We got up pretty early today but hung out in the room for a little before heading out. We went downstairs to the lobby in hopes that the laundry had been delivered, and thankfully it had! The attendant was the original man who was very helpful, so we kindly thanked him and paid him for the laundry. We brought it upstairs before heading out to walk around.
We grabbed an early lunch at Chinese Hong Ngek Restoran. We ordered 3 dishes to share: Hokkien mee (noodles), shrimp omlette, sambol sotong (spicy sambol squid).
All of the food was good, but David liked the hokkien mee best with the omlette at a close second (not as good as the other omlette and a little too western tasting, though loaded with shrimp). Caitlyn was tied between the hokkien mee and the satong.
After eating, we decided we wanted a coffee. We passed by Zus coffee (clearly Zeus but misspelled), which is a chain but people really like it. We got two iced coffees to go, which were both awesome, and kept on.
We passed by a beauty product store and decided that we could look for some more of the amazing sunscreen we found in Japan as well as potentially a new electric razor (the brand new one we brought from America only worked twice before deciding it won’t charge anymore). We found some more of the sunscreen we loved, but sadly not a good razor. We dropped off the sunscreen at the hotel because we were still so close and headed to the Perdana botanical garden.
This is a beautiful 200+ acre park/garden full of fruit trees, perfectly planted flowers, forests, and large ponds. We walked around and admired the garden, but it was very hot out today. A few minutes in, Caitlyn saw a big 8″ or larger lizard sitting inside an opened maintenance door on a lamppost. We realized there was clearly some wildlife here so we set off to find more.
Down by the water, David was keeping his eyes open and noticed a HUGE monitor lizard swimming in the water. You could pretty much only see his head but David had seen videos of them swimming and knew what to look for. We watched him for a minute before he ducked under water. He popped back up near the opposite side when Caitlyn saw another one sunning itself on the shore!! We loved seeing these beautiful huge animals. We kept our eyes on the water but only saw fish from here on out.
The weather was turning and it was getting very uncomfortable due to the humidity of rain waiting to start, so we decided to move on. We did get lost trying to leave, walking up a super uphill area to eventually find the gate closed and locked.
We eventually got out and went to the national mosque. Arriving at the entrance, we were told we both had to wear robes. Caitlyn asked if her scarf was okay for her hair and they asked if she was Muslim. She said no and they said it won’t work then and to use the hood on the robe. We walked in and the mosque was absolutely beautiful. The architecture was nice and the view was great, but there wasn’t much to see.
We spent a minute in the air conditioned prayer room before deciding we wanted to go to the national museum for some consistent A/C and potentially avoid the rain that seemed to be a looming threat. We had heard good things about the museum and were pretty excited. We disrobed (lol) and realized that our robes were soaked with sweat from the hot day. We awkwardly handed them back to the robe attendant and walked the 20 minutes to the national museum. We paid a small entrance fee and entered.
It was 2 floors with 2 wings per floor and a central area in the middle. We honestly weren’t super impressed with the museum and eventually kind of quickly walked through quite a bit if it.
It was almost 5, and our evening plans were to go back to the rooftop bar as Caitlyn ended up making a reservation. We ordered a grab to the hotel to refresh and grab our dress-code clothing. We realized after the fact that the pick up point was across the street. The problem is the street is a quick multi-lane road with large blocks preventing foot traffic. It was pouring and we were drenched with sweat (we did manage to avoid being drenched with rain thanks to our umbrellas). We were running low on time to get to our pick up spot and eventually figured out there was an underground area where we could cross. We ran through this and up the stairs, barely getting to the grab before our time expired. Our driver was super nice and told us about all of the fruits we had to try in Malaysia. We got back to the hotel, dried off our clothes, and grabbed some returns for the Petronas mall as well as some long pants for David to change into. We took a grab out to the Petronas Towers and went in the mall to return a dress Caitlyn decided she didn’t want.
While we were there, we searched for an electric razor for a replacement. After going to 3 or 4 places, we finally were suggested a store in the mall that would have them. We found a good, relatively cheap razor and got out of there to make our reservation.
We walked 10-15 minutes and got to the building housing the Blue Rooftop Bar. David went to the lobby bathroom to change into his long pants. In a stall, David used some toilet paper to wipe off some sweat and threw the TP out. After putting the fresh pants on, David went to flush the toilet. Strangely, the switch seemed to be on the side of the seat. Pushing the lever to the side, a powerful stream of water shot out of the toilet. It turns out that was the switch for the bidet. David’s shirt, pants, and the door 6 or 7 feet up all were getting soaked. The water would not stop on its own, so David frantically reached to try and turn it off, eventually succeeding. David then used TP to try to dry off his pants and shirt as much as possible. After flushing using the correct switch, he went into the main bathroom area and used a hand dryer to finish the job. We were using the bag for the returns to hold the extra clothes, so David put his shorts in there. After a THOROUGH handwashing, he left the bathroom to tell Caitlyn of his shame.
We laughed it off and headed to the check in desk in the lobby for the bar. With a reservation and appropriate clothing, we were allowed in and went up to the 51st floor. We were greeted with an absolutely insane view of the Petronas Twin Towers. We were let in behind two high tech electronic doors and seated in a beautiful dimly lit lounge. We were first offered a seat on a comfortable couch. We quickly noticed that there was a two person table closer to the window, and they let us move there.
We ordered two cocktails, a “Borneo Headhunter” for Caitlyn and a Sky Old Fashioned for David. David’s was pretty good but Caitlyns was amazing.
We noted that the people sitting next to us had left, leaving a vacant window seat. We asked again and they moved us over to the window. The view was much better, but sadly on the opposite side of the Petronas Towers. Eventually we noticed a seat across the lounge next to the window opened, and we decided to be those people and ask to move a third time. The staff was so nice and said they totally understand. We got one more round of some forgettable cocktails (Caitlyn’s was, again, the better one) and enjoyed the view.
After finishing our drinks, we headed outside to the covered views to take some pictures and look down at the city.
We decided to go get dinner and went with middle eastern food again, selecting an Iraqi restaurant. The indoor dining area was full, and while it was raining, we elected to sit outside as it was nicely covered.
We got the roasted chicken with rice and roasted vegetables, the grilled meat set, and a beet dip. The first thing that came out was a complimentary lentil soup, bread, and some pickled vegetables. The soup was delicious but we wanted to same room for the food we ordered! The food came and the chicken was great, though some of the white meat was a little dry. The grilled meat set was fantastic, and Caitlyn says the beet dip was one of the best foods she has had this trip.
Towards the end of our meal, we suddenly heard tons of loud engines. Soon, hundreds of scooters and bikes as well as some cars came roaring through, honking and yelling, and many waving Palestinian flags. We were pretty far from the protest area so we hadn’t expected this. Many of the patrons at the restaurant excitedly came out to watch and film. This was pretty uncomfortable.
Later in the meal, a young girl and boy maybe 4-8 years old came to our table begging. We didn’t understand them but didn’t really know what to do. Soon after, our waiter came and talked to them and politely shooed them away. This was also pretty uncomfortable as we didn’t know if we should give them money or if it was a scam or how to handle it. There was also the language barrier so we didn’t even know what the children were saying. After we asked for our bill, our waiter brought us some complimentary tea. It came in extremely hot glass cups which made it difficult to drink for around 10 minutes. Laura was landing soon to come join us for a few weeks on our trip, and our final plan tonight is to surprise her by being at her hotel lobby when she arrives! We were a little early so we walked towards her hotel and looked for a place to hang out. We found a Healy Mac’s, the same chain as the Irish pub we went to previously. We grabbed a beer while we waited for her text and eventually left to hide in the lobby.
Our surprise worked and she did not expect us to be waiting for her! We quickly dropped her stuff in her room and took her on a brief tour towards the Petronas Towers which were nearby. It was pretty late so we dropped her back off and took a grab back to our hotel for a good night’s sleep.
Steps walked: 19,352
Miles walked: 9.26
Total miles walked in Malaysia: 74.05
Malaysia reflections:
Favorite memories – Both of our favorite memories in Malaysia is probably the day we met our new friends in Ipoh. It was such a special experience to get to share such a wonderful evening meeting new people from a country so vastly different than ours. We had such a blast and felt so welcomed. We also both really liked the cooking class with Samuel. The only downside from the class is that we are worried this will ruin any future class we would potentially do with how good and detailed it was.
Favorite days
David: I really liked the Ipoh heritage walk day. It was so much fun to get to walk around this small town and hunt down the heritage signs. The weather also was pretty good if I remember, so it was fairly comfortable as well.
Caitlyn: my favorite day was back in Penang where we went to the bus station, then to the complex with the huge pagoda and big temple and went on the funicular to Penang hill.
Favorite foods – Caitlyn’s favorite was hokkien mee, especially the one on the first night in Penang. A close second would be the curries we made in Samuel’s cooking class. David’s favorites are probably the peranakan food we had at that restaurant, mostly the inchi kabin and chicken kapitan. Both were super unique compared to other foods we’ve been eating and absolutely delicious. We also both liked the oyster omlette in the night food market in Penang. Though it was essentially just an omlette, it was cooked so well and the seasoning was amazing.
Reflection – It is difficult to look at Malaysia and not to compare it to Singapore in some ways. They are both cultural melting pots, containing mostly the same groups of people. A big difference is that in Singapore there seemed to be a little less tension between groups than in Malaysia. People still got along great, but many people discussed how the government’s interests seemed to be very related to different ethnic or religious groups. The food is also hard not to compare. A lot of the dishes are very similar, so we thought that the food may be close in quality to Singapore. In reality, only Penang really held up. Once we got to KL, we struggled some to even find Malaysian styled food.
New foods tried:
Durian (Caitlyn only)
Bluming Travelers 