Trip to Kuala Lumpur (part 2)

KLCC....

After taking pictures in the park outside with the twin towers as our background, we headed STRAIGHT to the Kinokuniya Bookstore. With no unnecessary stops, we dashed from escalator to escalator. Being a book lover has developed in the five of us since our parents started homeschooling us in 2006. Our parents were book lovers and we took after them.

Kinokuniya was a very big bookstore. Our eyes almost popped out of our heads when we saw how big of a bookstore it was.

Ajran, Zakiran, and I first went to look for the 'Kampung Boy' series.After getting lost a couple of times between the shelves while looking for the 'Lat' series, we finally conceded and asked the lady staff nearby. We bought two books of the series, InshaAllah, we'll get the whole collection. After that came the wild roaming of Ajran and Zakiran. One minute you'd find them in this section, the next they've gone off somewhere else!

I was fixed in the literature section, looking for some worth reading literature books in preparation for the course I'll be taking for college, English Language and Literature Studies. Amah and Inah on the other hand, were looking for Islamic books for their leisure reading and their studies.

From the beginning of our trip, we very strictly followed our itinerary plan, all hours given for certain activities were followed without exception. Our following it loosened in the bookstore as we spent some good 2 hours and a half instead of the 2 hours (only) we planned to spend in Kinokuniya. We actually didn't have any intention of leaving had it not been that Amah had classes soon and that we had to arrive in Putrajaya before dusk.

I don't have pictures to show of the bookstore inside, we were too excited looking for books to think of taking any pictures. :(

As we left, Ajran, Zakiran, and I shared the same sentiments. We also shared the same thought... we wanted to live in the bookstore!

Our Trip to Kuala Lumpur (part 1)

Pulalu Pinang to Kuala Lumpur

*July 22, 2011; 5:45 am (Ajran's cellphone alarm rings)*

"Allahu Akbar!", I started into a half-sitting position as my sister's alarm rang. I had to relax again after that loud ringtone we'd tried for the alarm the night before, had frightened all my molecules, cells, and nerves. That was not the best way to wake up. My heart was beating fast as I felt like my soul was pulled from somewhere far away back into my body in a speed faster than the speed of light! Thus, I slept again.

I woke up (AGAIN!) at 6:15 am.  This time I finally got up. The Masjids did not call the Qamat yet. That was a relief. We did all the things we had to do in preparation for our departure. By 8:45 am,  we left the house to start our journey to KL.

In our itinerary, we allotted 1 hour to wait  for the bus. They don't pass by as often as buses in the Philippines do. You'd have to wait for at least 20 minutes to an hour before the bus arrives. We stopped at BJ Kompleks' bus stop. From there we rode a bus that took us to Sungai Nibong bus terminal, where all the buses from Pulau Pinang bound for other states in Malaysia stop by to pick passengers up.

A staff of the bus terminal assisted Amah on buying our tickets. He also told Amah that we were the only passengers the bus was waiting for, making us hurry and think that the bus was about to depart already. When we got down to the departure platform though, no bus bound for KL was to be found. We found out from the same man that the bus was arriving at 30 minutes later... 10:30 am. He probably meant that the ticket booth for the earliest bus to KL was about to close already (it really was) and that we had to hurry. He probably just failed to relay it to us clearly. Slang and accents can be a problem in communicating here sometimes. 

Minutes before the bus arrived, Ajran and Zakiran were settling their argument of who gets the window seat. Amah suggested they play 'bato-bato pick' to determine who gets the seat. But they ended up playing thumb wrestling instead. Zakiran won... We boarded the bus at 10:35 am....

The bus left at 10:45. Our excitement heightened as we crossed the Penang bridge. I felt like getting off the bus and diving into the water from the bridge. I felt like as if the sea was calling me... hehe

Crossing Penang Bridge

Our eyes were full of the beautiful sceneries we saw on our way. We stopped by a stopover 2 hours later in Ipoh. It stopped for a few minutes, just enough time to make all the passengers use the comfort room.

The stopovers also had a Surau for praying. But the bus did not stop for the prayer time yet since Zuhr was still at 1:30 pm. I'm not sure though, if it really stops for that.

By 2:30 pm, our surrounding started to change. From greens to greys (with a little green), from mountains to skyscrapers, as we arrived in the bustling city of Kuala Lumpur.

We got off the bus at KL Sentral. We were supposed to get off at the Puduraya Bus Station. But that was because we didn't know that the bus was to stop at KL Sentral first before the Puduraya Bus Station. All the trains stop at KL Sentral making it easier to go to different places from there.

Upon arrival, we started looking for a good place to eat. We always wanted to taste Malaysian food. We found this small restaurant that had a serve-yourself system wherein you are your own waiter. We ate a chicken dish served with rice, curry sauce, salad, and small dried fish. What I like when it comes to restaurants here in Malaysia is that they give you such big servings of food! Nice!

In the middle of eating, a fellow foreigner, a british stopped as she was passing by to take a stolen shot of us eating! I was surprised when light flashed towards our direction, right at our direction. Only Amah noticed her. But I think he only noticed her after she took the picture. She probably thought we were the 'Typical Malay Family' dining in our own traditional food. Ever since we arrived here, people would mistake us for Malaysians. They'd speak to us in Bahasa Melayu first before English (when they finally find out we were Filipinos).

We departed for KLCC after eating. From KL Sentral, we took an MRT to Suria KLCC, Malaysia's premier shopping center at the base of the Petronas Twin Towers.