Tuesday 30th July 2024

My time in Kuala Lumpur has come to an end. 

I’m currently writing this whilst sitting on a very nice train heading to Penang, more in this later. 

On Sunday, I’d decided my plan was to head back to Chinatown and the area surrounding it for a closer look. 

I’d woken up to a lovely quiet KL, being Sunday there was very little traffic going past in the freeway, the weather was looking great, dry and sunny, so a great start to the day! 😍

I ordered a Grab, which I have to do once I’m in the lobby, in case the lift waiting & journey takes forever, which it can! 

I got in yesterday to go to the pool, floor 47, the lift was ascending, it went from my level, 31, to level 38, 39, 40, decided to change and descend to level 27, 18, then the ground floor! Then up again stopping at what felt like every floor! 

Anyways, the grabs normally appear within 7-10 mins so easier and less hassle to order once I’m downstairs. 

Although it was still quite early, 9.30ish Chinatown was buzzing! Lots of people lost of stalls, shops, food hawkers. The area has been here for forever and the buildings s are old and a little run down, which adds to the character. 

I wasn’t looking to shop, apart from keeping my eye out for a lovely hand fan.🪭 There was a lady on the bus yesterday who had a beautiful  one with a lacquer handles. I didn’t find exactly what I wanted but did get a small fan that fits in my bag better than the one I have. 

I found myself down at Central Market, which is housed in a lovely old art deco building. I had assumed it was a central food market, but it’s actually an indoor market selling lots of lovely things! This is where I found my new fan. 

I had a mooch around then a wander outside and walked down to the river. This area looked very colonial to me. And it is indeed where the British Colonial administration offices were, in the Sultan Abdul Samad Buikding. This is a beautiful building opposite Merdeka Square. Merdeka Square used to be a cricket pitch and is where Malaysia declared independence on 31st August 1957. 

It was now very hot and sunny so I walked back towards Chinatown and had an ice cold coke! 

I was also pretty hungry so I found a beautiful restaurant called Grandma’s, in a Mall and had a gorgeous Hainanese Chicken, it’s so delicious. 

One of the unfortunate things about traveling alone is not being able to order lots of different dishes to try. I’d love to try some of the other dishes I saw, but hate to waste food! 

After lunch I went back to the room and had a refreshing swim. 

Around 6.30 I heard out, I’m going to check out a rooftop bar in a hotel across town. It is supposed to have great views of the Petronas Towers. 

The bar is great, but not quite what I was expecting. It’s literally next to the hotel pool, I was shown to a sunken seated area by the huge windows and right next to the pool. It was fabulous. My only concern is getting back out of the sunken area and negotiating the narrow wooden walkway after a couple of cocktails!! As those of you who know me, I have a slight propensity for falling!! 😂😂

I’ll worry about it later, for now I’m going to enjoy the magnificent view, the music and the happy hour cocktails! 😍🍹

The Sky Bar at Traders Hotel,is definitely worth a visit if you’re in KL. I also managed to exit the sunken area rather elegantly, having found a little step! 👍

I woke up on Monday morning to heavy rain, which is less than ideal,as I wanted to go to the KL tower and walk around the Eco park. I figured the park in the rain wouldn’t be that bad, so bought myself a fetching plastic rain poncho and headed out.

I’d bought my KL Tower ticket online, through an app. That was fine, but  the app was on my iPad which I didn’t want to take out with me, I tried forwarding the tickets to my phone, no go. So I took a picture.

Apparently this was not acceptable, too blurry apparently, so I had to buy another bloody ticket! 

The KL,Tower is around the same age as the Petronas Towers but seems older, it’s certainly less glam! 

Having bought my second ticket I made my way to the lift. 🤔 not the most inspiring start, the lift looked like it was undergoing some major work, we then stopped at a random floor to let someone off and it was clearly a building site, then the lift just sat there for ages…..😳

Eventually we arrived at the top to walk around the outside viewing platform. There are also 2 Sky boxes with glass floors that hang over the side…..it’s a hard ‘No fucking way’ from me. The signs all said no more than 3 people at a time, but there were at least 5 at one point!! 

Luckily it had stopped raining by the time I reached the tower, so I never got to,wear my fetching poncho! 

I walked down the hill to the Eco Park. There were 2 options, a Jumgle Walk or a Canopy Walk, you can do both. I asked which was the nicest, the guy pointed left, so that’s the way I went. Yeah, OK, not ideal! The walkway was very steep, heading down, and also a little slippery due to the earlier rain. I’ll refer you back to my earlier comment about falling, this also includes Slipping! Nikki can confirm I slipped on a wet drain cover whilst standing still!! Anyway I made my way very gingerly down the step hill, looking like a bloody decrepit old fogey, whilst being bitten by something on my ankles, and sweating like a beast. I made it down without injury and decided not to complete the round trip and instead jumped into an air conditioned Grab and made my way to an air conditioned Mall for something cool to drink and some food. 

I ended up sitting in the park by the Mall for a while just enjoying the peace & tranquility. Surprisingly few birds, not even in the Eco park. I think all the skyscrapers scare them away. 

I eventually had some food at Madam Kwan’s, a very busy place where the food was, again delicious. I had serious food envy looking at everyone’s food! 

I had a pretty quiet evening reading and grabbing a salad from the hotel across the road, where I also managed to finally have a little,chat to Nikki! 😍

I’m leaving today for Penang, an island in Malaysia and I’m staying in the old town, called Georgetown, Georgetown is a UNESCO world heritage site. It looks amazing and also a lot more pedestrian friendly! ❤️

I booked a train ticket online whilst I was in Australia. I have checked and rechecked my ticket, and was certain the train left from KL Sentra Train Station. 

Knowing that the traffic can be crazy I decided to leave early as the station is in the other side of the city. It took 25 mins to get there, and when I arrived I was told I was at the wrong station (I bloody knew this would happen!) 

I was surprisingly calm and asked if there as anything I could do rather than go back to the correct station and there was. I simply purchased an add-on for the grand sum of 20p and I was good to go! 😍

My seat is excellent, forward facing, next to a big window in a nice carriage. 

Had a slight issue earlier when the young girl in the seat in front, who is playing on a tablet, went to pull the blind down! I simply stuck my hand under to stop it, pushed it back up and gave her a look. Now we understand each other! 😂😂

It’s a 4hr ride to Butterworth, the station I need to then get either a ferry or a taxi to Penang and my hotel. 

I’m going to finish this and enjoy the view from my blind free window! 

Happy Tuesday People.

💙🩵❤️💚

Books Read.

Everyone here is Lying. Shari Lapena. A OK thriller, not great, not bad.

Any book recommendations would be gratefully received. ❤️