Ever since we got to know we will be heading to Cairo, I started learning Arabic on Duolingo. Today finished Unit 1!

Owing to a system malfuntion, the Air Asia staff at Lombok, Indonesia had to hand write every boarding pass for the flight to Kuala Lumpur 

A flight boarding pass with all details written by hand

The Red Vein Flowering Maple that we found in Ranau, Sabah

Day 2 of #mbapr : Flowers 📷

A flower of the Red vein flowering maple plant, which looks like a red bulb hanging down

Anak Baba, Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur 📍

Earlier this week, a friend was stopping over in KL and was available for lunch. Since he was open to tasting some local fare, took him out to Anak Baba in Brickfields.

It is a quaint little place, with simple seating arrangement of table and stools and a lot of natural sunlight through the translucent roof. I had been there earlier once and loved their food.

This time around I tried their Nasi Lemak with fried chicken. Everything was spot on, but that fried chicken marinated in turmeric was just so rightly done—a light layer of fried coating on the outside and juicy on the inside!

A plate of Nasi Lemak which contains a cup of cooked rice, fried chicken, half a boiled egg, shredded raw papaya, fried egg, sauteed water spinach and sambal

The friend has Nyonya Laksa, which I had tried previously here. He loved it too. A bowl of Laksa that had rice noodles in a coconut curry gravy with fishball, prawsns, tofu skin, bean sprouts, etc.

We also had their Popiah (Peranakan Spring Roll), Pai Tee (picture below) and Cendol to round it all off. A plat of Pai Tee, a crunch top hat pastry filled with raw papaya, fried egg strips and a tangy sauce Cendol , a bowl of shaved idea topped with coconut milk, palm sugar syrup, red beans etc.

Overall the food and the interesting conversation, made it a memorable afternoon! Hope to bring the family here soon!

#MalaysianDiary #DiningOut

🥾 Hiking Bukit Gasing, Kuala Lumpur

This Sunday’s hike was at Bukit Gasing, with the same set of hiking friends as last week and a few more.

Panoramic view of the Kuala Lumpur skyline, viewed from the top of the hike at Bukit Gasing Hikers walking on a suspension bridge in a single file.

It was lovely hike. We finished the entire hike of 5.25km in about 2.5h. The trail is well maintained and the suspension bridges, add a bit of fun to the hike.

One thing, I really love about Kuala Lumpur is the access to hiking spots within the city!

🥾Hiking Gunung Datuk, Negeri Sembilan

Yesterday I went hiking up Gunung Datuk with a friend and his hiking group. This was my first long hike in KL and in a while too.

A board at the trailhead of Gunung Datuk that provides an overview of the trail A hiking group walking among big tree roots as they start a hike

We started climbing about 7.15am and summited around 1h 45m later. The initial part, with the rocky trail and the jutting out roots was the hardest part.

The strong winds at the summit gave us a welcome break from all the exhaustion. After a quick round of snacks, we went up to the viewing point and clicked a few pictures.

A board at the summit of Gunung Datuk stating that you are there A panorama shot of the view from the summit A man atop a rock at the summit of Gunung Datuk

We came back down in 1h 15m. While climbing down was less exhausting, it was strenuous on the knees. The hiking poles were put to good use to transfer some of the weight on to them!

Overall it was great hike. Looking forward to do many more in the coming months!

#MalaysianDiary

The school was closed for #OhBoy, so we took a bus ride and stopped by at Bukit Damansara for a coffee. Our usual coffee shop was closed, but there were huge cheers from the pubs around. It is Super Bowl night, so we are here watching a game neither understand. 🤣

#MalaysianDiary

Little boy watching Super Bowl 2024 at a pub.
A view looking up from inside the car through the sunroof on a rainy evening. The glass roof has rain droplets and the buildings above are blurred.

Through the sunroof on a rainy evening!

Der Backmeister, TTDI, Kuala Lumpur

After a good hike at the the Bukit Kiara trails at TTDI, we went to the Der Backmeister @ TTDI for a well earned breakfast. The place was full of folks digging into their food and that was a good sign!

We ordered their The Big Backmeister which was a mix platter of Ham, Salami, Breads, Buns and choice of eggs. When ordering the kind lady at the counter was attentive enough to ask how many folks were in our group. It was a big platter enough for 2 adults and a child.

A big platter of cold cuts - ham, salami, cheese, along with a basket of breads, butter and jam

We also ordered an Avocado and Egg Sandwich on Ciabatta, which was a huge. We asked them to pack the left over and they kindly obliged.

Their Caraibe Dark Chocolate deserves a special mention. It was just yum!

A glass of frothed milk, with coins of dark chocolates in a quarter plate

The staff were polite, chatty, accommodative and attentive. 😍

#DiningOut #MalaysianDiary

We welcomed the new year in a train, sleeping in our upper berths. A new experience for us, but also very appropriate since we will be travelling from Malaysia to another country this year.

We reached Madurai as the last leg of our India trip. The morning was spent in a quick visit to Meenatchi Amman temple.

This was promptly followed by a visit to New Shri Ram Mess. Basic but tasty meals on banana leaf.

Christmas 2023

Merry Christmas! 🎄

Usually Christmas is at home or with family, but this time it is mostly on the road. Initially I was bummed by this, particularly it went contrary to our careful planning of comfortable travel and being with family.

But now I’m seeing this as the spirit of the season, after all the little Christ was born on a travel and in a short stay in the middle of nowhere.

I tell myself, it is important to remember that one is surrounded my ones they love. And that is all that matters.

❤️