Summer adventures to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur- Off into KL and the Holiday Inn Express KLCC

Off into KL and the Holiday Inn Express KLCC
Summer adventures to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur

Contents (It’s LONG and probably will change).

Contents

With me off the plane, I followed the signs to immigration.

Thank you little Boeing 737-800.

Thankfully, the signs looked easy enough to follow. This might be ok…

To the KLIA Ekspres and Immigration

Down down, deeper than down.

Heading down, I walked straight into the mother of all immigration queues. Whilst there were lots of desks open, the rate of processing was slow for a Sunday afternoon.

I recognise this conga line from another city.

Mehlaysia Airports? Pretty much on target.

The queue moved slowly. And I mean slowly. I think I spent another 45 minutes (the amount of time I was flying) in the queue

Eventually, I made the head of the queue, and was stamped into the country. With that, the next challenge was to locate my bag. And with the flight disappeared from the FIDS, I was walking around the baggage carousals like a lost soul. Eventually, I found someone to ask which belt I should head to, and waiting there – offloaded the belt – was my rucksack.

Reunited, it was time to play the next game – where the hell is the rail link.

And after heading down, around and round the wrekin, I found the KILA Ekspres Sales desk. I brought a ticket with a travel card attached, and headed for the train.

And wait…

Ah A train to Sentral.

I headed aboard and connected to the free Wi-Fi… which need to be activated by clicking a link. And if you haven’t got roaming activated, that could be a bad thing.

Instead, I busted out my Skyroam Solis. After activating one of the day passes, I had connectivity.

Not bad considering we’re blitzing at 100mph or so.

As for the trains – they’re based on the Seimens Desiro platform – one I’m quite familiar with at home

Announcements were in multiple languages, making the service easy for anyone to use.

Sigh. It was daylight when I got here. Long queues make for annoying experience.

The train took 30 minutes or so to make the journey into the city centre. Once out – I dutifully followed the signs into a new mele – KL Sentral. Thankfully, it was an easy mele to negotiate – expect for where the Monorail was.

I discovered that it was through another shopping mall. Joy.

To the Monorel!

My smartcard allowed me into the monorail waiting area… and I found an area.. that didn’t make sense to me.

There were barriers open, doors not functioning… all odd.

This isn’t good…

Eventually a monorail service arrived… and it was a two car service. It seems the entire service had been cut back – hard – whilst some maintenance was going on.

And two cars per monorail car set is way too small for a city like this.

What person though this was a good idea in any sense of the word?

The monorail reminded me of Marge vs the Monorail. And I would go as far as to say that North Haverbrook got a good deal on their monorail system.

Maybe they got sold this monorail like this song:

Eventually I was deposited at Raja Chulan – near where the hotel I would be staying at. A short five minute walk – and I was at my home for the next two days – the Holiday Inn Express KLCC

Holiday Express KLCC

Rate Paid: £45 a night.

Well, you can’t miss it at night.

Bit more difficult during the day.

Gotta bet the right place.

Yup. Right place.

There was a security guard on duty, checking those who were coming in, and pressing buttons on lifts.

I went to the first floor, and checked in. All credentials were checked and confirmed, and I was soon my way way to the top floor.

Where do you want to go?

20th floor

So onto the room – and yes, it’s a bit of a come down from the Intercontinental – but it was a basic room with industrial air conditioning. And trust me – I can live with that.

Perhaps the biggest thing was the length of the room – for a basic hotel, the room was long.

The TV channels were limited to about 14 channels, but the bed was comfortable. And when I say comfortable – I wanted to go out and get some nibbles late at night. I was out cold by 10pm.

In terms of connectivity, the Wi-Fi was passable (about 4mb or so). Not brilliant, but not bad for basic connectivity.

There was also a decent selection of plug sockets, with multi-country sockets… and a 2a USB charging point.

These are things I like to see. And not difficult to implement hotels of the world. But then I’ve talked about that.

Looking at the bathroom, it’s the usual bathroom module that’s installed in these hotels that is a shower and toilet combo – which is no bad thing. It’s a simple arrangement that works.

Amenities are mounted to the wall if you wanted shampoo or soap. Again, at this price point – it’s what to be expected.

Toothbrushes were also provided. Lots of little touches that makes a simple hotel like this a great place to stay.

The views weren’t that much to be honest – I’ve seen worse, I’ve seen better.

For those who need to pray, there was a sign which direction you need to pray towards.

And yes, there was art.

In room art.

There was also a fridge and two bottles of water supplied.

One thing to note is that the staff were slow at making up rooms, with my room not being made up until about 4pm.

As this is a Holiday Inn Express, there’s a breakfast included. And that’s no different at the Holiday Inn Express KLCC.

Although there’s a decent guide when to get breakfast if you want to be in and out fast. There’s an option for a grab and go, or a buffet breakfast.

Whilst it was 7:30 in the morning when I went down – it was pretty busy. The South East Asian games were in town – and it was pretty busy (which also explains why I couldn’t get a posh hotel).

Seating

In terms of hot food, it was…. limited selection – but adequate. There were some reasonable options, including fried rice, eggs, tomatoes and chicken sausages

Fried rice

Tomatoes

Chicken Sausages

Hard boiled eggs

Porridge and condiments

Cereals.

Pick a milk. Any milk.

And of course – Maggi Chilli Sauce.

Checking out of the Holiday Inn KLCC was easy – just drop the keycards off and thank the staff. Nicely handled and very friendly staff.

Overall: The Holiday Inn Express KLCC offers a decent priced hotel, with the amenities that meet that price point. It isn’t as plush as an Intercontinental – and I wouldn’t expect it to be. The bed was comfortable, the air-conditioning worked well, and it just worked.

Combined with a reasonable breakfast, the Holiday Inn Express KLCC ticks the boxes for those who want to explore Kuala Lumpur cheaply. And that’s a big tick in my box.

Next: Exploring bits of Kuala Lumpur

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Off into KL and the Holiday Inn Express KLCC Summer adventures to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur

Holiday Express KLCC

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Off into KL and the Holiday Inn Express KLCC
Summer adventures to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur