Malaysia, Truly Asia

I realized on the flight over to Malaysia, that I have only spent time away from Paul twice since knowing home.  The first is when Emily and I went to Malaysia (KL and Langkawi), and the second when I went home for Maria's wedding.  Now almost 3 years later I'm leaving for KL and Maria!

We had such a blast!!!!  KL is so much fun, and it's even more fun with your best friends.  I didn't get to Maria's hotel (which was huge and awesome) until after 2am on Friday, but that didn't deter us.  We stayed up chatting and sipping some wine until 4 when we both were so tired we could barely sit up.

Saturday we were up pretty early given our late night, and had a fantastic buffet breakfast before heading out to the Batu Caves.  I had been twice before, but seriously, every time was different.  First time was full of snakes and monkeys, second there were no monkeys to be seen!, and this time, yes lots of monkeys, but kind of walked away with 'this could use a paint job' kind of a feel.  Kind of reminded me of all of the tourist attractions at Paul's favorite resort in Wulai, Taiwan (read: was probably cool 30 years ago). 

Then our driver took us to this cute Batik store where we learned that Batik is a style of painting on fabric.  Catherine played model and Maria and I oohed and awed.  Then we hit up Central Market for shopping, coffee, delicious sweet green stuff, and a new fruit that none of us had ever seen or tried before.  And it wasn't bad. 

Then we retired back to the hotel for a much needed mid-day siesta. Naps followed by snacks in bed and chatting, followed by showers and some bubbley! 

We went out to the BEST Malay dinner.  This was upscale Malaysian dining at its best.  We ordered a bottle of Spanish wine (I think a year past its prime) and the following:

Chicken curry- awesome

Squid ink squid- fantastic but too salty- needed some rice

Coconut rice- blander than expected

Jackfruit coconut salad- this was a huge surprise and success!

Everything was really good and it gave us a good idea of what Malaysia cooking is all about...coconut!  After stuffing ourselves, catching up on all things everything, and enjoying the amazing smells wafting from the kitchen, it was time to move out to meet Maria's friend Prathesh (probably spelled really wrong) from IBM.

We met at this amazing bar in Patronas tower 3, which none of us even knew existed.  Prathesh is from Bangalore but has lived in KL for the past 2 years with his wife, so he knows all of the ins and outs of what's good.  We had fantastic cocktails with a stunning view of the towers, and I was surprised to see a Prosecco that I import into HK is the Prosecco of choice at Marini's 57!  We hit one other bar and then called it a night....

Sunday we think we wandered into the red light district, found some kimchi to snack on, then made our way to Chinatown.  In search of Indian, we moseyed onward, but disappointingly couldn't find anything too appealing.  Lonely Planet led us to Sister's which we were super excited for...until we found out it was closed, so we hit the Indian buffet downstairs and were all pleasantly surprised.

It was so sad to have to say goodbye!  We only just said hello.   But as with all best friends, when we were together it felt like zero time had passed since the last time we saw each other.  Only 8 months til Christmas.

I miss you Maria!!!

PS I have vowed after this trip never ever ever to fly Air Asia again. 

 

 

 

 

 

More on that later.