Day 1:
We arrived at Kuala Lumpur by Air Asia early in the morning. After passing immigration and customs, we made our way to the Air Asia Skybus desk. We were staying at the Le Meridien right on KL Sentral train station and I had booked an airport transfer from KLIA2 terminal to KL Sentral on Air Asia Skybus for 9 RM/person one way. One can take the KLIA Express to the same train station or take a cab but since we were in no rush, the bus seemed the best option for us. Pretty soon we were on our way to KL Sentral on the Skybus.
The journey to KL Sentral from KLIA2 takes about an hour to 1.5 hours depending on traffic. After reaching KL Sentral, we walked to the Le Meridien which is located right outside the train station. After checking-in and freshening up, we decided to visit Bukit Bintang first for some lunch. After picking up a city map from the front desk, we were soon on our way.
We walked to the monorail station next to KL Sentral and then took the monorail to Bukit Bintang.
The front desk had mentioned that the Pavilion mall in Bukit Bintang had a good food court and we decided to check this one out first.
The food court was indeed pretty big and had lots of dining options – Chinese, Malay, Korean, Thai, Japanese, Indian, Steak, Vegetarian, Desserts etc. It was very reasonably priced and we sampled some Thai and Chinese food mostly. Karen ordered Chinese style chicken & vegetables while I went with fried chicken with rice and egg.
After lunch, Karen had a sweet tooth so she got some Jin deui (sesame balls with red bean paste inside).
After lunch, we got back to the hotel to take some rest.
In the evening we decided to visit the Sri Mahamariamman Temple, the oldest Hindu temple in the city of Kuala Lumpur. My parents love checking out different religious places of worship (not just Hindu, just about any religion!!) and so this temple was definitely on our itinerary. We should have done the Batu Caves but my dad was not in the best of health to be scaling that many stairs at the caves so we ended up dropping it from our itinerary.
The temple and the courtyard in it was quite small compared to most temples in India so it wasn’t that impressive. However, compared to most temples in India, it was actually pretty neat & clean :).
The temple is located very close to the Kuala Lumpur Chinatown which is located on Petaling Street.
We did some souvenir shopping here and my parents bought some gifts for folks back home. You had to strike hard bargains with most of the shopkeepers here though.
Karen wanted to try some Jackfruit from one of the stalls as she had never had this fruit before. After spending a couple of hours at Chinatown, we took the LRT train back to our hotel at KL Sentral. We wandered around the KL Sentral Mall for our dinner options and by that time most shops had already started to close. We tried out some curry puffs at Kampong Kravers. Karen and my parents got curry puffs filled with chicken and I got some filled with anchovies!! We all loved it.
By this time almost all restaurants had closed so we ordered takeout from the Chicken Rice shop. It was a huge disappointment. There was barely any chicken in the gravy and it was very oily.
Day 2:
The Day 2 of our Kuala Lumpur visit was at the end of our trip. We arrived at KLIA2 terminal on Air Asia flight from Phuket. We took the Air Asia Skybus to KL Sentral again and then took the commuter train to Ampang Park stop. Our hotel (Intercontinental Kuala Lumpur) is located just outside the train station. After checking in, we went out for dinner. We decided on Cozy Corner Restaurant at the Ampang shopping center across the street from the hotel.
Both the chicken as well as shrimp curry was excellent. After dinner we walked towards the Petronas Twin Towers which is located by the KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Center) which was only about 10 minutes away.
The twin towers look amazing at night with all the lighting around it.
Next morning, I wanted to see the twin towers again just to compare how they look during the day. Me and Karen took the hotel shuttle to the KLCC this time.
After returning back to the hotel, we decided to have lunch at the Ampang shopping center again, and also do some final gift shopping there before heading back to the airport. This shopping center is more like a local mall and most clothing stores cater to local population.
We checked out of the hotel and took the LRT rail to KL Sentral.
From KL Sentral we took the Air Asia Skybus back to KLIA2. Before entering security we wanted to have dinner so stopped by the NZ Curry House inside the KLIA2 Terminal. Mom and Dad ordered some shrimp curry with Naan while Karen ordered some Tandoori Chicken with Naan. I decided on trying the authentic Malay dish, Nasi Lemak.
After dinner we made our way through the airport and said goodbyes and went our separate ways for our journey back home.