Surprisingly, Lim Hwee and I managed to catch sleep on the bus. Zi Kai and Jing Kai were kept awake by the loud roar of the bus engine and they barely caught any rest. I knew the bus was going incredibly fast. The driver was speeding. When the bus roared off the Lebuhraya Utara Selatan into KL, I could feel the pressure on the windows and I estimated we were going as fast as 160km/h. We passed cars in a blink of an eye and the rear brakes made an annoying screech every time the driver applied pressure.
We arrived in KL at around 4am. Breakfast was at the usual prata shop and closer to the earthly hour, we started combing Chinatown for accommodation. Wheeler's Lodge was full hence we had to go for slightly more expensive hotels. In the end, we stayed at Hotel Excel Inn (the same hotel Bro and I had stayed during our KL cycling expedition last year). Facilities were decent, there was even a water cooler, just that the water tended to turn milky.
We caught a few hours of rest before heading out for some shopping. We visited Central Market before heading back to the McDonald's at Chinatown for lunch. Along Jalan Tun HS Lee, we stumbled on a wholesale shop retailing snacks and we took the opportunity to buy some home. McDonald's was great (and very value for money too compared to Singapore prices), especially since we had been away from "civilisation" for some time.
In the afternoon, we checked out shopping malls in the Bukit Bintang area, visited the Giant hypermarket at Sungei Wang Plaza, then headed to Berjaya Times Square for dinner. That was when we encountered our second misadventure.
We talked to a waiter outside a restaurant and decided that the menu was not for us. We wanted to check out other places. As I stepped back to join the other, I bumped into this young man who looked rather aggressive but I just muttered an apology and left.
A couple of minutes later, somehow Lim Hwee got stopped by this Chinese man who wanted to know where we were from. He said he was checking something. Immediately, I said we were Johoreans. The young man whom I had bumped into earlier joined us and I noticed a couple of others lurking around. The young man appeared to be the leader. They started saying they wanted to make things clear. Apparently, they had beaten someone earlier in the day by mistake and they wanted to find the correct person. I was getting irritated especially when they wanted us to follow them to a restaurant to make things clear.
Anyway, we complied. In the restaurant, we occupied a wall seat and they pulled a chair over for the leader. Fortunately, we did not make the tactical mistake of occupying the wall seat two on each side. If we had done that, they could have boxed us in and we would be on losing ground. The questioning started and we basically called a bluff. Haha! I loved Zi Kai's performance in smoking them out. We led them to believe that we were from Skudai and grew up together in Skudai. We were also under-performers in school and were unemployed. =P
I couldn't help but feel very irritated and threatened when they made their threats. Someone had beaten their boss' son and stolen a briefcase full of counterfeit credit cards. They were not going to let the bugger off. At that moment, I was pondering whether to take the young leader out but since they had not touched us yet, it would be unwise for us to commit. I could feel people in the restaurant watching us. They were probably too afraid to do anything anyway.
It was great that the misunderstanding was cleared and we got away without getting into an altercation of any sort. We celebrated Jing Kai's birthday at Kenny Rogers' and surprised him with a chocolate fudge cake. I hope he had a very memorable birthday!
Total expenses over 18 days: S$535
Participants: LSH, Zi Kai, Jing Kai, Lim Hwee
We arrived in KL at around 4am. Breakfast was at the usual prata shop and closer to the earthly hour, we started combing Chinatown for accommodation. Wheeler's Lodge was full hence we had to go for slightly more expensive hotels. In the end, we stayed at Hotel Excel Inn (the same hotel Bro and I had stayed during our KL cycling expedition last year). Facilities were decent, there was even a water cooler, just that the water tended to turn milky.
We caught a few hours of rest before heading out for some shopping. We visited Central Market before heading back to the McDonald's at Chinatown for lunch. Along Jalan Tun HS Lee, we stumbled on a wholesale shop retailing snacks and we took the opportunity to buy some home. McDonald's was great (and very value for money too compared to Singapore prices), especially since we had been away from "civilisation" for some time.
In the afternoon, we checked out shopping malls in the Bukit Bintang area, visited the Giant hypermarket at Sungei Wang Plaza, then headed to Berjaya Times Square for dinner. That was when we encountered our second misadventure.
We talked to a waiter outside a restaurant and decided that the menu was not for us. We wanted to check out other places. As I stepped back to join the other, I bumped into this young man who looked rather aggressive but I just muttered an apology and left.
A couple of minutes later, somehow Lim Hwee got stopped by this Chinese man who wanted to know where we were from. He said he was checking something. Immediately, I said we were Johoreans. The young man whom I had bumped into earlier joined us and I noticed a couple of others lurking around. The young man appeared to be the leader. They started saying they wanted to make things clear. Apparently, they had beaten someone earlier in the day by mistake and they wanted to find the correct person. I was getting irritated especially when they wanted us to follow them to a restaurant to make things clear.
Anyway, we complied. In the restaurant, we occupied a wall seat and they pulled a chair over for the leader. Fortunately, we did not make the tactical mistake of occupying the wall seat two on each side. If we had done that, they could have boxed us in and we would be on losing ground. The questioning started and we basically called a bluff. Haha! I loved Zi Kai's performance in smoking them out. We led them to believe that we were from Skudai and grew up together in Skudai. We were also under-performers in school and were unemployed. =P
I couldn't help but feel very irritated and threatened when they made their threats. Someone had beaten their boss' son and stolen a briefcase full of counterfeit credit cards. They were not going to let the bugger off. At that moment, I was pondering whether to take the young leader out but since they had not touched us yet, it would be unwise for us to commit. I could feel people in the restaurant watching us. They were probably too afraid to do anything anyway.
It was great that the misunderstanding was cleared and we got away without getting into an altercation of any sort. We celebrated Jing Kai's birthday at Kenny Rogers' and surprised him with a chocolate fudge cake. I hope he had a very memorable birthday!
Total expenses over 18 days: S$535
Participants: LSH, Zi Kai, Jing Kai, Lim Hwee
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