A winter trip to Asia: Tokyo, Singapore, and Malaysia via ANA F and SG J
Sep 29, 2019, 1:41 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 66
A winter trip to Asia: Tokyo, Singapore, and Malaysia via ANA F and SG J
Introduction
Since I started getting into the points and miles game, my better half and I have tried to take a long trip in style each year. In 2017, we spent three weeks traveling around Japan, taking advantage of the ANA F award sweetspot of 120k Virgin Atlantic miles round trip in from the east coast. In 2018, we decided to spend the holiday season somewhere warm. Our first choice was South Africa - we even had an award reservation on hold on South African Airways from IAD to JNB in J - but at the time it wasn't clear if Cape Town was still going to have water by the time our trip rolled around, so we ultimately let our award hold expire. As an aside, I am still deeply curious about what would have happened on that flight. The IAD - JNB route stops for a fuel stop in Dakar. We were able to book both legs in J to JNB, but on the way back to IAD only the DKK-IAD leg was available in J. It went through as a valid award, but I'm baffled as to what the logistics would have been - would we have moved from the main cabin during the fuel stop? Some questions in life might never be answered...
Instead, we decided on Southeast Asia, specifically Singapore and Malaysia. A close friend of ours is from Singapore and would be in town at the time, and her family generously offered to host us. I also have some clients in Kuala Lumpur who had long encouraged me to come visit whenever they came to New York, so meeting up with them on their home turf was a motivating factor as well. When we weren't staying with her family, we redeemed Hyatt and Marriott awards, plus a night in an AirBNB and two paid nights in the Eastern & Oriental hotel in Penang.
For flights, we relied on the same ANA F routing to get us into Asia, and spent two nights in Tokyo before moving on. Unfortunately there was zero J award availability on any reasonable routing from Tokyo to Singapore around Christmas, so we just bit the bullet and grabbed two economy seats on a China Eastern red-eye. Most of our flights on the trip were on Air Asia, which generally was fine but did give us some trouble with one very ill-timed delay later in the trip. Air Asia tickets were stunningly cheap - this trip offered me my first opportunity to buy a plane ticket for less than $6, which was quite a cool novelty.
Flights
Our final routing ended up looking like this:
Dec 24: NH 1 - IAD>NRT
Dec 27: MU 540 - HND>PVG
Dec 28: MU 543 - PVG>SIN
Jan 2: AK 704 - SIN>KUL
Jan 5: AK 6118 - KUL>PEN
Jan 8: AK 2646 - PEN>LGK
Jan 10: AK 6303 - LGK>KUL
Jan 10: SQ 117 - KUL>SIN
Jan 10: SQ 638 - SIN>NRT
Jan 11: NH 2 - NRT>IAD
Great circle map:
Part 1: DC > Tokyo
We're New York based, but the in-laws are from outside DC, so it's easy to combine a trip to see them with award availability out of IAD. I'll take the free lift to the airport as well 😛. The day began bright and early - we arrived at the airport and found that security was a ghost town. Maybe a perk of being Jewish is the easy travel on Christmas Eve - when most people are already where they're trying to be.
ANA uses the Turkish Airlines lounge at IAD. It's probably the nicest priority pass lounge in the US, but doesn't exactly feel like an international first class lounge. However, it's quiet, the showers were pretty good quality, and it's always nice to have a mimosa before flying around the world.
The lounge also gets great views of the ANA 777 pulling in:
You board right from the lounge, which is nice - and before we knew it we were onboard, sharing the 8 seat cabin with just one other person. Whenever there's enough seats for everyone to use two, they'll premake some into beds. While my girlfriend changed into the pajamas before takeoff, I opted to keep my regular clothing on until I'd had something to eat. Speaking of eating, what a phenomenal food and beverage service.
Delicious canapés and green tea:
Fantastic sukiyaki:
And a pre-landing snack of udon soup with fried tofu, and a small pickled vegetable salad:
There might have also been a few glasses of sake and Hibiki 21 along the line that didn't make it into any pictures...
We landed on time into Narita and had pre-booked limousine bus tickets to the Hyatt Regency, our home for the next two nights. I'm normally a huge proponent of trains over buses, but the limousine bus was, in true Japanese fashion, very fast, exactly punctual, and efficient to a T. While it's true that the Skyliner and the Narita Express might be faster to get into Tokyo, the limousine bus is door to door, so there's no need to transfer to a subway or a cab from a busy station. I'd definitely go with the bus again, unless I had a JR pass that includes the Narita Express ticket price.
The Hyatt Regency definitely does the job for a quick stay in Tokyo. It's a classic large city hotel - grand in a deliberate way. It feels a little dated in a way that's almost comforting. I'm a lowly Discoverist from the Hyatt credit card, so I appreciated the upgrade we got to a room with a view of Mount Fuji:
I also really liked the pool, situated at the top of the building. The skylights give it an airy feel, and I love that in Japan, even fairly modestly sized pool facilities will also have a hot soaking tub and a sauna. I never feel quite as clean as when I've been staying in Japan - somehow I feel like I'm constantly bathing!
But regardless, my philosophy is that if you're spending a lot of time in your hotel in Tokyo, you're making a bad decision. The next two days were filled with tens of thousands of steps around the city, stopping all around to shop (especially at the incredible vintage/thrift stores), sightsee, and eat.
So many busy streets that look like this:
For a city as crowded as Tokyo, one of my favorite things is that most apartments have balconies or some sort of outdoor space.
But we all know the real reason you come to Tokyo... to eat.
Our friend recommended this place, but we didn't get the chance to go here on our last visit. This time we made sure to go to try the maze-soba, essentially a brothless pork noodle soup. You stir the bowl together and the egg emulsifies to form an insanely good sauce. Then again, if the maze-soba doesn't interest you, maybe some ramen might?
Why not stop at Don Quixote, a wildly colorful discount store with multiple enormous locations around Tokyo? You can even pick up some clear Coke, which I found deeply unnerving...
However you want to spend your time, two days in Tokyo will pass far faster than you think. Before we knew it, it was time to leave Tokyo behind and move on to our next stop: Singapore.
Since I started getting into the points and miles game, my better half and I have tried to take a long trip in style each year. In 2017, we spent three weeks traveling around Japan, taking advantage of the ANA F award sweetspot of 120k Virgin Atlantic miles round trip in from the east coast. In 2018, we decided to spend the holiday season somewhere warm. Our first choice was South Africa - we even had an award reservation on hold on South African Airways from IAD to JNB in J - but at the time it wasn't clear if Cape Town was still going to have water by the time our trip rolled around, so we ultimately let our award hold expire. As an aside, I am still deeply curious about what would have happened on that flight. The IAD - JNB route stops for a fuel stop in Dakar. We were able to book both legs in J to JNB, but on the way back to IAD only the DKK-IAD leg was available in J. It went through as a valid award, but I'm baffled as to what the logistics would have been - would we have moved from the main cabin during the fuel stop? Some questions in life might never be answered...
Instead, we decided on Southeast Asia, specifically Singapore and Malaysia. A close friend of ours is from Singapore and would be in town at the time, and her family generously offered to host us. I also have some clients in Kuala Lumpur who had long encouraged me to come visit whenever they came to New York, so meeting up with them on their home turf was a motivating factor as well. When we weren't staying with her family, we redeemed Hyatt and Marriott awards, plus a night in an AirBNB and two paid nights in the Eastern & Oriental hotel in Penang.
For flights, we relied on the same ANA F routing to get us into Asia, and spent two nights in Tokyo before moving on. Unfortunately there was zero J award availability on any reasonable routing from Tokyo to Singapore around Christmas, so we just bit the bullet and grabbed two economy seats on a China Eastern red-eye. Most of our flights on the trip were on Air Asia, which generally was fine but did give us some trouble with one very ill-timed delay later in the trip. Air Asia tickets were stunningly cheap - this trip offered me my first opportunity to buy a plane ticket for less than $6, which was quite a cool novelty.
Flights
Our final routing ended up looking like this:
Dec 24: NH 1 - IAD>NRT
Dec 27: MU 540 - HND>PVG
Dec 28: MU 543 - PVG>SIN
Jan 2: AK 704 - SIN>KUL
Jan 5: AK 6118 - KUL>PEN
Jan 8: AK 2646 - PEN>LGK
Jan 10: AK 6303 - LGK>KUL
Jan 10: SQ 117 - KUL>SIN
Jan 10: SQ 638 - SIN>NRT
Jan 11: NH 2 - NRT>IAD
Great circle map:
Part 1: DC > Tokyo
We're New York based, but the in-laws are from outside DC, so it's easy to combine a trip to see them with award availability out of IAD. I'll take the free lift to the airport as well 😛. The day began bright and early - we arrived at the airport and found that security was a ghost town. Maybe a perk of being Jewish is the easy travel on Christmas Eve - when most people are already where they're trying to be.
ANA uses the Turkish Airlines lounge at IAD. It's probably the nicest priority pass lounge in the US, but doesn't exactly feel like an international first class lounge. However, it's quiet, the showers were pretty good quality, and it's always nice to have a mimosa before flying around the world.
The lounge also gets great views of the ANA 777 pulling in:
You board right from the lounge, which is nice - and before we knew it we were onboard, sharing the 8 seat cabin with just one other person. Whenever there's enough seats for everyone to use two, they'll premake some into beds. While my girlfriend changed into the pajamas before takeoff, I opted to keep my regular clothing on until I'd had something to eat. Speaking of eating, what a phenomenal food and beverage service.
Delicious canapés and green tea:
Fantastic sukiyaki:
And a pre-landing snack of udon soup with fried tofu, and a small pickled vegetable salad:
There might have also been a few glasses of sake and Hibiki 21 along the line that didn't make it into any pictures...
We landed on time into Narita and had pre-booked limousine bus tickets to the Hyatt Regency, our home for the next two nights. I'm normally a huge proponent of trains over buses, but the limousine bus was, in true Japanese fashion, very fast, exactly punctual, and efficient to a T. While it's true that the Skyliner and the Narita Express might be faster to get into Tokyo, the limousine bus is door to door, so there's no need to transfer to a subway or a cab from a busy station. I'd definitely go with the bus again, unless I had a JR pass that includes the Narita Express ticket price.
The Hyatt Regency definitely does the job for a quick stay in Tokyo. It's a classic large city hotel - grand in a deliberate way. It feels a little dated in a way that's almost comforting. I'm a lowly Discoverist from the Hyatt credit card, so I appreciated the upgrade we got to a room with a view of Mount Fuji:
I also really liked the pool, situated at the top of the building. The skylights give it an airy feel, and I love that in Japan, even fairly modestly sized pool facilities will also have a hot soaking tub and a sauna. I never feel quite as clean as when I've been staying in Japan - somehow I feel like I'm constantly bathing!
But regardless, my philosophy is that if you're spending a lot of time in your hotel in Tokyo, you're making a bad decision. The next two days were filled with tens of thousands of steps around the city, stopping all around to shop (especially at the incredible vintage/thrift stores), sightsee, and eat.
So many busy streets that look like this:
For a city as crowded as Tokyo, one of my favorite things is that most apartments have balconies or some sort of outdoor space.
But we all know the real reason you come to Tokyo... to eat.
Our friend recommended this place, but we didn't get the chance to go here on our last visit. This time we made sure to go to try the maze-soba, essentially a brothless pork noodle soup. You stir the bowl together and the egg emulsifies to form an insanely good sauce. Then again, if the maze-soba doesn't interest you, maybe some ramen might?
Why not stop at Don Quixote, a wildly colorful discount store with multiple enormous locations around Tokyo? You can even pick up some clear Coke, which I found deeply unnerving...
However you want to spend your time, two days in Tokyo will pass far faster than you think. Before we knew it, it was time to leave Tokyo behind and move on to our next stop: Singapore.
Oct 1, 2019, 9:17 pm
#2
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 66
Part 2: Tokyo > Singapore
For better or for worse, I didn't take many pictures on our redeye from Tokyo to Singapore on China Eastern. It wasn't the most pleasant flight, but at least the chairs in one of the thousand identically named priority pass lounges in PVG were comfortable enough to get some sleep during our connection. To me, the only thing of note was this offer I found deep in a menu in the IFE - an offer to upgrade (mid-flight!) to first class, for a mere $4200. I opted to pass, but I'm deeply curious about the logistics of getting upgraded midflight if I had actually followed through.
In any case, we arrived into Changi around 6 AM, and were in a taxi to our friend's family house faster than I was anticipating given that we had to deplane from a full flight on a mainland carrier and pass through immigration - but the efficiency at Changi I suppose was only to be expected.
After a much-needed nap in a real bed, we set off on our first day in Singapore. The first stop was to join our host family for breakfast in the city at one of their favorite kaya toast places. Served with plenty of coffee or tea and soft boiled egg in a dingily lit dining hall with a fan noisily circulating humid air, I was surprised at how much I liked it. It was a fabulous breakfast, and I was nice and full - which was why I was taken aback when our host family let us know that we'd be meeting back up for lunch in only a few short hours. We took that as a challenge to get some walking in.
Walking around the city, we were struck by how frequently we'd turn down a street with low-lying colonial style buildings, and see that behind them were enormous modern skyscapers or shopping centers. It was impressive how great a contrast there was just within eyeshot.
After a few hours of wandering, we met back up with our host family at our first hawker center for lunch. We started off on a different floor of the building, checking out the groceries available that day:
And then made our way to the hawker center itself, where we helped ourselves to plates from different stalls.
The next five days in Singapore blended into a fairly consistent pattern. We'd wake up and go to breakfast with our host family in a nearby hawker center, and then spend the morning exploring a new area or finding relief from the heat in an air conditioned shopping center. We'd have a light lunch in the afternoon before meeting back up with our host family for an enormous dinner around a lazy susan. Some of our meals:
szechuan one night
roast pork noodle restaurant - pick your noodle style!
unbelievable indian food at guyatri
a bowl of noodles like this would be $5 from a stand in a mall food court
new year's dinner: fish steamboat, in a restaurant tucked away on top of a parking garage our host family took us to
Of particular note food-wise was a restaurant called Birds of a Feather. Absolutely jaw-dropping modern szechuan food, including this ferociously spicy bowl of mussels with yam noodles that was so addictively good. Add this to the ever-increasing list of places that I'd eat at twice a week if it was near my apartment.
said mussels
We wrapped up our trip on New Year's Eve, with our flight to Kuala Lumpur on the morning of the 2nd. We rang in the new year at a hotel our host family frequents, and we stayed out till the wee hours performing round after round of increasingly bad karaoke.
joining the other tourists at the gardens on our second to last night
someone feels like new years eve has gone on long enough....
Before we knew it, though, it was time to leave - and a quick dropoff from our host later, we were back at Changi for the first of our Air Asia flights.
This did not feel like a place you board a low-cost carrier....
For better or for worse, I didn't take many pictures on our redeye from Tokyo to Singapore on China Eastern. It wasn't the most pleasant flight, but at least the chairs in one of the thousand identically named priority pass lounges in PVG were comfortable enough to get some sleep during our connection. To me, the only thing of note was this offer I found deep in a menu in the IFE - an offer to upgrade (mid-flight!) to first class, for a mere $4200. I opted to pass, but I'm deeply curious about the logistics of getting upgraded midflight if I had actually followed through.
In any case, we arrived into Changi around 6 AM, and were in a taxi to our friend's family house faster than I was anticipating given that we had to deplane from a full flight on a mainland carrier and pass through immigration - but the efficiency at Changi I suppose was only to be expected.
After a much-needed nap in a real bed, we set off on our first day in Singapore. The first stop was to join our host family for breakfast in the city at one of their favorite kaya toast places. Served with plenty of coffee or tea and soft boiled egg in a dingily lit dining hall with a fan noisily circulating humid air, I was surprised at how much I liked it. It was a fabulous breakfast, and I was nice and full - which was why I was taken aback when our host family let us know that we'd be meeting back up for lunch in only a few short hours. We took that as a challenge to get some walking in.
Walking around the city, we were struck by how frequently we'd turn down a street with low-lying colonial style buildings, and see that behind them were enormous modern skyscapers or shopping centers. It was impressive how great a contrast there was just within eyeshot.
After a few hours of wandering, we met back up with our host family at our first hawker center for lunch. We started off on a different floor of the building, checking out the groceries available that day:
And then made our way to the hawker center itself, where we helped ourselves to plates from different stalls.
The next five days in Singapore blended into a fairly consistent pattern. We'd wake up and go to breakfast with our host family in a nearby hawker center, and then spend the morning exploring a new area or finding relief from the heat in an air conditioned shopping center. We'd have a light lunch in the afternoon before meeting back up with our host family for an enormous dinner around a lazy susan. Some of our meals:
szechuan one night
roast pork noodle restaurant - pick your noodle style!
unbelievable indian food at guyatri
a bowl of noodles like this would be $5 from a stand in a mall food court
new year's dinner: fish steamboat, in a restaurant tucked away on top of a parking garage our host family took us to
Of particular note food-wise was a restaurant called Birds of a Feather. Absolutely jaw-dropping modern szechuan food, including this ferociously spicy bowl of mussels with yam noodles that was so addictively good. Add this to the ever-increasing list of places that I'd eat at twice a week if it was near my apartment.
said mussels
We wrapped up our trip on New Year's Eve, with our flight to Kuala Lumpur on the morning of the 2nd. We rang in the new year at a hotel our host family frequents, and we stayed out till the wee hours performing round after round of increasingly bad karaoke.
joining the other tourists at the gardens on our second to last night
someone feels like new years eve has gone on long enough....
Before we knew it, though, it was time to leave - and a quick dropoff from our host later, we were back at Changi for the first of our Air Asia flights.
This did not feel like a place you board a low-cost carrier....
Oct 2, 2019, 11:59 am
#3
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Minneapolis MN
Programs: DL PM
Posts: 488
Part 2: Tokyo > Singapore
For better or for worse, I didn't take many pictures on our redeye from Tokyo to Singapore on China Eastern. It wasn't the most pleasant flight, but at least the chairs in one of the thousand identically named priority pass lounges in PVG were comfortable enough to get some sleep during our connection. To me, the only thing of note was this offer I found deep in a menu in the IFE - an offer to upgrade (mid-flight!) to first class, for a mere $4200. I opted to pass, but I'm deeply curious about the logistics of getting upgraded midflight if I had actually followed through.
For better or for worse, I didn't take many pictures on our redeye from Tokyo to Singapore on China Eastern. It wasn't the most pleasant flight, but at least the chairs in one of the thousand identically named priority pass lounges in PVG were comfortable enough to get some sleep during our connection. To me, the only thing of note was this offer I found deep in a menu in the IFE - an offer to upgrade (mid-flight!) to first class, for a mere $4200. I opted to pass, but I'm deeply curious about the logistics of getting upgraded midflight if I had actually followed through.
Oct 2, 2019, 12:00 pm
#4
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Minneapolis MN
Programs: DL PM
Posts: 488
Oct 2, 2019, 2:44 pm
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 66
Jun 24, 2020, 5:51 pm
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 66
A few days in KL
Well, I think I can certainly say that quite a bit has changed since I last updated this thread. You know how it goes. First you wait a day, then you wait a week, then there's a global pandemic and you're suddenly busy with much bigger concerns. However, a few months into quarantine, I started getting wistful for this trip again and realized I should update the TR. We last left off in Changi, boarding an Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur...
The flight was remarkably quick, and they still managed a meal service. I was impressed with the efficiency, though I left the food untouched. I had bigger plans than Air Asia plane food for the empty space in my stomach.
After doing some research and considering several options, we opted for the Grand Hyatt for our stay. All I can say is wow - what a terrific hotel, and one of the best values in the Hyatt system as a lowly category three. Seriously, I understand various levels of geographic purchasing power, but it's nuts to me that this is in the same category as the Hyatt Place Oklahoma City. It's right in the middle of the city, overlooking the Petronas Towers and the KLCC park. Our room wasn't quite ready when we arrived, but they were nice enough to upgrade us to club level and we got to enjoy the pool for a bit. It was a bit surreal relaxing by the pool only to look up and see the Petronas Towers immediately above us.
When we were finally able to make it to our room, the view more than made up for the wait.
I could get used to this view...
We had been considering staying at the Mandarin Oriental, which is even closer to the towers, but I honestly think that it was good being more across the park - you were able to appreciate the scale of the buildings. I know it may seem like I'm going on about them a lot, but they were really captivating structures. In any case, our first night we had plans to meet up with some business associates. They had long wanted me to come visit them in KL, and all the better that I had brought my better half along as well. They insisted on taking us out for dinner the first night, lunch another day, and a feng shui seminar as well. We met up for dinner after a quick nap and a walk around the hotel area, and were right back to where we were in Singapore: around a lazy Susan.
By the end of the trip, I wanted one of these at home
It was a total hole in the wall with (when I checked after) mediocre reviews, but my friends knew the owner and he must have called in the good chef. Plate after plate of delicious food - egg yolk squid, roasted chicken, soy sauce noodles, braised fish with chilis, green beans with szechuan peppercorns, roast pork, bok choi, huge prawns... they like to order everything on the menu and then some!
After the meal, we went and grabbed some more drinks with them at the W hotel's outdoor bar - another location with great twin towers views. We ended the night with lots of toasts, glad to not be eating lunch with them the next day!
View from the bar at the W - when lit up at night, the twin towers are lovely
The next morning, still nursing slight headaches from the night before, we made our way downstairs for breakfast. The buffet was beautiful, with a terrific spread - but I had to feel sad when I saw the bagel and lox. I'm not someone who waves the hometown flag too hard, but as a New Yorker, to see such a sad, limp bagel with schmear and lox was a mini tragedy.
On the topic of food observations, as we made our way to our next destination (the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park), we decided to stop in to McDonalds to see what the local options were. They had some cool things, including a "Nasi McD" as well as beef and chicken "prosperity burgers." If I had more meals, I might have been able to justify trying it, but given the limited time there I knew it would have to wait.
I remain very curious about this
The KL Bird Park was an unexpected treat. The business associates we had met up with had strongly recommended it for first time visitors to KL, and the hotel staff agreed. It was an incredibly unique experience, with different areas of the park covered with different barriers or netting, allowing the birds, for the most part, to roam freely. It was incredible how many peacocks were wandering around, and the way that different parts of the park sounded so unique because of the types of bird calls in that area was really fascinating.
The bird park stood in contrast to our main activity the next day, checking out the Batu caves. This was an unusual attraction because it combined incredible human engineering and spectacle as well as some crazy natural wonders. It's a complex of incredibly colorful Hindu temples (plus an enormous golden statue of a Hindu God) set in and around an enormous series of caverns and caves, reached by a towering set of colorful stairs. It's a bit overwhelming, but really beautiful. Hiking up all the steps on a hot summer day was a bit of a pain, though, not going to lie! It was a bit worse for my girlfriend since she was wearing shorts and had to cover her legs before going up.
Really incredible to look at from a distance - the statue is 140 feet tall!
The temples, especially the outdoor complex, were incredibly ornate and colorful.
The interior cavern was massive, and the gloomy atmosphere was illuminated in the less sunny parts by powerful floodlights.
Elsewhere, the light dipped through openings in the rock, bathing patches of temple in spotlights.
I was also super struck by this vendor selling fresh coconuts and the speed at which he cut them open and distributed them was amazing. I would have no fingers left in his job!
Mind your fingers!
We also quickly noticed the monkeys that were absolutely everywhere - and they were so used to people! In fact, they were completely shameless. One came right up to me, climbed up the pillar next to me, snatched my water bottle, and bit the bottom open to get to the water. Honestly, at that level of brazen, you can't get too mad.
After a strong morning climb up and down the colorful stairs and a dip in the pool back at the hotel, we met back up with my friends for lunch. This time, the table was rectangular and there was no lazy Susan, but that didn't stop there from being a crazy amount of food.
Just a light lunch in KL...
Per their recommendation, we wound down after lunch with a massage in the same mall as their office and the restaurant. It was something like $10 for an hour, and I would get these way more often if they were that price in NY.
After more drinks on the town, we went back to the hotel to enjoy the sunset and have an early night in. We grabbed a drink in the club lounge to watch the sunset - I'll remember the view from there for a long time.
Mood in the club lounge at sundown
Before
After
I was sad to be spending the last day in KL. We ended up really loving the city - probably even more than Singapore. A little bit dirtier and cheaper, but we loved the food and all the excursions and activities. In Singapore, it felt like everything was a little bit Disneyland-ish.
My type of hotel breakfast - savory and spicy.
Our last day was marked by a trip to see my friend's feng shui conference. It's one thing to meet him in a restaurant somewhere, and another to go to a conference center and see him give a talk in front of thousands of people. It was completely fascinating to see how into it people are - it's not my thing, but it's clear how immensely meaningful it was to a lot of people to see.
Ready for the conference
After saying our goodbyes, we were off to KLIA for our flight to Penang. It would end up being our least favorite leg of the trip, but that's for another installment, probably in 2021 when we're in the middle of the apocalypse at the rate things are going.
Sunset at KLIA before flying out
The flight was remarkably quick, and they still managed a meal service. I was impressed with the efficiency, though I left the food untouched. I had bigger plans than Air Asia plane food for the empty space in my stomach.
After doing some research and considering several options, we opted for the Grand Hyatt for our stay. All I can say is wow - what a terrific hotel, and one of the best values in the Hyatt system as a lowly category three. Seriously, I understand various levels of geographic purchasing power, but it's nuts to me that this is in the same category as the Hyatt Place Oklahoma City. It's right in the middle of the city, overlooking the Petronas Towers and the KLCC park. Our room wasn't quite ready when we arrived, but they were nice enough to upgrade us to club level and we got to enjoy the pool for a bit. It was a bit surreal relaxing by the pool only to look up and see the Petronas Towers immediately above us.
When we were finally able to make it to our room, the view more than made up for the wait.
I could get used to this view...
We had been considering staying at the Mandarin Oriental, which is even closer to the towers, but I honestly think that it was good being more across the park - you were able to appreciate the scale of the buildings. I know it may seem like I'm going on about them a lot, but they were really captivating structures. In any case, our first night we had plans to meet up with some business associates. They had long wanted me to come visit them in KL, and all the better that I had brought my better half along as well. They insisted on taking us out for dinner the first night, lunch another day, and a feng shui seminar as well. We met up for dinner after a quick nap and a walk around the hotel area, and were right back to where we were in Singapore: around a lazy Susan.
By the end of the trip, I wanted one of these at home
It was a total hole in the wall with (when I checked after) mediocre reviews, but my friends knew the owner and he must have called in the good chef. Plate after plate of delicious food - egg yolk squid, roasted chicken, soy sauce noodles, braised fish with chilis, green beans with szechuan peppercorns, roast pork, bok choi, huge prawns... they like to order everything on the menu and then some!
After the meal, we went and grabbed some more drinks with them at the W hotel's outdoor bar - another location with great twin towers views. We ended the night with lots of toasts, glad to not be eating lunch with them the next day!
View from the bar at the W - when lit up at night, the twin towers are lovely
The next morning, still nursing slight headaches from the night before, we made our way downstairs for breakfast. The buffet was beautiful, with a terrific spread - but I had to feel sad when I saw the bagel and lox. I'm not someone who waves the hometown flag too hard, but as a New Yorker, to see such a sad, limp bagel with schmear and lox was a mini tragedy.
On the topic of food observations, as we made our way to our next destination (the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park), we decided to stop in to McDonalds to see what the local options were. They had some cool things, including a "Nasi McD" as well as beef and chicken "prosperity burgers." If I had more meals, I might have been able to justify trying it, but given the limited time there I knew it would have to wait.
I remain very curious about this
The KL Bird Park was an unexpected treat. The business associates we had met up with had strongly recommended it for first time visitors to KL, and the hotel staff agreed. It was an incredibly unique experience, with different areas of the park covered with different barriers or netting, allowing the birds, for the most part, to roam freely. It was incredible how many peacocks were wandering around, and the way that different parts of the park sounded so unique because of the types of bird calls in that area was really fascinating.
The bird park stood in contrast to our main activity the next day, checking out the Batu caves. This was an unusual attraction because it combined incredible human engineering and spectacle as well as some crazy natural wonders. It's a complex of incredibly colorful Hindu temples (plus an enormous golden statue of a Hindu God) set in and around an enormous series of caverns and caves, reached by a towering set of colorful stairs. It's a bit overwhelming, but really beautiful. Hiking up all the steps on a hot summer day was a bit of a pain, though, not going to lie! It was a bit worse for my girlfriend since she was wearing shorts and had to cover her legs before going up.
Really incredible to look at from a distance - the statue is 140 feet tall!
The temples, especially the outdoor complex, were incredibly ornate and colorful.
The interior cavern was massive, and the gloomy atmosphere was illuminated in the less sunny parts by powerful floodlights.
Elsewhere, the light dipped through openings in the rock, bathing patches of temple in spotlights.
I was also super struck by this vendor selling fresh coconuts and the speed at which he cut them open and distributed them was amazing. I would have no fingers left in his job!
Mind your fingers!
We also quickly noticed the monkeys that were absolutely everywhere - and they were so used to people! In fact, they were completely shameless. One came right up to me, climbed up the pillar next to me, snatched my water bottle, and bit the bottom open to get to the water. Honestly, at that level of brazen, you can't get too mad.
After a strong morning climb up and down the colorful stairs and a dip in the pool back at the hotel, we met back up with my friends for lunch. This time, the table was rectangular and there was no lazy Susan, but that didn't stop there from being a crazy amount of food.
Just a light lunch in KL...
Per their recommendation, we wound down after lunch with a massage in the same mall as their office and the restaurant. It was something like $10 for an hour, and I would get these way more often if they were that price in NY.
After more drinks on the town, we went back to the hotel to enjoy the sunset and have an early night in. We grabbed a drink in the club lounge to watch the sunset - I'll remember the view from there for a long time.
Mood in the club lounge at sundown
Before
After
I was sad to be spending the last day in KL. We ended up really loving the city - probably even more than Singapore. A little bit dirtier and cheaper, but we loved the food and all the excursions and activities. In Singapore, it felt like everything was a little bit Disneyland-ish.
My type of hotel breakfast - savory and spicy.
Our last day was marked by a trip to see my friend's feng shui conference. It's one thing to meet him in a restaurant somewhere, and another to go to a conference center and see him give a talk in front of thousands of people. It was completely fascinating to see how into it people are - it's not my thing, but it's clear how immensely meaningful it was to a lot of people to see.
Ready for the conference
After saying our goodbyes, we were off to KLIA for our flight to Penang. It would end up being our least favorite leg of the trip, but that's for another installment, probably in 2021 when we're in the middle of the apocalypse at the rate things are going.
Sunset at KLIA before flying out