 minutes per batch in the sky bridge.
Grand lobby of Petronas.
We were scheduled to view at 4:15 which gave us 7 hours to go around KLCC mall which inside the Petronas Complex. By the way, it's PEtronas and not peTROnas like Bea Alonzo pronounced in Miss You Like Crazy.
Anyhoo, KLCC mall is big! the second floor is entirely dedicated to designer brands such as Tod's, Prada, Etienne Aigner, Karen Miller, Gucci, Bvlgari etc! The rest of the mall houses brands we can afford naman so we weren't entirely losers. haha
Lots of tourists there too. I guess we were all just waiting for our time to go up the sky bridge. hehe
Come 4 pm we made our way to the sky bridge lobby. There was a video presentation for everyone in the 4:15 group. Basically about what Petronas is, how they built the tower, the programs of Petronas are, etc.
Then, off to the 41st floor to view! In the elevator, you'd feel your ears pop due to the change in pressure. The tourists use the 1st floor of the bridge, the second floor is for employees of the building.
After 10 minutes, we were asked to go to make way for the next group. When we were about to go, it started raining so we stayed at the lobby to wait for the rain to stop. We sat on the stairs, beside two Korean girls. Then this two Puerto Rican guys or (Israelis?) to have a photo taken with us. WIIILD! Akala namin manyak. Pero harmless naman. Naaliw lang ata sa amin- seven of us, six girls and Nonoy (Ana's teen brother) all looking haggard, sitting on the steps. HAHA PARANG TANGA LANG. Anyway, Tita Belen said to the other guy 'you join the photo and my daughter will take the picture'. One guy had his arms around the Koreans pa! Buti I was sitting on the topmost step, so the guy was stuck at the lower steps with the Koreans to his left and Tita Belen on his right. hahaha The bald guy (who had his arms extended to the shoulder of the Koreans sat in front of me. I wanted to make a funny 'sungay' but was afraid maybe he'd find me and stalk me and take revenge so I smiled the normal 'WTF-am-I-doing-having-photos-with-strangers' kind of smile. They thanked us before leaving but I saw through the glass doors they showed the photo to another guy. Pabida lang. haha I dunno, maybe I'm still adjusting to being more open-minded to other tourists. Mejo takot pa ako to mingle with them.
It was only drizzling so we made our way back to Bukit Nanas station and back to where we were dropped off by the bus. THIS IS WHERE THE STRESSFUL PART OF THE TRIP STARTED. We went into Times Square mall to grab a snack before looking for the pick-up point of the bus. After finishing our Auntie Anne's pretzels, we left to find the pick up point. It was raining again. UGHHHH! We had to brave the rain (or else we'd miss the bus) only to find out the pick up point is the same as the drop off point earlier that day. The lady who gave us our tickets market the wrong building on the map she gave us. UGH I WANTED TO GO BACK AND KILL HER. We were all wet when we got back to Times Square mall. We invaded the restroom to clean up, change clothes (I almost changed into the dress that I bought but I didn't want to wear a dress in the bus so I just had a hanky placed on my back to absorb the rainwater.
We had a quick dinner- I had laksa which I failed to take a photo of because I was so tired. haha We left to be at the pick up point again but our coach was chaka! It was small and it was shared TV. They showed Ip Man 2 but it had no subtitles coz it was a new movie. (I'm guessing it's pirated coz Ip Man 2 is still showing in theaters haha) I was so tired I fell asleep in a matter of minutes. It was a shaky sleep but it was a sleep nonetheless.
We had to go through SG and Malaysia immigrations again. This time Malaysia immigration was big and nice! I think they constructed the 'Exit to Malaysia' immigration building first. The 'Entry to Malaysia' immigration was really primitive compared to this one.
We arrived at Singapore at 4:30 AM. We originally planned to wait for the train but the first trip is at 6:05. I guess Tita Belen pitied us- we lacked sleep so gora na, taxi na!
Grabe, first thing I did was take a bath. grabehan. Kuskos three times. Then breakfast, and then sleep.
P.S. If you're planning to go, our bus ticket cost $93 per head, round trip. That's expensive because we bought tickets late. It can go as low as $65 if you book earlier. Take the Super VIP types of coaches. The lower categories of seats aren't quite comfortable. hehe
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