Adventure on the Legend of the Seas - Part VI : Outing to Kuala Lumpur

*** Excursion to Kuala Lumpur, Part I ***

Our adventure on the Legend of the Seas included two land tours excursion. The ship will stop at Port Klang (KL) and Phuket for passengers to have a short getaway. That's so fun right? You are on a holiday and you get two mini holidays included!

There was a whole long list of land excursion that you can purchase. If you are a shopaholic, you can join the tour that brings you around the shopping malls in KL. For those who are into photography, you can visit Batu Caves, Museums and many other iconic tourist attractions around KL. You can read about what the other bloggers went to.

I saw an option called "On Your Own" and asked Catherine if she's interested to go for it. She was equally excited and we signed up for it. On your own means we can go meet our KL friends who have visited us in Singapore recently!

I was so excited! I MSN-ed and Whatsapp them saying  'ayam kambing' (I am coming!)
(a Malaysian joke to Malaysian bloggers, maybe some of you might understand too). 

Later we found out that the day we were visiting them was a public holiday in Malaysia! Woo hoo! They were there was no excuse for them not to meet us! We booked their time!

* getting out of the ship to Port Klang *

By the way, when you sign up for land excursions, please note that it departs really really early! The meeting time was 7:15AM! On my normal work days, I have just woken up!

Set your alarm clocks (note the plural!). It's very hard to wake up early on a cruise! We can't be late or we will be left behind. I woke up early. Showered and went to grab a quick bite first and met the rest at Anchors Aweigh.





Getting out of the ship was super duper easy! Inserting our SeaPass card to the machine at the 'aerobridge' equivalent of the ship and we were out! No need for passports etc! Immigration clearance has been done for us!

We walked into the Port Klang Cruise Centre and the excursion buses were waiting for us.

* buah tangan - Tetsuya's products  *

Just like how some of us in Singapore bring gifts when we visit friends as a courtesy, we also brought some gifts for our Malaysian friends.

New word to learn. In Malaysia, when you visit friends and present them a gift, that 'gift' is called a "buah tangan".

I thought some Singapore products like Tiger Balm, Prima Taste would be good gifts from Singapore, but these products are sold in Malaysia! There's another uniquely Singapore gift that I can bring. Bottled New Water would be so uniquely Singapore. But that would be telling them, hey, wanna try our recycled piss.

These folks we were meeting were food connoisseur. Getting some food related gift is a better idea. I recently ate at Tetsuya's Waku Ghin and thought something from Tet's would be a nice gift.




I got down to Fairprice Finest at Bukit Timah the day before the trip to grab some Truffle Salt and two bottles of their vinaigrette for salad and rice. I did not know who will eventually turn up, so only 3 gifts. Whoever we meet first gets it!

It's a good gift for bloggers who are worth their 'salt' right? 


If you guys are interested in different kind of salt, I saw in Isetan Orchard recently that they have other kinds of Truffle Salt too. So if you have seen or heard of them and want to try them, head down to Isetan. ;-)

* dropped off at Lot 10 *

We felt like kids being dropped off at the school gate in the morning. 'Mummy' said, enjoy yourself in school today. I will be back at 2.30PM to pick you up! Behave in school!
 The trip from Port Klang to KL was so smooth. It was probably because it was a public holiday and everyone was sleeping in! We reached Lot 10 so early that the mall was not opened yet!




Debenhams! They have Debenhams in KL again! (I think it came, closed down and is now back)
Is Debenhams ever coming to Singapore I wonder? If they do, will they have the UK prices I wonder.

Ya, it's kind of the old school brand, but their stuff in UK is cheap during sale. Sis and I was in UK less than 6 months ago and we discovered the joy of window shopping there. LOL While sis looked at clothes, I was at the Kitchen section looking at Le Creuset, Jamie Oliver's kitchen gadgets and Nespresso machines. They are way way cheaper than what we can get in Singapore!

* strolled to Pavillion *

We were naughty kids. We did not attend school at "Lot 10" today. We bypass the prefects and sneaked out of school! The two of us went shopping instead at nearby Pavillion!

We always hear about our KL friends tweet about Pavillion, always tweeting about having breakfast, tea, lunch or dinner here. So we took a short walk there. We were too early again and the security guard did not want to let us in. (was it because we were in school uniforms?)

* breakfast at The Loaf *

What can we do before 9 am in KL? Breakfast! We saw Tun Dr Mahathir's The Loaf!  I thought it was only available in Langkawi, but it seems they have a branch here too!

Catherine and I decided to have our breakfast at the al fresco area and people watch! People watch we did. I can even tell you the person on the bottom right of the photo works for Tangs! Their uniform is the same as in Singapore. LOL.




It's good to have Catherine as a companion. Both of us like to eat! We can order and order and eat!
Here's her coffee and my hot lemon tea. They are quite big mugs too!




The two naughty kids, after escaping from school and went to the shopping mall, we were hungry and the two kids sneaked into "The Loaf" to eat. Mummy always complain when we ask her to bring us here. Her usual nag: "Ah Boy and Ah Girl ah, money not easy to earn one, don't pick so many things ah. One each is enough. Nice food one piece is enough"


Since we already planned to sneaked out of school, we brought out money from our piggy bank. Without mummy around, we just picked all the delicious treats that we wanted to eat! Yey!

The Mixed Nut Danish (MYR4.90) had was filled with cashews, almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts and walnuts. What glued it together was ooey gooey caramel! A little icing sugar strips made it more dainty! If you go nuts over nuts,  you should order this!





This was something that we could not resist when we saw it. A pool of melted chocolate!
This was the Chocolate Croissant. (MYR4.90)  Take a bite of it and the chocolate flows out! Chocoholics rejoice!


Just be careful eating it. Mummy won't be happy if we returned home with our clothes filled with chocolate. She would have suspected that we did not attend class! Mummy has a sharp nose, she will know that those were expensive chocolate stains. Not the chocolate we buy from the school canteen.




This was the Red Bean Walnut Roll. (MYR2.90) This Japanese inspired bread shop has a slightly different rendition of the usual red bean roll. A very nice rendition of it though!





The best seller of the shop! The Cranberry Cheese (MYR3.60).
I heard people buy them by the loads!




It's like having cheese cake, bread, munching on dried cranberries all in one mouth.
Tun Dr Mahathir should bring in a branch of The Loaf to Singapore! I will be one loyal customer!

* where to find free internet *

After we finish our breakfast, we wanted to find a mobile shop so that we can purchase a mobile prepaid SIM card. While looking around, we were distracted when we saw Starbucks! When techies see Starbucks, it's either coffee or wifi! The Starbucks in KL provides free wifi! High speed wireless it was too! I just realised I forgot something! I did not do a speed test to measure the speed while I was there!

I kind of missed my (free!) fibre speed wifi at home. It feels so good to be connected again and with free and fast wifi!

We later bought our prepaid card with the help of our KL friends. We got the prepaid SIM card from  Digi. Digi seems to be offering a very good deal. Unlimited data use for only MYR5 a day! That's around SGD2.15 a day compared to roaming rate of SGD15 a day if you are on Starhub. (or a huge bill when you are on other telcos from Singapore.)

Techies need to get connected. The prepaid was so that we could stay connected while on the ship when we are sailing near Peninsula Malaysia. haha... You get Malaysian telco signal on and off during the whole cruise. A tip for net addicts!




If you are shy to just use the wifi, you can always buy a drink and sit on the table. I am too shy to rip their internet off and I also did not want to stand leaning on a pillar to check email. I bought a drink and proudly sat down on the comfy chairs. (and inside the shop instead of outdoors so that I can get connected with air conditioning comfort)

Both Catherine and I sat down to read and reply our emails, tweeted and replied tweets, catch up on Facebooks, send chat with people on Whatsapp.  Time really flies! It was suddenly 11 AM and we had to go back to Lot 10! Our KL friends are meeting us there! More about that in the next post coming right up!

p/s Citrus Crush was nice. ;-p