Wednesday 30th November 2022
Our flight to Kuala Lumpur left just after midday, so we didn’t have time to do anything this morning before we set off for the airport at 9am. As with all our flights within Asia, we wanted to arrive at the airport early so we could weigh our luggage, juggle things around a bit (including transferring heavy items to pockets), and make sure we were within the 7kg carry on limit. They didn’t actually weigh our bags, so it was a needless exercise (our bags weren’t weighed when we flew from Bangkok DMK to Siem Reap a couple of months earlier either), however we wanted to be on the safe side and avoid any possibility of fines.
Kuala Lumpar airport is huge, and it’s about an hour’s drive from the airport to the city. We booked a Grab car, which was pretty good value at about £12. We were staying at the Chow Kit, and it was late afternoon by the time we arrived. It’s a lovely hotel, ordinarily beyond our budget but we booked through Mr & Mrs Smith who have a price match guarantee that includes giving you £50 off the price they’re matching. So we got 2 nights for the bargain total price of £37.
It was miserable weather and we’d not had any lunch, so we thought we’d do our own mini local food tour. As we walked down the road towards Chow Kit market, we could just about see the Petronas twin towers through the mist and drizzle.
We walked the short distance to Laksa Kg Baru, and shared one of bowl of laksa between us. I’m sure this is very uncultured of me, but I actually found it very disappointing. It was very different to the laksa I’ve had before in London restaurants (possibly because they’ve been modified to suit western tastes), less coconutty and creamy, and much more brown in colour. I usually love laksa but wasn’t a huge fan of this one. Pete also wasn’t all that keen.
We then went next door to Nasi Lemak Seri Tanjak Raja Alang, where we shared a Nasi Lemak with beef Rendang and some kind of Malaysian chicken. It was excellent food, we especially enjoyed the Rendang and the accompanying sambal was also very tasty with a nice chilli kick.
After we’d eaten, the weather had cleared up a bit so although it was starting to get dark we had a much better view of the Petronas Towers.
Our next dish was meant to be roti canai, however the restaurant we went to was closed despite google saying it was open. Instead, we went to a very highly rated pizza place, Heritage Pizza KL, and shared a Calabrese pizza between us. They’ve got a proper wood fired oven and it was a great pizza – definitely one of the best we’ve had since we started travelling. It had a nice spicy kick to it, especially with a drop of chilli oil.
When we left the restaurant, the Petronas Towers were looking even more beautiful. By this time it was starting to get late, so we headed back to our hotel.
Our hotel booking came with two complimentary cocktails, so we had a nightcap in the bar before bed. We didn’t get to choose our drinks (it was meant to be the signature cocktail) so I was expecting them to be the same, big they bought our two different cocktails for us. They weren’t the best ever and if we’d paid for them I’d have been disappointed, but for free cocktails you can’t complain!
Emma and Pete’s Asian Adventure 