Trip To KL, Malaysia's Capital City

I had a last minute decision to attend a seminar in KL. I knew about it a week before, but wasn't too sure if it was half day/ full day or what time it started. Being the rather last minute person, I checked it on Monday afternoon, only to realise that it's a full day course.

Anyway, I was quite prepared already - and booked my bus ticket from Singapore. Checked a few companies, and got my 3rd choice as that was the best timing - 1130pm.

So, at 1115pm, I was at Beach Road or some call the mini Thailand of Singapore (this has many Thai shops - mainly eateries and CDs). Not the Bangkok you guys know, but nevertheless colourful.


The bus was a single deck one - and I feared for the worse. But after seeing it from outside, I felt alrite - its not too bad - should be comfortable enough to sleep for the night!


And going inside, it was quite good - in fact better than the double deck (& more expensive than the one I took with the same company before). This time round, the TV inside actually works! I managed to watch a Thai movie and also another Mandarin movie halfway before I dozed off.


And surprise behold, at the stop at Yong Peng, it was really empty. Well it's the first time me taking the bus at this hour anyway. Only the cleaners were doing their work, and there weren't any purchases at the stalls. Most passengers actually didn't even come down - continuing their sleep. I never buy the food here as it's always overpriced (usually similar to S$ after conversion).

Finally I arrived KL at 530am. That is a long 6 hours journey. Usually it only takes 5 hours in the day (ie with traffic). I thought the bus would stop at Plaza Rakyat as I was told by the ticketing officer, but instead I ended up in Pudu Raya.


Anyway, it was still too early. So I decided to bump into a hotel nearby for 2 hours - maybe I can catch on some sleep. This was my room door - looks good outside, but the beds were not really clean. I ended up doing some offline work (no internet).


Time flew fast and soon, it was time to checkout (730am). Pudu was still quiet - no heavy traffic or jams yet.

I then took the LRT - changed trains & repurchase a new ticket at Masjid Jamek - walked a hell lot and was within the crowd! It was a big crowd.

That is where I started noticing things. My first thought: people are getting bigger. Obviously this made the trains even more crammed! And yes, I've gained a fair bit as well of late, but I guess in that crowd, I'm like still quite ok. lol.

The second thing I notice is how the infrastructure of the buildings/ trains don't seem to have changed much since I was 17 (my first LRT ride). In fact, the buildings seem to have been more 'tired'.

*No photos as too crowded - lost my mood.


Then I arrived at KL Sentral - and again I felt the same thing. KL is getting 'tired'. I used to remember that KL Sentral was really like an airport - bright, modern, and fascinating. Now, I see it dim and like a pasar (market)! The escalators like many buildings around KL is not working... Add that with the busses downstairs - is it gonna be another Pudu?

Before I went for the seminar, I dropped by the post laju (national courier) to post some documents. And then, I went to the seminar a lil late - bout 915am. I thought, too bad, I just had to post these letters first. But I was not late. The seminar only started at 930am - some may fume on this, but for me, well, I half expected it and I just took the extra time to cool down... looking postively at the Malaysian time haha

Part 2: More On KL.