After two wonderful days in beautiful Langkawi, it was now time for the last leg of our journey. We reached Langkawi airport for our morning flight to Kuala Lumpur. After having our breakfast at Kenny Rogers Roasters (not a whole lot of options at the airport), we checked in and waited for our 11:45am flight.
Our flight was on time (Above photos taken on Nokia E72)
We all sat together but Ramesh chose the window seat. The following are his photographs.
That’s a wavebreaker
We landed at Kuala Lumpur Low Cost Terminal nearing 1pm and was out in 30 minutes. There were plenty of buses from KL LCCT to KL Sentral, which is the main transportation hub in Kuala Lumpur city.
We got a ManU fan for a driverThe bus ride costs RM8 (Rs. 117/$2.7)Soon after, it began to rain heavilyBut halfway through the journey, the rain stopped
Malaysia’s landmark in the distanceAfter nearly an hour, we arrived at KL Sentral
After reaching KL Sentral, we then hired a taxi to where were staying.
It cost us RM35 from KL Sentral to Berjaya Times Square
(Above photos taken on Nokia E72)
After a 15 minute journey, we reached Berjaya Times Square. There is a metro service from KL Sentral to Berjaya Times Square, but with our luggage, we decided to just take a cab.
We chose Irsia after much deliberation and researching on the location. We made our booking for a triple room.
Which by the way, looks like this
After freshening up and making our payments, we headed to Berjaya Times Square for lunch.
Berjaya Times Square is relatively old but still remains one of Malaysia’s biggest and popular shopping destinations. It’s pretty huge, with 7 floors of shopping — high ends brands in the lower floors and more affordable stuff in the higher up floors. There’s also a 5-star hotel, Berjaya Hotel — among other things.
(Photograph by Loiyumba)
We headed all the way up to the 10th floor to the food court. We chose our meals from a place selling ‘mock non-veg’ food.
Pick and choose
By that I mean, stuff that looks like chicken and fish but are actually vegetarian because they are essentially soya-filled made to look like non-veg items.
The view from up here
When I mentioned “among other things” earlier…
… there’s also an indoor theme park with a rollercoaster inside the building
I tried to the get the whole theme park section of the building in one frameWe stepped outAnd decided to check out the area we were in
We chose to stay at Irsia because it was close to a lot of places we wanted to go. One among them being Low Yat Plaza, Kuala Lumpur’s famous IT mall.
After crossing the road, it was a short walk to Low Yat
This isn’t the main entrance6 floors of gadgets
I couldn’t get to spend much time in Singapore’s IT malls to pick up the things I wanted, so I consoled myself assuming I could get them at Low Yat.
Sadly, the selection of camera tripods weren’t very exhaustive and I couldn’t really find everything I wanted. Also, more importantly, the prices we found for some items were far more than what we saw in Singapore. There isn’t an incentive for tourists either via a tax refund scheme like Singapore has with its GST refund and Thailand has with its VAT refund scheme.
I checked out pretty much every floor
After lingering around for nearly 30 minutes, we left.
We were soon on Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur’s popular shopping district.
A short walk from here is Jalan Alor, also nicknamed ‘Food Street’.
Not buzzing just quite yet
Quite a lot of malls in Bukit Bintang
KL’s monorail service (Photograph by Loiyumba)We were walking towards Malaysia’s world famous landmarkIt’s tall, but it isn’t KL TowerThat’s where we were headed — Petronas Twin TowersI had plans to go to Menara KL too
Menara KL (or KL Tower) is in fact taller than Petronas towers, but that’s because it’s perched atop a hillEven half of one tower is impressive to look at
Suria KLCC is the shopping mall (KLCC is the convention centre I believe)Plenty of bank headquarters in and around Petronas TowersStunning
We walked into Suria but there was a sign saying at certain sections of the mall, photography is prohibited. So we just kept our cameras in and walked through the mall and out the main entrance of Petronas Towers.
Petronas is the Malaysia’s national oil company — and one of Asia’s largest companies. Petronas Towers is the company’s headquarters, thought I’m not sure if all 88 floors are Petronas’ offices.
But what an office to work in!The lobby is quite niceThat’s the Skybridge observation deck. We planned to go check it out in the morning.
The reason why we we didn’t want to go up to the skybridge is because, one, we were already late as the skybridge closes at 5pm and two, there is a particular method to which you need to get the tickets to visit the observation deck — which I’ll get to in a later post.
I had to step back a bit to get the whole building in my wide angle
We attempted a portrait shot of all three of us in front of the Petronas Towes, but because we didn’t have a tripod with us, Ramesh fit the tripod on his camera and used his Kata bag to stand the camera.
Me donating some money to some Chinese school girlAfter a few attempts, we managed to get the shot
The Malaysian MotoGP was happening the following week, and they had some competing superbikes on display.
After nearly an hour just staring at this beautiful building, we finally left the base of Petronas Towers.
The Petronas Towers are a symbol of modern day Malaysia. Just like Burj-Al-Arab signifies Dubai, and now Burj Khalifa, the Petronas Towers are an architectural icon. Inaugurated in 1998, even to this day, the Petronas Towers design stands as ‘modern’ – and yet, truly Asian in its influence as it can be. No visit to Malaysia is complete without having seen what was once the tallest building(s) in the world.
Even though Taipei 101 took over the throne of “Tallest building in the world” in 2004 (until Burj Khalifa did the same in 2010), the Petronas Towers are still one of the best looking skyscrapers in the world in my opinion. It shows how important good architecture is in creating a true global landmark. You can play the game of attempting to build the tallest structure in the world, but unless it looks good, the investment is futile.
If you disagree, just go around and ask people if they are aware of ‘Taipei 101’.
TANGS is a department store
We walked back and through some of the malls in Bukit Bintang district.
Musicians performing in front of Pavilion MallPavilion Crystal Fountain, the Tallest Liuli Crystal Fountain in MalaysiaJapan’s UNIQLO is now in Kuala Lumpur’s Fahrenheit 88 mallThis Ferrari F430 was parked in front of Fahrenheit 88 mall
There are a few street performers at Bukit BintangThese guys were trying to perform street dancing but looked nervous when the crowd grew bigBukit Bintang monorail station
It was time for us to now figure out what to eatSo we headed to Jalan Alor a.k.a ‘Food Street’Quite a change of scene from earlier isn’t it?
These restaurants even sprinkle water in the air to cool off its guests
While myself and Loiyumba found enough options for dinner, as was the norm on this trip, Ramesh didn’t. So I ordered what I wanted to eat, so that we could head to some place Ramesh could get his dinner.
I ordered some duck dish, forgot what it was calledWas tempted to order some seafood tooA lot of the restaurants on Jalan Alor are Chinese
It maybe a bustling place by night, but if you feel like staying amidst all the food, here are some hotels on Jalan Alor:
Apple Inn (http://www.appleinn.com.my/)
Once I got my takeaway, we headed back to our rooms only to stop at the 24-hour Subway store on Bukit Bintang where Ramesh picked up his dinner. (There’s also a 24-hour KFC on the same road)
We also pick up a few drinks from a convenience store on the way and had our dinner outside our hotel, where Irsia had put up a few tables for its guests.
My dinnerWhen I say we stayed right behind Berjaya Times Square, I’m not kidding
Dinner over, we hit the bed early. Our plans were to go see the famous Batu Caves tomorrow, which we knew were on the outskirts of KL… which meant getting up a bit early.
So what was our first impression of KL? Not so good, to be honest. In fact, after a whirlwind 3 days in Singapore during a buzzing F1 weekend, it’s understandable we were a bit disappointed with Kuala Lumpur. But the fact is, things are a lot cheaper in KL, so it’s no surprise Malaysia’s capital city isn’t as glamourous as glitzy Singapore. Unfair comparison I’d say.
Oh well, we still had two more days in the city to change our minds about the place.
Dick Clark once said: “Music is the soundtrack to your life”
That statement, for sure, holds true for my life.
I was born in 1982, but growing up in Bahrain in the 1980s, me and my older brother were more interested in cartoons about transforming robots, transforming automobiles and transforming jets. Not Michael Jackson or 80’s hair metal. It wasn’t until I grew into the next decade that my interest in music slowly started to grow.
I remember my brother getting a tiny Black & Decker radio which my dad won at some company party, and that pretty much became our introduction to the music broadcast over Bahrain’s airwaves (mostly Radio Bahrain 96.5fm). Since the radio, we moved up to a Sony hi-fi system, got cable, and then as the internet became a part of my adult life, I ended up listening to so much music that I link moments of my life to the songs from that period.
For the past few months on my Facebook profile, I’ve been sharing songs I grew up listening to under the ‘Re-living the 90s’ headline. It was pretty well received by my friends who, like me, reminisced about the music and went: “Man, I haven’t heard this ages!”.
So, this is the first of 10 posts. One post for every year of the decade that was the 1990s.
Now, these songs weren’t necessarily the top songs of the 90s, best, or even the greatest songs of the 90s — but yeah, they surely were big hits from the 1990s. I’m including them in my selection because I remember them as “favourites”.
So here we go:
All of these guys (yes, even those pants) were cool... back in 1990
New Kids on the Block – “Step by Step”
In 1990, I was 8 years old. NKOTB was my favourite group at the time. Why? I don’t know, maybe it was because their songs were simple, catchy pop songs — or I thought their dancing was “SO AWESOME” at the time. They even had their own cartoon I used to watch. Whatever it was, I had their cassette tapes… and I loved songs like “Right Stuff” and “Hangin’ Tough” as a kid.
The last NKOTB song I heard was “Dirty Dawg (1993-94),” their attempt to break away from the cheesy pop that made them famous. It wasn’t a huge hit and NKOTB eventually broke up after that. Jordan Kinght and Joey McIntyre came back to the music scene in the late 90s and in 2008, NKOTB re-emerged with a new album and tour. But as I grew up in the 1990s with the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync, I now realize how much more vocally talented those two boy bands were compared to NKOTB.
DNA feat. Suzanne Vega – “Tom’s Diner”
Do you know that song that goes: “D0-do-doodeh, do-dodeh-do, do-de-do-do, do-dedo-do…” Yeah, that’s how I used to remember this song 🙂
The 1990s saw rap hit the mainstream. Unfortunately, it was through rap hits like this:
I was among the millions back then who loved this song! I have a fond memory of when we first got our Sony hi-fi stereo (with karaoke mic!) and my older brother rapped the lines while I was snuggled in excitement on our living room sofa. Oh the things that excited me back then.
Now I’m among the millions who laugh at the guy whose real name is Robert Van Winkle 🙂
MC Hammer – “U Can’t Touch This”
Besides Vanilla Ice, the other laughing stock of early 90s pop rap was MC Hammer. Once again, everybody loved him when he was a chart-topping success. He too had a cartoon, Hammer Man. He lived the high life, bought a multi-million dollar home, a Ferrari — and then his career fizzled out after his second album, ‘Too Legit to Quit’. Then he went bankrupt. He’s still around though.
Cathy Dennis – “Too Many Walls”
Her biggest hit — and probably the only song of hers I remember. She didn’t last too long in the public eye as a pop star. Most of you may have never heard of Cathy Dennis, but if you heard songs by S Club 7, or number 1 hits like Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” “Toxic” by Britney Spears, or Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl,” that’s all Cathy Dennis. She wrote those hits.
So that’s all for the inaugural post in this series. I know it’s not a lot of songs, but I was only going on 8 then.
After a great first day in Langkawi, today morning we were up and ready for our island hopping tour.
For breakfast, I had ‘roti canai’ which is similar to Kerala parota, but fluffier. To drink, Milo, which is waaaay more popular in Malaysia than it is in India.
We were picked up by the tour operator at 8am and dropped off at a pier where other tourists were gathered as well.
These were the kind of boats we were going to be driven around inIt was a lovely sunny day to be out on a boat tripAll the tourists were divided into groups and we got into our boat
Given my past experience going on a similar trip in Krabi, I was more careful this time in protecting my camera equipment
Our first stop on the tour was to get a glimpse of the Pregnant Maiden Island, called so because it looks like a lady lying down with a pregnant tummy.
Took me a while to make out where the ‘pregnant maiden’ wasThis is a panorama comprised of 6 shots. See if you can find her. (Hint: Head is on the right)We moved on
Soon after, we arrived at our first major stop on the tour
We were at the Dayang Bunting Marble Geoforest Park, which is located inside the Island of the Pregnant Maiden.
Our welcoming party. The monkeys, not the old guy.
Needless to say, there were going to be a lot of monkeys here
The stop was for us to check out a lake inside.
But I was more amused watching monkeys
The lake inside is famous because despite being in an island located in the sea, the lake’s water isn’t as saltyYou can also swim here… or jump in, like Loi didThere are also paddle boats for hire
They also have one of those “fish spas” here with small catfish ever ready to nibble away at your feet’s germs.
Plus it’s freeThe water is cool, but the nibbling at your feet can be ticklish… and slimyBut when people throw bread crumbs near your feet…. it can get a *little* too much!We had nearly an hour to spend hereThey have changing rooms for men and women here itself… but it kinda helps to know English
45 minutes in, we made our way back to the pier
Like I said, lots of monkeys here
You have to be a bit careful though. Yes, they are more afraid of you than your are of the monkeys. But if they see anything enticing in your hands — like juice bottles or food packets — sometimes they will come at you and just grab it. Also, I saw some idiots throw things at them. Please don’t do that.
2 seconds ago, that Coke bottle was in that old man’s hands. He didn’t fight for it back… because that would make human race look inferior.
We got into our boats and moved on
Our next stop was a short trip away.
Next up was a fish feeding farm…… which was also a restaurant. Hmmm.
The thing was, you had to pay to feed the fishes. This isn’t exactly included in the package.
But we didn’t go for it
We didn’t opt to feed the fishes because, 1) all 3 of us weren’t interested 2) the concept of paying to feed fishes, fatten them up and who then (possibly) end up on the restaurant menu didn’t sound right to me.
Boring huh?Fortunately it was only a 30 minute stop, so I continued clicking
We moved onOur boat driver, smoking
We rode up to what looked like a mangrove forest, where we would witness an eagle feeding session.
Langkawi gets its name from eagles. Malay word ‘lang’ = eagle, kawi = reddish brown colourThe island is inhabited with a lot of eagles of that colour
The eagle feeding session works as such. The boats all float apart from each other and the drivers/guides throw some eagle feed (bread bits or some meat) into the waters, and the birds of prey come sweeping in with their beaks ready to eat.
Problem was, I didn’t have the right lens for this part of the tour. The most zoom I had was with my Tamron 28-75mm f2.8, which as a macro lens is great, but isn’t much when it comes to photographing fast moving birds.
Here are a few shots Ramesh got using his Canon 55-250mm telephoto lens.
(Photograph by Ramesh Iyer)(Photograph by Ramesh Iyer)
After the eagle feeding session, we moved on to our next and final stop on this tour.
Beras Basah islandIf you wanted to swim in the sea or just hang around on the beach, here is where you are allowed to do itWe were all keen to hit the water!But I didn’t feel like leaving my camera on the beachSo I took it with me into the water! But I trod very carefully so as not to get a drop of water on the lens.Loi and Ramesh found broken coralsSo I asked them to make use of them and pretend to be reindeers!Because you know, reindeers in water are… ermm… 🙂Couldn’t help but turn this into an ad 🙂Attempting the ‘head floating in water’ shotAfter some time, we made our way back to shoreOvercast skies in the distance
Not sure if this was a hotel or notAfter drying ourselves up, we headed back to the pier
Monkeys inhabit this island tooAmazing how they survive on the island, considering there are no human residents here.
We left Beras Basah island
We got a bit of rain as we neared the pier from where we set off in the morningPretty cool looking resort
The rain was mostly a drizzle once we got back. They were selling memorabilia plates of everybody who went for these boat trips and since they were only RM10, we all picked up our respective plates.
This was a half-day island hopping tour and it only cost us RM30 (Rs. 450 approx.) per person. I’ve done a similar tour like this last year in South Thailand. Of course, that trip didn’t start of well, with my camera getting wet and all, but I doubt I’ll ever get sick of seeing clear blue water and less crowded beaches far away from civilization.
As we were walking to our vans, Ramesh and I were talking about visiting the Langkawi Underwater World, just when one of the Sri Lankans who was on our boat overheard us. He turned back and advised us against it, saying that the Aquaria KLCC in Kuala Lumpur is “much better”. So we decided to take his word for it and dropped the idea of going to Langkawi Underwater World.
The lobby downstairs at Sweet Inn MotelOne of the many cats that visit Sweet InnIt had just finished raining
We stepped out again, this time for lunch.
We stopped by a restaurant to quench our throats first with some chilled beer. I tried SKOL which I never had before. It was average in taste.
Unfortunately, looking at the menu, it offered very little in terms of vegetarian for Ramesh. So after beer, we sought some other restaurant.
So we went further down Pantai Cenang road to check out other restaurantsThis is Underwater World LangkawiWe sat down at a restaurant in front of Underwater World after Ramesh found something he could eatBut the food wasn’t particularly good. I didn’t like my chicken curry rice.
Post lunch, we checked out some Duty Free stores. Langkawi is a Duty Free shopping destination, so one would assume you would find some great bargains. But as we hopped from one shop to another, that wasn’t the case. Especially with electronics. We walked into the Canon store at a mall adjacent to Underwater World and found the prices to be far higher than that of Singapore. We were aware Malaysia isn’t as cheap as Singapore when it comes to electronics, but still, the prices we came across were a bit exorbitant. Some even higher than prices back in India.
I feel Langkawi businesses were taking advantage of the “Duty Free” label and jacking up the prices because you never know, some less-informed tourist would buy into the whole gimmick and assume they got a good deal here.
At this point, Ramesh and Loiyumba wanted to head back to our hotel in Langkawi for some rest. This being our last day on Langkawi, I didn’t feel like resting, so I told them I wanted to roam around a bit more.
I was contemplating heading to Kuah, Langkawi’s main town, just to see what that side of the island had to offer. But since we had already walked quite a bit, I decided to head further on and visit Pantai Tengah beach. In the process, also share some more beachfront hotel options on Pantai Cenang in case you wanted to know where to stay (I highlighted some places in the previous post).
Durian (similar to Jackfruit), is the national fruit of Malaysia (I think)
Head straight down this road to get to Pantai Tengah beach
This is Pantai Tengah beachIt isn’t as big as Pantai Cenang… and the sand isn’t as soft eitherIn fact, the sand was mostly broken shells. Not the best for walking barefoot then.At this point, it began to rainFortunately, I had my umbrella in my backpack. So I walked back instead of taking cover.This nice looking resort isn’t open to publicUpon research, it belongs to a bank and is meant only for its employees. Posh.Debbie’s Place Irish pub on Pantai Cenang
There’s a laundry shop very close to Sweet Inn, very reasonable rates for service
I went back to the room to drop off my laundry, and to see what the other two were up to. Ramesh and Loi were taking a nap and so, I decided to step out again.
I wanted to explore the area behind the motel
Some of the houses here have been turned into budget accommodation for tourists. Good income for villagers.
Apparently all water buffaloes do is stare at you
I had reached a main road at this point
I saw this market by the main road…… and since there was a lot of food on display, I had to check it out!I forget if these were fish balls or cheese balls… or fish balls with cheese powder coatingApom Balek, sweet stuff. I sampled a few of these. (‘apom’ sounds like India’s “appam”)
‘Nasi’ is Malay for rice and ‘Beriani’ is well, biriyani (RM 3.50 = Rs. 50)Seemed like this was some sort of weekend market, not a mainstay
Guess I knew where to bring Loi for dinner
Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables on offer
Dried fish… lots of it!‘Cempedak’ is a type of fruit, ‘goreng’ I’m guessing means friedNot sure what these wereAll these colourful juices made me thirstySo I had corn milk juice. Weird choice, I know. But I didn’t come all the way here to strawberry milkshake.
You got budget accommodation out here as well
After spending some time at the market, I knew I was coming back here for dinner. Great street food at very low prices — who am I to complain? I headed back to let the other two know about my ‘discovery’.
Once I got back to the room at around 6pm, Loi was still napping. So we forced him to get out of bed and get ready. We set out by 7:30pm.
It was pitch dark and there weren’t any street lights on this route
‘Susu’ is the Malay for milk (yup); ‘kelapa’ means coconut and ‘air’ is water (seriously)Wondering what this is?It’s potatoKeralites, looks familiar?Puttu! Albeit, a slight variationThis is how they make lots of itThis is fish apparentlyI ordered a seafood mini-pizza from hereMostly crab meat and prawns; RM 5 (Rs. 75) for one
A lot of the food was already sold outYou take the basket and tongs, pick up whatever you want and you will be charged accordinglyAfter you choose, you cook it in boiling water… even stuff like this (Yuck)
Picked up some chicken samosas and vegetable spring rolls (RM 2 = Rs. 30)Was tempted to get some fried chicken too but I didn’t want overeat 🙂Picked up a beef burger as well. ‘Daging’ = beef, ‘ayam’ = chicken, ‘benjo’ = egg (RM1 = Rs. 15)
The night market was a lot more crowded than earlier
Unfortunately, everybody except Ramesh got what we wanted. There was very little in terms of pure vegetarian on offer at the night market. So we headed back to the main road so that Ramesh could pick up his dinner from a proper restaurant.
Since this was our last night in Langkawi, we hit the beach to the feel wet sand on our feet one last time.
This is the restaurant from where we had lunch yesterday and breakfast today morning
After checking out a few restaurants, Ramesh ended up picking up a vegetarian pizza from Italian coffee chain illy Cafe, which cost as much as all the food myself and Loi picked up from the night market.
While we waited, Loi petted stray kittensAs it is this post has over 200 photos, might as well squeeze in one of me. (Photograph by Ramesh)Wonder what animal this cat fought withBack at our motel, this guy was hooked on Hindi moviesDinner! 🙂
And just when you thought we had seen enough cats for one day…
This came to our door. We had to share our food with it too.We kept referring to the cat as ‘it’. So, Loi felt the need to check. It was a ‘she’.
Dinner and drinks done, I ended the night satisfied with all that I saw today. Actually, I did want to head to Kuah town after we came back from our island hopping tour. But given that it ended up raining in the afternoon, it’s a good thing I stayed put in Pantai Cenang.
With 208 photos and over 2000 words, this is the largest post I’ve worked on. There were still some more photos I felt like using because they looked good, but in the end decided not to.
It was good day today, but tomorrow onwards, it’s four days in Malaysia’s capital — Kuala Lumpur.
Sadly, the selection of camera tripods weren’t very exhaustive and I couldn’t really find everything I wanted. Also, more importantly, the prices we found for some items were far more than what we saw in Singapore. There isn’t an incentive for tourists either via a tax refund scheme like Singapore has with its GST refund and Thailand has with its VAT refund scheme.
We were soon on Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur’s popular shopping district.
A short walk from here is Jalan Alor, also nicknamed ‘Food Street’.
Petronas is the Malaysia’s national oil company — and one of Asia’s largest companies. Petronas Towers is the company’s headquarters, thought I’m not sure if all 88 floors are Petronas’ offices.
We attempted a portrait shot of all three of us in front of the Petronas Towes, but because we didn’t have a tripod with us, Ramesh fit the tripod on his camera and used his Kata bag to stand the camera.
The Malaysian MotoGP was happening the following week, and they had some competing superbikes on display.
After nearly an hour just staring at this beautiful building, we finally left the base of Petronas Towers.
The Petronas Towers are a symbol of modern day Malaysia. Just like Burj-Al-Arab signifies Dubai, and now Burj Khalifa, the Petronas Towers are an architectural icon. Inaugurated in 1998, even to this day, the Petronas Towers design stands as ‘modern’ – and yet, truly Asian in its influence as it can be. No visit to Malaysia is complete without having seen what was once the tallest building(s) in the world.
Even though Taipei 101 took over the throne of “Tallest building in the world” in 2004 (until Burj Khalifa did the same in 2010), the Petronas Towers are still one of the best looking skyscrapers in the world in my opinion. It shows how important good architecture is in creating a true global landmark. You can play the game of attempting to build the tallest structure in the world, but unless it looks good, the investment is futile.
While myself and Loiyumba found enough options for dinner, as was the norm on this trip, Ramesh didn’t. So I ordered what I wanted to eat, so that we could head to some place Ramesh could get his dinner.
It maybe a bustling place by night, but if you feel like staying amidst all the food, here are some hotels on Jalan Alor:
