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Cebu to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia – MSMW 2014 Chronicles

I’m back from Malaysia! 🙂 I previously wrote here on my blog that this Mindanao blogger was invited to speak at the Malaysia Social Media Week 2014 (MSMW 2014) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Stayed in Kuala Lumpur for almost a week and truly loved my stay. It wasn’t my first trip to Malaysia but it certainly had its fair share of amazing memories. Will be sharing with you all my Malaysia adventures (and misadventures, too)!

My first post will be about my quick one-day stay in Cebu before heading towards Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Since there aren’t any direct flights from Mindanao to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, I requested the Malaysia Social Media Week 2014 (MSMW 2014) organizers to fly me out from Cebu City, which was a 20-minute flight away from Cagayan de Oro City, Mindanao.

One of my brothers, a tennis blogger, is based in Cebu. First thing we did? Hunt for lechon Cebu! We decided to visit the Rico’s Lechon restaurant at the Ridges Commercial Complex along Cabahug Street, Mabolo. We had spicy lechon (absolutely delicious) and monggo with lechon bits (yum!). Don’t ask how many cups of rice we had. There were no rules that day! 😀

Spotted this condiment bottle. Pretty cool, right?

ricos-lechon-cebu

We highly recommend the monggo with lechon bits. Very tasty. Comes in a big bowl. About 3 to 4 people can share one serving.

ricos-lechon-cebu

ricos-lechon-cebu

The star of the day – Rico’s spicy lechon! I first tried Rico’s Lechon when Congressman Luigi Quisumbing generously gifted me with one entire lechon when he and other congressmen visited CDO in 2012. Cong. Luigi gave the spicy version. Needless to say, I now prefer the spicy version! Try this on your next visit to Cebu – lami gyud kaayo! (really delicious!)

ricos-lechon-cebu-philippines

We then went to SM Cebu for the famous Ice Castle Halo Halo Super (Php 90.00). Best way to beat the heat!

icecastle-cebu-halohalo

We went home shortly after. I needed to rest since I had to catch an early flight to Kuala Lumpur. I won’t go into the details this time but if you’re interested to know what to do, where to go and pay your travel taxes and airport fees at the Mactan Cebu International Airport, you might want to read one of my Singapore travel entries. There, I discussed which forms to get, where to find the TIEZA counter, how much the taxes and terminal fees are etc. 🙂

By the way, check out this flimsy photocopy of the Embarkation Card. I felt really embarrassed that departing passengers had to fill up this sorry looking piece of paper. Makes you think where the fees go, right?

immigration-card-philippines

I was also pleased to see new restaurants at the pre-departure area of the Mactan Cebu International Airport. The last time I took an international flight out, we only saw a Dunkin Donuts booth and a Japanese restaurant that served expensive food! What a relief to see an establishment called District 32 now operating at the airport. It’s located a few meters away from the x-ray machine after you pass the immigration counter.

This breakfast meal below was Php 95.00. Not too bad, right? Cheaper than the meals sold on-board actually!

breakfast-district-32-cebu-airport

The flight from Cebu to Kuala Lumpur took roughly 4 hours. I kept myself entertained on-board by watching several episodes of The Big Bang Theory, listening to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ songs and catching a few zzz’s.

We landed at LCCT (low cost terminal) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Got my bag, queued at immigration (there was a really long queue there so it took me like an hour to finish) and looked for my “airport greeter.” By the way, if you’ve been to Malaysia before, the immigration officer will just scan your passport and if everything’s all right, you’re allowed to enter the country. (Filipinos are allowed to legally stay up to 30 days.) If it’s your first time in Malaysia, however, you will be required to submit your left and right index fingerprints as part of the government’s biometrics collection policy. In my case, since I’ve been to Malaysia a few times before, it only took the immigration officer less than 10 seconds to scan and stamp my passport.

I then headed to the baggage claim area. I did not have my money changed at the airport. This has always been one of my personal travel policies. As much as possible, avoid changing your money at airports. More often than not, you end up getting short-changed.

Anyway, I found my “airport greeter” – he was carrying an MSMW 2014 sign that had my name on it 🙂 He then led me towards a sleek white car. I had my own chauffeur! Bongga 😉

msmw-2014

That ends my kuwento for now! Next up – my review of our Kuala Lumpur hotel!

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2 Comments

  • That is a very nice looking condiment bottle, i’ve never seen anything like it. Thanks for sharing! I don’t like lechon very much but I hear that the lechons in Cebu are especially tasty. haha, chaffeur! bonggang bongga! Thanks for sharing! Can’t wait for the KL hotel review :))

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