Category Archives: Malaysia

On To Legoland Malaysia

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PauTravels and family in Legoland Malaysia

Last month, with my mother-in-law visiting us here in Singapore, we made a plan to visit one of the newest theme parks in South East Asia.  it is to Asia’s first Legoland theme park located just a few minutes drive from the bridges that links Malaysia to Singapore in Nasujaya, Johor.

Prior to visiting Legoland Malaysia, we purchased our tickets in a travel agency in Chinatown for discounted price.  We got it for about 25% less from the regular price.  Then we purchased separately the shuttle bus trip to Legoland and back via WTS Travel.

And so early morning of a Saturday, we made our way to the Singapore Flyer to take our shuttle bustrip.  We checked in near the Tours and Transfers Counter where buses are parked.   We bought an 8:30AM trip to Legoland but we managed to get on a bus departed about 15 minutes earlier.

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The Planned Community of Putrajaya

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PauTravels in Putrajaya Malaysia

Twice in the past I had my opportunity of getting to this organized city south of Kuala Lumpur that has become the federal administrative center of Malaysia.   Putrajaya was a brainchild project of Malaysia’s former prime minister Mahathir Mohammad to free up Kuala Lumpur from congestion.

And so my first visit here was when we had a side trip to Kuala Lumpur during one of my previous visits in Singapore in 2005. On both occasions that I have visited the city, our trip here is always a side trip from KL.

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Another Side Trip to Kuala Lumpur

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PauTravels visits the Petronas Twin Towers Once Again

The evening of Christmas Day 2009, we took a train ride from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.  This is a side trip in our week-long vacation in Singapore.  At first we have planned for just a day’s visit by going back and for on the same day but we decided to book on a hotel instead and stay overnight since our baby Janine will be coming with us.  We don’t want her getting too tired and we worry on keeping her feeding bottles clean.

And so like I have always done in my past visits to the city, I booked ourselves on the midnight departure on board the KTM train that departs Singapore at 10pm for KL Sentral.  This time we got sleeper berths instead of the usual seats since it may be uncomfortable for Janine when goes to sleep.  We got upper sleepers when I booked online as the lower sleepers got booked fast.  So when we got on board I tried to ask the guys on the lower sleeper if we can exchange.  Luckily they agreed to exchange with us so we traveled on a lower sleeper while we put our bags on the upper sleeper.  There was not enough space so the three of us stayed on the lower sleeper.

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Going Around Penang

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PauTravels at the Thai Temple in Penang

Like my trips to Austin, I also had two opportunities of visiting the island of Penang on the western coast of peninsular Malaysia.  First trip I had was for a week for a summit meeting for our project with Dell and the second was again for the Dell Penang Facility for deployment support.

It was in August of 2004 when we had this trip to Penang, my second entry to Malaysia after a very brief entry to Johor Bahru during my first trip to Singapore three months earlier.  Also, this was quite an exciting trip that our colleagues in WeServ joked at us for having an Amazing Race-like trip that month.  This was because two weeks earlier we flew into Austin, Texas and I flew back and forth to Los Angeles and flew back home to Manila to fly to Penang the next day.  It was such a ride.

And so from Manila, along with 3 colleagues we boarded a Malaysia Airline flight to Penang connecting through the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, which I thought was very gloomy.  We arrived in Kuala Lumpur around 7pm to connect to a 10pm flight to Penang.  We arrived in Penang just before midnight and we had our first blooper in Malaysia.  That is when our hotel driver walked us to our car, we all headed to the right side of the van.  We were surprised that there was no door on that side only to remember that Malaysian driving is right-handed.

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First Trip to Kuala Lumpur

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PauTravels at the Petronas Towers at night

In one of my visits to Singapore, we have set up a plan to get a short tour to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  It was not my first time to visit Malaysia then as I had already been to Penang for business trips.  But on the May 27th of 2005, we decided to make a side trip to Kuala Lumpur to try and see the Petronas Twin Towers and the rest of the city.

And so, I was again tasked to set up the whole itinerary going there.  On this trip, there are six of us, my brother Mark and his wife Joy, Joy’s sisters Leslie and Jackie, and Jackie’s then boyfriend Chris.  Well that time, my bro and Joy were still engaged.

So, I looked up for a cheap accommodation in Kuala Lumpur.  With the help of Travellerspoint, I was able to get our accommodation to Red Palm, a hostel.  The hostel is located near Bukit Bintang, a shopping center in KL.  And also from Singapore, I’ve purchased for us regular cabin KTM train tickets to KL Sentral station.

And so at about 10 PM, our group made our way to the Tanjong Pagar KTM Station along Ayer Rajah Expressway in Singapore.  We are booked on the 12 midnight trip to Kuala Lumpur.  We have an expected arrival time in Kuala Lumpur at around 7AM the next day.  I’ve planned the trip this way to save one night stay in a hostel.  And so throughout the trip, we slept on our seats.  About an hour later from the Tanjong Pagar station, we all alighted at the Immigration hall before crossing the Causeway Bridge to Malaysia.  And from there, the train stopped in several other stations in Malaysia before we got ourselves to Kuala Lumpur.

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Where Have I Been?

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Here I will be logging all the different places that I have been outside the Philippines.  I’ll be linking my other travel blogs to the places I’ll list below.

October 8 – November 9, 2003 – Hanoi, Vietnam

Through my work, I was sent by my company to Hanoi to provide technical support for our client situated in Thang Long Industrial Park just outside Hanoi.  I was here for 4 whole weeks.  I connected through Hong Kong to get to Hanoi.

November 1 – 2, 2003 – Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

With some Filipino friends, we visited this UNESCO World Heritage site which is east of Hanoi.  We took a cruise on a traditional Chinese junk.

May 25 – 27, 2004 – Singapore

With my brother and his then girlfriend (now wife), we took a packaged tour to Singapore via Singapore Airlines.  We were booked at Grand Central Hotel.

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