Malaysia – Where to, Gumshoe?

Penang/HCMC/Phu Quoc (Day 133): Are We There Yet?

July 11, 2016

Our “long” (Tim: I added the quotes) day of travel started at 9am this morning. We checked out after a quick last breakfast at our hotel in George Town and hopped into a cab to take us to Penang International Airport. The front desk suggested leaving the hotel at 9am just in case there was traffic. Our taxi driver was a friendly Indian man who liked to listen to Frank Sinatra songs and sing along to them. He had the meter running while we were in the car but we already paid the hotel a flat rate (his meter only said 40 MYR and we paid 50 MYR). Oh well, not all taxi drivers are apparently as friendly as him.

We arrived at the airport earlier than expected. We checked into our Air Asia flight to Ho Chi Minh City, walked around the terminal, and went through customs and security. The only souvenir I bought from Penang, and Malaysia for that matter, was a (smaller) box of pandan egg roll cookies (7.50 MYR = $2.50 CAD) from a place called Ban Heang. We passed by one of their main shops yesterday but I didn’t take a close look, which I should have. Ban Heang is a Penang store that specializes in an assortment of cookies and tambun biscuits. They also had quite a few durian products, which is very Malaysian. The Ban Heang store at the international terminal was located right before you cross security. Ban Heang seems quite popular amongst Asian and Malaysian tourists. We still have a bunch of MYR left over. We spent less than we expected in Malaysia.

Once we crossed customs and security, there wasn’t much going on in the international terminal. They had some stores and a couple cafes but nothing that was very interesting. We’ve noticed that with many SE Asian airports, all the good stores and chain restaurants are all outside the gates. Once you go past security, other than the typical duty free stores, the stores aren’t great and often times they look like they’re selling really random junk.

Our Air Asia flight took off on time and we landed a bit earlier than scheduled. I have a head cold and was pretty congested so flying today really stunk. I felt bad for the lady beside me as I blew my nose throughout the whole flight. Just as long as I don’t get a fever it’s okay. I don’t want to be quarantined at the airport being caught by those infrared scanners.

We landed in Saigon, crossed customs (no issues), collected our bags, and walked to the domestic terminal. We gave ourselves a few hours to make our flight to Phu Quoc and thankfully everything worked out smoothly. We used the Vietnam Airlines self check-in kiosks and then lined up to drop our bags off. The Vietnam Airlines check in area was very disorganized and there was no one at the baggage drop off counter. It was a bit of a mess. We felt like we were truly back in Vietnam while standing at the counter on our turn. A couple came up right beside Tim and flash their IDs in front of the lady helping us like Tim was invisible. This was all happening while the lady behind me pushed her cart up against my legs to make sure no one budged in front of her.

We had lunch at Popeye’s and Burger King. I had a Whooper Jr. and Tim had chicken tenders. The last time we were at this terminal was on our way to Da Nang, back when Tim wasn’t feeling great, so he couldn’t enjoy the chicken tenders. So I guess he’s making up for that.

I’ve never heard as many delays or change of gate announcements than at the domestic terminal in Saigon. It seems like every 3 minutes there’s an announcement. It was pretty much inevitable that our flight to Phu Quoc would also be delayed. Our flight time of 3:50pm came and went without an announcement. Finally at 4pm, they announced that our flight was delayed at 4:35pm and our gate changed.

We finally boarded our last flight for today. It definitely is summer holidays because our flight had a lot of kids. The flight time to Phu Quoc was only 30 minutes, and it was fairly smooth until we approached Phu Quoc and the turbulence was bad as we were passing through a thunderstorm. Phu Quoc is Vietnam’s largest island (same size as Singapore) and is actually closer to Cambodia’s southern coast than Vietnam.

After landing safely, we picked up our bags and saw a representative (later learned his English name is “Billy”) from Daisy Resort holding up a sign. When we approached him he gave us a warm welcome and led us to the van. Daisy Resort is around 15 minutes away from the airport and sits on the side of a hill with views of the ocean. It took us a while to figure out where to stay in Phu Quoc. Beach front would’ve been nice but Daisy’s glowing Trip Advisor reviews and price ($58 CAD/night) won us over.

Billy was telling us in the car that Phu Quoc has been changing quickly and probably won’t be recognizable if we come back to visit even in a year’s time. Just three years ago the Vietnamese government began putting a lot of money into Phu Quoc wanting it to become a tourist island. There are 5 star resorts on the island and I’m sure there will be a lot more in the future. Billy said many of the hotel staff are from Saigon or Hanoi (he’s from Hanoi) and management from other parts of SE Asia, showing them the ropes.

Once we got to Daisy Resort, we checked in and were given welcome drinks. It had just finished raining and the sun was about to set so we didn’t get a great look at the grounds in the day light. From what we saw it looked nice and very cozy. The rooms are all villas and tiered on the hill. Since we booked the cheapest standard room, we’re at the bottom of the hill and face the courtyard gardens. The pool is nice and should have nice views of the ocean during the day. It’s down/rainy season right now so hopefully it won’t rain every single day we’re here!

We settled into our room and rested up a bit. We decided to eat at the hotel tonight and be more adventurous with what’s around tomorrow. The restaurant prices were about double the price of street restaurants but it was still very reasonable by western standards. We shared a vermicelli bowl with grilled beef (140k VND = $8.20 CAD) and an order of spring rolls ($7.30 CAD). When the food came it was so nicely presented compared to the street food we’ve been eating. Our bill came to $16 USD for our food, two fruit smoothies, and a coke. So it won’t be a horrible option to eat here more than once.

Looking forward to spending time here and relaxing. Hopefully we get a bit of sun!

Steps today: 8,000

Penang (Day 132): George Town, a Hawker’s Delight

July 10, 2016

We woke up this morning and looked at the calendar. Exactly one week until we’re home. So crazy! We read that Sundays in George Town are very quiet so we had a leisurely morning ourselves. We’re both getting a bit of a cold, so today is mostly going to be a rest day for us as well (I guess that’s our sign to come home soon).

Tim was feeling better today and even ate some breakfast. We got there around 10am and breakfast ends at 10:30am. The staff in the restaurant aren’t very friendly or personable. They don’t acknowledge you or even break a smile. The clock inside the restaurant is also 5 minutes fast, so at 10:25am, the attendant started unplugging and turning off the appliances and then turned off the lights. There were about 5 tables still eating, so this was pretty rude and unprofessional. They should really change the clocks in the restaurant.

We’ve been catching up on Suits (on Netflix) over the past couple of weeks, so that’s what we’ve been doing while resting. It wasn’t until around noon that we headed out for the afternoon. Our main attraction for today was to visit “Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul“.

Penang Road restaurant was about 8 minutes away from our hotel by foot and away from the heritage area. When we arrived, we found a crowded looking alley with people lined up at the teochew chendul stand. It was a bit confusing because they have a cart outside with the chendul and then a whole lane was made up of their restaurant stalls. We walked down a bit further to get char koay toew (6 MYR = $1.95 CAD) and sat down to eat it. When we were sitting and eating, staff kept coming up to us asking if we wanted chendul. It was only then we realized that all the stalls belonged to them too.

The row of stalls had many of Penang’s specialties, so you could check off a lot of Malaysian dishes at one location. There was no way we would be able to check off all the food on the list in just a few days, but this was a start. I saw an Assam laksa (aka Penang Laksa) stall closer to the beginning of the alley and was interested in trying it. I’ve only ever had Singaporean laksa (curry based laksa), which is more popular and common at home than this one. I know there are some restaurants in Vancouver that serve Assam Laksa, but they like to warn customers before they order it because it may not be what they expect – with that warning, I never ordered it. Since we’re in Penang, the birthplace of this type of laksa, I wanted to try it.

While I was waiting for my laksa to come, Tim went to the Penang fried chicken stall and got a thigh and a wing (6 MYR = $1.95 CAD). As with other hawker’s markets here, we ordered at the stall and they found us. We had a few waitresses on occasion asking people if this was their dish – they should have a numbering system like Red Garden. The Assam Laksa (4.80 MYR = $1.56 CAD) was surprisingly good – but has a very fishy smell (so if you don’t like fish you shouldn’t eat this) and is sour and a little spicy (more like a tom yum broth than curry). There was a lot of ingredients in the soup and when you watch them pour the soup into the bowl, they scoop the soup and then drain all the liquid out but hold in all the “junk” in the bowl (repeat a few times). Tim’s chicken was good and I liked the sweet and spicy dipping sauce they gave with the chicken.

After we were done our mains, I ordered a chendul (2.70 MYR = $0.88 CAD) from one of the waiters. I know they have a few different options to choose from but since we weren’t near a sign or a menu, I just showed them a picture of the chendul from my food pamphlet. The chendul the waiter brought us was a coffee flavoured ice with coconut milk, green pandan “noodles”, and red bean. I can see why people like having this dessert in hot climates, it’s very refreshing! But the ice also melted in a couple of minutes, so you should eat it really quickly.

After lunch we walked back into the heritage zone and saw how dead the city was. Even more so than the two previous days, more businesses were closed on Sundays. We walked down a street called “Love Lane”, which was close to our hotel, which had a bunch of Chinese association buildings and schools. All the businesses were closed but all we could hear through the closed doors were the clanking of Mahjong tiles. I wanted to take pictures of all the Grandpas sitting around playing MJ but as I peered through the window, someone would always see me looking.

We spent the rest of the late afternoon watching Suits and resting up since not much was open and we didn’t want to push ourselves too much and be more sick over our last week away. Being away for 4 months, it’s impossible not to have rest days or else we would’ve burned out a long time ago. This last part of our trip has been more “go go go” since wanted to see a bit more during our SE Asia leg. Looking forward to Phu Quoc and just being able to fully relax and not feel like we have to see anything.

For dinner we decided to go back to the food vendors on Lebuh Chulia where we went on our first day here. Since it is Sunday many of the vendors that are usually there were not. Only about half of them were still set up today.

Tim got a Hokkien “bak chang” (sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves or a “dung” in Toi San) which he was craving since it looked and tasted like the Taiwanese ones rather than the Cantonese ones I’m used to (he ended up ordering a second one after he finished the first). I ordered Penang style chee chur fan (rice roll with hoisin) and a small order of wantan mee. We grabbed a seat and the beverage station at this particular group of vendors was a fruit juice stand. The lady came around and asked if we wanted something to drink, so we shared a guava juice.

The juice stand looked like it was made up of a Mom, Dad, and their middle aged daughters. We sat at a table close to them and it was entertaining watching the Mom (boss lady) bark at everyone about the orders. They spoke Cantonese, Hokkien, and Mandarin interchangeably so it was hard to follow. I could understand bits of the Cantonese (mostly just the names of fruits) and Tim could understand most of their Hokkien and Mandarin. Hokkien is the same as Taiwanese but in Penang they speak Penang Hokkien which is slightly different.

We’re leaving Penang tomorrow and heading back to Vietnam. Our flight to Ho Chi Minh is at noon, so we have to leave George Town around 9am. The hotel is going to book us a taxi and they advertise a ride to the airport for 50 MYR = $16 CAD. This is a bit more than coming here on the airport vouchers but it’s safer to pay the hotel than go in a metered taxi in Malaysia.

Steps today: 7,000

Penang (Day 131): George Town Street Art and Heritage Weekend

July 9, 2016

After last night’s wan tan mee, I knew that I would really enjoy my time sampling all of Penang’s delicious food. I get why it’s Malaysia’s food capital now. I feel bad that Tim isn’t feeling well enough to eat anything. Hopefully his stomach is all better so he could at least try some. We got a Penang Street Food guide and it’s pretty overwhelming – too much food, too little time.

We got ready and went down the hall for breakfast. Breakfast was alright. They had eggs made to order and other Malaysian breakfast options. I’ll probably try some of those tomorrow. We got to breakfast close to when it was ending so pickings were pretty slim.

We began our walk towards Armenian Street (Lebuh Armenian), where the majority of George Town’s street art is. We had a map that listed out where all the murals around the city were. We only made it to 80% of them today (making sure we saw the most famous ones). On our way to Armenian Street, a lot of the streets were blocked off to cars as the city was beginning to set up for festivities that were going to happen tonight for Heritage weekend.

Half way through looking at the street, we stumbled upon CF Hawkers Market. We had just watched a portion of Anthony Bourdain’s episode this morning and he went there with a local guide at night. They were open for lunch so we decided to find something to eat there. More than half the stalls were open for lunch but many of them were closed until dinner time. I got a char koay teow (6 MYR = 2 CAD) and a watermelon juice (2.80 MYR = $0.90 CAD) for lunch.

The hawkers markets in Malaysia (from the couple that we’ve been to) are different than the ones in Singapore in that you don’t pay upfront when you order. You order at the stall and then you sit down and they’ll come find you and bring your food to you. There’s no buzzer or number system (at CF Market), so you’ll see food vendors wandering around the seating area with trays of food looking for their customers. Also, beverages are all sold from a central vendor, whose workers go around to each table and ask if you want anything to drink. All the drink selections are usually on big signs around the market.

It was really hot out today and there weren’t many trees or shade in George Town. Tim was feeling pretty tired and weak so we headed back to the hotel for the afternoon so he could rest. On the way back to the hotel, there was a famous chicken and BBQ pork (char siu) restaurant across the street that I wanted to try.

When we got back to the room, we rested up and I looked up the hours and saw it closed at 2:30pm AND they aren’t open on Sundays. Disappointment. I will not be trying Penang’s best char siu. Tim stayed in the room to rest and I went back out to see if the hours were wrong online. Nope, they were right. It was closed. I walked down to 7-Eleven to get some Gatorade type drink for Tim and on the way back I passed by a Hainanese chicken restaurant that looked good. I ordered one plate to take back and try. It was only 5 MYR = $1.65 CAD for chicken rice with a mix of boiled chicken and roasted chicken. The Chinese Malaysian vendors have all been really friendly and helpful so far. Actually much friendlier than I found the vendors in Singapore’s hawker markets.

After an afternoon’s rest, Tim was feeling better so we went to one of George Town’s hawker’s markets called Red Garden. It’s listed as a place to get good satays and it’s also where Anthony Bourdain got Penang’s fried oysters while he was in town. The walk to the market was only about 8 minutes away. It would be faster if George Town had proper sidewalks. Most of the time you have to walk on the street hugging parked cars.

We arrived at Red Garden Market just before 7pm and it was still light out and not that busy yet. The crowd was a mix of locals and tourists, but it was probably more tourists than locals. Tim and I did a loop around the market to see what we wanted to eat. Since we came here for satay, I ordered 10 chicken satays (they come in orders of 10) and a small order of fried oysters (from the stand that Bourdain went to). Tim went to get a bowl of lor mee, which are noodles served in a thick starchy gravy – it’s a Hokkien dish eaten by Malaysians and Singaporeans. The prices here were a bit higher than what we’ve been seeing on the street but it was still very cheap and reasonable for western standards. At this market, each vendor asks for your table number when you order so they can find you – this seems more reasonable than just searching for you aimlessly.

Everything I ordered was really good. The fried oysters were actually more of an oyster omelette similar to the ones you find in Taiwan. It had that same starchy consistency but had a different type of sauce on it which I enjoyed more than the Taiwanese ones. Tim took a few bites of his noodles and he was done. He was being a bit too ambitious about what he could eat right away on a recovering stomach. Since I was basically eating all the satays and fried oysters myself, I didn’t attempt to try to finish his noodles. The lor mee was a very hearty soup noodle since the soup is so thick, but I probably wouldn’t order them again.

After dinner we walked back into the centre of town to check out the George Town Heritage festivities. We only went to some areas of it because Tim wasn’t feeling 100% (Tim: Kaitlyn feels like it’s very necessary to mention multiple times how I’m not 100% :P) so we wanted to have an early night to rest up. The festivities that we did see were a bunch of traditional Penang games for children to play and a performance by the Penang Chingay Association.

We headed back to the hotel and got our free drinks upstairs. The movie tonight was “The Kingsman”, a movie we’ve seen before but was still good enough to watch again.

Hopefully Tim will be back to normal tomorrow! It’s our last full day in Penang before heading back to Vietnam. Our 4.5 months away is almost over.

Steps today: 11,000

Kuala Lumpur/Penang (Day 130): A Nice Change of Scenery

July 8, 2016

Packed up and ready to go, I was a bit sad to leave our room and the hotel. It was a really comfortable bed compared to Asian hotel beds that are fairly hard and the room in general was a lot nicer than what we’ve been used to. The hotel is what I’ll miss most about Kuala Lumpur…

We decided to go for breakfast at the lounge instead of the main hall today to avoid any crowds. I think we both want a bit of peace and quiet before we made our way to the airport. As expected all the Malaysian tourists who were at the lounge for cocktails weren’t there for breakfast. If you only want western choices then being in the lounge is better, but if you want more options, downstairs is better. I think if it weren’t a national holiday I would have liked to eat downstairs everyday, but having to deal with the crowds negatively outweighed my desire for more food options.

After checking out, we made our way to the Ampang Park LRT Station to go to the airport. We asked the hotel how much a taxi would cost from our hotel to the airport and they said it would be around 150 MYR = $50 CAD using their services. They said a metered taxi would probably be around the same. We read that taking a taxi to the airport is more of a gamble because Malaysian taxi drivers are notorious for ripping off foreigners and there’s no law that prohibits them to do so (as per WikiTravels) so they take full advantage. At least at the airport there was the voucher system so they couldn’t play around with the meter.

Basically taking the express train to the airport was our best and safest bet. We still had credit on our MyRapid card so it was good we could use it to get to KL Sentral Station. KL Sentral Station is about 6 stops away from Ampang Park and cost 2.40 MYR = $0.77 CAD. When we got to Sentral Station there were signs for the KL Airport Express train which was easy to follow.

Tim read that using the kiosks to buy your tickets give you additional discount so we used one. But after punching in which terminal we wanted to go to the price wasn’t discounted! After we went through the prompts and Tim paid (with his Mastercard), the price changed from 110 MYR = $35 CAD (for both of us) to 88 MYR = $28 CAD. We saw a sign later that if you pay with Mastercard you get 20%! What a pleasant surprise.

We boarded the train (which reminded me of the trains from HK Airport) and we were some of the few people with luggage. If you’re flying Malaysian Air, Emirates, Etihad, or Cathay, you could check in and drop your bags in at Sentral Station. The train was spacious and comfortable – there’s even free WiFi on board!

We got to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in less than half an hour after leaving from Sentral Station (we buffered a lot of time just in case). We were flying with Malindo Air (Malayian and Indonesian), a fairly new airline that’s based out of Malaysia. Our flight to Penang was only 135 MYR = $43 CAD per person, which included bags.

KLIA domestic terminal is very modern, and it had a lot of stores and dining options after you cross security. We walked around and saw a fast food looking restaurant called Marrybrown. It looked like a Malaysian Jollibees, as the menu was mostly fried chicken. Apparently they have locations around Indonesia, Brunei, India, and Sri Lanka. Tim ordered a chicken meal and I ordered nasi lemak with chicken (or nasi Marrybrown as they call it). Their chicken was pretty good. I liked it better than Jollibees, but not as good as Popeye’s!

We headed to our gate after lunch and found out that our flight was delayed because the plane that we were waiting to take hadn’t landed yet. We didn’t end up taking off until about 3:30pm, almost an hour delay. The flight was on a 737, which was a lot bigger plane that I was expecting for such a short flight. I wasn’t complaining since I really do hate small planes. Our flight wasn’t even half full, I wonder how Malindo is making any money with their cheap airfare (and baggage included).

The plane was nice. It had leather seats, in flight entertainment (I watched an episode of Modern Family), and more leg room than Air Asia. Malindo Air was recommended to me by my former manager, who is planning a Malaysia trip in the future. He’s tall so the leg room matters more to him than it does to me. But I do appreciate the extra leg room to stretch out. They gave us water and some crackers for snacks, which was nice of them for a 40 minute flight.

We landed at Penang International Airport, grabbed our luggage, and bought a taxi voucher at the taxi counter. Since we’re staying in Georgetown, it’s considered zone 5, which is 44.70 MYR = $14.50 CAD. We took our taxi voucher outside and hopped into our cab which took us into Georgetown, ~18km away from the airport.

While driving into Georgetown, the city seemed quaint and charming. I liked it already! We’re staying at Chulia Mansion, which is central to many of the heritage sites in Georgetown. The hotel has a lot of perks for guests – free drinks each night at the roof top bar, free ice cream and cookies everyday starting from 2pm, free breakfast, and 1kg of free laundry each day. As soon as we checked in, Tim wanted to go the kitchen and get ice cream (he loves ice cream). Overall, pretty happy with the hotel. The room is clean, the perks are nice, the location is central, and it was only $55 CAD/night.

After our ice cream break, we walked around town to get a preview of the town. We walked past Lebuh Chulia’s street vendors, which were all very busy serving dinner. All the food looked and smelled delicious. I’m most excited about all the food in Penang. We walked through Little India towards the Esplanade and City Hall. We both didn’t sleep that well last night and with our long afternoon at the airport we were both tired.

We walked back towards our hotel and I got a Malaysian wan tan mee (their version of wonton mein). The wan tan mee stall had one of the longest line ups and while watching the cooks put together a bowl, it looked good, so I ordered a small bowl (3.80 MYR = $1.25 CAD, large bowl is 5 MYR = $1.65 CAD). It’s a dry noodle (thin egg noodle) with a dark brown sesame/soy sauce covering the noodles, slices of BBQ pork (char siu), vegetables, two boiled wontons, and one fried wonton. It was one of the best things I’ve eaten this trip. Tim’s stomach wasn’t feeling great still and he took a bite and agreed. I think we’ll be back!

We came back to the hotel and washed up and then went upstairs to get our free drinks from the bar. They had a variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic options (you get one free drink per night). At 8:30pm at the roof top bar, it’s movie night. Tonight’s movie was Pitch Perfect 2, which we saw together in theatres when it came out. We enjoyed our drinks and they gave us free popcorn while we watched.

Looking forward to exploring more of the heritage buildings and sights in Georgetown tomorrow. Hopefully Tim will feel 100% so he can eat all the delicious Penang food.

Steps today: 10,500

Kuala Lumpur (Day 129): So Many People!

July 7, 2016

Today was our last full day in Kuala Lumpur and we had nothing planned. We flipped through guide books and looked online at KL’s attractions and we basically saw everything we wanted to see yesterday. Most people take a few hours to see Batu Caves but after seeing more than 2 limestone caves on this trip we decided to pass. Also, since it’s a holiday in Malaysia, we expected the caves to be more of a gong show than they probably are.

We went down to the main breakfast hall for breakfast to compare the two different areas. The restaurant was packed and looked very chaotic. Little did we know this would only be the first time we’d be surrounded by swarms of people. The main breakfast restaurant had a lot larger selection of food than the lounge floor. They had Western, Malaysian, and Indian options for breakfast. They even had a fresh roti station, egg station, and a noodle station. The big downside to eating here was that there were so many people and staff couldn’t keep up – they ran out of plates, cups, juice, and food trays were empty.

After breakfast we stayed in and caught up on some errands we had to do. We decided that we’d go out for lunch and then save the majority of our activities for the evening. Tim wasn’t feeling that great so it was good we had more of a chill afternoon.

We decided to go to the Suria KLCC for lunch and check out their food court. We took the LRT to KLCC stop, which goes straight into the Avenue K Mall. Avenue K is located directly across the street from Suria, and it was the calm before the storm. As soon as we crossed the street towards the Petronas Towers and Suria Mall, we saw hoards of people. Today is another holiday in Malaysia so everyone is at the mall apparently. We went inside the mall and it was super packed. I don’t think I’ve seen that many people in one place in a long while. People didn’t really seem to be shopping, they were just loitering and walking around. We went up to the food court and it was way too busy to find anywhere to sit and eat. They looked like they had some good Malaysian food choices but it was unfortunate that even at 3pm, we couldn’t find somewhere to sit. We walked around to all the restaurant/cafe options at the mall and they all had line ups, so we left Suria and went back to Avenue K.

Avenue K was so dead compared to Suria. I guess everyone wants to be at the fancier mall. After looking through all the food options, they didn’t look that great so I went to Nando’s at Avenue K – there was no long line up at that location. Tim wasn’t feeling well so I ordered something for myself. It was almost 3pm and I was really hungry. After almost an hour of waiting, I saw food come out and go to all the tables around us that came after. I was pretty annoyed and frustrated (probably because I was so hungry) so I went to ask them what happened and if they even put in my order. No one apologized or really addressed what happened, which made me even more upset. Our waiter miraculously disappeared during the whole ordeal and we never saw him again. I told Tim this was probably the most annoyed I’ve been the entire trip. I know it sounds ridiculous after I recall what happened and how I was so upset, but after wandering around Suria and other places to find something to eat and having to shuffle through hoards of people, my fuse was pretty short (I was so annoyed that I didn’t even take pictures of my food!) (Tim: plus it was Nando’s so no one really needs to see a photo of it).

Any way, after that ordeal, we made our way back to our hotel for the rest of the afternoon. As we experienced how crazy Kuala Lumpur gets during a holiday we didn’t have the urge to go out any more. Right at 5:30pm we went upstairs to the lounge for free drinks and appies. We went right at the time it starts to get a table after seeing how busy it was the day before.

When we got upstairs we were shocked to see the whole place packed with Malaysians and there was only one table left! I went to browse at the food they had for the day and everything was gone. The lounge was so loud and crowded, it was like a repeat of being inside Suria Mall. There were kids running around like it was a day care and you could tell people were getting upset with the state of the “executive lounge”. I overheard an Aussie complaining to management about how he’s never been in such a horrible executive lounge. Since there weren’t enough seats, people were standing all over and the food supply was being turned over constantly. Today the two regular waiters had help, which was good!

We headed out to the Petronas Towers after sunset to see the towers at night. As we got off the train at the KLCC stop, crowds of people piled on to the train before we could even get out (had to point out the elbows for this one). We went through the mall again to get to the other side of the building to see clear views of the towers. They looked much nicer at night than during the day. We took a few photos and walked through the crowds and headed back to our hotel.

I’m looking forward to getting out of Kuala Lumpur and going to Penang. Kuala Lumpur doesn’t have the same charm or warmth (from people) as other large SE Asian cities that we’ve been to. There aren’t many notable sights in the city and you could probably spend a day and a half here if you really want to see everything on the Trip Advisor attractions list. The most interesting part about Kuala Lumpur for me was the fact that Malaysia is a Muslim country so it was cool to be here during the end of Ramadan and see how the city celebrates (may not be the best time to be a tourist here though). Penang is the food capital of Malaysia so I’m looking forward to going there to check it out.

Steps today: 11,500

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

Kuala Lumpur (Day 127): Goodbye Cambodia, Hello Malaysia

July 5, 2016

Our alarm went off at 5:30am this morning. We got ready, ate a quick breakfast, and took a tuk tuk to the airport (free airport transfers from the hotel). The tuk tuk ride from our hotel to the airport took around 20 minutes. There’s a lot of people on the roads at 6:30am in the morning – including kids going to the school. They start early!

Our flight on Air Asia to Kuala Lumpur was at 8:35am and it seemed like a popular flight. There were a lot of western tourists on our flight and it was almost full. After security, we had to go through customs to get our exit stamp. The customs officers at Siem Reap all seemed very very grumpy and rude compared to the ones in Phnom Penh. I’ve read that they are more corrupt than in Phnom Penh – I believe it!

Siem Reap’s departure terminal had a food court, coffee shops, a few shops, and had free WiFi. Of course everything at the stores were more than double the price than they would be outside of the airport. We boarded our flight, and I was happy to see a larger plane (Airbus A320). Tim and I didn’t check in online and didn’t preselect our seats (we didn’t want to pay extra) so we were seated behind each other. It ended up not being a big deal because the couple beside me moved to an empty row in the back and then Tim moved back to sit with me.

Air Asia is a discount carrier so it’s basically a no frills airlines. You can pay for food and drinks but we didn’t. Their Air Asia magazine had an extensive article about food in Kuala Lumpur and while taking notes on restaurants, I was getting really hungry. I really like Malaysian food!

The flight was around 2 hours and was a quiet and smooth flight – thank goodness. Right before we landed, the flight attendant went through the cabin and sprayed (we think) a type of insecticide – everyone covered their nose and mouths. We landed in Kuala Lumpur 20 minutes ahead of schedule. KL is 1 hour ahead of Siem Reap. We haven’t had to adjust our clocks for a while. The KL airport was really big and all the Air Asia flights land in the same terminal. We had to walk quite a ways to get to customs and to our bags.

When we approached the customs area, it was a gong show. A bunch of other Air Asia flights just landed so the area was chaotic and pretty disorganized. There weren’t any airport workers directing people on where to go or how to line up, so it was a big mess of people. It was nice not having to get a visa to enter a country for the first time in a month (and not worry about corrupt officers) (Tim: and not even having to fill out an arrivals form).

Our bags were already out when we got to baggage claim. Our next errand was to get Malaysian Ringgit (MYR). We didn’t plan on coming to Malaysia on this trip so we didn’t really prepare any cash in advance. We found a Maybank ATM before exiting and took out some money there. They had a Kuwait Bank but I remember seeing a lot of Maybanks while we were in Singapore and figured it was a good bank to withdrawal money from.

Before exiting arrivals, we had to put our luggage through security. Malaysia seems very strict on what you can and cannot bring into the country. Once we got through, we went to the taxi counter in the airport and bought a ticket for cab fare to our hotel. The ticket was 85.10 MYR = $27 CAD. We thought it would be a bit cheaper (around 78 MYR) but when the lady typed in our hotel it came out to be more. It’s an automated system so can’t really argue about the price. The other option to get into town is to take a train to KL Sentral Station (yes, sentral, not central) and then transfer to connect to another train to our hotel. Since there’s two of us, it was cheaper to take a taxi (express train is 100 MYR round trip or 55 MYR one way per person).

We went down to the taxi area, which was a bit of a trek in itself. You go through a mall to get there. After being in developing countries for a month, it’s quite a change to see a mall with western stores and brands again (that are real). The cab ride to our hotel took about an hour. The city centre is pretty far away (around 60km). Tim had our hotel starred on Google Maps and we could see how sprawling Kuala Lumpur is.

We’re staying at the Double Tree Hilton which is attached to the Intermark Mall. Tim used his Hilton Honors points for our three nights at 10,000 HH points/night, making the redemption value really good (room per night here is around $150 CAD/night). We haven’t stayed at a western branded hotel in Asia since Osaka (Sheraton). It’ll be nice to have some western luxuries for a couple of days. When checking in, they upgraded us to an executive level floor (33rd floor out of 34), which is nice. The redemption room was supposed to be two twin beds but the upgraded room had a king size bed. We also get free breakfast and free drinks and snacks every day from 5:30-7:30pm. Yay for all of Tim’s work travel benefits. We better take advantage of his Hilton status while he still has it. There’s basically no chance he’ll be able to maintain his status for next year.

Our room is quite nice and has a city view. We were hoping we would be able to see the Petronas Towers but we couldn’t (Tim: just barely couldn’t). We settled in and went out to find something to eat for lunch. The Intermark Mall (also an office tower for JP Morgan and other businesses) is connected to another mall and the metro station via a covered overpass. We walked to the Ampang Centre in search of food. We walked through and saw the majority of the clothing stores were for Muslim women (~62% of Malaysians are Muslim). Today is the last day of Ramadan so there are a lot of decorations all around the city celebrating. There was a Malaysian cafe that looked decent but Tim wasn’t feeling it. I think it’s because he saw the “golden arches” close by and wanted McDonald’s. He said we could have McDonald’s for lunch and find something Malaysian for dinner. So off to McDonald’s we went. (Tim: we also went to the food court in search of food, but being Ramadan, literally everything was closed except for one Vietnamese stall).

On the McDonald’s door they had a notice saying that it is against the law for any Muslim person to eat at McDonald’s during Ramadan. McDonald’s also had decorations all around for the end of Ramadan. Prices were half the price of Australia and a bit cheaper than Singapore’s McDonald’s prices. We ordered a McChicken and a Big Mac meal. Malaysian McDonald’s has some pretty interesting looking desserts (longan ice cream sundae, white taro pie) that I wouldn’t mind trying while we’re here. Lunch was pretty satisfying, although the McChicken didn’t taste the same as home. We’ve noticed during our 4 months that Big Macs are very consistent across all the countries we’ve been to but McChickens can vary – and not in a good way.

After lunch we walked towards the Petronas Towers. It’s about a 10 minute walk from our hotel, and about a 5 minute walk from Ampang Park Mall. We went to the park behind the towers that had a good view of the towers to take some photos (along with a lot of other people). We walked around the water fountain area and went into Suria Mall, which is located at the base of the Petronas Towers. The mall is huge and was really crowded. They too had festivities for the end of Ramadan, with displays and performances in the centre of the mall. We walked around the mall for a while, only going through a few stores.

We made our way back to our hotel just before 6pm and went upstairs to the lounge for free drinks and food. We weren’t sure if it was just going to be free drinks but we were happily surprised to see a nice spread of satays, samosas, chicken wings, sandwiches, fruits, and desserts. That was our dinner for the night. So basically we could eat breakfast and dinners here for free and then have nice lunches out if we wanted.

We spent the rest of the night booking the remaining parts of our trip (we’ll be back in less than 2 weeks!) and going for a pretty quick swim at the pool. There’s an outdoor pool that has partial views of the Petronas Towers, which looks pretty cool at night. We’ll probably come back to the pool during the day when it’s warmer. I’ve acclimatized and it felt cold when I came out of the pool, and it was 28 degrees.

Looking forward to exploring more of Kuala Lumpur tomorrow. Not sure what else there is to do here besides eating since we’ve seen the Petronas Towers (quite a bit) today. We have to do a bit more research tonight. There’s fireworks going off right now from people celebrating on the streets with the end of Ramadan.

Steps today: 15,000