Solo Traveling in Malaysia

April of 2019 was defined by my trip to Malaysia, which did not go completely as planned. Looking back, who would have thought that the highlight of my trip would be so different from what I expected?

First off, I wanted to be more considerate of my personal funds (save save save!) hence, what better way to do that than to book a cheaper-than-normal close-to-midnight flight. Sure, I might have to sleep for a few hours at the airport, but it's just for a few hours. That's not so bad, right?

HELL TO THE FUCKING NO.

Right after work, I went straight to NAIA Terminal 3 at around 4:00 PM, waited for my flight at 10:00 PM, arrived at KLIA 2 in Malaysia at 1:00 AM, and waited again for my Airbnb check-in at 8:00 AM. By this point, I've been up for more than 24 hours straight. 

The hard lesson to learn here was that I may have saved on the plane fare but I definitely lost out on time because I spent my first day just sleeping in so FUCK NO, I"M NEVER.DOING.THAT.AGAIN.

It was a good thing that my Airbnb host was super considerate. He let me check in early so from KLIA 2, I took a one-hour train ride via the KLIA Ekspress to get to KL Sentral, and from there, I took a Grab to my Airbnb place.

When I got to the place, I was amazed by how spacious it was. It was part of a 3-bedroom condo unit but had its own toilet and bathtub. For only around PHP 750 a night, it surprising to get an accommodation that big for that rate and it was even good for two already.

Since my Malaysia trip was only for five (5) days and I was traveling alone, I decided to just stay in Kuala Lumpur the whole time.

The first stop on my itinerary was to check out their National Museum (of course :D), followed by a visit to the famous KL Tower. There was nothing extraordinary about the different museums and exhibits that I checked out but their KL Tower was another story. 

As one of Malaysia's most iconic landmarks, the KL Tower aka Menara Kuala Lumpur, was a sight to behold at 421 meters high. It's the tallest telecommunications tower in Southeast Asia and the seventh tallest in the world. For a fee, anyone can visit the sky box and the observation deck on top and see Kuala Lumpur from a totally different and breathtaking perspective.

After my KL Tower visit, I dropped by KL Forest Eco Park, which was located right in the KL Tower compound. This was not in my plans but since there was no entrance fee, I decided to check it out. This was a nice unexpected stop for me.

Trees with heavy foliage shaded almost the whole area and made it an awesome and relaxing place to take a break from the heat. There was a wooden bridge all throughout that let's you go from one point of the park to the other, so you could see the area from different angles, as well as the KL Tower.

For my next stop, I dropped by Aquaria KLCC because it was pretty near. I've never been that fond of visiting aquariums but since it was really close, I decided to check it out as well. It was okay.

Right next to Aquaria KLCC was the KLCC park, where you can take pictures of another iconic Malaysian landmark - the Petronas Twin Towers. For the unfamiliar, this is the spot where people usually take pictures with the very familiar twin towers in the background.  

After Petronas Towers, I went to Perdana Botanical Garden. The area was really big and required a lot of walking but it was super nice and totally worth a visit. I didn't know what to expect of it, considering that the only other botanical garden I'm familiar with was the one in Singapore.

Walking around, it was nice to see that Perdana was very well-kept. There was a playground in the middle of the area and by this point of my travel, my cousin from Singapore had dropped by. We had fun trying out the swing (yeah, talk about being happy over such petty things hahaha) and couldn't care less that we probably looked silly.

On the other end of the garden was this very scenic and IG-perfect event venue right in the middle of the lake - it was awesome, very picturesque, and what I imagine would be a perfect fairytale wedding place.

After Perdana Garden, my cousin and I took a guided tour of Genting Highlands, Chin Swee Temple, and Batu Caves over the weekend.

Batu Caves, with it's imposing giant gold statue and stairs, had always been the one place that I really wanted to see when I first planned my trip to Malaysia. Indeed, Batu Caves was the highlight of my Malaysia trip but for a totally unexpected reason.

FYI, I'm seriously fucking scared shitless of inclined places. Add that to my very bad fear of heights and you'll get a totally panic-prone girl who could scream like crazy when presented with such dilemma. Of course, I try not to let those fears get in the way of me experiencing things - say, like climbing up and down the very steep 271 steps of Batu Caves.

But like the perfect comedy where I unwittingly became a part of the joke, a very cheeky monkey jumped on my backpack on my way down.

To give a clearer description of what happened, imagine me scared AF while going down the steps. I couldn't bear to let go of the railings because I believe I would fall if I do. At the same time, I wanted to take pictures because who knows when I could visit again, right? It was not the most ideal place to multi-task but I did anyway. I didn't have a choice.

Between my fears of being in such a steep area, having on to hold on to the railings for my dear life, and wanting to take pics of the moment, a very unexpected surprise happened in the form of a cheeky and somewhat greedy monkey jumping on my backpack.

I HONESTLY FREAKED OUT AND JUST SCREAMED AND SCREAMED. I was still at the top of the stairs, I had no idea why it jumped on me (I didn't have any food in my backpack), and I just stood there screaming with my eyes closed while holding on to the balustrade. I really thought the monkey would pull my hair or something and that got me really scared because I was in a steep spot and it was so easy to lose my balance.

Thankfully, the monkey just grabbed my sanitizer and jumped on to another unsuspecting victim. From the other side, my cousin was laughing her head off. I couldn't blame her. I would prolly be laughing myself it wasn't me. Heck, I was actually laughing after a while

Remembering the incident now, it was undeniably embarassing but it was also unforgettable and really funny. I had no regrets about it.

All in all, my Malaysia trip went really well. I definitely want to go back again and check out the other parts of the country like Malacca, Kota Kinabalu, Langkawi, and Penang Island.