Location: 38,000 feet above Sri Lanka. Destination: Thiruvananthapuram, India. Date: 23 April 2010

Jared Says: Back in the air again and another great opportunity to do some writing. Hopefully it won’t only be when we’re flying that we get time to update this thing, cause once we hit India it could be a few months to our next flight. KL was even more enjoyable than last time we were there, I think cause my asian country virginity had gone and I was far more relaxed about the whole place. Our hotel was right smack in the middle of Chinatown, so when you walked out the door you were immediately greeted but a mild attack on the senses, with an array of smells, noises, sights and people you just don’t encounter in the western world, and I thoroughly loved it. Our first nights dinner was at one of the local Chinese eateries, where we had an average Hokkien Mee and some tasty chilli fried squid, definitely the sort of place where there are so many options on the menu it always gonna be a bit hit and miss whether you get something the chef knows how cook well or not. That’s why in China town if you find something you like it’s worth sticking to the same restaurant, as the one next door might have the same menu but do it in a completely different way. Dinner was about all we could muster on the first night after a long day of flying, so the rest of the evening was spent chilling in our hotel room. We even managed to go without aircon for a good part of the night, even though the outside temp was probably sitting around the 30 mark.
Our next day was one of fun catch ups and more eating and even a little drinking. We managed to find a great little roti store for brekkie and managed to put away a dosai each, along with one roti canai and a banana roti. All absolutely delish and with drinks included we spend the grand sum of 7 ringits (about 3NZD). For those who don’t know, roti and dosai are both Indian style fried breads that come with curry dipping sauces, so it was another spicy brekkie second day in a row. After that we caught up with Tess’s mate Liz and her boyfiend Liam and did a bit of Chinatown cruising with them, which included some good satay at the Chinese food pavilion and a number of carlsbergs at the overly priced but super popular Reggae bar. (above)
For our evening we headed to Bangsar to catch up with my friend Jolene who took us to her favourite Indian restaurant, not thinking about the fact we were heading to India the next day and will be eating Indian food for a couple of months. No complaints though, the food was great and sets the benchmark for all Indian food to come. Of particular note was the green chicken that Jo and her friend Louise had, almost fluorescent in colour, it had milder level of spice to the ring-burning chicken tikka that I sweated my way enjoyably through. After this we sped back to Chinatown, cause that is the only way Malaysian taxidrivers do it, as fast as they can if the traffic allows. It had to be an early night for us, as we were up at 2.30am to head to airport.
Some of the things that stuck out for me about KL were:
The airports (LCCT in particular) is a good 100km from the city so well worth allowing for this if doing any quick stopovers or flights at crazy hours
Malyasia is known for the quality of food, and there are plenty of options, but getting actual Malay meals, opposed to Chinese or Indian, is not that easy, especially in Chinatown.
KL is a great entry city for first time visitors to Asia as it is a good combination of west v Asia, you can easily get by on English and if you look hard enough you can find any creature comfort from home.
Malyasians are very techno savvy and wifi access here is far more available than anywhere in NZ or Aus.
Beer is bloody expensive in KL, though I knew that from last time.


Tessa says: Roti, roti, roti, I love roti.

Kuala Lumpur has yet again delivered a gastronomic delight!

As far as my objectives went, I met a BIG fat ZERO. However that’s not to say I didn’t have a rocking time. Caught up with Liz and Liam where we perused the chinatown market. Surprisingly Liz and I were much refrained from splurging our hard earned mulah on Chinatown trinkets. Liz has become a dab hand at bargaining though and gave some great tips – start at 10 – 20% of offered price and go from there.

Now I am really struggling to get some “bottoms", of course Malaysia had mostly Asian sized clothes meaning there was nothing that would be able to stretch across my ample western booty unless I wanted to strut the latest style fisherman pant which kinda looks like a hippified version of a MC Hammer pant. I will rock that as a last resort.

The heat was most noticeable when we first got off the plane from the Gold Coast, Jared decided to yell out “how refreshing!” which only got a few odd stares. Only another hour before we land on Indian soil, I think I heard the pilot say it was 40 degrees and we arrive at 740am! Jared didn’t hear the pilot say that though, so we will just have to wait and see.



Accomo: D'Oriental Inn, China Town, Kuala Lumpur *** $35 a night double room.



Eats: China Town Pavillion (satay chicken, and deep fried dumpling) **

Indian diner, round the corner from China Town (roti canai, roti banana, dosa) ****

McDonalds China Town (Big Mac) - the same as anywhere