So Much To Do...

2011 is coming to an end in two days time. I have plenty to do for example cleaning up the whole house so it doesn't look like a tornado has just gone through the whole house. I need to clean up my room so that it doesn't look dirtier than the pig sty. I have so much dusting to do that if only I can turn dust into gold, I will be the richest person who ever live on this earth. I actually plan to finish my masterpiece by the end of this year but looks like it's more possible that I finish it by the end of next year. I have so much paperwork to prepare that looking at all of them, I don't even know where to start as the paper is empty and I have to start writing something on it before I get the ball rolling. I still have so many photos to upload and things to blog about but I don't seem to have enough time to do everything. I want to catch a movie with my hubby but the time is always not right. I'm really sad that the holiday is coming to an end but of course there's a future holiday which I have already planned out as well. I do like Year 2011 for what reason, I do not know. Alas... nitez folks...

Ice-Skating... Boring~!!

On the third day, that was Tuesday, our battery level was running at dangerously low. But the kids were excited when I told them I was gonna take them ice-skating. It was their first time trying on ice-skating whereas I was already bored with going in circles. I preferred walking around Sunway Pyramid with my love. We used the same kind of transportation, cheap yet efficient, monorail, commuter and bus. Each person had to pay RM23 per entry for the ice-skating. I was quite worried whether the 3 would be able to ice-skate or not. They have in-line skating skills but ice-skating would be slightly different. In the end, I paid and went to see how there were doing. They were doing great but my feet hurt so much as the skates were seriously very uncomfortable and I started to have blisters everywhere. I couldn't afford to have blisters on the third day of my holiday. Seriously can't live with that. I skated for a few rounds then that's it, I was out after our picnic lunch at the waiting area while waiting for them to polish up the skating rink. Frankly speaking, I found no joy skating in Sunway Pyramid. It was congested with people and the most you could do was practice your skill against colliding with anyone or skating across someone's fingers. A little boy fell in front of me and I almost went over him and with my weight and size, I could easily turned him into a pancake. Thus, I made my way to the exit. Money wasted... After an hour, all my kids can't wait to get out of the place. They feet hurt as well and my precious had a cut on one of her feet. Our battery level by then was about to be negative, we could hardly walk about and there wasn't much to see at Sunway Pyramid. We decided to take a bus and went to get our train back. I was actually thinking of going back to the hotel at 4 p.m. and have a proper sleep until the next day. *sigh* Crossing the road was difficult as well. Flyover. I've never used any flyover as the stairs were just too much but in large cities, without flyovers, you would end up in pieces with one limb on the other side and another under the moving vehicle and contribute to a massive traffic. We actually saw a bus coming our way and we went flying down the stairs and jumped over the railing to get to the bus. No bus stop across the road but the bus still stopped there. What a way to run after a public bus. Thank God I'm still agile enough to jump over railings... It started to rain heavily after that. Dear Jesus, right timing again. If we dragged our time in Sunway, we would be drenched. We were safely and securely sheltered in the bus. The traffic was building up and with the rain, it made matter worse. We were caught in a jam for almost an hour and for the whole hour, the four of them were snoring away in the bus like pigs. I wanted so much to shut my eyes but I had to keep watch so I stayed awake the whole journey. And when we reached KL Sentral to take the monorail back, I told them my suggestion to go back to the hotel to have proper rest and continue the next day, my precious was so horrified with my idea that she objected and wouldn't mind starting an argument with me in the middle of the road. All four of them were wide awake, fresh and my precious and youngest were so eager to go shopping. Gosh... and I dragged my feet and moved forward...

My One Week of City Life...

At two in the morning, the city was still very lively. Love and I went out at two in the morning in search of drinking water. We were so thirsty and the electric jug in the hotel room couldn't serve us well. We wanted cold water not boiling hot water. We went to the nearest mart opened round the clock. The first thing we looked for was the 5-litre mineral water which we found the moment we stepped into the mart. Looks like we were not the only people searching for drinking water that's why all the drinking were placed right at the entrance. We were kinda surprised to see the hawkers still clinking and clanking away, frying noodles and rice and coming up with piping hot dishes for the hungry patrons. I wonder what kinda meal were they having... early morning breakfast or late nite supper. Oh, well we took our dinner around midnite every day due to unforeseen circumstances. Since there were so many things sold at the mart, we went back and woke the kids up. They were on their way to dreamland until I told them we could go and buy ice-creams. They jumped out of bed immediately. There was another that I bought for our lunch. Sad right? Everyday we had only bread with tuna for lunch. We couldn't afford to eat anything fanciful until we got back to Jalan Alor for the hawker food. We save and cringed because we prefer shopping than fancy dining. We even cancelled our plan to ride on the roller coasted in Berjaya Times Square. We would rather spend the money on clothes and more clothes. And my tofu skin gave me trouble on the first day itself. I should have gone there barefooted or wrapped my feet with plastic bags. Nothing I wear can give comfort to my skin. *sigh* Do you know that if you stay in Seasons View Hotel in Jalan Alor, Bukit Bintang, your daily breakfast would be dining at the next door Old Town? *jealous* We had to hunt for breakfast along the street and mostly would be opened for dinner only. We made do with whatever that was available.

Brightly Lit Sunway...

After watching Aladdin, we walked out of Sunway Lagoon and I think I walked too fast, I missed the turning, I went straight ahead going up one escalator after the other and ended up in this beautifully lit walkway. It's the walkway towards the entrance of Sunway Hotel. We were completely mesmerized by the beauty of the creative designs and then plus the LED lights, it looked like a fairytale land.
The decorations were definitely for Christmas with the towering Christmas tree and the fake plastic snowman. That can do because if I were to wait for Malaysia to snow, I mean real snow from the sky, something must be happening up in the air that would be a serious concern for the meteorologists. As we walked down the street, the street became more and more beautiful but of course without the decorations, it would just be any normal tarred road with cars on both sides of the road, parked haphazardly by those who were waiting to pick up friends.
Since we have to take the train back to Bukit Bintang, we cut across walking through Sunway Pyramid. Prayed hard for a bus since it was coming close to 11 p.m. I miscalculated the time as I thought the train service would shut down at 12 a.m. but lo and behold, the kind Rapid bus driver told me that he would be able to make it in time for me to catch the last train out from Kelana Jaya which would be 11:15p.m. You should see my ashen face when I heard that. I have no plan B at all. Then, before I could even mutter a quick prayer under my breath, there was a taxi next to the bus.
The taxi driver was so kind, he took us all in and sent us back to Bukit Bintang. He didn't overcharge us but instead we felt sorry for him. Sorry that he had to travel back and pay two tolls and it was so far away. God knew that we had no more energy to trot along the streets late at night, so He sent us a kind taxi driver to take us all the way back. PS. I'm seriously very slow in uploading photos and updating my blog. I'm just into the second day in Kuala Lumpur. I still have so many more to write in this digital journal of mine and it's going to be 2012 in a couple of days time and I'm preparing for my next trip already... *sigh*

Bungee Jump...

My main priority of things to do in Sunway Lagoon was doing the bungee jump. The jump was not included in the parks main entrance, it was under the pay per ride same as the G-Force. I didn't upload the video of G-Force because after uploading this bungee jumping video, I almost whacked the whole computer into smithereens. It took such a long time to upload to Facebook and Youtube. It took forever to upload straight into Blogger.

One jump cost RM75... I don't remember anything that I learnt in Physics. For two bloody years in secondary school, I couldn't remember a single thing. The length of the rope which makes up the distance of the jump was way too short to do anything funny while jumping away. There wasn't any other people jumping except for the 3 of us. I went first, hyped up until I was make to sit and they slowly tied my legs. The slowness cost me to start shaking like a leaf. I'm not afraid of height but I've never tried jumping off a cliff or the side of the hanging bridge. What was in my head? I was thinking a number of things on how to jump. I actually had the idea that I was gonna run and leap into the air but now my legs were bound and I could only shift about like a penguin. I could barely move but I made it to the ledge after shuffling about.

It's not that I didn't want to go head down first. I was thinking if I tried those style where people jumped off a building to commit suicide, then maybe a few seconds later, I could try turning my head around. Air pressure... wind speed and *pfff* I couldn't even turned around until the rope ended and I was swaying like a bait at the end of the fish hook. Anyway, I did it and I don't mind jumping the second time in a different style.

Asia's Best Attraction... My Ass...

The earlier posts where I was roaming around Kuala Lumpur, hopping around at the National Monument, monkey-ing all over the Perdana Botanical Garden, experienced my first lying down theatre at the National Planetarium, gawking at the nite view of Kuala Lumpur from the KL Tower, chugging along the way in a double decker bus, sweating like a pig at Petaling Street, strolling under the drizzle along BintangWalk and finally having our dinner at Jalan Alor. We did that in one day starting from 8 a.m. and ending the day at midnite. A whole long day of walking just on the first day. Like me to be your tour guide? It will be worth your every single cent if I'm to be your tour guide. Travel cheap and fast without any hiccups. The second day was different. We went to one single place only. You must think I'm crazy if I were to tell you that I left the hotel at night, sleeping the whole day through. Nah... just not my style to spend my holiday sleeping away in any hotels no matter how posh the place is. Ain't that beautiful? Asia's best attraction... looks like a lit up palace, don't ya think so? The happiest moment of my whole journey sounded a little bit silly. My happiest moment didn't come when I was shopping around, grabbing at those clothes like they're free neither was it my happiest moment when I could finally crossed away all the places that I've planned to visit. The happiest moment came in the morning of the second day. We were heading towards Kelana Jaya, taking the blue line, stopping at the last stop. I was leading as usual, but of course Jesus led the whole way through. He seriously knew when I wanted my moment. I stepped into the commuter and the door slammed shut. Looking at my kids faces were priceless. I should have taken a snapshot of those frozen 'O' of their mouth. Completely shocked. Dumb-founded. Speechless. The train zoomed off and it finally dawned upon me that I have my wish... that's to travel alone with nobody bugging me or asking where we were, when were we gonna stop and so on and so forth. Peace... and I started cam-whoring in the almost empty train. I did take my mobile out and told them to hop onto the next train and get down at the last stop. Those few minutes of being alone was so refreshing. Oh, yeah... Asia's Best Attraction... we spent slightly above RM800 at Sunway Lagoon. Asia's Best Attraction... my ass~! My foot~!! Oh, puhleez... I salute to the team who did the costing. Brilliant~! Very brilliant~! Let me tell you something... the whole place was totally so NOT worth it. The queue just to purchase the tickets ate up 1.5 hours and the package for the entrance, I hate it so~!! Amusement Park, Water Park and what's the other one? Addition of Extreme Park which comes together with Wildlife Park... I don't need Wildlife Park... I would rather kiss a tiger than walk around looking at parrots and other small animals. The lions looked like they were bored of being display caged animals. The queue for flying fox was 2 solid hours and I missed riding on the ATV due to shortage of time and the Bangladeshi in charge refused to let us ride because there was another group waiting and it was before closing hours. Smart of Sunway Lagoon not to extend their closing hours. Even Universal Studios in Singapore extended their closing hours to make the holidaymakers happy. I seriously hate Sunway Lagoon and compared to 13 years ago, the rides and the splashed were way much better than those around now. All those splashes were so lame. No photos... we were all doing marathon trying to get from one point to another, queueing up and lugging our rubber tubes up the horrible staircase just for a few seconds of satisfaction. Cameras were kept in the freaking expensive lockers, RM5 once you open the lockers... Sunway Lagoon is seriously one gold mine where at every corner they earn money. They started earning money the moment you stepped up to the ticketing counter. I didn't really wanna go there but the kids have never been there before... see I'm not so bad after all, right? Give me a few minutes of pleasure of being alone, I give you the whole day of happiness. The only thing worth going to was watching the West End Production, Aladdin. God is good, really good, awesomely good to us. My precious' old schoolmate called up one day before we left for KL, she said that she had 4 tickets to Aladdin. She sold it to us at RM20 for one when the blue zone ticket actually cost RM200 per person. We were short of one ticket so we purchased another at half price. If the drama team in this Northern region can produce a stage play as good as this in PenangPAC, then I don't mind paying. PenangPAC lacks of everything. The free dramas that I've been watching were giving us negative impacts. But look at this... cool... way too cool... no regrets watching this at only 10% of the normal price. God knows how to end my day in the most awesome way. Sorry, one photo only.. I do have a few more but you'll have to go watch it yourself only then you can capture the magic of Aladdin. The genie was really cool and the drama was a contemporary one, not the original Aladdin.

Bintang Walk...

You see, I've been squeezing my mind and figuring out when we could make it for the Bintang Walk, walking along the row of shophouses on both sides, that means finishing on one side, crossed the road jammed with non-moving vehicles then walked all the way up again back to our place in Jalan Alor. Indeed, God planned far ahead than what I had in mind. From Petaling Street, I planned to take either the red line or blue line and then cut across to the monorail station back to Bukit Bintang. Instead of heading up the stairs to get the train tickets, I went to Rapid bus counter and asked about the bus heading towards Bukit Bintang. It was U48 and right smacked in front of us, the bus was waiting for us. It cost us only RM1 per person compared to the train ticket which would have been double the bus fare. The bus driver dropped us at the end of the Bintang Walk. So, we actually had the chance to walk along the shops. There were so many shops and we walked passed Federal Hotel, the hotel which I used to stay. No regrets for not going back to Federal Hotel. I don't see why I should stay in expensive hotels when I'll only be in the hotel room for a few hours of sleep. Other than that, I wouldn't be around. I can't understand people who hide in the hotel rooms when they've spent so much for the holiday. Well, in my opinion, if you don't intend to go anywhere, then you shouldn't be visiting a city centre, insted you should choose to be in an isolated island with nowhere to go to and nothing to do except sipping your fruit cocktail while soaking in the warmth of the sunshine. There were too many reflexology centres which made me think whether they were genuinely doing their business or whether they were doing something else. Oh, please... I don't need foot reflexology, trust me... you touch my foot, I'll send you flying 10 blocks away from where you're seating. You'll fly through the walls. I think that's the very reason why I can't go for spas. I have a 'DO NOT TOUCH' sign written all over. Out of so many shops, we were only attracted to one, that's the Tiny Toon's shop and I was also attracted to the shop next to it. I saw a luggage that I really wanted. Got the price slashed to half but I only made the purchase 5 days later. We were fascinated by a simple stall selling keychains curled from aluminium wires. This is the one I mentioned earlier in the Sri Petaling post. Of course, no photography allowed but for the first time, I was courteous enough to ask for permission to snap a photo. She agreed because I ordered a lot of keychains. She allowed only 1 photo, so this is the only one that I have. If you ever go to Bukit Bintang, look for her. Her name is Lim... same surname as my Donkey's and mine... muahahaha... and eventhough you'll be seeing other stalls selling the same thing and making names, she has a neater way of doing things. I like hers... and when I say she's good, she's really really good. Hers is slightly more expensive but it's handicraft, one shouldn't bargain for a lower price when you're able to see how hard it is to do. Shame on those who bargain with a handicap person, dependant on their hands for a bowl of rice. They don't go around begging so what is RM10 to you? I was waiting for her to finish doing all of our names. I waited for an hour or so while others started gathering in front of her stall to see what was going on. A lady with 3 children bargained and complained about the designs from the moment I sat there waiting until I walked away... an hour later... she purchased only 1 or 2 small items. What an example to show to 3 young children on humanity.

Merry Christmas Everyone~!

Merry Christmas people~! Remember that Christmas isn't just about presents and more presents. It's all about Jesus~! Gonna have an awesome Christmas Eve's dinner with people I love... the year 2011 is coming to an end... time flies...

Petaling Street...

That's Chinatown... I've been to Singapore's Chinatown but never to Melbourne's Chinatown as my brother wouldn't allow me to walk there on my own. Now.. now.. Petaling Street wasn't really along our way, it was actually too far out and we had to change from monorail to commuter to get there. We were dreading the walk from the KL Tower back to the Bukit Nanas Monorail station. That was one horrible walk that we wished we didn't have to do. We walked back to the place where the shuttle van would take us to the guard house. Instead, a double-decker bus came. I thought the bus came for us but not so, the bus came to fetch the four Westerners as they have bought the hop-on-hop-off city tour for the whole day and I had no idea such tour existed. I'm very sure God softened the bus driver's heart. He agreed to drop us at Chinatown at just RM2 per head. Petaling Street was such a busy place selling counterfeit goods. Counterfeit or rejected goods? Counterfeit sounds rather harsh. They sell imitation goods.... how does that sound? Better? They can't be selling original branded clothes and bags at such dirt cheap price. The place was too crowded and I never like crowded area. I bargained down a Starbucks Coffee t-shirt for my precious. I'm a pro in bargaining down prices. We walked for awhile more. I found something rather interesting. But not allowed to snap a photo. But I did get a photo after that... :D with permission of course... but I'll show it in another post coz I got it in somewhere else. There were so many stalls but we were hunting for a drinks stall to quench our thirst. We could gulp the whole barrel of ice water. Thank God for the slight drizzle. We walked away from the crowded place in search for food next. We were there for about less than half an hour I think. Got to look around but I'm seriously not a fan of this kinda place. Oi, uncle~! How to sit like this? Chair also under the table. Table so near to next two tables. But it's ok lah... can shift about but can I have my food now? As in NOW?

KL Tower...

Let me share with you a true even so true only God is able to make it happen. We had to walk from the National Planetarium to KL Sentral to run after the next monorail to Bukit Nanas. That's the stop that will bring us to the Kuala Lumpur Tower. I was leading the other four musketeers but I came to a dead end. We went crossed the National Museum but from then forth I was completely lost as I didn't see any overhead bridge to cross the road and jaywalking in the big city is an offense. Suddenly, two Indonesian ladies appeared out of nowhere, crossed the road and started walking slowly towards the direction that I know KL Sentral was situated. I followed after them. I was following rather closely to recognize their tone of conversation as Indonesians. See how great God is. He was able to pluck people out of nowhere to show us the way so that we would not get lost. The ladies brought us right into KL Sentral. From the Bukit Nanas monorail stop to the tower was one horrible walk. Walk straight and straight took forever to reach the second junction on the right. Thank God there was a shuttle to bring us up or else we would be doing Spiderman crawls on the tar road. We were so delighted to see the shuttle van that when he stopped in front of us, we opened the door in glee and thanked him profusely for coming on time before we collapsed at the guard house. We reached an hour before sunset as my ultimate goal was to capture the sunset from the tower. Sad to say, it did not happen as I've planned. The clouds were covering the sun and I had no intention to take on other activities held at the tower. I bought the RM35 Combo-XD that covered only two items. One was the observation deck and the other was the XD-Theatre, watching a 6D stimulation for only 5 minutes costing RM18 per person. So that made the observation deck fee at RM17. The 6D stimulation was good. We had the Canyon Coaster stimulation. You'll have to be sitting in it to experience the effect of sitting in the roller coaster knowing that you're safe and you won't be hurt in the event if the roller coaster went off-course. I went around taking photos of the view of Kuala Lumpur city before night fall. It was all about skyscrapers and more skyscrapers. Kuala Lumpur is always building and forever building. That's why Malaysia is called a developing nation. We're always trying to develop something new. Try to build something more gigantic. After snapping a picture of myself, I was shocked to see that I've got sunburned all over. I guess I'm a candle princess *puteri lilin* Looks like my skin can't stand too much sunlight no doubt I do love the outdoors but I always get sunburned while others were just normally fine. We were resting at the seats at the observation deck while waiting for the sun to set. Since there's no sunset then I changed to plan B, that's taking in the night view of the busy city. There was a radio set where you get to listen about the development of Malaysia, the introduction to all the tourist destination, that listening aid can be switched to multiple languages. I couldn't understand a word of the Chinese translation. There goes trying to understand something in Chinese properly. I wasn't even paying attention to the English explanation. Looks like I seriously don't enjoy this kinda talking tour. Usually I don't listen at all, I'm just interested with what I see, I prefer reading the small print rather than listening to someone blabbing away in a monotone. The sun finally set around 7:30pm and I was in a snapping frenzy with the night view. It wasn't as bright as Melbourne but it was alright. I was happy with what I captured. I got the Petronas Twin Towers as well. The photos were clear, so I was a happy person that night. We snapped around for a few more minutes, made sure our legs were good to do more walking then headed down. I truly enjoy the night view compared to the broad daylight view. No regrets walking all the way here but definitely there won't be a next time. I don't know why some people like some places and will always go there again and again. I prefer going to one place once only then put my feet in some new places that I haven't explore.

The National Planetarium...

After walking endlessly with all the stairs, we had to walk further before we reach the Planetarium. Finally, we were there. And looking at the steps before we reached the main building, we were about to strangle the person who suggested and insisted to come to this place. Arrgghhh~!!! More steps. Our legs were coming out with signals 'LOW BATTERY' or even worse 'NO BATTERY'. We took a few pic, took a deep breath and then ran up the stairs. We couldn't walk up as it would be too torturous, so we decided to make a sprint up the horrible blue stairs. As I've mentioned before, I have no interest in Science, thus I didn't snap that many photos. There was nothing that could stir up my interest except for things that I can turned into interesting photography sessions. I touched at almost everything touchable, clickable and pressing buttons for the fun of it. The entrance fee was only RM1 and if you wanted to watch the movie, it would be only RM3 inclusive of entrance. We opted for two movies so we paid RM6 each. I like the movie theatre as you would have to lie down, in a half sit and half sleep position and the movie would be screened above your head. The canvas sheet was on the ceiling. The first movie was nice but the second one was such a bore we feel asleep in the comfortable seats. Good rest, we went up to the observation tower next. Oh, that's my next destination. Let's go~! Move move move~! Start walking... complain complain... no more excess baggage tagging along next time :D

Perdana Botanical Garden.

Our next stop would be the National Planetarium. I wasn't that keen to be there as I have no interest in Science what more when everything was about planets. My youngest wanted to go so as a very fair person *ahem ahem* I agreed to that. I even put it as the first day's places to go to. The taxi driver who dropped us at the National Monument insisted that we would not be able to walk to the National Planetarium as it was too far away. He suggested that we take another taxi and he said it would be very easy to thumb down a taxi from there. Oh, boy~! He was such a liar~!! We counted until 60 that meant we waited for the a taxi for 1 long minute. But when I looked at the map, it was just down south of the Perdana Botanical Garden. If I can walked Melbourne from morning to nite, it shouldn't be a problem walking around the garden. I think I lost my bearing and started heading the other way round, which was a longer route that would have taken forever to reach. In less than 10 steps, by the main road, another taxi saw us and stopped, asked us where we were going and then refused to fetch us. The Malay taxi driver told us that the National Planetarium was just across the road, to cut short the distance. God is good. He sent a stranger to tell us in which direction we should walk so that it wouldn't be a waste of time walking one large round of the garden. I thought I was just going to cut across the park and made a beeline to the planetarium but to my amazement, the Perdana Botanical Garden was such a beauty I couldn't help myself snapping away. It's not like I will want to go there again. There was even a waterfall in the garden, a big piece of green lung in the city and quite a clean place. There were lots of people. There was a group of Indonesians having a Christmas party at the park. A large hut was used for picnic in the afternoon, shaded from the scorching sun. We took a slow stroll, in such a beautiful place, the place was not meant for brisk walking or running to get away from. There was even a Deer Park and the entrance was free. So many of them in the enclosure. Everyone was plucking leaves to feed those deer. By that time, our legs were screaming bloody murder. We took every opportunity to sit whenever we stopped by a bench. That's the huge Perdana Lake. I didn't even think of going around the garden in the first place. I was thinking of just going to a few places. We actually waited for the tram to take us so that we wouldn't have to walk. We saw one going passed us but I was still very busy with my photos so I let that go. We started asking about the next tram and to our horror, we had to wait for another couple of hours before those trams started moving. The person in charge told us to continue walking. One man said we would have to go through the main road, the other said we could cut across to the Planetarium. I followed the latter's advice. You gotta be kidding me~! Just walked up the stairs and you reach... Those were killer flight of steps. Can I have an escalator inserted into the place? I'm not gonna take another flight of steps when I go home. My precious and I went up first while the rest of them took a rest down there before revving their engines up the stairs. I'm definitely not going back there again... It was only 3 p.m. and whoever stood beside us would have fainted as we reeked of uric acid.