Kuala Lumpur

The Malaysian capital provided us with the much needed luxury for a long weekend between India and Myanmar. Plus it was so easy to get into the country and no fees or visas charged. Bliss.

We went “all out” and got ourselves an Airbnb with a rooftop pool. After 2 months in India, and a month in Nepal, in mostly modest conditions we felt like we really need this. (And this “all out” cost 59 EUR for 2 nights ๐Ÿ˜‚)

We decided to take it easy this weekend – have a good sleep, sunbathe by the pool, enjoy good food and sunshine. With just a little bit of touristing around. And we were evaluating if Kuala Lumpur could become our new home city.

The first day we arrived we had to wait a bit to check in. But once in our bathrobes we got into the elevator and enjoyed a refreshing swim. Tired from traveling overnight we took a nap. But managed to drag ourselves out of bed just in time to get dinner at a burger joint still open.

On the way we also finally tried durian. There was a guy selling on the street from his truck with lots of locals around. One of the women told us he has the best durian in the city. He nicely cut it for us, was rather expensive though. The taste was very unexpected. ๐Ÿ™ˆ For me is tasted like curry, but in a different texture. The taste was very intense, so I couldn’t eat that much. V ate a lot more, but still decided it’s not his thing.

Durian

To our surprise we found some excellent artsy things at night in the city and the night market was still bustling around 11pm. We had a true moment of happiness when we found mango sticky rice at the far end of the market. But as the night was still young for us we decided to come back tomorrow to buy some.

We landed ourselves a table at the Irish pub and THEY HAD CIDER. We got a bucket immediately. A luxury we haven’t seen for a long time. The tv was playing great party songs, it seems Pitbull is the creator of most of the recent hits. We had a fantastic time, this is exactly what we needed.

Happy people with ciders are the Irish bar

Later we cruised around the party street to see what else is happening. We didn’t have really fancy clothes on (as we don’t have them with us in general). But we got into a club, for free, so did a bit of dancing. It was too empty and slightly awkward so we didn’t stay long. The street made me reminisce my UK university days, felt the same. Just in good climate.

Surprisingly alcohol wasn’t as expensive as I would have expected. We paid for the bucket of ciders 18 EUR. Not bad, no?

The next morning I went across the street to do our laundry. A Myanmarese guy was working there and started talking to me whilst I waited for the laundry to be done. His story was a little sad. He had come over from Myanmar when he was young. But they were not allowed to transfer over their education, so he never ended up graduating from middle school. With no education he finds it very restricting to get a job. He said he would like to get another job, but it’s not possible. He was also very keen to get his education sorted, but apparently there’s no adult middle school classes, only high-school.

I thanked him for the eye-opening conversations and picked up my laundry. For breakfast I got us some black bread sandwiches from next door. And we chilled by the pool for a few hours.

We then went for a city walking tour. Found very tasty pasteis de nata on the way to the Petronas towers.

Pasteis de nata

We decided it’s not worth the money and queuing time to visit the towers inside. So we took the classical touristy pictures from the outside. The weather is so hot – you can barely stay out of the shade.

To cool off we visited the shopping mall and had a lunch there. V lost his jumper in India and finally bought a new one from Uniqlo. I googled a list of foods to try in Malaysia, so we tried to cross off as many as possible.

Nasi ayam

Kuala Lumpur is very green. Love it! It was concluded we could easily live here.

Also, their flag looks like โ€˜what Iโ€™m in America?โ€™ Oh ok no, different corner. 

We went through parks and made a full city tour on foot. Ended up on a hipster pop-up market and grabbed some drinks and snacks.

When the night started kicking in we sat down for some tasty mojitos. Nicely buzzed we made our way to the mango sticky rice stand and had a plate each. Plus an amazing mango juice (literally pure mango, no water). Of course we also bought another mango sticky rice to go, to have it for breakfast. ๐Ÿ™‚

To breathe in the skyscraper lights at night we had an evening by the pool until they closed.

We finished our weekend getaway with a fabulous brunch at Wizards.

We had to print Myanmar visa approvals so were trying to find a place during the weekend. Finally found a place on the way to Wizards. They didn’t have wifi, so I sent them the docs from Wizards and went to pick them up again.

Luxury enjoyed, we went to the airport, got ourselves a couple of McDonald’s cheese burgers and flew to Yangon.

P.s. I love traveling when you donโ€™t have to take all your liquids and electronics out.

Expenses

In total we spent 390 EUR during our 3 days in Malaysia.

Spending in EUR, by category

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