🇲🇾 MALAYSIA • KLIA2 to KL Sentral by Bus: My First Land Travel Outside PH

I was showing physical awestruck signs overtly while inside the bus because I was seeing different races. There were Malays, Indians, Chinese, black and white men. This country is so multicultural! This was my first bus ride in Malaysia!

[Peninsular Malaysia, West Malaysia, Malaysia]

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I looked for my way out of this airport terminal. Although heaps of happenings and paranoia have played with me the first few hours, I'm not yet that desperate to move out from this airport but I have to move quick because it's getting late (blame my delayed flight that ruined my detailed minute-to-minute itinerary that requires time obsession). Actually, I was looking for the terminal of SkyBus—the one I learned from the travel forums like Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor.

At the Counter and the Sign Language

After withdrawing ringgits from the ATM, I went back to the ticket counter I noticed a while back. I asked the girl inside the counter who was wearing a headscarf if the bus ticket I was going to buy could bring me to KL Sentral and she answered me affirmatively. "Yes" - with Malaysian accent.

I asked how much is the ticket. She answered, "&#@#@^*&#^!"

I said, "What? Come again, please?"

She replied. "&&**(^#@&^"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Can you say it again, please?"

I think the girl was getting annoyed with me. She started to speak very slow emphasizing every syllable. "Uhh - luhh - vuhhnh - ringgits." I still didn't get it at first until she did a sign language. She put her two forefingers together and I finally got it.

"Uh! It's eleven (11) ringgits!" I happily squealed.

'Yes!." She happily replied [that I finally understood her out-of-this-world accent] then I gave her 50 ringgits. Of course, I waited for the change. So this is it. I paid eleven ringgits (around 130 Philippine pesos) for this more than an hour travel to KL Sentral from Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 where was. This was my first ever person to person business transaction in Malaysia.

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This was the second ticket issued to me from my second Aerobus ride.

The bus where I was going to board was SkyBus. At first, there was confusion because my ticket says "AeroBus" which is different from SkyBus. I panicked because the ticket I got was a bus that would leave 05:40 PM. I didn't want to spend more time figuring out where to find that bus. I spent about 10 minutes personally examining all the buses from point to point but there's nowhere I could find this SkyBus. The time was 05:30 PM. Finally, I saw someone from the couch crew and asked if Aerobus and Skybus were the same. He answered me "yes" then he took my ticket and tore it. Viola! I'm boarding! This would be my first land travel in Malaysia and the first outside my country Philippines.

Inside the Bus and the False Feeling of Discrimination and the Time Zones

Inside the bus, no one seemed interested to sit beside me. I got upset because I felt like I was discriminated in another country. I was thinking this because I've read several articles about discrimination in Malaysia. I am not sure though if they knew I'm a Filipino but many have told me that I look like an Indian or a Thai (sometimes I'm Nepalese, ridiculous). I know I also look like a Malay though but never Chinese. At least my appearance is kinda universal here in South East Asia and it can cross cultural barriers. Anyway, after a few minutes, an old Chinese man came to sit beside me when there's no longer space left inside the bus. My feeling of being discriminated is I think not true in reality. Blame these heaps of articles I read lambasting the government for favoring Malays and discriminating Indians, sometimes Chinese. They are giving me a not-so-good impression about Malaysia. I believe I'm not discriminated. I was just carried away by the media news hype about discrimination. If ever true, these wouldn't stop me from exploring this beautiful country.

I was showing physical awestruck signs overtly while inside the bus because I was seeing different races. There are Malays, Indians, Chinese, black and white men. This country is so multicultural! This is my first bus ride in Malaysia!

The bus started to run and I spent my remaining energy seeing the view along the road for a few minutes. I was able to sleep in the bus until we reached a point where I saw a motorcycle lane. I was thrilled because of my love in driving motorbikes and this would be very helpful for me whenever I'll plan to explore Malaysia using a motorbike.

I managed to sleep inside the comfortable bus and I looked at my watch, It's already 7 PM. We were already more than an hour inside this bus. Based on my research, this travel would only take approximately 40 minutes but this was the reality. I was traveling within the bounds of rush hour and after more than an hour, I was not yet in KL Sentral. My time-obsessed itinerary became out of tune.

At first, I didn't believe it's 7 PM because the sun is still up there and the sky looks like afternoon-ish only to find out later that Malaysia and ▼ PHILIPPINES belong to the same time zone so I made my own theory. Geographically, the Philippines is closer to the Pacific (the east side of the planet) so even if Peninsular Malaysia and the Philippines belong to the same time zone, the sun will still rise first in the Philippines. So for example, if the sun appears in the Philippines at 6 AM, in Malaysia it's still dark. Well this is not a serious issue anyway. I am not just accustomed of the possibility and reality that I can get sun burn in Malaysia while seeing my watch that it's already 6 PM (already evening in the Philippines). Unbelievably real.

Reaching KL Sentral

When I woke up, I was already in the midst of traffic jam (this is more manageable than ▼ METRO MANILA though, back-off Manila).

[SEPANG] ► MOTORCYCLE LANE IN SEPANG, SELANGOR STATE

I was consistently looking outside from the bus window to spot for the first time the ultra famous and iconic Petronas Twin Towers I learned when I was in Grade 4. I didn't learn this in school though. I learned it from the trivia section printed on the world map I used to study back then and that time, this building was still the tallest building in the world (Taipei 101 stole the crown, then these super-rich Arabs didn't know where and how to spend—or maybe how to waste—their surplus wealth. Klinggg! The Burj Dubai!). Anyway, I didn't see the Petronas Towers—one of my childhood fantasies—that time around. Accepted.

It was getting dark (well not too dark) and I started to see bulbs and lamps lighting up the houses and buildings and neon lights for the streets. We reached a part where I saw a vibrant night scene! There were lots of Indian restaurants, bazaars and business establishments with Indian labels. Uh! I had goosebumps because I am fascinated with new cultural encounters like this not to mention that India is my dream destination. Sadly I couldn't alight here. The bus slowed down in this area because of the crowd and the traffic jam so I had few minutes of visual feast (I later learned that that was KL's Little India).

[KUALA LUMPUR] ► LITTLE INDIA

I reached KL Sentral. It looked like a mall. After alighting from the bus, I looked for my way to the monorail station. This was already the big city scene I'm not accustomed with. Everywhere was concrete structure and it was my first time to ride a train alone in my life.

This is ridiculous but I've only tried to ride the LRT in Manila twice but with my friends—and they did all the process. Sorry, this may sound very easy for train commuters but it's ignorance for me. I was so nervous that time to ride a train by myself and I didn't know what to expect. I was relatively afraid of squeezing in the crowd while commuting in a train station because I only did this in my life in the scale of never to rare.

[KUALA LUMPUR] ► KL SENTRAL BUS STOP

I can explain to you the pathophysiology of AIDS, lecture about Illuminati's influence in pop music for hours, recite chronologically all the books of the Old and New testaments of the Bible or recite all the provinces of the Philippines with their capitals but dealing with big city life is my waterloo because as I have always said, I never lived in big cities and I don't know yet how to live and roam in big cities. My probinsiyano ignorance prevailed the moment I entered a big city of another country outside my comfort zone.

Now that I was already in KL Sentral right in the heart of ▼ #KUALALUMPUR, what were the things I learned and discovered for the first time here? Did I find the train station? Did I get lost? Did I survive? The real adventure starts now. Welcome to Malaysia! | to be continued... |

CHAPTER 01CHAPTER 02

CHAPTER 01 SUMMARY: ▼ Five (5) Tourist Stops (Not Spots) to Spice Your DIY Itinerary Below 24 Hours in KL
▼
If you loaded this page expecting for tourist attractions to see in less than 24 hours in Kuala Lumpur, I'm sorry to disappoint you but this is not a story of tourist spots but tourist stops. Yeah, stop here, stop there, stop everywhere.



✈ EPISODE 01: ▼ Flying from Metro Manila to Kuala Lumpur with Drama in Between
▼
I was shaking, quite speechless for outspoken words but the voice within me is speaking too much that it's so hard to handle...



✈ EPISODE 02: ▼ Travel Drama in Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2)
▼
My anxiety as a first-timer almost escalated to panic level. So there's no such thing as overacting because sticking to reality is the name of the game here.



✈ EPISODE 03: ► KLIA2 to KL Sentral by Bus: My First Land Travel Outside PH

✈ EPISODE 04: ▼ Reaching KL Sentral and How I Acted Dumb Stupid
▼
You may not believe this but I felt so ignorant about this. There's no train station in our province so encountering a self-service machine like this in actual setting is new to me.



✈ EPISODE 05: ▼ KL Sentral to Bukit Bintang: My First Train Ride Outside PH
▼
The monorail runs overground. I saw the city of Kuala Lumpur in a general perspective up close—the modern skyline, the lush parks, the mosques, the busy roads and the residential areas. I enjoyed it.



✈ EPISODE 06: ▼ Lorong 1/77a: of Endings and First Times
▼
This street was where I ended my first day in Malaysia but it served as the rendezvous of my many first-time experiences and encounters so it meant so much for me.

Coming Soon!

BLOGSERYE 03 SUMMARY: ▼ MALAYSIA-THAILAND BACKPACKING + MOTORBIKE RIDING FOR THE FIRST TIME OUTSIDE PH
▼
As a millennial, this is not conforming to the 'trend'—doing it because your friend do it. For me traveling is a form of continuous education. No masteral and doctoral degree could ever teach you the way traveling does.

Map Showing the Location of #Peninsular Malaysia

► FOOTNOTES, DISCLAIMERS, ACKNOWLEDGMENT, ETC

[1] The above story is the Episode 03 of Blogserye 3.

[2] This post was filed under the category "En Route Stories." See more posts related to this below.

[3] The maps I used on this post are maps.google.com.

[4] The insights, condition and name of places or properties I mentioned here are based on the facts and situation on the day of my visit. Take note that you may have a different experience when you try or see the properties or places mentioned here. Names of places and properties may also change by time so it's not my responsibility to update all the information on this blog because once published, I already consider it an archive and I won't update my narratives because I want them to become my references of what have happened in the past. I'm very particular of the dates because I want my amazing readers to understand that I am writing stories based on my perspective and insights on the day of my visit. You can see dates almost everywhere on this blog. Exempted from this rule are my travel guide posts that need to be updated.

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EDMAR GUQUIB y DEL CASTILLO

Born and Raised in Vigan, Philippines. Hardcore Ilocano-Cordilleran. Professional Nurse on Weekdays. Coffee Addict. Travel Blogger in Between. For collaboration or partnership, email your business proposal at admin@edmaration.com.

[Malaysia] [Peninsular Malaysia] All Asia En Route FIRST TIME STORIES Indochina Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia South East Asia West Malaysia