Went to KL over the last weekend. Not a bad trip. Took a bus from Golden Mile Complex at 8am. Need to check in half an hour before that. Seems like the seats are pre-arranged. Only the Five Stars counter was in service. Gunung Raya and some other bus was combined in the same counter, or rather, same queue. After "check-in", where we were given the bus number and seat number, we just sat around waiting. Once the bus arrived (or rather, was ready to go), the staff would yell out the number of the bus and we made our way there. Not very orderly, but can do. Apparently, there are 2 buses we need to take to KL. The first one brings us from Golden Mile Complex to the immigration checkpoint of Singapore. This is a short journey, and the seat number does not apply, so it's all free seating. At immigration checkpoint Singapore, all baggage must be removed from the bus. Not just because we need to change to another bus, but more because it has to go through customs at the checkpoint. There are many buses around, and finding the right one with the given bus number isn't easy. Anyway, once on that bus, it's a short journey to the Malaysian checkpoint. We joined the right queue (it was moving real fast) but we didn't have the embarkation card to fill in yet. duh. They should have given it out on the bus or something... After that it was pretty monotonous. The bus showed vcd movies. It's meant to keep you from getting bored but it was so noisy it was hard to get any rest throughout the 5 hours journey. There were toilet breaks throughout, and a short 25 minute lunch break. Eventually got off at Time Square Hotel. We were so LOST there... Totally didn't know where to go... Finally spotted the monorail station, so we were less worried. Shopped around at Berjaya Time Square, not bad! It's quite big and there are quite a number of stores. 10 storeys, but not all the stores are occupied. Still, there were enough shops to keep us busy for quite some time. By evening we were all weary so went to the monorail station (Imbi) to get to KL Sentral. We had to buy the tickets at the counter, single journey. Seems like even locals do that. I think nobody goes for the stored value cards.. Anyway, I didn't expect KL Sentral interchange to look the way it was... Too used to interchanges being.. Not having to step out of the station... But there we had to cross the roads to get to another huge building. That was really an interchange. Linked to so many modes of transport. We took the KL Express to KLIA. I'm really impressed with the express line. The train was clean and comfortable, on par with the airport express in HK. After that we took a shuttle service to Concorde Inn Kuala Lumpur International Airport. When we arrived it was WAY OUT of our expectations. But that's another story. posted by Yee 10:08 PM . . .
