Malaysia - Sungei Wang Plaza, KL

There is a place in Kuala Lumpur that can be considered as haven for budget shoppers or tourists. Some of you might think of Petaling Street (Chinatown) but unfortunately it is not unless you are willing to consume time and effort to haggle for each item which can be sometimes frustrating, if I may say so.

If you are a serious shopper then I suggest you pay a visit to Sungei Wang Plaza

At SWP, you'll find variety of products and services under one roof including bags, garments, toys, IT products, money changers and so on and so forth. You can dine also at several fast-food joints or restaurants such as Nandos and Old Town.

The place is around 15 minutes walk from Berjaya Times Square and Imbi monorail station. Actually, you can squeeze both Berjaya Times Square and SWP in half-day tour.

My wife loved this place and in fact, we visited it on two consecutive days. Since our hotel was near KL Sentral, it was pretty convenient go there even by teksi. However, going there by teksi is not advisable due to traffic which normally starts at Imbi monorail station until Bukit Bintang station because of several shopping malls such as Berjaya Times Square, Imbi and KL Plaza.

SWP can be confusing for the first timers. I suggest you refer to the floor directory to save time and effort in locating the shops you want to visit.

colorful sands at the entrance of Sungei Wang Plaza due to Diwali celebration

Atrium Shots

Parkson

Sungei Wang Plaza's biggest tenant is Parkson. It is a classy shopping area compared to other SWP tenants. It occupies several floors of SWP left wing.

On our first visit, we dined at famous Pak Hailam Kopitiam, an authentic Malay fast-food / coffee house.

For foodie, I highly recommend this place otherwise better dine at Nandos or Old Town. The noodles here is more on the dry side while the local dishes normally come with curry sauce which my wife unfortunately ordered. Additionally, in KL you usually write your order on a list provided on the table and give it to the server once you have completed your selection.

SOME SHOTS INSIDE SUNGEI WANG PLAZA

One of the advantages of Sungei Wang compared to Petaling Street shops is the posted price. No need to haggle since most of them are actually competitively priced. Likewise, you'll find at SWP various products which are not available at Petaling Street. However, when it comes to dining, I prefer Petaling Street due to local ambiance unlike the fast-food setup in SWP. For souvenir items, better check Central Market.

On level 3 where the IT (computer) shops are located, this concept restaurant caught our attention. T-Bowl. I would like to dine here but it seems their menu wasn't interesting and my kid might not be able to eat inside.

Wife and kid agreed to dine in another local and famous restaurant. The Pontian Wanton Noddles. 

Again, we filled-up the order list and gave it to the server. The stir-fried noddles though tasty is again on the dry side. However, I love their dumpling and wanton soup.

Going back to our hotel was a breeze. To avoid the traffic we decided to go back to KL Sentral by monorail. We boarded the monorail from its Bukit Bintang station. We alighted at Tun Sambanthan station which is around 5 minutes walk to our hotel. Beware of pickpockets because sometimes the train is full to the brim.

Visit to Sungei Wang Plaza is a must if you intend to shop at KL. It is recipient of KL Mayor's Tourism Award of Excellence 2011 (Shopping Mall Category). On top of this, you can also have a taste of local cuisine comfortably. All sales persons we have encountered during our shopping were all polite and approachable.

MALAYSIA TRIP:

Petronas Towers

Food Trip

Batu Caves

Roaming Around KL

Petaling Street (Chinatown)
Genting Highlands

KL Sentral

Berjaya Times Square Mall
Old Town White Coffee 

Malaysia - Genting Highlands

Brought wife and kid to Genting Highlands when they visited me at KL. Since our hotel was near KL Sentral, we started our journey to GH from there. If you are entering KL Sentral at level 2 main entrance you will find the Go Genting bus ticket counter at the right side. But if you will arrive at KL Sentral by train/LRT or bus then chances are you will be at level 1. In this case, go up to level 2 and search for this counter at the extreme left side.

Make sure to reserve your seat as early as possible if you plan to go to GH by Go Genting bus. We queued for bus ticket at around 8:00 AM but the earliest bus with available seat was on 12:00 PM trip. All morning buses were fully booked. Because of this, we decided to buy tickets for tomorrow morning trip and visited Batu Caves on that day instead. There was one guy who approached us while we were on queue and kept on uttering that there was no more available bus ticket and the only way we can go to GH was by teksi. Several times he said this to me and when I would turn my back from him he would tap my shoulder and again repeat the same thing. I was not able to control myself and raised my voice. I knew he wanted us to avail his teksi but I preferred to postpone our GH trip until next day. When he learned that he left immediately.

Our ticket costs 9.30 RM each for one-way, inclusive of cable car or Skyway, so total was 55.80 RM. We decided to book our bus tickets at 9:30 AM and 4:30 PM. You need to reserve also your seat when coming back to KL Sentral.

THE FOLLOWING DAY

Quarter to 9:00 AM, we arrived at the Go Genting bus station. You will find the station at the lower level of KL Sentral. You can go there from back entrance/exit of level 1 then proceed to lower level through a small access. Go Genting and LCCT buses (Aerobus and Skybus) have the same berthing station. 

After traveling for almost an hour, we reached the Genting Skyway. If for any reason you don't have GH Skyway ticket, you can purchase the ticket on-site.

Boarded the cable car and off we go to GH.

There are two theme parks at Genting Highlands, indoor and outdoor. We didn't bother to enter the outdoor because wife and kid were not fond of rides. Besides, several rides were under maintenance.

OUTDOOR THEME PARK

FIRST WORLD HOTEL

Main Entrance

 

Ticket counters for Arena of Stars

INDOOR THEME PARK

scaled replica of Eiffel tower

SKY VENTURE

THE SNOW WORLD

 The price (20 RM) is inclusive of jacket, gloves and shoes rental. However, for locker, you need 4 pieces 50 sents coins, as I remember. You can change coins from their staff manning the counter.

There was a sign at the entrance that photography was not allowed inside. However, we saw other people taking  their pictures so we brought our digi-cam also. The entire snow world experience lasted for around 40 minutes after which all of you will be replaced by another batch. The temperature inside was -9 deg C.

RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT

Countless optical illusions, mind teasers, artifacts, replicas, antiques and unbelievable things and people.

Those gloves were huge.

 

OUR VERY OWN

       Hey! There's a man inside.

You can literally freeze your shadow inside this room. Creepy.

 

Don't leave Ripley's without even trying this illusion. It is like a 4-D illusion. See those rotating or revolving lights around that metal pathway or catwalk? It seems nothing special but once you go inside this tunnel-like place and hold the hand-rail, you will feel that the metal catwalk is also rotating. Once you feel dizzy, just close your eyes and you will feel normal again.

  STAR WALK

Stars or celebrities who have performed at GH are shown on billboards along this walk including one of my favorites, Cliff Richard.

FOR VIDEO GAME LOVERS, THEY HAVE VISION CITY

Time to go back to reality. We traced our way back to Genting Skyway.

 

We thought the GH fun has ended. We were wrong. Upon reaching the lower GH Skyway building, we were greeted by this unique food shop. It was fun tasting all those biscuits, candies, sweets and preserves.

This shop caught our attention also. You can buy from here Malaysia's famous white coffee and 5-in coffee with Tongkat Ali and "giant kropek".

After buying several tins of biscuits and preserves, we headed back to Go Genting bus waiting at basement 4 level. Our schedule was 4:30 PM but the bus driver allowed us to take the 3:30 PM trip due to less passengers.

I hope Resorts World Manila can duplicate the success of Resorts World Sentosa and Genting Highlands.

Genting Highlands seems to be a combination of our own (upgraded) Star City minus the crowd and compressed Enchanted Kingdom plus two 5-star hotel. No comment for casino. All in all, GH has its own magic that will linger in our memory and an experience to remember by.

MALAYSIA TRIP:

Petronas Towers

Food Trip

Batu Caves

Roaming Around KL

Petaling Street (Chinatown)

Sungei Wang Plaza 

KL Sentral

Berjaya Times Square Mall

Old Town White Coffee