I was away in KL for work last weekend. It was a business trip with my team lead LC (AKA Myo Htun Cai). I will share the experience with family members here.
Friday, 28/08/2009
We were supposed to check in to the airport @ 11 am, but we still have to come to office @ 9am and leave @ 10am to the budget airport (Yes I know, WTF!!). One of the new staff saw me when I was on my way to the office from the train station and thought that we can dress down on Friday (Ya, you wish!!) Came to office with a couple of colleagues showing me the Italian WTF hand sign, toke my petty cash (Allowance) which is really petty, $15 per day (Ya, I know, Italian WTF hand sign again) and took off @ 10:15am to the budget airport. Reached the airport @ 11am, check in @ about 11:10am, since our flight is schedule to fly @ 12:15pm. So we decide to grab lunch at Mac. After that we went to the waiting/boarding/gateway (seriously I have no idea what is the actual name for that place) area to watch discovery channel. 12:05pm last call for my flight, so we made our way to the plane. We were greeted by an veteran stewardess (boring), but the next stewardess I saw made my day and the safety demo was done by her, quite entertaining. Touch down at KL LCCT (Low cost career terminal, lol! nice name) at 1:15pm. Took a cab to my home for the next 2 days, Hotel Capitol.. The cab journey was about an hour, when we reach Bukit Bintang, the driver who do not know how to speak English, drove in circles and could not get us to where we are, in the end he drop us at a the taxi stand opposite Berjaya Time Square and told us “Jalan (something), Jalan (something)” while pointing to a alley on the side, I understand jalan, it meant walk, so I was showing the Italian WTF hand sign to myself. So we walk along the alley and found our home for the next 2 days, Hotel Capitol.. walk in and the first thing that struck me is, you must be kidding me, their lobby have no chairs and tables, where the f*** will I hold the interviews.. but we decided to think about it later. Got our keys and our room number is 406, went into the room and the 1st thing we did was on the TV to see if there is ESPN as Man Utd is playing Arsenal on Saturday. Yeah!! We got ESPN!! Next agenda, stock up on necessities and we decided to go to “Giant” in Sungei Wang for that. While we were shopping, my 1st cdd called and our 1st problem has surface, where to interview sia!! So we made our way back and met up with my cdd and……. I bought him to the coffee shop just around the corner and interviewed him (I know, its sucks), my cdd is a nice guy he treat me to a cup of ice Barley. After that LC met his cdd at a malay prata stall and had teh tarik, while I was doing a recon mission, the search for good interview venue and found that the Starbucks @ Low Yat Plaza to be the most ideal. After LC came back and slack for a while in the Hotel rm, we decide its time to go for dinner.
Jalan Alor
The place for dinner the 1st night is Jalan Alor. When we were walking there we walk past a streets which looks like boat quay, but instead of pubs you have foot relexology parlor and they were hard selling their service to us, some look sleazy with all the China girls sitting outside.. den one man came up to us and ask, “Are you looking for young girls?” I was a bit stunned as the last time I came here with my GF, no such things happened. While we were walking to Jalan Alor, we were approach and asked the same question for at least 7-8 times.
Jalan Alor.. The whole stretch is all about food, then we began walking down one store, by one store for about 150m, den LC decide to go into a air conditioned place and eat. This restaurant is LC favorite eating place in KL. We ordered Salad pork ribs, Prawns fried with Salted egg, BBQ sting ray, 10 sticks of chix satay and fried balachan long beans, the drink of the night Lime Juice with sour plum. The food were really good, especially the Salad pork ribs, the dish that LC will never missed whenever he come to KL. The Salad pork ribs was fried pork ribs with a thick layer of salad sauce, yummy!! The moment you bite the meat with the sauce, the taste can only be describe with one word, Yummy. The prawns fried with Salted eggs, is about the same as those zi cha store in Singapore (and I meant those that are good, not those lousy ones.). You have to eat them with the shell on to have the full taste of the salted egg and prawns taste, juicy and good. Nothing much to say about the Satay and long beans, but they were good too, local power zi cha and Satay store standard. The stingray… it wasn’t grilled with balachan, it was plain, but it still taste good, the meat is fresh and juicy not like those sub standard unfresh ones, where it is some how a bit “Mien mien de”, although it did not come with the balachan, the chilli that is specially use to eat with the stingray makes up for it. Overall it was a 9/10 rating on the food. But the place is you know… but at least it is air conditioned, I didn’t go to the toilet, so I dunno the standard. The auntie and Bangladesh working there are quite nice and they are quite prompt, nothing to complain about. The meal cost about RM 81. After the meal we decide to meet up with one of the ex staff, AK for tea at Pavilion, so we make our way there. The moment we get to the main streets, “Sir, you want girls? We have Thai, Indonesian, Malay girls….” Give me a break, I just had dinner. We met up with AK at Pavilion, Starbucks and chat till midnight and AK send us back.. Watch Anacondas: Hunt for the Blood Orchid on Vision 4 and that’s it for day 1.
Saturday, 29/08/2009
Woke up to a phone call from a cdd that I am suppose to meet at 10am, damn he was early, it was only 8:50am… Rush down, took him to the coffee shop just around the corner and had the interview there. Poor guy, he came in Long sleeve shirt and tie… I had my 2nd cup of Ice barley there, compliment from my cdd (Thanks mate!) After I send him off, I went back to my room with breakfast on the table, looks really enticing… it was gardenia bread with Ayam brand tuna (Wah kaoz!! The hotel do not have complimentary breakfast for us!!)I think it cost about RM 6.. fews hour later, LC had a couple of cdd.. then it was lunch time..
U Village Restaurant @ Sungei Wang Plaza
http://food.malaysiamostwanted.com/venues/restaurant-u-village-sungei-wang-plaza
The one place where my GF and myself always dine when we are in KL, this time the company is different, I brought LC there to have some good food.. U village is a Hong Kong style restaurant, like those we seen in those Hong Kong shows, where they order toast and stuff, you can even smoke in there. We ordered One ton (Wantan) soup, fried chix wings for sharing and I had a plate of Honey chicken drum stick rice with their specialty Iced milk tea while LC had the curry chix noodle.. The service was prompt and good, then the food came. The One ton soup.. the wantan was really meaty with prawns in it, Power Sia!! Might not appeal to others, but it is my kind of food. The Honey chicken was really tasty, sweet, juicy and delicious, the honey taste really compliment the chix meat. I didn’t really ate the curry chix noodle, but LC says it was good. The fried chix wings was nothing out of the extraordinary. The meal cost about RM 45. After lunch, we went back to our room to prepared for a long afternoon. We decide to conduct the rest of the interview at Low Yat Plaza’s Starbucks. Which is more presentable.. We started our interview at 2:15 to 5:15pm (lucky the last cdd came early).. Hurray!! That its for works.. We went back to our room and started our soccer marathon.. 7:00pm, take a break from soccer marathon and went for dinner..
Super Noodle House @ Sungei Wang Plaza
http://wanderinggourmet.net/?p=253
Another place that I will never miss when I am in KL.. Decide to go there for dinner for the Roast goose meat.. While we were walking there, we met another pimp, this time he is really good with marketing, below the line marketing, he gave out his name cards like it was some kind of brochure… Super Noodle house is something like crystal jade.. we took a seat at one corner. The waitress are really very eng, only just 2 mins after we sat down, they came and ask what we will like to order and after I told her to cut us some slacks, another waitress came 2 mins later… after being ask about 3 time, we decide on what we gonna have. We ordered a plate of fried noodle, Roast Goose meat, Pi Pa Duck, fried mango roll and Pork liver and kidney fried with spring onions with water chestnut as our drink of the evening. The fried noodle and pig innards/guts was good but not fantastic.. The 2 main dish I will like to recommend is the goose meat and Pi Pa duck. The goose meat, seriously, how often do you eat goose meat? Dun think its often, it taste good, not so oily, just nice, the skin roasted just right with the fats still attached to eat.. This is good stuffs, like those high graded coke man. The Pi Pa duck is also fat and juicy with the correct taste. Recommended.. The Fried mango roll is nothing out of the extraordinary to me, but LC loves it. Different ppl have different opinion. The Water Chestnut drink, has sweet potato, sugar cane and water chestnut literally in it, it looks funny but taste right.. The meal cost about RM 95. on a side note, while we were dinning, the restaurant had i think up to 5 short power failures, causing a blackout and quite romantic, but he company is wrong. After dinner we went back the way where we met the pimp that gave his name card as marketing strategy in hopes of getting a name card for souvenir, but alas, he was gone.. So we went back to our hotel rm empty handed with a full stomach to continue our soccer marathon.. Chelsea was playing Burnley.. Ended the day with Man Utd beating Arsenal due to an own goal.
Sunday, 30/08/09
Nothing much happening that day, went to the coffee shop where I bought my first few cdds for interviews to have breakfast.. Had my 3rd Ice barley and a normal one ton mee for breakfast, while LC had prawn soup noodle. One thing to note though, the soup for the prawn noodle looks like those mee soto soup, but taste like those normal prawn soup but spicy.. Overall the meal was Rm 12.00. Pretty cheap, lest than SGD $3.00 per person.. After that we pack up, took a cab to LCCT, tiger airways back to our homeland Singapore.. I had Popeye chicken at the airport, I dun think I need to share. And that’s it for KL trip..
Conclusion
I burned my weekend in KL, but it wasn’t that bad, as we had some good food and watch a total of 6 soccer matches sia! Repeat telecast of Barca Vs Shantar, Jubilo Iwata Vs Gambas Osaka, Chelsea Vs Burnley, Shalke Vs Freiburg, Bolten Vs Liverpool, Bayern Munich Vs Wolfburg and Man Utd Vs Arsenal. If you ask me is there any return value, I will say why not.