Kuching

Kuala Lumpur, 2nd time round, this trip.........

The bus ride from Penang was very pleasant, I slept for quite a bit of it and daydreamed and snored out of the window for the rest. We used the KKKL line for this ride and it was also a good bus (meaning it had charging points and large seats).

We arrived back at The Park Royal about 4pm, in time to fit in afternoon tea and settle into our room in time for cocktails at 6pm. We couldn't get our usual room #414, as it was occupied by some interlopers !!!! We showed how indignant we were at having to spend a night in 503, which was nowhere near as nice and so they promised a change of room. 

Afternoon Tea on arrival at the Park Royal Hotel, perfect!

Anyways, finally got into "our" room the next day. 

"our" room 414

We are making the most of our stay in the Club Floor again, it's sheer luxury. On the down side (again, serious first world problem) we are eating and drinking way too much and we are not experiencing as many outside restaurants, as we otherwise would. However the Club has also been a good source of people watching.

late night view from our hotel window

New Years Eve was the day after our arrival, and we had planned to venture out for a walk and retire to our room with a nice bottle of red and a sushi picnic. How hard could it be to find sushi in a city that has food outlets at every second step you take? Quite hard, as it turns out. I think there are so many food outlets, you can't see for looking. Anyway after looking in both giant food halls, (which means a 3.2k walk) (only dine in sushi available) both supermarkets (no sushi) we finally lucked into a Japanese food market just next door to us.....go figure.

We started of our New Year well, with lots and lots of drinks in the Club Floor. However it started to rain heavily, so the walk was cancelled. Instead, we retired to our (favourite) hotel room, stuffed ourselves with sushi, listened to some old tunes and watched the fireworks from our hotel window.

We had planned to treat ourselves to a massage on New Years Day but they were completely full so we booked for the next day instead. We pretty much spent the first few days, back in KL hanging by the pool. 

Park Royal Pool, saw a few days of slobbing by the Ajayi's

Although we have ventured out a few times even though it is seriously hot. We've walked the 1.8k overhead walkway to KLCC and back at least three times (it is airconditioned, which makes it bearable). The plan this trip was to visit a few different places, than our usual (Bangsar, Publika, Jalan Alor). 

We went to Richies' favourite bar (from his previous visits) and caught up with his favourite waiter. Richies favourite waiter couldn't wait to tell me that Richie was drinking lots of beer and looking at girls last time he was here and now we he was with his wife, he was a pussy cat....... too funny I think, he (meaning the waiter) might need a bit more training....

Richies mate from the last trip.

We visited The National Museum, which was interesting, as museums go and we spent an hour or so, enjoying the exhibits. We walked from KLCC to the Ilham Art Gallery, which should have been a ten minute walk but due to construction turned into a very hot, very long 30 minute walk (only mad dogs....etc). 

A little bit of culture

Ilham Gallery only had one floor open and it was not that interesting, however the walk was quite an eye opener. We have seen a different aspect of KL by walking and by Grab. We have seen so many hotels, hundreds of them and that's only the big five star jobbies! Also the construction is never ending and seems to be growing.

We revisited the Petronus Gallery in KLCC, always good for a gander. Great idea to have a free art gallery in a mall...... culture for the masses. 

Ilham Gallery

Spent an interesting evening in Jalan Alor, usual crowds and people busking for money. Food was good, beer was cold and Richie made a few new friends, who were leaning into our table to take selfies.

Jalan Alor, always busy

Richies new best friends

TREC, which stands for Taste, Relish, Experience, Celebrate

is a groovy new entertainment area, very close to Bukit Bintang, but on the otherside of a freeway. It is basically a man made entertainment area, full of bars, restaurants and clubs. It was Wednesday on the night we visited, so it was ladies free drinks night. I declined the inevitable nasty cocktail and had a very expensive wine instead. We watched a couple of pretty good live bands and racked up a very large drinks bill.

Electric Boulevard, TREC Kuala Lumpur

TREC Rocks and so does Richie

TREC live music

Getting down at TREC

The end of the night... why  can't I see the GRAB?

We've had a few massages and done a little shopping at Central Markets. We limited our perfume purchases this time, as it's not quite the bargain it seems. 

I've been doing this pose since 1888 as well

and again, just in case you missed it

Bangsar as been our Indian grub, go to, again. We had planned to visit a different banana leaf restaurant, but fell back into Nirvana, seduced by the fact there was no queue. 

Banana Leaf at Nirvana

We did fancy a change from Indian (no say it isn't so!) so we went to the Tarbush Arabic restaurant near the Pavillion. We had previously had a delicous kebab from a Tarbush stand in the food mall, so we thought the restaurant would be good. It wasn't, it was pretty average and the service was crappy.  Watching the other diners, somewhat made up for it though. Lots of ladies eating under their veils (madness!). One family asked for a screen, which was not forthcoming, sadly we left before their food came, so I don't know what the outcome was.....

Tarbush Arabic restaurant, the best thing about it was the lighting

We've been Grabbing it again, everywhere and it's still brilliant. We took a long (35 minute) Grab ride to Damansara, an upmarket suburb in outer KL. It was really interesting to see a bit of outer KL. We ended up at a very smart restaurant bar area. It is possible to catch the MR to Damansara, although the area is too big to walk around, once you arrive. 

Richie has been tipping the room attendant, like a mad man. It has paid off, we have been getting great service, apart from great swathes of tea bags, copious bottles of water, two boxes of chocolates, we came home to find 7 pens and 7 notepads last night!

outside our room, Park Royal

Brickfields area has undergone a bit of a transformation with a giant new shoppoing mall, Nu Sentral, located at Sentral station. We spent a little time in the mall, purchases a couple more shirts for Richie and then walked the 500m to old Brickfields. We lucked upon an Indian festival, celebrating some God or another, it was really colourful, noisy and people kept giving us little bags of food. 

another colourful festival in Malaysia

There aren't as many restaurants in Brickfields as you would expect. We ate in the same restaurant, as our last visit which was probably more than four years ago. The food was fantastic. We had chicken thali, extra chicken dish and butter nan and two huge mango lassis, for a poultry sum of 60 MR. Did I say how delicious it was?

here we are eating another fabulous thali and mango lassi

Our new favourite restaurant in KL

Blingy Brickfields

I need one of these at home

So here we are on our last day of this vacation. We had some problems confirming our last night in 414 because a university from Melbourne has booked out the entire floor. 
We went for breakfast today at 10.30 (last knockings as usual) and the Club Floor was full of serious groups of people, huddled over their laptops having interesting discussions. We figured out (and a sign at the Ballroom confirmed it) that it was a group of MBA students..... they were paying about $80,000 for their course, which explains why they were so serious. Maybe I need an MBA for Recycled Reticules.....hmmmm.

Richie's other new best friend, Club Floor Park Royal

The lovely staff in the Club Floor, who really looked after us, insisted that we help ourselves to the Melbourne groups' cocktail party, which was outside on the Club Floor balcony. So we did, great way to finish our stay, lots of satay and curry and fresh parathas, then the rain came....

For too comfortable

All in all, it was another fabulous holiday. We spent an inordinate amount of time in Club Floor of the various hotels we stayed in. Even though its a bit more expensive, due to the vast amounts of food and drink we managed to consume, it was a bargain. Plus we had laundry included at the Park Royal. Not sure Richie was too impressed with the pressing though....

Going for Popeye the Sailor Man vibe

So farewell thee well Malaysia, for another year or two. We'll be dreaming of the banana leaf, thalis and mango lassis, until we return.