Thursday 1st December 2022
One of the foods we want to try in Malaysia is roti canai. It seems to be more of a morning food, so we decided to get brunch at Sithique Nasi Kandar Pulau Pinang, which seems to offer the dish. Unfortunately when we got there, they said they weren’t serving it. Instead we ordered Mee Goreng. They asked if we wanted chicken, so we said yes, expecting there to be chunks of chicken mixed in with the noodles. Instead we received a side order of fried chicken. I quite enjoyed the noodles, though it wasn’t Pete’s favourite.
After we’d eaten, we continued walking to KL Forest Eco Park. It’s one of Malaysia’s oldest permanent forest reserves and the only patch of tropical rainforest in central Kuala Lumpur. It was a bit of a mission to find it, as all but one of the gates are now closed. So we ended up walking the long way around (the open gate is right by the KL Tower).
The entry fee to the Forest Eco Park is 40 ringgit for foreigners, or about £7.50. We started off by doing the canopy walks, raised walkways through the rainforest. The canopy walks are very close to the city, so you don’t get the sense of properly being in a rainforest, but it is quite cool walking through / above jungle with so many skyscrapers so close.
By the main entrance, in the opposite direction to the canopy walks, are the main hiking trails. There are some lovely walks, and you feel much more removed from the city. On some of the trails, you could easily believe you were in jungle in the middle of nowhere, which definitely wasn’t the case with the canopy walks.
After exploring the hiking trails, we continued to the KL Tower (also called the Menara Kuala Lumpur), which is very close to the KL Forest Eco Park.
The KL Tower has three ticket options – an outdoor harnessed walk (which isn’t all that high), the observation deck (which is at the top of the tower, but entirely enclosed), or the sky deck and sky box. The sky deck and sky box are on the floor above the observation deck, and is the most expensive option. We decided to go for this ticket, as we wanted to go outside and the sky box (with its glass walls and floors) sticks out from the tower slightly and is very cool – you can look down into the city below.
Next to one of the sky boxes is a cafe. It’s ridiculously overpriced (a small tub of ice cream was 50 ringgit, or about £10) and you have to order a minimum of one item per person. Needless to say, we didn’t bother with the cafe!
Just as we’d finished admiring the 360 views, it started to rain. Not very heavily, just spots of light rain, but it seemed like they were closing the sky deck (we were the last to leave, but they were ushering people out and then closed the doors behind us). It didn’t matter as we’d seen everything and we’re leaving anyway, but if we’d just got to the top we’d have been very annoyed.
As it was starting to rain and we could hear the rolls of distant thunder, we got a Grab car to Jersey Jack Gelato for some ice cream. Disappointingly there was no banana ice cream, so we went for the next best thing – a banana split – which we shared between us. It was very good ice cream, I particularly liked the salted caramel (not too sweet) and the pistachio (lovely deep nutty flavour).
It was raining very heavily as we ate our ice cream, so we waited for it to ease before leaving the cafe. We then had a wander around Jalan Alor and Jalan Rembia, where there are several small lanes with some interesting street art.
We continued walking to Jalan Alor, a famous food street. It wasn’t all that busy, probably the combination of being a little early (I imagine it gets properly going in the evening) and the inclement weather.
We carried on until we reached the Masjid Jamek Sultan Abdul Samad mosque. It’s only open until 4pm, so unfortunately we were slightly too late to go inside and could only admire it from the outside.
We crossed over the river to Merdeka Square, which is where the Malaysian flag was first raised when Malaysia gained independence. The Sultan Abdul Samad Building is also located on this square. This iconic building has a clock tower that was designed to echo the style of Big Ben, and was manufactured by a company based in Croydon, UK.
We continued walking until we reached the point where the rivers converge. It’s a perfect photo spot for the Masjid Jamek Sultan Abdul Samad mosque.
Just beyond are a few interesting buildings with murals decorating the outside.
We continued walking the short distance to Dataran Medan Pasar, a pleasant little plaza. We decided to get a snack of some chicken momos to share at Restaurant Mandala, which is on the plaza. The momos were excellent, very highly spiced and flavourful with a beautiful spicy dipping sauce.
We next went to Symphony Lake, which is right by Petronas Towers. We had a brief wander around the shopping centre while we waited for the 8pm Symphony Lake Water Show to start. It’s basically a sound and light show with the fountains, and looks quite spectacular with the Petronas Towers in the background.
We ate dinner at the nearby Siampot Buffet Steamboat & Grill KLCC. Steamboat is basically the Malaysian equivalent of Chinese hotpot. You pick a selection of meats, vegetables, and noodles from a raw buffet selection and then cook everything yourself by dipping into a hot broth or frying on the grill plate.
It was an excellent meal. The meat was very well marinated and had a very soft texture, especially the chicken (there didn’t appear to be any fat or gristle). The giant king prawns were also delicious. You can eat as much as like and the bill came to 70 ringgit (about £12), so an absolute bargain!
By the time we finished eating, it was late. So we got a Grab car back to our hotel. As we exited the restaurant, I noticed the Petronas Towers were beautifully reflected in the skyscraper opposite us, which I though looked quite cool.
Emma and Pete’s Asian Adventure 