Bali Trip 2014: Day 13: Sampai Jumpa Bali–Selamat Datang Kuala Lumpur
What really Happens In Bali? Well if you believe TV and mainstream media it is nothing but drinking and crazy risk taking. Well here is our version – stay tuned for our quick 2 week escape from Australia heading over to Bali and Kuala Lumpur.
The moment had to come – sadly it is our last morning in Bali. It is so hard to describe the way this place captures you. You feel so relaxed so recharged and so connected to this little island. I know it has it’s faults – and like any place on earth if you scratch behind the paint you can find some nasty bits but it captured us.
Woke to a glorious hot sunny day today – 29 degrees – almost like the place is mocking us with the glorious weather we are leaving.
We popped down the road and grabbed some breakfast at Wicked Parrot. We both had the bacon & eggs along with 2 orange juices and coffee – all up Rp 175k.
We organised a driver to come take us to the airport – booked a driver for Rp150k.
Packed up and checked out of the hotel. We were a little worried about how long it would take to get to the airport – knowing the way Bali traffic can be. We needn’t have worried – taking the lovely new toll road we were at the airport within 15 minutes.
Next up was that craziness that is Bali airport – hearing some of the crazy stories about how long it takes to get through we were well prepared – all for nothing! From check-in through to immigration and into the duty free area took all of 20minutes. Seriously quick no lines at all. This was lovely – must have just picked the right time.
Now we were stuck airside with a lot of time to kill. As a hint for people at the airport – you will find that most people congregate at Gate 1 and as a result there is nowhere to sit. If you just walk down the concourse a little bit you will find plenty of seating areas at the other gates.
Our flight was delayed slightly by about 30 minutes (sadly not delayed by a year or two…) and we were on our way.
Welcome to Kuala Lumpur
We arrived at 5:40pm and made it through to the Baggage claim at 6pm – which considering the length of the walk from the gate, the time it “usually” takes to get through passport control was a pretty great time.
We made it through and were at the taxi rank by 6:35pm. The only thing to be aware of when arriving at KLIA2 is that the taxi rank it not exactly easy to find, you need to walk through the entire Gateway@KLIA2 shopping centre and then head down to Level 1 which is where the Taxi and Bus stands are. Taxi to KL City was 102MYR ($35AUD). If you have never done this before it is about a 45-60minute journey.
Another option available to you is the KLIA Express Train – it is a bit cheaper at 35MYR per person (70MYR per couple). But when you add in the extra taxi fair from KL Sentral to your hotel, if your in a couple it is still probably cheaper to take a taxi direct.
Hotel
The ONLY hotel we stay at in Kuala Lumpur is the Impiana KLCC. It is certainly not the cheapest but for the location and the quality of the rooms it is actually pretty good value. Located pretty much between Bukit Bintang and KLCC Park & Towers – it is in a fantastic position to explore the city. They have recently opened an elevated air-conditioned walkway connecting the Impiana with Bukit Bintang and the KLCC Convention Centre.
The Room – Well what a surprise we managed to get an upgrade to an Executive Suite. Wow what an amazing room.
All good hotel rooms require their own entrance landing.
The Kind Size bed, separated from the Lounge area by a writing desk and TV on rotating stand.
Lovely place to sit and complete those urgent business papers…..
And the bathroom – huge shower and huge bathtub. As well as twin sinks. This room is bigger than some hotels I have stayed in.
Dinner
We freshened up and decided to head out and grab some dinner. Our favourite place to eat in Kuala Lumpur is Jalan Alor. Jalan Alor is a lovely street occupied by restaurants! Conservatively at least 50-60 different places to eat. It is a noisy, busy, crazy place – but we love it.
Restoran Meng Kee Grill Fish – We had eaten here last year when we were in town and loved the food. We headed back and to our surprise our waiter from last year recognised us from about 50 meters away, waving and finding us a table.
Coming from Bali you will have to get your tastebuds accustomed to a new beer. Tiger Beer is the main beer in KL so get used to it. Meal prices are not as cheap as Bali but they are still more than affordable.
Started off with some Chicken Satay Sticks. What I love about this place is that when you order you will actually find your meal cooked at about 2 or 3 different places – you find the Satay comes from one stand, your rice from another and then your main meal from a different place. They churn out so many meals here each night they have worked out a formula to run the place as efficiently as possible.
The amazing butter prawns – for the live of me we haven’t been able to work out what is on the top of these prawns, its like a pork floss egg mixture thingy – but goodness me it tastes amazing.
Salt and Pepper Calamari. Cooked to perfection – Calamari is one of those delicate substances that if it is cooked too long by a minute it is stringy. This stuff is always cooked to perfection – we polished off every morsel of food. Washed down with a couple of Tiger Beers – all up the meal came to 120MYR ($40AUD).
There are a number of roving performers on the night – this little band were amazing and afterwards we were more than willing to put a couple of Ringgit into their pockets.
There will also be a number of sellers trying to fling their various wares onto you – but they are no worry at all and a polite no-thank you has them on their way. I however always have a soft spot in my heart to the lovely old ladies that will walk along asking for donations. Don’t be a scrooge and give them a couple of ringgits they are lovely people.
After dinner we just made our way back to the hotel, the weather here is perfect – it was meant to be rainy today – it was hot and sunny with a lovely cool breeze at dinner.
Liked anything you heard from today’s blog? Here is the summary of places we visited and their websites (where I could find them):
Food:
Accommodation:
Thanks for checking out JustMyTravelBlog – Just My Travel Blog is my attempt at bringing you just an everyday average travel blog. We are not professional travellers or writers (as you can no doubt tell from the quality of the writing), but we aim to bring you a realistic picture of the places we visit – please feel free to leave a comment below and let me know what you thought of the blog. I hope it is of assistance for you in planning your next holiday.
