First Day At Kuala Lumpur

The day has finally come. Yes it is the 11^th of June 2017 ,the day we will be  flying to the great South East Asian nations with my better half and my close friend with her better half as well. We four boarded the Airasia flight from Bhubaneswar at 23.55hours with much fanfare, excitation, jubilation, curiosity and many more adjectives which will fall short in expressing our feelings. It was the second foreign trip for me and Malay and the first for the ladies. The lucky ladies who are going to a foreign land just after a few days of receiving their first and fresh passport. We are on an eight day trip to south east Asian nations,2 days at KualaLumpur,3 days at Singapore and 3 days at Bali, Indonesia in the mentioned sequence. We Landed at KLIA2 Airport i.e Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 which is a Low cost carrier Airport operated by AirAsia. Only Airasia flights can be seen everywhere in the airport. I believe no other flights are allowed here. However, we landed at 6.20AM  Local time(3.50 AM IST) and completed our immigration formalities and went straightaway to the baggage belt to collect our luggages. And hence our passport got stamped by Malaysian Immigration.We were being received by Mr Das who was waiting at the airport for picking up and dropping us at the hotel Grand Continental. A nice man, tall dark in his 40s looking like an South Indian who we later came to know is a Malaysian.He guided us to buy a new sim at the airport.We came out of the airport and just about to get inside the car when Malay got a feeling of leaving something back at the airport. Ooops it was the file containing his Singapore visa and all the relevant documents. Soon I and Malay ran quickly to the airport heading towards the Sim Outlet .Thank God it was there. Finally we boarded the Toyota Innova and straight away headed towards the City .It was 70 kilometers away. First we thought 17 Km but later we came to know it is 70 km and took about an hour to reach. We traveled through the beautiful vistas, impeccable greeneries ,a literally metalled road on which Mr Das was driving at 100 KMPH. Enjoyed the ride with Mr Das who informed us  a lot of thing about what to do in 2 days. Gave us an Idea about the nearest metro station and other relevant information..We reached Hotel Grand Continental  at 7.45 AM located at JalanBelia,chow Kit.nearest Metro station was jalan Sultan Ismail.As our check in time was 12 noon we did not waste any time and freshened up in the refreshment room in the lobby and changed our dresses and got ready for the half day city tour of Kuala Lumpur. The ladies were bit disappointed and furious on us as they dint got any hotel room but refreshment room for getting themselves ready. Let me tell the refreshment room is just a washroom .We were ready by 9 AM without breakfast as we dint find any eatery nearby to have breakfast in fact we did not searched as we did not have time. Soon we boarded a nice air conditioned Toyota  8 seater van for the city tour .We were 4 inside the Van and the driver dropped us at the COCOA BOUTIQUE  and the he told us to wait for some time outside as he was expecting 4 more person so that all 8 can start once they come. Cocoa Boutique is a place where all the travel agent starts their city tour after gathering all the tourist from different places. Surprisingly I got a call from a different travel agent and he said he is waiting for us at our Hotel. I said we have already left. To normalize the situation I handed over my phone to the local main Tour agent who was then assigning the tourist to their respective city tour vehicle. He talked with him with their local language and informed us to wait till the person who called me reaches. We waited for 5 minutes , took some pics and the tour guide arrived and picked us. The vehicle was similar,an 8 seater  air-conditioned van .1 Indian couple in their 50s and a Chinese daughter and Mom was sitting in the first 2 rows due to which we have to take the left out seats. However our city tour started and the tour guide started giving description of Malaysian culture,religion,languages and many more. It was good to learn more about Malaysia..Our first  spot was Thean hou temple,the Chinese temple.It was  similar in line with the Chinese Buddhist temple we had seen at  Darjelling, Gangtok, Leh . We took some snaps there with an astounding cityscape in the background and later move to our next destination i.e the kings PalAce.The istana Negara. the residing place of the king of Malaysia .The tourist were not allowed beyond the gates.The palace can be seen through the gates in front of which we took many pictures. Indeed the dome clad palace was stunningly Majestic .Quite a good place to spend some time. Unlike in India , there were no irritating street vendors  and  selling cheap souvenirs Its good to see the right administrative illustrations.We then proceed to the National monument.Beautiful  place with sprawled green lawns and palm trees on either side of the pathway. The black shining marble walls over which the sculpture of  gang of soldiers fighting was treat to watch. Splendid fountains and astonishing water displays making the place no less than a perfect vista. It was really a great food for the photographers,historians and passionate lovers of culture. Spend some time there and clicking some beautiful pictures and left for our next destination. We got an opportunity to enter for the first time to any mosque and the mosque was nationalMosque,Kuala Lumpur. The ladies were given pink color Burqa and black head scarf. They were quite happy to wear this and quite excited getting photographed in such an  attire.Indeed the attire was a perfect match and both the ladies were looking stunning  .

 Inside the mosque was eternal peace. Irrespectve of country ,religion,caste, all were allowed to enter inside the mosque .I believe, In INDIA , only Muslims were allowed.Not sure.However, we spent some time there and brought 10  bottles of water for 10 ringgits and headed back to our cab. Sun was already raging making the ever humid atmosphere  harsher. But we are enjoying keeping aside all the heat,  humid and sweat. we stopped next at Merdeka square the place where the beautiful” I LOVE KL” Statue was inciting feelings in red which cant be expressed.We took  some 20 minutes to click some pictures in front of the statue posing differently. Beside the statue was the KualaLumpur City gallery inside which we entered by paying 5 Ringgits each which we later redeemed by buying a cookie to satiate our hungry stomach. City Galery is a must watch which includes a 7 minute audio visual show showing annals of kuala lumpur city. Other than that there were many different sculptures in front of which we took many pictures and went downstairs to have something from the store. With a packet of cookie and a tasteless warm coffee we came out and took a few steps to see the merdeka square . we could not find much except a playground and a statue with a flag. It was already 1 Pm and  we were getting enervated as we have not taken anything except that cookie. Our last stop was petronas tower a 10 Minutes photo stop . We took some pics casually as we have to come this place again today evening s well as tomorrow evening as well. Straightaway we went towards Hotel  and searched for Indian lunch nearby our hotel. Mr Das had said in the morning about one nearby our hotel  and we ended up at the right location ‘RESTORANT RAJA LAUT-The Curry House’ which was just 50metrs from our hotel serving Indian and Muslim Dishes. We had vegetarian Indian food over there with rice dal sabzi and all. Quite reasonable it was. Fully satiating our belly we proceeded to hotel. Checked in the hotel quickly and freshened up .By3.30 PM we headed to the central attraction of Kuala Lumpur ,the KLCC .We took KL My rapid metro from Sultan ismail and got down at Masjid jamek and took another train from masjid jamek to KLCC. There is only one way to describe KLCC: theheart of Kuala Lumpur. As an entertainment,commercial and business focal point, KLCC is home to some of the most popular landmarks in Malaysia such as the Petronas Twin Towers,the Dewan Filharmonik Orkestra concert hall,the KLCC Park and Suria KLCC, making it a popular tourist destination. With a host of options to choose from - dining, arts, culture,recreation, sightseeing, shopping and entertainment - you won't be stuck for ideas on what to do around here.

It was good to be on the heart of kuala lumpur with tourist all round the world making the place spectacular colourful , multi cultural and multi lingual. A treat for the eyes. Soon we proceed to AQUARIA inside the KLCC.we took  3 aquaria tickets from someone who had cancelled his plan and sold US his tickets  for 50MYR and another from the counter of 69 MYR.It was a great show inside.Enjoyed a lot inside and came out by 7 PM and proceded to the KLCC Park. Before that we sat inside  an eatery  and took some cookies and cakes which we had taken from INDIA. We called Mr Chrish whose number was shared by Mr Das for the next day Cab arrangement. We made a deal of 280 MYR for Batu caves  and Genting and all the other sightseeing for the next day. The KLCC park was spectacular with light and sound show in the fountain. We sat on the steps and enjoyed all the happenings in front of the Suria KLCC. It was indeed a great time enjoying the pleasant evening with lots of disciplined crowd. We took some pictures there and headed towards China Town.We took  train from KLCC Metro station and get down at Pasar seni .By the way it was 9 PM and it was raining cats and dogs.we waited at the PASAR SENI Metro for the rain to recede but no hope as it was getting bad to worse. We found an Indian restaurant “VINNI JEYA BANANA LEAF CURRY HOUSE” very very near to the place where we were waiting for the rain to recede .

 We took our dinner and it was very tasty and reasonable. It was 9.30 and we completed our dinner and the rain stopped completely making our way towards the CHINAtown or the petaling street.After spending 1 hour with lot of bargaining we were not able to buy anything and took a metro from PASAR SENI Metro get down at Masjid jmek and took another train to sultan Ismail.Our hotel is 300 meters from this station and we walked and my better half removed her shoes and took a walk without any shoe as her feet was paining like anything after a lot of walking from Morning till night. It was indeed a great day,a great experience ,  much needed happiness and many more feelings to be cherished . The day ended with lot of memories which will be cherished down the memory lane.

What a wonderful day it was and the night is more beautiful  with my pair of eyes looking at the  twin towers on and the KLMenara  alighting thenight sky with the neon lights through my hotel  room window. What  a  view .  Indeed a most scenic vista I have ever seen..What a perfect climax to call it a day