It was exciting to get to the weekend, nearly recovered from jet lag and raring to explore the city I could see from my balcony. But first, to the pool!
It’s such a treat to live somewhere with a pool AND one that’s outside! I used to live in Taiwan where my apartment also had a pool but it was inside and had limited opening times, rubbish! As the weather here seems to be constantly in the high 30s a swim in the sunshine is very refreshing. Well, when I say in the sunshine I mean in the sunshine in limited sections of the pool and at certain times of the day.
In my experience of living in Asia it’s quite common for people here not to want the sun on their skin, the complete opposite of us Brits. So, I reckon this pool may have been designed with that in mind, most of it is very well shaded. There’s one corner, my corner, which gets all the sun and that’s where I live. It’s really funny everyone else swims and sits in the shaded parts and I stick to the sun. They definitely think I’m weird.
On to Kuala Lumpur with my trusty tour guide Tom. We wandered through China Town which was packed full of people and market stalls selling fake designer goods. I went in thinking I’d never buy any of it and I left determined to buy an Ice watch on my next visit.
We sheltered on the famous Petaling Street during a particularly crazy downpour. I’d forgotten how quickly tropical rain can hit, drown everything and then before you know it it’s gone.
Then on to my first KL cafe, exciting, I love a good cafe. You could very easily walk past Merchant’s Lane and not know it was there but luckily for me I was with a pretty well established KL cafe finder. An iced coffee woke me up and cooled me down. This was drunk on the side of a delicious slice of peanut butter cake.
Merdaka Square followed by Unofficial Little India was hot and sweaty but full of intriguing snack stalls and street side restaurants.
We cooled off inside the mall which is underneath the Petronas Towers. I’m starting to understand why there are so many malls in Kuala Lumpur, people are desperate for the air conditioning.
The malls here seem to be home to some really great food. This is unexpected, in the UK I avoid malls, food options tend to be chains and when you’re inside a mall you could be anywhere in the world, you’re not really experiencing local life.
Day 5 ended with claypot chicken in the mall (when I say ‘mall’ I mean shopping centre, don’t worry I’ve not turned American, just temporarily Malaysian).
wander with coffee 