Day 5 - 18th February 2014 - Kuala Lumpur - Phnom Penh

Apologies for the lateness of this post, ended up nodding off last night before I could do it!  Not a whole lot to report in this one, most of today was taken up with travel, we got up and headed out for breakfast, Giss went for the western option, I decided to hit my old mates at SK Corner again, for another roti.  After that we caught a taxi to KL Sentral station, and from there a train to the airport, rather than the usual bus.  It was all skin of the teeth stuff, we got on the train 2 minutes before it was due to depart, probably should have had a quicker breakfast!

The train was lovely, very spacious and so smooth once underway, much more comfortable than the bus and the scenery was great.  Unfortunately the train only goes to the main airport terminal, so we still had a 20 minute bus connection to the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT).  Once there we had plenty of time to check in, grab a quick bite and then wait for our plane. 

Buffet at SK Corner

It was around a 2 hour flight to Phnom Penh, and we were sitting next to a lovely Irish lady who is going to Cambodia to volunteer teaching English for 2 months, something i'd love to do if I ever got the opportunity,.  
Once we arrived in Cambodia we filled out all the visa application forms, paid our $20 each (US dollars only) and made it through completely unscathed.  First move when out the door was to organise a SIM card for our phone, thankfully there are several vendors right at the airport door.  SIM card, $3 sir, oh you want to call international? You need to add extra credit, $2.  I already like this place!  Then you are given a voucher for a taxi to the hotel, they have implemented set price taxis of $9 which makes it fairer to the drivers, as well as letting tourists know up front what the cost is likely to be.  The trip to our hotel was amazing, the difference between KL and PP is astonishing, I ca

Dinner at SK Corner

n't think of any other way to describe PP than Chaos.  There are moto-scooters and Tuk-Tuk's (motorbikes with carriages hitched on the back) darting everywhere, the horns are sounded almost constantly, driving on the wrong side of the road, or through red lights seems to be par for the course.  What is really amazing is that no-one gets angry. No one is abusing anyone, no fingers given, they just go with the flow and avoid the obstacles; the horns seem to be simply a device used to warn people where the vehicle is, rather than an angry beeping. 
The traffic was also chaotic due to school finishing at that time our driver informed us, so we spent over 20 minutes at a standstill.  It was still enjoyable just getting to enjoy such a different landscape and scenery.  

A sad reminder of the realities of tourism in Cambodia

Unfortunately I don't have many pictures at the moment, and i'm also running out of time to get going for the day, so I will try for a more comprehensive post tonight, today we are off to the killing fields and the genocide museum, so it will no doubt be a sobering and emotional day.  

Day 4 – 17th February 2014 – Kuala Lumpur

Preparing for Dinner on Jalan Alor

I’m getting all out of sync because I have to do last night’s dinner before I can start today, since I have been writing up my posts before we have dinner.  Last night my intrepid tour partner was feeling a bit ordinary, the exotic diet had taken its toll, so we decided to go for some run of the mill Chinese from Jalan Alor.  A craving that Giss had for sweet and sour pork was luckily able to be filled, as well as some fried rice, and braised pork ribs for me.  It was nice enough, however pretty plain by our usual standards, so I don’t think we’ll be going back. 

Detailed decorations on a building in Chinatown

Today we managed to get moving a bit earlier than yesterday, heading out around 9.30.  It’s definitely a better time of day to be out and about, as the sun hasn’t had a chance to work up the temperature too far, though after 15 minutes of walking we had a healthy sheen going.  We were tossing up where to have breaky, my Dad had suggested heading over to Chinatown as there was supposed to be a decent dim-sum place there, however it seemed a bit too far away, so the decision was made to hit a local breaky before we headed over. We ended up going for a pretty basic eggs and toast at a Singaporean joint, I think I've found that while I’m willing to get out of the comfort zone for most meals, breakfast seems to be when my appetite is at its tamest.

Petaling street is the main night market

After the feed we wandered over to the monorail and headed for Chinatown, which also hosts the major knock-off market in KL.  Everything from Gucci and Prada handbags, to the worlds cheapest Rolexes and every brand of T-Shirt can be found here, all of questionable quality, and all at bargain basement prices.  At this time of day though, it is a much less intimidating place than at night, when you can barely squeeze by as vendors harass you “Yes please sir, good price for you sir, yes miss, hello miss” and even the odd “G’day Mate!” 

A bird of unknown origin

While there were a few shops open, it seems our appetite for cheap rip off merchandise has been sated after a couple of trips, and we were happy just wandering through, and searching for this famed dim sum place.  Long story short, we couldn’t find it.  I did however find a whole lot more of the bacon vendors from yesterday, however on an even sadder note, you can’t bring any pork products back into Australia, so my plan of buying up giant bags of the stuff were also thwarted. 

So after a bit of wandering around and not finding anything particularly to our tastes it was back on the monorail and into Sungei Wang shopping centre again, our favourite haunt. 

Gender equality in action

This time we were on a mission for glasses.  Loaded with several pairs of specs, prescriptions and instructions, we headed into one of the shops we had used before to fill the order.  Served by a lovely Chinese man, after much explanations that no these glasses were not for us, and yes the mickey mouse frames were really for my Mum not my child, we got to where we needed to be.  I also managed to pick up a new pair of sunnies somewhere in the mix, and all at around a quarter of what we would pay in Aus. 

At this point we were getting ready for another meal, so we decided to head down to a local street food vendor we eat at (usually a few times) every time we come here.  The lady that works here has to be one of the nicest people we have come across in all our travels, just a genuinely lovely person and the food is pretty spectacular as well.  It is mostly Chinese fare again (KL has a huge Chinese population) with beautiful roast Duck and Pork as well. 

Lunch at Restoran Instant

Another attraction of this place is it brings back a lot of great memories, of our first ever Asian adventure with my parents to KL.  We happened to be wandering past, and I think it was the first ever restaurant we had seen that had people out the front herding you in, almost forcing you to sit down.  I think we were a bit like stunned cattle, herded into the seats that first time, but I’m really glad it happened.  The restaurant is also in a great spot, right on a busy street with plastic tables and chairs set up on the footpath (another story is the time the police raided the place while we were there, and confiscated every table and chair, except the ones we were sitting on, or the ones the staff managed to snatch back inside the restaurant). 

Giss, Swee Ping, and her Mum

Dan, Swee Ping and her Mum

So we arrived and found our friend Swee Ping, who amazingly remembered us straight away!  Pretty impressive since it has been at least 3 years since we have been to KL, apparently Giss hasn’t changed a bit, but I have gotten taller.   We were still a bit filled from the last meal (seems to be a perpetual situation here) so decided to take it a bit easy, and just ordered a fried chicken dish, some “salad sauce” chicken for Giss, and a proper “sausage fried rice” with Lap Cheong (not that easy to find here because of the no pork thing). 

Current Location - Movida bar

What we didn’t count on was Swee Ping buying us a few special dishes as well, so we ended up with crispy skin pork,  BBQ pork, and some duck, plus a chicken dish which I have no idea of but it was nice.  The problem with these dishes is that there was no way we could refuse them, but there was also no way we could eat them.  In the end we opted for the old take away container, which covered our guilt as well as clearing the plates.  So with a great feed in our bellies, we staggered back to the sanctuary of the hotel room, for A/C and possibly a Nana nap, depending on who you ask. 

The colourful buffet at Restoran SK Corner

So now we have wandered down to a local bar to use their wifi to take care of the blog, I’m enjoying a Carlsberg (they clearly have big shares in KL as every promotion seems to put them ahead of the local Tiger brew) while Giss has lamb chops (Kiwi to the core) since she won’t join me back at SK corner when I return for dinner again tonight.  Tomorrow, we head off to Cambodia, which I think is going to take us a long way out of our comfort zones, but I can’t wait.   

Did I mention it's 24 hours?

Day 3 – 16th February 2014 – Kuala Lumpur

Our hotel lobby, because I didn't take a dinner picture

I should probably start off with dinner last night, we ended up wandering down to a very basic looking restaurant called SK Corner.  It seems to be primarily Indian, but also offers the usual options; Nasi Lemak, Nasi Goreng etc.  It also has a fantastic looking buffet, and appeared to have a largely local crowd as well as a few westerners, which I always find comforting. 

We looked through the menu card and made our decisions, however when the time came to order it got a little difficult.  The waiter spoke no English.  Zero.  All good I thought, we’ll just point to the words that we want to order on the menu.  Oh, that’s right, he can’t read either!  In the end we managed to blunder our way through by just repeating Tandoori and Butter Naan.  Apparently those words must be universal, because that was exactly what we got.  Two big metal trays with beautiful fresh Naan coated with butter, and little dishes with Dahl and some kind of spicy green liquid. 

Unfortunately I didn’t have the camera so I didn’t get any pictures but I’m going to try and convince Giss to head back there again, as the food was lovely, but more than that was the atmosphere.  It really felt like an authentic foreign adventure eating at a place like that, and while it definitely took me out of my comfort level a little, it was thoroughly enjoyable, and the Lassi was delish as well!

Times Square Shopping Centre

So after a well-deserved sleep in we geared up and headed out around 10:30 for a local coffee shop called Feka we had spotted yesterday.  We had a pretty decent breakfast here, I had fried eggs with potato and duck hash, and Giss had Brioche French toast with spiced orange syrup and Chantilly cream.  Real coffee too which isn't all that easy to find over here!  Unfortunately again no photos as I left the stupid SD card in the computer, so after a trip back to the hotel to pick it up, we wandered over to a shopping centre called Times Square.

This place is absolutely enormous, it has over nine floors of shops, and the floors are massive as well.  It has a pretty good mix of up-market brands and cheaper Asian style shopping.  Oh, and it also has a theme park with a roller coaster, after all, who wants to do their shopping if they can’t ride a roller coaster afterwards!  We spent a good couple of hours here, Giss enjoying searching for shoes, and me enjoying the A/C.  Mission successful on the shoes, so it was time to jump on the monorail and head over to the Twin Towers, the iconic buildings which have featured in several movies, and are an iconic feature of the Malaysian skyline.

Times Square Shopping Centre Theme Park

Building under construction

We took advantage of a few photo ops on the walk from the monorail to the twin towers, one thing that has amazed me is the amount of construction going on around the city.  I have counted at least 10 enormous skyscrapers (?) or at least high rise buildings going up, as well as many more smaller (still huge) buildings, road works, demolitions etc. The slightly strange part of it all is that we have seen so many abandoned (we assume) around the city as well.  Derelict buildings or even half completed but obviously sitting for a long time.  Even the new constructions look old and abandoned, with concrete covered in mould, not sure if that is due to the time for construction, or just the speed that mould appears in this climate. 

Giss at Twin Towers

Dan at Twin Towers

So once we arrived  at the Twin Towers and got a few pictures, we wandered through the shopping centre attached to the towers. However unfortunately this is another shopping centre which is aimed a little out of our budget.  As much as we’d love a Versace hyper colour jacket, or a Ralph Lauren polo shirt, we have a $50,000 record player to save up for!  So after hitting the food court for a late lunch of Naan and Dahl we headed back to the monorail (even bought our ticket from the machine this time, like real locals!) and returned to the hotel.

The Petronas Twin Towers

On the way back to the hotel however, we hit gold.  Wandering through one of the food vendors in Jalan Alor, I spotted a guy cooking what looked suspiciously like bacon on a charcoal grill.  Moving in for a closer look, the shop had piles and piles of this meat, and after a quick taste

Looks like bacon.... Smells like bacon.....

test (she insisted) I can confirm, this is almost certainly bacon, however judging by the sweet/sticky sheen on it they must coat it in honey or something similar before cooking.

Piles of meaty goodness

  I almost bought the chili variety, however thankfully the heat kicked in after my taste test before I bought, and I realised the mistake I nearly made.  It’s called Gui Fei dried meat, and it is absolutely delicious, so now I can sit here sipping on my beer, chewing on my “bacon” and writing up the blog.  This is the life!

Not sure what the plan is for dinner tonight, we might head to a restaurant which a lovely lady runs, we have eaten there several times every time we come to KL, tomorrow is our last day here before we head off to Phnom Penh, and I can’t wait to be honest.  KL is great, but I’m itching to see what Cambodia will be like.  

Kind of ironic, Fosters is the cheapest beer you can buy here

Day 2 – Kuala Lumpur – 15th February 2014

Today we started a little slowly, those fireworks for Chinese New Year we mentioned yesterday.  Well we found out what time they finish.  3 Am. Wasn’t too bad though, Giss managed to sleep through them completely, and I was only woken for the 5 minutes they went off and then managed to crash again. 

Jalan Alor by day

Although there is only a 2 hour time difference here, the body clock is still a bit messed up.  It doesn’t help having an inside hotel room, so no daylight to judge with.  In the end we ended up leaving the hotel around 8am here time, or 10am body clock time. 

KL operates on a very different schedule to us, start late and finish late, so it was a very different scene that greeted us on our morning walk.  Jalan Alor still had a few people walking through it, but you couldn’t recognise it from the vibrant hub it was the night before.

Pavilion Shopping Centre Decorations

 So on we trecked to Jalan Buckit Bintang, a main street of sorts, in search of some breakfast.  It’s interesting how your body does funny things to taunt you, I’m never very picky about breakfast usually, however being in an Islamic country where bacon is nearly impossible to come by, all I can think about is a nice plate of bacon and eggs.  After half an hour of wandering, we settled for a restaurant we have been to before, which serves western style breakfasts and has tables outside so you can still enjoy the view.   

Food Court Entrance

Giss wussed out and had a plate of scrambled eggs, baked beans, toast and sausage (chicken of course) but I felt guilty about eating western food o/s and went for the Hong Kong breakfast.  It was a decent feed and a nice cup of tea as well, and it was enjoyable sitting and watching the city slowly come to life.

As I said before KL operates on a very different schedule, and the schedule varies depending where you are.  The whole day we have been watching the city slowly awaken, and no matter where we went there was something opening or getting ready to open.  We started out heading to The Pavillion – a very upmarket shopping centre which hosts the Gucci, Prada, Tiffany’s etc.  While we certainly weren't going to be doing any shopping here, it’s nice to dream.  $10,000 watches aren't too shabby I learned.  

 From there we just did a general wander up the main strip looking through the various shopping centres along the way.  We ended up by a bit of chance finding a great little food court for lunch.  We saw a sign above an escalator pointing down, so though we might as well head down for a look, at first it seemed we had found one restaurant, but as you walked further in through the narrow strip, it just kept going and going.  There was at least 20 different food sellers, offering Chinese, Malay, Indian, Thai, Taiwanese just to name a few.  I ended up settling for a curry pork noodle dish (must have still been craving bacon) and Giss went for the 3 bbq meat with rice. 

Curry Pork Noodle - not as hot as it looks

Chef

3x BBQ meat and rice

 I got my dish, and suddenly wondered if I had messed up big time, ordering curry in Asia is always risky, but when it comes with a red oily sheen floating on top, that’s usually a sign of imminent taste bud immolation.  Thankfully it was on the tamer side of things, and I put on a healthy spice sweat and powered through.  The bbq meats with rice were pretty standard, a little disappointing to be honest, I’ve had better in Sunnybank.

 Our next stop was our old time favourite shopping centre, Sungei Wang which is a pretty decent blend of clothing, tech, and remote control helicopters.  We did a general recon as we’re going to try and save most of the shopping for Cambodia, however I did discover my dream record player in one audio store.  At 157,000 ringit (that comes through to roughly 50k depending on your exchange rate) it’s out of reach at this stage, but if I do hit the millions, I’ve now found the turntable to match my Bentley.  

 

Ultimate Turntable - $50,000

 After all that wandering, we were ready for a bit of a cool down, so we headed to an impressive looking French styled bakery, which most importantly had air conditioning.  The tropical iced tea and mango frappe hit the spot, and gave us the energy to carry on, so it was back to the hotel room for a quick refresh and to find a nice spot for a quiet afternoon beer. 

Pisco Bar

So it is here you find us at Pisco Bar, a Spanish themed establishment with tapas on order, and decent happy hour prices on pints of Carlsberg as well as watermelon daiquiris which are just what we need in this climate.  So until we figure out what we feel like for dinner, it looks like this will be the spot, at least until 8pm when happy hour ends.   

Malaysia, less PC than Australia

Day 1 - Feb 14 2014 - Gold Coast to Kuala Lumpur

Our flight from Gold Coast to Kuala Lumpur ended up departing around 20 minutes late, however it was a pretty decent flight overall.  Only one screaming child who managed to keep it zipped up for 3/4 of the flight.

Leaving on a jet plane

The plane was fairly empty, and we had an empty seat beside us which was nice.  Ended up landing 15 minutes early too, not bad for a 20 min late departure.  Immigration cleared, we hopped the hour long bus ride into KL city.
Once we arrived at the main bus station, we tossed up whether to just get a cab to the hotel, or find our own way.  Feeling adventurous the call was made to try the monorail, a decision that would probably be regretted later.
The first drama was finding the actual monorail, no easy task since signage isn't big over here apparently.  After a 15 minute walk, the monorail station was found, and after some more broken English discussions, we were on board the train in the right direction.  Once we arrived at our stop (Bukit Bintang) we then had to find our way to the hotel.  This was probably closer to a 20 minute walk.  With all our bags, in the muggy heat of the asian tropics.  Yeah, should have got the cab.   Anyway after stopping 3 more times for directions, we eventually found the hotel, which is nice.

A swan made of a towel.  Well two towels actually.

Comfy room, with A/C thank goodness, and older style furnishings.  It also has one of those butt spray hoses on the toilet, thinking I might give that a whirl at some stage.  When in rome....
After freshening up and reporting back home, we wandered to the next street over, Jalan Alor, which is a chaotic collection of street food restaurants.
Mainly Chinese food on offer, with plenty of charcoal grills and seafood as well, most of the atmosphere is created by walking up and down while the hawkers try to convince you to dine at their establishment. "Fried Rice!, Chicken Wing!, Beer!" are the regular catch cries, obviously they know our Western Tastes.

Dinner in Jalan Alor

Chinese new year celebrations were in full swing here, and dinner was accompanied with a couple of tallies of Tiger beer, stilt walkers, and fireworks.  All in all not a bad first day, we have retired to the hotel, however the fireworks are still going strong. Could be a long night!