One of the things we look forward after the day ends aside from sleeping and dreaming is the total of our per day cost. Whoever had the most total expenses for the whole trip loses the bet against the Ultimate Budget Traveller! The winner gets to have a dinner courtesy of the loser. Haha..
Day one
Malacca is 2 hours away from KL city. You can reach it by bus or train. In our case, we catched the 7:25 bus to Melaka from Bukit Jalin. We arrived Melaka Sentral around 9:30. And from there we took a cab going to the center of Melaka tourism, A Famosa, Clock tower, etc. Entering the heart of the city speaks of the era of Portuguese occupation. Too bad we had no tourist guide to walk us through the sites. Almost all historical spots were just close to each other. We are left with no choice but to walk around. The place was a mix of different culture and religion - indian, chinese, malays - islam, hindu, christians, and buddhist. It was peaceful place at first but when it was around noon it was flooeded with tourist already. Popular chinese "restoran" were infested with customers eating ang Q-ing. I have a thing for noodles that's why even with the long "Q", I insisted on waiting. Haha.. I feel sorry for Verna though, she did not like what she oredered and I did not have the stomach to eat her part as well. I bought a key chain in remembrance of the place. If it was not holiday that time, I think we could've spotted a nice place to eat and chill out.
Transportation
Coming back to KL did not pose any trouble for us except that we did not know how to get from the bus station going to our guest house. We did not have that planned because the bus station we expected to go was closed for rennovation, good thing that the taxi that took us to the bus station going to Melaka was polite and did not take advantage of our ignorance. We took a "teksi" from Bukit Jalin to our guest house and we were tricked by a "shalala" driver (a term I and Verna agreed to call the Indians that we feel are unpolite & dishonest) . Charged us flat rate of MYR 35, almost 2x the meter rate. It was something we'd learn about the drivers, they will over power you with their big voices, it feels like you were being scolded, and to think that these shalala are bigger than us and looks really frightening. I just settled in not arguing with them.
Taking the train is the best transporation to opt if you're travelling just around the city.
Where to stay?
We did not want to be tricked again so we asked Travelhub (our guest house) for transportation tips within the city and to be ready for the next day's activity - Genting Highlands. The place is managed by a family and they treat their guests very well. If you ask me, I'd stay at their place if I return to KL. The place is strategic for bargain shoppers since it's just a few meters walk to the famous Petaling Street (Chinatown) and the place is close to 2 train stations, amazing!
Day two
Woke up at 5am in the morning to get to the earliest 7am bus to Genting. In preparation for the whole day activity, we had peanut butter and jelly for breakfast and a cup of noodles, we even packed sandwiches for the trip. We were geared with maps and turned ourselves into a compass. We catched the 2nd earliest bus which left Titiwangsa around 7:45AM and arrived at Genting 2h after. On the bus ride, it was the longest bus ride for me, I was not seated with Verna that time. I don't know why we got separated. A "shalala" man was seated next to me and the smell was not very pleasurable. The chinese man standing beside the door was talking the whole trip non stop that made the shalala even more irratated. It could've been nice if he had just slept all the way, but because of the loud-mouthed chinese, he just could not stop moving on his seat!
Anyway, I diverted my thoughts on how excited I am to see Genting. Upon arrival, I felt the cool breeze of the air. Since it was a holiday, the place was very full, mostly chinese. There were so many rides both indoor and outdoor but the problem with coming in on a holiday is that your time will be consumed more with Q-ing rather than enjoying the rides. We paid online for the All park ticket to avoid lining up to buy ticket and we only tried 4 rides, haha.. not that I was not happy coming on Genting, the place was still memorable.
In Genting, we saw billboards saying Manila, Philippines "The place to play" .. I don't know how they've come up with that banner for Philippines. I guess for the many casinos and patriots of lotto, haha.. not counting the jueteng. hehe..
Where to eat?
Going back, we bought a returning ticket on the same bus line 2h before departure schedule. We took the same route going back but we stopped at Bukit Bintang to have our dinner at the popular street food capital at Jalan Alor. Food is prepared fresh as you can see the veggies are hanging on their stores. The place is popular for tourist, the atmosphere is warm, people babbling in different languages, somebody is holding a mic singing a karaoke chinese jukebox song - that's how I remember the place, and of course the food was good.
Day three
This is our last day in KL and we are going on a city tour. We had cold fried rice for breakfast (left over from dinner) and coffee. We had to be well fed for this day because we feel we'll be crammed with the tour around the city. It is a good thing though that Travelhub allowed its guests to leave their bags after check out and even allows them to have a shower after checking out - aren't they amazing? The idea that we'd be carrying our bags around was dismissed and we settled in going around the city on foot (with shoes). We went to Petronas earliest as possible to buy a ticket to the bridge BUT then again it was still holiday and they are close until September 14. This was unexpected but we were not discouraged with that. The usual routine to every tourist spot is to take take pictures, so it was the drill for every nice place we saw. The second point was Menara tower. From Petronas, Menara can be seen already. 3rd stop was Bukit Nanas (City forest) where Verna had an intersting experience with a city monkey, hehe.. By train we went to the 4th stop - National Musuem and from there we walked to 5th was Bird Park passing by the Planetarium (closed for holiday). By "teksi" we went back to Travelhub. Whew it was the day we walked about 5KM (or even more).
Who won the bet?
After painstakingly accounting every expense we spent (which was done every night before going to sleep), it was decided - Verna won the bet by MYR 12. It was a close bet, if not with the little pasalubong, we could've not gone over MYR 6 of our budget.
With that, I will end this blog by invititing you to do the Ultimate Budget Traveller Challenge on your next adventure. Be sure to carry with you a handy pen and a small paper to write down every purchase you had. :)
