This was my first visit to Malaysia though i had transited it before. So the airport was not new though the country was :) . The only thing i knew was of the Petronas twin tower and a large Tamil community which stays there and had not done any google search to see what all to visit as i had only few days and may be just an evening to roam around. Hence thought i will do a "Off-the-beaten" Track visit based on the feedback of the people i meet out there in Malaysia.
Malaysia visa was obtained without much fuss as all they needed was a completed aplication form with bare minimum details and few photographs along with an invitation letter. As our company had an office, we applied for a one year visa and i got it within a week. It was a multiple entry visa with 30 days maximum per visit.
I took the Malaysian Airlines as the popular Air Asia was fully booked for the day i had to travel. Malaysia Air with a airline code MH, which they proudly mentioned as "Malaysian Hospitality", the airline flight was uneventful. I slept for the entire trip as the flight starts at 12.45. There was though a slight delay in boarding due to late arrival of flight. I remember airhostess coming with the food and drinks but i just slept through and they were not rude to wake me up.
I arrived in KL in the morning and had a huge bag of gift to carry for the office. I had to pay tax as it seems only gift goods are allowed for diplomats and i was a normal visa holder. They do not take card and hence had to exchange all the $ into Malaysian Ringget at airport even though i knew it will be low rate. Even the Airport taxi needs credit card with a built in chip else it had to be paid in cash. All my currency was exchanged in airport itself at MYR 2.89 per $1. The rate at a midvalley exchange was MYR 3.03 for $1. It costed me MYR 74 to reach the city. There is a cheaper option to use KLIA train to KL Sentral which is a shorter trip and costs only MYR 35 (though you may need to take a cab from there to your hotel).
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| View from Cititel Hotel |
Cititel Midvalley where i was put up was a decent hotel though rooms were small (By Asian standard not european studio one though). As i was alone it was not such an issue. It was MYR 580 for two days. This hotel has two malls along the sides and you could enter the mall through the hotel. This is a clear attraction for the hotel as you could walk out of the hotel to the mall in AC comfort and try different food.
The first food i had in the mall was at Secret Recipe a huge chain in malaysia which seems give uniform tasting food across all its chain location. I tired some vegetarian dish wit'h some soya nuggets and peanut sauce along with a rice which i think had maggi noddles taste maker :). Food was good and a nice option for Vegetarians in Malaysia.
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| Louis Vuitton way of selling a bag!!! |
Had few meeting that day and then came and slept after having some pineapple rice + omlette and walking inside the midvalley mall. If you enjoy shopping a nice mall to roam around and buy. I checked a samsung google note which was MYR 2000 which is same as the price in India. Prices were more or less same as in India.
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| Petronas lit at night |
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| Without lights before sunset |
On the second day evening after the days meeting, went to see the Twin tower the must see place if you are in KL. It takes a different looks with and without the lights. So spend the evening there when the building does a chameleon. I took the LRT to KLCC from where when you exist you see the colossal tower. They have a visit to the top but by the time i reached tickets were all over. I was told they provide 960 tickets per day and it starts selling from 8.30 AM. If you want to get ticket you have to be in the queue by 7 AM. I walked around the small patch of greenery surrounded by the concrete jungle but it is worth seeing esp when the twin tower puts on the light.
I reached back KL sentral and i was told there is a metro to midvalley and wrongly i took it as a monorail. I walked down to monorail through some narrow alley as the linking of KL sentral to monorail is still ongoing. The metro system in KL is messed up as there is no linking of the various modes of metro inside the city. There is a KLIA ekspres, Transit, Kompart (semi-government run and is the cheapest with tickets still being collected in print), RapidKL etc. The search for monorail ended me in an Indian street and i went in to a North Indian Hotel , Gem. The food was ok and the "Sambaram" was no where near the one we have in India. The hotel was neat and service courteous. Finally found out that Kompart is the only train from KL Sentral to Midvalley. Met a person while waiting for the train when he mention that Indians are doing good in Malaysia with Petronas, Esso and Maxis being owned by Indian descender and that plantation are run jointly by Indian and Malaysian driven mostly by saving in taxes.
The return day as like in most of my trips earlier met a Keralite from Ottapalam. He had not gone there after his father passed away and was a malaysian citizen driving me to work. He had all of his son working in business and has not many people in contact in India. He was saying that 3 generations since they moved from India they have just jelled with the country marrying into the locals.
Evening spent some time in brookstreet Little India and had a good dosa at saravanna bhavan near to KL Sentral.
Reached airport by checking in at KL sentral itself after taking a KLIA Ekspres Ticket. This allows you to even check-in your luggage right at KL Sentral before boarding the train. This is there only for few flights and not for AIr Asia. Took the late friday flight MH 192 to be back in Bangalore by 11.30 PM.
The Chattarpur temple was built by Baba Sant Nagpal ji which i read after i came back from the visit. In case you need a detailed information on this temple pl read this blog. We went there on a taxi on the way back to Delhi Airport. But it seems there is a Chattarpur metro station near by and from there you would need to take an autorickshaw. Built over a huge swath of land with different temples dedicated to different god including the colossal statue of Hanuman shown below.
The Chattarpur temple was built by Baba Sant Nagpal ji which i read after i came back from the visit. In case you need a detailed information on this temple pl read this blog. We went there on a taxi on the way back to Delhi Airport. But it seems there is a Chattarpur metro station near by and from there you would need to take an autorickshaw. Built over a huge swath of land with different temples dedicated to different god including the colossal statue of Hanuman shown below. 
