Team KL 2011 - Mayhem to Kuala Lumpur

Here you can find some pictures about the trip to Kuala Lumpur on facebook and picasa albums.

Ps. i had not recharged my battery and so it run out on the first day around 1pm...

The mayhem to Kuala Lumpur was the second group trip that I organized with my singaporean friend. The journey took place right after the crazy trip to Pulau Tioman over the inclosing weekend.

The main idea of this trip was to get to know more about the individuals inside the active group of exchange students. So what we did was that first we posted a tip about the upcoming event for the attendees of Tioman trip and after that posted the brief trip info to our NUS Exchange Students 2011 group to fill the free spots and not to necklet anyone. The trip was supposed to be organized for 25-30 people, but in the end we ended up ordering two rental travel busses (27 seats comfortable and big enough to sleep properly with air-con) for approx. 54 attendees.

This trip wasn't just about jumping to bus, having fun with organized drinking. We though that it would be better to show everyone how they can do it by themselves as a backpacker. So we decided not to arrange the pick up directly from the NUS campus area but rather from a bus terminal in Malaysia, the decision was also made to keep the travel costs lower. The costs for traveling both ways and one night of accommodation in serviced apartment were estimated to 75S$ which was the prize for the trip.

The journey began. We arranged a meeting at the Kranji MRT station located in the upper north Singapore at 11pm o'clock. At the MRT station we gathered the main group together while some informed me that they will show up a little late. From the Kranji we all left as a group towards the Singaporean customs in Woodlands. And actually this time.. as I recall, everything and everyone went without problems through the customs. From the customs we headed towards the huge bus terminal Larkin in Malaysia. The point for this was to show and teach everyone how to find their way to the Larkin, because from there you can leave to anywhere in Malaysia and even to Thailand.

We arrived to the Larkin bus terminal around 00.15am and we had some time to have proper dinner or midnight snack before the bus ride. At 1am we had divided the group inside the two rental busses and started heading towards KL. Can't remember anything about the 5 to 6 hour bus ride due to the fact that I was asleep the whole time.

The busses dropped us off at KL around 6am. The streets looked freakishly dead otherwise in so traverse and lively country. We walked to our serviced apartments and refreshed ourselves by the poolside. We were able to get one apartment for to drop off all the luggage that everyone had. After 7am we all started to leave towards Petronas Twin Towers for the ticket queuing. The first ones to queue from our group arrived there at 7.20am and we got the tickets at 10am for the last visit time of 2pm and 2.20pm. While some of the group queued (10 tickets per queuer) for the others the rest of us headed for breakfast. We were the last group to get tickets before closing the counter, so to get the tickets there I suggest to arrive and start to queue around 6-7am latest.

The sky bridge level in Petronas Twin Towers had previously been free for public with the queued tickets but now the tickets had started to cost 10RM each, which still wasn't that bad. There was some confusion about the tickets because we though that they would be free... I gathered money from 27 people including me attending the breakfast at Petronas Tower ground level. All the money was spent to get the tickets but I got only 26 tickets for me and my group. I was organizer so I accepted to my responsibility to be the one without the ticket then. So I wasn't able to go to the tower and some poor bastard took one ticket without paying for it... At first I felt a bit disappointed but then in the end I actually didn't even care.

After we got the tickets we started to head towards the Batu Caves.

Things to note with taxis in KL. Never take one which is waiting in front of an expensive building like Petronas Towers or in a group of taxis waiting and drivers chatting. They have always fixed prizes, like from the Petronas Towers they offered prices like 120-200RM to go to the Batu Caves and back... plus they would wait for you to visit the caves. The deal doesn't sound so bad, but if you just pick a cab from the street and demand a meter taken you are good. There is still a possibility that you are jumping into a rogue cab with meter fixed to go faster. The oneway taxi ride from Petronas to Batu Cave was only 15-20RM, so you can see that the fixed rates are just to scam the tourists.

The Batu Caves were amazing, while arriving there you could see this completely steep 200meter high rocky mountain rising and in front of it a huge at least 50meter high gold painted statue of the Hindi god of war and victory, Murugan.

Imagine a staircase with 272 steps ascending in front of you into a vast complex of caves some over 100 meters in height and reaching up into the surface. The stairs and caves filled with hundreds of rock climbing and jumping monkeys trying to grab any food you might have with you. Some birds flying inside the cave through the shades of light descending into the cave from the surface. The caves are filled with shrines of the Hindi gods. From the entrance you could see the whole city of Kuala Lumpur opening in front of you like a flower in the break of day.

After Batu caves everyone headed for lunch with their own groups and started head back to the Petronas Towers. I headed back to the serviced apartments with my friend to take care of the check-in routines for the rooms around 1-2pm. After check-in and room arrangement I had to take a power nap to keep my body going.

Around 6pm the sun was about to set and we decided to look for a cheaper bottles for a little pre partying, we found some local vodka (Moskov vodka) and whiskey bottles in the price range of 20-25RM while brands like Absolute Vodka stayed around 150RM for 0.7l bottle. We had pre party in two different apartments, I provided music for our apartment from my Spotify Premium on MacBook Air.

When the time was turning to 11pm we decided to head out for some clubbing. At the moment the best club (at least by the locals) in KL was called Zouk (there is also one  Zouk in Singapore), so we headed there. Beside the  Zouk was also a "better" gentleman's club with the fixed entry for both of the clubs for the same ticket. I arrived to the club with a group of 20 people, I got in but at that point I saw that the girls didn't. I had not paid yet for my entry so I started to see what's the problem. It was the fact that girls were under 21... The girls started to think about leaving to other club but I didn't want the group to split so I started negotiating with the bar manager. After 15minutes of talking I got everyone inside to the club but with one restriction, we were allowed only to be in the  Zouk side, but that was good enough. So in the end the group still spitted in to two, ones on the gentleman's club side with entry to  Zouk and to the  Zouk only group. We were clubbing till 3am and then headed back to apartments for after party.

By of course I was one of the two last ones standing. We were chilling and listening Bob Marley until around 6am we got an idea to go to the pool. We tried to ask and get permission to go to the pool from the night security guard. He even called to the reception three times asking if we could go for a swim. In the end we were denied for the access and we headed to sleep.

The second day started without a hangover followed by a cold shower around 11am. By noon we gathered all of our stuff in to one apartment and checked out from the others. I think the mayhem by night went successfully cause guys were saying that they were more drunk than even on Tioman! I'll have to confess, I didn't drink even a one drink in the  Zouk, just bought a bottle of water when leaving the club! But I had the best time ever dancing with the girls and guys the whole night!

On the second day some just went for a dinner and chilled by the pool, some did travel to Kuala Lumpur Tower where you could have a 360 degree view over the KL for the price of 48RM. KL tower has actually a better view and it's higher than the sky bridge in the Petronas Twin Towers. You could also find a huge shopping mall with a indoor theme park with world wheel and 5 story roller coaster.

Around 4-5pm we were picked up by the busses. In the middle of the way we stopped for a nice dinner and then continued back to Singapore. We organized the busses take us directly through the customs to the PGP in NUS campus and GR in UTown. So we saved some nerves and didn't had to go through all the hazel with the local busses and MRTs. We arrived home around 11pm, which was quite comfortable for those who had classes in the morning.

In conclusion one hell of a trip, again thanks for everyone!

Ps. Just to note! The trips that we organize are not with planned day time tourist style activity. I understand that from the fact that some people wants to travel pre planned and go tourists and some don't. That is the reason why we give you all the info to see and visit in the event briefing. What to see, when to see it and other tips, you can choose what you wanna do or even if you want to travel alone or with a capful (full taxi) of people to make it easy.

and to add... Lonely Planet the South-East Asia on a shoestring is must for every backpacker (group)!