Six Must Visit Places along New MRT Line in Kuala Lumpur

New Mass Rapid Transit System from Kajang to Sungai Buloh was opened on 17 July 2017. We took a ride on the new transit system middle of August. We would like to highlight 6 interesting places along the MRT line for both local and international visitors- Medan Sate Kajang at Stadium Kajang Station, Central Market and Petaling Street at Pasar Seni Station, National Museum at Museum Negara Station, Bukit Bintang Shopping hub and Alor Road Food street at Bukit Bintang Station. We can visit all these places in one or two days.

1. Medan Sate Haji Samuri, Stadium Kajang Station 

Kajang Satay, or Sate Kajang is famous, and deems to be the best in Malaysia. Want to take a bite on the original Kajang Satay? Then Medan Sate Kajang Haji Samuri is the place for you! The location- second last station before Kajang Terminal, if you are travelling from Kuala Lumpur. 

Medan Sate Kajang Haji Samuri is located around 100 meters away from the station (on the right side of the stadium, with a big yellow signage). The surrounding area used to be the busiest area in Kajang and finding a parking space was a big headache. Now, not anymore. With MRT, we can eat Kajang Satay hassle free. 

Medan Sate Kajang Haji Samuri offers several types of satay, such as chicken, beef, fish, mutton, and chicken liver. Chicken, beef, and fish are our favorite (upper left). The satay eatery is big (upper right). Air conditioned hall is provided without extra charge. There are some antiques displayed in the air conditioned room, including old irons, utensils, pottery, music instruments, and historical photo replicas.

2. Bukit Bintang Shopping Hub, Bukit Bintang Station

Bukit Bintang is a shopping heaven. It is the largest and busiest shopping hub in Kuala Lumpur area. Bukit Bintang Station has several exits, linking it to Pavilion KL, Fahrenheit 88, Sungei Wang Plaza, Starhill Gallery, Lot 10, Berjaya Time Square and several other shopping malls. Shopping is not our favorite, but we do visit Bukit Bintang once in a while. 

If you are fancy about luxury products, Starhill Gallery and Pavilion KL are the places for you. If you are a strong supporter of "the cheaper the better", then you can go to Sungei Wang, Fahrenheit 88, and Berjaya Time Square. You can find many nice eateries in Lot 10 and Pavilion KL.

The big cube-shaped digital screen in front of Lot 10 is an icon of Bukit Bintang (upper left). Fahrenheit 88 (upper right), Starhill Gallery (lower right), and Pavilion KL are located a few steps away from each other.

Mall hooping can easily take a whole day, or even two.

3. Jalan Alor (Alor Road), Bukit Bintang Station

Jalan Alor is quiet during daytime and turns into a busy food street in the evening. Restaurants and hawkers start their business around 5 - 6 pm till midnight, serving mostly local Chinese food. Limited Vietnamese, Thai, and Cambodian food are available as well. 

Some special Malaysian food can be found there, such as bat kut teh (pork rib with Chinese herbal soup), satay, Hainan chicken rice, fried oyster omelette, char siew pork, Hokkien fried noodle, and, a lot of durian (a bit expensive though, according to season). The overall taste of the food, above average.

If you don't really like the hot and sweaty weather in Malaysia, then you can opt for the air-conditioned restaurants. MRT Bukit Bintang Station Exit A is right beside Jalan Alor.  

5:30 pm, people start gathering at Jalan Alor. The street is closed to traffic. Somehow, there might be one or two cars coming in occasionally.

Customers can choose to sit outside of the restaurants, right on the road. However, for us, we always opt to sit inside air-conditioned room.

Fried chicken drumette or more popularly referred as boxing chicken in Malaysia (upper left), fried oyster omelette (upper right), grilled fish (lower right), and fried durian are some food that we like in Jalan Alor.

4. Central Market, Pasar Seni Station

Pasar Seni Station is located at the convergent point of two rivers- Klang River and Gombak River. Attractions nearby- Central Market and Petaling Street. Central Market was built by Chinese Capitan (leader) Yap Ah Loy in 1883. It served as wet market for the locals until it was transformed into local handicraft and art center in 1986. This award winning market is one of the most visited place in Kuala Lumpur. We strolled in Central Market for almost one hour before proceeding to Petaling Street. 

 The outlook of the market is well-conserved. Take a look at these old photos of Central Market.

Fully air conditioned building makes Central Market a cozy shopping mall for visitors. The shops were nicely decorated, selling various types of local and international products. 

Chinese-themed walkway in Central Market.

We could find some exquisite local products, including Luwak Coffee (upper left), Chinese artworks (upper right), wood crafts (lower right), and Malaysian batik. Other souvenirs such as fridge magnets, key chains, simple wood and bronze sculptures, t-shirt, rings, wrist bands, and snacks were available as well. 

5. Petaling Street, Pasar Seni Station

Petaling Street is no doubt another big tourist attraction in Kuala Lumpur. It is located around 150 meters from Central Market. Many tourism websites referred Petaling Street as China Town. Well, we don't really agree with that, as most of the shops there are neither owned nor currently operated by Chinese. Nevertheless, it is still a big tourist magnet, selling cheap items like souvenirs, watches, clothes, electronic gadgets, bags, and spectacles. Many of these items carries famous brands. Are these genuine products? That is the question that we need to answer with our wisdom. 

We can find some nice food at Petaling Street. Kim Lian Kee Restaurant provides special char-cook food. The restaurant was painted with catchy red colour, located at the junction in the middle of Petaling Street (upper left). The restaurant is nicely decorated (upper right). We took Hokkien fried noodle and roasted pork at the restaurant. The taste was not excellent, but good enough for us to come back again in future.

We would like to recommend some of the very old stalls at Petaling Street. First one is Kim Soya Bean (upper left), selling soy milk and douhua (soybean pudding) (upper left). The soy milk tasted nice and concentrated. The douhua was not fine and smooth enough, but tasty (upper right). Next, Air Mata Kucing (lower right). The drink was made by the mixture of long ngan fruit, winter melon, monk fruit, and sugar- a good thirst quencher at the middle of warm sunny day. The stall has been in operation since our first visit to Petaling Street more than 15 years ago. Last but not least, dried meat. Oloiya and Loong Kee are two old shops selling nice dried meat. We like Oloiya more, personally.

There are an Indian Temple- Sri Maha Mariamman and a Chinese Temple- Guan Di Temple nearby Pasar Seni Station. These temples are not very attractive for us. Nevertheless, you may consider visit them if you have never being to any of Chinese or Indian temple before.

6. National Museum, Muzium Negara Station

Another station for tourists- Muzium Negara or National Museum. Muzium Negara Station is connected to KL Central as well. National Museum is a good place for us the learn about the history of Malaysia through artifacts. We could walk to the museum from KL Central, but with the new MRT station, the museum is just steps away from the exit.

Our personal opinion- although National Museum is not the best museum in Malaysia, it is still a good one around greater Kuala Lumpur, which worth to spend one hour or two. 

Travelling with MRT is convenient, cheap, faster, and safer. With all together 31 stations along the line, the MRT connects towns around Kuala Lumpur to the cosmopolitan. As the MRT is designed mainly for the usage of the locals, many of the stations are built at the residential or local shopping  areas with low tourist interest (especially for international visitors). 

Nevertheless, with effective ticketing system, clean environment, high frequency of train (7 - 8 minutes interval), ample parking car park, feeder bus and taxi connections, and strategically designed walkways, the new MRT system will definitely increase the mobility of the people around greater Kuala Lumpur.

We started our trip from Kajang Terminal. We can buy the ticket from the counter (upper left) or via ticketing machines (upper right), or we can use "Touch & Go" card to pay at the auto gate (lower right). The platform was clean and the arrival of the train was clearly stated.

We found useful map in the station (upper left). These maps show the exits and the direction to the places of interest nearby. Some places of interest are connected to the stations by sky-bridge or covered walkway (upper right). Taxi station (lower right) and feeder bus stations are available for some stations.

A train can accommodate up to 1200 passengers. 

We can see the town and residential areas from the MRT.

Several MRT stations are connected to shopping malls by covered pedestrian walkway, including Taman Connought Station to Cheras Central Mall, Taman Mutiara Station to Leisure Mall, and Maluri Station to Velocity Mall. Bandar Utama Station is connected to One Utama Mall via feeder bus. These shopping malls are good places for locals to spend our boring afternoon. But if you have traveled thousand miles to Malaysia, we don't really recommend these shopping malls to you.

With new MRT line, we don't have to worry about traffic jam or parking problem anymore when we go for shopping. 

1-Utama Shopping Mall from the feeder bus station.

More information on stations, fare, ticketing, and travel information, please visit the official website of KL MRT. Ready to take a ride? Don't forget to wear comfortable shoes and bring along your umbrella. 

More about our experience in Kuala Lumpur:

[National Museum] [KL National Planetarium] [KL Bird Park] [Aquaria KLCC]

[All Our Destinations] 

Farewell Kuala Lumpur Low Cost Carrier Terminal (KL LCCT)

It was a place full with our memories. We lost our counting on how many time that we had actually visited KL LCCT. We can't even remember when was our first visit to the terminal. But for sure, we had used the terminal for our trips to Sibu and Kota Kinabalu for quite a number of times. Other places, Kuching, Bintulu, Penang, Kuala Terengganu, Bangkok, Bali, Siem Reap, Singapore, Phnom Penh, Hanoi, Yangoon, and many more. In fact, Some Story about Us is so closely knitted with this small terminal in the middle of South East Asia. 

Since the opening in 2006, the terminal had served as the "Air Asia terminal". Once Air Asia moves to new terminal at KLIA 2 on 9 May 2014, that's the time for air travellers like us to say bye-bye to the old terminal. We would like to share some photos that we took in KL LCCT with all of you. Phuket was the last destination for us from the terminal. Then, Sibu will be the first for us from KLIA 2.

The wall of the terminal was built mostly by metal. The entrance to the domestic flights was busy all the time.

The information counters. The check-in counters can be seen far at the middle of this photo, behind the information counter.

This is the waiting area for domestic arrival, stuffy and always filled with the smell of the smokes from vehicles.

The narrow walkway connecting the domestic arrival hall with other parts of the terminal. This walkway was always jammed with many people. We used to buy newspaper from the bookshop and read it in McDonald's while waiting for our flight.

The entrance to reach the international departure check-in counters was located on the left side of McDonald's restaurant.

The international departure hall (upper row). These photos were taken just before our flight to Phuket, Thailand. We took the photos of international arrival exits on our way back (lower row).

Hot & Roll was our favourite stall in the international departure hall. The food was tasty and cheap, good for breakfast and snack. This photo was taken in 2013.

Taste of Asia was famous with the exquisite and expensive local dishes (upper left), while Coffee Bean and Dunkin' Donuts served western food. Well, the eatery that we visited frequently- Chocolate. We visited Chocolate for the last time on our way to Phuket and took our change to bid farewell to the staff.

The budget taxi bay just outside of the arrival hall.

Well, our last trip from LCCT to ERL station. Interestingly, the bus company referred LCCT as Air Asia. Anyway, starting on our next trip, we don't have to use the bus service anymore. We can go to Putrajaya Central directly using the ERL service.

GOOD BYE KL LCCT. 

Want to read more about other attractions in Kuala Lumpur? Please visit:

[Aquaria KLCC] [KL Bird Park] [KL National Planetarium] [KL National Museum]
[Find out all Our Destinations here]

TravePhoto @ Malaysia Bird Parks

KL Bird Park is one of the must visit places in Kuala Lumpur. The open aviary concept of the bird park ensures close encounter between human being and the flipping cuties.

We have visited the bird park few times last year, and, for sure, we will visit the park again in future. With our Nikon P100 super zoom, the beauty of the birds escapes no more. We would like to bring to you some of our photos taken in the park. Hope you enjoy them!

These photos can be viewed at highest resolution on Ling Shing's flickr.

Special Notes:
-While keep the slideshow playing, keep your mouse out of the slideshow "screen" to see the "full-screen" photos.

Go back to Our TravePhoto page. Or read more about our experience in KL Bird Park at:

[KL Bird Park] [All Our Destination]

Aquaria KLCC

Second week of May 2011, Aquaria KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre), two of us, second time. The main purpose was not the aquaria, but to shoot some night scenery at KLCC. However, with 2 hours left before night fall, we decided to get something "fishy" at KLCC. The aquaria has retained its standard, well-maintained, friendly staff, and gave us same feeling in our heart- it is a must visit place in KL, just second to KL Bird Park. We spent about 2 hours in the aquaria.

Walkway at the concourse level of KLCC that leads to Aquaria KLCC (left). Illuminated directory at the entrance is vivid around the dark background.

Weekends, Aquaria KLCC is still as hot as its old time. Students with uniform, families with young and old, couples, and some lone riders. All of us were greeted by Piranha just after the entrance. Then, the DNA Zone where we can touch some of the water creatures, and the electric eel. The first zone ended with the exhibition of water rats and the otters.

The DNA Zone (on the bottom left of the photo) is the touch pool offers "first hand contact" with live starfish, bamboo shark, and other cute sea creatures. Far left is the entrance of the aquaria.

Piranha is the first species that we met in the aquaria. An ornamental skeleton might be a good way to illustrate the nature of that species (upper row). The giant eel that can release 700 volts of electricity and stuns a bull in no time (lower left). Betty with big fat water rats, which their size will definitely dwarf many cats. (lower right).

We entered the Jewels of the Jungle section with mostly insects specimens, lizards, arachnids, and several amphibians. This is the out-of-the-theme section that, in our opinion, not so interesting. At least, some of the creatures exhibited in that section were the last that we would expect to see in an aquaria. Along the jungle themed area, there were exhibits showing coatimundi and frog life cycle as well.

Don't get deceived by its look. That's the most dangerous turtle in the world- alligator snapping turtle (upper left). The smallest species of caiman- smooth-fronted caiman (upper right). Butterfly specimens are available in the jungle area.

Help, a coatimundi in an aquaria!!! Is it a refugee escaped from National Zoological Park or simply a part timer?

The visitors-packed-walkway across the Jewels of Jungle. If you turn back, you will find the coatimundi exhibit on your right.

Then, we moved one floor down by following a walkway that leads to a staircase beside a ground-to-ceiling aquarium. That's an amazing view, with fish swimming around a tree in the middle of the aquarium- with some illusion that the fish were flying. Another big aquarium exhibiting some giant sized freshwater fish from Amazon is located just after at the end of the staircase on the lower level.

Aquarium with the theme "Amazon Flooded Forest" exhibiting big fish like arapaima and red tail catfish from Amazon.

Our photo in front of several aquaria showcasing Malaysian Flooded Forest.

Malaysian Flooded Forest flanks the staircase connecting two levels of Aquaria KLCC.

The big aquarium with freshwater fish, which houses a legendary Tapah, the very indigenous species from Sarawak, marks the end of the freshwater section, and the starting point for the saltwater section. First, the fish available near the seaside is available in the aquarium themed "The Coast". Then, the highlight of the aquaria- 90 meters tunnel that runs right below an oceanarium. Ten feet long sand tiger sharks, 100 kg fantail ray (and still growing fatter), giant garoupas, several active sea turtles, with hundreds of other fish swimming freely around the tunnel is an amazing experience. We were so excited that we travelled the tunnel twice, again.

The scene in the middle of the oceonarium.

A garoupa for dinner? Nope, all the sand tiger sharks are well fed that show no aggression to other creatures (upper left), a shipwreak (lower left) and other scenes in the oceanarium.

This is really a scene where the little Mermaid will pop up behind the the rocks and say, "Gotcha!" Anyway, you can always replace "little Mermaid" with "Mr. Jaw".

Other sea creatures available including the seahorses, octopuses, jelly fish, etc. The last point of the aquaria- giant jaw, which is just a replica for our photo taking session.

"Nemo" the clown fish, sea horses, jelly fish and so on are available and scattered all around the aquaria.

Replica of the giant jaw is the last place for you to take photo.

Aquaria KLCC opens daily from 11am - 8pm (last admission at 7 pm), while 10:30am - 8pm on public holiday. The fee, RM35 and RM25 for adult and child with MyKad respectively. RM45 and RM35 are required for adult and child without MyKad respectively. There is a zone named Aquazone, designed for fish therapy. With the charge of RM38 for adult and RM22 for child, we feel that Aquazone offers a highly over-charged service.

To reach Aquaria KLCC is easy, for its location at the concourse level of the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC). A 10 minutes walk from Putra LRT KLCC Station, or Monorail Raja Chulan Station is really convenient (can be accessed through Suria KLCC). KL Hop On-Hop Off stop for Aquaria KLCC is at KLCC Garden Park stop. Driving there? The underground multi-storey carpark at Suria KLCC will take away all the pain in finding a carpark.

Before you depart, make sure that you are not too late for the feeding frenzy. The feeding time for the sharks (Monday, Wednesday and Saturday) and aquatheatre is at 3pm. The stream (freshwater area) is at 11:30am and 5pm, piranha tank is at 4pm, the deep forest, the coast, and the living reef at 5:30pm. Our advice, start your journey around 2pm will be just nice for you to catch most of the feeding frenzy around. Don't forget that the feeding frenzy for the sharks is only available on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. By the way, don't forget to bring some water as there is no vendor machine or stall selling food or water.

A food court is located at the entrance of Aquaria KLCC. With not much variety, we can always opt for more at Suria KLCC, with just five minutes walk from the aquaria. In case of visiting the aquaria early, you can spend the rest of your day in shopping Suria KLCC, or visit the tallest twin towers in the world- Petronas Twin Towers.

Aquaria KLCC is just one floor below the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (upper left), on our back is the Suria KLCC and Petronas Twin Tower. We took 10 minutes walk from the carpark of Suria KLCC to the aquaria. The food court at the concourse of KLCC was not impressive. We tried the bread with curry, the taste, far from being good. There is a Starbuck right at the entrance of the aquaria. Anyway, you can always opt for another one with better view and location.

Aquaria KLCC is really an excellent place to visit. Several nearby attractions that worth a visit is Petronas Twin Tower and KL Tower at Bukit Nanas. Petronas Twin Tower is just a hundred meters away from the aquaria (where you can access through the underground walkway), while you might need to take a taxi or other public transport to KL Tower.

For more information about Aquaria KLCC, please visit the Official Site of Aquaria KLCC, contact number 60323331888, email marketing@aquawalk.com.

Want to know more about other attractions in KL? Please visit:

[Aquaria KLCC] [KL Bird Park] [KL National Planetarium] [KL National Museum]
[Find out all Our Destinations here]

Kuala Lumpur National Planetarium

Kuala Lumpur National Planetarium was built in 1994. We went there once back in year 2000. What we can say, it is getting much better now! The planetarium cannot be considered as very attractive, but might serve as a touch and go point. At least, we gained information about the involvement of Malaysia in space programmes there. A full trip without watching planetarium shows, more or less one hour.

Stairs.... that's the price to pay before you can visit KL National Planetarium (left). The planetarium is complemented with an observatory tower, which can be reached through the lift inside the main building.

As we visited the planetarium in the middle of the day, we skipped all the outdoor Ancient Observatory Park. The exhibition galleries were a mix of everything. Anyway, we try to categorise them into the Solar System right after the entrance, the history of space exploration, the history of Malaysia space project, and the observatory tower.

This is the statue that welcomed us at the entrance of the planetarium. Who is he? Al-Khwarizimi, perhaps.

Your weight at different planets in the Solar System (upper left). The robots that mimic the vehicles for Mars exploratory (upper right). One of the robot is capable to take your picture. The composition of the stars (lower left) and photo gallery of the space from earth.

Viking engine used in Ariane 4 launcher (left), and our photo with replica of Soyuz Capsule for Soyuz spacecraft by Russian.

The exhibition shows the space science experiments done by the first Malaysian Angkasawan (astronout), Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar.

The lift to the observatory tower is not easy to notice from the main building. The way that leads to the lift is just between Red Planet (with robots) and Made of Stars. High above the rest, the tower promises great view over the Lake Garden and KL area. The binocular is provided free of charge during our visit (middle).

Our photo at the observatory tower, backgrounded with KL city center.

The planetarium opens daily from 9.30 am to 4.30 pm (except on Monday, Hari Raya Puasa and Hari Raya Haji). The admission for the gallery is RM1 per adult, while free for child under 12. If you wish to watch the planetarium shows (which is off on every Friday), the maximum fee is RM3 for adult and RM2 for child under 12.

We went there with our own car, ample of free parking space available. Anyway, the planetarium is about 20 minutes walking from KL Central Station. You can take taxi from KL Central as well. If you take KL Hop-On Hop-Off, the station is number 14 (share with KL Bird Park). For more information about KL National Planetarium, you can visit the Official website of the planetarium.

Our suggestion, do not visit the planetarium alone in a single trip. You can visit the attractions nearby, including National Museum (just 200 m away), KL Bird Park (approx. 400 m away), while the National Mosque, Merdeka Square, Sultan Abdul Samad Building, and Malayan Railway Station just 20 minutes away by foot.

For our sharing on the attractions nearby, please visit:

[KL Bird Park] [KL National Museum] [Aquaria KLCC]
[All Our Destinations]