I’m back now here in Manila, Philippines and after 2 days of travel recovery, I finally got the energy to blog and start working regularly here in my blog (yeahh blogging is my day job).
Our Malaysia trip is one of the best trip ever! me with Enzo Luna of www.juantraveler.com and Raffy Pedrajite of www.pinoytravelblog.com , planned this trip since August 2013 and after some unexpected incidents like cancellation of flights, suspension of airline, rebooking dramas, flooded airport, and the last minute of booking, with all of those events, I can say that our travel is really worth it, because we took home great experiences we felt in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and for my 2nd time here in KL, I didn’t discover about the country, but I discover about the Malaysians are nice and awesome to us Filipino tourist and visitors. Our travel didn’t started about sight seeing and attractions, but its more about our life in Malaysia.
I’m posting here a series of photos from our trip, this reflects on how we enjoyed staying in Malaysia for 4 days, thanks to Zest Air (now called Air Asia Zest) for helping us with our booking concerns and to Tune Hotels (www.tunehotels.com ) for giving us a chance to try their budget hotel in KL for 4 days.
LOST IN MALAYSIA
in Jalan Alor
in Petronas Twin Towers and Batu Caves
Riding the wrong train line going to Batu Caves
in Publika Mall and starting to get lost after arriving in KL
MEETING NEW FRIENDS
meet with www.rebeccasaw.com , top blogger in Malaysia and Yin formerly a PR here in Manila and now a manager and PR for musician www.azsamad.com (she blogs at http://prtrainingkl.tumblr.com/ )
meets Kevin Tan, tech blogger in Malaysia (http://softwaredevgeek.blogspot.com/ )
and that’s Raffy and Yin at an indie music venue www.Merdekarya.com
MEETING WITH STRANGERS
Met Mommy Cita (wearing black shirt) in A&W fast food in Petaling Jaya, she helped us by offering a car ride to Merdekarya in Petaling Garden, she told us that she lives nearby, then we learned that we are in the far side of the town. If we didn’t met Mommy Cita, we will be walking for hours going to Petaling Garden town. Her friend also treated me (in blue shirt) with a nice Rendang mix and sauce. Thank you Mommy Cita!
1. Met Teacher Anne in Kepong KTM station, we boarded the wrong train platform on the way to Batu Caves, she offered a car ride to us going to Batu Caves and told us that its okay because she lives nearby. Thank you Teacher Anne!
2. A split seconds meet with a Japanese or Chinese tourist while along the way to Merdekah Square, I told her that she got a nice camera, because both of us are using Olympus E-PL camera series. And after she saw my camera, she smiled, but I took a photo of her first, btw, I posed for a photo bomb in one of her photos that’s why we laughed before we meet up. Olympus camera users are like brothers and sisters.
MEETING WITH FELLOW TOURISTS
Thanks to the talkativeness of Raffy, we met several tourist while we are touring around Malaysia.
1. Couple from Belgium, we learned that they are newly engage, and the surprise was a day ago, we met them here in Batu Caves, labeling them “the wonderful couple in the world”
2. Met a family of Australian tourist while on the way to Petaling Street, we boarded the same monorail and we saw them confused on which street they will enter going to Petaling Street. They asked for help and told them that I got my Apple maps application on my iPhone4s, and I told them to follow our directions, we reached the Petaling street after a few minutes.
FOOD JOINTS!
Eating is one of favorite activity when we travel, here in Malaysia we discovered something that is not available here in Manila
1. A&W fast food – omg, we have this fast food way back 30 years ago, and I’m happy that I tried eating there again. I miss A&W especially their original root beer float. We found a branch in Petaling Jaya, and we learned that this A&W is there since more than 30 years.
2. We met the organizer of KL Restaurant Week 2013, it’s a restaurant week fest featuring different restaurants in KL offering the best of their specialty and menu, it’s a start of an awesome gastronomical adventure. Booking period just start from Sept 9-29, 2013 and the resto week will start on Oct 4-11, 2013. Visit http://klrestaurantweek.com/
1. We tried the yummiest cakes here at Swich Café, the durian cake and the mangosteen cake is one of the best for me! We also met the Swich Café owner, Ms. Lim Cheng Cheng, she conceptualizes everything for the café. Visit http://www.facebook.com/Swichfinefood , Swich Café is located in HP Towers, Damansara Heights and Level G3 Publika Shopping Gallery, Solaris Dutamas
2. The Food Village in Publika Mall, I think this venue is one of my favorite food spot! It’s a food court of a mall, their food concessionaire offers the best meal in KL !
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
We found Pertiwi Soup Kitchen, a group of people who are feeding the less fortunate people here in KL, it’s a daily food giving conducted around the city, at night they visit some sites in KL and offer free food, coffee, tea, and free medical check up. More details of Pertiwi Soup Kitchen here at http://www.facebook.com/groups/362167549160/
”PERTIWI Soup Kitchen project was established to provide regular meals at various locations around Kuala Lumpur on a regular basis. This community outreach effort is managed by Pertubuhan Tindakan Wanita Islam (PERTIWI), one of Malaysia's longest running NGOs, with the support of corporate and individual sponsors.”
Thanks to Munirah Hamid (http://www.facebook.com/munirah.hamid ) for allowing us to observe and also help in the food distribution.
MEETING FELLOW FILIPINOS
During our journey in KL, we met several pinoys who are living and working there, here we met Mark of Batangas City, he works at The Bee bar in Publika Mall, he works there with three other Filipino coming from Batangas City too. They are working here for almost a month. Also we met some Filipinos too in Petaling Street and in Jalan Alor too. They gave advice to us and thanks to them for the warm greetings and tips.
MEETING MUSICIANS
Music is part of my life and interest, although I don’t have time playing an instrument but music is still here in me, and now that I have a son, I need to go back to music in order to show him how important this to our life, During our journey in KL, we met unexpectedly with some cool musicians!
1. Ezra Brown – Saxo musician from New York City, is here in KL, he performed few nights ago for a Jazz festival, we met him here in Punlika mall, the meet up started when he suddenly approached Enzo Luna in our table and asked about his Canon camera’s 35mm lens. The meet up went good when we learned that Ezra Brown is with Yin, a friend of Rebecca Saw who are sitting in the other table. Ezra gave us a copy of his album “The Journey” and he played a saxo music sample for us titled “Sendai”.
For Ezra Brown visit http://ezrabrown.com/
2. Met also guitar indie musician Az Samad, his manager Yin, and Jasmine Low aka the indie queen of Malaysia in Publika Mall.
PETALING JAYA
Its weird that the town of Petaling Jaya echoes in my head 2 days before we go to Malaysia, I’m not even sure at the first place what is Petaling Jaya, I didn’t even know that is part of Malaysia. After we arrived in KL, and met Az Samad and Yin in Publika Mall, we started a “getting to know you” moment over in Facebook and Twitter, thanks to technology, we discovered that some of our friends here in Manila knows Yin and Az Samad, there’s a brewing interest again to meet and then Yin invited us three to watch Az Samad’s performance in Merdekarya indie music venue located in Petaling Jaya. We met Az and Yin there again, and also met some Malaysian indie musicians and also Brian, the owner of music bar.
When I read the venue…it finally solved my puzzle… something or someone might be waiting for us in Petaling Jaya. I told Raffy and Enzo that we should go. We travel via monorail and MRT from KL to Petaling Jaya, there we almost got lost – met Mommy Cita in A&W, she took us to Merdekarya and then I finally found the venue that I’m looking for! its Merdekarya, a 9 month old indie venue for musicians, its like Mayrics, Oracafe or Saguijo here in Manila.
Merdekarya - http://www.merdekarya.com/
I LOVE KL 2.0
2.0 because its my 2nd time here… Its one of the most relaxing trip ever! we embraced the life here in KL and there’s a different feeling and set up from a junket setting, here in our trip, we travel in our own, using our own money, time and wits hahahah. Getting lost around the city is just a start of the challenge, Malaysia tested us if we will quit traveling around or just move forward to embrace the whole country. We survived with less money in our pocket and me with no underarm roll on for 4 days ahhaha, I’m glad that I didn’t started to smell.
My travel with the two bloggers, Enzo and Raffy, might bring us more country and scenes to set foot on, and as of now, we’re preparing again for another trip next month…as usual..time to save some cash hahahah.
Thanks to all the lovely and nice people of Malaysia for accommodating us, its nice to know you again! and definitely we will back there soon!
Thanks KL! Thanks Zest Air and Thanks Tune Hotels!
