48 Hours in Kuala Lumpur
Aleksandra Radic
NOVEMBER 10 - NOVEMBER 12
We were not ready to leave Sri Lanka. It meant leaving the cool beach towns, small villages and friendly locals. At the same time, we've heard some pretty good things about Kuala Lumpur so we were pumped anyway. We also really needed to upgrade our wardrobe. We've been wearing and sweating in the same clothes for months! The stains were just not coming out anymore.
Ok, it wasn't that bad. I guess that was just an excuse to go shopping - for me anyway.
DAY 1
We took a red eye flight from Colombo and by the time we landed in Kuala Lumpur we were exhausted. Half asleep, we managed to find the shuttle bus that would take us directly to our hotel. On our way there we got a glimpse of the city. It was big! We knew that in 2 days we weren't going to be able to see much.
We got a really good deal on Booking.com for Hotel Maison Boutique. The location wasn't too bad but the hotel room itself was not what we were used to - very luxurious!
Hotel Maison Boutique.
Since we arrived at the hotel at a weird time - it must have been 7am - the room wasn't going to be ready until 11am. We had a lot of time to kill. I could barely stay awake. There was a nice restaurant in the same building so we grabbed some breakfast and waited around.
As soon as our room was ready, we fell on the bed and took the longest nap ever!
It ended up being a right off of a day. We eventually got up and wandered around the neighbourhood. Then we came across one mall, then another and another. We decided to check out Central Park Mall. We agreed not to spend more than a couple of hours in there.
After 7 hours, we had a new wardrobe. :) We just couldn't leave. This mall had some crazy deals - $5 for shorts, dresses etc.
We were pretty hungry and since we were in Bukit Bintang, the entertainment district in Kuala Lumpur, there were more than enough places to eat. We came across Sai Woo and we weren't disappointed. We had a feast!
DAY 2
We were debating whether to check out the famous Batu Caves or not. In case you are wondering, these caves are a sacred place for the Hundus in Malaysia and one of the most popular tourist attractions. In the end, we decided not to go. The traffic was insane and we didn't want to spend half of our day in transit. Later we discovered that it was Diwali (festival of lights) which is why there was so much traffic. We were a little bummed out because it would have been pretty cool to see that. Oh well.
We wandered around most of the day. We were searching for some body lotion and it was almost impossible to find some without whitening agents. Every product had 'whitening', 'extra white' or 'instant white' labels on it. How women (and probably men as well) view beauty is completely different in Asia than in the west. In Malaysia, the whiter you are the better. Good like trying to find some tanning lotion or bronzer in Asia. Its almost impossible!
Finally went to check out the Petronas Twin Towers. I think we made the right decision by going at night. The buildings were extremely bright which made for some really cool photos!
DAY 3
And that was our quick stop in Malaysia. We made our way to the airport in the early afternoon. We were ready to be on the beach again and check out Philippines!
Here's the breakdown of how much we spent for 3 days:
Accommodations: $81
Food: $75
Activities: $0
Domestic Transportation: $47
Misc: $195
Tourist Visa: $0
Total: $398
Daily Average (per person): $66
*Excludes one-way flight from Colombo to Kuala Lumpur ($140 each)
**Currency exchange 11/10/2015: $1 (CAD) = 3.2 Ringgits