violist

The famed Hong Kong-style dim summery Foh San was closed the
day we wanted to eat there, so we went to Ming Court across the
way; some commentators maintain the places run neck and neck,
others sing the praises of one or the other, and there's a
third down the street that gets a few votes as well.

The place is busy - Internet reports of how you get a table
are completely accurate - when you arrive, all the tables are
full, and you wait for a place (or in our case a deuce) to
come open, and when a party leaves, you slide into their
just-vacated spots. Which is what we did.

The food is standard but of good quality and freshness, one
of the advantages of a place that is constantly busy.

Things that lili could eat -

steamed pork ribs with ginger, which were excellent, having
been cooked with abundant ginger, a splash of rice wine and
soy, and a black bean or two - the problem was that the ribs
had been hacked with a not-so-sharp cleaver, and there were
bone fragments in places they shouldn't have been, so that
put her off, and instead of eating the bulk of this dish,
she had only a piece or two, making her main meal out of

fried puffs with pork and douban jiang, which were frankly
delicious, the salty savory meat filling smoothed out nicely
by the rice dough crusts. She also liked the

fried sesame puffs with yellow bean (I usually see them with
red bean, which I marginally prefer), which she liked but
after half of one claimed fullness, so I ate the rest.

Things I eat but she wouldn't -

har gow (shrimp dumplings) and siu mai (pork dumplings with
ground shrimp) were of a good standard, the former stuffed with
three smallish shrimp each, the latter, well, maybe a notch
above Trader Joe's frozen, two notches because these were made
fresh within a few hours;

eggplant stuffed with unknown protein, pretty yummy, but I'd
hoped the unknown protein would be shrimp, which it wasn't; and

unknown protein by itself in 1-oz coin-shaped cakes; these turned
out to be ground fish, rather nicely seasoned.

Eight bucks for the two of us.

There's a tourist brochure called Ipoh Heritage Trail, which
takes you downtown to all the government and banking buildings,
which, truth be told, are good, sometimes impressive even,
examples of architecture during the Raj. Aside from the blazing
sun and oppressive humidity, you'd almost think you were in the
business district of an English city. I particularly wanted to
check out the Old Odeon, an abandoned theater, near which there
are supposed to be food stalls with amazing offerings at half
the price of KL. Well, what we had read about wasn't quite what
we found, a moldering old building with an alley a little bit
south of it with some tents that were somewhat neglected-looking
and, more importantly for lunchtime, closed. We resolved to
return at night to see if that situation would be reversed, but
we never did, not because of the fear of assault - it's supposed
to be a very safe city - but for the fear of potholes, of which
there are a substantial number.

The most appealing thing around was Old Town White Coffee, right
across the street from the tourist bureau (we stopped in there
for a few minutes to cool off and justify the existence of a
couple young attendants, who otherwise had nothing to do but
play with their phones); this is the Starbuck's of Malaysia,
and this is said to have been the first outlet, so coming here
is like going to the Starbuck's in Pike Place Market, with the
prices comparable (adjusting for local economics). I had a
white coffee, which came really white, with lots of condensed
milk in the Asian style. Later I found out that when you don't
want dairy, you order "kopi-O," O standing for ohne or something
I guess. lili got a hazelnut freezy; I believe that the US
equivalent is Frappuccino. Both were delicious. So what's white
coffee, really? It's normal green coffee beans that instead of
being roasted are fried in margarine - a peculiarly Malay practice -,
which results in a pleasantly greasy and slightly burnt-sugar aroma
and taste.

violist

The Ipoh Mural Art Trail is another tourist board effort. The
famous young Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic was commissioned
to create a number of murals for the downtown area; he did a
great job, incorporating the quirks and defects of the walls he
was given into his art. I am sorry to report that in a few cases,
these imperfections have overgrown his efforts, with the tropical
climate further degrading the background with which he worked, but
what has remained shows a great talent and a great imagination.
Speaking of looniness on the Internet, one of the recurring cavils
about these pieces is that they are primitive or amateurish compared
to the famous ones in Georgetown. Guess what, snobbish guys - this
is the same artist, and these were done after some of the Penang
ones (Zaharevic is based in Penang, so there are younger ones as
well there). Given a smallish budget, I figure Ipoh did a nice job
here. Another recurring criticism is that they are not well kept
up; I agree here, but given the heat and humidity and the probably
transient nature of the funding, that's understandable.

-

I'd heard a lot about the signature roast duck at Sun Yeong Wei
and its more modern offshoot SYW so was eager to try it. As luck
would have it, it's only 10 minutes from the hotel, right in
Chinatown. It was fairly busy when we got there, but we scored
a table out back away from the heaty outside.

We got a combo plate of char siew, pretty much what you'd get
anyplace (except here in Rhode Island, where I am writing from,
where it's worse), nice mix of lean and fat, and roast pork,
which was very salty but quite good otherwise, with great crispy
skin - not so nice as that at Bricks and Barrels, but 40% less
in price. A quarter of that famous roast duck was also very
salty and also surprisingly full of the same medicinal herbs
flavors as one found in the bak kut teh down in Klang. It wasn't
my favorite, and I wonder about the multitudes who sing its
praises to the skies. A bowl of plain rice was needed with this
salty food; also drinks - lili had a Coke, and I had soybean
beverage, a good source of both protein and flatulence.

violist

Lou Wong, the famous beansprout chicken place, is closed between
2:30 and 5, and that was when I happened to be there. There are
no beansprouts in the chicken - it's your standard Hainan chicken
rice with a side order of blanched sprouts that are supposed to
be extra tender and juicy and most of all big. As I am not all
that fascinated with bean sprouts, I wasn't heartbroken to see
it shut, as the other famous chicken rice place is nearby - Ong
Kee with two outlets, next door and diagonally across the street
- and was open.

There is spirited discussion among locals about the relative
merits of the two. It seems that Lou Wong is inconsistent about
the cooking of its chickens but offers those supposedly great
sprouts; Ong Kee is more reliable with the main ingredients but
cannot be relied on to be open during posted opening hours. All
in all a wash. Well, it was open when I got there, so I picked up
a lunch portion of Hainan chicken rice, which was of a good
standard - rather like I'd make myself. Elevating the dish was
the chopped mouse poop peppers provided. MYR 11. A double-size
Tiger was 10, so I got a pretty good meal that would have sufficed
for two if lili was into this kind of food) for five bucks.

One annoyance was a beggar lady who kept coming around selling
tickets for a lottery that no doubt didn't have a prize. She
bugged customers and staff alike. I considered giving her a
couple ringgit to stay away, but as they say that only encourages
them.

After this adventure, back at the hotel the key card didn't work.
It took two interventions by the front desk to get us into the
room.

violist

On departure day we got up late, the alarm clock having failed to
function and the curtains doing their job extra well, so there was
no time to go to someplace fancy for breakfast (I had in mind the
famous Foh San), but along the way I'd noticed a neighborhoody
dim summery with the intriguing name Chef Fatt, which looked
respectable and busy but not crowded, so we decided to give that
a try.

For me I ordered an order of har gow, which were tasty enough but
made with chopped shrimp in a very thick cornstarch substrate; all
the rest of the things to share -

fried rolls with cabbage, pork, and ham were something I'd not had
before, quite tasty though heavy on the salt;

taro balls with pork were the usual delicious things;

garlic spare ribs tasted pretty good but were more detritus than
rib, sad to say, so lili didn't eat much of the dish even after
I dissected out the objectionable bits for her;

char siu bao of a good standard, thank goodness, otherwise I'd
have had a good meal and lili a bad one, which is no way to
start the day.

The prices were somewhat lower (not by much) than at the more
famous place, but the main thing was we were in and out in
a jiffy.

The previous day, I'd taken a detour from our walking adventure
and gone to the city bus station, where I'd booked us a ride to
Cameron Highlands. The little old guy manning the booth gave us
detailed instructions - this used to leave downtown, but now since
the building of the fancy new out-of-town depot 16 km north of
here you take the city bus (free with an onward ticket, otherwise
2 ringgit and change) to the new station. So we had the hotel desk
call us a taxi; the Chinese driver charged us 12, an only mild
extortion.

This system is actually pretty efficient, and the city bus, at
least the one we got, is air-conditioned and lets one off directly
above the intercity bus gates. We made our way to the checkin
kiosk, where, lo and behold, our little old guy was waiting for us.
Apparently he's the personnel for both offices, and why not, as
he rides the bus between the two stations for free, relaxing or
doing the accounts en route, whatever.

The intercity to Tanah Rata takes 2 hours even and is a bargain
at 18.50; it's a scenic ride on comfy air-conditioned equipment
that, however, lacks a restroom, so there's a pee stop halfway.
It let us off right in the middle of town, but Google got either
the bus stop or the hospital (the other main landmark) on the
wrong side of the road, and depending on where the hospital was
perceived to be, one would go one way or the other on the main
drag. I guessed wrong and ended up having to ask a cop, who gave
us pretty good directions except at the end, when at the last
left turn, the trail turned cold and we ended up at Father's Guest
House, where the friendly front desk person cheerfully put us right
and sold me a Tiger for 7 and a Minute Maid More Pulp for the lady
for 3. As we were sitting there refreshing ourselves some kid working
at the hotel practiced his English on us, which was kind of fun.

It was only a quarter mile detour - the Arundina was actually
almost within sight of where we'd stopped. It is a very pleasant
facility, somewhere between the guest house it purports to be and
the hotel that it disclaims. We had reserved a deluxe triple,
with queen and single beds. The room was spare but spacious and
very high-ceilinged; there was a nice little balcony that
potentially unfortunately was easily accessible from the corridor
(but to our knowledge was not during our stay). An adequate
bathroom, though it turns out that in order to get hot water, you
had to take the handheld and dangle it below the heating unit, for
siphoning reasons, something that took the front desk clerk two
tries to get us to understand.

violist

In order to have available an after-hours drink, we inquired about
a wine store and were directed by the front desk to a place on the
main street (run by Chinese of course) and got a dubious bottle
of Malbec labelled Sta. Inez for RM74. It was actually pretty good,
a little stemmy and green but drinkable. I suspect that if we'd
sprung for the Pichon Lalande 2005 for 1350 we might have been
drinking the same thing. The wine was somewhat improved the
second night.

We discovered that our place offers Carlsberg beers for 6,
which was a pleasant refreshment in the afternoons.

The Travellers Bar is said to be the only bar in town, and it was
just down the hill from our place, so we gave it a visit. It's
a rather sad and run down place, whose bartender gave every
impression of being half in the bag with alcohol poisoning or
perhaps opium use. lili ordered Jack and water with ice; I
had what was purported to be Hennessy VSOP but was actually
some generic distilled spirit that may have had a grape or
two in its background. The Jack tasted sort of like Mekhong.
The bartender had to go to the restaurant next door to find
ice and water. Strange place. Maybe it's better at night.
The drinks were 17 each.

There was rumor of another bar at a hostel called Daniel's,
so we went there - it looked pretty unpromising as well, but
we were subsequently told that it opens late and is open late.
Never made it there.

To make up for our boozal profligacy, we dined at the hawker
stalls down the way from Father's. A dinner of chicken satays,
a lemongrass fried chicken thigh (cold), and a plate of mee
goreng (Indonesian/Malay version of lo mein, this version
having squid, shrimp, and scallops - obviously lili didn't
partake), along with two Cokes, 14.80.

Helped by the front desk, we hired a taxi for the next
morning, MYR25 an hour, 3 hour minimum.

Promptly at 10 this little Sikh guy pulled up in a car
in semi-respectable condition.

Our major aim was to check out the tea farms for which this
region is known and to look at the views along the way.

Incidentally, we got a bit of a lecture on the area's changes
and the political issues that are gradually transforming the
country.

The Boh tea company is the most famous and I believe the
original in the region. Boh, by the way, isn't a Malay word
but an English acronym for Best of Highlands. It has four
plantations, of which we visited the first, which is between
Tanah Rata and Ringlet, relatively out of the way compared
to the one everyone visits, which is near Mount Brinchang,
up a bit north in the tourist area.

This is reached by a road that starts out fairly respectable
and ends up a bit of a track right near the factory. On both
sides steep terraced tea fields of great evocativeness and
beauty. At the end of the road, the plant itself with
associated gift shop and canteen, both tiny. It is also
possible to hike to the top of a hill overlooking the estate
- well worthwhile and especially nice when we could watch
the mists roll in and then down into the valleys.

The factory tour was pretty perfunctory - I'd say 10 minutes
of rapidfire facts and the smell of partially processed tea.
It was noisy and rather hot, and I was grateful when we went
back down into the tea shop, where lili got a couple of
scones (nasty things, very stale, as though they were there
mostly for show and had lived under their plastic dome for
days and days) for the driver and herself - of course I paid
- MYR8.70 each. Teas (hers hot black, mine tarik) were half
that and twice as good. Our driver got his free.

A leisurely drive back down and to the highway, where the
Bharat tea plantation beckoned. This is an open-air tea shop
and gift shop of the most commercial sort. The great views,
best in the area, are the ones most often included in the
tourist brochures and Websites. You also get to walk down
unguided into the tea fields, but I decided not to, having
been on farms before and not wanting to have to check yes
on the US reentry form for "have you been on a farm or
in close proximity with livestock."

We were deposited back at Arundina right on time.

violist

Two of the better Chinese restaurants in the area are within
walking distance of the Arundina. One of them is Halal, the
other is not. Guess which one we went to.

It's called the May Flower and could be a neighborhood eatery
in any of a hundred cities I've been in (or ten thousand that
I've not seen). Round tables, grandpa alternately lording it
over the next generation and horsing around with grandkids,
the intermediate family members preparing vegetables or just
sitting around. Soft drink cooler in the back.

Black pepper venison sounded good, so I ordered that for me.
Came with ginger, carrots, green peppers, red onions, black
beans, a familiar preparation. The meat was very tender
although I believe not tenderized - it was just the cornstarch
that did this. I convinced lili to take a couple bites of it.
It was, she admitted, good, not really distinctively deer
meat, could have been flank steak.

For her I got the famous roast pork - precooked loin meat
stir-fried with garlic, Chinese celery, and scallions. Most
of it was fine, but there were a few famously overcooked
pieces that she gave me.

One small rice came with, or maybe I paid a quarter for it;
it was enough.

A large Skol beer was 14, bringing the total to MYR35.50.

-

We'd had the front desk call Kang Travel, the local agency,
to reserve spots on the 0700 minibus to Georgetown, Penang
for 35 a pop. The regular bus companies operate only to the
new bus depot at the end of the bridge for the same price,
which would necessitate a taxi ride adding 25 or 30 more,
so I figured this was the way to go. We were told that the
minibus stopped where the regular companies used to, at
Komtar tower right in the middle of town, but for 10 more,
we could get dropped off right at our hotel. We were
admonished to be in front of the hotel right at 0645, as
sometimes there are more stops to be made. The hotel is
locked until 0800, so we'd have to sneak out the side door
and out to the little parking lot.

So the alarm rang at 0530, and we were out of there, packed
and showered and everything, right on schedule, having
finished the last mouthful of that wine for breakfast.

0645 ... 0700 ... no vehicle. The morning clerk arrived
early, so at 0715 I asked him to call for us, and just as
he was dialing, the thing roared up at 0720. There was
another couple to pick up as well, so we were on our way
at 0730-ish. The driver was taciturn but not surly.

There are some interesting reviews of this service on the
Internet. Two issues - one, lack of promptness, which we
experienced, though only mildly; two, reckless driving,
which we did not. Yes, the guy often went 20 over the
speed limit, but no, he didn't seem to be driving in a
hazardous manner or to be doing anything out of the
ordinary compared to the other traffic.

As promised, he took us to Komtar, because that's where
the other couple had wanted to go, but when we got there,
they actually wanted to be someplace else, so after some
discussion, the driver got on his phone and eventually
went into a store to ask directions and eventually got
them to their destination, not charging anything extra.

Our destination was easier to get to, being on a main
street, and he got us there expeditiously, also not
charging anything extra. I gave him a ten anyway, which
he seemed not to have expected.

violist

We were pretty early to the Chulia Mansion, which I fondly
imagined would be a restored shophouse complex, but it was
in fact a modern newish high-rise of maybe half a dozen
stories. Check-in was easy, with a MYR100 cash deposit
and the caveat that the room wouldn't be ready until the
posted time of 3. We stored our bags with the front desk
and wandered around the area, poking around the very little
Little India and ending up at the Wonderfood museum, which
was amusing but way too expensive - apparently some guy
whose profession was the crafting of plastic food models
for restaurants decided to make them as an art form,
creating everything from little dioramas of street scenes
to the world's largest sculpture of a cendol. It was tacky
as anything but enjoyable. During the time we were there
(weekday lunchtime) there were only a few other people there,
so we were given our own dedicated tour guide, who made sure
we gave the appropriate attention to each exhibit and touched
only the ones that were meant to be touched.

I waffle between thinking it was a unique experience, which
it was, and that it was probably the worst rip in town, which
it also was at 25 a head ($6).

After which, as promised by the reviews on the Internet, we
were hungry.

The Junk Cafe - someone on the Internet says that the burger
is the best in Asia, so how could we miss that, especially
since it was only a couple doors down from our hotel. It's
literally literally a roomful of junk, old street signs,
broken musical instruments, bric a brac of all sorts. We
were greeted and seated by a slightly wild-eyed young
Frenchman who, he said, was travelling with his girlfriend,
and he decided to plop down here for a few months while
she went wherever girlfriends go. We got a cozy corner
in the back with an old sofa, out of sight of the street,
which I suppose was a good thing. Or they wanted to keep
us out of sight, also probably a good thing.

lili was interested in a Bourbon and water, and the fellow
proudly announced that the house whisky was Chivas 12 year
old, so that's what she got; to my taste buds it was more
like that Mekhong 1 year old again. The price was right, I
think 12 or 13. I had a beer.

The much touted full of junk burger is advertised as being
dressed with onions sauteed in olive oil with a splash of
balsamic, "very sharp Cheddar," and four kinds of mushrooms.
We decided to split one; it came as a maybe 6 oz burger, fairly
plump, done medium (ordered as rare as possible, which the guy
said was going to be medium rare), on a sturdy and very good
bun, respectable fries on the side. The fellow said that the
beef was ground fresh in house every morning, and I suppose
that it really was. I certainly have not had a better burger in
Asia, and it certainly was one of the best I've had this young
year anywhere. Fries were unexceptional.

Back to Chulia Mansion, where our room, on the first floor,
was ready. It was pretty nice but a couple doors down from the
hotel's cafe, which meant it was not the quietest room ever.

The cafe is there mostly for breakfast, but there's apparently
a lot of catering done out of the kitchen; furthermore, besides
breakfast, other complimentary offerings include a beer or
glass of wine a day, a kilo of laundry a day, plus free coffee,
tea, and cookies and ice cream throughout the day (ice cream
stored in a freezer unsensibly located on the adjoining balcony
outside in the heat). Luckily, not too many people took
advantage of these last when we were in the room at night.

violist

Report on the ice cream.
There was one that was strange and yellow - I suggested it
might have been egg flavor but without any egg; my taste buds
did not discern any flavor; perhaps saffron without so much
saffron in it?

Ube (purple yam) was the usual, slightly yammy, mostly sour
creamish.

Tutti frutti was lurid swirls of artificial colors and probably
flavors; it wasn't actually too bad, sort of between strawberry
and bubble gum.

There was a nod to western palates - a sweet cream with crumbles
of chocolate cake, the best of the lot.

Report on the wine, which you have to go to the rooftop bar
to get. It is pretty mediocre, not to say bad. I'll just point
out that we didn't use all our coupons. The red was just like
bad red anyplace, except it wasn't cloying sweet and didn't
taste like plastic. Also, it was about a 3 oz pour, which
would have been tragic if it had tasted any better. The
white, which I tried for experience's sake, was actually
somewhat better, a not so eminent Cheninlike substance,
fruity enough. Despite having a light chill on it when it was
poured, it warmed to room temp by the time I got to the end
of it five minutes later. It was truly hot and muggy out.

Though the coupons had said beer or wine, the bartender would
not give out beer (hence the white wine), so I paid for a bottle
of Royal stout, a Carlsberg product, not bad, very dark and
malty and said to be 8% alcohol. Recommended over most of what
is available (Tiger or Carlsberg lager).

violist

Breakfast here is a many splendored thing. Huge assortment,
some of the things pretty good, most of a middling standard.
I ate reasonably well off the Asian offerings; lili mostly
off the western ones.

There was a dim sum station. There was nothing Trader Joe
couldn't have thought of, but the gesture was welcome (the
food, too, pretty much). These were variously available
during our stay -

Siu mai were pretty edible, but the chicken filling was
strangely Spamlike (I discover that sometimes they grind the
meat too fine in an effort to disguise its identity perhaps,
then mix it with a little too much starch - this is true at
even dedicated dim summeries of the lesser sort).

Shark fin seafood dumpling is something I've not seen on
a buffet before, not because of the cost (there is actually
no shark fin in it, but rather it's named because of the
shape, by which it would more properly be called Portuguese
man o' war dumpling, but that's not as appetizing) but
because it's more laborious to make than regular shaped ones.

Chicken char siu bun was as good as chicken char siu gets,
which is not very. The bread was of a good standard.

Roast chicken pastry was less Banquetlike than the usual but
with not enough of the brownish filling. Went well with sriracha.

Various small steamed baos were offered - lotus (yellow), red
bean (red), and kaya (brown coconut jam filling, bread tinted
green). They were decent examples, which means I liked them a lot.

Juices were mango and green guava, the latter replaced later by
pink guava. I believe orange is available on request, but we didn't.

The usual semi-western stuff, which I left alone - fake bacon
(turkey), chicken sausage, baked beans. Eggs on request - fried
sunny side only (they apparently haven't figured out how to
flip 'em), scrambled, boiled, poached, or oddly Benedict, which
one review on the Internet cavilled about because the Hollandaise
was too sour. Well, excuuuse me.

Four kinds of cereal, which I didn't pay attention to except to
note that the red-blood-cell-shape cocoa rice cereal was available.

A rotating repertoire of noodles, of which I passed up udon and
something else but tried the mee goreng, standard and tasty, and
a supposedly Italian-style spaghetti with tomato sauce, which
was nonstandard and strange, the spaghetti having suffered from
steamtableitis, the sauce seemingly made from tomato paste and
Maggi or soy sauce, nothing else.

Congee with the usual garnishes; not being that fond of the dish
I passed.

Roti canai with chicken potato curry or vegetable curry with
lentils - sort of hard staleish bread but pretty good curry.
There was also a darker colored and much deeper flavored chicken
curry with coconut rice one day next to the noodles.

Fruit: watermelon, papaya, banana, all fresh and good. I think
one of the days there was also pineapple and regular apple.

Nyonya desserts, rice-flour based, in many shapes and colors, all
tasted pretty much the same: I plowed through maybe 10 one day and
2 different-looking ones the next to make this determination.

Bread pudding - dryish, not enough custard, dominant flavor of
nutmeg; as with other western buffet items I've encountered at
other eastern buffets, this seemed to have been cooked by someone
who had read about the dish but never tasted it nor seen a recipe.

Vegetable pizza - neither of us had the balls to try this.

Of course, ice cream, which many people were seen heading outside
to get.

violist

Local attractions we visited.

The Esplanade is not so grand as its name. You walk along the
seawall and look out at the water; on the other side of the wall
is a rocky beach with just a little sandy spot.

At the end of the Esplanade, the World War I memorial is a kind of
grand (in the context of the city) Edwardian monument, rather nice
to look at but - as with many structures in this part of town -,
reminding one of the long British colonial history. After WWII,
they couldn't afford to build another memorial, so this one serves
that purpose as well.

Down the way is Fort Cornwallis (yes, it's named after That
Cornwallis). It's your pretty standard fort, semi-restored, rival
to Wonderfood as greatest rip in town - MYR20, the tourist rate,
double the resident rate, which is high enough. For that price,
you get to wander the fortifications, get a closer look at
the lighthouse at the northeast corner of the property, and
catch a promotional movie or two in the air conditioned
theater. We found a custodian who wanted to practice his
English on us, which was fun for a while, except that he
kept pressing us to let him take our pictures posing with
this or that artifact and giving advice about what to see
on the island. At least he was proud of his hometown and
enthusiastic about living there.

By contrast, the State Museum may be the greatest bargain in
town at MYR1. I've been there three times - the first time,
to learn about the history of Penang, its ethnic and cultural
makeup, and the layout of the city; the second time because
the ground floor has excellent air conditioning; this was the
third. lili seems to have enjoyed it not solely because of
the air conditioning.

Little India. It's very Indian.

Local attractions we didn't visit. Batu Ferrenghi. Penang Hill.

violist

The most famous old school Chinese restaurant in town, Tek Sen,
is easy walking distance, so we walked. We were lucky to get
seated right away - within minutes the place was full, and by
the time we left, there was a line.

Food was cheapish, about $4 a plate, so we got three, slightly
too much food (as usual, one small rice, which was enough), but
it was good enough to polish off every scrap without trying.
Almost good enough to return to.

Braised eggplant with ginger, garlic, scallions, ground pork,
and a few thin slices of chile was delicious, not earth-moving,
but I could easily have had a double order of this for my meal.

There was a deep-fried tofu that I'd heard about, sauteed with
lemon grass, scallions, fish sauce, and some other things I
couldn't figure out, also quite good and gave me enough protein
that I could cede most of the last dish to lili.

Braised pork with yam (actually I think taro) - I thought this
the least of the three, also the scantiest. A little too salty
and a little too sweet - excessive use of various soy sauces;
I suppose if we'd had more rice this would have balanced out
a bit better. Not enough pork - I got only two morsels but
ate most of the starch, which had soaked up some of the salty
juice. If I had it to do over, I would have ordered a different
pork dish.
-
Tajuddin Hussain is said to have the best nasi kandar in town.
There's some debate about whether you should take your curries
and mix them up with the rice, all the juices flowing together,
in the local style, or keep everything separate, as I did.

I ordered a mutton curry mild, because of lili, but when she
said she wasn't going to eat any anyway, I changed the order
(by shouting to the waiter, no, spicy, spicy) to the famous
rose mutton, the normal creamy korma-like curry flavored and
colored with abundant hot pepper. This was almost as nice as
the reports would have it, about as hot as I'd make for myself.

An eggplant and potato curry in a yellow sauce was fine as well.
We were served a piece of eggplant with the stem; I'd forgotten
that the stem was edible. This one, however, was a bit tough.

The source of my disappointment - white rice was dry and
flavorless and vegetable biryani, lili's choice, almost as
much so.

Teh-o was 1.20, 0.20 extra for ice, and Coke was 2. The bill
came to 14.50.
--
Chulia Court is a well regarded hotel-bar-eatery with a lot
of standard cocktails on threefer sale at happy hour. lili,
under the impression that one had to get all the same thing,
ordered us caipirinhas while I was in the bathroom. These
were big, served in a highball glass over ice not too watered
down. Nothing on the menu particularly appealed to either of
us, so we went back to Junk Cafe for another iteration of
the full of junk burger, which was as good as the first time.

When we returned to the hotel, the front desk tried to sell
us on the event of the day, a celebration of hawker culture
up at the rooftop bar. Even the lure of free drink coupons
was not enough to get us to go.

violist

We ordered a taxi for 50 through the hotel; it came right
on time, and though it was the Thaippusam holiday, the
anticipated traffic did not materialize, and we were at the
airport in a jiffy. for some reason the guy had put the meter
on; when we pulled up at the curb, it read 48 and change. I
don't know what that was all about. I gave the guy a tip anyhow.

Kiosk check-in mostly didn't work. lili couldn't get her
boarding pass, and though I had done online check-in, the
machine issued only my first and refused to give me my
onward one, so we had to go to the counter anyway, where
things got sorted out reasonably quickly.

Security was quick and apparently thorough. The Golden Lounge
is right there after the checkpoint, beckoning.

Breakfast.

An assortment of western-style pastries and sandwiches,
fresh fruit - pineapple, papaya, honeydew, and watermelon;
nasi lemak and all the garnishes, squid in chili sauce;
chicken in sambal. Again, I can't speak for the western
food, but the native stuff was decent. I washed my meal
down with A&W sarsaparilla.

MH1145 PEN KUL 1240 1340 738 20AC

We had the row to ourselves on this moderately full flight
which took a few minutes less than scheduled.

A light lunch was served; it must have been okay, but I
forget what it was.

violist

I'd got this nifty set of flights for not very much expense -

TG 418 KUL BKK 2100 2205 788 11A
TG 600 BKK HKG 0800 1145 388 1A

This would have involved a couple hours and change in the first
row of the 787 and a couple more hours in the first row of the
380. But my onward got pushed forward an hour, making an
untenable connection, so I got a cheap nonstop with a big layover
so I could hang out with lili for a few hours.

The Golden Lounge Satellite is supposed to be the flagship of
the line: it's huge, offers decent food and drink, and a pay-in
spa for those with long connections. Beats any US lounge cold.

The staff weren't going to let lili in with her row 42 seat (JAL
lets you check in 72 hrs ahead, and she didn't know that, so by
the time T-24 rolled around, there was only one non-middle seat
left on the whole aircraft, off in the wayback) despite her
Emerald status. They let me in, though, with my somewhat less
exalted status and Malaysia ticket, and allowed her to come in
as my guest. Strange.

There were ample food offerings: great lentil soup, very good
chicken curry, and decent chicken biryani.

The western meal on offer was some kind of fish in cream
sauce, which I decided not to try, being suspicious of
fish in cream sauce on steam tables.

There was also spaghetti and tomato sauce, which I was
tempted to taste just to give a report, but I refrained.

Carlsberg was the beer on offer, which though okay got
tiring after a while, so I switched to Evervess ginger ale,
perhaps the blandest I've ever had. I'd hoped for something
interesting, but one doesn't always get what one hopes for.

The red wine was tolerable, the sip I had of it anyway.

Presently we got bored, and as my flight was departing from
the main terminal in an hour and change, we decided to try
the regional lounge. It turns out this is more attractive
in every way, cozier and more friendly; it also had the
laksa bar (featured in the inflight magazine) in plain sight.

All the amenities of the other lounge; in general I'd prefer
it and was sad to say goodbye to it and to lili.

MH 78 KUL HKG 1925 2300 738 7F

I presented myself at security a few minutes before
scheduled closing time and then sat for half another hour
in the departure lounge while the plane was readied for us.

We took off half an hour late. I was glad to have booked
my room at the Regal Airport Hotel rather than someplace
I'd have to be transported to.

The meal on this flight: a fish thing or chicken rice. What
could be bad? Okay, the rice was pebbles (insufficiently
reheated), the chicken, not bad in itself, the meat of a
biggish thigh, had been seasoned with ginger and chile (also
not bad) and sugar, it seemed in the place of salt, not good.
Steamed lotus root and green beans, also no salt. An appetizer
of chickpea vinaigrette with bell peppers and chopped wilted
greens; dessert a pineapple blueberry shortcake, very dry.

I had a row to myself - there were several such available. We
didn't make up any time in flight, so we got to our bus gate
almost half an hour late. No worries, the line at immigration
was fairly short, and it's a quick walk to the Regal, of which I
have fond memories. Counting a 5-minute delay going upstairs to
try to collect my onward boarding passes, the friendly and speedy
checkin meant I was from gate to bed in under half an hour.

It was what looked like a nice renovated triple room, and I
gratefully collapsed into the bigger bed (normally I sleep in
the smaller one in settings of this sort, but I was tired and
wanted to stretch out) and had a good snooze.

In the cold light of morning a few odd imperfections turned up -
the bed linens had been imperfectly washed if at all, and the
carpeting had stains and a big rip that had been halfheartedly
repaired. Not so big of a deal, but the noisy plumbing in the
nearby rooms woke me up earlier than I had hoped.

Whence I discovered that the wireless didn't work, and this
newer box of mine doesn't have an Ethernet port. I decided to
take my shower and hustle back to the airport post haste.

UA 862 HKG SFO 1220 0815 744 15K was 9J

I went to the desk to try to negotiate an upstairs berth, and
the agent said to have a seat and I'd be called. After about
10 minutes I was summoned to receive the information that the
upper deck had checked in full, so please take my original seat,
where I was settling in when I heard a kerfuffle nearby -
turns out the guy in 9K had expected his friend to be next
to him, but the friend had been assigned 15K. The flight
attendant refused to touch tis situation, but of course I
offered to switch, it being obvious that the path of least
resistance had been followed, requiring one boarding pass
reissue instead of two and so here I ended up, where I'd
intended to be in the first place.

My seatmate was a youngish Chinese-American woman who had
been off on business and who was hankering to get back home
to her family. Cursory friendly conversation.

We took off a little late, but it was promised that owing to
favorable winds we'd land early anyway.

Very solicitous service was offered by a senior crew including
one Dutch or Belgian woman who was exemplary.

We were given ramekins of good-tasting but very soft cashew
halves with the occasional almond. Anyhow, as the nuts cooled
off and dried up, they became nutlike again, a relief.

More of that Ch. Fontenelle stuff, which isn't that bad after
all. You should have seen me dive to save it during a sudden
wave of turbulence.

There were numerous interesting things on Channel 9, which
was given on request, including stuff that might well not have
been listened to, such as (as reported by a Dragonair pilot)
that some ground crew person got hit by a piece of equipment
and needed medical attention and, as we were approaching Japan,
"[Call sign sounded like Sumo] 73 is having issues with one of
our personnel and will have to return to [unintelligible] for
a crew swap," which raised tantalizing questions.

A decent meal.

Starter of one large shrimp and one large scallop, fresh and
pretty good, the scallop somewhat sweeter than what I am
accustomed to getting in these degraded days, sided by a
citrus mayonnaise.

The salad had pretty fresh greens, a couple orange segments,
a mushy cherry tomato, and a half sundried one, with Thousand
Islands or an incredibly sweet citrus vinaigrette with no
citrus and little vinegar.

Mains included a beef tenderloin, a vegetarian noodle dish,
and cod in miso-mustard sauce (ugh). My seatmate and I both
chose "three cup chicken, jade fried rice, broccoli, carrot
and bamboo tips." Pretty good food, though this was a regular
chicken stew (meat of two thighs, quite generous) in a soy and
hoisin-based gravy, rather than a real sanbeiji, which has a
strong wine component and is both savory and sweet (this was
mostly sweet). The rice that came was plain white, and the
vegetables overcooked but decent, the best being the bamboo
shoots, exemplary, the least good the carrots, cut into pretty
plum flower shapes, but one of which was beginning to rot and
was half brown.

A cheese course got the lack of attention it deserved; the
Port was Ferreira 2011, but as the attentive attendant had
just poured me my fourth refill of the Fontenelle, I decided
to pass on it.

Ice cream sundaes for afters.

When Channel 9 was turned off, I did as well, helped by all
that wine. I didn't even have time for my Courvoisier, falling
immediately into Five hours of pleasant snooze.

Channel 9 returned after the transoceanic slog.

violist

On the one day when I wouldn't have minded a delay, we
ended up half an hour early, and C&I took only a few
minutes, even though I got the familiar X (I clicked on yes
for fruits, vegetables, and plants, as I had brought back
some tea).

I hear there was a blizzard on the east coast. I had
UA 309 SFO IAD 1042 1851 739
but obviously that wasn't going to happen. The replacement
flights were
UA2034 SFO ORD 1805 0015 738 8A and
UA1012 ORD BOS 0737 1053 738 4F

The first flight fell off the systemwide upgrade list, and
I contemplated screaming about it but decided to let some
poor Platinum get an upgrade for a change. Anyway, I'm
supposed to get a free snack and alcoholic beverage with
my fancy white card.

There were a lot of 1Ks on this plane, and the cabin crew
were as solicitous as they could be, actually pushing us
to order from the snack menu - the beef stew in a bread
bowl being highly recommended. I just got a Courvoisier.

Again we arrived early, but there still didn't seem to
be time to enjoy a nice hotel room, so I camped out in
the airport. Soon I found a small knot of Chinese people
around, apparently believing in safety in numbers.

I used a second certificate to do the last two-hour flight,
as it was going to expire anyway. Good thing I did - the
plane was totally packed.

Breakfast was eggs scrambled with cheese with lots of
nicely done asparagus and what appeared to me to be
little button mushrooms but turned out to be slices of
sausage. The usual fruit appetizer. Cinnamon roll or
croissant. Pretty satisfactory. Being really tired, I
had a couple Cokes but fell asleep anyway. We landed
quite a bit early. I went straight to the club and was
greeted by Lynne, whom I answered incoherently.

It took me a couple days to get back to Washington,
which was fine with me.