Singapore and Malaysia -from 7th July to 15th July 2023, starting from Bangalore, India

The theme behind planning a vacation in July between 7th and 15th of July was to commemorate our twentieth wedding anniversary that was on 6th July . Right from betrothal it had never been a betrayal of friendship, bondage, love , affection and mutual respect for each other. We had fought many battles but never had a war. We couldn't plan the celebration-cum-vacation earlier than 7th due to the academic commitments of our offspring's, a college going blonde and an high school going bull. Nevertheless we lived together a day longer to tell the tale stronger.

My earnest and honest sneak peek in to the exuberance we had as a family over the past 8 days travelling overseas for a vacation.

Once again an opportunity to beckon for those reading this blog to plan their trip to Singapore and Malaysia. Probably an additional night in Malaysia would have made a difference, nevertheless nothing to regret.

It has been almost 5 years since we planned an overseas vacation with family. Last time when we had planned, Covid lockdowns across the world lead us to cancellation, despair and desolation and all for good.

Always any journey starts with the flight bookings and a nice place to stay,
to this Google never fails you in the pursuit. I was planning this trip just 2 months early so was not having much choice of hotels since it was a peak season in Singapore. Being a family vacation, I had to be specific about the accommodation and being a vegetarian, you need a property with minimum cooking facilities to ensure a pleasant stay and not staying peckish.

The Flight 

Our itinerary plan was something like 4-nights in Singapore and 3 nights in Malaysia. For this I narrowed in on flights and took a cost effective one since it was a mere 4.5 hrs journey across the Bay of Bengal from Bangalore to Singapore  I found a Indigo flight which starts at 9 pm IST and lands in Singapore the next day @4.10 AM (Singapore time).Singapore is ahead by 2.5 hours from IST.

For my travel from Singapore to Malaysia I had preferred a bus which takes end to end 6 hours since the borders are just 20 kms apart and it was a cost effective one indeed. Timewise you might not save much since for any international travel you have to be at the airport 3 hours ahead of time and it doesn't make much of a difference unless you have an urgency to go and launch a satellite on time😅. There are plenty of luxury buses every 30 minutes from Singapore to Malaysia and choosing one for your needs was a no brainer.

For my return flight to Bangalore I had chosen a Malaysia Airlines flight which was at 10 pm SST and reaching Bangalore at 11.40 PM IST(same day).

The Hotel

July,i.e. till end of July is a peak season and it warrants bookings everything ahead to get your place of choice and affordable deals.I am always finicky about the place of stay since I need facilities for my littlest cooking quest to satisfy my herbivores needs. After lots of search (thanks to my go to person the doodle Google), I narrowed on my Singapore property called the lyf farrer at the Farrer Park station in Singapore. My other parameters for choosing this place were that it should be the closest possible to the train and bus services and to our indigenous Indian community of hotels and groceries. lyf farrer(live your Freedom), was a boon than a bane considering my fastidious vegetarian model of life. I had booked the hotel through Booking.com and had no regrets. Since we were 4 adults (with one teenage kid), I ended up booking 2 rooms.

For my stay in Malaysia I got the lead from one of my friend when I was seeking his suggestion and it turned out to be more than a modicum of truth when we checked in to the property, I owe him a big thanks. I will detail it in my forthcoming paragraphs. The Malaysian property is called "the Face Suites", probably in the heart of the city and you could see the Petronas twin towers from the hotel and the hotel has 51 floors.

The Lasissez-Passer(VISA)

For visiting any country, you need the visa and I was not on the list of privileged to get an on-arrival Visa. Both Singapore and Malaysia requires you to apply for visa through their website or through their authorized agents. Once again word of caution there are many agents but the cheapest and the best is "The Akbar Travels". Luckily, they have their physical presence in Bangalore.

Malaysian Visa is slightly more expensive than Singapore Visa and doesn't need a passport, you can scan and send all the documents to the agent's email and rest is done. For the Singapore Visa you have to go with your passport and after filling the prescribed forms.

Note: I did an internet website approach of  Akbar travels later realized it was an imprudent one. If you have a local office of Akbar travels in your city please do visit them in person so that charges are way less than the online charges of their website. For example Singapore Visa was just 30 SGD whereas when you apply online it costed me 2700 INR per person. Almost 700 INR more for one person, you guys owe me for this tip.

The Visas come within a week for both Singapore and Malaysia and it would be an e-visa. Ensure you give the right email id for all your communication.

The FX, i.e. Forex

Before a week try to pick some forex for a seamless sojourn. Akbar travels was once again the best when I compared the exchange rates with other portal like "Booky my forex" etc. They do home delivery for free. A week before I also found out that a NIYO global card without a forex markup was the best to have for the trip since you can load the card with INR and or any other local currency you are familiar with so that  you can tap or swipe it anywhere. When I used the Niyo global card I found out that the rate at which they deduct from my INR balance in the card is always cheaper by a rupee or two. For example I took some forex at 62 INR for a SGD, but when I swiped my Niyo card the SGD or the equivalent deducted from my account was always less than the 62 INR exchange rate.

Note: It is always prudent to have a prepaid forex card like Thomas Cook which Akbar travels himself provide. In my case I took some Forex as cash, some forex as a pre loaded Thomas Cook card and additionally my Niyo global card with INR balance. Niyo global cards are issued only by 3 banks in India as of July 2023. You could get it through Equitas/SBM/DBS. I preferred Equitas where as a first step they open a savings account(indeed a zero balance one) and then send you the card after a video KYC is completed, the entire process takes a week.

Some prep-work few days before the trip

1. Ensure that you have the VISAs for both Malaysia and Singapore. Check the names in the Visa and ensure it is as is in passport.
2. Ensure the Singapore arrival card is filled 72 hours before the  departure date and time
3. Ensure forex is ready for your trip
4. You need not book the entrance tickets for attractions and sight seeing from here. You can go there and book.
5. Universal Studios are closed every Tuesday for maintenance so check the websites of every place you are planning to visit for details
6. Try to book your inhouse flight snacks along with the flight ticket booking so that it is not charged separately once you are in the flight. For example Indigo charges 250 rs for a cup noodles and 200rs for a can of iced tea on flight. I had booked my snacks for free along with the tickets.
7. Book your flight tickets and hotel tickets at least 45 days before to get a good deal.
8. For Singapore they give visas only for a month so apply or submit the documents 3 weeks before your date of travel so that you get it on time
9. While booking the bus from Singapore to Malaysia you can choose the boarding point and alighting point. I choose a boarding point closer to the train station so that I can travel by train. Also alight at a boarding point where you can walk to the nearest station. In my case I boarded the bus at the Golden Mile tower in Singapore and I booked the place of alighting as Imbi which was closer to the Imbi monorail station.
10. If you are travelling in July and August carry two umbrellas as it rains everyday in Singapore
11. Carry basic medicine needs
12. Malaysia is not as safe as Singapore so be more careful as you enter Malaysia from Singapore.
13. Getting a Niyo global card before your travel would be a boon since in Malaysia cards won't work as it worked in Singapore.
14. You can get a good deal for forex if you are planning to convert them in Malaysia for Singapore dollars
15. Carry good pair of sports shoes and slippers. 
16. Water is very expensive in Singapore and Malaysia so please carry two empty water bottles in check in for filling them later after your security check or once you land in Singapore airport (trying to be wise)
17. Carry some rice, ready mix powders, ghee sachets, noodles for kids supplemented with a local purchase of curd, we were able to use the social kitchen at lyf Farrer.
18. Last but not the least download all the mobile apps in your mobile for example your bank/savings account, NIYO global card account and Thomas Cook Forex card mobile account to transfer money through wifi from the hotel or any free wifi area. It would be of significant help even if you buy a local SIM in Singapore or Malaysia. Tip: SMS keeps coming for OTP even without a local SIM or international roaming. Even I was surprised on how it works.

Singapore- Day 1

We ended up landing in Singapore at 4.25 am on the next day since our flight was at 9 PM IST the previous night from Bangalore and Singapore is ahead of us by 2.5 hours.

Before you go out of the Changi/Singapore airport buy the 3 day pass for 48 SGD per person for unlimited usage of train and bus during your stay. If you are staying for more than 3 days on the 4th day can top up the same tourist pass for 10 SGD(10 SGD is the minimum amount you can top up with). If there is a balance you can get the refund of the same balance from your card from the ticket counters and not the passenger service counter in any of the MRT station(Ticket counters open between 12 noon to 8 PM) Trains from airport start at 5 am and it is very easy to see the sign boards and go to the station which goes towards your hotel. We reached our hotel lyf Farrer at Perumal street. It was the second building once you are out of the G exit of the lyf Farrer park station. There is a Farrer hotel as well which is different from lyf Farrer  but both are opposite to each other across the same road

The check-in to the hotel happens only by 3 PM local time but we made a request to the front office for an early check in(trying to get one room) and until then we planned to sleep in their lobby . We started exploring the vicinity of the place in nomadic ways(by walk). The lyf Farrer Park is very close to Little India and opposite to the accommodation were a bunch of vegetarian restaurants like MTR, Lakshminarasimha and other veg north Indian restaurants. Next to our lyf Farrer is this famous Lord Balaji temple which was visible even from our hotel lobby.

We dumped our luggage's in the lobby and started walking. We took five minutes to reach Mustafa Centre and Little India (few of the prominent landmarks for shopping in Singapore) .  Definitely this place has lot of Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani restaurants and it looks little unkempt and dirty compared to other communities in Singapore. Especially on the lanes you walk towards Komala Vilas in Little India, you can hear jarring loudspeakers of Tamil songs played along the roadside, giving you a feeling of Ranganathan Street of Chennai. As we were walking, we came across a vegetarian restaurant named Ananda Bhavan, and this is not same as the famous Adyar Ananda Bhavan (there is an A2B four minutes away from this Ananda Bhavan restaurant) . We were told that the restaurant opens at 7.30 AM local time. We waited until then and had a sumptuous belly-filling breakfast (though not very tasty, but palatable). 

We saw some vending machines at some of the road intersections and if you have two SGD currencies you could get real and fresh orange juices from these automatic vending machines which proved to be tasty thirst quenchers and revitalizers for lifting your energy levels, Don't bother if you don't have the SGD currency, you can even use your Thomas cook forex card or the Niyo global card to swipe in the vending machine.

We walked back to our hotel lyf Farrer and started to doze off in the semi couches made available in the lobby for relaxing. Before dozing off completely I had requested the concierges to help me get at least a room by 9.30 am local time so that we could sleep more comfortably😅

In my dreams, I felt someone nudging me and to my surprise it was the sweet concierge's lady with a room key accommodating our request for an early check-in. With lots of excitement we started running to our allotted room and with those excitement short lived we found to our dismay that the rooms were a cubby hole which can barely accommodate two adults with a attached washroom and shower room. If you are little plump, you need to plan your entry and exit from the washroom with more care(no exaggeration).We continued our sleep for few more hours before venturing out to explore the real Singapore. 

I hadn't bought a new SIM at the airport since the plans were costing a minimum 50 SGD, once again my friend's wisdom and guidance helped me to pick a new temporary SIM for a mere 12 SGD right at the entrance of Ananda Bhavan near Mustafa Centre. All you need is to carry your passport. Most of these shopkeepers are settlers from a hamlet called Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu and you could converse without any language bias in Hindi/Tamil/English.

Note: Tamil is one among the four official languages of Singapore and you can hear announcements in Tamil in the MRT train services. You could also witness display of Tamil sign boards everywhere across the city, something to cherish and take pride for being a Tamilian.

We had our plans to set out around 12 noon and our first stop was at the "Sea Wheel" a travel agent who was referred by my friend. We started using the train MRT more religiously and got down at the Chinatown station to meet the agent.

We successfully reached the third floor of the building which houses the travel agent "Sea Wheels". This guy gives discounts on entrance tickets compared to other sources like Pelago and Klook . We did some project planning in consultation with this travel agent and based on the dates and timings of the places we want to visit. For example Dolphin adventures and night safaris have to be slotted out based on a particular time and the availability of tickets. Note: This guy accepts only cash which is a pain and to my advantage I had made arrangements with this travel agent before leaving India , requesting him to accept payment from my friend through his PayNow account (Google pay equivalent in Singapore). We picked our entrance tickets to Universal Studios, Bird Paradise, Night Safari, Marina bay sands(two domes), Aquarium and Dolphin discovery shows which costed us a total of 1100 SGD, approx 69000 INR. On the day to Universal Studios it is always wise to pick the express pass which is an additional pass on top of the base entrance fee of 80 SGD per person. Express pass holders are privileged pass holders who are entitled to skip the line for a faster visit(VIP treatment at extra cost) and you can enjoy more rides than the normal ticket holders. With a basic entrance ticket you might enjoy just few rides because your waiting for every ride could be  anywhere between 90 minutes to 120 minutes. Even in express pass there is a special category which makes you to skip the queue for an unlimited number of time or rides.

After picking our entrance tickets for all the must see places spread across the next three days we marched towards the Merlion(our first official kick off place of sightseeing in Singapore). We changed multiple trains and reached the Marina sands bay station and walked all along the Merlion bay to the the dome(Cloud Forest and Flower dome with Avatar experience) which are on the other side. Walkway to the domes is a long one and picturesque worth the effort and the distance is approx 2 miles from the Merlion. It was a pretty hot day causing immediate dips in our energy levels. We completed seeing the gorgeous man made Flora within the domes which were a treat for the eyes.

After a tiring overnight flight and lack of sleep we were feeling the jitteriness in our bodies and our collapsing legs were not ready to listen anymore after completing the domes. We wanted to complete the light shows as well at the Gardens by the Bay and my perseverance to keep my family motivated to complete it paid off well. Musical light shows are organized at 7.45 PM and 9PM every day and It was an amazing display of Rhapsody(never to be missed forever). This lifted our spirits and we slowly walked to the MRT station to head back to our rooms. We had our dinner at a vegetarian hotel opposite to lyf Farrer which was very next to our MTR(MTR as usual was having big queues and long waiting time like the one in Bangalore). With our legs collapsing and eyes shutting due to the tiredness we wanted to have our dinner at the earliest and wanted to retire to our beds sooner than  later.

Day 2 - Visit to Birds Paradise and Night Safari

Our day two started off  with a mammoth expectation of having a revelling and soulful experience of visiting the birds park. We started at 10 am from our hotel and reached the Khatib station from where shuttles to Birds Paradise and night safari fly to every 15 minutes and the place is called The Mandai . I was told that the birds paradise got shifted to Mandai from a place called Jurong which used to be the old place for the birds paradise. It takes 30 minutes to commute to Khatib from Farrer park MRT station. We were surprised  to see a serpendious queue waiting to catch the shuttle to the Mandai . After 15 minutes of waiting time we boarded the shuttle to the venue and it took 15 minutes of commute time to reach the Birds Paradise . After scanning our tickets and before entering the birds enclosures the bakery right before the entrance tantalized us and with little grumblings from the stomach we were able to grab our delicacies, no doubt very few options for vegetarians. After getting our tummies full, we marched in to the world of birds. They were demarcated based on the regions from where they are from and we hopped on zones after zones witnessing the beauty of peculiar and rarest birds from around the world. The highlight of the visit was a bird show at 5 PM for 30 minutes which should never be missed. So please plan your visit so that you are there when it matters the most. 

After completing Bird Paradise you have to walk out to the shuttle area where you have to board and commute a mile to get into the night safari area, point to keep in mind, these shuttles are free right from the Khatib station and dropping you back at Khatib station . The night safari tram which takes you across the animal kingdom gives you a different experience but it was not a great experience if you had been to Bannerghatta or Mysore Zoo in Karnataka. We returned to our rooms around 9 pm and had a sumptuous dinner at Komala Vilas.It was heartening  to see the availability of vegetarian south Indian /Andhra meals even at 10 PM which reverberates my/our childhood where many hotels in south India used to provide such meals .But with recent trends, urbanization, cross pollination of culture , the recent cult has made availability of such meals rare at night times especially in south India and to be specific the brewery culture has killed our healthy eating habits and disappearance of places that used to serve such meals at night.

Day 3- Universal Studios

Our much awaited day in the entire trip especially for the teenagers in our group. we had strategically bought tickets for  Monday anticipating huge crowds over the weekends. I believe Universal studios are closed on Tuesdays so book your tickets accordingly.After cooking our breakfast in the social kitchen situated at the fourth floor of  lyf Farrer we marched to the MRT station. Once again our prompt saarathy was the MRTs train services. We have to change trains at Dhoby Ghaut station . We took the first train from Farrer park to Dhoby Ghaut and changed lines to take the second train from Dhoby Ghaut to the Harbourfront the last station on the redline. The whole commute took less than 35 minutes to reach the Harbourfront station.

We didn't choose the Sentosa express from Vivo city station to reach Sentosa, instead we chose the Boardwalk route of walking to Sentosa which was a 20 minute walk from the station. It is a scenic walk never to be missed. We took nice pictures all along the way and reached the Universal Studios. Adhere to the sign post for Boardwalk to Sentosa from the Harbour front station

We reached the entrance of Universal studios by 10.30 am. It was a rainy day characterised by thunder and lightning. By then a huge crowd had swelled at the gates waiting for their turns to enter. Seeing the crowd I decided to get express passes for my children by paying 160 SGD since they wanted to try every ride before 6 pm(USS timings are 11 am to 6 PM). Picking express passes turned out to be a wise decision since the kids were on their own in completing rides and we took more time to complete some of the rides since we had the normal tickets.

Initially I was skeptical in trying the rides and decided not to go for any of them, but retracted on my decision due to family pressure. If you are a savage dare devil don't miss the Cylon and Human rides in the USS. If you are a semi dare devil you can try the inhouse rides of Egypt and Transformers. Never to miss the above stated rides for sure. Due to heavy rains with thunder and lightning they had stopped the water rides until lunch and guaranteed us to extend the timings for us to take them later. There were art shows organized in public common areas and pop singers were doing road performance to the delight of the crowd.

Regarding food, you are not allowed to carry anything from outside but there was no frisking done  to ensure the same. For vegetarians it was little challenging to get vegetarian options. We survived on potato fingers, wedges, tender coconut, cut fruits, ice creams and sodas. For others,  food stalls are aplenty.

By 6 pm, my legs were trembling due to a long day of walking inside the USS. I was looking for my family to join me after completing their rides.We all walked back through the Boardwalk route to the Harbour front MRT station. Had our dinner in one of the pizzerias in the station mall(once again limited option for vegetarians) post which we returned to our rooms by 9 pm .

Note: For elders it is going to a long day and demands lot of energy to walk almost for 6 to 8 hours within the park/USS. There are no proper waiting areas or designated benches except few of them to grab along the ride enclosures.If it is a hot day you are going to feel more exasperated. Take sufficient precautions.

Day 4 - S.E.A Aquarium and Dolphin shows

Day 4 was reserved for our final place of sightseeing in Singapore the S.E.A aquarium and Dolphin encounter. Our 3 day tourist passes had expired and we were forced to top up our cards for a minimum value of 10 SGDs so that we can use the MRT train services. Destination was same as the previous day since  S.E.A aquarium is situated adjacent to USS. This time we wanted to experience the Sentosa express train which runs exclusively for  Universal studios and other places of interest. It was a double decker decorated train for tourist and tickets costed 4 SGD per person including the return journey and it is a mere 5 minute commute by train compared to the 15 minute board walk route. A Word of caution -  when you buy tickets for the Dolphin shows understand that there are 3 categories of ticket i.e. Dolphin discovery, Dolphin encounter and Dolphin adventure. Among them Dolphin adventure is expensive considering the fact that you can swim with and touch the Dolphins and there are slots that needs to be booked for a specific time and date. If you miss them nothing can be done. This is where my travel agent goofed up. We started with the aquarium which took almost 2 hours to complete and indeed watching the fish was relaxing post which we had booked the Dolphin encounter  to see the dolphins at 3 PM . When we reached the dolphin entrance we were told that the encounter activity is only applicable if we have one of the adventure or discover activity tickets so that other family members can witness it while the adventure or discovery ticket holder can get in to the waters to touch and swim with the dolphins. We tried explaining to the guy at the entrance but of no use. We were made to walk back to the ticket counter which was almost a 15 minutes walk to alter the ticket as a Dolphin intro show which was never a purchasable activity ticket. they also pushed out our admission to a 4.15 pm show instead of a 3 PM show. We called back our ticket agent to explain the situation and also to get my money refunded which was done with lot of hesitation from his side. The intro show of Dolphin Island at 4.15 pm was an eyewash just making us see the dolphin for 15 minutes and during which we cannot take photos or touch them. There are dedicated dolphin trainers who take care of them 24/7 by working in shifts like we take care of  our babies. These dolphin trainers are 15  plus years old in their job since it takes a long time to train a dolphin and make them obey their master's command. With a wave of hand and gestures they did what their trainers wanted them to do. They have names for the dolphins and they come to surface once their name is called out, This was an amazing experience to watch and made us think great about the dolphins. I got a feeling that they can be trained better than dogs. Post the dolphin show we reached back to our rooms little earlier than the previous days. After catching up some rest, my wife and I wanted to visit the much hyped Mustafa centre and Little India by walk in the evening. Mustafa center is nothing more than  a Dmart/Metro or Saravana stores of Chennai. We bought some chocolates as we were planning to meet my friend for a family dinner before leaving Singapore. Dinner plan got a little upset since my friend's son became unwell and he ended up skipping the dinner by rushing him to a doctor. Our family alone went for dinner and once again it was Komala Vilas(first time with the kids). We ended up waiting in the queue for 15 minutes to get a seat. no disappointment as the food tasted consistently good , tasty and non toxic and this was our third visit to Komala Vilas. Post our dinner we retired to our rooms and was planning for a early check out the next day morning after cooking our breakfast at the social kitchen . 

Note:There is a grocery store by name "The Kalam stores", opposite to our stay where you can get every vegetable which you can name it, for example turkey berry(sundakkai), vazhaithandu (Banana stem) vazhaipoo( Banana flower) etc. We bought all our groceries for our one time cooking in the morning from that shop.

The Bus to Malaysia

The final day of bidding adieu to Singapore started with some hard feelings, since our four days of memorable Singapore was coming to an end. My friend who could not make it for the previous night's family dinner showed up as early as 6.45 am. He was determined to meet me and my family before we left Singapore. We chatted briefly over a cup of coffee and he was considerate enough to drop us at a place called Golden Mile tower to board our Bus to Malaysia. We had a entertaining talk in our local slang and my family enjoyed my friend's company even though they were seeing him for the first time.

Our schedule time to board the bus was 8.50 AM and bus reached the spot  at 8.53 AM local time. It was a Scania luxury bus with comfortable recliner seats that made us to feel that we were sitting in a  swing without any jerk. It was a 6 hour journey. It took 90 minutes for him to come to the emigration check post of singapore where we have to get down from the bus and walk with our passports to the emigration counter. It just took 5 minutes to complete the formality and board the bus. In another 15 minutes we are asked to alight with our entire luggages at the counter of immigration as we were entering Malaysia and it took less time than the airport immigration procedures. We re-boarded the bus and from them we were all set to reach Malaysia by 4 PM local time. On the way the bus stopped for lunch where we could get some waffles for my children and Starbucks Frappuccino from the vending machines. We could witness the scarcity of vegetarian options as we entered Malaysia.Note - Distance from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur by road is 375 Kms.

The bus reached well before 4 PM local time and we alighted at a point close to the Imbi train station. It started to rain and we had a tough time navigating to the station and climbing up two levels with our luggages since Malaysian stations doesn't have escalators like the ones we had in Singapore. It was a 7 minute walk to the station and to our surprise there were no prepaid tourist passes available to pick like the ones we had in Singapore. We have to board a monorail which costed us 1.80 RM(Malaysian Ringgits) and for four of us it costed 7.6 Ringgits to reach the Bukit Nanas station which was the fourth from the Imbi train station. Commute in train was 10 minutes and we had to walk for another 7 to 8 minutes to reach our hotel called "The Face Suites". It was a great property and we had booked a two bedroom property . It was plush property situated very close to the Petronas, we could see the Petronas from our skydeck on the 51st floor. My family loved the property since it had a huge living room with plush interiors and two bedrooms with comfortable bathrooms and bathtubs. This was a huge accomodation in contrast to the one we stayed in Singapore. We never felt like walking out of our rooms. All the rooms had TV and air conditioners. It also had a kitchenette with vessels to cook. After an hour of rest we decided to walk to the Petronas tower to catch a glimpse of its  spectacular lights and nightlife of the Kuala Lumpur downtown. No words to describe the grandeur of the tower and its lights. Even taller buildings with 80 storeys and above which were very next to Petronas looked like tiny tots. We roamed for an hour gazing at the night lights and water fountains. We found a vegetarian restaurant by name Saravana Bhavan( a famous chain of restaurant in Chennai). We ate south Indian delicacies and walked back to our rooms by 10.30 PM. It was a long day of travel and adventure and we were all tired and wanted to hit the bed sooner than later.

A relaxed day two in KL

Next day morning,  we were not willing to wake up early since there was no planned schedule or activity for sightseeing. We decided to book a hop-on hop-off night tour bus which is a 2 hour journey covering important landmark places in KL city. I had booked this tour through Pelago a website that gives some deals as well. I had also booked a one day tour for our next day which covers Batu caves and Genting Highland through another site called  The Klook, they too were giving good deals.

We visited a nearby LuLu mall which was 800 metres from The Face suites. We picked some rice and other groceries for cooking our lunch, mean while my children were swimming in the pool at the 51st floor of our premises from where you can see the Petronas.

After a sumptuous lunch and a dose of sleep we were all ready to board the night tour bus which was to start from a station called Bukit Bintang.We were on time and the double decker buses started on time taking us across all the important landmarks like KL tower which is the oldest and used to be the tallest until Petronas was constructed,the king's palace, Little India, Chinatown, Petronas etc. We got down by 9.30 PM near our hotel and discovered that by then all the restaurants that serves vegetarian in the vicinity had already started closing their service for the day. Only choice left for us was to have dinner in the restaurant situated at the 51st level of our property. It was an expensive affair and only vegetarian option we could get was a mushroom soup, a salad and a margarita pizza. We concluded the day on a positive note.

Our third day, the penultimate day in KL

We had booked a one day tour and the bus guy was on time to pick us from our hotel by 8.45 am. We ended up walking 10 minutes to board the luxury bus. The first stop was at Batu caves. this was a 20 minutes drive from KL. This is a limestone cave which is 450 million years old in which they had built the Murugan temple. A huge golden colour statue of lord Murugan/Karthikeya(42 metres in height) welcomes you. You have to climb some 270 steps to reach the sanctum sanctorum of the temple which is built inside the limestone Batu caves. No words can describe the beauty and positive vibes of the place. It was crowded but the place follows our south Indian style of rituals and all the priest were Tamil speakers probably from Tamil nadu. We had a wonderful darshan and at the foot hills there are other temples dedicated to lord Ganesha, Hanuman and lord Balaji. It was a wonderful experience post which we started ascending to Genting Highland which is situated at an height of 1800 metres from the ground level. You have to reach the top by cable car and it was a good 20 minute cable car drive,  adventurous, misty and a steep one. My previous travel of cable car was in Kashmir but this one was lot steeper and adventurous. Once we reached the top, the temperature plummeted to 16 degrees . Cold winds were breaking our chins and making us shiver.It was a huge mall housing a theme park, a casino and lot of restaurants. It also houses the world's largest hotel with 7351 rooms.  Your two feets are not enough to roam around Genting highland. To our surprise we found a pure vegetarian buffet with jain food options that stood out among the others. We had a sumptuous buffet lunch, bellyful of overindulgence. After an hour of exploring Genting highland post lunch we headed back to the cable car boarding point to climb down the hill. It was an amazing experience and we were dropped back to our hotel by 6 pm local time.After taking some rest we went out for picking some more grocery from the nearby NSK grocers in the Quill mall which was 300 metres away and walked to the same LuLu mall which we had visited the previous day to pick few more stuff for our final day lunch.

The Checkout

Our vacation was coming to an end and the family was feeling dry as a dust. We were supposed to vacate the hotel by 12 noon. We had requested for an hour of extension since our flight was at 10 PM local time. Our request to checkout by 1 PM was accepted.We dumped all our luggages at the lobby. completed our checkout formalities and headed out to visit some of the nearby malls at the Imbi station for a final glimpse of KL, its people and culture. For our onward journey to the mall we took the monorail. We walked in to every shop in the mall. Grabbed ice creams and Kunafa(a vegetarian Turkish sweet delicacy on the lines of Baklava). We ended up walking by a Irish restaurant which captivated our attention to have lunch. We had a good meal a three course meal ending our gastronomical quest. We slowly crawled our way back to the lobby. By then our cab had arrived. We used a Grab app to book a Grab cab for our drop to the KL airport. We were inside the airport by 6pm for our 10 PM flight. The flight was on time and landed on time in Bangalore and the rest is history.

                                                                           THE END

It has been my passion and interest to write such extravagant blogs and writing and reading such blogs demands patience from both the writer and the reader.Probably writing such extravagant blogs are probably  prepping me to become a prolific and contemporary ghost writer of the twentieth century in the future years to come. I can hear the mind voice of the readers , "YOU JERK STOP YOUR BOASTING , STOP YOUR EGO. Let me listen to you guys once, A BIG FULLSTOP and the CURTAINS DOWN.

If you want to reach me you can drop in @subramanian.babu@gmail.com.