It had been more than a year without us going
on a vacation and we knew that we needed one more than anything to rid
ourselves of the mundane office schedule. MakeMyTrip came to our
rescue..AGAIN...and we booked a 6N/7D trip to Kuala Lumpur and Bali starting
from the 25th March 2019. All our flights were of Air Asia and we really
appreciate that all its flights were right on schedule without any delay.
In the first three days, we visited Kuala
Lumpur (Malaysia). MAGNIFICIENT is the one word for the busy metropolis which
never sleeps. Obviously, the Twin towers and the KL tower were the highlight of
our trip in Kuala Lumpur. Observing the city from atop the towers was a delight
not to be missed. In
addition to the above, we visited the Kuala Lumpur City Gallery with the famous
I Love KL placed right outside the gallery. It is a tourist magnet and we
clicked a nice photo there. The gallery itself was really good and showcased
the history of the city and of Malaysia itself.
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| The Twin Towers |
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| KL Tower |
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| The KL City Gallery |
We also went for the half day city tour of
Kuala Lumpur in which we saw the War Memorial, Istana Negara (Royal Palace),
the textile museum and the twin towers. The war memorial commemorates the
myrtyrs of Malaysia and is a really impressive capital structure.
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| War Memorial |
The next day, we went for a day trip to
Genting Highlands. We first visited the famous cave temples (Batu caves) which was enroute to the highlands. The
temples in the Batu caves were the first cave temples we had seen in our lives
and we were very impressed with them. The tall Shiva statue in front of the 273
steps leading into the caves appeared to be guarding the temple gates.
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| The Magnanimous Shiva statue guarding the Batu caves |
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| Inside the Batu caves |
After taking His blessings, we set out for the
genting highlands. The cab dropped us at the Level 2 of the highlands and we
were asked to travel to the levels above using the Avana sky train. We bought
the tickets (9RM each) and after standing for about 15 minutes in the long sky
train line, our turn to enter the sky train arrived. We had never sat in a
cable car so long and we enjoyed some breathtaking views of the genting hills from
it. We got down at the level three first where we saw a majestic Chinese temple
and a Buddhist statue. The view all around the temple was splendid and the
light drizzle coupled by the fresh mountain air was a real respite from the hot weather in Kuala Lumpur. After that, we used the sky train
again to reach the genting highlands (at Level 4) where the train terminates into a Grand
genting mall which houses a sky casino (casino in the sky), Void (a one of a
kind VR based adventure gaming platform), a mini adventure park, Ripley's
gaming zones and of course a number of high street retail shops and eateries. The
whole place was so huge that we found ourselves out of time to explore it all.
We used the same sky train to get back to level 2 in the evening from where we
returned to our hotel in Kuala Lumpur after getting all exhausted from all the
hustle and bustle of the genting highlands.
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| The Chinese temple |
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| Inside the Genting Mall |
The next day we head out to Bali, the paradise
island of Asia. Bali was the exact opposite of Kuala Lumpur. The skyscrapers
were replaced with pure pristine beaches, the wide traffic free roads with
narrow busy streets and the large malls and squares by small decorated outlets
which were all packed with tourists nonetheless. The Kuta beech was adjoining
our hotel and we spent our first evening relaxing on the beech. The next
morning, we went for some adventure water sports on the beech which included
the flying fish, the banana boat and Jet ski. Of the above, we enjoyed the
flying fish the most. In the afternoon, we left for the tanah lot temple. It is
a must visit for anyone visiting Bali and the sunset at Tanah lot in one of the
best sunsets you will ever see. The rock temple stands atop a carved rock
projection which is surrounded by the ocean. We were at the temple till the
sunset and thoroughly enjoyed the visual treat before us. It was like the sun
and the ocean met at the gates of the sacred temple. That night, we ate at the
“Atithi” restaurant which is an Indian restaurant very near to the Adi Dharma
hotel in which we were staying. We really enjoyed the desi Indian taste after
so many days.
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| Waiting for the sunset at the Tanah Lot temple in Bali |
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| Us posing in front of the Tanah Lot temple |
The next day, we went for a full day
Ubud-Kintamani tour. The trip started with the famous Monkey forest sanctuary
which also happens to have an old temple within the sanctuary adjoining a small
stream. Seeing so many monkeys in the rustic forest setting amidst several rock
carvings and statues of tigers, dragons and other creatures was a nice
experience.
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| Ubud Monkey Forest |
Next, we visited the Ubud palace followed by
Mount Batur. The view of the Batur peak, which is an active volcano, amidst the
dark clouds surrounding its peak was amazing. As informed by our guide, it last
erupted in the 2000 and the signs of the dark lava from the eruption were all
over the place. The days trip ended with a visit to the beautiful Tegenungan waterfall on
the way back to Kuta.
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| Mount Batur, an Active Volcano |
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| Tegenungan Waterfalls |
With this, one of our most memorable trips
ended and we are returning with a truckload of memories and photos back with
us! I am writing this while on the Air Asia flight back to Delhi and it has
been a pleasure to recount the journey. With this vacation, the mundane 'office-home-office'
clock has been reset and I can already hear it ticking again. I cannot wait to
plan our next holiday to reset it again when the time comes. Signing off with a
big smile and happy travelling to all.
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