We’ve officially moved on from Indonesia and landed in Malaysia, our 11th country so far. Kuala Lumpur, specifically. It’s the capital and biggest city in the country, and on December 12, our first day here, we hit a milestone. Exactly six months since we left Ottawa.
With around 8.8 million people, KL is a huge city. Skyscrapers, massive shopping malls, endless traffic. Honestly, parts of it feel like you could be in Toronto or NYC. After a month in Indonesia, it was kind of a breath of fresh air. Figuratively, anyway. It’s cleaner, there are sidewalks, and it’s a bit cooler. This is Asia on easy mode.
After landing, we went straight to our apartment, but didn’t even really see it because we immediately headed back out to a nearby mall for a Christmas costume parade. I hadn’t eaten much all day and was absolutely starving, which made me grumpy. Shocking, I know. The kids loved it though. Fake snow, tons of Christmas decorations, elves, etc.
After that we went to a sushi place with one of those conveyor belt carousels delivering the food. That never gets old. And when you want something that's not on the belt, you order on a tablet and it comes on another express belt straight to your table. No need to interact with a waiter. The best!
When we finally got back to the apartment and actually looked around, it was really nice. Proper working A/C, three bedrooms, and an amazing view.
The next day, Mylène and Emma wanted to visit a temple just north of the city with a giant statue and hundreds of aggressive monkeys. I had reached my personal temple quota, so Teddy and I stayed in town and went to a market instead. We used electric scooters to get there and back, which was ridiculously fun. The giant statue at the temple was under construction, so Teddy and I didn't miss out on much. Mylène confirmed that the monkeys were super aggressive, stealing things from almost everyone. Ripping bags right out of peoples’ hands.
That evening we had a reservation at the SkyBar, a restaurant something like 30 stories up with one of the best views in the city. The evening started off well enough. We arrived early, our table was ready, we ordered an appetizer, then ordered our mains. And then we waited. And waited. And waited some more. I’m not sure what happened, but the food took about an hour and a half to show up. The kids were completely losing it. Full on hangry. The view was incredible though, so at least there was that.
On the way home, we stopped at a coffee shop to buy some beans. The place looked fancy, so we asked the price. They brought out three different beans, all of which smelled amazing. Then they told us the price. Over $100 for 300 grams. What the fuck!
The next day we went to Chinatown. Half the street was torn up for construction, but the rest was kind of cool. Lots of stalls selling cheap counterfeit stuff, the usual. We bought a few souvenirs and some hand held fans to keep cool.
We also bought more reasonably priced coffee beans that day. When we got back to the apartment, we realized they had only ground one of the two bags. I checked online and the shop closed in 30 minutes. I ran downstairs, grabbed an electric scooter, and just made it before closing. So much fun. Yeah, I’m 100 percent buying an electric scooter when we get home.
Malaysia was kind of an afterthought when we were planning this trip. We needed somewhere between Indonesia and Singapore, and Singapore is expensive, so Malaysia it was. Turns out that was a great decision. Kuala Lumpur is a fantastic city.
Be the first to comment.