This is a trip which happened quite a while back in May, where me and my team managed to head over to KL to participate in a business challenge organised by ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales). We had emerged as champions in the Singapore round unexpectedly!!! Me and Kelvin had even forgone bringing our laptops along because we thought we would not make it into the finals and would not require our heavy laptops but then we got in and had to desperately borrow laptops from other friends which didn't make it.
The trip to KL would bring us to compete with other teams from Southeast Asia and also along with a team from NUS. We were able to choose our flight times from a list of timings and departed on a Thursday and ultimately missing 2 days of school.
Went to check in through the self check in counter and there were so many other counters available but we ended up queueing quite a while for the ones in front not knowing the other machines can be utilised.
Did our self drop for our check in baggage where we had gotten 20kg purchased for us but turns out we didn't have sufficient and had an excess of 11kg where we had to purchase 15kg for SGD60 on the spot omg
Thank god, WL the staff from ICAEW was still checking in and helped us settle the baggage weight issue. And it was a pity that he had exceeded his weight by 3kg and had to pay SGD69 for his??? Outrageous. When he could have checked in that extra weight with us instead.
Decided to go check out Charles and Keith for this pair of heels which Ive been eyeing on as I had tried it and it was pretty comfortable and formal enough for internship and any formal event. Decided to wait till I am in the airport for my 7% off for tax. Kelvin kept making me hesitate because GSS was coming soon but I was determined the price won't change much since its a new item. And the other day, I went again to check and wew thank god I made the purchase because it is still on original price at the normal outlets. This pair was at $49.90 originally so saved around $3? XY said its like minnie mouse shoes though! Because of the block heels. But I feel like the thin ones make my thighs look extra fat.
Managed to get a window seat and its 100% Perfect lighting although it was majorly hot.
We flew pretty low and over Singapore and I managed to spot my house since its near the Yishun Dam and that bridge across is that!
Really short flight of less than an hour and not sure why my time was automatically adjusted to Indonesia and I was confused when the pilot had said we will arrive at 3:15pm when I was still at 2:15pm
Could tell the air stewardess on this flight wasn't really on her best mood but I can't blame her because Im sure this flight to work on is so not worth her money.
First time in KLIA2 and it is pretty empty. Immediately logged onto Free WiFi but there were a whole bunch of information to be filled up.
Would recommend the purchase of SIM cards for data inside the transit area!!! They are all located side by side and it would be best to compare! They offer quite good deals for data especially. I think we saw one which was RM40 for 25GB say whaaaat.
But we ended up not purchasing and heading out but regretted because the shops outside were having their systems refreshed and couldn't process the SIM cards for us.
We had taken the same flight with the NUS team but they had troubles searching for their baggage so we decided to go have a bite at KFC!
Forgot to take a photo but I got the 1 piece chicken at RM5 and it was so good!!! Cannot compare to SG one. The rest got other sides and they said the salted caramel ice cream is really good.
Met up with the NUS team and went to get tickets for our train ride into the city! First time taking this train because honestly think a cab is still relatively cheaper. But our hotel is situated right at KL Sentral so it is perfect to just take the KLIA Ekspres.
Dragged our stuff over and wew the hotel is really closeby. There is a mall situated right next to it so super convenient to shop! We stayed at ALOFT and it seems relatively new and has very youthful vibes.
Snakes and ladder on the floor where they actually do have a giant dice.
Got our room keys and its me XY and Trista sharing a room while the guys share one!
The toilets are separated into the shower area and toilet bowl area. Funny thing is the door is a sliding one and can only cover either side at the same time. But we still shared it nevertheless.
Toiletries are your usual not including XY's toothbrush and toothpaste HAHAHA.
Pretty standard drinks set up.
Think our room was a double queen bed room meant for 4 and the beds were pretty comfy! Although I felt the pillows were abit too soft. Maybe I am too used to my memory foam pillow.
Our view which isnt very magnificent since we are only at the 7th floor.
Grabbed our dinner at the mall beside (Nusentral) and settled on the Korean restaurant after we saw the two girls in front of us search it on the directory.
The place smelled funky like a wet market smell though. Not pleasant at all. Got a seafood pancake because the rest didn't look really appetizing. The pancake was alright! Not the best but pretty value for money.
Of course we had to go supermarket shopping. To stock up on some instant ramyeon and random snacks.
EXO on pepero. (At that point in time EXO wasn't on pepero packaging in SG so dont mind me)
Day 2. Competition Day! Totally didn't prepare because we are too chill. Oops!!! Think the other team was prepping real hard while we had fun shopping.
Room came with complimentary breakfast buffet. Under XY's name heh. Wore our formal attire down but went in hotel slippers until we realised the guys wore full formal with blazer and shoes so we went back up. Looked ridiculous and definitely being judged but oh wells.
Super creative set up for the donuts and cakes??? Quite aesthetic in my opinion but tastewise, dont think they fared really well.
Favourite part of any buffet!!! the egg station oooooo. got scrambled eggs and they were pretty good!
Got a few more items at the buffet and the crepe station had salted caramel sauce! Didn't get to try the laksa because I was afraid of staining my top
Off to the competition venue at the hotel and collected our name tags
Brief intro of the competition would be that we would have to work on a business case study within the time limit, answering all the questions and present them to a panel of judges. It can get pretty stressful because there isn't a lot of time to actually prepare and memorise your script! Hoped we weren't the first group because that would mean 0 prep time for presentation.
Thankfully we weren't and were lucky to be in the middle
After briefing was our lunch and off we had our competition and it was so tough trying to discuss and cover everything in that short timing. Our group as usual preferred to discuss on the floor bc we would be able to talk to each other at a closer proximity than the giant banquet table lmao
Dinner and yesss strawberry shortcake! Had a bowl of soup too and it was pretty good! Dinner was surprisingly filled w good food huehue
Three awards for the night and although we didn't get the Champion Prize to head to UK, we managed to get the Most collaborative Team Award! We had to share a table w a Malaysia Team to get to network with them and they got the Most Agile Team Award.
Photo with the NUS Team!
Headed to the rooftop to have some juice while the others had alcohol. School trip so no alcohol although I wouldn't have drank either way
Breakfast once again and tried more exotic food this time round but didn't exactly like it as much.
Left the hotel early so we could have more time to shop since our flight was on the same day. This was when Pablo wasn't available in SG yet so we had to visit Pablo in KL to get our cheese tart fix.
Grabbed over to 1Utama and have never been here!!! Never knew it was like one of the biggest malls in the world
One of their first few customers I would suppose! Managed to redeem a free latte because of the event they were doing. Had a piping hot cheese tart on the spot and it was so molten and hot that I dropped it and it got onto my hair
Tragic
After our Pablo haul, we headed to Times Sq to meet Clemz and XY. And of course whenever there is Nature Republic there is EXO.
Asked Kelv to help take a photo and this is what he takes
Walked over to Pavilion and SPAO!!!! But obviously didn't get anything because it was pretty pricey.
Went to Padini to try out these two dresses because intern was approaching but didn't get it in the end. Kind of regret not getting the one on top bc think it is actually really pretty! and it was at a steal of RM50. oh wells ;; tried spotting it in JB outlets but never ever spotted this again sigh
Stuck at Pavilion bc there was a major jam and our grab would take forever to reach us so we had no choice but head with those taxi uncles situated outside Pavilion who will definitely overcharge.
And yep he definitely did and purposely went a longer route. Think he would have gone an even longer route if we didn't mention we needed to rush for a plane ride. And kept trying to push us to take his cab to the airport
YIKES
Got our luggages and packed our buys and rushed to the train station.
All checked in for our short ride back and of course we had to have KFC again here
