Finally the packed bags were carried and 13 of us excuding the two kids (which made the whole lot of the trip miserable) boarded the ford transit and headed for Malaysia. The trip had so many deviations from the orginal plan, that I sometimes think about it and find that only thing that was common was that we were going by road and the other one is that we were going to Malaysia.
Started of the trip with the wait for Charles n Company to come to the office. Instead of the scheduled arrival at buona vista at 7:30 the bus came here almost 2 hrs late.
After clearing the Woodland's Check Point we crossed over to the no man's land between Singapore and Malaysia, drove for some 10 mins to reach the Johar bahru entry point for Malaysia. Formalities and stamping of our visa's took place n it was so fast that we hardly realised that we were in Malaysia.
Just across the Immigration office were a few shops selling miscellaneous stuff.
To my surprise they were acceptng both ringgits and sing dollars. Went in to buy a pack of Benson and Hedges which costs 11 SGD in Singapore and they guy gave me back more than 11 ringgits. That was the first realization that same Singapore dollars have lot more buying power when in Malaysia, and its almost double at most of the places.
i SGD = 2.29 Ringgits
BTW, I was greeted on board with beers by aashish. Warm Indian hospitality.
Friday 12:15 AM, Johar Bahru
First taste of local cusine in Malaysia was at Johar Bahru at this food court.
Though as a matter of fact, beers were bought at 7-11 store even before the others had taste of food. With Charles and Aasish around that is something which people can call obvious.
First Mishap: First mishap occured the moment we were geting into our transport. Shree Shree 1008 Saju ji, the daughter of King Charles 15 got her fingers trapped into the car's door. N do I need to tell what followed. Search for a doctor in the nite and .....whatever .
Malaysian Highways: Johar Bahru to Kuala Lumpur
Approximately four hours of drive on a highway which boasts a speed of upto 110 KM//hr is KL from Johar Bahru. We were back on roads at around 1:30 AM and our estimate was to reach KL in the morning.
Aashish meanwhile kept bringing out beer bottles which no one except aashish, me and rahul the people in the divider seat knew about. Just when we thought it was all over he would bring out one more and in total 5-6 bottles of beers were dscovered after we had all assumed that okay there was no more beer in the vehicle, the term "HOME BREW" was discovered here.
After around one hour of drive, listening to those songs for the mentally challenged which anand had brought with him and were played until the cd was lost some days later..am really happy for that :D, the driver stopped. He was feeling sleepy. Another one hour and he gave up and Shoaib took over the driver's seat, and drove all the way to just outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.
Rahul had taken over the co-driver's seat and then it started to rain as well.
Heavy rains..lotsa water on roads, driver sleeping..only 3-4 people awake, that was the most difficult time to stay focussed...and stay awake.
We checked in to the Federal Hotel in Kuala Lumpurat 6 am in the morning, and it was really a lovely hotel.
Kuala Lumpur 11 AM, July 29 2005
Woke up to find that Shoaib, ankita, rahul were the only people interested to go out. Sandip, ravi and murari were awready missing.
Went out to explore KL for breakfast. Girls greeted us at a place near our hotel rehearsing for some fashion show...had coffee with lotsa cream n chicken sandwitches for break fast @ STARBUCKS.
Lunch and mobilising the group took full 3-4 hours, which was really horrible and from thr we left for some shopping mall, suggested by our driver and accidently we discovered that there was some boating scene downstairs and before we realised all the people were in a boat heading for the open mine
Some beautiful snaps were clicked on the boat ride and I think the whole 30 mins ride was an awesome experience in itself.
Halted at some meenar where we could c the petronas towers from the front.
Wow what a view of the KL from that tower.
hard rock cafe wow what an electric place to be and beer so cheap compared to singapore...beer beer n beer ...we did booze from midnight to almost 3 am in the morning till they time the band called it a day.
but before we left I was sloshed enuf......and lotsa things happened that nite.
BM
will countinue later
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