May 20, 20176 min read

Kuala Lumpur

Day One

On the last morning of our visit to Hội An, Nico and I got our stuff together before heading downstairs for our last pancake breakfast at Sac Lo. We said "goodbye" to Lyna and Bex and then got in our shuttle to the Danang airport. We then flew for about two hours to Kuala Lumpur, jumping ahead one hour in time.

When we landed, we were pleased to find out that Uber was available. So, we took and Uber from the airport to our hostel, Sunshine Hostel.

Sunshine Hostel

Great location
Friendly staff
Organized bar crawls
Slow wifi
Clean but cluttered
No free breakfast

After dropping all of our stuff off at the hostel, Nico and I asked the woman at the front desk if she had recommendations on where to eat. She told us about this food market located just about a block away. So, Nico and I went to the food street and walked from one end to the other and back before deciding what to get. We stopped at a little cart selling dim sum as well as a cart with skewered meat, fish, and veggies. Nico and I picked out some chicken and honey pork. The man sauteed the meat and showed us to a plastic table that had a caddy with three sauces: peanut, sweet, and spicy.

When the food was done cooking, I tried the chicken first without any sauce, and it was honestly the most amazing piece of meat I'd ever tried. I also had it with the sauces, which were all amazing, but the sweet sauce was my favorite (Nico liked peanut the best). Just as I was settling down from the flavor explosion that was the chicken sauté, I tried the pork and -- my god, it was amazing. It tasted like it was marinated in the sweet sauce, which I of course added more of.

After dinner, Nico and I headed back to the hostel to meet up for a bar crawl. It was ladies night, which meant free drinks for me and happy hour for Nico. I soon found out (after being asked to pay for my mai tai) that I could only get certain drinks for free. Happy hour was also still expensive (for what we were used to paying in SE Asia).

After two bars and a whole lot of free drinks, Nico and I decided to head back to the hostel. We stopped at a kebab stand nearby and shared a delicious chicken shawarma.

Day Two

Nico and I slept in on our second day in Kuala Lumpur due to the one hour time difference and a late night out. We decided to go try to find some dim sum for breakfast so, we walked to Chinatown. When we got there, however, we couldn't find any food. The whole street, it seemed, was just dedicated to selling cheap knock-off products. We were just about ready to give up and eat at the first restaurant we could find when, at last, we found a stand with pork buns in a little alley situated parallel to the main street.

Once Nico and I were full from the delicious bbq pork and a milk tea, we decided to walk to the Petronas Twin Towers. We walked to the park to get a good view.

After sitting in the park out in the heat for awhile, Nico and I decided to go into the KLCC mall to cool off. The mall was very large and located partially underneath the towers. We killed time by walking through stores. I discovered Muji, a Japanese store and my new favorite thing. The mall also had a movie theater so Nico and I bought tickets to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 later that night.

As we left the mall and started making our way back to the hostel, Nico and I discovered a raised walkway heading in the direction we needed to go. The covered pedestrian path, we found out, connected the KLCC to the Pavillion mall located near our hostel. The best thing about it: AC the whole way.

For dinner that night, Nico and I headed back to the Jalon Alor Street Market. This time, we went to a restaurant on the road called WAW, which Nico had read good things about online. Per the Internet's recommendation, we ordered the chicken wings and the bbq pork noodles. The chicken wings were tasty, though we had too many (an order of six is actually 12 wings and drumsticks mixed). The pork noodles were also good. The pork was tender and flavorful while the noodles were a little bland. I prefered the sauteéd meat from the previous night.

After dinner, we headed off to the movie. We ordered popcorn and drinks at the theater, which were much cheaper and came in much smaller sizes than movie theater food in the US. The movie was also highly enjoyable.

Day Three

Nico and I slept in again, still not fully adjusted to the mere one hour time difference. We walked to a nearby laundromat to do laundry. We decided to use the self-serve machines to avoid more things turning pink like they did in Laos.

After putting everything into the wash, Nico and I walked to the Pavillion mall to go to the Coffeebean. I ordered a tasty cheese panini and an ice blended caramel. It was nice to eat something "western" for a change. Then, we walked back to the laundromat to move the things into the dryer and we brought the rest to the hostel to hang dry.

On our third trip back to the laundromat, Nico ordered a chicken shawarma for lunch. We dropped the clean laundry off at the hostel and then headed to explore the mall across the street, Lot 10. In this mall, there was another Japanese store, but I didn't find it as interesting as Muji.

From there, Nico and I took the raised walkway to the KLCC. We explored the other side of the mall that we didn't event know existed the first time and Nico got a haircut.

After that, still having time to kill and not wanting to go out in the heat, Nico and I decided to head to yet another mall (we were desperate for AC). There was a pair of pants that I discovered in Mango at the KLCC that I really liked but they didn't have in my size. A Google search let me know about the location of another Mango across town, which we could get to by train.

So, Nico and I took the train for about 6 stops and then got off. We began to follow the walking directions, which seemed to be leading us up the side of a highway ramp. Nevertheless, we continued. About halfway up I realized that we had certainly misinterpreted the directions but found a way to continue to the Garden Mall regardless.

Once inside the Garden Mall and finally out of the hot, hot sun, we figured out that we needed to cross the street to the Mega Mall, which was connected by an air conditioned tunnel.

Inside the Mega Mall, we found Mango and inside Mango were the exact pants I was looking for in my size, making the whole journey worth it. After buying the pants, Nico and I each got a Krispy Kreme doughnut and began heading back to the train. This time we were able to find the intended Google Maps route and avoided walking along any highways.

For dinner, Nico and I went to the street market to get sauté again. This time the pork wasn't as amazing as it was the first time. Although the flavor was delicious, the meat was more fatty and tough to chew. We also tried some veggies this time. I particularly liked the green beans.