This post is a review on Kuala Lumpur Hop on Hop off bus city tour. So we only have 3 days in Kuala Lumpur and on our last day, we decided to try the hop on hop off bus, to save time getting lost around the city ;) and just to have the experience. This will be my 2nd time to try a hop on hop off city tour, the first time I tried was on 2011 during a visit in Dublin, Ireland. The experience was so good that I had really included this Kuala Lumpur hop on hop off bus experience in our itinerary.
We only have 9am until 2pm for the hop on hop off tour as in the afternoon, we will be taking a bus for Tanah Rata in Cameron Highlands. So after breakfast in our hotel, we checked out, took the train towards Terminal Bersipadu Selatan and rent a 10RM locker for our bags. We took a train again towards KL Sentral for the start of our hop on hop off bus tour. KL Sentral is stop#11, our plan is to start in KL Sentral, complete 1 round and just select the really important stops and get back again to KL Sentral at 2pm to catch a train back to Terminal Bersipadu Selatan. Our bus for Tanah Rata will depart at 2:30pm, so yeah it is indeed a very tight scedule. Below is the KL hop on hop off map. There is a total of 23 stops with first stop in MATIC, their tourism information center and last stop in KLCC where Petronas Tower is located.
At exactly 9:00am the bus arrived in the bus stop in KL Sentral. The hop on hop off bus stop is easy to spot because of its bright pink sign board. We bought our tickets in the bus, some collectors would check the tickets and you can buy from them. There were only few tourist on the bus and I really hate to say this but the hop on hop off bus is not okay for me. There is no live commentary on board so you can't really tell what's there in every stop. So what happened is that in every stop, when we see many people or some special attractions, we step out the bus but if not, we just stay and go on with the next stop. The bus will not stay but will just drop or pick up tourist in each stop. The interval of the arrival of the bus is 15-20 minutes.
Stop#11 : KL Sentral, start of the tour
Stop#12: National Museum, we did not step out as it did not interest us.
Stop#13: National Palace, the bus stopped for 15 minutes and so we explore the grounds a bit and took some picture. It is a very nice place, the view is good and there are lots of tourists. The tourists are not allowed inside, but the view outside is so picturesque.
Stop#14: Lake Garden, we spend some time in the Perdana Botanical Garden. Lots of orchids, botanical plants, garden of flowers and fountains with benches. It was the longest stop we had.
Stop#15: Bird Park, we saw it from the outside and it seems to be nice. There are man made waterfalls and walkways and bridges but we did not go inside, I think there is a fee. And we were already tired from exploring the garden, very thirsty and looking for water, and yes, really want to cool down so we took the bus again for the next stops.
Stop#16: National Mosque, we took a stop but did not stay long as it was very hot. There are no shades outside while taking the view and the building is white with cemented grounds so yes, I can't even take a good look because of the glare, I do not have my shades that day. Tourists are allowed inside the mosque but has to rent and wear abaya (muslim women clothing).
Stop#17: Pass
Stop#18: Pass
Stop#19: Pass
Stop#20: Pass
Stop#21: Titiwangsa, we stopped because we want to see the lake but found out that it is far so we took the buss again.
Stop#22: Pass
Stop#23: KLCC, we did not stop as we had already explored the area before.
Stop#1 : MATIC, surprisingly the live commentary began to work. So I assume that they don't know how to sync the player so they have to start playing it on the start or first stop. It is still not good though, it is not in sync and is delayed most of the time.
Stop#2: KL Tower, we stopped but we did not took the elevator ride up as it was expensive. We just took some photos.
Stop#3: Pass
Stop#4: Pass
Stop#5: Pass
Stop#6: Bintang Walk, we just passed as we already explored the area.
Stop#7: Pass
Stop#8: Chinatown, we passed as the traffic is heavy and we don't want to get stucked.
Stop#9: Central Market, passed again because of the heavy traffic.
Stop#10: Pass
Stop#11: KL Sentral, end of our hop on hop off experience.
That was all for a 45RM hop on hop off experience. We were able to see the city from the bus without getting lost :).
