Flying to the Gate of China

Kuala Lumpur, December 23rd 2011

This time I'm in KL on  my way to China. Once again I won Air Asia's promotion ticket KL - Chengdu return for 724 MYR nett including 15 kg baggage purchase. In the end I added another 5 kg considering on the stack of my winter clothes.

Yeah, I'm going to Jiuzhaigou -- in winter.

Since Air Asia has no direct flight from Jakarta to Chengdu, I had to go to Kuala Lumpur first. That's one reason why I call Malaysia the gate to China. Well, I don't mind. I did, before. I have fallen in love with the city of diversity, Kuala Lumpur.

I also call Malaysia 'the gate to China' because according to my foreign eye, Malaysia, is home to many many Chinese who are free to be themselves. When you step through a gate, you get a glimpse of what's behind the gate. So is it, I think, when I step into e.g. Kuala Lumpur or Penang. I get a better picture of China than at my hometown. Of course!

From Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur, I won a best deal from Malaysia Airlines: 2,243,600 IDR nett for a return ticket. Compared to Air Asia's fare at that time, it was indeed a best deal.

 It seemed that beside me, there were another thousand who earned the best deal. I had to endure a 1-hour-and-15-minutes queue to get through the immigration check point at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

The train, KLIA Ekspres, was rather quiet. Not so many passengers. Suddenly it occurred to me that I didn't set aside as much as 35 ringgits in my budget for transportation from KLIA to KL Sentral. What? I set straight by the window and started to think. Oh no! Hadn't I planned to take a bus? It's only 10 ringgit one way. Uhhh. I felt like having been hypnotized by the sign "KLIA Ekspres" in the airport. How could I forget to look for the bus?

"Don't you love trains?" as if I heard myself.

"Oh yeah, I do love trains."

That's a glimpse of my express expensive train ride. Scenery speaking, nothing special.

 I checked in Hotel Sentral for a 120 ringgit room excluding breakfast. I loved the blue wall especially, and hated most the noise Indian guests made in the middle of the night. How could I be so sure they were Indians and what kind of noise, you might ask.

My deep sleep was ruined by sounds of banging door and alarm. I got up and opened the door. A group of Indian guests were going in and out a room frequently while leaving the door unclosed. Leaving the door so caused the alarm to break through the night.

That was my second stay in Hotel Sentral. The first was in December 2010. I stayed here for 3 nights, and every early morning this thing happened. Also Indian guests. I opened the door on the second morning. Since it occurred in early morning, I took them as living alarm-clocks. But now, it's in the middle of the night!

Until half an hour, the irritating noise didn't even calm down. I got down to the front desk and asked the staff how I was annoyed. He appeared kind and said he would take care of it. Back in my room, I waited on my bed. The Indian midnight-door-orchestra did not stop.

I can't wait to tell you that exactly the same thing happened when I stayed here again on my way back from China.

Nonetheless, I had had a wonderful evening in KL, as always. It looked like half of the world had flocked into Kuala Lumpur. Once again I had to experience a long queue to buy a ticket to KLCC. I've been a couple of times here, also during end of year, but have never experienced such a long queue at KL Sentral Station. The queue took longer than the ride itself to KLCC.

In KLCC Suria's Kinokuniya, my hands trembled on the bookshelf. There were so many HSK books. It wasn't easy to make up my mind on which ones to buy. I also got the Berlitz Mandarin book I had been looking for. This one I might need while in China. Uh... it seems it's no good to stay in Kinokuniya too long. You know why.

KLCC Suria that evening was extra-merry. Christmas carols from the first floor filled the air. People, old and young, black and white, hustled and bustled around. Everyone, everything, were telling me: Your vacation is here.

 For dinner, I choose "Nasi Tomat" at La Cucur still in KLCC Suria. It cost 8,5 ringgit.

To add my collection of Petronas Twin Tower shots, I searched for the best spot outside, but it wasn't easy either. Now and then people would block my view. Anyway, here are some of them. No tripod.

This one is a product of Canon Powershot G12. Actually I wanted to try G12 on a slower shutter speed. Too bad I forgot that I had my mini tripod in my backpack. I could have attached it to G12.

This one is the product of Canon EOS 7D.

Ah... I've never made a horizontal format of Petronas Twin Tower before. Let me make one.

Before returning back to my hotel, I shopped for oat snacks at Cold Storage. Wow... there are many kinds of oat snacks from Quacker and other factories here.