A Tale of Two Towers and Two Moms

I've flown to Kuala Lumpur from Singapore for a countless times. Those business travels were quite fast and I guess they were just fine. I've also tried the bus ride from one country to the other. It was still comfy and great because I have a company. But my most remarkable travel to Kuala Lumpur was by the train.

Travelling a long distance by train wasn't comfortable at all but it's tolerable. It wasn't fast either but the slow-paced kind of journey feels like nostalgic. The best part of it was, I wasn't travelling alone. I was with two adventurous women, my mom and mom-in-law, who braved the 8-hour train ride with me on this journey. They were so excited to experience Malaysia that they were willing to travel on a budget and by train to get there. It was an abrupt plan and we just made last minute online booking for our itinerary.

We left Singapore by night and we arrived at breakfast at Kuala Lumpur Sentral. Because I would like my two moms to maximise their truly Asia experience, we dined at small restaurant and have them tried Malay food. I let them ordered nasi lemak and kueh. Nasi lemak is a fragrant rice dish cooked in coconut milk and pandan leaf. It is also considered the national dish of Malaysia. Kueh is a kind of dessert like rice cakes or any other traditional sweet delicacies. The nasi lemak that was served to us at the local restaurant was too way below my expectation, it was too little and it only came with a tear of scrambled egg. On the other hand, the kueh was quite rich and yummy. Both two moms liked it too.

After breakfast, we freshened up and off to another train ride. We headed to one of the tourist destinations in Kuala Lumpur which is the Batu Caves. It took us just about half hour to reach this Hindu temple and shrine. We were greeted with a gigantic monkey god statue painted with light blue at the entrance, but both moms didn’t dare to enter the first temple. Some of the tourists who took the same train with us, didn’t hesitate to remove their footwear and entered the temple when they arrived at the shrine. We continued to walk down to the nearby Art Gallery Cave instead and we enjoyed the garden view. As we went further down, we were then again greeted with enormous Hindu God statue painted with striking yellow gold. It was so huge that I can imagine it as almost as high as the limestone hill at the back. I was just a little disappointed that we didn’t climb that steep flight of 272 steps to reach the other parts of the shrine. We had to reserve our energy plus we only had limited time for this trip.

Moving on to the next stop, of course we then again took a train ride. It was the third train ride for the day. This was it, the moment the two moms have been waiting for – to see the once hailed as tallest buildings in the world. Without a doubt, these two magnificent towers are the best landmark of the city. Almost every tourist visiting KL comes to these buildings to step at the Skybridge, to shop and of course to take a snapshot. Since we were on a budget trip, we took the later. It was the cheapest way to get souvenir of the twin tower. We took as many pictures as we want and we even dragged some strangers to take us a group shot. We enjoyed the photo session. 

After we had enough of it, we went to the KLCC Shopping center, it is just located below the PETRONAS Towers, to take our lunch at one of the restaurants. Of course, we had “truly Asia” food again and that means spicy and yummy. We took different varieties of food such as meat, seafood and vegetables. We didn't even finished all as their serving portion seemed like good for extremely starving human being.

We explored the shopping center for quite a while and surveyed retail price. We were even converting currencies in between. We didn't shop, because primarily it carries mostly Asian fashions label like Sibel, Azru and the likes which we thought very expensive for budget travellers like us. We went to the shopping district in Bukit Bintang instead to look for cheaper alternatives. We shopped a little bit here and there and we took a paused at a hotel. We then walked from here to there again and suddenly we were at another shopping center, Parkson. It was almost time to leave the city now, but before we headed to the station, we grabbed burgers at a local fast food to ensure we will not go hungry on our way home. 

What a short yet fun day. The two moms were amazing. Together we were able to:

Braved the train and bus commute…
Tried the spicy food…
Tasted kueh and nyonya cakes...
Took shots of twin tower…
Walked through shopping district…
Bought tudung…
And had lots of laugh and fun in between!

When and where will be the next adventure? I can't wait... :)

DO YOU PLAN TO TRAVEL TO MALAYSIA BY TRAIN?
To book your ticket, please visit KTM