Orang Bilang Kuala Lumpur Membosankan, Saya Bilang Menyenangkan

Di salah satu stasiun LRT, satu dinding penuh dengan foto kucing dan sketsa cerita kucing sebesar ini!

“Ngapain ke Kuala Lumpur? ‘Kan, nggak ada apa-apa!” ujar beberapa orang teman ketika mengetahui rencana liburan saya dan Diyan.

Selera memang bisa berbeda-beda. Cara pandang terhadap suatu destinasi juga wajar kalau nggak seragam. Walaupun banyak orang bilang Kuala Lumpur itu garing, kesan saya tentang kota ini bagus-bagus saja. Yang pernah saya datangi memang tempat-tempat mainstream, seperti Twin Towers, Bukit Bintang, Dataran Merdeka, dan Petaling Jaya (baca ceritanya di sini). Namun ada alasan kenapa tempat-tempat ini ramai turis. Tak perlu saya jelaskan, karena sudah banyak artikel yang membahasnya. Di samping itu, saya juga suka Kuala Lumpur karena tata kotanya, kebersihannya, dan sistem transportasi umumnya baik, setidaknya jauh lebih baik dibandingkan tempat saya tinggal, Jakarta. Ditambah lagi, gedung-gedung kolonial yang tampak masih sangat terawat, dan udaranya yang terasa cukup bersih.

Ipoh, Masa Lalu yang Kekinian

Dalam menentukan destinasi liburan, hobi menggambar saya cukup berperan dalam beberapa tahun belakangan ini. Kota lama atau kota yang memiliki gedung-gedung tua kerap menarik minat saya karena kegemaran saya menggambar objek-objek seperti itu. Ipoh, sebuah kota di Malaysia, adalah salah satunya. Setelah hampir dua tahun tersalip berbagai destinasi lain, akhirnya kesampaian juga keinginan saya, bersama Diyan, untuk jalan-jalan di Ipoh pertengahan bulan lalu.

Dari hasil browsing dan rekomendasi beberapa teman, banyak yang menarik untuk dieksplor di Ipoh. Namun seperti biasa, ada saja alasan yang membuat waktu kami tak cukup untuk mendatangi semua hal menarik dalam suatu trip. Kali ini alasannya hujan tiap sore dan waktu yang terbagi dengan Kuala Lumpur.

Jadi, berikut ini tempat-tempat yang berhasil kami datangi selama 2 hari 1 malam di kota yang pernah jaya berkat pertambangan timah ini.

A RECOMMENDED GUEST HOUSE IN MALACCA, GALILEO GUEST HOUSE

With our very limited time and budget, it was quite hard to find an accommodation that could fill our needs. Located in the heart of the Malacca city, affordable, clean and comfy. I wanted to go back to Puri, where I stayed in Malacca a few years ago, or Hangout Hotel, a branch of the hostel I've stayed in Singapore with my family, but they were all full-booked. Diyan patiently scrolled down the findings in Hotels.com and we finally fell for Galileo Guest House.

Galileo Guest House was located on Jalan Hang Kasturi, the room was about USD 30/night. The facility was worth more than that, I tell ya. There was a set of desktop computer in our room, the first time I've ever experienced in my traveling years! It's free for us to use, also with a good LAN connection and wifi for our mobiles.

Penang, Malaysia. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun..!

Traveled in November, 2011

It’s crazy how work (and play) has taken up so much of my time, I finally found time to write about my trip to Penang! *fist pump*

So. I had been to Georgetown, the capital of Penang, a few years back. I didn’t have enough time to explore it, so when Cici and Vindhya informed me there was a promo on Air Asia for return flights between Jakarta and Penang, I didn’t think much further. I was in! And we dragged Renny to it as well :D

TRANSIT IN KUALA LUMPUR

This is a greatly long overdue writing about my 14 days trip to Vietnam, Cambodia, with a transit in Kuala Lumpur with my gal pals Mumun and Renny. One thing and another, I finally have time to write about it!

It was a marvelous trip. I loved every second of it. We got surprises here and there, bad and good ones. We didn’t plan everything to the little bits, so we were ready for anything that might happen. Deep down, I was a little bit ready for a possibility that Halong Bay trip might get cancelled because of the chance of storm and typhoon, but I guess I wasn’t really ready until the storm really really happened and our Halong Bay trip DID get cancelled. But all in all, I wouldn’t trade anything for the whole trip we traveled. It opened my eyes for a lot more than just the things I saw. It made me get to know my friends and myself better. And so here’s the details.

MALACCA, Malaysia

Only 2 days after getting back from Ujung Kulon, I flew to Singapore for a conference with my workmates. We stayed in that city island for a couple of days, and I took that opportunity to extend my trip to Malacca, Malaysia. Why? Well, Malaysia is the closest country to Singapore geographically. I had to take that into account because my flight back to Jakarta - which was on my office's expense - was scheduled from Singapore, so I had to choose a close enough place to go back and forth from and to Singapore only in 2 days time.

I've been to Malacca only a few months ago, but it was a really too short of a trip. I only had about 4 hours exploring the exotic city. This time, I decided to stay overnight along with my friend Rifa and Sas. In the end, I thought one night was not enough either, but well it was better than 4 hours, and who knows, maybe I can go back there again someday!

GETTING THERE - BY BUS (from Singapore)

Days Off to Malaysia

Gwen Stefani, one of my favorite artists (I adore her mostly for her music as a solo artist and as a band vocalist) was touring in Asia, but of course, like many other world artists, she didn’t have Indonesia as one of the countries to hold the show at. Being a fan (but not a fanatic) and needing a vacation so badly, I decided quite impulsively to go see the concert in Kuala Lumpur (KL) and might as well have a couple of days vacation there... :)