Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur

We didn’t write a lot of about KL on this blog. We have been here so many times by now, we don’t do the tourist stuff anymore (so much so, that we struggled to find a single picture from our stay here on this trip!). It is our Asian home; our home away from home. Place we know and love. Where we come to rest, recuperate and lick our wounds. Where we have our favorite places to eat, party, shop. Or just do “normal” stuff like cinema, laundry or watch TV late into the night. And as the trip went on, we realized we were happier and happier to come back and less and less keen to leave. That view of the Boys (AKA Petronas towers) is just magical and keeps you glued to the city.

So, what part of town to stay in? For us the key is to stay within golden triangle with walking distance to all our must visit locations. This is also where all the high-rise hotels and apartments are – what a happy coincidence. With KL topping the charts for most affordable accommodation on the planet it totally makes sense to get some sunshine into the wallet and go for a 5 star fancy apartment high off the ground. This will set you back less than sleeping on the bench in Singapore. Also they will allow you to leave luggage behind between visits – key for us as we are hauling around almost 80 kg on full load by the end of the trip (if you have shares for Crocks, well done! This will be a very good year!). It's all nice to be practical, but the key sales point is sleeping on 40th plus floor as we are bottom dwellers back home. With frequent visits we often get upgraded for free into deluxe 100 m2 apartment – not that we need it for anything other than play hide & seek. Still not convinced? They even have a Nespresso coffee machine – I hear your brain buzzing about buying flights to KL.

So how does our time here look like? We finally caught up with technology and are using Grab or Uber to get in / out of the city. Once settled into our home, it’s time to walkabout. Petronas towers with its Suria shopping mall is the place for Nonya laksa dish. That’s lunch sorted, before we head over to Pavilion shopping mall to stock up on French wine, Irish butter & cheddar cheese and Japanese Hokkaido tarts. Across the road is i-setan store for sushi and on the way back home we stop in Indian restaurants for dinner and breakfast takeaway. If we don't have too many perishables we drop in one of massage parlors for quick foot massage. Then we settle into dinner at home pigging through all the excessive grub we bought. Pass out and then repeat next day – we are sane enough not to expect a different outcome.

Needless to say, it was hard to pack and say goodbye. Especially as we do not know when we are coming back next. But we are coming back, that is for sure.

So this is not a goodbye, but rather until we see you next time, Kuala!