Going to Malaysia was not really a plan trip

The thought of watching a live Motogp race had never been in my wildest dream. My officemate slash friend invited me to come with her to Malaysia, I was only thinking of seeing Petronas and of course, shopping. The time I bought the plane tickets and asked here, our plans, she said…we are going to watch Motogp! After hearing that, I asked myself, what?!  Ano gagawin ko dun. I no nothing about the game and I am not a fan!

The heck…but I already bought the plane tickets, might as well join the ride the lang. Next time, when someone will invite me to join, I will ask the itinerary muna hahaha.

So on our 2nd day, after visiting Putrajaya, we headed to Sepang Circuit.

The sky was getting dark when we arrived the place, like in any other well-known event, super traffic ang papunta dun.

And of course expect hundred or even thousand of people….

Then, after a few minutes while we were waiting for the race to start, it rain…very hard that the game was delayed

 We have to wait for the rain to stop.

The video below is the actual race.  I though I’ll find it boring but it’s  really different if you’re in the actual game, watching  the game with crowd. It was really exciting.

From time to time while the game was on going, there were occasional rains,  My ever loved shoes was all soaking wet huhuhu. Napilitan tuloy ako bumili ng shoes the next day. Anyway, the game ended at 5:00PM and would you believe a much heavier downpour started at around 4.30PM. So we have to wait a while before going home.

We don’t have lots of photo kasi nga umulan but syempre pose muna ko kahit isa lang hahaha.

Kita nyo baha at ang aking favorite red spadrille ay sobrang basa huhuhuhu

We left the place around 6PM. I though everything will be okay na, I was so wrong, there were no bus service going to Sentral Station…wuaahhh. We then so a super long queue of people waiting for the bus, badtrip talaga. We waited again for another 2 hours.  At 8PM the bus arrived and the travel time from Sepang to Sentral is roughly an hour. Hays. After all the pahirap, D and N told me na hindi na to mauulit ulit hahaha.

Since we arrived Sentral a bit late, we were really hungry,  My friend D wanted to have rice,  some restos are already close and KFC and MCdo are the fastfood that are open. We checked the menu in Mcdo syempre walang rice dun hindi uso, I think sa atin lang meron yatang fried chicken with rice meal, swerte nga naman. We decided to have dinner na lang at KFC, kaso ubos na rice nila.  We just had this plate for RM9.25 (around 120-130Php)

Snack Plate from KFC. This meal includes drink, coleslaw dinner roll and 2 huge pieces of fried Chicken. Infairness sa laki ng chicken 1 piece lang nakain ko at naumay kagad ako at promise mas masarap pa yung kfc sa atin

So this ends, my 2nd tiring day in KL.  I still have few more stories to share…Batu Cave, Bukit Bintang and Merdeka Square.

The next morning after our first day in Malaysia  we headed straight to Putrajaya.  The very first time I set foot in Malaysia, I noticed the impressive architectural and  urban planning and transportation.  So visiting Putrajaya made me admire the country more.

Putrajaya is a planned city, which is located 25 km south of Kuala Lumpur, that serves as the federal administrative centre of Malaysia. All the government offices is located here.  Nice urban planning, very impressive.

To get there,  take the Express Rail Link train from KL’s Sentral to Putrajaya Sentral. We hire a taxi for  RM40 that will tour us around the place for 1 hour. The taxi driver spoke good English. He served as our tour guide and photographer too

Seri Gemilang Bridge. The road from the bridge leads to the Putrajaya International Convention Center at the end

Putrajaya International Convention Center (PICC)

PICC overlooking Putrajaya

Putra Mosque (Pink Mosque) oh…I hate that bus

The Pink Mosque or the Putra Mosque was named in honor to Malaysia’s first Prime Minister Tunkun Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj. It is also recognized as one of notable landmarks in Putrajaya, a must visit for tourist. It’s located in the Precinct 1 just in front of Putrajaya Lake and beside the Dataran Putra ( Putra Square).

Perdana Putra (Office of the Prime Minister)

Perdana Putra is the Prime Minister’s Department Complex. Strategically located at the new Federal Government Administrative Centre, Putrajaya is within radius of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) and about 40km from the Federal Capital, Kuala Lumpur.

Perbadanan Putrajaya

The local authority which administrates the Federal Territory of Putrajaya

Palace of Justice

The Palace of Justice is influenced by the Islamic culture that built the walls of the Taj Mahal in India, the Moorish culture like the Sultan Abdul Samad Building in Kuala Lumpur, and the Western culture of the Palladian.

A short trip to Putrajaya  made me admire how clean the city landscape is as we drive along from one road to another. It made me remember home and the possibility that one day…Manila could be as progressive as this country.

After our Putrajaya visit, he headed straight to Sepang Selangor to watch motogp….up next. Please be back

I know I’ve been ignoring this blog for some months now but I just cannot let this day pass without greeting my travel buddy, eating buddy, Shopping buddy, my inspiration, my all…my husband in this blog.

happy birthday hubs. You are such a great person. As I always said 1435254

PS…

I still owe my Malaysia trip and our latest Baguio food tripping trip..sa aking pagbabalik….

So on to my short Malaysia trip…

We booked seat sale plane ticket to Malaysia from cebu pacific. My total 2 way ticket cost 4,835Php (exluding travel tax and terminal fee). Actually I dont have plans to go to Malaysia napilit lang ako ng mga friends ko hahaha.

Our flight was scheduled at 2.10PM. We arrived, LCCT (low cost carrier terminal)Malaysia at around 6PM. Their Internation airport is called KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Terminal). Before going to our hotel, we picked our motogp tickets at Sepang . It’s a 5 minute taxi ride from LCCT. So iamgine, us, dragging our travel bags while getting our tickets.People are looking at us…iniisip siguro nila, masyado kaming excited for the race. hahaha

We bought this ticket online around July ata. It was cheaper if you will buy ahead.

After getting out tickets, we searched for buses going to Sentral but wala na raw buses so we hailed a taxi.  It cost 90ringgit…ang mahal. We asked for discount, we ended up paying 70 ringgit (around 900 pesos).  Ang tagal pala ng byahe from the airport to sentral. It took us 1 hr to 1.5 hours. Kakainip. Iw as seated at the back, while my friend who seats in fron keep on talking to the indian-malay driver. It’s good the manong driver speak good english, so he kinda, tell short stories about malaysia. Yung nga lang medyo tumagal ang aming byahe because, he was driving a bit slow…a dont know if it’s because that he just drive safely or if he drives slow because kinukwentuhan namin sya.

It was around 9PM that we reached the hotel. We had our late lunch at Old Town White Coffee which is very near to our hotel

I like this noodle dish. It’s egg noodles with minced chicken. It fits my taste buds. Lasang pinoy.  This cost around 100php.  When I dine outside, I don’t usually ordered drinks, because it makes me full agad. I just ordered water. Their bottled water cost 3 ringgit.

After dinenr we  headed to Suria KLCC where the famous Petronas  Tower is located.

Petronas Towers, also known as the Petronas Twin Towers (Menara Petronas, or Menara Berkembar Petronas)

The towers were designed by Argentinian architect César Pelli, Indonesian architect Achmad Murdijat and Filipino-Malaysian Engineer Deejay Cerico under the consultancy of J. C. Guinto, and Filipino Designer Dominic “Minick” Saibo – via

After taking load of photos with the Petronas, we decided to head back to the hotel. We found out that the last train was at 11PM, we went rushing back to the train station, we were lucky to catch the last train but we did not notice that we took the train going to the other opposite direction hays….bummer.  When we asked people from the station how to go to Sentral, we did a hard time getting the directions because not all can speak english and if ever they speak english, it was a bit hard to understand. Anyway, we reached our hotel after a bus and a taxi ride.

We stayed at Summer View Hotel, KL. This hotel cozy, clean, convenient, comfortable and affordable too.  This hotel is very near to KL Sentral terminal about 300 meters away.  There is a 7-11 near the place just in case you need to buy anything.   I forgot to take photos of our room but I grabbed one from a site. The photo below which is similar to our room.

This photo of Hotel Summer View is courtesy of TripAdvisor

If I have to compare our sg hotel with this one, our room in Summer View is spacious and can fit 3-4 person.

The 3 of us was really tired and sleepy.  After having a quick shower, I hit my bed and told myself…tomorrow would be another exciting (and tiring) day

By the way, this tour is without itinerary and we did not do any research compared to our HK-Macau and Singapore trips…kaya mas exciting.

Please be back for my next adventure in Malaysia

I first tried Kaya toast in a Singaporean restaurant in Megamall and at first bite I fell in love with it. So when we visited Singapore last May I aim to have a bite of the authentic Kaya Toast.

It was a good thing that our hotel is near Ya Kun Kaya Toast. One of the best places to get your kaya fix in Singapore .

The typical way to order Kaya Toast is to get a set with Singaporean coffee and eggs.  Singaporean coffee reminds me of what I think is a Vietnamese style, or rather originally French coffee.  Using a tall metal pot and a high pour to add air into the coffee itself is wonderful technique that is employed in Singapore.  They also use condensed milk and hot water to keep the coffee from being too strong.

According to most Singapore locals, Kaya Toast is best eaten with wet and runny eggs with black sauce. Thanks to the waiter (or uncle..they call older men as uncle and older women as auntie), he instructed us how to eat kaya toast, we were  able to enjoy Kaya Toast much like how the locals do.

Uncle said, a bowl of  half-cooked eggs, needs drizzle pepper and put some dark soy sauce on it.  Swirl the thing around until the mixture becomes brown and gooey.

Take a kaya toast and dip it in the egg mixture. That’s when you take a bite of sweet and crunchy heaven.

Grab your cup of  kopi (coffee) or teh (tea) and take a sip. You will find that it is the perfect accompaniment to the kaya toast dipped in egg mixture.

By the way, when ordering kopi or teh in Singapore one must specify how you want it to be served to you,  So here are just some being offered in Ya Kun Kaya Toast:

Kopi, coffee with condense milk
Kopi-C, coffee with evaporated milk
Kopi-O, coffee with sugar only (Coffee Black)

Teh, tea with milk and sugar
Teh-C, tea with evaporated milk
Teh-O, tea with sugar only

That’s it. It is an enjoyable experience. If I were living in Singapore, I’d have this every single morning. True story! 

By the way, there are several branches of Ya Kun Kaya Toast here in Manila (MOA, Robinson’s Place, NAIA, Ortigas)  that I have to visit too

you might want to check my Singapore Blog series:

Clarke Quay, Singapore
Singapore Zoo and raincoats
Chinatown in Singapore
Bugis Street and some side trips
Singapore Icons – Merlion, Esplanade and MBS
Universal Studio Part 2
Universal Studio Part 1
Imbiah Lookout and Merlion
Sentosa Express and Palawan Beach
A bit of Orchard Road
Singapore…I am beginning to love this place

Anyway, before I get busy with my reading let me share our last night in Singapore.

If you are traveling to Singapore, one of the places you must visit is Clarke Quay!
Clarke Quay is a historical riverside quay in Singapore, located within the Singapore River Planning Area. The quay is situated upstream from the mouth of the Singapore River and Boat Quay. – via

There are lot of things to do here like….

 Dine, Drink and hop around pubs!

The Cannery at Clarke Quay has many pubs and bars for you to drink and chill with your friends. What’s great about drinking there, is that the every pub and bar is unique in a certain way.

Stroll and sit along the river

Not someone who drinks? Don’t worry! Simply spend your time strolling and walking around the Quay. The breeze is cooling a or you can just sit down along the river, and enjoy every moment.

At night, there will also be street performers or buskers performing along the river to add life into the night. Shopping carts are also situated all around for you to shop for your souvenirs. All in all, you won’t feel bored at Clarke Quay!

Party is everywhere in this part of Singapore, even on the steets. Meron performer.

One thing I noticed,  even though it’s a party place, the place is still trash free. I admire their discipline. Inggit mode!

Scream at the top of your lungs

G-Max Reverse Bungy.  You’re thrown up  that reaches 60 metres in the air at speeds of up to 200 kph and hits G Force 5 — your hair might never look the same again . This is one hell of a ride and definitely not for the faint hearted.  It is located along the Singapore River and within walking distance from Clarke Quay MRT station.

By the way, I am a scardy cat so I did no try it hahaha.

G-Max Reverse Bungee

Would you try?

Aside from the G-Max Reverse Bungee there is also the GX-5 extreme swing, a rapid flying and free fall ride, it’s equally scary but looks fun.  I did not try it also. Yoko nga hahaha!

Ticket coast 49sgd each for G-max and Gx-5 (buti na lang mahal kaya hindi ako nag try hahaha)

A few walk from Clarke Quay is MITA Building.

The Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MITA) Building was originally the old Hill Street Police Station and Barracks (1934-1997). This colourful 6-storey building was designed in the classical Renaissance style. It comprises blocks arranged around two courtyards.

So that is how we spend our 4th night is Singapore.  I was a bit sad because the next day, we will fly back home. I will surely miss this immaculate clean place.

My trip was surely over but I still owe an entry about Singapore food….up next

For the meantime, you might want to check my Singapore Blog series:

Singapore Zoo and raincoats
Chinatown in Singapore
Bugis Street and some side trips
Singapore Icons – Merlion, Esplanade and MBS
Universal Studio Part 2
Universal Studio Part 1
Imbiah Lookout and Merlion
Sentosa Express and Palawan Beach
A bit of Orchard Road
Singapore…I am beginning to love this place

On our 4th day in Singapore, my husband and I (with my sister) took a spur of the moment trip to the zoo, after our Chinatown trip, we  hopped the MRT alighted Ang Mo Kio station (NS16) and we took the bus service 138 from the bus interchange.

A few minutes after the bus left the station, it started to rain. The rain didn’t stop even though we arrived the zoo.

We waited a few more minutes hoping the rain would stop but it didn’t.

me with the paawa and upset look…

Got tired of making funny faces , so I decided  to buy a 10sgd flip flops for myself because I was wearing my espads (I don’t want it to get wet) and 5sgd  rain coats available at the zoo’s gift shop .

ang lakas ng ulan di ba???

By the way, there is an option to take the tram (with added cost) to tour the zoo but we opted to just walk  around the zoo.  

masarap naman maglakad sa ulan….

Anyway, let’s get on to some of my favorite animals:

Because it was raining, the monkeys was hiding from his guest. We only saw one

We went inside Australian Outback to see the Wallaby. I told hubz to pose with the wallabies.  Kaso ayaw lumapit.  Inggitin ko sya kasi I got a close encounter with them when I was in  Sydney

Pretty Zebras. Did You know that the stripe pattern of the zebras are to distinguish different zebra species.

Elephants…seem here they are playing.

There should be an elephant show but because of the rain it was cancelled that time.

There are several species of elephants is Singapore Zoo and some of them already passed away because of old age.

The rhinoceros

Oh…by the way, did you know…..

The horn on a rhino’s nose is just a mass of hair stuck together. It is loosely attached to the skull. When it gets knocked off, a new horn will grow in its place. Rhinos are hunted to near extinction because of their horns.

 I have no idea what this is, but she looks like smiling

There are lots of snakes but this one for me is lovely.

A warthog a.k.a pumba of lion king

Giraffe. When I was a kid, a trip to the Manila zoo won’t be complete without seeing a giraffe.

“Giraffe have this huge problem of having a head that is 2m away from the heart. So in a really big animal how does it get blood up there?” (Professor Graham Mitchell, Centre of Wildlife Studies in Onderstepoort, South Africa).

The giraffe has an extremely high blood pressure (280/180 mm Hg) which is twice that found in humans. Additionally, the heart beats up to 170 times per minute double that of humans. It was previously thought that a giraffe had a really big heart, but recent research has revealed that there isn’t room in the body cavity for this. Instead, the giraffe has a relatively small heart and its power comes from a very strong beat as a result of the incredibly thick walls of the left ventricle.

A giraffe’s skull. Ganito pla itsura nya.

Can you tell the difference between a jaguar and a leopard. Well, the jaguar tends to have larger rosettes with spots in the middle; the leopard has plain rosettes with no central spots.

A jaguar. She seems to be snobbish. See the rosettes with central spot.

The leopard….snobbish sila pareho hehehe.

Awesome scenery.  This is my favorite part of the zoo.

Singapore Zoo has more lot to offer. This is a perfect family place that everyone would enjoy.  Just don’t forget to grab some maps and schedules of activities in the entrance because you might miss some shows that every animal will perform.

To get there please visit this link .

I still got few more Singapore entries to share. Please be back.

For the meantime, you might want to check my Singapore Blog series:

Chinatown in Singapore
Bugis Street and some side trips
Singapore Icons – Merlion, Esplanade and MBS
Universal Studio Part 2
Universal Studio Part 1
Imbiah Lookout and Merlion
Sentosa Express and Palawan Beach
A bit of Orchard Road
Singapore…I am beginning to love this place

Any country in the world would have a Chinatown but Singapore’s version is quite different. The place is with colonial Dutch shop houses, a tourist attraction that showcase it’s contemporary mix culture and towering temples of the old. Large sections of it had been declared national heritage sites officially designated for conservation by the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

A very clean Chinatown

I had been to Chinatown in other countries and among them, Singapore’s version stand-out. It’s rich culture and architecture made this trip very worthy.

Buddha Tooth Relic

The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple rises up at the heart of the Chinatown.  The temple is considered as a living cultural monument inspired by the golden age of Buddhism in china during the Tang Dynasty.

Side View of the temple

The  Statues that Guard the Entrance of the Temple

A few walk from the Tooth Relic  is another interesting Temple

 Sri Mariamman Temple

The oldest and most important Hindu temple in Singapore

Notice how intricate the gopuram is?

 I can say that this is a nice piece of art.

Aside from temples, Chinatown has so many things to see and explore.

Chinatown Heritage Centre

This is a museum located Pagoda Street. You can buy a ticket to visit. This museum display the outlook and history of Chinatown. We did not went inside though.

The buildings here are very prime examples of , Shop house architecture in Asia – with Portuguese, European, British and Colonial influences. The richer the owners are, the more elaborate the design – so you can usually tell from the facade the wealth and status of the original owners.

As any Chinatown, the streets are strewn with stalls selling souvenirs and trinkets for a very cheap price. Key chains of Singapore in 5’s are sold for SGD$10 which we found out was the cheapest when compared to everywhere else.  

We also found few camera stores in Pagoda street.  We entered one and hubz ended up buying a wide angle lens.

It was pass 1pm that we leave Chinatown and headed to Sinagpore Zoo.  Up next….

You might want to check my Singapore Blog series:

Bugis Street and some side trips
Singapore Icons – Merlion, Esplanade and MBS
Universal Studio Part 2
Universal Studio Part 1
Imbiah Lookout and Merlion
Sentosa Express and Palawan Beach
A bit of Orchard Road
Singapore…I am beginning to love this place

 There is a Bugis Junction Mall which is connected to the MRT station. Shops in Bugis Junction Mall are the branded ones however if you really want bargain shopping, just cross the street and visit the Bugis Village. It’s a tiangge set up wherein you can haggle for the prices to be lower. You can buy clothes, Singapore souvenirs (key chains, t-shirts, etc.), food, and many others.  If you are looking for  souvenirs and pasalubong or just about anything, you will surely find it here. I am so sure of that.

See how crowded the place was. Kakahilo sa init!

I saw lots of street food stand. I initially wanted to try kaso ang mantika ng food. I had too much oil in my stomach since day 1 in sg.

 Red sausage , tempting hahaha!

This is what I want, a refreshing drink. I had a serving of waterchestnut and this time, it was good compared with the one I had in Sentosa.

Syempre a famous pasalubong to friends- Keychains. I think we bought 30 pieces yata. I also bought a sleeveless blouse with layered panels for 300 pesos. Very cheap.

Saglit lang kami sa Bugis, and init kasi hahaha, So we went back to Bugis Junction mall para magpalamig and I spotted J.Co. My favorite coffee tambayan  sa Pinas.

We had 2 alcapone, 1 green tease with almond (1sgd each).  HUbz and my sister ordered frappe, I had a serving of hot j.coccino.

After exploring Bugis, we went straight to our hotel and my sister went to her husband office for a bowling session,  we had a quick shower and went out to see my former officemate, hubz was also invited by his former officemate. So we went on a separate gala that evening.

My officemate/friend Mitch invited me to visit her place which is near Ikea.

Armed with a happy heart, we had a quick visit to her place and went to Ikea…Ikea was my favorite place when I was in Australia.  I bought bed sheets for a very cheap price and some mumunting bagay for our home.

If you’ll ask san nagpunta si Hubs…well boy bonding sila ng friend nya dito.

Clarke Quay

Siguro we went home around 12 midnight na. We were so tired but of course very contented and happy. To visit Singapore Icons, buy pasalubong for family and friends and to see your former colleagues  are so so priceless.

Up Next…day 4 in  Singapore – Chinatown, Singapore Zoo, more on Clarke Quay sight-seeing.

You might want to check my Singapore Blog series:

Singapore Icons – Merlion, Esplanade and MBS
Universal Studio Part 2
Universal Studio Part 1
Imbiah Lookout and Merlion
Sentosa Express and Palawan Beach
A bit of Orchard Road
Singapore…I am beginning to love this place