MY TRIP TO PHOREN

MY MALAYSIA TRIP

Ever since Tabraiz had been to Singapore for our new venture, the dream of visiting a foreign land had grown with leaps and bounds within me. Though he had been promising me to take me somewhere outside India for the past 3-4 years but something or the other kept us rooted back here or max to CHENNAI ( I adore this place...) . We were contemplating between Singapore and Malaysia and obviously Ringgit won from SGD. We combined Thailand along with Malaysia just to purchase LED tv ( believe me, that's why Tabraiz added Bangkok). The D day arrived and we were off to Bangkok , well due to dates and flights problems we were supposed to go to KL via Bangkok. The total journey including the waiting periods everywhere was approx 18 hrs. I was so worried about the kids but they were the ones who actually slept in any possible place and in any possible position (JUGAAD).

So the flight journey ended well. Yes, we were tired but then everything felt worth it when we were driven through the majestic (yes, I would call it that, they looked gorgeous) roads of Malaysia. The hotel was good and we had a beautiful view of The Petronas from our window ( we were charged extra for that feasting on Petronas ). We slept and got up by 8:00 and just took a cab to see the Petronas at night. Allah.......it looked breathtakingly beautiful, and there were fountains which danced. The whole cascade was so peaceful and satisfying. Yes I don't know why I call it satisfying but there was a calmness which overpowers your brain and body that time and you become numb to the outside noise and the only sense which prevails is your sight with which u see and hear and feel- all at the same time. There was no chaos from the puchka wala/balloon wala/jhaal moodi (I LUV all these and totally missed it in those 14 days). Even the kids there were only on  20% of their naughtiness... Haha. Faris was so impressed by these twin structures that he decided to make one when he grows up...Inshallah .    

view from the window

from GRAND SEASONS, KL

                                                    

PETRONAS at night

the fountains

The greatest currency shock came to me when I wanted to go to the loo badly. We entered the KLCC SURIYA MALL and there was a paid washroom ......2 ringgit ...what the ****,36/- Rs for a piss. I would rather hold it for my hotel toilet. Anyway I paid 4 ringgit for Fiza and myself. Okay...so what if you can sleep in that so called washroom or best even have a lunch date with your partner, it had the best possible flowers , plush sofas, two types of flowery hand washes, wet wipes etc and the whole scene smelled like heaven. I don't know what's the point in having a washroom like a living room.

I forgot to mention about the cabs , they bore the name of the drivers on them which I found extremely necessary. It will lessen the crime rates which involves the cab drivers. There was another interesting thing, my darling girl kept her new pink flowery slippers in the locker of the room...awwww that was so cute, when we asked her as to why has she kept the pair there, she said it is used to keep important things and her slippers are very precious to her (lol) . That winded up our first day....

I was delighted and squealed with joy the moment I saw Idly in breakfast in "Grand Seasons", how much I LUV idly ( these are the healthiest options I feel and quite filling too). My happiness was short lived and ended as soon as I touched one ....eeks it was not cooked properly and had no salt and was totally bland ( I mean actually BLAND) so back to bread and omelette for all of us except for fiza who just enjoyed eating seasonal fruits there.

  

  

                                                                          


Visit to Petronas was first. It stood there, the 452 m tall beauty, looking majestic in all its glory. There was a small cafeteria and I was able to get ENO there. I was all smiles seeing ENO ( Yayyy we get it in India too, the boy behind the desk just did not seem to get the reason behind my smiles). Then there was THE SKYBRIDGE, a bridge which connects the two towers at 41st and 42nd floor. It is interesting to know that the skybridge is not fully connected to the towers, it is designed in a way to slide in and out incase there is a earthquake, to prevent the structure from falling ( I dont understand this theory, I mean it sounds a little scary to me). I had never been to such heights and we all were so intrigued by these structures. Later they took us to the 86th floor where we saw an imitation of the towers in glass..it was lovely. The last two stories ( It has 88 ) were not allowed for visitors , they are used by the defence forces I suppose.

                                        

the SKYBRIDGE

                                     

                                                                         
 
                                                      view from the SKYBRIDGE

 Then came the turn of Lunch , we chose an Indian restaurant ( for obvious reasons).The curry was good but the rice in all the cases was too hard. According to our standards it was not cooked properly and all the dishes especially the rice ones had a smell, a nasty smell. The only person who enjoyed the meal....well i managed to take his pic (above). Anyway it was yuck for me all the way. I also visited a Malaysian doctor(he turned out to be a Patel though...Is there any place of the world where you dont find Patels.)We all went for "The cocoa factory", nothing much to write about it, lots of chocolates ( that we have it here in India too and I felt our Dairy Milk and 5 star tastes much better) .

Okay after that we went to Aquaria, a lovely fish museum. Now I've never been to fish museums , I mean at home I've seen small fish tanks which are kept as a museum in which fishes which are teeny weeny go on moving here and there. And here I am witnessing for the first time in front of me, sharks and rays and huge star fishes and enormous turtles. Also they had kept some of the fishes in an open tank where you could touch them...well I found it quite gross.

 

AQUARIA

                                                                     the BIRDPARK

 

After that we proceeded for "The bird park". Now this is one of its kind. Ive never been to an aviary ( that's what they call it). All the birds are kept open ( except for ostriches because of their over friendly nature), Can they fly away? .....well, no, because they have netted the entire circumference of this park as if there is a netted sky beneath our blue sky. And yes it is not low, it is as high as multistoreyed building . Wow this is some idea ( Abhishek Bachhan should endorse this park). A funny incident took place here , there were many peacocks roaming in the park. So one peahen ( yup ) came to bite a small kid , the kids mother shooed her away but this affected our Farisu a lot and he got so scared that from that point onwards all he said was to go back to hotel. Then it started raining and it rained just as it rains in Andamans ( I LUV ).

Well late in the evening we just went for a stroll and I WENT TO SEPHORA.........YIPEEEEE. How I wished to visit one someday . Our own New Delhi has one but now I feel for me it is easier to go International than visiting Delhi. Though it is a very small shop in KL unlike in New Delhi which is huge( I've seen the pics in various beauty blogs). I purchased a Sephora black shimmery eye liner, this is a wonderful pencil liner just the way as I like them....very black with shimmer ( I LUV shimmers, glitters, sequins,) I also purchased an NYX liquid lipstick in red ,yup in red . It looks good on me but I am sorta afraid to wear it in Portblair. I guess it will dry by itself. Sephora is a dream come true for anyone who is into makeup. I just love makeup , at the age of 34 I aspire to become a makeup artist. You get to see so many shades and brands of cosmetics and makeups....so finally the day ended and we all were happy.

Next day we were all supposed to leave for Genting Highways. We purchased some souvenirs for home, it was pewter mugs and a plate with Malaysia embossed on them ( Pewter is an alloy of majorly tin as its main component and other hardening agents like lead, antimony added to it. It has a silvery appearance. I did not find it that amazing but all the tourists were purchasing it so my husband put his foot down to spend 20000 rs for it).
We visited Batu Caves, a huge statue of Muruga, lord of Tamilians. I forgot to mention that there are a good amount of Tamilians in Malaysia and they even have an optional subject Tamil in most of the schools. All the Tamilians residing here are generally the descendants of our Indian Tamilian ancestors who had migrated to Malaysia long back for business maybe. All of them can speak fluent Tamil but no hindi and have never been to India , also i could make out from them, tney were not interested to visit India ( i found it strange).I also witnessed a Tamil Hotel in Batu Caves serving Idly (yum) and dosas. I wanted to eat but my hubby would have slaughtered me then and there. For him food always comes secondary, it is always luxurious travel ,luxurious stay and luxurious spending on shopping and only then comes food. For me it is any type of food whether simple or complex-all the time.

   

       

BATU CAVES

GENTING founder

                                                             THE AWANA.....SUITE

And thus began journey from KL to Genting Highways .

On our way to Genting, we came across a small lovely spot filled with flowers ( even the flowers are different here ) with a statue of some person. Our guide told us that this was the man owned the entire Genting theme park, he is a Chinese ( no doubt about that) and was a vegetable seller when he came here back in 19 ( Malaysia apna Dhiru bhai Ambani). Apart from selling vegetables he started getting small contracts for construction and while doing so he conceived the idea for developing the Genting Highlands into a mammoth sized theme park with a CASINO.This is the only legalised casino of Malaysia and people say that this is where the real and BIG money is churned , the park is just an eyewash. Now this is what the guide told us . Wikipedia has another story to tell but I loved the filmy guide wala. 

We reached Genting and checked in our resort "Awana " .Tabraiz had booked a suite for us, I've never stayed in a suite and this one was gorgeous, the view from the lawn had the whole of the golf course with colourful flowers near the road end. The morning with a hot cuppa in the lawn, you could have asked for nothing more. I am not a very consistent nature lover, I might appreciate some things here and there but not every time coz I hail from one of the most beautiful islands on this planet. So for me I've seen the scenic beauties everywhere while growing up. All said and done, we were off to The theme park (indoors) .

 Before beginning about the park I just want to explain a bit about the geographical structure of it. This park and resort is on a mountain peak about 6100 ft above sea level. The Awana was somewhere in a lower hill , we can either drive to the theme park which will take around 40 to 45 mins or we could take cable cars ( gondolas) which takes exactly 15 mins. Now this gondola is definitely a cable car but not like the usual cable cars. The height through which it takes us those 15 mins is enormous, could be like several multistoreyed stacked together. It is scary and for the first time when we were in it, I was praying and faris was not even looking down . And one thing I have noticed about our brain is that when we are in such situation we continuously think about bad things. Such is the popularity and craze for riding in a gondola that it becomes next to impossible during the peak hours of the day to get your turn within an hour. Such is the rush and so long is the queue. This was the only time I found Malaysia's resemblance to India, the long long waiting period to ride on a gondola. While returning there was a huge statement painted on a wall, it read " NO OF ACCIDENTS TILL DATE-------", THE FIGURE READ " 0" . Somehow this reminded me of " Titanic" , the invincible, the unsinkable.

 The first day we went to the indoor park. Lots of rides, lots of people, lots of food, chaos....we got totally confused. Anyway somehow things got sorted and we started the rides for fiza and Faris but such long was the queue in each and every ride that only the waiting period comprised of at least half an hour for an 8 min ride. We went to all possible rides for them. These were nothing special, the same you could find in any of the amusement parks, the excitement lied in the journey to this park. It was becoming late as per our standards so we proceeded back to Awana. The amusing part was that the frequency of people coming in was more than before and the gondola queue was all the more....I mean what the **** . Don't these people sleep. So at last we were off to sleep.  

THE GONDOLA

 

the LAWN VIEW

THE GOLF COURSE

 

THE DREADFUL FRAME

 

The next morning was beautiful . The scenic overview from the lawn was mesmerising. We all got ready and went to have our complimentary buffet breakfast ( I LUV buffets ). There was a huge spread of different cuisine. How did they mange to prepare so much for so many people. Indians were the maximum present followed by the local Malay ( it seems there was a holiday for kids the following 10 days so many locals along with their families had also come to stay ). So no idlys for breakfast but parantha and aloocurry, upma was available in indian. Lots of pastries and juices also decorated the place. After a sumptuous breakfast we all went for the outdoor theme park. 

 There is a series of escalators to cross as soon as we reach the genting highway to get to the outdoor park. Now this was one huge park. Awesome rides but for me most of them were a NO as either they involved extreme heights or vigorous churning . Well there sure were few for me, a train which seems to go at the same pace as some of our Indian trains. It had bogeys in which Fiza and me shared one and Tabraiz and Faris were in one behind us. Fiza like me has problems of feeling dizziness and nauseous in heights and during speedy movements. We both just strolled the park, ate ice creams .

 Some of the rides here I had witnessed for the first time. One was in which 4 people were made to lie down straight on their front side facing down on a frame. They were sort of harnessed to this frame. After that this frame ran at a very high speed in its track, which is similar to a roller coaster track. 'Ya this was not enough',might have thought the inventors of this ride coz the frame also rotated in itself at frequent intervals. I searched for signs of puke in the tracks and on the ground, they were none. Concluded...people are brave except for fiza and me, and if comparative analysis of age is carried, conclusion is left for me alone. To further dip my already sunken esteem, I saw a lady in saree getting harnessed to that dreadful frame. That was it, I moved from that place. There was another ride which is present in every park. It is the one in which you sit with proper harness on a seat along with several other people and then u are propelled upwards to a good height and then from their it is just sort of loosened and allowed to fall on its own will(as if the strings attached to the seat is removed which allows it to fall ). The difference here was the height, it was tremendous. I think I am quite fascinated by the heights , everywhere I seem to notice huge heights and get scared. Anyway there was a cute miniature version of this ride for the kids. I made fiza and Faris ride this one twice. It was lovely. 

We had lunch there in a small food joint, mostly all the food joints there had indian food stuff as maximum were indian tourists . So we ordered for mutton biryani for all the four of us. The order which camewas in a small pack consisting of lil bit of pulav and 3 smallest mutton pieces curry, ya it was not biryani neither was it enough for adults (at least for me it was like 3-4 morsels). Thank God my stomach was a bit upset so it was a light diet for me. 

One beautiful thing happened there while we were having our lunch. It was getting very cold there, we actually felt very cold and saw a fog ( I don't know what to call it, it was like a soft cloud ) which was travelling and was coming towards us. It was lovely seeing that and then we were sort of engulfed and the coldness which we felt cannot be explained . It was the coldest which I could have felt on my body, much more than keeping my ac on full for 2 hours ( that's the maximum I keep my ac on at night because after that I feel I am entering into the cryogenic state). My body began to ache and it felt like it was going numb. As soon as the cloud or fog or whatever it was passed through us, it was like normal cold again. I can never forget this incident. So the day passed and we came back to hotel. We rested for a while and went to the lobby . There was a wonderful cafeteria and I ordered a cappuccino ( I found it horrible, it was just an order for the sake of ordering cappuccino ). We were scheduled to leave for Bangkok the nest day.

On the way to KL airport we came across some artificial trees which had blue , green, pink, yellow leaves. It looked very pretty so I made our guide cum driver stop the vehicle and take snaps. Some things which I want to conclude generally about Malaysia are:-

# it is a very clean place. We did not see litter or any sort of garbage lying here and there. The roads were like cleanest of the cleanest. You could sleep on that ( I hail from India)

# the people here are quite soft and calm. Like giving way to you while in the queue ( I read these only in novels). I did not find much people standing in groups and talking loudly.

# the people are not friendly. They will never engage themselves in a conversation with us except if they are selling something. May be they just don't like to talk (like TANKI)

# the indian food sold over there is horrible. Even the indian restaurants fail miserably. They have a smell in all their preparations, I am not good with smells but this one was just getting to the brain.

# you don't get clothes my size, I am size 14 ( Atleast not in the branded malls). They seem to limit their size till no 10.

# they are not interested in India and Indians.

//these are the conclusions which I have come to based on only MY EXPERIENCES in Malaysia . it could be true or not true.//

Nevertheless this was my first foreign trip and I loved it. This place will always hold a special place for all of us. See you Malaysia .....hope to visit you once more some day...Inshallah