Adventures of David and Paul: So Long Malaysia!

Our time in Kuala Lumpur was coming to an end, and for our last full day we decided to visit a few different neighborhoods and do some tourist shopping. We started with breakfast at Common Grind, which was close to our hotel. It was a cute little place, and we split a nutella donut.

From there it was a short walk north to catch the monorail (which in itself is a tourist attraction for the views of the Bukit Bintang area), but there was a large divided road in the way. There was no way to cross the street unless you climbed the stairs and tapped in and out of the monorail station. We saw this a few times in KL. While there are walkable areas and transit is great, there are several large roads that serve as hurdles to walking. We managed to find a break in the barrier and ran across the street, heading into Quill mall. We walked around for a bit, then caught the monorail.

This street by our hotel, called "the Row," was super cute.

Iced latte and a nutella donut.

Crossing the street "legally".

Well at least this one has a bike lane?

Inside Quill Mall, which had already taken down lunar new year decorations.

Thank Quill it's Friday! (Narrator: it was a Tuesday)

Buttermilk pizza?

We took the monorail to Maharajalela Station, and from there took a walk stopping by multiple small attractions. We started at Kuan Yin temple right next to the station. It's a small, quiet temple, and a modern addition was under construction. We then walked to the adjacent Chan She Shu Yuen Clan Ancestral Hall. This was a cool little stop, with interesting decorations and a small museum.

We walked to Chinatown, which wasn't far away, but it was quite hot and sunny by now. We had some pandan soft serve and local soda (nutmeg, calamansi, and sour plum) at Ching Ching by Pandan Republic. It was nice to sit and enjoy the AC and icy drinks. There was a nearby DurianBB world, which opened at noon, but the upstairs "museum" part was closed for a meeting. We decided to skip it since it looked mostly just like a tourist shop disguised as a museum so we left. Instead, we continued on to the Central Market. It's a great place to do some tourist shopping, with a wide variety of things from locally crafted to mass produced, plus food, in an air conditioned building. We stocked up on some final tourist gifts from Malaysia.

Monorail time!

Great views from the monorail.

The Kuan Tin temple.

View from the courtyard of the ancestral hall.

Despite having no real idea what a "clan hall" was, we still thought it was neat.

Colorful and intricate decorations.

Gecko time!

A taco truck? It was still morning so it wasn't opened yet, otherwise we may have tried it out of curiosity.

Pandan soft serve!

David with his soda.

We walked by where we had eaten on our food tour, and there was still firework litter in the street.

Chinatown had lots of great street art.

Durian BB world.

Walking through Pedaling Market.

The main entrance of the central market.

This is what we drink every day in America. Authentic flavor.

We went back toward the neighborhood our hotel was in, and had a late lunch at at Limapulo Baba can cook. It's a casual restaurant but is Michelin rated. The food was great, and we'd recommend this for trying various local foods. We had pai tee, nyonya lahksa, nasi tomato rice, and sambal terung eggplant. Paul also had the house Peranankan ale, a refreshing non-alcoholic drink. Overall, this was probably the best single meal of our trip to Kuala Lumpur.

After relaxing for a bit in the AC at the hotel, we took the train over to grab drinks at Bar Trigona, a fancy bar in the four seasons hotel that was ranked the top cocktail bar in Malaysia. A lot of the cocktails focused on the namesake trigona honey. We enjoyed a flight of honey cocktails, and an interesting cocktail with a "menthol candle" on top that looked like steel wool set on fire. We had a light dinner and some beer at Gavel next to our hotel. On the way back to our hotel, we stopped by Kooky Plate for a togo dessert. We walked by this place every time we left/returned to the hotel and it looked cute, with lots of people hanging out eating pastries, so we were happy to give it a go!

A Malaysian feast at Limapulo (Baba can cook)

David at lunch.

Make sure to check this place out.

We never got sick of views of the Petronas towers while walking through KL.

A nasi lemak truck? Bring this to Atlanta!

Skyscraper views.

Unique cocktails at Bar Trigona.

David at the bar.

Yay for more bougee cocktails!

All of the cocktails were creative and looked great.

This one included a chocolate liquor ball.

The flight of three honey cocktails.

My cocktail is on fire!

A Hong Kong beer at dinner.

Asparagus and goat cheese toasted bread.

Night view of the towers.

David's blueberry & lime cheesecake slice from Kooky Plate.

The next morning we woke up before 6am, and took the express train to the airport. There was a pretty big line for immigration to leave the country, but David had heard that as of this week U.S. citizens could use the "auto gates." So we went over and tried them, and they worked! We avoided a long wait using these automated gates. The flight was pretty uneventful, and did include a particularly bad lunch which they claimed was "butter chicken." Next stop, and our final stop of the trip - Tokyo!