Clayton and Danae's travel to Southeast Asia: Kuala Lumpur Day 1-2

Train Station in the Middle of Nowhere

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur (“KL”), Malaysia, about 10AM. Unbeknownst to us, the airport was about 60 miles from the city. Therefore, to get to our hotel, we had to ride a bus for 45 minutes to a train station in the middle of nowhere. Then, we had to take that train another 30 minutes into KL’s main train station. After which, we transferred to the metro and went through ten stops. Finally, we took a taxi for a short ride to our hotel. Nearly two hours of travel!

The long trip was worth it because our hotel, Traders Hotel, was awesome! Everything about it, the location, the room, the pool, and most of all, the view, was spectacular. We purposefully made this the nicest hotel during our 3 week Asian vacation because we were here during our 2nd anniversary and Danae’s birthday. We picked it because Traders Hotel was rated number 1 out of 166 hotels in KL according to www.tripadvisor.com.

Our Hotel is the Wide Building in the Middle

When we checked in, we opted to upgrade our room package. This upgrade moved us to the 28th floor, which provided us a breathtaking view of the Petronas Towers (2nd tallest buildings in the world). Also, the upgrade gave us access to the Trader’s Club Lounge, which included free breakfast, tea/coffee in the afternoon, and alcohol and hors d'oeuvres in the evening. The hotel was located right in the middle of KL. It abutted a large park, with an upscale mall across the park. The hotel even provided a "stretch golf cart" to get us to the mall. The pool was on the 35th floor. The pool provided panoramic views of the city. It also played host to the Skybar, one of the most famous bars in KL. Below are some pictures of the pool area.

View of Towers from our room during Day

View of the Towers from our room at Night

Our Room

Our Bathroom - A Shower/bath Combo

Pool Area

2 Hot tubs with a lily pad pond behind it

How it Looks at Night - Not my picture

Danae sitting at our poolside table w/ the Towers in the background

Stretch-Golf Cart

Aside from our glorious hotel, our first two days in KL were disastrous because we both got food poisoning from the same restaurant. We decided to get Indian food from the food court at the aforementioned mall. Below are pictures of food we ate. I am not sure which dish was the main culprit; or maybe, they acted in concert. Either way, we both were poisoned. The ironic part of getting food poisoning from this restaurant was that we have eaten food from shady street-side vendors in Bangkok, and nary a stomach cramp nor runny turd. This restaurant, by contrast, was clean and located in an upscale mall.

Naan (basically flat bread) and some kind of chicken

From L to R: Mutton Masala, Naan dipping sauce, and Chicken Kaboob

From L to R: Garlic dipping sauce for the Naan and Vegetable Masala

A few hours after lunch, we took a hop-on-hop-off tour of KL. It featured about 25 stops throughout the city (below are some of the pictures of random stuff below, not sure what they are). We got through about 6 of the stops before the food poisoning struck Danae. It came upon her hard and fast! I will spare the details; suffice to say we took desperate measures. We immediately returned to the hotel (never to finish our tour). We opted to lounge by the pool so Danae could be near a bathroom.

Little India

Danae on Buss

Danae in Trader's Lounge, w/ Towers in Background

After our swim, we cleaned up and went to the Trader’s lounge for drinks and hors d'oeuvres. Actually, we drink and ate so much that we did not go out into the city. Rather, we went to bed about 9:30. Reason being, we had been up since 3:30 traveling to KL.

About halfway through the night, I was awoken by intense stomach cramps and the need to go to the bathroom. Danae had already gotten over her food poisoning, so it was now my turn to take a bout with it. Unfortunately for me, mine was worse and lasted a lot longer. I was sick all throughout the night.

Mall

In the morning (our anniversary), I summoned the strength to go to the lounge with Danae to get breakfast. I was still sick, so I just ate toast and drink about four glasses of pulpy orange juice. The hotel actually had a nice spread. Although the combinations were weird, like who wants sushi for breakfast, but otherwise, Danae said the food was quite good. I returned to the room and slept until 2:30 in the afternoon. Danae, meanwhile, shopped at the mall. She returned, disappointed over the fact that clothing from famous Western designers was not only not cheaper in KL than in the US, but it was actually quite a bit more expensive.

We took it easy all day lounging around the pool. I was not good for anything else, and even the pool was pushing it. We did leave the hotel to get our anniversary diner. Danae picked the number 1 restaurant in KL according to Trip Advisor. It was an Italian restaurant. The service was great, but the food was average at best. I ordered veal ossobuco (because they were out of Lamp Chops!, should have been my first sign) and Danae ordered scallop pasta dish. We ended up switching because Danae said hers smelled to fishy. Although I did not get any sicker from this dinner, switching to a strong fishy smelling pasta dish was probably not a smart idea when I was still under the spell of food poisoning. The unfortunate part about this sub-par diner was that it cost us the most out of any meal we have had to date, and it was probably the worst (including our Indian food, which was good, but deadly). Although I was able to eat about half my dinner, I was still feeling nauseous so we returned to the hotel so I could rest. We ended up just cuddling in bed watching the movie “Kick Ass.”