Kuala Lumpur: The City of Scents (Day 1)

It was around 12:40 midnight when my college buddy and I arrived at LCC terminal (I assume LCC meant Low-Cost Commercial) roughly 3 and a half hours from leaving NAIA 1. The flight was rather smooth and on time, one of the reasons why red-eye flights are an option for me, besides the fact that they're oftentimes more affordable. The downside, of course, was that we had to wait till around 5 or 6 AM before boarding the bus going to the city (for obvious security reasons).



The arrival terminal was very small. It was weird seeing veiled women on the immigration counters taking our passports and asking us questions like, "Where do you work?", "What's your job?", "Who are you travelling with?", and "Where are you staying?" Outside, we were pointed to the nearest currency exchange outlet, which was located inside the departure terminal. I got a little worried that the veiled lady refused to convert my $100 bill. She said they don't take anything older than 2003. With my $50 worth of local Malaysian currency, Barry and I went to McDonald's to order dinner. In a way it was very comforting to see a familiar establishment in a city where people looked Filipino yet spoke a different language. At the counter, I ordered a spicy beef foldover meal which was really just a large beef patty sandwiched into 1 soft taco shell and garnished with coleslaw veggies and sweet n' spicy sauce. With a medium fries and medium coke, that meal quickly cost me MYR11.75, which is around 165 pesos). Barry got himself a double cheeseburger meal at MYR10.25 I think. Nothing different in terms of serving size really.




(To the next few paragraphs, readers beware because I'll tell it the way I perceive it.)


We were quick to observe that the "darker" Indians and Malaysians had blue-collar jobs. They were mostly at the counter or sweeping the airport floors, taxi and bus drivers, etc. Seated, we had the chance to talk to 2 Filipina travelers who were eager to discuss the local showbiz scene. Perhaps it had been to their favor that my job now expects me to be partly knowledgeable about these things. We were sipping MYR2.70 brewed coffee while talking about KC Concepcion and her father Gabby, new TV shows (thank god I went to the ABS-CBN launch) and of course, Pinoy politics and the weather. Susan is a teacher in Laos and Mercy works in a factory that makes fishing baits. They both worked in China but were in Malaysia for a vacation. The 4 of us had nothing to do but wait till 6AM, so it was just great that we the hours passed us by rather quickly, especially since I thought I'd be sleeping in the coffee shop as I had roughly less than 2 hours of sleep on the plane. Susan thought Barry was Malaysian and said I looked Filipino. Strike 1 for Barry. Hehe


At 5:30, we were already saying our goodbyes. Our 2 friends gave us their email addresses and promised to keep in touch next time we'd decide to visit China. During the conversation, we had learned that they were teachers working for CCF in St. Francis Square. It had been their vocation for 7 years to spread the word in China, a very big secret for a noble cause that could possibly cost them their lives. Barry and I had nothing but respect for what they do.


At around 6AM, we rode the AeroBus (aka Sky Bus on various blogs) going to KL Sentral, Kuala Lumpur's main hub of public transportation. The journey cost MYR8.00 and took about an hour, and already I saw how beautiful and neatly planned out the city was. The expressways were all well-lighted, there were tall condominiums on both sides of the road,

ongoing development projects on the hillsides, palm tree forests covering the Malaysian wetlands, and a view of the Petronas towers and KL tower on the horizon. Travelling at dawn was very relaxing and Barry and I couldn't help but wonder why our cities aren't as well-planned as this.

The KL Sentral bus and light railway station was like a larger, cleaner version of our local Star Mall. There were food and little tiangge stalls near the entrance. Large tarpaulins of people's faces with a blue background hung over the center, advertising a local cellular network. Light passed through the sun roofs and illuminated the walkways toward the ticket stations. Barry and I asked for directions to the Petronas Towers and each bought a MYR1.60 ticket on the LRT to KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Central). Armed with my rolling luggage, we rode the train with 2 Chinese guys who also looked like tourists. We were quick to consider them our Mandarin-speaking Singaporean co-competitors to the Amazing Race Malaysian leg. The train station names were hardly understandable though I quickly learned that Jalan meant "road," Masjid meant "mosque," Awas meant "caution," Jaya probably meant "city," Lelaki meant "male" as with local dialect, while Perempuan meant "female," Lintas meant "walk," teksi meant "taxi," bas meant "bus," ais meant "cold," tarik meant "hot," masok meant "entrance," kuelar meant "exit," tarima kasi meant "thank you," and selamat meant "good" and not "thanks" as it would in Tagalog. I also learned, through a free booklet I got from the airport, that it is customary to point using the thumb with other fingers closed and not with the forefinger. It took me quite a while to get used to that.

The train station was connected to the mall, which was also connected to the Petronas Twin towers. There were no people yet as it had been 8AM on a Sunday. We asked directions and finally found the queue for the free tickets after a while. The line was very long already but more and more people kept coming in. They had me sit down while Barry kept the line for more than an hour. It was here where I truly experienced Kuala Lumpur as the City of Scents. There were Caucasian families and couples, wealthy-looking arabs, medium to light-skinned Indians, a few Japanese, many Chinese tourists, 2 groups of Filipinos, and 1 group of latinos. The waiting area had become crowded and it would've been impossible not to share my side of the marble stairs with someone else. The Indians smelled like Indians (a massala of curry and cumin). The male arabs smelled slightly of perspiration while the female arabs wore very heavy perfume like Chanel No 5 or White Linen mixed with a very distinct, almost cardamom-like, spicyness. The whites, especially the elder ones, really reeked of damp sweat. The same went with the darker locals. The Asians didn't smell like anything.

On the topic of scents and the possibility of being heard talking about racial preconceptions, Barry and I decided to come up with aliases for each group just so that we may talk about them more openly and less filtered:

The Pinoys - "KC" - because Pinoys are so into KC Concepcion nowadays
The Sino-Asians and Koreans - "Kim Chiu" - because they are everywhere and because Kim Chiu sounds like Kimchi
The local Kuala Lumpurian - "Echo" - because our very own Jericho "Echo" Rosales is a big hit with the local tv scene
The Indians - "Melanie Marquez" - because some of them "sMell-anie" so bad

We had about 45 minutes before touring the Petronas bridgeway so we were let in by the ushers into the mini theater where we watched a film with 3D glasses. Here I realized why Malaysia is so rich -- they had petrol! The museum area was ok. There was a cool tesla coil that electrocuted the Petronas scale model every 10 minutes. With enough time, I went to the restroom first (known as tandas). It was here that I discovered how Malaysian toilets had those hole-in-the-ground terns. There was a faucet knob that opened the bidet and on opposite sides, there were "ridges" where people stepped on to squat and do their business. Of course I took pictures! Hahaha

The bridgeway was magnificent. From the top, you could see the KL landscape -- misty mountaintops on the background and tall Petronas-like buildings in the foreground. Everything looked clean and precise. There were a few old low-rise buildings and a few cars roaming the streets at 9:45 in the morning. Barry and I took pictures and videos and waited for the others to finish. While waiting for the elevator, we asked for directions going to Genting Highlands from the usher who looked like Christian Siriano's long lost Malaysian twin. (I swear!)

It was still very early so we walked around the posh mall that housed the necessary brands like Chanel, Gucci, Hermes, Prada, Ermengildo Zegna, VJC (Versace Jeans Couture), Burberry, to name a few. On the top floor were restorans that had remarkable interiors and a skyview of the bridgeway, also the entrance to Petrosains, which is a science discovery activity center that we didn't bother to go into. The only CD/DVD shop they had was Video Ezy which is like their version of Astrovision. It had nothing in it, except maybe licensed dvd copies of "Got 2 Believe" featuring Rico Yan and Claudine Barretto or the whole series of "Pangako Sa'yo" featuring Kristine Hermosa and Jericho Rosales.

We ate lunch at the "Signatures" Food Court where we ate at Mixed Rice. I had fried rice, chicken with sauce (which tasted nothing like Adobo), oily eggplant (that tasted like kamoteng kahoy) and what looked like half a slice of kikiam (that was stale). Everything cost MYR10.00. Pretty affordable and nearly the same price as Pinoy food. What was amazing was that most of the food on display looked freshly-cooked with fresh ingredients unlike the type we see in food courts at the mall. Even in the afternoon or evening, the food looked really fresh. After lunch, Barry and I had a cup of MYR3.30 coffee at Daily Express. It was orgasmic. My dad would've stayed there all day, everyday had he gone to Malaysia with us. The coffee had a smooth blend but still strong and a bit roasted. It was freshly brewed and came with condensed milk (Vietnamese style). It was so delicious, I ordered another one when we transferred seats. It was here, near the window showcasing the vast Suria Mall fountainscape, that I fell asleep. I was just so exhausted and at 12:30, it had been way, way past my bedtime.

Also, you must remember that since we left the airport, we had our luggage with us through the bus, the KL Sentral, the LRT, the queue, going through the mall shops, and into the food court. It was so "touristy" I swear.

After my "power nap," Barry and I had gelato while walking through the convention center. I've never had gelato here in the Philippines and in KL I've had around 3, this one at MYR6.90. We went downstairs to the food court and entrance to Aquaria, their local counterpart for Ocean Park. We paid MYR38.00 for that. It was underwhelming and in my opinion, a bit of a tourist trap. The animals were unremarkable, typical. It would've been better if they had animals from the Sarawak/Borneo region or something.

Our 2 other companions for the trip arrived while we were still in the museum so right after, we walked all the way to Prince Hotel to checked ourselves in. (Yes, I was still dragging my luggage with me through the jalans and menaras of Kuala Lumpur!)

The Prince was a charming business hotel so I expected our room to be very clean and sophisticated. Janice had a convention to attend to so our room was for free. The best thing about the accommodations was that our windows faced the Petronas so at night, the fully-lighted twin towers bejewelled our cityscape. We decided to make the most out of the afternoon by first taking the teksi eksekyutif going to Agong's Palace. We just took pictures at the gate because nobody was allowed to go inside. It was already drizzling a bit so we had to hurry our picture taking. The taxi then brought us to Merdeka Square which has the tallest flagpole in the country to signifying Malaysia's birth of independence. Picture-picture and then transferred to St. Mary's Church which is a small Evangelical church built in 1894. Barry was supposed to bring home a rosary for his Mom because that's what he bought her for every trip. Unfortunately, we didn't see any catholic church throughout our stay, although I did see a Chinese church during one of our train rides. From there, we asked directions going to Puduraya bus station in order to take the bus to Kampong Kantuan to eat dinner at the lake with the fireflies. It was a very long walk through the streets which reminded me of Morayta because it had the LRT going through the avenue. The Indian was nearby and we'd stop by a convenience store for drinks. Puduraya is somewhat the "Baclaran" of Malaysia -- it had the major commuter buses going outside the city. That part of town was very crowded and more polluted than the rest. We were there in the middle of all the traffic waiting for the bus that went to Kantuan. The bus was old, dirty, and downright nasty (kinda like the Del Carmen buses we have along Edsa). Naturally, Ingrid (our other college buddy) didn't wanna ride that crap so we asked for alternative ways to go to Firefly lake. There was none. It was the only way there so we decided to go somewhere else. In retrospect, it probably was a good decision because the trip would've taken us around 2 hours, by that time it would've been very dark (because we were after seeing the fireflies glowing after all ...) and we still had to take a cab from the bus station to the lake. More importantly, we'd have to take another cab ride back to the bus station (assuming it's still open past dinner time) and go back to Puduraya. I see now how that would've been pretty dangerous.

Exhausted and sticky with sweat and grime, we decided to eat dinner at a nearby Chinatown place. The tables and chairs were extended far beyond the sidewalk where cars could only use 1 lane. We bought some dried squid (3 packs for MYR10.00) to bring home. We ordered spicy bull frog (that I didn't try because I don't like frogs), oyster omelette (which sucked), a delicious shitake and beef soup bowl, and I forget the other stuff. Haha The best part was the small coconut Ingrid and I ordered. The water was so sweet and refreshing! The meal was fairly priced at MYR33.00 each considering we ordered a lot.

After that we took a cab going back to the hotel and freshened up. It wasn't long till we prepared for bed, after all the flying, napping, eating, walking, talking, and dragging, it had indeed been a very long day. The twin towers were still lighted from a distance and the tv gabbed on and on until we all fell asleep.

(Barry snored so loud though. There were a couple of times Janice had to wake him up just so he'd stop. Haha)

Inside our hotel room, Kuala Lumpur is a city of lights.