Saturday, February 9, 2013

Trip to 2 most amazing places in Asia : Singapore & Malaysia : PART I


We were very happy and excited as 26th November was coming close, the day when we were about to fly to Kuala Lumpur for our 6D/5N trip to Singapore and Malaysia. It was our first foreign trip and the best thing was 3 generations were going together.

We had booked MakeMyTrip an Indian E-commerce travel agency for organizing the trip for us.
Right from booking Air tickets, hotels, food and transportation arrangement in both the countries, sightseeing programs, tickets of popular tourist places, visa preparation, they did everything for us.
The only thing missing was lunch which was not part of the itenary.

Making long lists of items to be carried together and shopping was on the priority list. I purchased 2 tees, 2 shirts and jeans.
As the date of departure came closer everyone became busy with packing of their stuff.

Finally the day came and we were at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at 12:15 a.m. for our Colombo which was at 3 a.m. It was a transit flight (connecting flight).
For international flights it’s advised to reach airport 3 hours before the flight so that all the formalities can be completed smoothly. Our Airline was Srilankan Airline. From the day I heard this, my smile faded away…Air stewardess was the most probable reason..:P.

We did the following things in the 3 hour span before boarding our flight
1. At the entrance of airport we produced our E_ticket and passport.
2. Next we went to the counter of Srilankan Airline to deposit hold luggage,
    get tags for hand bags. Also after document verification we got our tickets
    from the same counter.
3. Now it was immigration check up and we were given a form to fill in all the required details.
4. There were big queues at immigration counters and took most of our time.
5. Finally after 1 hour we were at the customs security check up. All our belongings right from belt,        
    wallet, watch, even shoes were asked to take off and were told to pass through metal 
    detector.
6. After all the check up was done we headed to the waiting area which was specific to the gate
    from where you were going to board the flight. It took around half n hour after which   
    announcement was made for all the passengers travelling to Colombo by Srilankan Airline.
7. We showed our ticket and passport at the counter from where we were made to sit in a mini
    bus which took us to the required Srilankan Airline Plane.
    
Ayubowan was the word used by the Air stewardess to greet everyone entering the flight. The Seats were relaxing with satisfactory leg space. After half hour meal was served to us. It was 4 a.m. and
no one was interested in eating anything but somehow we managed to slip in a small part of everything. We reached Colombo around 5:15 a.m. Our flight to Kuala Lumpur was at 7:00 a.m. 

The Colombo airport is awesome, better than Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.
It’s more neat and clean and the infrastructure seems to be more developed.



The connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur was also of Srilankan airlines. This was a better plane with Touch Screens on the back of each seat. Though there were not many options available, but you can choose from some blockbuster movies in English and Hindi to pass your time. We were served with a meal and a coke. It took around 3 hours to reach Kuala Lumpur.

Kuala Lumpur international airport is magnificent and quite fascinating.  Way better than the Indian ones.





The luggage collection area was at the other end of the airport; hence it gave us a chance to explore it completely. We had to catch a train to reach from one terminal of airport to other. In all it was fun.



At the luggage collection area we had an executive from MakeMyTrip to escort us. He was also our guide for Malaysia. There were total 26 people in our group. Mr Shah was accompanied by his wife and 2 daughters. Mr Iyer was with his wife and 2 children. Mr and Mrs Gupta came with their son.
Than our family which had the most number of people, i.e. 5. But the main attraction of the group was 5 honeymoon couples. ..:P

There was a bus to take us to our Hotel “Double Tree by Hilton”. 

                                







It is posh 5 star with all the luxury you can think of. 

                              

Services are impressive, rooms and bathrooms are spacious, staff is amiable and the food has plenty of Veg options that was on the top of our priority list. Will recommend it to all.






View from our room which was at 14th floor.



 There was no sightseeing scheduled for the day apart from the night view of PETRONAS Twin Towers.
We were told to relax, enjoy the hotel and meet up again around 7 p.m.  at the reception for dinner.

 It was rainy season in Malaysia and we prayed the weather to be clear. Around 7 we reached at the reception but were not surprised to find only 4 other people from our group there. Indians follow Indian standard timings even when they are abroad.

Everyone was there around 7:30, so we left for dinner. As Twin Tower was in the way to our dinner venue hence we decided to have a 15 mins stoppage there. The tallest twin towers in the world looked like piercing the night sky. Their striking glass and steel facade looked stunningly amazing.
We took some pics and enjoyed the view.




Fountains @ Petronas Twin Towers





The next destination was Nawab, the Indian cuisine restaurant.  

                       

We really enjoyed our dinner here, ambience was lovely, food was delicious and the people were amiable. A nice restaurant to start with. After dinner we headed back to Hotel. On our way back we were briefed about the schedule for next day. 8 a.m. was the time decided to start our City Tour.

2 comments:

  1. I can imagine what you say of the airports and all of it must've really been one wonderful experience. Your capture of twin towers is absolutely stunning! The hotel looks quite inviting too. Wonderful virtual tour, now off to read part two. :)

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    Replies
    1. It was indeed a memorable experience...yeah u can spend the complete night staring the twin towers..they look so amazing..:)
      thanx a lot for taking time to read this.:)
      do leave ur foot prints more often..:)

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