Tag: <span>electronics</span>

Date: March 21, 2015

I woke up at around 8AM. I wanted to sleep some more since it was cold and all, but I was excited to go to Akihabara, the electronics and otaku district!

Kinuya Honkan hotel lobby Ueno Tokyo — I had to come down to the lobby to get my clothes as I had to leave my big suitcase in the room opposite the reception. No big suitcases allowed in the dorms due to lack of space. It was a little inconvenient, but… oh well.

Kinuya Honkan hostel Ueno Tokyo — This is the entrance to Kinuya Honkan

Ueno street Tokyo morning Japan — This street and the surrounding areas are choc full of bars and small eateries

Ueno lane Tokyo Japan — Saw a lot of people riding bicycles, which was nice

Cyberspark pachinko Ueno Tokyo — A few pachinko arcades on this street

Pachinko queue morning Ueno Tokyo — There was a queue forming outside this pachinko arcade. Some new game based on the Ultraman franchise was launching today.

Ueno shops Pachinko lane Tokyo — This is the entrance to the street Kinuya Honkan is located on

Pedestrian crossing Ueno Tokyo winter — Right across the road is Ueno station, one of the largest hubs in the Tokyo train network and a major interchange station. I always choose my hotels and hostels near a metro station.

7-11 food Tokyo Japan — I went to a 7-Eleven to pick up some breakfast and coffee. I was amazed to see the variety of ready-to-eat meal boxes on shelves!

Pedestrian overbridge Ueno station Tokyo — I climbed up a pedestrian over bridge to get a look around

Ueno station train Tokyo Japan — Trains, it’s how most people get around in Japan

Smoking bays Ueno overbridge Tokyo — Those were designated smoking bays

Steps pedestrian bridge Ueno Tokyo — I went back down and entered Ueno station (the black cars are taxi limousines)

Continue reading “Japan: Going to Akihabara, and spending way too much time in Yodobashi Akiba” »

Date: 1st October 2010

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.

Langkawi airport Air Asia morning 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.

Langkawi wave breaker from plane Malaysia — 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.

KL LCCT to KL Sentral bus Manchester United believe — We got a ManU fan for a driver

LCCT to KL Sentral Kuala Lumpur bus journey — The bus ride costs RM8 (Rs. 117/$2.7)

LCCT to KL Sentral Kuala Lumpur heavy rain — Soon after, it began to rain heavily

Kuala Lumpur city highway powerlines — But halfway through the journey, the rain stopped

Kuala Lumpur city highway Petronas in distance — Malaysia’s landmark in the distance

Kuala Lumpur construction near KL Sentral — After nearly an hour, we arrived at KL Sentral

After reaching KL Sentral, we then hired a taxi to where were staying.

Kuala Lumpur city Proton taxi — It cost us RM35 from KL Sentral to Berjaya Times Square

Kuala Lumpur luxury building — (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.

Kuala Lumpur Irsia bed and breakfast hostel — The tiny white building was where we would be staying: Irsia Bed & Breakfast

We chose Irsia after much deliberation and researching on the location. We made our booking for a triple room.

Irsia bed breakfast hostel triple room Kuala Lumpur — 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.

Berjaya Times Square hotel escalator floors — (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.

Kuala Lumpur Berjaya Times Square soya food court — 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.

Kuala Lumpur city SJK Julimbi building — The view from up here

When I mentioned “among other things” earlier…

Berjaya Times Square indoor roller coaster — … there’s also an indoor theme park with a rollercoaster inside the building

Berjaya Times Square indoor theme park — I tried to the get the whole theme park section of the building in one frame

Berjaya Times Square mall Kuala Lumpur — We stepped out

Kuala Lumpur Times Square monorail line — And 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

Kuala Lumpur Plaza Low Yat side entrance — This isn’t the main entrance

Kuala Lumpur Low Yat Plaza five floors — 6 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.

Kuala Lumpur Low Yat Plaza stores — 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’.

Kuala Lumpur Jalan Alor evening — Not buzzing just quite yet

Kuala Lumpur city CBD traffic — Quite a lot of malls in Bukit Bintang

Kuala Lumpur monorail train — KL’s monorail service (Photograph by Loiyumba)

Kuala Lumpur monorail HSBC branch — We were walking towards Malaysia’s world famous landmark

Kuala Lumpur Hotel Istana Menara KL tower evening — It’s tall, but it isn’t KL Tower

Kuala Lumpur Petronas towers Monorail — That’s where we were headed — Petronas Twin Towers

Kuala Lumpur Menara KL Malaysia — I had plans to go to Menara KL too

Kuala Lumpur Menara Shangri La hotel Malaysia — Menara KL (or KL Tower) is in fact taller than Petronas towers, but that’s because it’s perched atop a hill

KL Petronas Tower Canon street ad — Even half of one tower is impressive to look at

Kuala Lumpur Suria KLCC shopping mall — Suria KLCC is the shopping mall (KLCC is the convention centre I believe)

Public Bank AmBank headquarter building KL — Plenty of bank headquarters in and around Petronas Towers

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.

Petronas Twin Towers bottom angle — But what an office to work in!

Petronas Towers building entrance lobby — The lobby is quite nice

Petronas Towers observation deck bridge at night — That’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.

Kuala Lumpur Petronas Twin Towers Malaysia — 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.

Petronas Towers glowing Mithun Loiyumba charity girl — Me donating some money to some Chinese school girl

Loiyumba Ramesh Mithun in front of Petronas Towers full — After 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’.

Kuala Lumpur city TANGS store — TANGS is a department store

We walked back and through some of the malls in Bukit Bintang district.

Kuala Lumpur Pavilion Mall street musicians — Musicians performing in front of Pavilion Mall

Pavilion Crystal Fountain, the Tallest Liuli Crystal Fountain in Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur Uniqlo store Bukit Bintang — Japan’s UNIQLO is now in Kuala Lumpur’s Fahrenheit 88 mall

Ferrari F430 parked in front of Fahrenheit 88 mall Kuala Lumpur Malaysia — This Ferrari F430 was parked in front of Fahrenheit 88 mall

Bukit Bintang street performers at night — There are a few street performers at Bukit Bintang

Bukit Bintang street dancers Kuala Lumpur at night — These guys were trying to perform street dancing but looked nervous when the crowd grew big

Kuala Lumpur Bukit Bintang monorail station — Bukit Bintang monorail station

Bukit Bintang street KL at night — It was time for us to now figure out what to eat

Jalan Alor food street Chinese restaurant tourists — So we headed to Jalan Alor a.k.a ‘Food Street’

Jalan Alor food street Kuala Lumpur at night — Quite a change of scene from earlier isn’t it?

Jalan Alor food street water sprinklers — 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.

Jalan Alor food street KL kitchen — I ordered some duck dish, forgot what it was called

Jalan Alor food street fried fish — Was tempted to order some seafood too

Jalan Alor food street Chinese restaurant — A 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:

Jalan Alor food street Apple Inn hotel KL — 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.

KL street food duck meat Anglia shandy — My dinner

Berjaya Times Square from behind at night — When 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.

Other posts in this series:

Singapore & Malaysia 2010: Planning and preparing for the trip

Singapore 2010: Day 1 – Little India, CBD, Clarke Quay, China Town… and a lot of walking

Singapore 2010: Day 2 – Orchard Road, mall-hopping… and already shopping

Singapore 2010: Day 3 – Singapore Zoo, Marina Bay Sands; leaving Singapore for Penang

Malaysia 2010: Day 5 — Langkawi (Ferry ride from Penang, Cable car & Sky Bridge)

Malaysia 2010: Day 6 — Langkawi (Island hopping tour, Pantai Tengah beach, Night market)

Malaysia 2010: Day 8 — Kuala Lumpur (Batu Caves, Petaling Street/China Town)

Malaysia 2010: Day 9 — Kuala Lumpur (KLCC Aquaria, Merdeka Square, KL Tower observation deck)

Malaysia 2010: Leaving Kuala Lumpur… and about going back