Our trip to Malaysia comprises of not only touring Kuala Lumpur but also a day trip to Ipoh. We checked out early from our lodging, Dorsett Kuala Lumpur, and set off for a three-hour trip to Ipoh. There are actually a lot of day trips you can do to nearby cities from KL, the most popular of which is to Melaka. And since we’ve been to the capital numerous times, we’ve been asking ourselves why we haven’t thought of going to Ipoh before.

AN OLD SHOPHOUSE ALONG CONCUBINE LANE IN IPOH

Taking advantage of Cebu Pacific’s daily evening flights from Manila to Kuala Lumpur, it was one way of making the most out of our weekend in Malaysia.

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Kuala Lumpur, being a hub for flights around South East Asia, is one of the most visited cities for travelers. Most drop by the city on a day trip, some, like us, spends a couple of nights before pushing off to their destinations. We love Kuala Lumpur—the sights are accessible, the city is safe, there’s a lot of shopping options, and the food is something we look forward to every single time.

DOING A ONE-DAY KUALA LUMPUR ITINERARY

And it was no different as we flew in to KL this time around. We took advantage of Cebu Pacific’s daily evening flight from Manila, departing Friday night and arriving in KL just in time for the weekend. It’s nice that we can actually sleep and rest first—booking rooms at Dorsett Kuala Lumpur—before going out for a full day KL city tour the next day.

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Finding nothing that really interests us at Surfers Paradise, we decided on booking a day trip to the nearby city of Brisbane. It was just an hour away and booking a tour was easy and affordable enough via Klook. We simply fired up the app on our phone, checked out the available tours, decided on the Grand Brisbane Tour, and was whisked off to Brisbane with no fuss.

►BOOK TOURS IN BRISBANE

 

A van was supposed to pick us up right in front of our hotel, but the tour company affiliated with Klook requested that we rendezvous on another hotel about five minutes by foot from where we were. It was no biggie so off we went to the hotel on the morning of our second to the last day in Australia.

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THE SPACIOUS MINI-BUS WE USED TO TOUR BRISBANE

A chirpy fellow greeted us and we were soon zooming off across the wide highways of Gold Coast. The guy was quite impressive, shuffling between English and Japanese—for the benefit of our Japanese companions—as we passed points of interests en route to Brisbane. We were dropped at bus depot, then transferred to a larger van—or rather a mini-bus—picking up a few more tour participants before the tour proper commenced.

►FIND THE CHEAPEST FLIGHT TO BRISBANE

The Indian Ocean slammed the banks of Colombo’s Galle Face Beach with unrelenting abandon, the wind carrying it with brute force, spraying us with a fine salty mist. Standing on the elevated brick promenade, we watched the frothing waters, the locals seemingly oblivious to its never ending wrath, walking along the edge of the concrete shoreline as if it was a sunny Sunday morning at the park.

ONE OF THE NUMEROUS CLOCK TOWERS IN COLOMBO

It was our first time in Sri Lanka. And after being picked up at the airport by our tour car from JNW Lanka Tours and driving for almost an hour through its highways, zigging and zagging into the city, dodging numerous trishaws (tuktuks) along the way, we finally arrived in Colombo, the country’s capital city.

I’m holding five Starbucks mugs on two hands and my credit card is not freakin’ working. ”Can you try again?” I asked politely as I start to lose hope of bringing these souvenirs back home. ”It doesn’t work. Next!” We were at Beijing Road, the shopping district in Guangzhou and it was a Sunday. And apparently, Sundays here mean that the forex shops are closed. And I have zero Yuan on my wallet. And my credit card just wasn’t working. And this cannot be happening.

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