The Visit

Week 40: 21/01/2013-27/01/2013

My visiting family kindly pointed out the following things about my adopted home city, which I hadn’t actually noticed in the 10 months I’ve lived in Kuala Lumpur:

1. It’s too hot
2. The traffic is awful
3. It’s too humid
4. The service is awful
5. It’s too hot
6. The tea is awful
7. It’s too rainy
8. The driving is awful
9. It’s too hot
10. The toilets are awful
11. It’s too hot

Oh, and something else they mentioned was that it is too hot. That aside I think they quite liked it. I left them to their own devices on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday we headed up to Penang to stay in Georgetown. We had a tour of Suffolk House, a trip up the funicular railway to Penang Hill, a bit of a stroll around town and a visit to Cornwallis Fort. My birthday dinner in the Eastern Oriental Hotel, however, was incredibly disappointing. Despite the grand surroundings the food was average and the service poor.

Zoe with a cannon on Penang Hill

Thursday evening Zoe and I went out for a drink with Choi and her friends at Havanas.

Saturday we took a trip to the Royal Selangor Factory (after I'd been rescued from an addicental lie in (awoken from a nightmare about karaoke)). We had a go at making stuff out of pewter, which was great fun. Saturday evening we saw a bit of high pole Lion Dancing in the run up to Chinese New Year, which was incredible.

Birthday in Penang.

Sunday we headed to the National Monument which was quite impressive, followed by a quick tour of Central Market and Chinatown on a last minute souvenir run (thanks to Gemma for the tips on where to take mums!!).

The Westwoods in front of the Petronas Towers

A hectic, and at times stressful week, but great to see my lovely family and show them some of the places I frequent in Kuala Lumpur. 

Penang

Week 34: 10/12/2012 - 16/12/2012

Dylan and I headed to Penang for the weekend in search of food and beer. Our Air Asia Chief Steward gave a hilarious safety briefing kicking off with:

"At Air Asia we take safety very seriously, we take YOUR safety very seriously. See. Look at the faces of the cabin crew. Soooooooo serious." 

First time I've listened to a safety announcement for a while.  

Beer and Food in CF Food Court

Due to booking late we ended up in a zero star motel. Our tiny room consisted of a double bed and a matress on the floor with a toilet in the corner barely enclosed with saloon doors. At least the air con worked. 

Friday evening we hit CF Food Court for some food and a few beers. It doesn't always pay to ask the locals where to drink, as afterwards we ended up at the weirdness of Bliss.... RM10 for a girl to talk to you... really?! We headed to Slippery Senoritas, which was entertaining. Unfortunately we switched to Whiskey and Coke which did not fit into the beer and food plan!

A dragon

We spent most of Saturday wandering the streets of Georgetown. We had a pretty good lunch at Sky Cafe (Chulia St), popped into Khoo Kongsi, visited the Clan Jetties of Penang, wandered past Fort Cornwallis, and then found a place for a couple of beer during the afternoon rain. My flip-flop broke as I crossed the road and I nearly got run over by a bus rescuing it!

We had dinner at the bustling hawker strip of Gurney Drive. All sorts of awesome food on offer, including Penang Koay Teow. You can definitely see the Chinese influence in the region. We headed up the road to Precinct 10 for our evenings entertainment. 

Some Ginger bloke

Sunday morning we managed to merge breakfast and lunch by moving straight from finishing Dim Sum at midday to ordering food at Restoran Kapitan 12:30! Kapitan was probably the best meal of our trip.