The next morning we followed through on our promise and went straight away to the Lot10 food court, and enjoyed wandering the relatively uncrowded area looking at all the food options on display. We decided on a steamed Chinese rice crepe, rice and braised pork wrapped in a banana leaf, and some more salted egg custard buns because we just couldn’t get enough.
We checked out of our hotel, and caught a Grab to our last hotel of the trip, the Traders Hotel. Kuniko had booked this hotel back in Christmas 2018 while we were staying with Mark and Susan in Tampa, and she did a great job. The room was large, luxurious, and from the 14th floor had a dramatic facing view of the Petronas Towers and KLCC Park below them. This was our first time to get a look at the landmark towers since being in Malaysia, and they are pretty dramatic.
For fun we went up to the top floor (floor 33) to check out the swimming pool and sky bar. The pool was an indoor pool and quite small – but unfortunately it was not available for guests due to some sort of technical problem. We settled for cocktails from the sky bar and sat next to the pool enjoying a slightly higher view of downtown KL. The pool area and bar were remarkably empty – it was just us, the pool maintenance staff, and a group of women posing for their Instagram next to the windows. There were advertisements for a countdown party the next day, with “platinum” tables available for big money (5 bottles of champagne and 5 bottles of whisky included!) and interesting celebrities and DJs. We’ll stick to our own room, thanks.
Later in the afternoon we went out by train to Kampun Baru, a kind of local’s street food area. We walked through what seemed like a regular neighborhood street, but the front yard of each house had been converted into open air food stands and restaurants. Things were kind of quiet when we walked through, so we kept going, finding lots of backstreets and several fruit markets and even a big butcher’s market area where they were busy cutting up chickens and fish. Eventually we found our way to Kuniko’s target restaurant, called Limapulo. It was a stylish place with both indoor and outdoor seating, and it was easy to take a table outside under an arbor and order up some good food. We started with juices – I had lychee and Kuniko had carrot – and then an appetizer which was like a flat egg omelet, called telur cincaluk. We followed it up with a bowl of nyona-style Malaysian noodles, this time with a thick soup broth that reminded me of Japanese miso ramen. We also had a plate full of tiny thin noodles – with egg, cabbage and spices. These noodles had a coconut spice flavor that I couldn’t get enough of.
On our way back we passed through a big Aeon market – a Japanese company that is looking to make inroads into Southeast Asia. The mall was pretty empty though, and I don’t think it has a good long term outlook. Back in Kampun Baru Kuniko bought a mango susu – blended frozen mango, with a little juice and then big chunks of fresh mango on top – it was outstanding.
Finally, we returned to the area of our hotel and did some shopping at a nearby market (called “Cold Storage”) that was really busy. Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, and it seemed like people were getting ready to party.
