Food night!

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Geo: 3.12433, 101.684

The first thing we did day was to go to Batu Caves. I thought it was quite good even though it was for Hindus. The giant golden Indian Hindu statue was magnificent. It seemed to guard the entrance to the caves. The caves themselves were very impressive. There were 272 steps to go into the caves. The number of steps themselves were not the problem. It was the steepness of them. They were not so bad going up but going down were a bit more challenging strangely enough. The view at the top to KL was actually quite good. We also saw Indians selling food there and I saw the traditional Indian desserts there. I saw jalebi! And I had one! Only it wasn't as light and fluffy as to what I'm used to. But at least I got the taste of it.

After Batu Caves, we went to Berjaya Times Square for shopping. It just seemed to be a big building of endless floors of shops, shops and more shops. And 90% to 95% of them I think were women's shops! There was also an indoor theme park. The rollercoaster itself didn't look too scary. I didn't go in as the rollercoaster was the only attraction for me and I don't think paying 48 Ringgit for it would be worth it.

The last thing we did was a food tour of Kuala Lumpur. Before going on that we caught public transport. If we thought Sydney was bad, the KL is worse! Firstly we caught the monorail from Bukit Bintang. It wasn't very well indicated which platform to go to for KL Sentral so we went up the platform which we thought was platform 2 only to be going in the wrong direction! Next stop we switched and there were a lot of people. Going in was crazy. Once the doors opened and people got off, there was a whole lot of shoving, pushing and squeezing before getting on and once on, it was like being in a sardine can! It got better as we approached KL Sentral as people got off. Once reaching there, we needed to find the LRT station. It wasn't very well indicated where to go! A little tiny sign and we decided to follow the crowd. At KL Sentral, we thought we would take a taxi to our destination but the cab drivers seemed puzzled so we decided to catch the train instead.

The train...another experience. Once inside the station we went up to the first ticket counter...only to be refused service as it was a different line. I was told to go to the counter next to McDonald's to get the tickets. Ok fine. Once there, again the ticket seller told us that they don't sell tickets for our line! So we had to go to another counter! Finally we found the correct one and we were on our way.

The food tour itself I actually thought it was quite good as our guide took us to places where we wouldn't usually go for food. We started off near Taman Paramount LRT where we had Nasi Lemak – literally translated to Calorie Rice. With it came for me probably my favourite – the otak otak, meaning brain brain but actually it was mackerel fish paste steamed in banana leaf. Another side dish that came with it was burnt tofu. It was literally burnt and had some peanuts and home made sauce on it. I didn't eat too much and instead saved myself for later.

Next up we went to a night market where we again tried some local delicacies. We had some sort of waffle with peanuts in the middle, a mix of vegetables and fruit with some local sauce and a herbal jelly drink.

Our next stop was Indian where we had some roti and some curry. That was quite nice. With it came a drink that reminded me of Mauritius a bit – it looked a bit like alouda and it tasted and looked very similar only less sweet.

We then went to PappaRich where we had Cendol – which was quite good but sweet.

Last stop was Chinese food – and we went to Jalan Alor again! By then I was quite stuffed! This time though we went to another restaurant where we had frog, chicken wings, sting ray, squid and satay. Frog wasn't too bad – it tasted like chicken! It was probably the best dish though of what we had. When the food tour was over, we were so full...lucky our hotel was close by so we walked there.

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