Chinatown – Where to, Gumshoe?

Kuala Lumpur (Day 128): Full City Tour

July 6, 2016

Our first full day in Kuala Lumpur and we were ready to explore and eat! Before going for breakfast at the hotel, we booked our flights to and from Phu Quoc, which will be our last hurrah before coming home!

The hotel breakfast was nice and pretty normal. They had all the components for a full English breakfast, fruits, yogurt parfaits, croissants, and Malaysian noodles. We ate on the executive lounge floor but will go to the regular breakfast floor (bigger restaurant) tomorrow to compare the two.

We planned on using the hotel’s free shuttle to take us to an area called Bukit Bintang. It’s supposedly another shopping area and close to Jalan Alor, a famous food street. The hotel shuttle dropped us off at the Pavilion mall in the Bukit Bintang area. We walked through the Pavilion and it was another nice mega mall. Can’t get over how many large malls there are (so close together) in Kuala Lumpur. As we made our way towards Jalan Alor, we walked past a handful of other smaller (compared to the mega mall) malls.

When we arrived at Jalan Alor, more than half of the vendors were closed. At first we thought it was because it’s a holiday here “Hari Raya AidiFitri”, which is the end of Ramadan and also a National holiday in Malaysia. But after doing some reading, we realize that Jalan Alor comes alive at night and is pretty dead during the day. We’ll try going for dinner tomorrow night.

Since there wasn’t much to see, we continued our walk towards a restaurant called Wong Kee which specializes in roasted and BBQ pork. It took about 20 minutes to walk there for Jalan Alor and when we got there, it was closed! Looking around at the stores around town, it was pretty clear that more than half of the businesses were closed for AidiFitri (which makes sense as ~60% of the country is Muslim). This was a disappointment as there wasn’t much around where Wong Kee was located. We walked around a bit more and saw some stalls set up surrounding open air seating. We browsed a bit and decided to eat there for lunch.

All the stalls served Chinese Malaysian food in all its various forms. I saw Chinese BBQed meats (which I have been craving for a while) and I got a plate of roasted duck and pork. My meal came with chicken rice and soup. Tim was more adventurous and tried Malaysian dry noodles with ground pork, BBQed pork with fried garlic. After ordering from the stalls, you find a table in the seating area and pay after the vendor finds and serves the food to you. Food in Kuala Lumpur is very cheap. Tim’s noodles were 6 MYR = $2 CAD and my lunch was 8 MYR = $2.65 CAD. While seated, a man from the beverage station went around asking if you wanted to order any drinks. Tim asked for a coke but I don’t think he understood and brought some iced lemon drink. We were confused and the table next door ended up wanting the drink any how. Lunch was tasty and satisfying. It wasn’t Wong Kee roasted pork but it was still very delicious!

After lunch we walked towards one of the Monorail Stations to take a train to Chinatown. The walk to Chinatown would’ve been about 30 minutes so we decided to take the train and to get metro cards (Tim likes to collect them) and see how their trains operated. We both bought MyRapid cards for 5 MYR = $1.60 (non-refundable deposit) and 15 MYR = $4.80 CAD mandatory credit. By using a MyRapid card you get a slight discount for each ride. Kuala Lumpur’s transit system has different lines – Monorail, Light Rail Transit (LRT), Commuter Rail, and Airport Express.

The Monorail trains only had two cars, which were surprisingly short. We stayed on the train for a couple of stopped and got off close to Chinatown. The Monorail stations are quite old and look like they need some attention. We walked towards Chinatown’s Petaling Street, which is full of vendors selling counterfeit accessories, souvenirs, and typical SE Asian tank tops. Petaling Street was super crowded. It was probably the most people we’ve encountered while in Kuala Lumpur so far.

There were some food vendors that looked interesting and had long lines ups, including a tofu fa vendor. He worked alone (and quite efficiently) and served hot tofu fa and cold soya bean milk. He was really busy as his line was consistently long. I ordered a tofu fa with brown sugar and ginger syrup (160 MYR = $0.52 CAD). It would’ve been nice if the tofu was cold because it was so hot out already and having steaming tofu didn’t really help. Tim doesn’t like it so I basically ate the whole bowl myself. It was really good, I can see why he had a long line up. We walked around a bit more and didn’t see anything worth buying. Tim got a soursop fruit smoothie (tasted a bit like guava) from one of the vendors (4.80 MYR = $1.55 CAD).

After Petaling Street, we walked to see a Hindu Temple close by. There was a wedding going on outside the temple so we just observed from across the street. Hindu Temples are often colourfully vibrant which I find really cool. On our way towards the National Monument we passed by another shopping area called Katsuri Walk, which is right beside the Central Market. The Central Market was full of more unique/hand crafty type of shops compared to Petaling and Katsuri streets. The market was also air conditioned which was a nice break from being outside.

We continued on our tour of the city by walking towards the National Mosque. It was closed to tourists for today so we just walked around the front of the building. We stayed around the Mosque and rested for a bit. Kuala Lumpur is really humid and we had finished all our water so we were feeling a bit drained.

Our next stop for the day was walk to the National Monument. On the way towards the National Monument we passed by the Butterfly Park, Bird Walk, the Islamic Art Museum (closed today), and the Botanic Gardens (closed today). On our walk it started to rain and then quickly became a torrential downpour. We took refuge in an undercover seating area and stayed there for about 20 minutes before the rain stopped. As soon as it stopped raining, the sun came out and it felt even more hot and humid than earlier. Areas that had puddles of rain water were now steaming.

We eventually made our way to the National Monument and were there with bus loads of Chinese tourists. The National Monument is set on a hill and has pretty good view of some parts of Kuala Lumpur. The monument is dedicated to all the Malaysians who lost their lives in war.

We continued to walk along the back side of the monument area towards Dataran Merdeka, which is a square close to the Sultan Abdul Samad Building and the high Malaysian flag pole (where they raised the Malaysian flag for the first time). The Sultan building and the Textiles Museum buildings were really neat. I really like the Islamic Architecture as it’s so different from other places in SE Asia. We hung around the area and took a bunch of pictures before finding a LRT Station to take us back to the hotel.

It was a pretty long afternoon of sightseeing. We were both wearing cotton today, which was a horrible idea when you’re out all day walking around. The LRT Station was really busy, as it was right beside another Mosque. We took the LRT to Ampang Station and the ride was a very smelly one. Everyone was sweaty and smelly. Thank goodness there was strong air conditioning and ventilation on the trains. As our stop, Ampang Park, is one stop after the Petronas Towers (KLCC), the train pretty much emptied when we got to the KLCC stop.

We passed by Ampang Centre and it was all closed except for a few exterior Chinese businesses and McDonald’s. We washed up and headed upstairs for cocktails and appies. The lounge was so much busier today than yesterday. The place was a bit of a gong show and at some point, it felt like more of a day care than a lounge. There were a lot more Asian families with young kids. The kitchen couldn’t keep up with food, so it wasn’t as relaxing as yesterday. For hot food today, they had beef rendang, sticky rice, and spring rolls. We both preferred the satay skewers from yesterday. We stayed for about an hour or so and then went back downstairs. I felt bad for the two regular staff working. They were so overwhelmed and they even brought servers from other restaurants up to help out.

One of our favourite Malaysian food that we usually order in Vancouver is roti canai. I googled where to find the best roti in Kuala Lumpur and a place called Valentine Roti came up. Valentine Roti is a 15 minute walk away from our hotel so we decided to try to see if they were open today. We walked along a fairly large road (with sidewalks) and when we turned the corner to where Valentine Roti was we saw a restaurant that looked closed. Again we were disappointed until we walked a bit closer and read the restaurant was called “Roti John”. We walked a bit further down the road and saw a restaurant lit up and it was Valentine Roti! They were open and it was filled with locals. Turns out that the owners of Valentine Roti are Christian Indians, so they were open.

We ordered a regular roti, garlic roti, Valentine roti, a teh tarik, and a milo tarik. The roti all come with 3 types of curry for dipping, and they were all delicious. The garlic one had way to much garlic in it for me though (Tim liked it). The Valentine roti had meat, onions, and vegetables in it – it was super filling and tasty. There are so many different types of roti to order but the one we both liked the best was the regular roti, sometimes simple is the best. The restaurant clientele was mainly made up of large Indian families and a few tables of Chinese Malaysians. Happy we got to try authentic Malaysian roti at a place that is off the beaten track.

We walked back towards our hotel and planned to go see the Petronas Towers lit up at night but when we went to the overpass at our hotel, the doors were closed. We didn’t realize it was already past 10pm, so we decided to just see it close up tomorrow on our last day in Kuala Lumpur.

Steps today: 28,000

Sydney (Day 86): Walking Around the CBD

May 25, 2016

After 85 consecutive days, Kaitlyn is finally taking a break from writing our daily travel log, so I (Tim) will be filling in today. 85 days is quite an impressive streak… What does it take for such an amazing streak to be broken? Just the season premiere of the Bachelorette.

Our flight today to Sydney was at 12:15pm. Late enough that we didn’t have to rush in the morning, but not so late that we could do much in Brisbane before we had to leave (especially considering we normally sleep in). This was my first time here, and although we had less than 24 hours in Brisbane, it really left a good impression on me. I’d definitely want to spend more time in the city the next time we’re in Australia. (Kait: I agree. It’s usually skipped by most people but I think it’s a really nice city)

We checked out of the hotel just after 9:30 and drove the rental car to the airport to return. Of course, you always need to fill up the tank before returning a rental car. One interesting thing about Australian gas stations (or at least every single one that we’ve been to) is that they don’t have pay at the pump, and you don’t have to prepay either. The gas stations are all like the good old days in Canada where you use the pump first, then go into the station to pay. It’s also interesting to note that since Australia doesn’t have pennies anymore (like Canada), when you pay for gas with cash, you can always give yourself 2 extra cents of gasoline 🙂

We we’re flying Tigerair for the first time today and the check in and bag drop process were all automated. After using a kiosk to check in (like a lot of other airlines), you have to deal with dropping off checked luggage on your own as well. First you have to put the baggage tag on your bag, then proceed to the back drop stations where you scan your boarding pass. The bag drop station then automatically weighs your bag (to make sure it’s within the weight limit you paid for), scans the baggage tag, and sends your bag down the conveyor belt. It was a little bit cumbersome because you had to make sure your bag and the baggage tag was oriented in a way that allowed it to be scanned, but overall, the process was fairly quick and painless.

We knew there wouldn’t be any food (or drinks) on the flight, so we both got meat pies from Pie Face at the food court in the terminal. (We also shared a sausage roll from a cafe). We’d been meaning to try Pie Face since we arrived in Australia, and now seemed as good a time as any. We also got two more Bundaberg sodas: Sarsparilla (Kait: it was more like a root beer) and a Lemon, Lime & Bitters. This trip has been the first time I’ve had Sarsparilla from companies other than HeySong. (We also tried a Malaysian brand while we were in Singapore). While I enjoyed experiencing the diversity of flavours in the different Sarsparillas, I still think HeySong is the best.

The flight was smooth and weather was good throughout the flight. As we approached Sydney, I could see out the window that there was a fairly large fire burning not far from the city. (Later in the day while we walked around, the air was hazy and we could smell the smoke.)

Getting into the city from the Airport was really simple with the train. We got transit cards (called Opal Cards in Sydney) and put 20 AUD on them. Unlike most cities with transit fare cards for tapping on and off, the Opal Cards did not require any cash deposit, so it was a no brainer to get them. From the domestic terminal at the airport, it cost 15.76 AUD and took 10 minutes to get to Central station. From the station, it was a short walk to the Central Station Hotel, our home in Sydney for the next 3 days.

After checking in and getting settled in our small (but clean and cozy) room, we headed out to make the most of the remaining daylight. It wasn’t even 3pm yet, but the sun was going to set before 5. Kaitlyn’s mentioned this before, but I always find it odd when it’s a warm or hot day, and the sun sets early. Growing up in Vancouver, I’m conditioned to expect 9pm sunsets when it’s this warm.

From the hotel, we made our way first to Hyde Park. The park is named after the original Hyde Park in London, but it’s less than 1/10 the size. None the less, there’s a beautiful tree lined path that runs down the centre of the park, and a well kept fountain at one end. From the fountain, you also have a great view of St. Mary’s Cathedral, one of the many beautiful older buildings in Sydney. Sydney was founded about 100 years before Vancouver, and it really shows in some of the fantastic old buildings.

From Hyde Park, it was a straight shot down Macquarie St towards the Sydney Opera House. When you think of the most famous landmarks in the world, I think the Sydney Opera House is definitely in the top 20, if not the top 10. I was really excited for Kaitlyn to see it for the first time.

The building itself is a marvel of engineering and design, and I was awed even though this wasn’t my first time seeing it. It seems a shame if I were a local here and grew to take the building for granted (and it makes me wonder if visitors to Vancouver feel the same way about Vancourites taking our natural beauty for granted).

While the building itself was spectacular, the experience of trying to get a good photo of it (and more importantly to Kait, a photo with us in it) was not so great. There is an art to selecting a stranger to ask to take a photo for you. Normally at a landmark, it’s not too difficult to pick a person who is likely to take a decent photo. My general rule of thumb is to find a person using a camera worth more then every piece of clothing and accessory they are wearing. If they are with a partner or in a group, take everyone’s clothing and accessories into account. I think the higher the ratio between Camera Value vs Clothing Value, the higher the probability the person can take a decent photo. Unfortunately for us, we didn’t have much luck getting a great photo in front of the Opera House. I shouldn’t complain though. Our friend Chris recently came to Sydney and his photo in front of the Opera House didn’t even really have the Opera House in the frame.

After the Opera House, we walked along the water past Circular Quay to The Rocks (not The Rock, or The Rock, or The Rock, but The Rocks). The Rocks is a historic area of Sydney adjacent to the Central Business District. It’s a great place to stroll around with lots of food and culture to explore. We made our way through it quickly though, as we were hoping to walk to Darling Harbour before the sunset.

Lots of areas around Sydney are being set up for Vivid Sydney, a “Festival of Light, Music, & Ideas”. I don’t really know what it’s all about, but it starts on the 27th so Kait and I will be able to check out the opening night of the festival before we leave for New Zealand on the 28th.

At this point, we were starting to get hungry, and weren’t really impressed with our food options around Darling Harbour… They looked good, but a bit too pricey (e.g. 21.50 AUD for Chicken Schwarma with Rice). With that in mind, we decided we’d do a quick loop around Darling Harbour (and over Pyrmont Bridge), before making our way to Chinatown to find some food.

After strolling around Chinatown for a while, we settled on eating at Dixon House Food Court. Kait got fried noodles and I had a spicy noodle soup. The highlight of the noodle soup were the noodles themselves. They were thin, al dente, made in house, and they gave you a free refill of noodles with every order of noodle soup! I’m usually not big on kaedama (or gluttony in general), but it’s also tough for me to pass up a free offer in order to maximize my value. That sort of tells you a lot about my personality.

After dinner, we slowly made our way back to the hotel. We made a pit stop at Coles (our favourite supermarket in Australia apparently) to pick up some drinks and fruit. When we got back to the hotel, it was only 7:30! So early in the day, but perfect timing for Masterchef Australia. We hadn’t watched in almost a week, but I was happy to see that my favourite contestant (Sad Joey Fatone) was still in it.

We’ve got 2 more full days in Sydney, so we’re spending the evening making some plans (while watching Masterchef and Bachelorette).

Steps: 21,000