Malaysia Trip Day 1: Setting foot in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Early 2014, I purchased a ticket to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 8 days from October 2 to 9 of the same year. However due to some unforeseen reasons, I was not able to proceed with my planned trip. Several days later, I was still feeling down and disappointed with the cancellation of that trip when an unexpected opportunity came – 5 days trip to Malaysia with my sister and a friend. So with only a few days to prepare, I was able to board the plane and spent 5 days of spontaneous travel around Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

On the morning before our departure, when I am supposed to double check my luggage and review our (unpolished) trip itinerary, I went to Quezon City for an important meeting. Right after that, my sister and I hurriedly hailed a taxi and endured an hour of traffic on our way to the airport. I thought that maybe, just maybe once we’re at the airport everything will be smooth sailing BUT to my dismay it was NOT.

We arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 4 (formerly known as Domestic Airport) an hour and a half before our expected time of departure. Enough time for us to check in for our flight, pay the Philippine travel tax and most importantly clear the Philippine Immigration. Let me tell you the tale of how hard Filipinos can take a vacation abroad. LOL.

My sister and I together with our friend, Anne approached the Philippine Immigration with all smiles. We went to different immigration personnel so I was quite worried about my sister since this was her first time to go out of the country. I just reminded her to answer truthfully and in a respectful manner. We were interviewed with the usual questions. Where are you going? What will you do there? How long are you planning to stay there? And the likes. Our friend cleared the immigration without much of explaining to do but never did I imagine that my sister and I will be detained for further questioning by another Philippine Immigration officer in a separate room. As far as I can remember, we have complete documentations to guarantee that we will be returning to the Philippines and not become some illegal alien on the country of our destination. We have a reserved accommodation in Kuala Lumpur, proof that I can shoulder my sister’s expenses for the duration of the trip, a return ticket back to the Philippines and other necessary documents.

So my sister and I were directed to an area where we are to be further interviewed (interrogated). I was really nervous and beads of sweat started to form in my forehead. But to be honest, I am prepared that something like this might happen (since it was my sister’s first out of the country) so I reassured myself that everything will be fine. We arrived in the allocated area for people who need to undergo further immigration questioning. The immigration personnel was still occupied, busy interrogating a couple (A Filipina and A Nigerian) so we just decided to take a sit first and practiced some of our answers (alibis. LOL). Waiting is the thing I hate the most under this circumstances so I busied myself in reviewing the documents that I hope would get us the ever elusive (?) Philippine departure stamp. After 15 minutes of anxiously waiting, the couple (the Filipina) was cleared for departure and we were called to approach the table. Optimistically thinking that we might have the same fate as the ones before us, we greeted the immigration personnel with the best smiles we can give. She then bombarded us with the routine questions that were initially asked by the immigration officers during our initial interview. We gave her all the documents we’ve shown during the initial interview and answered all her repetitive (LOL) questions. Then she pointed out the reason why we were referred for further questioning. It was regarding the issue of my ability to shoulder my sister’s expenses during the trip. She gave my sister a document and told her to fill-up the form. While my sister is busy accomplishing the document, the immigration personnel asked me why we only had one (1) night of reserved accommodation instead of the whole five (5) days duration of our trip to Malaysia. To which I confidently answered, “we want to explore other accommodations in case we won't be satisfied with the initial hotel of our choice.” She was about to ask some follow-up questions when I said “and besides, we were also considering on going to Penang or Malacca so we left our options for accommodations open.”

My sister finished filling-out the form and handed it to the immigration officer so she did not have another opportunity to bring up the issue on 1-day hotel reservation. At that moment, the announcement for boarding on our flight was called and my anxiety rose up a thousand times higher. I remembered the Academy award winning movie “Argo” and felt like we were in the same situation the protagonists were in during the latter part of the movie. LOL. The big difference though is we’re not some fugitives or some wanted foreigners who want to go back in their home country. We are law abiding citizens, paying the right amount of taxes and have the right to travel.

I was looking at the immigration officer with pleading eyes to let us go and telepathically informed her that that was our flight being called for boarding. She made one last look at the form filled-up by my sister and asked me one last time if I can really take responsibility for my sister’s trip expenses. I reassured and promised her that everything will be fine and that I will take full responsibility of my sister. She flipped the pages of our passports and affixed a Philippine departure stamp. She gave our passports back and wished us a happy trip. We thanked her and immediately went to the gate to board the plane. We met with our friend waiting for us inside the departure area and we boarded the plane just in time before they closed the gate.

After the fiasco with the Philippine immigration which drained every ounce of positive energy in my body, I conveniently sat in the plane, closed my eyes and tried to get as much rest before landing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We landed in Kuala Lumpur International Airport 30 minutes after 9 in the evening. We went straight to the baggage claim area to get our bags and cleared the Malaysian immigration in NO TIME.

At the airport waiting for the train to KL Sentral!

Since none of us have Malaysian Ringgit (Malaysia’s Currency), we exchanged some US dollars in the airport and proceeded to KLIA Express to board the train going to KL Sentral. We were on the train when suddenly I remembered that we forgot to grab a free copy of Kuala Lumpur’s map on the airport and we had no idea how to get to our accommodation. Not another problem! [insert exasperated sigh here] We were in that dilemma when a stranger seated adjacent to our seats on the train asked us if we are Filipinos. Maybe he overheard us talking in Tagalog. He then offered to come along with us and help us find our reserved accommodation. His name is Jasper, 20-something of age, an overseas Filipino worker currently based in Kuala Lumpur and just returned from his vacation in Taiwan. Upon hearing his offer, I felt like a huge burden was lifted from my shoulders and we were assured that we can get safely to our hotel.

   

Irsia BnB, Saan ka man naroroon?

With our new friend Jasper in tow, we arrived in KL Sentral without much of a hassle and continued on via monorail to Bukit Bintang where our hotel is located. We only had the complete address of our hotel and did not have a map, so we had difficulty finding it. We spent almost an hour walking around Bukit Bintang asking every man we came across with (street vendors, pedestrians, guards, etc.) looking for our hotel, but to no avail no one knows and they’ve never heard of Irsia BnB (the name of the place where we are staying).  It was already late; we were already exhausted from all the walking and hungry at the same time so we decided to call a cab to take us directly in front of this effingly hard to find guesthouse. Fortunately, the first cab we flagged knew about our guesthouse and willingly agreed to an affordable price of MYR 10. 

Finally! Home for our first night in KL!

True to his words, the taxi driver took us directly in front of Irsia BnB (which in reality is nearer to Imbi Station rather than at Bukit Bintang Station). We checked in the guesthouse, paid the room and deposited our bags before we went out back to the Hawker Food Row at Bukit Bintang for a well-deserved dinner.

Lezz Eat Hawker style!

Bukit Bintang is the foremost shopping area in KL. The streets are lined with Shopping Malls, Entertainment outlets and trendy cafes. Unfortunately for us, some of the establishments were already closed when we went back, so we settled in Jalan Alor where the Hawker Food Row can be found. Jalan Alor is a lively street of night market showcasing varieties of local delicacies. We sampled some servings of mee goreng, beef wanton mee and kyaw teow. We also tried their local Tiger beer, which was the perfect way to end that tiresome day.

We strolled some more around the streets of Bukit Bintang before we decided to go back to our guesthouse and call it a day.

Care for some magic tricks?

Lessons learned for the first day of my Malaysia Trip: (1) Traveling with little planning is really difficult but enjoyable especially when you’re with someone you can share the difficulties with; (2) Positivity is a must and perseverance is a virtue when facing Philippine immigration officers but nothing beats preparedness in front of one; and (3) Blessings come to those who asks, so thanks to Jasper who made it possible for us to survive our first and second (yes he stayed with us until the next day) days in Kuala Lumpur.