A 30-hour trip

There was an Oil Show at KL earlier this week. Originally, only my boss was attending it but as my colleague & I networked at a cocktail last week, industry acquaintances nudged us to attend. We thought it might be good to look-see, look-see. So we asked our boss if we could make a day trip there. Knowing there's no traveling budget, we didn't mind to do it the no-frill, cheapest of ways - that is to take the night coach. ($35 round trip) which was what we did. An ex-customer who has become a friend, offered his apartment for us to freshen up. We had breakfast together and met up with two other manufacturers and we all laughed and joked for a couple of hours over breakfast. My friend says to stay with him until the afternoons but we can't, we are there for work so we had to bid adieu and part ways.

 The trade exhibition was rowdy and rather packed on its second day. I met several trade acquaintances there.

 Accompanied a trade acquaintance for lunch at the Traders Hotel 

we have been doing business with his uncle but we now learned that his uncle & father are handling the family business over to him because they are old and retiring. 

 After the trade show ended, we went for dinner at Jalan Alok, where street food variety is aplenty.
Coincidentally, met another trade acquaintance (bulk handling equipment, cranes) so we had dinner together. 

 We also took the chance to savour some durians, well, just one small durian actually.
It was sweet and a little bitter. Nice. There were a couple of caucasians, they were deliberating whether to try durians, I had gestured to them to give it a 'go' but they backed out after contemplating. Durians to them are like pungent cheese to us, I guess.

After that, we headed to the bus stop and took the 11pm bus back to Singapore.

Batu Cave 一日游

 A few weeks back, my cousin- Andrew had invited me to visit him at his new business venture at Batu Cave (KL, Selangor, Malaysia), he had recently start-up a Durian Buffet business and is working hard at it since. 

As he had reminded me for a third time to visit him, I decided to go and show support.
He asked me to bring his sis but his mom (my Aunt Margaret) was much more keen in going there. 
And so, that was the beginning of our one-day adventure.

Took the budget plane- Tigerair there.
For me, it is a tad scary to be travelling in a small plane. The noise is unsettling.
Besides the first ten minutes after take-off, the rest of the time I was more-or-less more settled.
The transit time to LCCT (low cost carrier terminal) in KL from Singapore is only about 40-45 minutes. But of course the check-in time etc, are fixed (time) expense.

Nevertheless, I prefer to take a flight than being on a coach bus. About this point, many people would disagree with me (like my cousin's investor friends,,, they took Aeroline express coach and they swear it's better than the plane).

We tried to get a cab from outside the terminal but they do not take walk-ins passengers.
We had to book a cab from the counter. The fare there was RM93.70 although my cousin told me it could have been RM60. Anyway, for an hour's ride from LCCT to Batu Cave, I think RM100 will also be  reasonable.... 

 When we got there, a staff briefed us on the origins of various species of durians.

 Seeds that become flowers.

 I've learned that most Maoshan Wang durians have a "star" at their bottoms, while the D24s will show a round circle, the size of a 50 cents coin.
I like "Ang Her" (red prawn 红虾) durian most. They are bitter-sweet and mesh-soft.

 My Aunt Margaret.

 The facade of the shop.
and the view from the back of the shop (very near Batu Cave indeed)

 So many Facebook fans came

 Other tropical fruits like Mangosteen & Passionfruit (and Dragon fruit, Guava, etc) are included in the buffet.

 Since we had time till late evening, we decided to explore Batu Cave.
However, I was not prepared to climb the stairs. (Lazy bones)
But my Aunt Margaret,,,,, she inched closer, and closer.... and told me - "why don't we just climb 3 of the steps for heng heng" (luck). I was like,,,,,,,,,, errrr, okay,,,,,,,
When we got to the foot of the stairs, she asked - "you mean you can't climb this?"
I was like,,,,,,,, of course I can climb this lah.
And so, that was how we went up. (half way up, that is.) Apparently, there were more steps after the first landing. I shall climb further up next time!

 See, she inched closer and closer to the foot of the cave, lured the pigeons and I.

 See my gleaming perspiration.....

there are more stairs.... next time

 From the inside, looking out.

 Delighted Aunt.

 Let's go back.