Malaysia is the second country I visited. It was in 2006 still, few months after my trip to Guam. but why? My friend Michelle and I were thinking of going somewhere since two of our co workers went to Singapore. First of, we want to travel to a country where we will not need to get a visa, plus we were on a budget. We saw this ad on the newspaper about Air Asia. It was one of the low cost airline in southeast Asia, We took that opportunity to book our flight. We talked about going to see the Petronas tower. They were the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004 and remain the tallest twin towers in the world as per wikipedia. They also have Genting highland where they have casinos and them park. The problem was we don’t know anybody there unlike our co workers who went to Singapore, they have a friend there and viola they had free accommodation. So went online and research on where to stay cheap. I came across these hostel sites… www.Hostelbookers.com. I saw a room that was worth 459 pesos I forgot how many ringgit was that but if you’ll convert it to dollar then it was only $8 a night. OMG!!! what a great deal. so we booked it!
Here comes the day! We were on our way there. Michelle and I was so excited because it will be just be the girls trip. I tell you, I you will be traveling just by yourself and and if you’re all girls. stay alert! Let me tell you about what happened next. So at the airport in Clark, Pampanga. All the passengers were lined up to get our boarding passes. Behind us was a group of Golfer men about 5 of them with an age range of 50 and up. One from the group started asking us where will we go in Malaysia, we said In Kuala Lumpur. He said “is it your first time going there?” we said “yes”. Then he started talking about different places that we can go to, he even told us where he work and they only stayed in the Philippines to play golf with their business partners. Michelle and I were like okay he is friendly.
Boarding pass ready! Since this airline is a budget one. We didn’t have a seat number. You get to seat where you want to but you should be fast enough to be able to pick a good seat. So we all sat in the plane… ready, set… take off. when the seat belt sign was turned off. The Malaysian guy went to seat beside us since it was vacant and started talking again about KL (Kuala Lumpur), he even gave us his calling card in case we need help to get around the city. Still appears to be a nice guy. Then before he went back to his seat he gave us 50 ringgit saying keep it as our shopping money. lol! so generous of him even if it was only $13 if you will convert it. Then his other friend came to talk to us. Maybe this one thought we were easy girls. He started talking about his business and all that stuff and we were like in our minds… “okay now, D.O.M. (dirty old man) stop this. He was scary because he started asking us how are we gonna get to KL. We told him by bus. He was insisting to give us a ride to KL saying he has a driver waiting at the airport to pick him up. Michelle and I were becoming uncomfortable, If I had watched Taken the movie prior to this I probably call for the air marshall’s help. Then we kept on telling him we are good. we want to explore the city by ourselves. He was still insisting but got tired afterwards and went back to his seat. Michelle and I started thinking on how we can escape this man. What is he will kidnap us when we land in KL.
We were thinking and thinking and we happened to look at the other seat. We saw 2 older fellow Filipina. I spoke to them and asked them to pretend that we know each other and that we will all go together at the baggage claim. The plan went well. We landed at KLCC airport and then we met Ms. Rose Yabes and ate. They help us getting a bus to KL, we rode the same bus and chit chatted got to know they traveled all over the world already and we went separate ways. We just exchanged numbers so we can still keep in touch when we get to the Philippines. Here are some pictures for you….
In short, we had a blast. Got to know that when pointing at something here it is rude to use your pointing finger, you should use your thumb to point at objects. They have a specialty dish called nasi lemak which was good except for it was sooooo spicy for me. I have a very low tolerance for spice. I get to learn that majority of their people are Muslims, We came there during their Ramadan, They have a very organize transport system which was subsidize by their government. It was a great experience. I learned a lot. and also, Trust your instincts.
