Visiting Steph

I have been saying that I was going to visit Steph in KL and this kept getting postponed for various reasons. Finally we were able to settle on the Easter weekend and I managed to get my bus tickets up to KL. There was no public holiday for Malaysia on Good Friday but she took leave on that day just for ME!!!

I arrived on Thursday evening at Pudu Raya bus station where Steph and her dad picked me up. Fortunately I didn't have to wait too long for their arrival. The Pudu Raya area is very rough with a lot of petty crimes so I didn't feel safe standing around there by myself.

We went back to her place to have a tasty home-cooked meal by her mum and then made a last minute decision to head out to the pasar malam nearby. We ended up buying MORE food and ate so much that night. After dinner and supper, we had a nice long chat whilst lying in bed. It was so good that we could catch up from when we last parted and still talk so easily.

The next day, Steph the tour guide attempted to show me around. We went to the Central Market first and had to get there taking the LRT. It was my first time taking public transport around KL since I usually get chauffered everywhere, hahahah! We had to walk from the train station down to the market which was actually a tourist place where people could purchase souvenirs to show that they had been to Malaysia.


On the way to Central Market.

Reaching Central Market after 10 minutes or so.

Steph has never seen the angkluang before and had no idea what it was. So much for being Malaysian!!! I had to explain what it was and I grew up in Singapore....wahahahha...

We took lunch at the Central Market and I was so fascinated by the sight of BLUE rice! We tried to ask the seller to explain what the blue rice was but his English was really bad.

Nasi Campur is like the Malay Chup Fan (cai fan). You choose and take the food that you want and bring the plate over to the cashier where you pay for it. It's a lot more flexible than chup fan because you can take as much or as little of the dishes as you like but you still pay pretty much the same.

Here's my selection: blue rice (of course I HAD to take the blue rice but it didn't taste that wow), fried kang kong, beef rendang and tempeh (I love love love tempeh!). Total cost: RM 5.

Steph chose the brown santan (coconut) rice which tasted a little like nasi lemak, sambal chicken, achar and keropok. Total cost: RM 4.50.

After lunch we walked down to Chinatown after asking for directions at the tourist information counter. It's nice to know that they have such things in KL. It makes things a lot easier for the tourists especially when so many people in KL still cannot speak English.

Chinatown was a long, straight street with lots of stall selling fruits, drinks, fake bags, clothes, pirated CDs and accessories. We shared a bowl of guilingao first (RM 6) since it was such a hot day and I do like to eat it. This was the very ho liao type where you could taste the herbs but unfortunately was quite bitter and Steph didn't like it. Good things are not always yummy!!! Chinatown was actually quite dodgy. There were lots of guys who would try to get your attention by making perverted sounds and comments. How can they expect to sell anything when all they are accomplishing is just to scare off the female customers? I suppose they think they were being cheeky but at times I just felt like slapping some of them. Ugh!!!

There was still plenty of time after Chinatown so Steph decided to bring me to Sogo at Bandaraya. The shopping mall was have a big sale and she bought a pair of work shoes at RM 134 and a swim suit at RM 76. I managed to find a nice pair of sandals at a bargain price of RM 16. I saw a very pretty pair of heels at RM 30 but they didn't have my size. Total disappointment but at least I did buy something.

We went for more shopping at Midvalley (hey, we are typical girls!) but stopped at a Hong Kong cafe called Kim Gary for some snacks and to rest our tired, tired feet. Steph suggested that we order their famous toast to try.

Thick toast with peanut butter and condensed milk. Absolutely sinful but also very yummy. I was quite amazed that the bread was so thick so the price was actually quite alright at RM 3.50. I have a drink of the iced Hong Kong white tea (Da would like it) and Steph had Yuan Yang which is a mixture of my tea with Hong Kong coffee.

Shopping at Midvalley was disappointing. We couldn't find anything we liked and all the shoes shops did not have anything close to what I wanted. Anyway it was time to go for dinner with Burger. Unfortunately we took the train from the wrong side and got off at this super ulu train station. It kind of reminded me of the ulu train stations you had in Brisbane. The structure was very similar. Steph started panicking and rushed to ask a guy for help. He just told us to take the train from the opposite side of the station which was pretty much common sense. But we were tired and our feet hurt. Luckily that train brought us to the correct stop but when we tried to exit the station, the machines would not accept our tickets. It turned out we had bought the wrong tickets and the people there asked us to pay them an extra RM 2 each. That didn't really make sense but I didn't understand Bahasa so I left it at that. However Steph felt the same indignation as I did so she went back to "confront" those men. They told her that she should have been grateful that we weren't fined RM 10 each as this was the rule set by the station and they even showed her the signboard which mentioned this. I still thought it was unfair because it wasn't as if we were trying to get a free ride on the train. We had made a completely innocent mistake by purchasing the wrong ticket. UGH!!!!!

Burger was waiting for us at the train station and we walked down to the mamak stall for dinner together. We had an interesting dish of roti prata fried with meat, garlic and onions. It was quite nice but very unhealthy. Still it was my first time trying this dish. I wonder if S'pore has this as well.

I forgot the exact name of this dish so I shall wait for Burger to enlighten me.

Enjoying the food and company and trying to do Christine's favourite pose.