LCCT and Fireflies

Let me first introduce the Cast of Characters:
Mom/Nini - birthday celebrant and financier
Me - daughter and roommate (together forever)
Joan, Shyla and Cindy - Mom's DsIL and my SsIL (walang takas kay MIL kasi adjoining rooms kami)
Tata - Mom's only sister but acts like her oldest child (spoiled just like me)
T.Jean and T.Cora - the Kaladkarins (defined as those who have no hubbies with children already grown up so kahit saan mo ayain, sasama with no hesitation and no hang-ups)

To continue....

Since the airfare and the accommodations were for Mom's account, we opted to take the Cebu Pacific red-eye flight to KL to save a little. The last time we were here, we landed at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The KLIA is a state of the art facility. You ride on a train to get from one end to the other. Cebu Pacific, on the other hand, lands at the LCCT (also known as the LOW COST Center Terminal). You should've seen my Mom's face when they let us go down a flight of stairs from the airplane, walk on the tarmac and enter the LCCT. Heehee. Ang image ni mader! We all had a laugh but c'mon! What did you expect after paying only P48,000 for 8 round trip tickets!



Anyway, whatever Mom saved on our tickets, she splurged on the accommodations. We stayed at the JW Marriott on Jalan Bukit Bintang. Even if we didn't arrive in style, at least we were living it up in KL! We arrived in the hotel at 2am. We spent most of the morning in bed and regrouped at 11am. First stop was the Lot 10 Shopping Mall to change our dollars. Since land transpo, food and shopping are for our account na, we had to be armed for any and all emergencies. One such emergency is the sale at Isetan and Mango. Kanya kanyang rack! The Mega Malaysian Sale sure lived up to its hype! First day palang, masakit na yung arms namin sa dami ng dala.




Our first meal of the day was at the Chiu Chou Restaurant in the Feast Village of the Starhill Gallery. We had eaten there before and we wanted the first time KL travellers to see for themselves what we were constantly raving about. In a previous post on Friendster, I mentioned that the Feast Village is a group of restaurants at the shopping area adjacent to our hotel. Yummy, yummy chinese food and their prices won't leave you with an empty pocket.


Shopping would have to take a backseat as we went on our first adventure!



Our regular driver Sherbert had driven to Penang right after dropping us off at the hotel so he no longer had the strength to drive for us in the afternoon. He sent Ali instead who was just as gracious as Sherbert although severely lacking in navigational skills. What was supposed to be a one hour ride to the 'monkey farm' turned out to be a three hour nightmare on the road. Gawd! We initially refused to go to the 'monkey farm' (who the hell would want to go to a monkey farm!) but Ali insisted since we needed to waste time before heading to the firefly resort. The farm turned out to be a sanctuary and the highlight of that adventure was when a monkey so viciously grabbed a bag of fish crackers from the hands of Tata Ruby, ran and savored his loot atop the wire fence. Tata was horrified! But after we had all gotten over the initial shock, we were all laughing hysterically at Tata's experience! We didn't catch that bit of action on film but T.Jean and Shyla's monkey encounter was well documented!


After our close encounters of the third kind, Ali brought us to dinner at the Restoran River Selangor. Yummy, yummy food but very, very murachi (term coined by T.Cora). You're not supposed to forget your diet when you're on vacation but that's precisely what we all did! I guess that's what extended hours on the road can do to you!

Our nightcap would be at the Kuantan Kulung Fireflies Resort. It is world reknowned as one of the largest colonies of twinkling fireflies on mangrove trees. In order to enjoy this experience, you must sit in total silence aboard a boat and no flash photography is allowed. At first, we were all making jokes about how intricate the christmas lights were! Heehee. Sabi namin, ang hirap ilagay niyan ha! But upon closer scrutiny, there were hundreds and thousands of fireflies all twinkling simultaneously on the trees.

It was beautiful! But the beauty of the fireflies will not sustain you for very long. The attack of the buzzing mosquitos in our ears was enough to end our supposed 30 minute boat ride after just a few minutes.

Well, at least we can say we had been there and done that! After what seemed like a hundred mosquitos biting at us, we were now back at our lovely hotel for some much needed rest. It took Ali just one hour to get us back to the city. After our post-game analysis which lasted until 2am, we finally fell asleep eager to take on Day 2 of our Mega Malaysian Sale este Adventure.