Google Alerts

Do you have some news or particular topics that you would like to follow? Do you feel like keeping yourself updated from certain issues or blogs? Do you find yourself consistently searcing for the same term at Google?

If yes, we would like to introduce you the awesome page Google Alert. Google Alert will send you an email whenever there are relevant results to your search. You can further refine your alert by setting the frequency of receiving emails, sources, languages, regions and number of results. Hence, you will not be discouraged from receiving too many junk emails but only the best results from Google. And more, you can keep yourself updated and save your time from searching the same topics everyday. 

Here are the 4 simple steps to set up Google Alert in 2-minutes-time.

1. Click Google Alert or you can simply type Google Alert on Google Search, it should be shown in the first result.

2. You should see the "Search" box on the top of this blue-ish page. Type the news/topics that you wish to follow. Immediately, it will show you some Alert Preview for you to double confirm whether these are the updates that you are looking for. Otherwise, you can simply type in another keywords/phrases to obtain better results that suit you.

3. Then, type in your email address but do not click the "Create Alert" just yet but the "Show Options" beside it. Here, you can start setting up your preference. For instance, if you are interested in looking for migration to Country A, you would not want to get the results/news from other countries, i.e. you can select the region box there for this specific preference. 

4. After you have done all the setting, click the "Create Alert" and you have officially created an alert. 

Congrats! You're done.

[Tip 1] The alert is not limited to just one. You can create a few but bear in mind, too many alerts can spam your email quite badly which can turn out to be very annoying.

[Tip 2] This may be subjective but usually, users will select at most once a day and to only get the best result. This means you will be updated everyday and only with those best results that you should spend some time to read on.

[Tip 3] You can create alert to follow your favourite magazines such as Business Insider/ Harvard Business Review or National Geographics to get free articles.

Credit Card Double Charged

This is my personal experience recently. On a typical weekend, I shopped for groceries in a sundry shop nearby my house. Like usual, I handed my credit card to the cashier to pay my bill. The cashier inserted the card into the machine. A few minutes later, she told me that their machine is offline and cannot be used. So, I ended up paying the bill with cash.

A few days later, while I browse through my credit card transaction history, I noticed that they did charge my credit card. I remembered clearly that I DID NOT sign any transaction receipts. Luckily I kept the shop receipt which stated I paid by cash. So, I informed the store manager and the issue resolved pretty quickly.

The store manager told me while this is not common, it does happen occasionally. Therefore, if you face similar situation like me, keep calm and follow the steps below:

1. Evidence

Collect documents such as the transaction receipts and credit card statement. You can print screen the online banking statement.

2. Inform

Visit the store/shop to inform the store manager. The shop will give instruction to the bank to refund your money. 

3. Check

Keep an eye whether the refund is made. This might take awhile, depending on how quick the shop inform the bank.

There is no use in calling to the bank or credit card company. You will have to communicate with the transaction counterpart. 

[Tip 1] This kind of situation is rather common, therefore, do speak up if they double charge you. The shop know how to handle it.

[Tip 2] Usually, the act is unintentional. Therefore, do speak nicely with the manager about the situation. They are more than happy to help you getting back the money.

[Tip 3] It might be a good practise to keep your receipts for awhile, so that you can have supporting evidence if this were to happen.

5 Effortless Ways to Save Water

With the constant news feed of Selangor-KL water crisis, the short term strategy in alleviating the problem is perhaps by reducing the households consumption.

As responsible citizens, here are 5 effortless ways that could save water.

1. Take shorter bath

Instead of having 30 minutes water wasting bath, take a short shower. Reduce your "thinking time" in your shower room.

2. Off the tap while brushing teeth

A lot of people have the bad habit of letting the water to flow while they brush their teeth. Just a simple tap could stop the fresh water from flowing to drain.

3. Fix leaking pipes

Not only save you money, it could also put off one of the things in your to-do list.

4. Accumulate Laundry

Instead of washing your clothes everyday, accumulate laundry and wash it in one go every 3 days. Not only save you money, but detergents and time too.

5. Collect rain-water 

Put a bucket or two outside to collect rain-water. You could use it to wash the front yard or to water the plants. Free water which is effortless to do. But keep in mind not to let the still water be there for long to avoid mosquito breeding.

How to Use Waze App (With Step-by-Step Screenshots)

If you have no sense of direction, you will no longer get lost by friending Waze. Personally, I found Waze easy to use, free, updated and most importantly give 95% navigation accuracy.

To all directionally challenged readers, let's learn how to use Waze.

1. In case you have no idea how does it look like:) Download if you do not have one yet.

2. After you open this, it should show you the map where you are currently located at

3. You should notice the Waze logo on your bottom left. Click that logo to show the menu as follows:

4. Click the "Navigate" and you can start typing your destination, eg. Lowyat MSC Sdn Bhd.
5. You should then see the image below, click "Go" to start your journey or you can even click the "Add to Favorites" to save this location so that you can have access to this location more easily in the future.

5. You should then see the picture below showing you the expected arrival time and the distance. Click "Go" to start your journey.

6. As you can see, it shows you your "next action" at the top of the screen.

7. Say you would like to know how will it lead you to your destination, you can just simply click the "next action" at the top of the screen and you will see all turns as shown in the picture below. How convenient!

8. You can even choose the routes that you would like to go. To do this, click the Waze icon at the bottom left to pop out the image below. Click "Routes" and you should see all the available routes that you might want to take for your convenience, eg. to avoid toll.

You can also on/off the sound by clicking the sound icon.

[Tip 1] Waze does not consume a lot of internet data. Its internet usage is almost equivalent to using Whatsapp in your phone. So, no worry of draining your data.

[Tip 2] However, it will consume your phone battery. So, it is better for you to bring power bank or USB to charge your phone in the car.

[Tip 3] Waze will show you the name of the road if you press the road for more than 3 secs.

Lets get started, DRIVE SAFE! 

10 Ways to Earn Extra Money in University/College

Coming from middle class family, I totally understand the financial constraints that we met in our college time. With the increasing education costs and living expenses, we could not fully depend on our parents. If you are a 80s or early 90s, life will be slightly easier with the help of PTPTN. 

However, starting November 2014, only children of BR1M recipients able to apply for full loan.  This changes will see a reduction of 5% to public institutions students and reduction of 15% to private institutions. Click here to view the news.

Instead of constant lamenting, we ought to think ways to fill in the discrepancies.

Here are 10 ways to earn extra money in university/college.

1. Tutoring

If you have good academic performance, you can offer tutoring services to juniors in units that you excel. There is no costs involved and only some pre-reading required. Plus, it enhanced your communication skills and enlarge your network with junior.

Otherwise, you can opt to tutor primary/secondary schools children. If you have a passion in teaching, this might be a good time for you to gain experience. If you like children, it would be a double plus, as you are doing things you like.

2. Restaurants/Cafes

The most mainstream part time job is non other than being waiter/waitress in restaurants/cafes. No costs involved and only required your energy and time. Plus, it gives you working experience and the chance to serve other people. My own experience told me that you will meet various kinds of people and in the end, you will learn to treat other people well, which is so important to a well-being.

If you are passionate in coffees or baking, it is a good chance to learn a skill by working in a restaurant/cafe. I learnt different types of wine and restaurant management systems during my time.

3. Weekend promoters

In Kuala Lumpur, there are always exhibitions which required weekend promoters. The pay is usually per day and is highly flexible. It also trains your 'selling' skills which will be important in many careers. Of course, you will also have many contacts from different companies and networks. Most importantly, these jobs are flexible and will not affect your studies.

4. Multi-Layer Marketing

You can join multi-layer marketing such as AmWay to increase your passive income. Besides teaching you selling skills, they have constant meet-up to enlarge your network and talks to keep you inspired (not only in selling, but in life too). Besides, this job can be continued even after you graduated. However, noted that there are annual membership fees involved.

5. Insurance/Property Agents

If you are serious, you can spend some time applying for insurance agents/property agents license in your uni time. Starting early, you are earning commissions by the time your peer friends graduate. Also, it helps you expanding network and your 'selling' skills not mentioning the lucrative commissions.

6. Partial Internship

If you are really passionate with what you are studying, I recommend you to find a part-time internship. It might be rare but I do think some small companies are willing to for cheap labour. For example, my friend who is studying Quantity Surveying works in a construction company. Besides gaining industrial experience earlier, you might be able to find a mentor to help you with career. You are already one step ahead than your peers.

7. Working in University ( Admin, Residential Advisor, Research Assistant)

If you have no luck with all of the above so far, try to work in your university compound. Are they looking for some admin staffs? Are you a suitable candidate for residential advisor? Keep your eyes and ears open, you might able to get some part-time jobs in the university. The best thing working in uni is you save your time and costs travelling.

8. Online Business

Online business has been a trend lately and with the advancements in the virtual world, doing online business is easier than ever. Sell some things that you are passionate about. For example, if you have high fashion sense, you could sell dresses/accessories or if you are gadget fans, you can sell phone accessories. It involves costs for getting inventories but will give you entrepreneur experiences.

9. Selling crafts

If you are arty enough, consider selling some crafts. It could be printed t-shirts, customized shoes, jewelry, customized notebooks, etc. The ideas have no end. Customized items are valuable and people willing to pay for it. If you aimed to be designers, it could be your first portfolio that will add extra colours in your resume. Again, you are already one step ahead than your peer friends.

10. Selling bento/baked goods

Do you like to cook or bake? Make good use of your talent by selling your products. Living far away from home, some of your classmates might dread to have a home-cooked meal. Fulfill their desires by selling bento or inviting them to have dinner at your house. Believe me, home-cooked meal is always better than outside food. Plus, you just have to cook more portions when you prepare your food.

If you are good in baking, you can sell cookies during Raya or Chinese New Years or some people just love cookies anytime in a year. 

Of course, the above only serve as ideas and there are a lot more. More importantly, you should think of what you like to do and what you are good in doing. Monies will always follow.

Beanieplex in TGV 1 Utama

Both of us have never tried watching movies in Beanieplex before and would like to give it a try. This is how we started our exploration with Beanie.

We searched for the TGV 1 Utama showtime to check what movies are available on Friday. There were only two, i.e. Interstellar and John Wick . Obviously, the first thing we did was to find their rating on Google and we chose Interstellar due to its 9.2/10 rating in IMDb and considering its length of movie of 2 hours and 49 minutes for us to enjoy our first movie sitting/laying at bean bags. How cool!

We then thought of buying the movie ticket online so that we get to book a nice seat. It should cost RM 46 per twin seat (so it should be RM23 per person). You can choose your seats online too and there is RM 1 booking fee. The Beanieplex can fit up to 20 twin seats as you may see in the photo below.

However, we ended up buying ticket at the TGV 1 Utama counter itself since we arrived earlier. Here was something surprising us happened. While we paid our movie tickets using American Express (AMEX) credit card at the counter, they gave us 2 regular popcorn set for FREE. Upon checking, it is because AMEX promotion from Maybank. Basically if you spend more than RM 20 at TGV using AMEX credit card from Maybank, you will get a free regular popcorn set (with drinks) for free. We had spent RM46 on TGV so we have got 2 regular sets! Note that this promotion is valid until 31 December 2014.

We chose a seat on the most right side and it is perfectly fine. The beanie seat are wide enough for 2 people to settle comfortably. The seats are designed to ensure privacy, so we won't see what others are doing from our seats (and vice versa!). Both of us sank into the beanie and took our most comfortable posture. You might want to adjust the beanie first (even them out) before you settle in so that it could captures your postures. Then, lay back, eat popcorn and enjoy the movie.

One side thing to note, if you are watching Interstellar, don't drink too much water to avoid multiple toilet trips.

The following show some photos for you to know how is the condition in the Beanieplex.

[Tip 1] It's OK to go with friends instead of couples. We saw many too.

[Tip 2] You can't have more than 2 people buying only 1 twin seat although the bean bag seat is more than enough to fit 4 people. This is because they will only issue 2 movie tickets per twin seat.

[Tip 3] Beanieplex is available at

1. TGV 1 Utama (Petaling Jaya, Selangor) 
2. TGV Sunway Pyramid (Petaling Jaya, Selangor) 
3. TGV AEON Bukit Tinggi Shopping Centre (Klang, Selangor)
4. TGV Setiawalk Mall (Puchong, Selangor)
5. TGV AEON Tebrau City Shopping Centre (Johor Bahru, Johor)
6. TGV 1st Avenue (Georgetown, Penang)

7 Simple Tips to Save You Money on Transportations

Recent news from the Star SPAD Seeks to Increase Public Transoprt Fares will give many gloomy face. With the fuel price and public transport fees hiking, it is not easy to survive in the city. Not mentioning the withdrawal petrol subsidy next year and GST implementation, it certainly adds burden to middle income class group especially those fresh graduates who have minimal income but incur similar hike in expenses like others without any "give out" from government.

Here are 7 simple tips for you to save some cents on transportation costs.

Budgeting

You could start by thinking of how much you spend regularly on transportation. Personally, I drive to LRT station and take LRT to my workplace on weekdays. The parking fees at the LRT station is RM 4 per day and the return trip of LRT is RM4.20 per day. Also, I will need to refill RM30 petrol weekly. This sums up to RM 284, roughly 10% of my salary on transportation per month! 

Here's the tip, if you are using LRT for almost RM 100 per month, you might as well using unlimited pass which cap your usage at RM100.

Think of how much you spend will give you a rough idea on how much you use. Thus, you will make more careful driving plan to prevent unnecessary trips. For example, run multiple errands on one go instead of several different trips.

Planning

I have make it a habit to refill my petrol tank on weekends every week to enjoy 5% cashback from Maybank Amex. If I know what is ahead, then I could fill my tank as necessary on prior.

It also helps me to keep track my fuel usage. 

Avoid driving in rush hour

If your working time is flexible, you might as well choose not to come to office during rush hour. Perhaps come into office 30 minutes later or earlier.

Car pool

On weekends outing, take turns to offer rides between friends, so that only one car is used each time. Once, two friends and I drove 3 cars to meet up which is a huge waste. Make it a habit to car pool.

Send your car to regular maintenance 

An efficient engine could use fuel more efficiently. Also, it promotes road safety and avoids towing your car if it breaks down in the middle of the road.

Avoid putting heavy things in the bonnet

Heavy things such as golf equipment and children pram should not be kept long term in your bonnet. You will have to step harder on your accelerator if your car is heavy.

Maintain your tyres pressure

Flat tyres consume more fuel and make your car feels draggy. Check pressure table on the right of the driver seat to find out the optimum pressure.

U Mobile Non-Stop Streaming on YouTube and Tonton

Santa Mobile is coming to town, guess what? Another great news from U Mobile!

If you are currently a U Mobile user, you might be entitled to FOC non-stop streaming on YouTube and Tonton without doing anything!

Eligibility:

-ALL Postpaid plan users

-UMI or MB Prepaid plan users who constantly top up their credits

When can I enjoy this free streaming?

2am-10am daily including weekends from now till 31st December 2014.

How much to pay for this streaming?

Free! No sms subscription or registration is needed either.

Say I am eligible for this free streaming, how do I know whether U Mobile registers me under this free service?

If you are eligible for it, you will automatically been signed up to be able to use this free streaming. Usually a message will be sent to your phone upon activation of this service. But I did not receive any. To be secure, you can call U Mobile service to confirm this at 0183881318 (which is what I did)

What happens after 31st December 2014?

You will automatically remove from the list and subscription, i.e you don't have to call or sms to terminate this service. 

Is there any quota for the free streaming?

During 2am-10am, you will have 500MB high speed for streaming. After that usage , you can still enjoy free streaming but with speed of 512kbps provided it is still between 2am -10 am.

[Tip 1] Basically, the best way for you to enjoy this is by calling U Mobile at 0183881318 to confirm your entitlement and then start enjoy it! There is no more asymmetric terms and condition that you should be worrying at.

[Tip 2] Even sub-line user can enjoy this free streaming. 

For more information, you can have a look at UMobile FAQ

Google Chrome Bookmarks Hack

With everything is online now including banking, reading newspaper, watching your favorite show, connecting with friends etc., we spend more time than ever in the virtual world. You might have a selected websites that you visit regularly and so you have bookmarked it. Me too, but it could be messy and out of hand sometimes. Here is the 5 minutes work that will save you hours browsing the bookmarks.

This is what I do:
1. Open Bookmark Manager by Control+Shirt+O
2. Group those websites that you visit regularly into the Bookmarks Bar folder
3. Delete the name of the bookmarks (not deleting the bookmarks!)
4. Your bookmarks bar will only have the logos remain

With the condensed bookmarks bar, you can easily see all of your favorite websites without browsing through the bookmark folder.

If you want to add new bookmark into the condensed bookmarks bar:
1. Click on the "star" appeared at the right most of your website link as shown

2. A "Bookmark Added" box will pop out with the Name and Folder on it
3. Let the Name empty and make sure the Folder is Bookmarks bar
4. Click done and the new bookmark will appear into the bar

[Tip 1] You can manually arrange your bookmarks by simply dragging your bookmarks to arrange them.

[Tip 2] Right click the bookmarked website logo and choose Delete if you want to delete that bookmark.

[Tip 3] Websites that are usually bookmarked are Facebook, Gmail/Hotmail, Youtube, News, Dropbox, Online Banking, Twitter, Google Drive, and our blog too!

How to Change WhatsApp Phone Number

One of the challenges then you will meet when coming back from overseas is to switch overseas phone number to local phone number. The biggest implication might be losing contacts from the overseas friends and acquaintances. But it's not such a big deal with Facebook, Line and Email which is email-based but how about WhatsApp? It is phone number based and if you have a new number, you probably have to lose the existing contacts and group chats. Sounds daunting?

Luckily with the new updates from WhatsApp, you can switch the phone number ID now with 3 simple steps.

1. In WhatsApp, go to Settings>Account>Change Number>Next

2. Type in your old Country Code and old phone number

3. Type in your new Country Code and new phone number

[Tip 1] All your Group Chat will be still maintained automatically. Basically, they will just remove your old number and add your new number in the Group Chat. Because of this, your mobile will have a long buzz upon successful switch.

[Tip 2] Before changing the number, you might want to change the WhatsApp status of your old phone number to something like "Changed my number and WhatsApp to XXXXX" (remember to add in the country code too). This is good for those friends who are still holding your old number and want to contact you again later in future. Or you might opt to broadcast a message to everyone.

[Tip 3] Some of the contacts might not be recognized by WhatApps now and hence showing you a string of numbers. This is because you have changed your phone number country code and so WhatApps could not recognize it. What you can do is to add the overseas country code into the overseas contact numbers in "Contacts". For example, Australian phone numbers should be entered as +61411223344 instead of 04 1122 3344.

For more information, you can have a look at Whatsapp FAQ

40 Questions to Ask during Room Inspection

After I got a job offer from a consulting firm, I immediately started looking for a room. The process is full of anxiety as I would most probably settle in for more than half a year. So, finding the perfect room is important to avoid complications in the future. Nobody wants the "Oh, I should check that out before I move in!", so we would want to ask every possible question during inspection. With multiple room inspection experiences, the following list is quite comprehensive to be ticked off during room inspections.

Cost
1. How much is the monthly rental fee?
2. Is the rental fee including utilities such as water, electricity and Wi-Fi?
3. If they are not included, what is the average monthly cost for heat, gas, electricity, etc?
4. How to pay rental?
5. How much deposit/ upfront payment is needed?
6. How long is the lease and how much fine for breaking the lease?

The Room
7. Is the room bright enough and exposed to sunlight?
8. Is the room airy?
9. Is the room large enough to fit at least a desk, a mattress and a wardrobe?
10. Is the room fully furnish or partially furnish?
11. Is the room too near to the kitchen/bathroom?
12. Is the room sound-proof?
13. Can the room be locked?

The House
14. Is the Wi-Fi set up? Is the Wi-Fi unlimited or with limited usage?
15. Do they provide washing machine?
16. Is there any area for drying the clothes?
17. Is the toilet clean?
18. Can you cook in the kitchen? (Optional)
19. Is the house airy and bright?
20. Is the house clean in overall?
21. Is there any roaster or cleaning services provided?
22. Is there any security facilities around the house? For example, security guards and CCTVs.
23. Is there any amenities such as swimming pool and gym provided?
24. Is there car free parking with the room? Otherwise, how much is the monthly parking fee?

The Housemates
25. How many housemates?
26. Are they working or studying?
27. Is it likely to have toilet-jam in the morning?
28. Is there any noise control/agreement?
29. Is bringing outside guests acceptable?

The Location
30. Is the public transport such as light rails and buses within walking distance?
31. Is there any grocery shops nearby?
32. Is there any food stalls/ restaurants nearby?
33. Is it within safe area or crime-prone area?
34. Is the location within severe traffic-jam area?

The House-Owner
35. Is the house owner friendly and reliable?
36. How fast maintenance concerns will be handled?
37. Is the house owner easily contactable?
38. Will the house owner too peculiar or is a control-freak?
39. Did the house owner impose many rules in the house?
40. How long prior notice needed before terminating the leasing?

If you have no idea where to start looking for rooms, you might find this iBilik website useful. Good Luck!

How to read UMobile Bill

You would have known that Black and I changed to UMobile Unlimited 50 in the previous post. While receiving the first bill is not very exciting, it is more frustrated if you could not decipher the bill! It takes us very long time to understand the bill statement and we will share with you here.

1. Monthly Charges is the total mobile usage by Black and I.

2. Other Charges here is the one off payment of RM 10 stamp duty.

3. The Service Tax charges 6% on monthly and usage charges only, ie excluding other charges.

4. Access Fee of RM50 is prorate to RM 38.33 since we signed up on 8th September (i.e 50/30*23)

5. Advance Access Fee is the deposit fee RM 50 paid in advance upon registration.

The above excerpt shows the mobile usage by Black.

1. Domestic SMS are the charges of text messages to UMobile and other operators.

2. VAS are the charges of SMS sent to 28118 for balance checking. Each SMS costs 5 cents.

3. Domestic Data Service shows the amount of data used by Black.

4.  IDD (International Direct Dialing) are charges related international calls. Although we did not dial to overseas, we still incur small charges on IDD. Upon clarification with the helpline, it is related to iPhone usage. We still could not identify exactly what cost is it.

This excerpt shows the mobile usage by me.

1. There is a Member U50 charge of RM 10 which is the cost of the sub-line to Black's line.

To avoid billing surprises, we recommend:

1. Avoid SMS and use social apps such as Whatsapp, Line, WeChat etc.

2. Call to UMobile helpline for balance enquiry (FOC) instead of sending checking through 28118.

3.  Communicate with each other to avoid over-usage.



Constant monitoring the billing will save you pennies in long term. Be a smart consumer!

Start an Investment - Mutual Funds

Through reading any financial book or blog, they will say the same thing; "Start saving and investing when you are young". But the million-dollar question is "How to start investing?"

To answer that question, one will require experience, skills and knowledge before start putting the money to work for you. But it seems so difficult and time-consuming that people always put it away until future unknown date. 

Every thing starts with a baby step and this is what I do. I put aside a fixed proportion of my salary for saving and investment purposes. Half of it goes into fixed deposit and the remaining into a mutual fund by auto direct transfer. In long term, I would have accumulated sufficient fund to achieve my financial goals. How does that sound?

Why I started with mutual funds

1. Diversification
Given a limited amount of capital, it is hard to diversify properly of the investments thus inducing specific risk into the investments. Mutual funds provide a well-diversified portfolios in unit.

2. Expertise and management skills 
Investment managers of the funds are skilled and experienced ensuring your money is invested in well-mannered.

3. Easy
With a professional investment manager, you don't have to track the stock prices everyday. This is suitable for busy people who wouldn't have much extra time.

4.Access to investments that otherwise not available
With the pooling of funds, individual can now access small and big, domestic and overseas investments.

The drawbacks that you need to consider

1. Management fee
Your investment will be charged for the management fees depending on the funds

2. Low return
Mutual funds are for long term investments. If you looking for high risk and high return, mutual fund might not be suitable.

To start investing in mutual funds

1. Decide on the purpose of your investments. Is it for your marriage fund, first home fund, child schooling fund or retirement?

2. Decide on how much risk you can tolerate. This  is affected by your age, nature of income (steady or uncertain), number of dependents and existing wealth.

3. Research on which provider that you wanted to join.

4. Decide on which fund you would like to join. 

5. Read the prospectus of the fund to ensure that you are aware of what risk you are exposed to.

6. Invest in the fund. Decide on whether you wanted to invest in lump sum or regular investment.

7. Put it aside and check it once in awhile. 

It would not happen if you are not starting. Take the first step now by reading more about investments!

Groupon: KL Tower One Day Trip

As a KL people, have you visited the majestic KL Tower? Since I started work, I have always wanted to bring my family to somewhere memorable (but within my budget, of course!). Then, I came across Groupon that offers Hi-Tea Buffet + Blue Coral Aquarium + Observation Deck for RM 69 per person. Yay, combo!

[Tip 1] Groupon Malaysia do offer the deal quite frequently in a year. Also, there are options of Lunch and Dinner options as well.

The hi-tea starts at 3.30pm, so we arrived around 2.45pm. One thing to note that, there is limited parking in KL Tower and it’s likely to be not shaded. The parking fee is $3 per hour and it could be quite expensive in overall. So, you might want to take other alternatives such as taking KL Hop-On Hop-Off bus.

[Tip 2] If you arrive early, you can have a stroll in the reserve park nearby to enjoy the cool air and green lush which is FOC.

Upon arrival, “check in” with the registration deck and they will give you the admission tickets to the Blue Coral Aquarium but they will only give you the tickets to hi-tea at 3.30pm sharp. So, we made our way to Blue Coral Aquarium which is just opposite the main entrance. The aquarium is quite small and we finished it less than 30 minutes.

[Tip 3] Make sure you printed all your Groupon vouchers and made reservations at least 2 days prior.

Then, I had to go to the reservation desk to collect the hi-tea coupons and queued for the lift. There are 4 lifts and there are operators to help with you the directory. The lift took around 54 seconds to reach the top.

[Tip 4] Have some candies or chewing gums to reduce 'pop-ing' in your ears.

“Restoran berputar” or revolving restaurant gives you 360 degree view of Kuala Lumpur. A complete rotation takes around 2 hour which is just right with the time slot. The food served is mostly Malaysian delicacies such as roti canai, yong tao foo, banana fritters, mee goreng, chicken curry, etc.. It’s good news for foreigners who want to try everything in one go but maybe not so attractive to locals. But what make the deal worth it is the borderless view presented in front of you.

[Tip 5] Celebrating birthday in KL Tower is a good idea, the staffs can arrange for you

After having a good time in the restaurant, we went down a floor to the observation deck. There is no limited time there, so you can stay however long you want it to be.

[Tip 6] Avoid visiting the tower during hazy day

Overall, it is an pocket-friendly short trip and meaningful to locals who have not the chance to visit the national symbolic building. Thanks Groupon for beating the old saying of having to tie belts for several months to enjoy a meal in KL Tower!

Reschedule Groupon Reservation Date

If you are looking to save a few pennies while not leaving the luxuries, Groupon often is a good choice. Regardless of what you wanted to buy, Groupon is always being checked first if you could benefit from the massive discount offered for the same products or services. No harm checking for discounts, right? 

I bought two Groupons of KL Tower Hi-Tea Buffet at Atmosphere 360 + Blue Coral Aquarium + Observation Deck to bring my family a short visit to the KL Tower. On the a day prior to the reservation, my niece fell sick and so I have to reschedule the reservations to another weekend. So I called the Groupon support number given in the booking form to request rescheduling. While I am pretty confident that I would be able to (the fine print stated that I can reschedule one day prior to the booking), I was told that I couldn't.

So, this is how the "1 day prior" works:
Original booked date: 5/10/2014
Latest date to change the booked date: 3/10/2014 (Not 4/10/2014) 

However then, she recommended me to try writing an email to Groupon request but it will be 50:50 chance. Without providing any other alternatives, the call was ended. This call was not helpful at all. 

I was thinking to give up on the vouchers when I am reading the fine prints. Then, I discovered that they do provide the KL Tower number for reservations. I called the number embracing very little hopes, but it turns out that the KL Tower receptionist is so friendly and willing to reschedule my booking without hesitation. Finally, I am able to postpone the booking to another date.

Lesson learnt:
Try calling the direct provider instead of calling the Groupon support helpline. Groupon helpline might not be helpful.

Hope the following number will be helpful to you if you need to reschedule/booking for the KL Tower visit date:

Phone:    +603-2022 1724

Website: http://atmosphere360.com.my/

Address:  Menara Kuala Lumpur, 
                 No 2 Jalan Punchak Off Jalan P. Ramlee
                 50250 Kuala Lumpur