Our trip for Comic Fiesta 2017 has too many pictures and exciting things that I decided to just separate it into different posts. This is for travelling from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur via bus aka coach.
Our choice company has always been Aeroline since it stops at Corus Hotel which is just a walk away from KLCC and thus in total around fifteen to twenty minutes walk to Trader’s Hotel.
Anyway, Aeroline always provides one meal on board including a hot drink, a bottle of water and the seats are way comfortable and the service is great.
It also has an on board entertainment with some movies, music and games (it’s funner if you ask your friends to join in on the system instead of versus-ing the computer).
That’s a freaking giant cream crackers ad. I was amused.
If you haven’t used Aeroline before, the pick up is at Harbourfront centre at the carpark for coaches.
From there we drive off to Tuas checkpoint, get our passports scanned (first on the Singapore side) and then stamped at the Malaysian side.
At the Malaysian side, you have to take out all your luggage and put it in the x-ray scanner then after all that, reload it back into the bus and you’re on your way to Kuala Lumpur!
Halfway through the journey we’d stop at a rest point, I forgot the name of it but this is the time to go to the toilet, freshen up and buy snacks.
I usually like to buy the paus there. Curry chicken pau is nice, just choose any of the shops there.
Also, don’t go to the first toilet you see, go upstairs there’s a bigger toilet area instead of the first one on the ground level. And on that same level should be a Baskin Robbins and the other food stalls.
After a 20 minute rest stop, off we go back on our journey and finally arrive in Kuala Lumpur, yaaaaaaaaaaay.
FYI, it’s around 5-6 hours drive depending on the crowd at customs and any jams nearer to the KL side.
Ok, we would be dropped off at Corus Hotel, just walk out towards Avenue K, go underground, past the KLCC station and into Suria KLCC so you don’t have to cross the road dangerously.
Just keep underground if you’re there in the day.
If it’s at night… well I guess you got to illegally cross at some junctions because the underpass will be closed after a certain time, around 11pm or something.
Anyway, if you’re there in the day, you can take the underground and follow the signs.
For us, we headed off to Trader’s Hotel!
If you’re reading this to prepare yourself for Comic Fiesta at KLCC, Trader’s Hotel in Kuala Lumpur is our choice hotel because it’s just above the convention centre.
Don’t forget to join the Golden Circle since it’s free membership but you can rake up points if you keep going to Shangri-la hotels like Trader’s and Hotel Jen.
Oh yeah, that’s our room on the last day when we checked out.
We don’t really care about the view when we book the room since we go for the “cheapest” but I finally learned what that house we see surrounded by trees are. It’s the palace for Johor royalty!
Plus points about booking Trader’s is that if you’re cosplaying or if you’re really buying a lot of merch at CF, you can just get out of the convention hall and the hotel is just there.
You can drop off your things in your room and return quickly.
The cons for Trader’s hotel is that it gets booked really fast once the announcement for the Comic Fiesta dates are out. It’s cheaper the faster you book (duh) like any hotel so if you want a good rate, book quickly!
If you’re booking ‘late’ though, check out the CF announcements because sometimes they have special codes and rates just for attendees and then you can try it out.
Wondering if you want to get the breakfast buffet?
It’s a pretty international spread, from roti canai, nasi lemak, congee and other local delights like kueh for breakfast, you have Japanese sushi, miso soup, Western food like sausages, an egg station to cook your pick of omelette/scrambled eggs/sunny side up, waffles, toast… muesli, salads… Ok you get the idea.
It’s a lot to choose from! Breakfast when we went for our day of check out was about 72.30 Ringgit per person. So the price is about under 80RM if you ever want to give a very safe ‘estimate’ in your budget since there’s discount deals with CF at times or if you’re booking in some special package from the hotel itself.
Enough about Trader’s. If you’re from Singapore, this is our choice of itinerary stop.
We took the train from KLCC station towards Taman Jaya (about 3.80RM one way) and ended up at A&W.
You won’t get lost, the freaking A&W is just outside the station.
If… you never took a train that’s not in Singapore, ok theirs is a token system. Pay for your ticket (there’s instructions) on the machine, take the token. Tap the token on the gate and keep it.
When exiting the correct station which is Taman Jaya, insert the token into the slot of the gate and get out of there.
OH YES. OH YESSS. I got a set meal with the rootbeer, spicy fried chicken and a coney dog.
Do let them know if you want the beef or else they’ll give you the chicken one by ‘default’.
The chicken is so good?! The rempah was just… it’s just flavourful, it’s not just hot-spicy, it’s a medley of cumin and other spices and HNGHHH.
The coney dog is always the best and don’t worry… I didn’t have a rootbeer float because of this…
OH YESSSS.
ICE CREAM WAFFLES.
So beautiful.
So crispy and hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a splurge of strawberry sauce or chocolate sauce.
By the way, if you want to buy the desserts at this A&W, you pay at the cashier where you usually order your food then take your receipt to another counter near the middle-ish back of the restaurant.
It’s a dedicated dessert station where they’ll press your waffles or scoop your ice cream.
Alright.
Alright.
After our meal at A&W, time to go back to our hotel at Trader’s so it’s just returning back to the Taman Jaya station and taking the train towards KLCC station.
Imagine an intermission theme song here?
BACK TO KLCC.
You can see the iconic Petronas twin towers, Suria KLCC mall and their giant Christmas tree if you’re travelling there in December.
Comic Fiesta makes all the food places really crowded because of all the attendees and since our room was just at Trader’s, we decided to take away food.
Kenny Rogers!! It’s not halal in Singapore so we definitely got ourselves a meal from there.
They’re in the basement near the food court towards the convention side.
Hello roasted chicken… that’s a banana muffin by the way.
Cheaper food choices would be just stocking up at Cold Storage in the mall. They have a wide range of sandwiches, cooked food and salads.
I haven’t tried their sushi ever since I tried it in 2014 because every time I tried to eat it, it disappoints me since they do not put vinegar in their rice?!
I don’t know how it tastes now or if they know how to actually make sushi rolls, it’s safest to just eat everything else there except sushi because it was sucky.
Of course if you want even cheaper local food, you can explore but this is our plan for just doing the quickest since our main agenda is Comic Fiesta.
Chili’s was for one of our dinners since yes… IT IS HALAL TOO HERE. They don’t have reservations but a waiting list if there’s too many people in the queue.
Just put your name and number and come back at the estimated time with your party.
I highly recommend the white spinach queso and chips at Chili’s.
These are the classic nachos. It’s pretty loaded.
Ok by the time I got my Southwest quesadillas, it felt a bit too much.
If you’re sitting by the window, you get an awesome view of the Christmas tree in December and the nightly fountain show which happens any time of the year.
Also, we went to Din by Din Tai Fung. It deserves its own post.
Go read about it if you want to know about halal dim sum.
With Comic Fiesta weekend over, we checked out the following day and packed our stuff and headed for our Aeroline bus back to Singapore.
Just enter Corus hotel and you’ll see a small Aeroline counter there.
The bonus thing is that there is a specified area for Aeroline customers in the ‘Aeroline lounge’ which is a specific side in the dining area of Corus hotel.
Check your ticket if it has the complimentary tea or coffee and pass your ticket to the hotel staff for them to just tear off the little bit on your actual ticket. You can wait at the lounge until it’s time to get on the bus.
And we were surprised! It was one of the newer ones. I managed to take a pic while everyone was getting up at a stop, hence the messy cushions and stuff.
It has a usb charger port in the dual seats too!
For the single seats it has the same stuff like the “old” bus such as the power point near the floor. Oh yeah, if you’re ever taking Aeroline, you can bring your laptop or phone charger, they usually have power points on the window side.
The newer model seems to have a carry net thingy on the front for putting your things in the single seats, they didn’t have that with the regular models!
The menu always changes but you can specify if you’re vegetarian or not when booking tickets. It’s all halal anyway and actually pretty delicious?
On the road once more, back to Singapore.
Halfway through the journey, our rest stop is Pagoh and I totally know there is a special Ramly restaurant there!
Toilet stop then rush to the Ramly shop to buy an original Ramly beef burger.
It’s an interesting packaging since the cardboard is stuck to the wrapper. It protects your burger anyway. The restaurant also sells sodas and frozen food. Not exactly advisable on the frozen food though since it can be hours till you get back in Singapore.
An original Ramly burger.
Lettuce, slices of tomato and onion on top of a beef patty, sandwiched between a sesame bun…
I squeezed out some chilli sauce on it and ate the burger for a late lunch.
I should have bought another one to eat in Singapore…
Anyway we arrived back at Harbourfront and that was the end of our trip!
Our itinerary for a Comic Fiesta weekend or a trip to KL:
- Book Aeroline bus tickets
- Trader’s hotel
- Go Taman Jaya via train from KLCC to go to A&W
- Buy snacks and stuff for Comic Fiesta breakfasts/lunches at Cold Storage
- Take away food for actual days you want lunches at Kenny Rogers
- Dinner at Chili’s and Din by Din Tai Fung
- Not pictured but we explored Suria KLCC, it has a lot of food places and also a cinema
