Passion World Tour - Kuala Lumpur (Day 1 of 2)

I cannot remember when I was converted into a Passion fan. But, it did start with their Hymns Ancient and Modern album. Since, then I probably have bought every single album from their annual conferences.

About two years back, I even contemplated flying to Atlanta, Georgia to attend their conference. But, it's very expensive, and I can't imagine going to the States on my own.

So, can you imagine the excitment I felt when I learnt that Passion is doing a World Tour?! I was elated. I couldn't believe that my dream of attending their conference live could ever come true.

I looked out for details of their World Tour. Firstly, quite sad that Singapore didn't make it as one of their stops. But, I was very very very happy to know that they are coming to the nearby city of Kuala Lumpur. That's not too far or impossible for me to attend. Thus, the moment the tickets for the conference were available for sale online, I went to buy them. And the dates were locked for August the 3rd, 2008. I'm going to KL.

Hubby and I booked a coach on Aeroline for Friday, 1 Aug, 11.30 p.m. We wanted, sorry, it should be, I, wanted to maximise our time in KL for shopping, and decided not to waste the Saturday morning and afternoon travelling. The super efficient Aeroline coach brought us to Corus Hotel, KL, around 3.55 a.m. We had no where to go till the next morning, and took shelter at the Hotel Lobby. We were the last couple on our bus to leave the hotel the next morning at around 7 a.m.

Btw, the coach was quite comfortable. It was a non-stop "flight", with in flight meal of McChicken + Apple Pie, cabin crew (of 1 lady), and pretty comfy seats. I didn't use the toilet on board, but we were told that it was for "light use" only.

At 7 a.m., Sat, we crossed the road from Corus Hotel to a 24-hour coffeeshop for breakfast. It felt abit odd, as almost everyone was staring at us, as if they have never seen tourists there before. We had Roti Canai (which we called Roti Prata) and teh tarik & coffee. Teh Tarik was nice, coffee wasn't, and the prata was so-so. We forced ourselves to sit there till close to 8 a.m. before we proceeded to the Petronas Twin Towers to queue for the tickets to the Skybridge.

We were told that tickets were only available for collection at 8.30 a.m., and based on my previous experience, I didn't remember much of a queue. I didn't realise that it was a Saturday. When we found the place, we were shocked to see that a very long queue had already formed. If we had known, we could have started the queue at 4 am, since we had nothing else to do, and no where to hideout.

We spent almost 2 hours there and were so glad that we managed to get the tickets for the 11 a.m. visit. By right, the counter was already distributing the tickets for the 1.45 p.m. tickets. And our plan was to head for Bukit Bintang around 1 p.m. Then we spent the rest of the morning roaming about at Suria KLCC.

In the afternoon, we headed to Bukit Bintang using KL's efficient LRT/ Monorail system. It was really easy & cheap to get around. We headed straight for our hotel, as we didn't get much quality sleep the night before. Royale Bintang is somewhere opposite Berjaya Times Square, it's at one end of Bukit Bintang, but relatively near to where the interesting stuff are. The hotel is a little old, but quite clean. I wouldn't recommend staying there if you had an option, only because I think there are loads of hotels to choose from, and probably can get somewhere else nicer. But, it's not so bad that I wouldn't go back there ever again.

We spent the evening exploring the streets of Bukit Bintang, and even attempted to look for this Prawn Mee Stall near the Overseas Restaurant at Jalan Imbi. We couldn't find it, and ended up eating at Madam Kwan's at Pavillion. It was a good choice to try some Malaysian cuisine. We had their signature Nasi Lemak and also Fried Noodles. Both were quite delicious. I especially love the lemak in the chicken curry.

Walking the streets of Bukit Bintang was pretty fun. That's one thing I like about walking tours. It's quite tiring and exhausting on the feet, but we really get to see alot of the local scenes. And it was actually quite save to walk around, even at night, just stay to main streets, and avoid the narrow lanes. We headed back to our hotel, feeling very full. Seems that we've been going to sleep with very full stomachs lately.