Malaysia Vacation – One Week In Kuala Lumpur Day 8

27 Nov – Day 8 – Friday

KL Tower - one the Malaysia attractions

Today is the last day of our Malaysia vacation. As the saying goes, time flies even more quickly when you are having fun and enjoying yourself. In all our numerous holidays to Malaysia, this has been our longest stay. We have been pretty adventurous in going around and exploring some Malaysia attractions around Kuala Lumpur as well as doing quite a fair bit of great Malaysia shopping, not forgetting our favorite Tesco shopping this time round. We also tried out quite a number of the local food of Malaysia.

Somehow when we live with open hearts, things happen for a reason. We did not buy any breakfast as we had over the past few days for this morning. However for some reason, the Duty Manager of the Palace of the Golden Horses presented us with 2 breakfast vouchers for today. Thank you!

2 Breakfast vouchers

Buffet breakfast food was served at The Café Carousal, a buffet restaurant with pictures of the carousel giving it a bright and cheery ambience. With a good local breakfast spread with some Western breakfast food, it was a great dining location.

Cafe Carousal

Breakfast buffet counter

Assortment of breakfast food

Fried egg

Buffet breakfast

Cafe Carousal

We were fortunate to have three of the hotel management staff accompany us for the meal. There was intense discussion on how the hotel is run, their challenges as well as prestigious events and dignitaries whom they have hosted.

Some of the renowned names who have stayed in Asia’s Most Extraordinary Hotel include Queen Elizabeth, the late President Arafat, golf legend Tiger Wood, actor Jackie Chan, singer Alan Tam and countless others.

It was an educational as well as entertaining breakfast session with the Director of Rooms, Mr Andrew Satu, Manager on Duty cum acting General Manager for the day, Mr Lingam and Duty Manager Ms Michelle Jalleh. We highly recommend this resort-feel hotel with great architecture overlooking the lake with a 36-hole exclusive golf course just next to it.

Together with the management staff of the resort, Palace of the Golden Horses

Upon checking out from the hotel at 1400 hrs upon special request, we did another short tour of the Palace of the Golden Horses, a beautiful place we consider a resort within the city.

The public restroom

Somethin' Juicy

Healthy fruit juice bar

Seating are in the Juice Bar

A cute looking tree

TCM Treatment available in Palace of the Golden Horses

Art work on tiles

The Chinese Restaurant at the Palace of the Golden Horses, Kim Ma

More horses

Looking into the garden

The convention centre

Teh Tarik (Tea Pulling) at the Cafe

Teh Tarik is a hot tea beverage and the name is derived from the pouring process of "pulling" the drink during preparation as seen in the picture.

Kin No Uma Japanese Restaurant

Fancy an elaborate wedding in this resort?

Thereafter, we drove to UOG Plaza where we went next door to Central Hypermarket. You can find a wet market here that was still open at 1500 hrs in the afternoon. We bought some Chinese snacks, the baked char siew pao (barbequed pork bun), curry puff and egg tart.

The Chinese snack stall

The char siew bun filling was tasty and fragrant accompanied by pastry that was great. Same can be said for the curry puff where you could get a good portion of the chicken curry with a nice and crispy puff pastry.

Fruits galore

Wet market still on at 1500 hrs

Next we made our way to Low Yat Plaza in Bukit Bintang area to look for our favorite doughnut franchise Big Apple where we bought some doughnuts home for the family.

These doughnuts are a big hit at home!

We also bought some nonya cakes from Lulu Nonya Kuih in Sungei Wang Plaza before we started our journey back to Singapore at 1730 hrs.

Lulu Nonya Kuih

Delicious nonya kuih

Besides the heavy rain for part of the way, it was a smooth journey. We made a stop at Tesco Extra in Seremban to do some final Tesco shopping as well as look for dinner.

Tesco extra in Seremban

As there were not too many food and beverage outlets at Tesco Extra and a lack of seats at the Thai stall, we decided to have dinner at MacDonald’s. The ayam goreng (fried chicken) and McChicken Deluxe value meals cost RM20.70.


MacDonald's

Ayam Goreng - Fried Chicken

McChicken Deluxe

The Thai food stall where we could not find any seats

Kuih Bahulu kiosk
a traditional cake made from egg, sugar and flour


After dinner and more shopping to complete this vacation in Malaysia, we moved off again at 1840 hrs.

We were fortunate that the traffic all the way along the North South highway was smooth. With a final stop at Gelang Patah to top up petrol, we made our way into Singapore through the Tuas 2^nd Link at 2300 hrs with almost no queue.

This happened to be the longest Malaysia vacation we have taken and was made memorable with our stay at Asia’s Most Extraordinary Hotel or as we like to call it, a wonderful resort, Palace of the Golden Horses. If you like to return to a ‘resort-feel accommodation with lots of greenery at the end of our day after a tour to any of the wonderful Malaysia attractions or some Malaysia shopping, then the Palace of the Golden Horses would be a wonderful choice. Whilst enjoying your holiday in Malaysia, do try out the various delectable food of Malaysia as you will be amazed at the local cuisine they offer.

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Malaysia Vacation – One Week In Kuala Lumpur Day 6

25 Nov – Day 6 – Wednesday

The resort, Palace of the Golden Horses

For today, the sixth day of our Malaysia vacation, we would be going on a Malaysia shopping spree. Our plan for the day included shopping in one of the tourist attractions, Chinatown Malaysia, and trying out more local food of Malaysia. If possible, we would like to buy more doughnuts from our favorite doughnut franchise Big Apple.

We had booked our complimentary shuttle from our Malaysia accommodation resort, Palace of the Golden Horses to Lot 10 in Bukit Bintang, the shopping belt of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 1030 hrs. When we reached Bukit Bintang area, we had a huge choice of shopping complexes to choose from. There was Sungei Wang Plaza, Bukit Bintang Plaza, Low Yat Shopping Centre and Lot 10, besides the various other shops and kiosks along the roadside.

For breakfast, we bought some nonya cakes from Lulu Nonya, a kiosk in Sungei Wang Plaza. The onde onde was nice small pieces with a thin pastry coated with grated coconut. After popping the onde onde into your mouth and biting it, you feel the gula Melaka (palm sugar) syrup oozing into your mouth. Oh! That was so heavenly. The other kuih kuih (cakes) were all of very good quality. This is a great place to get some nonya cakes. Most were sold for RM1 (USD0.30) per piece.

Various nonya kuih from Lulu Nonya Kuih

Oh so yummy onde onde

After shopping in Bukit Bintang, we made our way to the Chinatown area, an approximately fifteen minutes walk from Bukit Bintang shopping district. There was more shopping to be done in Chinatown area.

Petaling Street, Malaysia's Chinatown

TIPS FOR TRAVEL:-
Whilst in Petaling Street Chinatown, as it can get crowded, watch your belongings carefully. Do not fall prey to the pickpockets and handbag snatchers.

Open air bazaar in Chinatown


Malaysian snacks

If you are in Malaysia for a vacation, you simply must visit Chinatown, one of the tourist attractions. Also known as a bargain hunter’s paradise, you have to be prepared to ‘bargain’ for your purchases if you do not want to be ripped off. Located in Petaling Street in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, Chinatown shopping is made possible with open air bazaar offering visitors with a variety of food and night life experience after all the major shopping complexes have closed for the day.

A popular drink stall in Chinatown

Monk waiting for alms

Chestnuts

Mua chee, a speciality snack which originates from Penang. It is a boiled gooey rice dough cut into small pieces and coated with finely chopped peanuts and sugar.

Chinese cruellers

Deep frying the Chinese pancakes

Chinese snacks

Chinatown Restaurant

Enjoy the oriental atmosphere here just wondering through the streets. You can find pirated clothes and accessories along with bootleg DVDs and CDs. Petaling Street however does not exclusively offer pirated products. You can find lots of other products here as well as enjoy some great local food in Malaysia. At the same time, you can also find some Malaysian delicacies to buy home. Haggling is a common sight here and the place is usually crowded with locals as well as tourists.

Oriental atmosphere in Chinatown

Great place to find oriental clothings for men, women and children

Oriental clothings

Oriental household decorative items

TIPS FOR TRAVEL:-
Before buying anything in Chinatown, be sure to show your bargaining prowess if you are on the lookout for some incredible bargains.

Chinatown shopping galore

Shop till you drop

Beautiful gifts

If you would like to be in the Chinatown district, you can have a few budget or reasonably priced cheap hotel choices to choose from.

Some budget to cheap hotels in Chinatown area

D'Oriental Inn

Swiss Inn Kuala Lumpur

Hotel Excel Inn

Hotel Chinatown


Monkee Inn

Petaling Street Chinatown

We had lunch there as well in one of the lanes where we ordered the Wanton Mee (dumpling noodles) and yee mee soup (noodle soup) at RM3.80 (USD1.10) per bowl. The wanton noodles came with the dumpling soup which hubby loved. The yee mee soup came with quite a bit of ingredients as well.

The back lane where we had lunch

Yee mee soup

Wanton noodles

After the Chinatown lunch of local Chinese food, we made our way to Chun Yip Bakery Mart at 63A Jalan Sultan to buy some baking items and get some free recipes. If you are looking for cake boxes and cake boards, you can get them here at good prices.

Chun Yip Bakery Mart

More Chinese decorative items around the corner

Getting ready for Christmas

Upon completing our purchases, we took the Light Rail Transit (LRT) from Pasar Seni station all the way to KLCC where the complimentary shuttle would be picking us up at 1700 hrs.

The automated machines at the Pasar Seni Light Rail Transit station

Queuing up to buy the LRT ticket

The Light Rail Transit

The old railway station building View from Pasar Seni LRT Station

Christmas decorations at Suria KLCC Shopping Centre


Kiosks at Suria KLCC Shopping Centre

Dunkin Donuts, a doughnut franchise No Big Apple outlet in Suria KLCC

Nonya kuih

We were terribly disappointed when we reached the Palace of the Golden Horses at 1745 hrs to find that our room had still not been serviced despite having placed the ‘room to service’ sign on the door this morning before we left at 1030 hrs. After calling for service, they came within the next five minutes.

A gesture of apology for the unserviced room

Next we took the complimentary shuttle to Mines Shopping Fair at 1830 hrs. The driver accepted our request to stop outside the ex premier Tun Mahathir's house for us to snap a quick picture.

Tun Mahathir's house in Country Heights

Upon reaching Mines Shopping Fair, we were trying to decide what food to have for dinner and finally Pizza San Francisco won as we had fallen in love with the Black Pepper Beef Steak that we had the other day. Today we ordered the Black Pepper Beef Steak that was on offer at RM12.90 (USD3.80) and also the Seafood Pizza to try out their pizza.


Black pepper beef steak - excellent!

Seafood pizza

The Black Pepper Beef Steak was as juicy and succulent as what we had expected. The pizza had just enough mozzarella cheese and not too much tomato paste that it was just superb except for the crust which I would have preferred it to be crispier. Other than that, the meal was just fantastic and we ended off with a banana split where you get a single scoop of ice cream during the promotion. Even the lime juice was just the right taste, not too sour and not too sweet.

Banana split

Single scoop of ice cream

We spent our time having a leisurely dinner and checking our emails with the free internet access in Pizza San Francisco. Before waiting for the complimentary shuttle to shuttle us back to our accommodation for the night, we went to the doughnut franchise Big Apple and again bought half a dozen Big Apple doughnuts as we had fallen in love with the donuts as well. Although they cost slightly more than the other doughnut franchise, Dunkin Donuts, they look much better than Dunkin Donuts and we love the nice and soft doughnut texture with the various toppints that they have.

Our purchase from Big Apple Delicious as ever!

The complimentary shuttle was right on the dot at 2145 hrs and as we made our way back to our resort, Palace of the Golden Horses, the driver voluntarily stopped by the ex-Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir’s house along the internal road of Mine City.

Our sixth day of this Malaysia vacation, we realized that we had done lots of Malaysia shopping this time round. It seems that everyday we had visited some of the well-known Malaysia attractions and tried the various food of Malaysia as well as bought more doughnuts from our favorite doughnut franchise, Big Apple. Today we even tried out Malaysia’s transport system, the light rail transit. If you are adventurous in trying out various kinds of local food, you will be amazed at the choices you can find. For the budget conscious, check out some of the budget and cheap hotel you can find in Kuala Lumpur right in the heart of Chinatown, Petaling Street.

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