Part 3 of 10
September 15, 2013
Central Market and On Route to Melaka
Day 2 was a tiring day. We missed our bus in Putrajaya back to the train station, got lost, wandered for an hour in Putrajaya and got soaked in the rain. It was Day 3 and our last day in Kuala Lumpur before heading to Melaka.
Despite the late night arrival to our hotel, we got up early for our Central Market itinerary. We again took the train from Bukit Bintang station to Maharajelela, got off and walked towards Petaling Street. You won't miss it, it has this large arks with Chinese lanterns all over (though I am not sure if the lanterns are there all year round).
CENTRAL MARKET
Central Market is the famous market in Kuala Lumpur, where you can buy tourist-y stuff. Our travel souvenirs (for the last few travels we had) would always be keychains, t-shirts for the family and scarves for ourselves, aside from little knick knacks that our eyes laid on.
There are unique stores inside the Central Market - from wooden bookmarks and Malaysian made scarves.
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Petaling Street aka Chinatown |
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One of the street foods along Petaling. It resembles what we got back in the Philippines - puto bumbong. |
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magnets and keychains along Petaling Street. |
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The Famous Central Market (Yes, it was that old!) |
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Many decors outside Central Market. If I am not mistaken, they have art contest during our visit. |
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Shoes and slippers of various designs. |
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Very cute Pens! |
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Reminds us of Biblioarch back at home. Products sold here are mostly made out of wood. |
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Wooden bookmarks (which we got) and IPhone cases made of wood as well. |
OFF TO MELAKA
After a quick shopping trip to Central Market, we went back to our hotel, packed our bags and we were off to Melaka.
From Bukit Bintang, we took the train to Hang Tuah, change trains on Sri Petaling line to Bandar Tasik Selatan (South Bus Terminal).
Terminal Bersepadu Selatan at Bandar Tasik Selatan (TBS BTS) is the main terminal for buses bound for the cities on South of Malaysia - like Melaka, Penang and Johor Bahru. They also cater to tourists directly bound for Singapore. BTS is one of the best bus terminal we have been to. Very convenient, comfortable and resembles much like the airport. Honestly, I find this way better than NAIA Terminal 1.
We got our tickets for Melaka, and waited for our boarding time and before the sun sets, we were bound for Melaka.
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TBS greeting the tourists! |
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Bus schedules. See? This is just a bus terminal. It exceeded my expectations. |
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Bus ticket counters. |
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Information Counter at the lobby. |
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Bus schedule per bus line. |
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The departure lobby. |
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Our doors leading to the bus. |
ARRIVAL IN MELAKA
After three hours (and more, we got stuck in traffic in the Melaka Sentral Terminal), we were in Melaka. From the terminal, we took the bus no.17 - you need to be patient while waiting off to the Melaka Sentral Park or Red Brick House.
From the Red Brick House, we walked towards Jonker Walk, and checked in our hotel for the next 2 nights - Riverside Residence.
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Greetings from Melaka! :) |
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Lane 17 - where to wait for bus no. 17. |
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Melaka bus station waiting area. |
Tips:
1. HAGGLE! Just like many of the flea markets, haggle on the prices. Unless the shop has tag prices on their items already. But it never hurts to ask for lower price.
2. If you can, depart early for Melaka, so you will get the chance to see how on route to Melaka looks like. We love to look outside our window, and see the nature.
3. If you arrive in late in the evening in Melaka, expect that you'll wait for a long time for you bus bound for Jonker. But do not take the taxis as much as possible. We tried to ask them, but they asked for 25 RM to Jonker, the bus costs only 1.50 RM.