Travelog: Malaysia

I have been pushing this back for so many weeks now that those weeks have accumulated into months. There's only one way to get this ball rolling and that's by jumping right on in. In recent years my family has been doing back-to-back trips. It keeps us on our toes. We only had a day or so after our Norwegian Escape Cruise to touch base with our beloved house before hitting the road again. Our next trip was to Asia -- a week in Malaysia and a week in Vietnam. Grab yourself a light snack and a refreshment because we are about to embark on the first stretch of our trip.

9/5/16 Travel Day

Since we would be off to Malaysia only a day after we got back from our cruise, we spent September 4th frantically unpacking and doing laundry. This carried over to the 5th only this time we were putting stuff back into our suitcases instead of taking things out. Then there was nothing left to do but wait. The first leg of our flight was a redeye to Taipei. Crossing the International Date Line is always kind of confusing when it comes to determining what happened on which day. I slept through the twelve hours on that plane (the longest stretch I was awake for was to watch The Nice Guys) and disembarked in Taiwan very early on September 6th.

9/6/16 Travel Day/Kuala Lumpur

I've been to the Taiwan Taoyuan Airport before (you know, when I went to Taiwan) but we've never spent much time in it. Obviously we had better places to be. This time, however, we had plenty of time to make our connection  so we took our time going through a very speedy security and roaming the terminals (it was 5am at the time... not much else to do). I quickly realized two things. 1) the bathrooms are ridiculously clean and 2) each gate had a different (and very fun!) theme. Something super cute that you would only find in Asia. These themes ranged from music to Taiwanese culture to Hello Kitty. One of my favorite "gates" (it was more like a lounge but then again there were like three chairs so...) was Tsum Tsum themed! Y'all know I love Disney and they had these huge [sculptures or statues sound too fancy just look at the photos] and a little station for stamps! Thankfully I had my blogging journal on hand so I could have the adorableness with me always.

STAMPS!!!

Every airport should have
a tsum tsum area.

Once we moved on from the Tsum Tsum area, it wasn't long before we found our gate. Still with plenty of time to spare, we decided it was time to find something to eat. My mom had spent some time in this airport before and she knew there was a food court, it was just a matter of getting there. We got all turned around but found the food court back where we started when we came through security. All roads lead to Rome.

It was a bit of a strange set up because the second floor was restaurants and airline lounges but they weren't clumped togther like one would expect them to be. We came up one set of escalators and had beef noodle soup (a Taiwanese staple) on one side of the food court before we thought to check out what was on the other side. Of course, there were more restaurants to be found and more food to be had. Why would we resist? Soup dumplings, here we come!

Taiwanese beef noodle soup

Surprise, surprise, we still had time left over! Even after killing so much of it wandering around and eating! We slowly walked back towards our gate and stopped by the Hello Kitty gate complete with an adjoining Hello Kitty store. There was so much Hello Kitty, it was overwhelming(ly expensive). Only after I resigned myself to window shopping did my mom find this super cute Little Twin Stars spiral notebook in what I assume was the clearance section. It was marked down to a reasonable price and I snatched that baby up faster than you can say, "Stop laughing at me, I tripped because the floor in this airport is uneven!" (I am speaking from experience. They are subtly warped so you won't know when you're going to trip.)

Around the world with Hello Kitty

New notebook in tow, we passed by the Tsum Tsum station again so I stamped the new notebook as well for good measure. It was perfect timing because we didn't have to wait long at the gate before it was time to board our 4 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur (slept through all of this one too).

Posing with Hello Kitty on a post-purchase high.

We landed in Kuala Lumpur and things were a bit of a daze. I had no idea why I was so exhausted seeing as I slept for 16 of the last 24 hours but all I know was that immigration and baggage claim were a breeze. My mom had visited KL last year so she knew her way around. She got us a taxi ticket and managed everything for us. Thanks, Mommy! The taxi ride to the hotel was super long but then again I was fighting sleep the entire way so my sense of time could probably be described as distorted at best. And it was on that taxi ride that we got our first glimpse of the Twin Towers. It reminded me of the taxi ride from the Dubai airport to our hotel. Architectural wonders.

We made it to the Sky Hotel (how we ended up at this particular hotel is a story) and, exhausted as we were, we dropped off our stuff and headed out to explore. The first order of business was to go out and take stock of the surrounding area. My mom had stayed in the same general vicinity the last time she was in KL so she was able to show us around. She took us to the resort she stayed at and the vegetarian restaurant she ate breakfast at every morning. In between our hotel and this vegetarian restuarant is a food street called Jalan Alor that's quiet during the day but comes alive at night. We arrived at the perfect time to see them starting to set up for the busy night ahead. We'll come back in a day or two.

Since we didn't want to waste our time, my mom brought us to this mall via this very convoluted path to get there (which I now know by heart) called Parkson Sungei Wang Plaza. We didn't go through the main enterance so I underestimated just how large the mall was. The rest of the evening was spent in that mall lightly shopping and heavily exploring. When I was just about to pass out from exhaustion, we realized we had yet have dinner. KL is 12 hours ahead of East Coast so not only had we pulled an all-nighter, but we also hadn't eaten all "day." There are a lot of food options in Malaysia and even though we were too tired to go back to the Jalan Alor, we were perfectly fine with eating at The Chicken Rice Shop, a Malaysian chain restaurant. I ordered the curry chicken and it was the same exact curry my mom brought home from her previous trip and I fell in love with. Hands down my favorite curry.

We were ready to head back to the hotel to crash, but not before we stopped by a fruit vendor and picked up a bag of mangosteen. It was an early night but we still managed to get a 12 hours of sleep.

9/7/16 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

After a long travel day, sleeping in was the least I could ask for. The first thing on our to-do list was eat, but let's be real, when you're travelling, when is it not? We went back to Blue Boy Vegetarian Food Centre, my mom's Breakfast Place the last time she was in KL. Even still, I was surprised when everybody working there remembered her from a year ago! I guess my mom knows how to make an impression. Having eaten there a few times myself by now, I can see why my mom kept coming back. It's cheap and so delicious. A lot of the dishes had me fooled. So what you're telling me is that this vegetarian dish has no meat in it? I couldn't believe it even though I literally saw it with my own two eyes.

What would life be without egg waffles?

Mid-Autumn Festival @ Pavilion

The plan for the rest of the day was to visit the Petronas Twin Towers and spend time there since the bottom few floors are a mall so we walked to the nearest GOKL bus stop, the free city bus, and waited for a minute in the sunshine when my mom turned to us and suggested we walk instead. ...what?! Just because I can see the two tallest buildings in Malaysia doesn't mean they're close and in walking distance! My mom assured me there was a skybridge path all the way from the Pavilion, a large high end mall, and sure enough, there was! But we only found it after getting lost and perilously crossing busy streets during lunch hour. You know, the usual. It was such an ordeal finding the Pavilion, we couldn't not take a little time to check it out. Even though we just had a late breakfast, we made a beeline to the huge food court on the first floor that takes up a whole wing of the building. Since we were already there, what would be the point of passing up all the good food? So yes, we ate. We had egg waffles/bubble waffles (idk how to say it in English) at Eggette Lab, durian egg tarts, herbal jelly, and sting ray at Hot Plate. That last one was new to me. Good thing it was super delicious, even if the seasoning was on the salty side.

Sting ray!

Durian egg tarts!

Remember that curry I had for dinner the night before? My mom had bought a packet of the curry to prepare at home and we were on the hunt to find it again. It's seriously my favorite thing ever. Conveniently, there was a Mercato grocery store located at the end of the food court. Our search was unsuccessful but we came out of it with mango Pocky instead. (Spoiler alert: it wasn't that good. Too artificial.)

Mother daughter selfie!

Having had our fill of the Pavilion for the time being, we wound our way back to the sky bridge and walked for quite a long time before it ended and we went underground for another length. It reminded me of Dubai and how we would get to and from the Dubai Mall and its Dubai Metro station. There was a lot to take in when we got there but there was something we needed to take care of first: photo op. It was humid and the angles were near impossible but we accomplished our task and promptly headed up to the sixth floor to treat ourselves to some young coconuts. We passed by a bookstore on our way to the coconuts so we thought it'd be nice to check it out. I spent a hot minute in the stationary section and even found a few gifts for people.

Petronas Towers by night

It was getting late and we were getting tired so we started to wind our way back down to the ground floor when we saw a Starbucks. We don't usually go to chains when we travel, but Starbucks has specially designed mugs for the local region and we just couldn't resist, especially since we were enjoying ourselves so much in Malaysia.

Since the path to the bus stop led us back out to the front, where we took photos earlier, we seized the opportunity to take a few more. By this time the sun had set so it was much less sweaty, but much more hurried. The GOKL bus won't wait forever!

When we got back to the hotel, we let ourselves rest a little before heading out to Jalan Alor for dinner. Although I wasn't aware of this going into our trip, there is a restaurant on Jalan Alor called Wong Ah Wah that is famous for their chicken wings. That got my dad real excited. While I'm not the biggest fan of chicken wings in general, this dinner was my introduction to the salted egg flavor. I've had salted eggs before in other mediums, but I've never had it as a flavor. It changed my life. Along with the wings and the salted egg flavored shrimp, we also had jumbo shrimp, satay lamb, and satay chicken.

Satay lamb & chicken

Wong Ah Wah's famous wings

Salted egg shrimp

Jumbo shrimp

For dessert, we went further down the street to one of the stands selling durian. The smell is offensive to many people but I happen to love it. I don't know if I've had durian that fresh before. They provided gloves and a box of napkins and we went to town.

What a beauty

No durian left behind

Before retiring for the night, we popped into a Choc Boutique that we spotted earlier and bought a giant special delivery Pikachu and a larger, awake version of the sleeping Vaporeon I already own. It's never too late for some Pokemon plushies.

Not hard to see why this store caught our attention

9/8/16 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Yesterday was a fairly normal day so I thought we had adjusted to the new time zone, but not a chance. We were in bed until almost noon! Not the best way to explore the city. My mom wanted to take us to Lot 10's (another mall) food court for brunch but we got sidetracked by a boutique clothing store along the way. Most everything there was one size only but I still ended up buying a blouse and five skirts. Thankfully four of the five and I was able to pass the one that was too small on to my cousin.

Central Market entrance

I typically don't have much luck with food courts. Same with buffets, but that's neither here nor there. It just goes to show I'm not good with options. I ended up having BBQ pork and wonton soup before trying to explore Lot 10. I say "trying" because there's not much to Lot 10 if you're not looking for H&M or Zara. On our way to the GOKL bus stop, we passed through Sungei Wang to use the restroom (many public restrooms require a small maintenance fee but not at Sungei) but we were very close to the supermarket within the mall and wound up doing a bit (read: a lot) of shopping. By the time we finished, our backpack was full and the only smart decision was to return to the hotel to unload before setting out on our planned itinerary to Chinatown and Central Market. Again we encountered a diversion. Not far from our hotel, we came across the IT mall where everything for sale is tech related but just outside its doors is was a reasonably priced sushi restaurant. Simply by chance did we stumble across that restaurant and now we had a plan for dinner.

It took almost the whole day to get to Chinatown but we finally made it! Turns out the main attraction in Chinatown is an open air market called Petaling Street where you can negotiate your way to owning pretty much anything you can think of. This market consisted of four spokes in a x or + shape, depending on where you're looking at it from, and it was crammed with vendors. We did one pass through Petaling Street before moving on to Central Market. I apologize for the lack of photos of Petaling Street. It was too crowded for me to think about pulling out my camera. My mom had high hopes for Central Market because the last time she was there, she visited the Durian Cafe and found that curry mix we have been looking for. No such luck this time. Instead, we struck up a conversation with the owners (I believe?) while we had some durian ice cream. The real kind -- not just the frozen durian that's available in America.

Durian Cafe!

Real durian ice cream! Quite the treat!

Afterwards, we entered the indoor part of Central Market and did some damage in there as well. We did so much damage, in fact, that we had to withdraw more money from the ATM. We didn't even get to catch a glimpse of the outdoor part of Central Market before we were too exhausted and hungry to go on. We very nearly literally shopped til we dropped. Like zombies, we dragged our feet to the GOKL stop to catch a ride back to Bukit Bintang (the district where we were staying) for that Japanese dinner we scoped out earlier.

Entrance to the indoor part of Central Market

By the time dinner was over, I was pretty much sleepwalking. My parents, on the other hand, had caught their second wind and returned to Jalan Alor for more fresh durian and mangosteen while Gordon and I had an early night. After all, there is no better time to have these exotic fruits than when you're in Malaysia and they're in season.

9/9/16 Malacca, Malaysia 

Tasting kaya brought me back to my childhood

It was an early morning for us. In order to get to Malacca, we had to take the monorail to catch the metro to get on an intercity bus. Lucky for us, all these modes of transportation are very cheap and convenient. Since the bus ride to Malacca Sentral took 2-3 hours, I had time to stealthily eat the kaya-filled buns we bought for breakfast and sneak in a nap before we arrived. Of course, knowing naps, I woke up extremely disoriented and we had to find our way to the ticket counter to buy tickets for the local bus and the intercity bus ride back to KL. I was still disoriented at this time so that last sentence may not be the most accurate.

Christ Church in Malacca

Sometimes getting lost isn't so bad. (x)

Twenty minutes away, we arrived in Old Town, right in front of the iconic red Christ Church. It was a super rainy day so our pictures were not as enthusiastic as they could've been but we got them and that's what matters. Making the most of our time in Malacca, we tried to find Jonker Street. The operative word here being "tried" because we got quite lost. To entertain ourselves while we did our best to find the restaurant we were looking for, Gordon and I started playing the acronym game with the local license plates. Once we got oriented, we were able to find the Famosa Chicken Rice Ball Restaurant. The buildings in Old Town Malacca are, as you would guess, super old and this restaurant was really milking it. The inside had the open air courtyard and everything. The ambiance made me feel like I was in a Chinese period drama. Apparently Malacca is famous for their Hainanese chicken rice balls because there were many a shop boasting their own rice balls. If I'm honest, I do not recall any chicken rice flavor in the chicken rice balls. I preferred the satay sticks we ordered.

The rest of our spread.

Chicken rice balls

We demolished two of these boxes!

The other must-eat on our list was durian puffs. Malacca seems to be famous for those as well. We weren't in a hurry so we took our time popping in and out of shops that interested us and ended up with some bags and trinkets. When we finally found the Taste Better shop, we could not get those durian puffs in our mouths fast enough. They live up to the hype. These puffs are unique because they absolutely must be eaten in one mouthful! It was a struggle for me because my mouth is small but I made it happen. Some of the people at a table near ours did not think the advice applied to them and bit into it. I'm sure they had a lot of fun cleaning the durian filling off all their stuff and their friends' faces. In addition to the durian puffs, which we ended up buying (and eating) two boxes of, Taste Better also sold passion fruit soft serve and dragon fruit frozen yogurt. Gordon loves dragon fruit and I cannot get enough passion fruit so trying those was an unexpected bonus out of this trip. I'm salivating just thinking about this place.

Are these puffs big or
is my mouth small?

Passion fruit soft serve &
dragon fruit frozen yogurt

The local and touristy sides of
Malacca in a square. (x)

Once we'd had our fill, we took our time taking in the sights as we walked back to the bus stop. Even so, we had to wait for the bus to arrive so we used our time to take more photos at the Christ Church and checked out the free museum nearby. When the bus finally showed up, we were surprised when we had to ride out the entire route to get back to Malacca Sentral. Thank goodness we had time before our intercity bus's departure otherwise a certain somebody would've been running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Internally, of course.

The plan went off without a hitch and we spent the next few hours retracing our steps to our starting point. From there we returned to Jalan Alor for dinner at Dragon View Restaurant, the heavy hitters for this meal were the sambal crab (aka chili crab), salted egg crab, and salted egg shrimp. We also had spare ribs, water spinach, and a big bowl of garlic chicken soup. I know I just said this about the durian puffs, but I'm drooling. It's possible I'm just hungry as I'm writing this.

We were so eager to dig in that we forgot to take pictures... Whoops.

To end the day, we went to the heart of Jalan Alor to buy even more mangosteen before heading back to the hotel. After a long, wet, travel-filled day like this one, there's nothing like a hot shower and a soft bed.

9/10/16 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Before falling asleep the night before, we did some research and thought it would be a good idea to catch a walking tour that would take us to KL Tower as well as other parts of the city. You can see where this is going, right? Yes, we woke up just a smidge too late. Besides, the forecast predicted rain and it definitely was not rainy. Being out in the sun's rays (so near the equator!) for that long is simply not healthy. Our decision justified, we adjusted accordingly and chose to spend our morning at Blue Boy instead. We tried to try some new things, but our favorite dishes were just too delicious. You know a vegetarian restaurant is good when the "meat" is comparable to meat. In all honesty I kept forgetting that what I was eating wasn't really meat.

My go-to dish.

This is vegetarian????

There were a couple things we wanted to get done before we got a move on our original plans for the day and those things involved shopping. On our way to Sungei Wang, we booked our taxi to the airport (very important!) and once we got to the mall, we vowed to make our stop a quick one but before we knew it, the morning was gone. Between toy shopping, food shopping, and a pit stop at I Love Yoo!, a franchise that sells things like soy milk and other soy bean products (all very fresh and delicious!), there was no time to check the time.

Oh, I love yoo indeed.

KL Tower, proud in its solitude

At last we are on our way! The GOKL Purple Line took us to the bottom of the hill that KL Tower stands on but we missed the stop and had to walk backwards to get to where we needed to be. You'll notice that I took care to mention the tower is on a hill. In the heat of Malaysia. Nope. We started walking up the road when we spotted the free shuttle. Yep, that's the option we were going to go with for sure. When we reached the actual tower, the staff was very welcoming, friendly, and helpful but we weren't interested in going to the top of the tower so their efforts were all for naught. Sorry guys!

We can rest easy after waving away the attentive staff.

My mom had a massage booked a little later in the day so we couldn't spend too much time at KL Tower. There was still quite a bit to see at the base at the tower, though, so I personally feel like the effort we spent getting there was worth it. When we left KL Tower, our next stop was the Pavilion. There is a lot to see there so that is where we would spend our time while my mom had her long-awaited massage. I bought a few things here and there at places like Cotton On and Daiso but for the most part, we just walked around or sat on benches to let our aching feet rest.

A little before our rendezvous time we got in position and my mom surprised us by showing up early! Just the sooner to have dinner. Again, food court means I am way too overwhelmed to make any sort of decision. I ended up with a roasted duck rice dish that was more fat than duck. Can't have high expectations when you're dining in a food court. To sweeten our final meal of the day, we stopped by Eggette Lab on our way out. Why are egg waffles so hard to find in America?

The eggs were a fun addition. 

And with that, we went straight back to the hotel to rest up for the long day ahead of us. While this was one of the slowest days of the trip, it somehow managed to fully exhaust us. All those long days had caught up to us.

9/11/16 Kuala Lumpur & Batu Caves, Malaysia 

For our final day in Malaysia, we had plans to see the Batu Caves. Again, this is a ways away from KL so we had to wake up at 8am. It felt early to me so that means I have officially adjusted to the time zone. We would be remiss to pass up an opportunity to have our last breakfast in KL at Blue Boy.

Bookended by the owner's son and our favorite chef.

Having said our goodbyes, we took a different path to the GOKL stop and hopped on the Blue Line and transferred to the Red Line to get to Merdeka (Independence) Square. The Square showcases the architecture left over from the British colonialism and the tallest flagpole in the world. It is a gorgeous public space and holds great significance in Malaysian history, which is something I can always appreciate. On the far side of the lawn is the KL City Gallery. At first we ducked in for a reprieve from the heat, but we paid RM5/person to enter the gallery part and I was instantly taken with the history. There were also small art galleries alongside the timeline of Malaysian history.

Jumping for independence!

Going deeper into the building, we went upstairs to watch the model KL light show. It was literally a model of Kuala Lumpur built with Lego-like bricks and made to light up along with the video on screen, highlighting each district as it was mentioned on the screen. It was quite impressive.

The show begins when the lights go down.

Even the bathroom has art. (x)

The end of the gallery is the gift shop where they specialized in ARCH products. They're beautiful wood products ranging from magnets to large, framed artwork. I stocked up on bookmarks to give to friends as souvenirs. We didn't hesitate to buy because those RM20 that we spent at the door were given back to us in a cash card that could only be redeemed in the gift shop. It was a genius idea, really.

A friendly, diligent craftsman for ARCH.

Adorable and delicious.
Can't ask for more.

All that walking had our throats parched so we sat down for some drinks and to sample their durian cake. You know by now that we will seize any opportunity to eat durian. The best part of this cake was that it was shaped like a durian! SO. CUTE. Who cares that the frosting stained our mouths? It was worth it.

Vogue.

Recharged, we caught a bus to KL Sentral to get on a KTM Komuter train that would take us to the Batu Caves. The ride was shorter than I thought it would be and I wish it were just a bit longer so I could bask in the air conditioning. The second we stepped off the train I knew it was going to be HOT. We took our sweaty pictures at the bottom then climbed up the 272 steps to the top, pausing to coo at the monkeys and to look back on the 43 meter statue of Murugan, a Hindu diety.

That tiny speck of yellow in
the middle is my mom.
Cavernous enough for you?

Humans on the stairs for scale. (x)

The caves were, believe it or not, very cavernous and blessedly cool. We took our time, letting the cool air soak in and explored, finding a temple at the very far end of the caves. Having had our fill of the dark and damp, we started making our way back to ground level when we noticed a bunch of people branching off to another enclave a few flights down. Here we found the Dark Cave Conservation Site and we casually took in the darkness and dampness while we read about the creepy crawlies you'd find deep in the cave if you go on the tour. I can't say I was very interested. The air was dank enough at the entrance, imagine that mixed with the bat droppings. I'll be just fine staying out here, thank you. When we felt like we had enough, we continued our slow trek down the steep steps.

Durian crepes? Yes PLEASE!

A train, bus, and escalator ride later, we were in Beraya Times Square, a mall housing the largest theme park in Malaysia, to redeem a Groupon at Durian Durian for, you guessed it, durian crepes. We loved them so much that we bought another round even after we had used up our Groupon.

The clock was ticking and our time in KL was coming to an end. There a few things we wanted to get done before we retired for the night so, as fast as we could, we popped into a grocery store to pick up some last minute goodies and hopped on a bus to Petaling Street to pick up something that was nagging at the back of my mom's mind. That's how you know you really want it.

Having accomplished everything we set out to do, it was finally time for dinner. Back to Jalan Alor we went and we decided on Meng Kee Grill Fish Restaurant. Again we ordered the salted egg shrimp but also tried a salted egg squid. We also had black pepper squid, a classic, and blood clams. They have red flesh and it was terrifying at first but ultimately it was just a clam. Before heading back to the hotel to frantically pack for our next stop, we had to try the fried ice cream Gordon had been eyeing all week. I'm not sure why it's called that because the makers mix the ice cream on a cold plate and serve it in rolls. Not sure where the frying part comes in.

Durian fried ice cream with banana

I live for salted egg
flavored seafood.

I'm glad we had that moment of bliss before our aggressive packing session in our hotel room. It was going to be an early morning to catch our flight to Vietnam.


Phew! That was a lot of eating and sight-seeing. And I hope I got all the photos I wanted to in here. There was a lot to sort through. When my mom asked us if we wanted to go to Malaysia, I agreed without knowing much of anything about the country. Kuala Lumpur certainly was a lot more modern than I expected it to be. Even so, there was a lot of ongoing construction in the area and around the city so I imagine the landscape will constantly be evolving. At the time, I also got the impression that there was a lot of shopping but I now realize that Bukit Bintang is a shopping district. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in KL and would be happy to come back in the near future. There was so much food that we didn't get a chance to eat! My soul will be restless until I eat all the food. Have you ever been to Malaysia? Would you want to? Let me know what you think in the comments! Now that this post is done, I can start working on my Vietnam Travelog. I'll meet you there. ;)


Talk to you soon!

xo, Yvette