Shopping – A long way home to Leytonstone

01/08/202303/08/2023 Katy Thompson Indonesia, Malaysia

Eating our way around KL

After a straightforward three hour Air Asia flight, we landed in KL around 8.30pm. We flew through immigration, grabbed a coffee, and then a Grab cab (like Uber) to our hotel, Sleeping Lion Suites (£42pn).

The traffic in KL is hectic, so we eventually arrived around 10.30pm. Feeling knackered, we popped to the nearest 7eleven and bought some instant noodles for dinner.

We came to KL on our last trip where we visited the Batu Caves and the Bird Sanctuary so this trip was all about the food. KL is such a diverse city, ultra modern in some areas with a mix of Chinese, Indian, Indonesian and Malay cultures. Which is why the food here is so good.

Our hotel was located in Bukit Bintang, a fairly lively spot with great shopping malls and fab places to eat. Wanting to make the most of it, we kicked off our first day with some roti canai (roti with curry sauce and daal) and teh tarik (tea sweetened with condensed milk).

We then headed to Chinatown / Petaling Street in search of some dumplings and noodles. A roast duck and pork hawker stall caught our eye, so we shared a plate and washed it down with some freshly pressed apple juice. It was OK but nothing special.

After wondering around looking at what other people were eating, we found what we came looking for; dumplings at Mee Tarik Restaurant. We quickly ordered the Chinese chicken dumplings and a bowl of spicy noodles, which were lip tingling spicy and delicious.

Feeling full, we headed back to our hotel room for a quick rest and a shower. We then headed out to the KLCC area, which is where the famous Petronas Towers are located. Each night, there is a light show and colourful fountains, so we thought we’d check it out. Turns out we got there super early, so hung around to watch the sunset, took some photos but couldn’t be bothered to wait another hour for the light show. Instead, we headed back towards our hotel in search of dinner.

Jalan Alor is a famous street food market full of Chinese seafood restaurants. It is hit and miss whether you get a good one so we had a wonder down and as it was crazy busy (Saturday night) we defaulted to our back up plan.

TG’s a well reviewed Indian restaurant was just around the corner and turned out to be a firm favourite of ours. Famous for its giant dosas, which we didn’t order (too much pancake) but did take pictures of other peoples, we enjoyed kadai curry, tandoori chicken and a cheese naan. We enjoyed it so much we went back the next day for breakfast for another round of roti canai and a masala dosa (pancake filled with curried potato and veg). All washed down with some more teh tarik and freshly squeezed apple juice. It’s worth mentioning that we have also enjoyed some pretty good coffee whilst here, especially at Q Cup Cafe and Lost x Found.

Unfortunately, Sam caught my cold and was feeling pretty rotten, so we spent the rest of the day doing not very much. We popped into the Pavillion shopping mall where 90% of the shops are designer and definitely out of our price range but nice to look at. However, I did find a COS and treated myself to a new top.

Grabbing some takeaway sushi from the local Japanese centre, we headed back to the room to chill. We popped out to Times Square M all where Malaysia’s largest indoor theme park is. To be honest, it was all a bit grotty, so having spotted a bar on the way in, we parked ourselves there for a beer and a somosa before heading back.

On Monday, we headed out to the Botanical Gardens for a walk. It killed a few hours before we reached Little India. We had a wonder around, ate some somosas which were delicious and came back to the hotel. It was so hot that we were glad to take advantage of our hotels rooftop pool for a cooling dip.

On our last night we treated ourselves to some happy hour beers (we hadn’t really been drinking up to this point due to colds) and a slap up (sort of) Chinese meal at Dragon i @ Pavillian KL. We ordered far too much and stuffed our faces with more dumplings, spicy noodles, hot and sour soup, garlic gai lan, kung po chicken and fried rice with crispy pork chop. We rolled back to our hotel room and straight to bed.

As we had a night bus booked (leaving at 11.30pm) we decided to pay for an extra night at the hotel so we didn’t have the faff of killing time and leaving our bags. It turned out to be a great idea as it meant we could enjoy our last day fully.

We headed straight to Chinatown in search of Curry Laksa, which I had read about and spotted on an earlier visit but was too full to try. Unfortunately, it was closed, so instead we went to a small hawker stall selling handcut noodles in a spicy peanut sauce or, as they call it, their signature red sauce. It was delicious and only £1! It was called Yooi Kee Chee Cheong Fun.

We then returned to the dumpling place and ordered more Chinese dumplings and some extra beef fried dumplings just for good measure. Feeling a little full we spotted a bar and took a break with a beer. 1 turned into 3 whilst we escaped the rain.

Heading back to the tube we walked past the beef noodle place I had on my list to try, Sin Kiew Yee Shin Kee Beef Noodles With no queues (unusual) we popped in. All they sell is variations of beef noodles or Bakso (beef meatballs). We opted for the raw beef noodles where they plunge raw beef into boiling broth so it cooks and then serve with a steaming bowl of noodles in a rich beef broth with beef floss. It was absolutely delicious and I’m so glad we decided to pop in.

Back to our hotel for a quick dip in the pool and a nap. We ordered a McDonalds, packed, and headed off to the bus station. Neither of us is looking forward to the eight hour overnight bus journey. Next stop Tioman Islands.

Katy

03/06/201207/01/2018 Sam Thompson Japan

A shaky start to Tokyo

Midway through our night at Singapore airport, I decided that I am definitely too old to be sleeping on the floor…or trying to sleep as the case may be. There are worse airports to spend the night at, but that didn’t brighten my outlook or help my back the next morning. But as we sat on the flight to Tokyo, I was genuinely excited. It has been a while since I have felt like that when arriving somewhere, and Tokyo certainly didn’t disappoint.

The rail system is just ridiculous. It’s a vast sprawl of lines taking you to any crevice that you want to go within Tokyo and the surrounding areas. What it does mean is that there are always several ways to get to the same destination, so even getting on the wrong train isn’t the end of the world. Just looking at the map and trying to work out fares can be traumatic though, especially after a night lying on an airport floor followed by a seven hour flight.

It took us about two hours to get from the airport to the hotel, and it was a welcome sight when we finally found it. The room was small but very comfortable with everything we needed, with some added extras. The toilet had various contraptions attached that you wouldn’t get anywhere else in the world. I won’t go into details, but I can assure you that all were tested and I’m looking into getting them installed at home on our return to the UK.

View from the Government Metropolitan Building

That night as we slept, we were woken in a fairly strange way. At first I thought Katy was jumping on the bed, and it took us a while to understand what was going on. The whole room was shaking, with various items clattering to the floor. We were experiencing our first earthquake. It didn’t last too long, and almost immediately afterwards we were back asleep without a second thought; mainly due to lack of sleep. The next morning we checked the local news and confirmed that it was measured at 5.3 on the Richter Scale. There was no major damage or injuries, and although fairly common in Japan it was the first in Tokyo this year. It was a surreal experience which thankfully wasn’t too serious.

So we began to explore Tokyo and it really is a great city. It is by far the cleanest place I have ever been, and I don’t actually think I have seen one bit of rubbish on the floor all week. Although most people cannot speak English, everyone is very polite and respectful. The people we have spoken to are interested in what we are doing and where we are visiting, while recommending places for us to go. It’s a place that if you have the time and the money, you can do pretty much anything; and money is the operative word here. Tokyo is expensive.

Being on a traveller’s budget for the last eight months, we’ve gotten used to tightening our belts (unfortunately not literally) and finding ways to reduce costs. Nowhere has it been so important though. Beers average out at about £10 pint, although you can find it cheaper if you know where to go. Food can be tricky as most restaurants don’t have English menus, so trying to work out what things cost can be…err…tricky. Our room had a kettle, so we saved money by eating Ramen (or pot noodles). We did find something that we have had very little of in the past eight months, cheese and red wine. Both were cheap from the 7Eleven, and even though we sat in our small room drinking out of tumblers, it felt like a treat. And with a bottle of wine for £4, we treated ourselves several times throughout the week.

We have walked around most of the main districts of Tokyo this week, and a few places have stood out from the rest. Asakusa was probably our favourite area of the city, with a mix of very traditional buildings and ultra-modern. It has the oldest temple in Tokyo which was built in 628AD, and it’s just a lovely place to take in and watch people.

The best place in town for a night out has to be Roppongi, in Tokyo midtown. Here you can find any sort of bar for any budget. The bar that fitted in with our rather meagre budget was Gas Panic. It was recommended as one of the cheap trend bars of the moment, and was basically a hip-hop bar for young Japanese people looking for a good time. It did look like they were having a good time too. With cheap drinks and some great tunes blaring out of the sound-system, I thought it was a pretty good choice. That was until the DJ had a change of heart and began his Rihanna medley. As Katy took to the dance floor, I grabbed another beer.

After we were sufficiently lubricated we had planned to go out for a nice meal, but instead we had a McDonald’s and headed to a karaoke bar. We rented a private booth for an hour and we let rip. I’ve never heard such noises come out of Katy…luckily the booth was sound-proofed. We had a great time, and it is something that I think everyone who visits Tokyo should do during their time here.

We have also managed to squeeze in some really nice sushi meals while we’ve been here. It’s more expensive than I thought it would be, after all we are in the birthplace of sushi. The hardest thing is not to keep on taking more as they come around on the conveyor belt.

We’ve seen quite a lot of Tokyo in a week, but most of it has just been walking around the different areas of the city. We had a quick look at Tsukiji, the largest fish market in the world. We spent some time looking around some of the big arcades, and I couldn’t resist having a go on a few of the machines. Some of them actually look quite scary, and the locals definitely take their gaming seriously. In Ginza and Akihabara we had a look at some of the electronic gadgets, but there wasn’t really anything too cutting edge. I was picturing robots ice-skating or something like that, but unfortunately I was disappointed.

Today we went to Yoyogi Park in Shibuya to see if we could find the Harajuka girls. If you’ve not heard of them, they are basically teenage girls bedecked Japanese character outfits (such as Hello Kitty and Manga), goth makeup or punk kimono outfits. We had seen a few throughout the week, but this is the area that they congregate on the weekends. Well in fact we only saw about ten girls dressed up, and they weren’t too happy about getting their picture taken. It was great weather though, and an interesting walk through the park.

So tonight we are back in our room with a bottle of red wine, writing this blog. We fly to Ecuador tomorrow to start the second leg of our trip in South America. We have really enjoyed SE Asia, but we are definitely ready to move on now and experience different cultures and food. I will enjoy eating my bowl of noodles tonight, knowing it will be the last one for some time.

Until the next time…

04/03/201227/07/2023 Katy Thompson Thailand

Life’s a beach

After a two hour delay at Yangon airport we arrived in Bangkok in time to check into our hostel, dump our bags and head out to meet Dave at his hotel. We found Dave and Dave (his friend) by the pool enjoying a cold beer looking very relaxed. The football boys were arriving late that night, so after a few beers and a curry we decided to leave the boys to catch up and head home as we were shattered.

The football weekend consisted of a Friday night match at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club where we were treated to a fantastic buffet meal and all the free beer you could drink. This was followed by a weekend of seven a side games held at the Royal Bangkok Polo Club, which is basically a very nice country club with an Olympic size swimming pool smack bang in the middle of the city. Unfortunately the boys (KCC Royals) didn’t have a great weekend in terms of results but I have a feeling that had something to do with the amount of beer consumed. It was great weekend, albeit a heavy one, and it was really good to see Dave and catch up with a few familiar faces.

We left Bangkok on Sunday afternoon and caught an overnight train to Krabi in the south. We loved the overnight sleeper trains in China so were excited to see if the Thai trains were as good. We’d been told that you start off with seats that get changed into beds. Each carriage has its own conductor who comes and changes the seats into beds when you’re ready for bed…quite cool. After a few hours sleep we were woken up at 4.30am to get our connecting bus to Krabi. After leaving Bangkok at 15.30 on the Sunday, we eventually arrived in Krabi at 14.30 on the Monday.

We arrived at our hostel very tired and also very disappointed when we realised the room wasn’t what we had booked and was a lot more money than we thought. So after a heated discussion with the owner we walked away with our money and checked into another hostel. There is not a lot to do in Krabi. I think most people use it as a stop-off or a base to visit the surrounding islands, so we decided to move onto Koh Lanta the following day.

Sophie and Seb were already there which was perfect as they were able to find us a room. They did a great job, finding us a bungalow about one minute walk from the beach with air-con and a fridge, all for a very good price. After checking into to our bungalow, Sam surprised me with a Valentine’s poem on the back of a postcard which he had written whilst on the train. Who said romance was dead! Seb was almost in tears when I read it out that evening, and Sophie had to point out that it wasn’t actually meant for him. I wanted to post it on here, but Sam said it would ruin his street cred (if he had any to begin with).

We spent the next few days relaxing on the beach, working on our tans and playing Frisbee. We had one day exploring the town Saladan, and decided to check out another beach whilst there. We ended up taking a wrong turn and found ourselves on a deserted beach which was basically a huge sand bank covered in crabs and rocks with the sea miles out. We were clearly on the wrong beach but we decided to walk across to get to the next beach instead of turning back. It didn’t look that far when we started, but after a few minutes we were thinking we’d made a mistake as there were thousands of crabs and sea slugs everywhere. Anyway we persevered and made it to the rocks where a couple of local fisherman looked at us like we were crazy and pointed us in the direction of the right beach.

The next day was the first day of our Open Water PADI course but first we had to say goodbye to Sophie and Seb as they were headed back to Bangkok to collect their visas for India. We were sad to see them go as they’ve been our travel buddies for the last two months which has been a lot of fun.

We had already completed the first three chapters of the course so the morning was spent recapping on everything we had learnt followed by the next two chapters. We also took the final exam and both passed with flying colours so we were ready for our confined water skills test which took place in the sea rather than a swimming pool. We had to do lots of different things like pretend you’d run out of air and use your buddy’s alternative air source; let water into your mask and then get it out and take your mask off, which was the bit I hated the most. Our instructor seemed happy with everything so we were ready for our first proper dive.

Over the next two days we completed four dives, each time practicing the various skills we had learnt on day one and also reaching the course depth limit of 18m. We were diving in a stunning place called Koh Haa, a collection of five tiny islands each surrounded by beautiful coral reef and we saw so many fish including eels, lobsters, puffa fish and sea snakes but my personal favourite was seeing Nemo (clownfish). It’s very sad but I did get quite excited. We both absolutely loved it and can’t wait to do more diving, we’re even talking about doing our advanced course which takes you down to 40m and where we’ll probably do a wreck dive.

We met up with our instructor and her boyfriend for Sunday dinner at the local Irish bar which also happened to be playing the football. We hadn’t eaten a roast dinner for five months so it was a real treat to have roast pork with all the trimmings. We were also treated to a great game of football; Arsenal v Spurs (for those non-football fans) and to say Sam was happy with the game and the result is an understatement, ecstatic is probably a better way to describe him that night (except for the first 20 minutes). It’s a shame Bolton couldn’t pull off the same result the day before.

I’m not sure what came over me on Tuesday this week but I was out of bed at 7am running on the beach (with Sam). I think I was feeling guilty for all the beach time we’ve been having. Anyway it’s out my system now so no more runs planned for the time being.

We took a motorbike out one day to explore the island a bit more which was good fun, but very hot. We took a few wrong turns but I think we managed to see most of it and even stopped off at a beautiful bay for a little dip to cool off which was much needed. I did manage to lose my bank card at some stage over the day though which is really annoying. I’m hoping HSBC can send my replacement to a branch in Kuala Lumpur. For a bank whose strap-line is ‘The world’s local bank’, they sure know how to make it awkward for people overseas.

So other than the diving and the bike we have had lots of days just sitting on the beach, which has also given us time to start planning the next bit of our trip. We head to Langkawi in Malaysia on Monday where we’ll spend a few days before heading to Penang. Although we’ve enjoyed Thailand and the beach time, we’re ready to move on and are looking forward to seeing something new.

Until the next time….

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