Guided tours are privately owned, and they usually charge through the roof, so if you do a bit of preparation beforehand by looking up places of interest to visit in the city, the public transport system is more than adequate and should serve you well.

There are generally three ways of getting around the city, short of renting a vehicle yourself.
• You can take the train
• You can take the bus
• You can hail cabs

A train station.

The train system is managed by two companies, and thus there are two separate lines (broadly), they are, the KTM and the LRT. The KTM commuter trains are generally inter-city, and there is only one such line for local use. These trains have a frequency of 30 minutes, so be sure to plan a schedule accordingly! Also, they tend to be more crowded because of the low frequency.
The LRT is short for Light Rail Transit, and is an exclusively local transit system. It has lines spreading out throughout the city starting radially from KL Sentral (the hub station of the city). Recently, the LRT stations were revamped so that you can change lines between different LRT trains within the station after buying a ticket. This makes travel to different parts of the city much more convenient. Here is a short video of LRT which I took on one of my previous visits.

Here are a few notable train stations to keep in mind:
• Bukit Bintang (For going to the Bukit Bintang area)
• Imbi (this monorail station opens directly into the mall Berjaya Times Square)
• KLCC (this stop opens into Suria KLCC, the mall on top of which are the Petronas Twin Towers)
• Plaza Rakyat (this is the nearest stop to the Puduraya bus station, and is within walking distance to Petaling Street, or as its generally referred to by tourists, Chinatown)
• Mid Valley (this stop is on the KTM line, so you will have to travel to KL Sentral, and switch to the KTM line)

The Bus network is pretty good too. There are basically 2 networks.

One is by private operators, I guess it is called the metrobus. However, I find that this bus service is less frequented by the tourists and more used by the locals. They are all aircon and quite comfortable. In fact some parts of KL are accessible by bus or taxi only. (like Batu caves for instance). If you do use this service of bus tours please ask the people around as to which bus goes where.
• The other set of buses are the feeder services run by Rapid KL. They take you to prominent points from the main metro stations. Now-a-days you could buy a card that is valid on both LRT and Rapid KL. This is called Rapidpass Flexi and can be bought for 1, 3, 7, 15 or 30 days number of days. This is probably the most useful pass which affords unlimited travel on metro and Rapid KL Bus network.
• The card itself is the Touch’n’Go card that was initiated a few years back , which is a type of prepaid card that can be used for paying for variety of expenses including road tolls. Just pick up one of these cards from any LRT station and activate it for flexipass facility.
• Of course there are other networks like the shuttle bus service from the airports and the intercity buses.

A Teksi (Taxi) in Kuala Lumpur.

The public transportation is extensive, but if you plan on travelling late at night, or if the place you want to visit is not on the network, you can always hail a cab to take you there. There are a multitude of taxi companies, but broadly there are two kinds of taxis available to the public. The basic service, and the executive taxis. Executive taxis are blue in colour, and are roomier. Compared to other means of transport, cabs are not cheap, and the minimum fare will set you back by RM 3(RM 6 if it is an executive taxi), but it is the most convenient way to travel. You can also go to the nearest bus or train stop to your destination and hail a cab from there to save some money. If the traffic is not high, cabs will usually get you to your destination faster than train and bus travel.

P.S.- This article belongs to Le Monde-A Poetic Travail. If you are viewing this on a website instead of your RSS feed reader, then that website is guilty of stealing my content. Kindly do me a favour. Please visit my site and help me taking action by letting me know against this theft. Thank you.

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The Tourism minister with the speakers.

The topics ranged from creating an Engaged Tourism Social Media Community to Measuring ROI in tourism using social media. I was requested to speak on the most difficult (I think so) and sought after topic. It was “Monetizing via social media- where to start and how to grow”. I was approached by students, bloggers and other entrepreneurs from the first day itself to know what it is going to be.

Students of tourism attending keenly.

Lunch with staff of tourism ministry.

At the gala dinner. The stage was on fire !

On first night of the conference, we were invited for a gala dinner at the award ceremony and we had a wonderful time. The stage was on fire. We did Chicken dance with the tourism minister Dr Ng Yen yen and her staff. The minister is a bundle of energy.

High tea with Tourism minister Dr Ng Yen Yen and her staff was the last item on agenda on second day but our exploration wasn’t over yet.

Next day I headed to Malacca, one of my favourite cities in Malaysia, with Anuradha, one of the other invitees. Ministry of Tourism made all the arrangements for our transport & stay. We were accompanied with a registered tourist guide who unfortunately knew less than me about the place. A woman tourist officer was also deputed on duty because we two women were travelling. In short, we were pampered to no end.
Two days in Malacca and we were soaked in History. Came back to Kuala Lumpur, the city I am at home.

Today evening I fly back to India to share more interesting stories and photos with you all.
Keep watching my Facebook page.
Update:- My friend Anuradha has written about this conference here. Go read if you want some more details.
Note:- Once again, if you are not checking my Facebook or Twitter, you are losing on detailed timely information.

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It was a new year for them and I was at Jalan Tun Perak with a local woman. Just as I was waiting to cross the road, this person also came & stood there. He was coming from the Masjid (mosque) after offering prayers.

The woman with me explained why this man had dressed up like that and I wished to click him. Mind you, in Malaysia generally you can not click photo of a person without his/her permission.

So the friendly woman requested him in Malay.

So shy that he couldn’t face the camera!

He felt very shy and smiled…. could not look into the camera. I respected his apprehension. The lights to cross the road became green and I clicked him before he vanished into crowd.
P.S.-This article belongs to Le Monde-A Poetic Travail. If you are viewing this on a website instead of your RSS feed reader, then that website is guilty of stealing my content. Kindly do me a favour. Please visit my site and help me taking action by letting me know against this theft. Thank you.
If you want to travel with me, join me on Facebook fan page and Twitter.

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Up, up & up…..

Now, these days I am extremely busy on personal front … just no time to eat or even breathe… living out of boxes.

By the time you read this, I’ll probably be on my way to the airport.

So, rest when I come back. Send some wishes my way.

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