I hopped on and off the tourist bus I mentioned in previous post to various places in KL e.g. Planetarium Negara, China Town, KL Bird Park, KL Butterfly Park, Orchid Garden, Merdeka Square, Bukit Bintang, KLCC, Aquaria.
The first day we had fun. We got on at Hop-On Hop-Off's stop at KL Sentral. The ticket guy said that the bus will come in 20 minutes, but to our surprise the bus came in 2 minutes. Being excited, we couldn't make up our mind where we would like to stop. So we decided to take 1 round before we make stops. However, before we reached KL Sentral again Gabe said he was hungry. So we stopped at China Town.
To me, it didn't look as "Chinese" as I had imagined. But Mom said, "Don't imagine beforehand. That will make you disappointed." That's true.
My eyes bumped into a Chinese bookstore. Great! I began searching and searching. For children story books. Reading children story books has been my way of learning a language. However, what I found were books for Chinese children to learn English. Oh... that's the opposite of what I'm looking for. I kept on searching the bookshelves racks until Gabe called me,
"Auntie Shuni, we are having a meal next door."
Good. It was still 11 o'clock. I wasn't hungry yet and besides I had had a full breakfast already at Burger's King. I even still had some French Fries in my pocket. So I took my time wandering in this Chinese bookstore, Sin Ya. Inside this bookstore it did feel like China. All books where in Chinese. The people in the bookstore were speaking in Chinese. There were also some Chinese stuffs sold there. I was interested in an English-Chinese dictionary but hesitated to buy it on the account that I still had more than a week to go. I didn't want to burden myself carrying a Chinese dictionary all the way to Vietnam.
I almost gave up. Suddenly, tara!
This is, exactly what I'm looking for. Simple sentences written in Chinese characters but with the ping yin on top of the characters. (I hate learning Chinese in ping yin, but I have to admit that ping yin can be helpful at times.) Plus, English translation on the bottom of each page. In case there are words that I don't understand, I can guess it out from the English translation. Moreover, most of the stories are familiar children stories. Thanks to Mom and Dad, and to their American missionary friends, who had showered me with books when I was a kid. Now, hopefully these books will help challenge my super duper elementary Chinese. And... when I've mastered them, I would have to return to KL ;-)
This stop at China Town turned out to be a lucky stop. Not far from Sin Ya Bookstore, Wiwik encountered a travel agent who sold tickets to KL Bird Park and Aquaria with a discount of 10 ringgits per person per ticket. We almost missed the next Hop-On Hop-Off bus while we were purchasing the tickets. But the travel agent ran to the bus driver and required the driver to wait. It took a couple of minutes and the bus driver did wait for us.
Next stop: Planetarium Negara. Although the location was close to KL Bird Park and KL Butterfly Park, I saved those places for the next day. For me, just 2-3 hours hours won't be enough for places like those. I need a whole day.
We waited for Hop-On Hop-Off to bring us back to KL Sentral and this time it took more than 30 minutes. The bus stop was just in front of KL Bird Park and across Orchid Garden.
Actually I wanted to visit Orchid Garden also, but Wiwik didn't seem interested. Well, after being so excited in the planetarium, I calculated that there wasn't enough time left either. We had to be back at our hotel in KL Sentral by 4:00PM, because we would be picked up to join the Firefly Tour. Therefore I just made a few shots here and there with my cellphone outside Orchid Garden while waiting for Hop-On Hop-Off.
Gabe began complaining why we didn't just take a taxi. We tried to explain that it's expensive to take a taxi from here and we already have the tickets for the bus. I myself grew worried. I certainly didn't want to miss the tour to see fireflies.
Phew. It's actually not so far to KL Sentral but we don't have much choice. But... hopping on this tourist double decker meant that we had to join a looonggg way round up to KLCC until we reach KL Sentral. You can see the map in my previous post.
We definitely wouldn't make it at our hotel by 4:00 PM. But, thanks to Wiwik's brilliant idea.
"Can we ask the Firefly Tour driver to pick us up elsewhere like KLCC?"
I called the driver and he understood our situation. He was already at KLCC before our hopping on and off bus arrived there. I thought he would be mad for had been letting to wait. No. He was greeted us cheerfully at the bus stop.
The next day we purchased a 48 hour ticket which was not a good decision. Okay, let me summarize our luck during the 3 days with Hop-On Hop-Off. 1st day was really fun, because we could tour the city of Kuala Lumpur with a broad view from the double decker's windows and get a brief explanation about the places we passed by. Because of getting on Hop-On Hop-Off, we passed China Town. Because of stopping at China Town, we found discounted tickets for KL Bird Park and Aquaria, which were in our main itinerary. I saved 20 ringgits! That's a lot.
On the 2nd day I still conclude that I had saved money by purchasing a Hop-On Hop-Off ticket for on the way back from KL Bird Park, I stopped at Merdeka Square, got on again, and stopped at Bukit Bintang. First, I have to keep in mind that public transportation other than taxi, to and fro KL Bird Park area, isn't really convenient. In reality, it's not as easy as it sounds in KL Bird Park's brochure or website. Even walking from KL Butterfly Park to KL Bird Park which looks so close in the map isn't that close. Don't forget that the roads are hilly. If it weren't so, the taxi drivers at KL Bird Park wouldn't charge for 15 ringgits just to get to KL Sentral. That's business mathematics, you know.
On the 3rd day, I and Wiwik only had Aquaria in our itinerary for we had to catch a flight to Saigon in the evening. A 48 hours ticket cost 65 RM. So, I can say that our bus fare on this day was 32.5 RM. However, it's actually very easy to get to Aquaria from KL Sentral by subway. It's easy, much faster, and only cost about 1.5 RM one way. On the way back from Aquaria, we waited for more than an hour for the bus to come! Believe me!
This is what's written on KL Hop-On Hop-Off City Tour's website:
The interval between buses is around 20 to 30 minutes..... Weather is unpredictable in Kuala Lumpur. Delay may occur because of extreme weather.
Hahaha! What kind of "unpredictable weather" does Kuala Lumpur have? It sounds like a country with 4 seasons or even like England which is often said to be a country that can have 4 seasons in 1 day. Oops, I forgot. Yep, Malaysia was a British Colony, wasn't it? Maybe the British had brought the season to Kuala Lumpur and forgot to take it back when they left.
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