Last minute planning happens a lot these days, and frankly we didn’t plan for this one. It was definitely an impromptu decision to getaway to Kuala Lumpur for the 9th Aug National Day long weekend. For me, it was just a mini getaway, and really didn’t care if we did anything or not. A few days prior to the getaway, we just logged on to bus ticketing site, and booked 3 x tickets and off we went to KL!
As it wasn’t meant to be a well planned break, we spent most of the 4 days just visiting various shopping centres. The one thing that did come to mind, was were suppose to come here for cheap durian given it was all over the news that Mao Shan Wan durian were cheapest ever on record. We seemed to be too late though, because it certainly wasn’t that cheap any more by the time we arrived. Nevertheless, we did explore a few places worth calling out namely..
Gold Coast Morib Water Theme Park
The name itself was pretty impressive. The pictures looked pretty big and grand too! The reviews we found on the Internet says the complete opposite. So the expectations were already set quite low. The REAL thing.. well.. let’s just say I wouldn’t call it a water theme park at all. It’s almost like a neighbourhood playground, needing quite a bit of refurbishment!
We did arrive far too late during the day though, too close to closing time (due to incorrect research as we thought they were open until late night). So we only spent about 45 minutes in the pool until closing time. It was actually enough though, as it wasn’t that big at all. It was enough to put a smile on Ethan’s face. It’s probably the first time I recall him insisting climbing up to ride down the slide by himself without me.
Pulau Ketam
This one is a bit of a surprise for me. It would have never occurred to me to visit this place coming to KL. But I would say, it is well worth the 1 day trip. It’s almost a mini getaway from a getaway! To begin with, it’s relatively accessible from KL, involving about 40 mins drive to the Port Klang ferry terminal, followed by about 45 minutes ferry ride to the island itself. Ethan absolutely loved the ferry ride itself.. loving the “wind in the face” feel.
The word “Ketam” apparently means “crab” in Malay so it translates to “Crab Island”. I don’t believe they meant the crabs of the larger kind that end up in restaurants for human consumption, but more the tiny ones that hang around muddy areas. We certainly didn’t have any crab for lunch at all that day 🙂 It’s a fishing village for sure, and a low lying island, which meant that all the housing are built on top of stilts.
It’s similar to Pulau Ubin near Singapore, except it’s stilt housing on a much larger scale. In fact there’s extensive pathways all over the island, and is big enough to justify an electric bike for lazy people like us
Oh.. just a side note.. for the shared bike operator out there. You might want to come this island if you’re wondering where your bikes went..
The main ‘market’.. if you call it one, is near the ferry terminal and probably the busiest part of the island. The bike ride only lasted an hour for us, and the rest was done on foot..
It’s definitely a lively community complete with a school, community hall, market districts, temple etc etc.. All in all, we probably only spent about 3 hours on the island itself including having lunch there. I certainly enjoyed it, and would probably consider staying overnight if I ever come here again!
Shopping Mall Hopping
Apart from the two above, we checked out the usual shopping malls that we go to just about every time we come to KL. The one worth mentioning is Sunway Velocity shopping centre which is relatively new shopping centre in KL. The concept of an integrated shopping mall, home and office together is the trend of recent times. The shopping mall is of a pretty decent size as well keeping everyone happy. Arguably the discovery of the day for Ethan was this little car ride on of the floor, for RM10 (about SG$3.00) which gets him 10 mins riding time.
I don’t think I’ve seen him so happily going round and round in circles (perhaps because most kids in other cars looked so miserable like they hate it). He can actually control the direction of the car much better I’ve seen him done in the past. He was definitely picky about which car he wanted to ride though.. and will only accept the white Audi convertible (pictured). Except… the battery died by the 3rd time he went on it, and he had to drive a different one. It was all downhill after that, with him looking just as miserable as other kids as he simply did not want any other car except the white Audi! 🙂
Anyway, before we knew it.. it was already time to leave. It was a short and sweet trip for sure, but a good one in my mind. Everytime we asked Ethan if he wanted to stay in Malaysia or Singapore, he would almost always say “Malaysia”! Not sure if he meant that. But then again, he probably said it because he just didn’t want to go to school! For now.. it’s “goodbye” to his grandpa and grandma!
