The KL Trip: Day 1
At the end of August, there was a NATAS Fair 2010 at the Singapore Expo and Jessie and I signed up for a 3D2N Free & Easy KL package there. We could pick any date we wanted so we chose 13-15 September. And oh my God, we were the only ones going for this package during these three days! There was a group of four youths and another older family aboard the bus but they were all heading to different places.



Had to reach Hotel Grand Central by 8am for the coach pick-up. It was a long journey after that. To make things worse, we were caught in a bad traffic jam on the Singapore side. Wasted almost an hour. There was a stopover half-way into the journey but for the most part of the 6 hour ride, Jessie and I spent in sleeping with our MP3s plugged into our ears. Lol.


Finally reached Radius International Hotel around half past two and checked in. Our hotel room view was excellent. In fact, I used it as a map. I could mark out places to visit and plan our routes using landmarks—all from this view. So much better than the map of KL my father gave me. That one wasn't detailed enough.


The first thing we did was to head to Pavilion Shopping Centre. Jessie's aunt asked us to find her friends who were working there. But first, we gotta eat! Had a late lunch at Old Town White Coffee Signatures.



Lum mee and assam laksa! Jessie doesn't eat prawns so she gave me hers. :D





Turns out Jessie's aunt's friend is a manager at the shop and he gave one of the staff (Peggy) the day off (ok, it was already evening) to take us to Petaling Street. Bought the tickets from the counter and took the monorail from Bukit Bintang to Maharajalela. It's easy getting there: Walk past the the temple and go straight till you see Petaling Street!


I'm not fond of this place. It's too shady from what I observed. The vendors literally slaughter tourists with cut-throat prices here. And they kept sweet-talking and flirting with us. Zomg. Saw some vendors talking using walkie-talkies and some others peddling pirated DVDs. Saw some 'monks' asking for donations as well. Most likely a scam. I'll bet all my wallet's money a syndicate's involved. It's best to come here with someone who is familiar with the prices or with guys for protection, seriously. I saw tourists who were damn pro with bargaining, though. I nearly laughed out loud when the vendor caved in to them.

Lots of imitation goods here. Mostly jackets, tshirts, wallets, and bags. See the photo of the drinks stall? The drink is a must-try! It's tastes like grass jelly drink but much better. (:


Peggy took us back to Jalan Alor (Alor Street) which is 5 minutes away from our hotel. The whole street is full of food stalls, mostly the zhu chao kind.




Thanks Peggy for treating us to so much food today and helping to bargain at Petaling Street! :D


We went back to the hotel by 9pm and proceeded to rot the night away. There wasn't anything good on TV. The only thing we could watch was this Chinese Sun Wu Kong drama series, but urgh, no thanks. Everything else was either Malay shows or channels with poor reception. Wish there were cartoons. I enjoyed watching Spongebob Squarepants and Taiwan variety shows so much in my hotel room while I was in Taiwan. ):




Fake Adidas jackets. Lol. Fake Paul Frank shirts. Lol.

Jessie had insomnia too. While I was sleeping, she would toss and turn then give up and turn on the TV. I woke up at 3am to accompany her for 5 minutes before going back to sleep. Think she finally knocked out at 4. Rofl.

CHARMAINE CHEONG.

I’m a somebody and a nobody. I’m rational and emotional. I’m critical but I’m non-judgemental.

I like my things categorized by types and chronologically. I like taking photos to preserve the moments of my life. I like dystopian literature. I like reading Wikipedia articles at random. I like travelling to foreign lands and seeing the world. I like long conversations over good food. I like pop and classical music. I like guitars. I like cats. I like writing random, mushy letters and notes to the people important to me. I have a whole long list of things that I like, but you’ve got to get to know me better to know them all.