After deciding for weeks about a trip to KL I'm finally going. I have taken a half day leave to fit in the flight times. On arrival at the airport (Friday, June 12th), had my customary stop at the Cathay Pacific lounge before boarding the plane. Only one small issue on the plane (perhaps there was more but I now see them as normal), the man in the middle seat of my aisle decided to change seats with his friend in the row behind us. For some strange reason he didn't want to speak to me just climbed over me........
Of course we were late landing, when I am not! Oh yes that's right when I'm flying business class. Always the way!
It seemed to be rather painless getting off the plane and through customs. I had made a very wise investment earlier in the week, a carry on sized suitcase, so no more waiting around for the luggage to arrive.....and in some cases not arrive. Before leaving the secure airport part (passengers only) I paid for my taxi and was ready to face KL. Followed the instructions I was given and before long was standing outside in 90 ++ degree heat and much more in humidity. Always a shock to the system when I've been in a/c for awhile.
I took a taxi to MoonYee and Nick's (my friend Moon's sister and brother-in-law) house. I'd read the airport was 75km (around 47 miles) from the city centre so it was going to be a long journey. Finally got to the house, after being on a motorway most of the way and unfortunately not having much to look at.
We went for dinner at a local hawker centre near MoonYee and Nick's place. There were many small food stalls with lots of tables in the middle. We found a table, ordered large fresh watermelon juice. While Nick watched the table MoonYee and I walked around. You certainly wouldn't go hungry here!!! I had no idea what to eat (there are so many choices), so the ordering was done for me thankfully. You order your food at the stall, given them your table number then they deliver it to your table where you pay them. Nice and easy. We ate chicken satay, grilled stingray, char koay toew (Malaysian version of pad Thai), oyster omelet and a mixed platter of deep fried meats. From here we drove into the city centre, about 25 minutes by motorway, and did the sights by night. The city is very impressive all lit up, especially the Petronas Towers - what a site! We went down a street with many crazy bars, at one end of the street is where the local ladies "chat to" the foreign men (called the Beach Club), moving along the street I came across themed bars (I had no idea where I was but it certainly didn't feel like down town KL). Saw Honolulu (Hawaii) themed bar.....saves me having to go to Hawaii. Continued on the tour to the Traders Hotel Sky Bar (top floor of the hotel), which had been recommended by a friend. View of KL was great, I'm certainly a huge fan of night views. (If only my camera would take decent night shots.) Taking up the majority of the space was a swimming pool. The tables were all full so went to the bar, for some reason the beer we wanted wasn't cold so we decided to leave, and on the way out noticed a spare table. Sat staring at the Petronus Towers while drinking cocktails. Its a hard life. After our drink we headed to the Pavilion shopping centre, which is huge, for a drink. This late at night only bars, restaurants and the movie theatre were open. So many people were around, it was great sitting people watching, although my eyes were half closed.
Saturday I had a bit of a sleep in before going down for breakfast - what a spread! Certainly will last me a few hours. I had forgotten that the locals like to eat and shop, so I'm sure it won't be too long before my next meal. I had a short time in the KLCC shopping centre, went straight to the Banana Republic store, before meeting MoonYee and Nick for lunch for typical Malaysian food. From here we drove to the KL Tower, officially known as Menara Kuala Lumpur. The KL Tower, built in 1995 is a 421m high telecommunications and broadcasting tower. We went up to the revolving restaurant for more eating and drinking. On clear day you could see for miles, but given it was sooo hot and humid the views weren't as impressive.
I had been warned, before I arrived that all there is to do in KL is shop, eat and drink, while there are things to do life does move around eating and drinking.
From the KL Tower we went in search for Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square) which is easily spotable from many places in KL from its super tall (95m) flag poll. One of the surrounding buildings, Sultan Abdul Samad Building, is a heritage building and is occupied by the Supreme Court. If I lived in KL I think I'd be there every day just staring at the amazing building! After taking a few photos we headed off to the Masjid Wilayah Mosque, which we basically had to ourselves. What an amazing mosque this is, it was designed in a Middle Eastern and Malay architecture and has water surrounding it. MoonYee and I had to put the tradition dress and head covering on to get into it. I loved wondering around and was amazing at the size of it, its huge!! On leaving I noticed the bright colours, mainly blue, on top of the domes. Definitely a wonderful site to visit!
Decided to have a fish spa, found a place and ordered 3 fishes (no chips thanks...tee hee hee). On seeing the fishes MoonYee and Nick said no, they were too big. If they weren't with me I probably would have gone and ended up with no feet at the end of 20 minutes.
Driving around I found that KL has Tesco's so of course I didn't want to see anything else while I was here apart from Tesco's. MoonYee informed me it was Nick's favourite store - ye ha I'm not the only one that loves it. HK just doesn't know how to do supermarkets.
The majority of people eat out every night as its so cheap, and as mentioned before they eat 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year - honestly its a full time hobby! Of course hanging out in shopping malls, don't worry there is food places there, is always a full time hobby.
Saturday night we went to La La Chong seafood restaurant (La La is a type of clam) which is opposite the old airport and a major highway in an area is called Subang, without traffic a good 30 minute drive from the city. Its nothing flash to look at, all plastic tables and chairs outside however the place was full and car loads of people arriving all the time. Honestly this city is a car city, you would never survive without a car. We ate sweet and sour crabs (sauce was unbelievable!! If they bottled it I'd buy a truck load); buns that you dip into the crab sauce; fried calamari; steamed prawns in eggs (prawns surrounded by eggs, see photo which hopefully one day will make it to the website); La La clams in garlic, chili, ginger and Chinese rice wine sauce; Chinese broccoli stir fried in garlic; chicken and beef satay w cucumber and sticky set like rice (no flavour) washed down with local (not!) Carlsberg beer. The food was all absolutely delicious.
From here we drove back into the city and did another night tour of the sites. This time I got some great photos with my tiny tripod, felt rather stupid standing next to people who had tripods taller than me.
Sunday morning I woke up early, had mixed up the time I needed to get up and was up well before I was suppose to. Oh well to pass the time I had a leisurely breakfast before MoonYee and Nick picked me up at 9.30am and we headed out to the Batu Caves Sri Subramaniam Temple (Hindu Temple). After walking up 272 steep stairs we were inside the main cave. Looking at the shrines were amazing, considering they date back many many many years ago they were in great condition. We continued into another cave where we came across a few monkeys. One dropped a piece of coconut right in front of me which made me literally jump out of my skin! Walking down the stairs we saw quite a few monkeys steal people's food. Before descending the stairs we stood and watched people arriving and leaving. There were children with yellowish paint over their heads, which we are taking as some kind of religious activity. We were hanging out for a/c by this stage so headed back into KL to the Pavilion shopping mall. First stop was having a 30 minute fish feet spa, which I was very excited about considering we weren't able to do it yesterday. Walking into the shop you see a wooden pavilion surrounded by concrete tanks which have the fish in, there were 2 sizes of fish - small (called garra ruffan, from Turkey) and bigger than the small ones (called chin chin, from China). It was extremely ticklish to start with, I found it rather scary looking down at your feet seeing lots of fish attached to you! MoonYee and Nick made me try the Bigger fish area - wow within seconds I had actual bite marks. It was a great experience but after 30 minutes I was ready to have my feet back!
We had lunch in the huge food court - making a choice was difficult but after a while I went with Japanese to get me in the mood for my trip there soon!
MoonYee and Nick dropped back to the hotel just after 1pm, I finished packing then took a taxi to the train station where I checked in (great to be able to do that!) before taking the train (around 35 minutes) out to the airport. The taxi driver asked me where my husband was......I was going to tell him I wasn't sure and if he found him to send him my way, but didn't think he'd understand my humour. Instead I just had a giggle to myself.
We were late leaving KL however made up time which was nice. On arrival into HK we parked in Beijing (ok not quite) and had to bus to the terminal to clear customs and immigration. I was 2 minutes late for the bus (thank goodness I don't have long before this won't concern me!) so took the airport express to Tsing Yi then took a bus to Park Island.
I had a wonderful time in KL and this was down to MoonYee and Nick. I cannot thank them enough for everything they did for me, it was wonderful to see a city through the locals.
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