Roti canai

My first day in Kuala Lumpur was largely spent waiting to check into the hostel. While I was doing that the most logical thing to do seemed to be get something to eat. That’s when I stumbled upon the roti canai place just at the back of BB Plaza. It was RM1/£0.20/$0.40NZD a piece so you can guess where I went for breakfast every day until I left KL?! The only thing I regret: not finding this place when I was here last year!

Sidebar: Kris loved taking his perv lens out with him (the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8) and it caught the attention of one of the guys at the roti canai place. The second Kris told him how much it cost he looked like he was about to faint and walked off with a “that white dude be crazy” look on his face.

And this was the view across from the roti canai place:

Chicken wings

Around the corner from our hostel – this is the great thing about staying in the middle of town – were a few food stalls. One that smelt particularly tasty was the chicken wing stall. So two days in a row we went and got delicious BBQ chicken wings. The first time we got them we didn’t realise they’d be so darn hot…

Hong Kong dim sum

The thing I didn’t realise about going out for yum cha in Malaysia was that most places serve Halal food as a standard. And yum cha without pork isn’t really yum cha at all. Thankfully we found a place (just around the corner from the hostel) that did non-Halal dim sum. It wasn’t the best I’ve had but it was pretty darn cheap at approximately RM3-4/£0.60-0.80/$1.20-1.60NZD a plate!

Fresh fruit juice

When I go out for meals I don’t usually order drinks but in Asia I make the exception. With all the fresh fruit juices around I can’t not order at least one per meal. Watermelon… honeydew… starfruit… Starfruit is one of my faves as it isn’t too sweet. It kind of tastes like a dirty apple. I’m not really selling it to you, am I?

General food yumminess

The thing I appreciate most about growing up speaking a little bit of Cantonese is that when you read the English versions of menus you aren’t put off by names of dishes such as “radish cake”. Even though I can’t read the Chinese characters I can still ask if what I think I’m ordering is what I’m actually going to get. So without further ado, folks, here we have radish cake…

And for good measure there is Penang char kway teow:

And Hokkein mee:

The one thing we didn’t try was the frog porridge.

It would seem that Angry Birds have descended on KL. When I was here last December there wasn’t an Angry Bird in sight… now they are everywhere. Soft toys, t-shirts, fluffy bags…

I tried looking for a t-shirt but none were quite right. Not like I have enough room in my bags anyway. Pah.

Today we head out to Batu Caves because we thought we’d make a tiny attempt at being cultural. I skipped it last time and figured I should probably make an effort this time ’round.

How young do I look?

We went to KLSentral station and got the commuter train out to Batu Caves. I went up to the counter to purchase the tickets which were RM1 each. When we returned the tickets were RM2 each. I had a look at the fare chart and it would appear that I was charged the kiddie price. So apparently I look young, even in Asia.

Monkeys

Right at the entrance to the caves people were feeding monkeys. Now, I’m not in favour of feeding wild animals because they come to expect it etc but it sure did make for some great photos.

277 steps

It’s 277 steps to get to the caves. It sounded like a lot but it went pretty quickly. There wasn’t actually much to the caves once you got up there but there was a temple inside that was gathering a bit of a crowd.

On the way back down we saw the saddest baby screaming his lungs out. I don’t think he was too happy being covered in all that powder.

Essentially the trip was a bit “we came, we saw, we went and found some aircon”.

Ladies only

One interesting thing I did learn was that the middle carriage of the commuter trains are designated for women only.

Also, indecent behaviour is prohibited on trains. This sign suggests that this behaviour includes kissing. Well it’s about time PDAs were prohibited!