January 21, 2018, I arrived at 4 a.m. at Soekarno-Hatta Airport then waited for Bella and Dina's arrival. Tonight, without enough sleep, I must stay awake because I have to enjoy my first trip abroad. Our flight was at 05.30 and arrived in Kuala Lumpur two hours later. I have the responsibility to arrange the schedule and what kinda transportation we will use tho. Alhamdulillah, The advanced technology and review trip from tourists in Kuala Lumpur is very helpful to guide me in finding the best routes and vehicles for the 3 of us. Oh yes, luckily I joined the International Backpacker group on Facebook, you have to join this group too if your hobby is traveling. The group members are the people who like to travel around the country with the cheapest possible budget, even as much as possible don't spend money, in this group, I learn a lot and ask questions about things that must be prepared as a newbie-backpackers.
We took Malindo Air to Kuala Lumpur. The main purpose of this trip is we would like to take an internship at the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia (KBRI) for Laos, in Vientiane. After knowing the cheapest Jakarta-Vientiane route was 2 million Rupiah, we finally decided to look for cheaper promo tickets on the Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur route (Rp350,000) and Kuala Lumpur-Vientiane (Rp800,000). Fyi, until now (2017) there are no direct flights from Jakarta to Vientiane, and almost all of them transit in Kuala Lumpur. I don't know what makes the price was so different which is clear for me who wants to travel to many countries, buying tickets separately with some spare time is quite far 'profitable'.
Our first destination after arrival in Kuala Lumpur was Batu Caves. Everyone who wants to go to Kuala Lumpur has never missed a visit to Batu Caves. Based on reviews from various sources, getting to Batu Caves is difficult. After arriving at KLIA, we headed to KLIA 2 using the KLIA Ekspress, we would like to make sure that KLIA 2 was suitable for staying overnight, so we didn't have to rent a hotel. The three of us brought big suitcases (preparing for the internship), so we decided to leave them at KLIA 2 Luggage Storage. Since we are super-efficient students because we don't have a lot of money, we finally calculated it so we could make it possible because maybe we returned to KLIA 2 so as not to incur additional costs. After everything was done, we headed to the bus purchase counter to KL Sentral for a fee of 12 RM per person.
Arriving at KL Sentral, three of us pretended to explore the city even though our faces were soooo pale. The signboards and transportation route boards in KL Sentral are quite clear, but just to be sure, asking the officers is much better. The mode of transportation after KLIA Ekspress and Bus that we used is KTM to Batu Caves. I think the information about transportation in Kuala Lumpur is good and tourist-friendly, so even if we get lost, it means we don't observe enough.
After touring KL Sentral and using KTM to Batu Caves, we finally arrived at the first destination of this trip, Batu Caves. As many have reviewed, Batu Caves KTM Station is in front of the entrance of a large park that has many statues and 'temples' inside. Along the way from the station to the famous Big Yellow Statue, we were treated to typical Indian snacks and Malaysian souvenirs. After entering the Park area, many monkeys are playing. Tips from me for those who are afraid to play, don't buy snacks because they will definitely chase the monkeys and sometimes they get angry with the television. For those of you who are happy if you are close and share with the monkeys, I suggest you eat with the monkeys haha
After arriving at this temple, three of us immediately took a selfie in front of the Murugan God Statue. This temple is one of the famous temples outside India, also famous in Malaysia. Bella invites me to go up the stairs, but just looking at the situation, I directly feel tired hehe, I think in August 2017 I will return to Kuala Lumpur again with my sister and I will try to go up the stairs when I come back here then. Finally, Dina and I drank coconut ice while waiting for Bella with her curiosity. I noticed, apparently there are also many Indonesians who visit here. Since Bella climbed the stairs, I have counted 5 people greeting and asking for a photo, some from Padang, Medan, Jakarta, Makassar, and Kalimantan. It's no wonder that many people visit Malaysia, considering that airfare tickets are relatively cheaper than plane tickets to Papua LOL
After Bella came back down from the Temple in the Cave, the three of us had to eat something because the time was 13.00 and we intended to take our prayers because we couldn't find a mosque. We decided to eat at an Indian restaurant located within the Temple area. There are several restaurants in this area, at lunchtime, all the restaurants here are very crowded. We chose a restaurant with a price that we thought was 'affordable' and the restaurant we chose sold food at an affordable price so it wouldn't make the pocket of these frugal students scream. We ordered fried rice, fried noodles, coconut water, and Tea Tarik, the menu that we thought was 'safe' because we didn't want to try it because we were hungry and tired.
We rested for about an hour while determining our next destination. Our next destination is the Petronas Towers. Around 14.30 we took the KTM to KL Sentral and connected the trip using RapidKL to KLCC. So as not to be confused, here is a map of transportation modes in Kuala Lumpur and get in the habit of asking questions if this map doesn't answer your confusion! 😉
We were confused looking for the Petronas building when we exited RapidKL even though after we noticed, after leaving the station we were inside Suria KLCC. We wandered around and finally arrived at the exit and waited for the afternoon in the bustling courtyard of KLCC while watching the fountain show.
We enjoyed the afternoon until the evening at KLCC and then returned to KLIA Airport for the next departure to Vientiane. As students who want to travel cheaply, we deliberately did not book a hotel because our departure to Vientiane was the first departure or around 4.30 in the morning Kuala Lumpur time. Especially after reading many reviews that the KLIA airport is very backpacker-friendly, so we prefer to spend the night at the airport.
The time shows 22.00 pm Kuala Lumpur time when we arrived at KLIA 2, the airport, in my opinion, is like a mall and very comfortable with various facilities. We wandered around, looking for a comfortable place to spend the night. While walking around, we found a comfortable bathroom near the check-in counter (though it didn't make us want to take a shower), in front of the bathroom there was a drinking water refill station and we immediately filled our own drinking bottles.
Since we were hungry and couldn't find a place to eat that was within the budget (or just being stingy), we asked the cleaning staff if there was a hot water refill place. We were advised by the cleaning staff to go to the breast milk room around the toilet. Finally, without thinking long we immediately went to the ASI room and found a dispenser with hot water, we brewed P*p Noodles and then ate until we were full haha
After eating, we slept on the waiting chairs in the check-in room, you don't have to worry about trouble because here it's really comfortable, all the floors use carpets and lots of power plugs to charge cellphones, cameras, or laptops. We slept until 2.00 in the morning Kuala Lumpur time and then checked in and went straight to the boarding room because we were worried about getting lost, seriously the airport is really big, so for first-timers like us, it's better to spend more time so you don't get lost.
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