Feb 22 - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The train pulled into Kuala Lumpur around 7:00am and I disembarked and headed up to the main terminal.    Quickly found an ATM machine and, with the help of my old iPhone and

a browser, figured out how many Malaysian Ringget's made up about $100 US and pulled that out of the machine.   Then I walked over to the MRT and monorail area to try and figure out

how to get a token for the monorail and head off to the Bukit Bintang "MR6" station.    The layout of the MRT system confused me a bit so in the end I asked

directions from one of the helpful ticket counter people who directed me onwards to the next set of elevators and through the mall to where the actual

monorail station was (different from the MRT station it turns out).    Anyway, a short walk later and I had a small round 'token' that let me through the gates and

onto a slow moving monorail system.   It took me out to the 6th stop (thus MR6) and I got off and quickly found my hotel, just down the steps and a few

buildings away from the monorail exit.

Checked in early (~9am) to the Park Royal Kuala Lumpur Hotel.   I'd decided to splurge a bit on this part of the trip and had booked myself into a club level

room at this property, which gave me access to fitness center, internet, pool, breakfast and 'snacks' at the club level.    The room was very large compared to

the other places I've been visiting -- the bathroom alone was a fully enclosed glass area which itself had a bathtub, toilet, sink and walk in shower all in their

own 'sections' of the glassed off area.    King sized bed, desk, sliding closet, lots of drawers, sitting area and a 4th floor view (this was a pretty low floor, but 

club rooms are apparently 'down' here vs non-club which are upstairs much higher).   Not a problem as I didn't really care about a view, though I still had 

a bit of one.

After a shower and a brief rest I checked out the exercise room and the pool area.   I didn't take any photos today, but will another day here and add them in.

Needless to say, nice exercise room (rowing machine, treadmills, weight machines, bikes, ellipticals, etc).   I worked out there for 45 minutes and then swam 10 laps

(though it wasn't really a lap pool and I had to backstroke it as I find I really can't swim face down without snorkel and mask these days).

When done with my workout I went back to my room and took a shower, then headed over to the local underground hawker stand area that is just one building or so up

from the hotel (literally where I exited the monorail).    It's called "Lot 10" and is an amalgam of multiple 'famous' hawkers from all over Kuala Lumpur.   It was pretty great!

The first stand I found when I entered had several kinds of little meat and fish filled flakey pastry tarts (savory, not sweet).    I bought two of them a tried a sample of the third.

The two I bought were the 'mutton' and the 'boiled egg and chicken'.  The one I just tried a small bite sized sample of was sardine.   All were very good!

I continued into the basement area and was overwhelmed by the number of stalls and choices.    Here is a LONG video I took a little later walking through most of this underground area, just to give

you an idea of what it was like and some of the choices available (it is quite long, but the place was huge!)

I decided to try the Hokkien Mee, which was a dish of stir fried thick noodles (kind of udon like) in a very dark slightly sweet sauce.   The stir fry had bits of meat, shrimp, cut up octopus, cabbage and

other things (I think).   It was very very good and is one of the regional dishes that I really had wanted to try out.    Another big reason I picked this stand was that it was one with the longest line

at the time (always a good sign) and was quite loud in terms of the clang-clang of the woks being worked with.    In addition to the photo I've included a video of these guys at work.

And the best thing?  The ENTIRE plate (which was very very filling) was only about 12 MR (Malaysian Ringgets) which comes out to just over $3 US!    Talk about inexpensive good food!  Wow!!

After eating this wonderful dish I wanted some dessert food, so I got some mango ice with other fruit.   It was also huge!

I was pretty full, but I still wanted one more dessert item here, so I got a lotus bean filled sesame ball from another vendor:

There were many other vendors that I just didn't have the room in my tummy for -- but I did see one that I want to come back to tonight -- they were serving duck!

Headed back to the hotel and to the 'club level' to see what they had to offer (its free with the room).   Got a chocolate dessert square, an OJ,

and what I thought was going to be some type of baklava type square but instead turned out to be a flakey pastry with chicken inside

(it was okay, but not what I was looking for)

After all of this I went to my room and took a big nap!   I was really full and very tired from the not-great-night sleep (or lack of sleep) from the train ride.

Didn't wake up until about 3 hours later!

Woke up and decided to go back and get some of that nice duck for dinner.

After polishing this and some cold sweet tea off I wanted a little bit of carbo, so I checked out the bread/pastry stall and got a little pastry treat:

But I felt I needed more protein, so off I went to the Dim Sum place.   They had quite a selection, but I controlled myself and just got an order of

three steamed Xiao Long Bau.

I felt like a little more hot tea, so I found another tea and coffee place and ordered one of those "milk tea"'s that I've become so found of:

Headed back to the hotel room, but on the way in the hotel lobby spotted another cake and coffee stall.  They had

a very tempting piece of hazelnut cake looking at me, so I bought it to eat later (my room also has a mini fridge!)

Turns out it normally is RT 18, but after 6pm they sell everything for 50 percent off, so it only cost me about 9 RT, which is about $2.47,

 probably 'expensive' for here, but less than half of what I'd of paid in Singapore or back home!!

 I then went back to my room and was entering this when there was ring of my doorbell and the evening staff had shown up to

ask if I needed any turndown service or not.   I said no, everything was fine, and I guess the guy felt sorry for me as he proceeded to give me a HUGE handful of individually 

boxed chocolate treats.   Wow!   I have a handful of about 10 of them to 'get through' in my spare time.   I think I like "club level" service!