We wanted to let you know what our first full day was like in Kuala Lumpur. This isn’t a typical day in an Asian city for us by any means, but it does illustrate what kind of crazy stuff you can get up to if you’re not merely sightseeing. I’m not sure how this will turn out - it may be kind of like one long run-on sentence, but hopefully it reads a bit better than that.
Our hostel offers free breakfast on their roof, so that’s how we started the day. Toast with jam and tea or coffee. You can just see the Petronas Towers from here. There isn’t a whole lot of famous stuff to see in KL, aside from said Petronas Towers, so we just started walking and headed in their general direction. We are staying in the Chinatown area of KL and at first glance it looks like there’s lots to do, but nothing is open in the morning so we’ll save this for later. It’s hot in KL, maybe hotter than Singapore. We walk for about 20 minutes and simply can’t take it anymore, so duck into the first mall we see, just to cool off. There is a 7-11 in the mall so we grab a big slurpee and slurp away. Low and behold we’ve stumbled into probably the largest mall in KL - Berjaya Times Square. Time to look around. We spot a Papa John’s pizza, but it’s a bit expensive by SE Asia standards and it was like 9 o’clock, so first we head to Auntie Anne’s pretzels - one cinnamon sugar pretzel, please. Oh my there is a giant Krisby Kreme here. How did we miss it? The standard glazed is still the best doughnut in the business and it tastes just as delicious 5,000 miles from home. The New York Cheesecake flavor wasn’t the best. As we’re letting our morning sugar-rush settle down, we scout out the mall a bit more. There is a giant amusment park on the 5th floor. Steph is excited. In my effort to avoid that, we opt for the indoor archery range. Steph is surprisingly good, if not a bit erratic, and has me beat in our competition before she chokes in the end. Typical Steph. There’s a video arcade next to the archery place, so we stop in for some action. I pride myself in my skill in the basketball-shooting games and made sure I had the record beat (handsomely, I might add), except for the one’s that have obviously been fixed by some lousy cheaters. Plus, you gotta love watching some of these guys kill-it at Dance-Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, and all the other nerdy games. I’m not sure why at this point, maybe because she was just so darn excited, but I let Steph talk me into going into the amusement park. It was actually pretty impressive - they had a full size roller coaster, complete with loop-de-loop, lots of other rides that spin you around and upside-down, and even midway games. It wasn’t too expensive and you are allowed to come and go as you please. I’m sold, let’s do it. Steph loved the roller coaster and screamed like a little kid. My favorite was like those big ships that go in big loops. My least favorite was the DNA Mixer, which was a platform that flipped forwards and backwards until you think you’re gonna barf, then does it a few more times. Steph opted out of that one, which quite frankly was a good choice, though I would have loved to see her barf, which she most certainly would have done. After the DNA Mixer I needed a break for a bit, so we took the monorail train over to a different mall, Lot 10, to eat in their food court, which we heard was “amazing.” It was pretty cool - like a clustered maze of food stalls serving mostly Asian food but also some Western as well. Steph went with her Singapore fav - Carrot Cake, the white variety this time (not as good - while I opted for the Chinese beef noodles - basically plain noodles with this slow-cooked beef mince concoction on top. Both were good. Topped it off with a shaved ice dessert with strawberries on top. You gotta be careful with the shaved ice desserts here, as they often include beans and condensed milk on top, but this variety was delicious. After lunch we scoped out Lot 10 a bit, bought a big bag of Tutti Frutti Mentos since we had never heard of this flavor before (as it turns out, for good reason), scoped out the sales at the department store, then headed back towards the amusment park. We kept seeing a coffee shop called Old Town White Coffee all over the place, and Steph said it was famous from around here, so even though we were no more than 200 feet from our last air-conditioning we stopped in for ice coffees. Half the price of Starbucks and probably the best iced coffee I can remember - may have to let Steph stop for coffee breaks more often. On the way back to Times Square we stopped at a big mall dedicated to electronics. It’s crazy there could be this big of a mall strictly for electonics, as there is really only so many cameras and computers on the market, and thus lots of copies of the same store, but the place was packed. We did some browsing but aren’t really in the need for any gadgets at the moment so headed back for more roller coasters. A few more rounds on the rollercoaster and my big flipping ride and we’d had enough of the amusment park. Turns out there are two arcades in this mall, so we went for a few more rounds of basketball as well. We were getting pretty tired at this point, so stopped off at Starbucks for the half-price Frappachino offer they had on at the moment. Steph loved the worker there that stood outside ringing a bell and saying “special discount for you! Half price!” in a very funny accent. We finally left Times Square for the day and walked back over to Chinatown. The Central Market there is pretty cool - a bit touristy but well organized with lots of different types of shops, not just the same few shops over and over again as some markets tend to be. I tried for some of my favorite deep-fried bananas from a dude outside but they were pretty cold by this point and basically not edible. He charged me a ridiculous tourist price too - that’s 66 cents down the toilet! Back in the Market we couldn’t resist the fish spa, where you dip your feet into the aquariums full of little fish, who eat all the dead skin off your toes. It’s extremely tickley (is that a word?) but Steph swears it leaves her feet feeling super smooth. We hadn’t had luck finding anywhere decent for dinner by this point, so reluctantly went for re-heated chicken satay in the Market food court. Not the best but decent. It seems Chinatown in any city has a good night market, and in KL it is no different, so after dinner we went to see what was on offer. Mostly the same stuff as the night markets in Bangkok - knock-off watches, sunglasses and purses, touristy t-shirts, plus lots and lots of food. We found lots of good munchies - I had a semi-cold beer, some of that delicious Chinese dried BBQ pork we had in Singapore, and Steph found a place that grilled up a skewer of broccoli for her, basted in a chili sauce. That was the winner. We both picked up pairs of knock-off sunglasses for the beach and we got some mangosteens (some strange fruit Steph claims is very good for you and usually very expensive at home) to go. Back to the hostel for a shower and straight to bed - that was one hell of a day! Now, as I said earlier this isn’t exactly a typical day for us - we basically went all out and just got whatever we wanted, but all of this, including our own room at the hostel, set us back just a pinch under 100 bucks. That’s a pretty good day for a hundie. Now for some sleep so we can do it all again tomorrow!
Our hostel offers free breakfast on their roof, so that’s how we started the day. Toast with jam and tea or coffee. You can just see the Petronas Towers from here. There isn’t a whole lot of famous stuff to see in KL, aside from said Petronas Towers, so we just started walking and headed in their general direction. We are staying in the Chinatown area of KL and at first glance it looks like there’s lots to do, but nothing is open in the morning so we’ll save this for later. It’s hot in KL, maybe hotter than Singapore. We walk for about 20 minutes and simply can’t take it anymore, so duck into the first mall we see, just to cool off. There is a 7-11 in the mall so we grab a big slurpee and slurp away. Low and behold we’ve stumbled into probably the largest mall in KL - Berjaya Times Square. Time to look around. We spot a Papa John’s pizza, but it’s a bit expensive by SE Asia standards and it was like 9 o’clock, so first we head to Auntie Anne’s pretzels - one cinnamon sugar pretzel, please. Oh my there is a giant Krisby Kreme here. How did we miss it? The standard glazed is still the best doughnut in the business and it tastes just as delicious 5,000 miles from home. The New York Cheesecake flavor wasn’t the best. As we’re letting our morning sugar-rush settle down, we scout out the mall a bit more. There is a giant amusment park on the 5th floor. Steph is excited. In my effort to avoid that, we opt for the indoor archery range. Steph is surprisingly good, if not a bit erratic, and has me beat in our competition before she chokes in the end. Typical Steph. There’s a video arcade next to the archery place, so we stop in for some action. I pride myself in my skill in the basketball-shooting games and made sure I had the record beat (handsomely, I might add), except for the one’s that have obviously been fixed by some lousy cheaters. Plus, you gotta love watching some of these guys kill-it at Dance-Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, and all the other nerdy games. I’m not sure why at this point, maybe because she was just so darn excited, but I let Steph talk me into going into the amusement park. It was actually pretty impressive - they had a full size roller coaster, complete with loop-de-loop, lots of other rides that spin you around and upside-down, and even midway games. It wasn’t too expensive and you are allowed to come and go as you please. I’m sold, let’s do it. Steph loved the roller coaster and screamed like a little kid. My favorite was like those big ships that go in big loops. My least favorite was the DNA Mixer, which was a platform that flipped forwards and backwards until you think you’re gonna barf, then does it a few more times. Steph opted out of that one, which quite frankly was a good choice, though I would have loved to see her barf, which she most certainly would have done. After the DNA Mixer I needed a break for a bit, so we took the monorail train over to a different mall, Lot 10, to eat in their food court, which we heard was “amazing.” It was pretty cool - like a clustered maze of food stalls serving mostly Asian food but also some Western as well. Steph went with her Singapore fav - Carrot Cake, the white variety this time (not as good - while I opted for the Chinese beef noodles - basically plain noodles with this slow-cooked beef mince concoction on top. Both were good. Topped it off with a shaved ice dessert with strawberries on top. You gotta be careful with the shaved ice desserts here, as they often include beans and condensed milk on top, but this variety was delicious. After lunch we scoped out Lot 10 a bit, bought a big bag of Tutti Frutti Mentos since we had never heard of this flavor before (as it turns out, for good reason), scoped out the sales at the department store, then headed back towards the amusment park. We kept seeing a coffee shop called Old Town White Coffee all over the place, and Steph said it was famous from around here, so even though we were no more than 200 feet from our last air-conditioning we stopped in for ice coffees. Half the price of Starbucks and probably the best iced coffee I can remember - may have to let Steph stop for coffee breaks more often. On the way back to Times Square we stopped at a big mall dedicated to electronics. It’s crazy there could be this big of a mall strictly for electonics, as there is really only so many cameras and computers on the market, and thus lots of copies of the same store, but the place was packed. We did some browsing but aren’t really in the need for any gadgets at the moment so headed back for more roller coasters. A few more rounds on the rollercoaster and my big flipping ride and we’d had enough of the amusment park. Turns out there are two arcades in this mall, so we went for a few more rounds of basketball as well. We were getting pretty tired at this point, so stopped off at Starbucks for the half-price Frappachino offer they had on at the moment. Steph loved the worker there that stood outside ringing a bell and saying “special discount for you! Half price!” in a very funny accent. We finally left Times Square for the day and walked back over to Chinatown. The Central Market there is pretty cool - a bit touristy but well organized with lots of different types of shops, not just the same few shops over and over again as some markets tend to be. I tried for some of my favorite deep-fried bananas from a dude outside but they were pretty cold by this point and basically not edible. He charged me a ridiculous tourist price too - that’s 66 cents down the toilet! Back in the Market we couldn’t resist the fish spa, where you dip your feet into the aquariums full of little fish, who eat all the dead skin off your toes. It’s extremely tickley (is that a word?) but Steph swears it leaves her feet feeling super smooth. We hadn’t had luck finding anywhere decent for dinner by this point, so reluctantly went for re-heated chicken satay in the Market food court. Not the best but decent. It seems Chinatown in any city has a good night market, and in KL it is no different, so after dinner we went to see what was on offer. Mostly the same stuff as the night markets in Bangkok - knock-off watches, sunglasses and purses, touristy t-shirts, plus lots and lots of food. We found lots of good munchies - I had a semi-cold beer, some of that delicious Chinese dried BBQ pork we had in Singapore, and Steph found a place that grilled up a skewer of broccoli for her, basted in a chili sauce. That was the winner. We both picked up pairs of knock-off sunglasses for the beach and we got some mangosteens (some strange fruit Steph claims is very good for you and usually very expensive at home) to go. Back to the hostel for a shower and straight to bed - that was one hell of a day! Now, as I said earlier this isn’t exactly a typical day for us - we basically went all out and just got whatever we wanted, but all of this, including our own room at the hostel, set us back just a pinch under 100 bucks. That’s a pretty good day for a hundie. Now for some sleep so we can do it all again tomorrow!
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| Biggest Krispy Kreme ever! This is the upstairs seating area |
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| Adam on the DNA Mixer |
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| Adam's Beef Noodle |
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| Yummy shaved ice |
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| Fish Spa - this was when we were trying out the tank with the big fish! |
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