Today I made a visit to the Pasar Malam ("night Market") to the area, Taman Dr Tun Dr Ismail in search of the local snack nampak udang (literally translates to "look at the shrimp/prawn). It is made of gelatinous rice with a spicy shrimp paste inside. Anyway, take my word for it (for those not familiar), it's good. There are fruit, veggie, clothes, bags/purses, and a mecca of stalls of food, local food, that is. Just walking the stalls just smelling the odor of local cuisine is just enough to make yourself stop and say you are hungry, when you are not. When I opened my eyes I think I was frozen in my hunger. I won't go into detail everything I ate but all I can say it is good to be back in Malaysia: my stomach is always eager for more. PS. There goes the waistline.

Looks like this guy found a quick way to park his car. Remove the barricade, move your car in, place back the barricade... but just a little elevated. For those not familiar with Kuala Lumpur, finding parking is a pain in the rear. You drive around in circles trying to find a spot. Location: Putra Bandaraya Damansara in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

All things being equal, I don't think I'm out of line when I say that women are unreliable. Before I start getting hate mail from the fairer sex, let me explain. As a male, I still don't understand women. I don't think I will ever get to the stage where I can proclaim that I understand women. I am comfortable with that as well. Our brains function on a whole different wavelength. Its part of the thrill of it. The chase and not knowing what the other is thinking, or why they acted a particular way. Things would be far too boring if we did. Well today just confirmed it.

Maybe its me. But when a person says that they will be there in 20mins, my male brain would process that and think 'ok I've got 20 mins to get ready'. Not this girl. This girl has no concept of time. This is one of the things which drives me crazy about her. She is never on time. But that's the thing about love, you have to be crazy to enter into in the first place sometimes. She dawdles out like usual, like we don't have a plane to catch. Like she doesn't want to see me at the first chance she has. I understand some women need some time to change and get ready. Truly I get that. But to come down 30 mins after I tell her I was downstairs? Arrgh she is a mad woman.

To be honest. I think its me as well. I'm still stuck in work mode. It being a Tuesday my body and mind tells me I should be at work. Not to mention I had to pop into work just a few moments ago to resolve some issues. I don't think I've fooled my mind yet that I don't have to work today. I don't think work realises that I was no longer working once I walked out through the doors yesterday. I'm just stressed. I think I need a holiday. :) Good thing I'm on a plane in about an hour. Poor girl, I hope I get into holiday mood soon or she might regret inviting me along soon enough. I know for a fact its no fun going on vacation with a grouch. I've actually been told that holiday Damian and normal work Damian are two different people. Holiday Damian is fun. I just wish he would come out.

Once I hand over my passport and get my boarding pass. It all melts. All the hangups and negative energy I was carrying before. All the stress. Its gone. Holiday Damian has come out to play. A holiday could not have come at a better time. At that instant I must have the cheesiest grin on my face. A grin people would lock you up for and throw away the keys. At that instant I gave her a hug at the check in desk and I knew everything would work out. I left that desk hand in hand a different person. I would subsequently turn off my phone and be off the grid. No phone calls no emails no nothing. Just me and her and the joys of exploring the unknown. At least until I come back and normal Damian takes over.

We were lucky that the plane was empty. We had a whole middle row to ourselves. She insisted I take the row behind us (as that was empty as well) so that we could both lay down and rest. I insisted that I was fine and was just going to stay right there. Right next to her. I'm not one for sleeping on planes. I don't know what it is. It's not a comfort thing as well. I just can't sleep on planes. So whilst she got some shut eye and rested her head on my lap with the rest of her body stretched across 3 other seats. I watched the entertainment screen in front of me trying to relax and really absorb the situation. In between movies, or when I could peel my eyes from the screen I would look down and see a serene face where my legs used to be. After maybe 2-3 hours of having a head resting on your legs and not being able to move as I didn't want to wake her, all notions of this being a good idea faded. Soon enough I think I'm going to have to amputate my legs due to DVT. My legs are starting to tingle. My head debates whether I should wake her up or just slowly move my legs to a more comfortable position. Any position rather than what they were now. But as if she read my thoughts, she shuffles and repositions herself. In that whole second she does that my feet come to life and jump to a new position before she even put her head back down. I try to kiss her as a thanks for moving and to send her off back to deep sleep. But its physically impossible. I move back up and recline.

Before we know it, we are in Kuala Lumpur. It is night time and we are tired from the journey. We catch a cab and show the driver on a map where we would like to go. He nods and says ok. Thats a good sign. Fingers crossed he delivers us close. It is only when he pulls over on the motorway and stops to look at the map more closely that we realise that he didn't know where we wanted to go. Anything to get a fare. It is now that I pull out an ace from my sleeve. Before I left, my brother told me that most people in KL speak Cantonese. Especially taxi drivers. Obviously English was not his forte. So I speak to him in Cantonese. I knew he spoke it from the radio that was blaring out chit chat in Cantonese of all the other taxi drivers working that night. Some of which is quite funny. Anyway, I don't have much chance to use my Cantonese in my daily life, and am hesitant at first. In case he picks up on any mistakes I might make. But I try to be as confident as I can, and assert that I know exactly where we have to go by mumbling some of the neighbouring streets where our final destination was. Soon it clicks and he darts off again along the silent motorway. From here on in, we start a casual conversation feeding on my new found confidence. It feels great being overseas and being able to communicate with the locals perfectly. You feel like you yourself are a local, and your onto them. That you have less chance of being ripped off since your part of the extended family. Just before we are let out of the taxi, I ask the driver if he wanted to pick us up tomorrow morning. As we needed to get to the airport early for our flight to Phnom Penh. He is more than happy to and we exchange details.

Once we are checked in to the hostel we leave our bags in the room and go searching for food. You can't come to Malaysia or Asia for that matter without sampling some of the street food. Its what some people come here primarily for. I'm not naturally a foodie, but even I was a little excited about the possibilities. About the different flavours that would rape my taste buds. About the possible health code violations and possible stomach bugs.  But thats part of the fun with travelling. I don't think you've travelled until you get bed ridden with some sort of exotic virus. Lucky for us, the street parallel to our hostel is Jalan Alor. Which is quite synonymous with street food. We walk hand in hand, step to step, through this gauntlet of touts. They stand with menus by the hip ready to draw whenever someone walks pass. Would you like a meal sir? We've got the best curries sir! Rest you feet here sir! The more pushy ones will block your path. Now this is travelling. God I miss this. It is the street characters which always leave a imprint in my mind. I would be offended if nobody tried to persuade us into their establishment. What they don't want us? Its nice to be wanted. To be needed.

We have some really nice noodles for dinner. In between piling mountains of noodles into my mouth I watch the touts work their magic. Whilst the occasional person/group will stop and look at the menu or even sit down the vast majority don't even break from their power walk. Its quite disconcerting how many people don't take the time to stop and pleasantly say no or shake their head. I would honestly hate to do that every night. Stand out there and deal with rejection 95% of the time. But then again its late. Most people would probably be making their way back to bed now. As we probably should if we want any chance of catching that plane tomorrow morning.

Tonight is the night. The first night we would sleep next to each other. The first night I would find myself waking up with her next to me. The last person I see at night and the first person I see when I open my eyes in the morning. For me its always a milestone. I always remember these nights. Prior to tonight I was a bit worried that it might be a bit presumptuous that I booked a double bed. Would she be comfortable sharing a bed with a person she has known for only 3 weeks? A person she has only seen a handful of times. Was it a safer bet if I booked 2 single beds and took things a little slower? My mind didn't have too much time to dwell on all these questions. We were both tired from the long day and  before I knew it we were arm in arm cuddling in bed. Resting for what lay for us tomorrow.

Just as an aside. The reason why I'm not that confident speaking in Cantonese (even though I probably understand 90% of the language) is the fact that I'm illiterate. I never learnt to read and write Chinese characters. As screwy as it sounds, in the back of my mind I feel like I will be exposed as a fraud. A modern day snake oil salesman. But I guess I'm lucky that I am bilingual thanks to my parents.

Whenever I hit Kuala Lumpur for a weekend getaway, when I am not on an official business, I always book on Hotel Tai Ichi - located in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur. My hotel of choice, for backpacking in the city. The hotel is at the center of the busiest street in the city, accessible to the Monorail, and food places. Imagine a Zen Accommodation at the center of the city.

Landed in KL mid-afternoon. Was going to catch the express train to Sentral but finally decided to go by bus instead. It was the difference between not going to an ATM or going to a ATM to get more funds. The difference between the two modes of transport was 50RM return. A significant savings I thought. Plus I wasn't exactly in a hurry.

Whilst waiting for the bus to head into the city I was pleased to see that near the bus terminal I could get some signal for wifi internet access. So I sat there catching up on all the emails I had received since I left. In particular I was interested if I had received a response from other TB people in KL regarding a meetup for the few hours I would be here. Unfortunately no such luck. So I boarded the bus bound for Sentral.

After spending close to an hour on the bus I was in Sentral. I was a bit apprehensive about getting off the bus. Not only due to the fact that ticket collector had no idea what I was on about when I told him I wanted him to tell me when we were in Sentral so I know when to get off, but also because Sentral doesn't look like the central district of the capital of any country. It was all very underwhelming. I don't know what I was expecting maybe some really high buildings, maybe more people out and about. It just didn't feel right. Plus there were some people staying on the bus. I spotted what looked like the monorail line. So I got off hoping that the station was close and worst case scenario I would still be able to go somewhere even if I wasn't at Sentral. Good thing I was in the right place.

The original plan was to go to the Batu Caves straight away. However a quick search through my stuff and I failed to see the piece of paper I thought I jotted the location was. I sort of knew it was at the end of one of the northern lines and then a short taxi ride away. But was not sure. Without any definite idea of how to get there and no guidebook I did the next best thing. I caught the monorail to Bukit Bintang. I was there a few days ago. I know you can go to the Petronas Tower from there. I would look to the skys and follow my eyes to the Petronas Tower.

It was quite a pleasant walk from Bukit Bintang to the tower. After a few happy snaps in and around the tower I noticed that there was a Kinokuniya on the top floor of the shopping complex. So I made my way there to check out a few guidebooks on Malaysia. To make sure I knew how to get to the Batu Caves. With the information in hand I went outside to look for the metro station.

I was confronted with the greyest skies and some wet stuff coming down. What happened to the sunny blue skies I saw just 30 mins ago? How long was this going to last? Was I able to see the caves still? As my tummy was starting to rumble I decided to head back into the shopping complex and go to the food court and ride out the rain. Surely it can't last that long.

After having a quick snack of Nasi Lemak I headed outside. It had stopped raining. There was only a little drizzle blanketing the scene. However when I looked at my mobile to see the time it was already 4:30pm. I had no idea how long it takes to get to the caves from KLCC. I had no idea when the caves close. I would imagine it would be soon. So I decided to just chill in the shopping centre.

With the caves out of the picture. I was hoping that by now I had gotten a response from someone from TB. So I had to go online to check. I failed to notice any internet cafes inside the complex, so I did the next best thing. Tried to look for unsecured wifi networks. I literally walked maybe 1 hour looking for a wifi network and when I did find one, most of the time I couldn't manage to make it work. It was starting to get frustrating. Even the best known providers of free wifi, Starbucks, were not working for me. Maybe because I didn't have a laptop and was relying on my mobile for all my internet access and it had a crap wifi card thing. I still don't know why it didn't work.

With nothing to do and no one to meet. I resigned myself to heading back to the airport. Before I did I grabbed a Big Mac meal from McDonalds, just to make sure I was fine for the flight at 11pm. Whilst at McDonalds I noticed that they had wifi access. At last I was connected. Free at last. Free at last. I know how sad that is. Without good internet access for a past few days I was definitely in withdrawal. I need it. Checking TB I noticed that noone tried to contact me. To be honest I was glad. I would have felt guilty if Sue or Erna or someone else wanted to meetup and was waiting for me but I didn't show.

I decided to go back to the airport by bus as time was on my side. As soon as I plonked my butt down on the seat and used the reclining function, my eyes fell shut. Finally the lost hours of last nights sleep had caught up to me. I was smashed. I slept all the way to the airport and then some when I went to my boarding gate. Lucky this was a connecting flight, so I didn't have to worry about checking in and getting boarding passes and all that. I don't think I had the mental capacity at that point. With a row of seats found, I hit the snooze button and hit slumberland. Even once pass the gate and into the final waiting area before boarding the plane I had my hands on my eyes and head and my elbows on my knees. In between microsleeps I heard announcements of delays to the flight and missing passengers, and kids chasing each other fuelled by god knows how much sugar they had previously.

In the end. I had a 9 hour stopover in KL and all I saw was the Petronas Towers. They should make a T-Shirt out of that. I would buy it.

After the flight from Langkawi (I would reccomend anyone to take a nightbus instead,much cheaper and almost as lengthy considering all the waiting and such) I arrived in the city and went straight to chinatown where I went to the Wheelers guesthouse. Only reason i chose this one from my Lonely planet was because it was the only one with a rooftop garden. I felt I did'nt do a good enough job on the beach in Langkawi on my tan, and thought i could do some work on it here. I found out that the rooftop garden was only open during the evening for beer drinking...which was also quite nice, amazing views and good beers ! (and sometimes also a good social scene...but not when I was there..)

Best part about KL ? The food, the food, the food !! like any other city in Malaysia! There is genuine indian food, genuine chines food and genuine malay food side by side here, and thet're all super super great ! I must have gained many kg during my time here, as i had about 4 dinners every day. I was even sitting down for meals when i was'nt hungry at all...just because my apettite was never resting. Eating more than you need is considered a sin in islam....thank god I'm not a muslim then !
It is a great thing when I sit down at a hawker stall and start my meal of with a nice Roti Canai and a Roti naan with chicken. Then they come along with a nice chicken curry on the side!. One of my all+time favorites is however Char Kuey Teow which is some amazing fried noodles with vegetables and chicken,prawn,seafood or meat and a nice spicy sauce and rice.
I would'nt reccomend anyone going to nice resturants(unless looking for something special) , as these street resturants have all the foods at great prices. I had the greatest meal for 3 Ringitts(1$).

Of course I had to do something more constructive then eating all day, so I went looking for the Twin towers. About 4 km from chinatown, towards the river i found them (was'nt too hard- just follow the skyline). And I must say that this is the coolest building I have ever seen, even more so during night time (can't miss them as all the clubs are centered around the towers).
It is totally amazing to stand under them and look up at the worlds tallest twin towers at 451,9 meters or so.
I never got myself up into it...but probably should have...problem was that I was way too nightactive, and could hardly get to the ticket office before 09:00 in the morning, which is necessary to get the tickets.
I went up into the  Menara Kuala Lumpur Tv tower instead. That was really worth it, a nice view from the whole city there, and extra cool as there was a thunderstorm going on when i was up there.
there is also a bit of tropical rainforest surrounding the tower, with a nice big reptile park that is interesting to see. I almost convinced one of the keepers to let me hold this beast of a frog while they we're cleaning his box....but the fat amphibian was a bit too bitey for a newcomer in frog holding techniques.

I spent the rest of the day getting to know the city (as well as forcing some more food down my stretched stomach), and this is really the first large city that has given me that true large city feeling. Gigantic skyscrapers everywhere you turn, and everything is so modern ! Kuala Lumpur did'nt even have city status before 1972 ! so it has been growing fast and hard the last years. There is'nt more than 1,6 million people there,  which is'nt much considering I was in Istanbul with 20 million people without getting the same big city feel.
Going to Bikut Bakir shopping district gives a feeling of beeing in Trafalgar square in London, or Siam square in Bangkok. Hypermodern shopping malls as far as the eye can see...and neon lights everywhere....

So I scoped around the party street to see if I could se some good places. this was the most crowded one, so went here. The entrance fee is 30 ringitts, then you get a small beer too. This is quite expensive, considering the price level in Malaysia. When paying 20 Ringitts for a single room, compared to UK this would mean 50 pounds to get into a club, pretty unreal. A small beer was 24 ringitts, which is riddiculous. The music was however quite good with live music and such. The dance floor was way too small though. And there was way too many prostitutes trying their luck, not cool.

I did`nt really have much concept of what to do with this day. I did the typical tourist path the day before, but there was still a million things to see. I started out with a cup of Teh Tarik of course. This is a hot, sweet, foamy milk tea. Then i had my breakfast, which was obviously a good portion Nasi lemak. This is rice cooked in coconut milk with spices like ginger, star anise and cinnamon, all of it packed in a banana leaf. Usually comes with an egg, and some spicy sambal sauce with Rendang - a meat curry.

Then i went walking around the city, aiming to get over to the lake gardens park where there were many attractions to see. The weather was a nightmare with constant rain, and lightning, but i was defiantly going to have a nice day of outdoors activities in any case ! I`m even optimistic enough to bring my sunscreen to this park, as my main objective was to sunbathe in the grass....that did`nt happen...
I first saw the ancient train station quickly enough to take a picture, then moved on to the big national mosque. There I had to wear a pretty silly purple/pinkish cape to cover my legs(why would they want to cover up something so beautiful??). I felt like Anti-superman or like purple santa claus.
The mosque itself was big and all, but not really much different from the hundred or so other mosques i`ve seen when I last travelled the middle east.

The real fun started when I got into the big park right behind the mosque. First place i arrived was a Planetarium of all things. One which is`nt even listed in the guidebook.
That was actually really interesting ! usually I get a bit tired from reading all these typical museum Plaques and such, but these ones where just fun to see. Did you know that the muscle are wasted, bone loses its calcification,the heart shrinks as there is less force required for pumping when no gravity and water disperse evenly throughout the body making your limbs look like sticks, and your face swell when in space ?
Also there were movies showing all the astronaut activities, as Malaysia has just recently sent their first guy to space ! of course the main concern was how to be a good muslim in space, so they had to give him a nice space-proof Qu`ran and some new rules for praying. Praying against Mecca might be a challenge when all you see is the earth itself. There was also a planetarium where they showed a nice little movie in the ceiling about the history of the constellations.

I moved on through the big park, and yet another time i met with some packs of wild monkeys. These ones where nice, did`nt try to steal my candy ( initially at least..)
The biggest enclosed bird park in the world is also in this park. I did`nt see it as it was way overpriced. I really wanted to see the butterfly/reptile park ,however.
There is an amazing array of butterflies swarming around in this tropical rainforest area, quite amazing I should think. I did`nt go in there as the ticket lady told me all the pretty butterflies would not be seen as they don`t like the rain and the thunderstorms. I would recommend this place as one of the musts to see when in KL anyway !
The gift shop was really nice, and they had some of the prettiest butterfly T-shirts I have ever seen. I wanted to buy them all, but they were quite pricey, so I settled for one of them.

At the evening I decided to go see the nightlife of the city. Taking the public transport in this city is a nightmare. There is a million different buses, and no one to tell you which one to take. The locals have no what-so-ever knowledge of the city. I might ask something like "what way to the petronas twin tower?" ,and they`ll be like "ehhmm twin tower ?"
So I walked in the horrible rain from chinatown to the towers. All the nightlife is located in the street around the towers. It is just horribly expensive. 30 Ringitts(10$) was the rate to get in anywhere, and that includes a petite beer. The ultra small beer is selling at the riddiculous price of 24 Ringitts in the club.
I went to "the beach" bar. There I met some swedish guys. It`s pretty crazy, but after some minutes me and the guy I was talking with realized we had some mutual friends, a girl we both had gone to school with! the world is small when you go to the other side of it and meet someone you almost know....
The music was Ok, it was a pretty good live band there, so we danced around for some time. The poor swedish guys was popular with the woman there, and I though it was quite funny listening to him trying to explain the concept of beeing married to one of these girls that wanted to go home with him. It was like talking to the wall.
Many of the girls in this place was prostitutes from vietnam....so in that sense I would not recomnend this place for clubbing. Probably better to go to the big club around the corner called Zouk. I tried to get in there....but they had a dress code, which basically means no Khaki shorts...

So that was it for KL....i really felt like moving on after 3 nights there....

Stayed here as a stopover on my whirlwind tour of Cambodia. Besides being in a fantastic location near Bukit Bintang and its food markets; what made me select this over other places in KL was the reviews and they fact it was voted best Asian hostel in 2006 or something. So I was expecting a pretty good hostel. I don't think I was disappointed. The staff working there are really friendly and helpful. The hostel itself is very chilled out. There are cushions in the downstairs lounge area with a small bookshelf, so you can plan your next travels or just relaxing in front of the TV. They lock the gates late at night and early in the mornings. So if your a late night party animal, then you might not be able to get in. There were always people sleeping in the lounge area so its possible to wake someone up to let you in. Or you can just stay out all night. ;) We had a private double bed and it opened onto a balcony. Its actually the balcony with the red door. The only negative I could possibly find was that there was no roof over the rooms. Just a sheet. So you can hear the people next door if they make too much noise. Not that I found it to be much of a problem.

This meetup was initially planned for a few other TBs who thought they would make it to Kuala Lumpur in the last week of October. Alas, they ended up not coming, but it wasn't too bad of a turnout.

First stop was Dome Café, just at the entrance to the KLCC park from Suria KLCC, a swanky mall located at the foot of the KL Twin Towers. Siti (Trendy_Lady) from SG was the first to arrive. Kim (shuwei) and I were on our way when she called. I told her that we were five minutes away, as we were looking for parking space just next to the park. Looking a little underdressed, I had to change into something more presentable once we got there, and then met up with Siti. She was much tinier than I expected.

We decided then that we’ll get a drink while waiting for the rest to show up. It was almost 7.30pm by now, and the time frame given was between 7-7.30pm (and I thought Malaysians were the only ones always fashionably late!). A few minutes later, I get a call from Chris and tell him to meet us inside the café for drinks. Chris (TBK3355) drove up from SG and brought Mark (mnico78) with him. Mark just moved to SG for work, to set up his co’s operations there. Sophia (fineartistx) and Sunnil followed shortly after.

By the 7.45pm, our tummies growling, we headed to Madam Kwan’s for dinner, while I stayed back to wait for Kent (bcbusdriver) and his girlfriend who were on their way, but didn’t have a cellphone on him to call me. His timing was perfect as he met us just as we were leaving Dome’s for dinner.

As expected, we had to wait for a table when we got to Madam Kwan’s, and five minutes later, luckily enough, got our table for nine. I wasn’t really keen on Madam Kwan’s, being that it was a restaurant where you paid for the ambience and mood, as well as for the local cuisine (you can find more deliciously cooked Malaysian food at a regular Malaysian restaurant for cheaper). However, it didn’t turn out too bad in the end as everyone enjoyed their meal (I’ve saved my comments for my review of Madam Kwan’s.)

From dinner, it was time to head out to the clubs to “partay”!! After much discussion, we thought we’d give Bangsar a whirl. Bangsar is a suburban area, located aways from KL. There is a tiny location of stores that consist of clubs, bars, restaurants and two malls that were built just under five years ago. While it was once THE place to hang out with friends, and dance and drink the night away, but that died off slowly with patrons practically out of diapers who got into fights constantly when they couldn’t hold their liquor! It just kept people away, and it is now a shadow of its former self. But there are a couple of places that were still bringing the crowds, and The Social was one of them.

The restaurant/bar was noisy that night, on account of a live band. So we decided to stick around and have a couple of drinks (but not Mark, he was prepared to make camp, with a jug of beer to start with!!) before venturing out. Fellow TB and my personal friend, Joann (wildjazmyn) joined us in Bangsar after running errands as maid of honor for a friend’s wedding.

Our conversations picked up where we left off at dinner, even though we had to scream into each other’s ears to talk. An hour later, as the crowd was thinning out, we thought we’d follow suit and look to end our night someplace else.

We walked up a block and made it to 11:15. No, it’s not the time, it’s a club! 11:15’s concept is based on seasonal themes. The first time I checked out the place, five years ago, it had a theme called Pharmacy, where the waitresses were dressed as nurses! This time it was supposed to be High School, but I’m guessing they got their cue from a public school in the rough neighborhoods of the US, as there were cage-like walls and fences inside that made up the décor. While it wasn’t really a place where we could talk (the music was even louder!), but there was a good crowd and we made the most of it. Kim and Siti didn’t stay long though, and were the first to leave, especially as Siti was already down with the flu. So they said their goodbyes and we pressed on.

All we needed were a few more drinks in our system, and we were partying like everyone else! Before we knew it, it was closing time and we bundled Chris, a staggering intoxicated Mark (“You’re all beautiful, man!!!”), Kent and his girlfriend into a cab and said goodnight.

While I wished we had found someplace a little more relaxed so we could enjoy each other’s company more, I hope at least that everyone that was there had a good time and you can be sure that I’ll be seeing you at the next meetup, wherever that may be!!

We stayed in this hostel for 2 nights. The location is rather good in terms of its proximity to cheap restaurants, shopping areas, and famous landmarks. We even walked from there to the Petronas Towers (if you're into walking). Like most hostels in Southeast Asia, you need to take your footwear off before entering. The front desk/common area looked homely, with a pool table, couches, TV, and free internet (yeah baby!!!). They also serve breakfast for free (bread and jam, methinks), and will also do your laundry NOT for free. The common bathrooms are clean and spacious enough, and with toilet papers, thank goodness. Bathrooms and toilets are separate, which means you won't be smelling any aromatic odor when showering while another person does Number 2 next door. Oh, no free towels nor shampoos/soaps. Our dorm-type room was pretty big. There was only one electric fan, which kinda sucks during the day because it's humid, but at night, they turn the air-conditioning on. You won't really stay in the hostel all day anyway, so I guess it's fine. However, the 5 double-deck beds and the pillows didn't have covers, and didn't look clean. I didn't smell anything bad, though. The weird thing was, my friends were bitten by bedbugs, while none bothered to bite me. Am I that unapproachable? :D

According to my good KL friend, Erna, this restaurant serves authentic Malaysian dishes, which means spicy in layman's term. But, if you're not into that, there are also several non-spicy ones to choose from. Try to sample at least one spicy dish, though. Just make sure that you have a pitcher of cold water next to you, just like what I did! ;) The design and ambiance of the place is modern and elegant, and the price of the food proves that :P I won't say it's super expensive, but it's definitely not for the budget-conscious. The location is also convenient since it's very close to Bukit Bintang and inside one of the newest high-end malls in Kual Lumpur, the Pavilion KL. Service is quite good, and like most places in KL, the staff speaks good English, so 'yay!' for English-speaking people! :D

So I came here only because i saw that this place has a rooftop garden. I was hoping to catch some sun during my time in KL. But as it seems it is only open at night time from 18.00 and out, that's not gonna happen. The room was as basic as it gets, one table fan, and one bed. It was'nt all that clean(refering to the floor). The beer garden was OK, and the people there were nice, but there were'nt any other travellers there. In general this was'nt the easiest place to meet other travellers, as i hardly saw any. On the plus side is breakfast served, and some internet connections. The hallway, and the other floors are pretty shabby , but they've managed to create a bit of atmosphere around the hostel though. I felt sorry for the poor turtle though.

I just thought it’s worthwhile to warn other fellow travelers about this place. Went there with some friends for drinks and foods as we stayed at the guesthouse nearby. The foods and music are OK and price is reasonable. The most annoying place about this place is the bar manager, a young Chinese guy (I learned that his name is Robert) keep on interrupting our group conversation and being very rude. At the end of the night, he tried to make some very rude sexual proposal, which I find it very disgusting. I also learned there are few incidents in reggae bar where girls unconsciously raped after their drinks being spiked. So be careful!

Arrived Kuala Lumpur a couple of days after I got my really bad bubbly sun burn. Skin started to peel, and I probably looked like a person suffering from a horrible disease. People looked at me funny, however were nice (as would a person trying to not feel uncomfortable in an awkward situation).

I stayed in the Impiana KLCC Hotel, just 2 minutes from the Petronas Twin Towers. Great location. Convenient for transport, as it is connected to the LRT station. There is Suria KLCC which is the shopping centre within the Petronas Twin Towers. 10 minutes walk away is Bukit Bintang, where you have even more shopping, and where you find the major hotels are located. Pretty much your downtown area. Loads of food and activities at night!