Day 4: Kuala Lumpur (KL), cloud, 30°🌤️

Moving North!

Yes, it’s time to say goodbye to Malacca and travel north 135 km to KL. In fact I’m writing this portion of the post while sitting on a full bus for the next 3.5 hours.

We really enjoyed our time in Malacca as it is such a colourful city with much to offer the visitor. It was the perfect place to begin, and if the rest of our trip is anything like the beginning, we are in for a brilliant travel! For example, last night after dinner we went for a walk to find some ice cream (7-Eleven!) and by chance came across a local dance troupe performing. They were lovely and so graceful.

I took a long video and sent it to our grandkids as we watched. Cool world we live in!

Dinner last night? We went out to a local restaurant because it was raining off and on. I decided bravely (AM said I was very brave) to try the Malaysian national dish. I selected the somewhat less hot version because our host almost laughed when I asked him about the other options.

Still, it came with an ample supply of hot sauce which I found very good, and survivable! We drank a carafe of fresh juice mixed with soda water and fruit. Very refreshing. The national dish doesn’t come with the chicken. That was a local add on. The rice is infused with coconut milk, spices and has a fried egg on top. A green veggie sort of like spinach, anchovies and peanuts made up the rest. It’s all served on a piece of banana leaf. It was very good!

This morning I was awake early with the Muslim call to prayers. As I lay there listening I wondered who would want to be there (in the mosque) that early in the day? I quickly moved on to catching up on the British football games ⚽️. My friend Ariel had already sent me a synopsis of the Saturday morning games which had been played while I slept. I definitely won’t be wagering on the games with him!

We decided that as we had showered late last night we’d skip the morning ritual and instead walk into town for breakfast. It had rained in the night so the humidity was up a bit as we walked along the river. We went to the same place as yesterday arriving shortly after it opened. A calm and quiet beginning to what would later become hot and a bit hectic.

We received a video call from Caitlin and the girls which was a nice addition to our breakfast. As I spoke with them I noticed two large dragons swimming by, so they delighted in watching this unusual experience. That was special for all of us!

After purchasing our bus reservations online we caught a Grab ride to the bus depot (we are pros at this now)😂

We exchanged our reservations for tickets (a handling fee of course applied). Then it was off to find the correct gate and platform. We waited inside in the comparatively cooler area.

Of course they changed the bus departure time and the platform number at the last minute, but everyone adapted and we all made in onto our bus. And then we were off! And here we sit. For another 2 hours😬

More later…

We arrived at a massive bus depot, the biggest I’ve ever seen including the ones I’ve experienced in Istanbul and large South America cities.

After getting literally zoomed across the city we were able to get right into our hotel room. Quite an upgrade on our last place. Then we were off to see about access to the Petronas Towers and finding some food.

No luck getting into the towers as they only let a small number in every day and the next opening is not until the beginning of February. We had tried to book on line while on the bus and found the same thing. Walked over to see if something could be arranged as AM found other websites selling tickets for today. When we arrived we were told the other websites were all scams. A bullet ducked!😮‍💨

While hanging out in bed this morning I read an article that claimed KL is one of the best cities in SE Asia to experience the Chinese New Year celebrations. I was sceptical, but no longer. Underneath the Towers is an unbelievable mall structure. No I’m not known as someone who likes malls, but even I was incredibly impressed. And it was all set up for the celebrations!

Things were even setup outside for the celebrations.

We were just beginning to get a sense of this city. Very impressive.

We went back into the crowded, but much cooler mall in search of something to eat. AM was hungry and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast (now 4:30). We found an expensive looking place that seemed to be mostly catering the well healed (at least according to what we could see), but we got in line anyway. I’ve learned not to mess around once I understand that AM is hungry!

We were offered an outside seat underneath a nice fan, so we said, “sure, thanks“. We were in our travelling clothes which oddly look much like our dress clothes😉, but the extremely well dressed waiter (white and black uniform) pretended not to notice and politely sat us anyway.

Our table was set and we were presented with 3 books; a menu, an extremely detailed layout of all the coffee varieties carried from around the globe and a book about the how this chain was established and everything one might ever want to know about coffee. Of course, most people know that I can barely stand the smell of coffee.

We were next approached by Stefano, a youngish Italian gentleman from the Como Lake area in north central Italy. He was dressed in a dark suit and turned out to be the franchise manager. Super nice. We discussed our many walks and travels in Italy and soon he was taking the time to explain the history of the business and how he came to find himself operating the franchise in KL. The story is really interesting and it all ties back to Marrakech, Morocco. I’ve attached a link here should anyone like to read the story. It’s very interesting. We flew down from Spain to celebrate our 30th anniversary in Marrakech 15 years ago. I’ve been trying to convince AM to return with me to really travel the country ever since. Perhaps knowing more about this coffee story might persuade a rethink?

https://bachacoffee.com/my/en/about-us

We decided to have a very early dinner at this restaurant and as it turns out Stefano explained to me that they make a very special hot chocolate in the Saharan style. I was immediately intrigued. I love a good cup of hot chocolate from time to time. The brass pot to the right on the stand contained the hot chocolate. no messing around here! There was even a vanilla bean grinder on the table. Magic!

Then there were special croissants with Chantilly cream for dessert (came with AM’s meal). I had a taste, 😋!!

As we were finishing up, the drums and symbols began to crash just outside the restaurant. Hundreds of people began to gather and I knew this meant that the Chinese New Year’s dragons were about to make an appearance. I slipped outside with my phone and filmed a series of videos, which I’ll send to the grandchildren, and I took a few photos as well. It was the best performance that I have ever seen, and I worked for 4 years in the Vancouver Chinese community back in the late 1990s where I saw quite a few good performances. This was well beyond that.

Every time the dragons stood to their full height the crowd laughed and cheered. They were really into the performance.

The crowd grew to several thousand and they were excited by the gifts thrown to the crowd, and of course the children just loved it. I felt so fortunate to have witnessed this event, and the ooo’s, aaah’s and laughter from the crowd were just perfect. Completely unexpected. These sorts of spontaneous experiences make our travels so much richer!

When we dragged our tired bodies back to our hotel at around 6 tonight I wasn’t sure we would have the energy to go back out. However some 90 minutes later I think we’ve just decided to go out for a while again to see what we see. After all, we can rest up at an island stop we’ve planned in Thailand in about 10 days. Too much to experience here!

Good night from KL!

Geoff🏙️🐲🐉