First Trip to Kuala Lumpur

In one of my visits to Singapore, we have set up a plan to get a short tour to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  It was not my first time to visit Malaysia then as I had already been to Penang for business trips.  But on the May 27th of 2005, we decided to make a side trip to Kuala Lumpur to try and see the Petronas Twin Towers and the rest of the city.

And so, I was again tasked to set up the whole itinerary going there.  On this trip, there are six of us, my brother Mark and his wife Joy, Joy’s sisters Leslie and Jackie, and Jackie’s then boyfriend Chris.  Well that time, my bro and Joy were still engaged.

So, I looked up for a cheap accommodation in Kuala Lumpur.  With the help of Travellerspoint, I was able to get our accommodation to Red Palm, a hostel.  The hostel is located near Bukit Bintang, a shopping center in KL.  And also from Singapore, I’ve purchased for us regular cabin KTM train tickets to KL Sentral station.

And so at about 10 PM, our group made our way to the Tanjong Pagar KTM Station along Ayer Rajah Expressway in Singapore.  We are booked on the 12 midnight trip to Kuala Lumpur.  We have an expected arrival time in Kuala Lumpur at around 7AM the next day.  I’ve planned the trip this way to save one night stay in a hostel.  And so throughout the trip, we slept on our seats.  About an hour later from the Tanjong Pagar station, we all alighted at the Immigration hall before crossing the Causeway Bridge to Malaysia.  And from there, the train stopped in several other stations in Malaysia before we got ourselves to Kuala Lumpur.

At around 8AM, we finally made it to the KL Sentral.  KL Sentral served as a satellite station of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport where an Express Train connect the airport and the city.  Also the MRT system is directly connected into the station along with other buses that travel around Malaysia and to Singapore and Thailand.

The first thing we did upon arrival is to ride on the red RapidKL line to the Kuala Lumpur City Center (KLCC) where the Petronas Twin Towers and the Suria Mall are located.  A station of the MRT lie exactly under the compound.  As planned we wanted to be there early to get tickets to climb up the bridgeway at the mid section of the twin towers.

Upon arrival to the towers, we took some time to have a picture the towers before going inside.  They are beautiful.  I love its architecture of steel and glass.  Inside, we are met by a long queue of tourists trying to get a slot to get to the towers’ SkyBridge.  The management release free tickets as early as 9AM every day except Mondays if I remember it right.  The tickets are slotted every 15 minutes for certain number of people per batch.  We got a 10:45AM ticket.

While waiting for our turn, we are led to an exhibition room where they feature scientific items and some informative tools about the Petronas.  My brother and myself then went to Puduraya Bus Station near Chinatown to purchase of bus tickets to Singapore the next day.  Puduraya Bus Station serves as the center of bus transport around Malaysia and neighboring countries.  It is packed with travellers booking their trips on the upper level of the station.

On our turn for the trip to the Skybridge, we were led an elevator shaft intended specifically for tourists.  Petronas’ elevator are double-decked to service 2 floors at a time.  We alighted at the 41st floor at the lower level of the bridgeway.  We were allowed only 10 minutes to have our pictures on it.  From the Skybridge, it gave us a good view of the city and its surrounds.

After that opportunity of walking on Petronas Skybridge, we again spent some additional time to take pictures from its foot.

Next we headed for the Menara Kuala Lumpur or the Kuala Lumpur Tower.  It is among the tallest free standing towers in the world.  On top of it is an observation tower.  Getting to the tower is not that easy as the nearest MRT station, the Rajah Chulan station is not near.  And with a very traffic congested city, it was not advisable to take a cab.

And so for a fee, we were each provided with audio equipment which guided us on every section of the observation tower.  The tower gave us a 360 degree view of the whole city.  And with the audio equipment we were given good information of the structures and areas below the tower.

After a brief tour on top of the tower, we headed south to meet Szeehong, an online friend through Skyscrapercity, at the Bukit Jalil MRT station.  When we got there, we recognized the station as the station presented in the Sean Connery movie, Entrapment, as the Pudu station.

Szeehong was good enough to give us a tour to Putrajaya and Cyberjaya .  Putrajaya has been envisioned to be the new political capital of Malaysia.  This is a masterplanned city envisioned by then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.  Putrajaya is such a beautiful place with intricate street lights and well manicured gardens.  It is also lined with government buildings including the Parliament Building and a palace of a Sultan.  It also had a man-made lake within the area where architectural advanced bridges cross it.  There even was one that had gold in it.  Putrajaya is very extravagant and beautiful though sad to say back in 2005 there isn’t that many people living in the area yet.

Before leaving Putrajaya, we made a stop in front of the Putra Mosque which is among the most distinctive landmarks in the area.  The large rose-tinted mosque faces the lake and I was told its minaret is among the tallest minarets in the world.  We entered the mosque area but we had to wear toga dress as we wore shorts that day.  All non-Muslim women were required to wear toga dresses.  We were only allowed to walk around the structure but not inside the prayer hall which is only for Muslims.  After about an hour tour of Putrajaya, Szeehong drove us back into the city center.  We passed through a road tunnel and exited to the basement parking level of the Petronas.  I’m not sure if that tunnel is the same one as the SMART Motorway Tunnel which I think was not yet open then.

It was a short and tiring trip to Kuala Lumpur but it was a good one.And so, again getting back to Petronas, we now had the opportunity to take pictures of the Petronas at night which stood out in the city night.  It was already late that night and next Szeehong drove us to Merdeka Square where the Independence of Malaysia was proclaimed.  It was such a long day and it was already late when retired back to our hostel.  The next day was Sunday and early on we just decided to have mass in a nearby place and took some pictures of the Red Palm’s facade as remembrance.  And after lunch in Chinatown, we went straight to Puduraya Bus station for our trip back to Singapore that afternoon.  The trip back to Singapore took about 6 hours on a shuttle bus compared to our 8 hour trip on the train going to KL.  Anyway, our bus drove back on the Causeway Bridge and we alighted before crossing it.  Upon crossing the bridge we again alighted at the Woodlands Immigration building for entry to Singapore.