Kuala Lumpur By Night – It’s Not About What You See, It’s About What I Ate

…And we’re back…

Hey lovelies, sorry about the long break, but I’m back in Seoul after a phenomenal vacation to Kuala Lumpur, Cambodia & Laos and I’m ready to tell ALL (if you are willing to listen read).

First, I’ll spin you guys around the world to a little (huge) city called, Kuala Lumpur.

Just in case, Kuala Lumpur is the capital of Malaysia, with a population of about 1.6 million people (largely comprised of Malays, Chinese & Indians), and, most importantly, home to over 66 shopping malls!  Unfortunately, G doesn’t really condone mall-ing on vacation (even though I have been whispering, “Shop with me! Shop with me!” into his ear every night after he falls asleep), so I didn’t get to revel in the shopping madness of Malaysia…I know, I feel bad for me too….but it’s still a great fact for those of you who are heading there soon.

photo credit: http://www.etawau.com

Where was I?  I was in fantasy land where I was the mayor.  Anyway, G and I planned on spending a full day in Kuala Lumpur, frolicking around the many temples and mosques, and then merrily & lackadaisically catching our connecting flight to Cambodia the next morning…too bad things didn’t exactly work out that way.

When did we go wrong?  Oh, just the second we stepped off the airplane.  Instead of taking the subway from the airport to our hostel, we decided to take a direct bus into town.  Big mistake.  HUGE.

First of all, KL has horrendous traffic, so the 45 minute ride took over 2 hours, AND by some mean, mean, twist of fate, G and I were seated (LIE: I chose our bus seats) under the central air conditioning vents, which were “broken open” and blew us away with subzero winds.

It was hell freezing over in the hottest of climates.  We sat & froze, sat & froze, sat & froze.  Eventually, the froze became so unbearable that we pulled out all our neatly packed clothing and sat huddled under our backpacks for warmth.

(Please note: we are the ONLY people on the bus freezing our butts off)

Two things happened after I ice-picked my way off of that ski bus:

(1) For the rest of our trip, I never ONCE complained about the heat.  And it was HOT out there.

(2) The insane ice conditioning on the bus caused me to have a terrible cold, which I have yet to recover from.  Stupid bus.

Okay so I’m going to fast forward through the part where we defrosted, got lost on the way to the hostel, and somehow wound up in a Hindu temple, asking for directions during some type of colorful festival…

..and I’ll get right to the point of most of my blog posts: FOOD.

Well, by the time G & I found our hostel, you can only imagine the appetite we had worked up.   (Dosh, just stop making fun of me. Stop.)  So, we dropped off our bags and headed straight for Jalan Alor, also known as- street food paradise.

Jalan Alor is a giant open-air hawking street, crowded with hungry customers and tons of food options.  Basically, it’s like a grittier and tastier version of heaven (but that’s just my assumption).  G and I strolled around the many restaurants and carts, trying to optimize our first bite in KL, and finally decided to just pull up a plastic chair & join the street-side party with 100 of our closest friends.

Our first meal (yes, we had many that night) was at Dragon Temple Restaurant, which was a mild success-ish.  Raw squid calamari and tilapia with red sauce pictured below.

Not feeling fully satisfied, we decided to add on, by scarfing down…

What?  A girl only leaves Korea so often, and you really have to take advantage of the kimchi-free meals!

The rest of the night was spent walking off our tummies, which would have taken 6 weeks to achieve in full.  But we were stuffed and happy and getting ourselves ready for the adventures awaiting us in Cambodia and Laos.

More to come…