We arrived in KL on Wednesday 23rd December after our short flight from Vietnam and were picked up at the airport. Shandy and Greg were right behind us on another flight, but we only realised they were landing at a different airport once we had checked the flight arrivals board. So after some frantic texting we arranged to collect them on the way to my dad’s apartment in the city. We arrived and dumped our bags before heading straight to the pool on the 22nd floor for some sun and a bite to eat. Leise and Lara then arrived and we all had a quick catch up. V and I then spent some time catching up with my dad and Jen which was great. He also arranged a fully stocked double apartment in the same block for the other 4 which was awesome.
We all met up around 6.30pm and made our way to a drinks function for Giant, the company my dad works for. This included free booze and food so we were quick to tuck into wine and beer while catching up with some familiar faces. From there we went for a very tasty Thai dinner in Bang Sar, an area in KL full of bars and restaurants. Our friend Jimmy then drove us home in his fancy minivan which was a tight squeeze but a good laugh. We all popped in for a quick nightcap in the bar SevenEightNine on the ground floor of our apartment before staggering off to bed.
We were up reasonably early on Thursday and made a quick trip to the shopping centre at the Petronas Towers. With our banking sorted we hopped in two taxis and made our way through the traffic to Chinatown for some bargain hunting and last minute Christmas shopping. This involved much bartering with the sellers which is great fun and it became a challenge amongst us all to see who could get the best discounts. After a couple hours and plenty purchases later we had a quick drink in the market before heading for lunch at Nando’s – hadn’t had any for ages so I think we were desperate to tuck into some peri-peri chicken again! Although Shandy did go for Lemon and Herb and her meal was presented with a “Not so brave” flag which we enjoyed.
We met up with everyone that evening and made our way to the Euro Deli restaurant for our Christmas Eve dinner. The food was excellent and after a couple of trips to the buffet our table was given it’s very own turkey. The girls tucked into some lovely bottles of wine while the boys braved pints of Hoegaarden, a Belgian wheat beer which would be the drink of choice for the evening. After a quick celebratory bottle of bubbles my dad then took us to a Belgian Bar run by some friends so we were given the full tour before settling into some more Hoegaardens. The owners then brought out a 5.5 litre glass of this fine beer for us to share. A table behind us had also just ordered one so my dad challenged us to beat them in a race to see who could finish it first – through straws! Never ones to shirk a challenge we attacked our beer with relish and won hands down, for which we were given a free Jaegermeister to wash it down with!
From there the 6 of us said goodnight to my dad and Jen and made our way to The Beach Club for some music and dancing. The place was rammed but we stocked up on drinks and enjoyed the music well into the early hours. From there we literally staggered home to bed although V and I couldn’t get into our apartment as the key card was not working. In my drunken state I was happy to sleep right outside the door in the hallway much to V’s embarrassment as she went off to get security to help us. They returned as I was passed out but we eventually had to wake up Jen to let us in. We were not a pretty sight that’s for sure!
We had a great Christmas day late morning present opening session in the guest apartment, all with serious hangovers. After finishing opening our secret Santa presents we took turns to Skype friends and family around the world to wish them a Merry Christmas. The boys then hit the shopping centre to pick up cold drinks and snacks for later, and we ordered pizza delivery. The pizzas were great but unfortunately we had bought Vanilla Cokes instead of normal Cokes, much to the anger of the girls. Greg drew the short straw and was sent out on another coke mission because water would just not do. With everyone feeling tired it was a pretty early night as we slipped off to bed.
Lara and Leise left KL early on Saturday morning so Greg, Shandy, V and I decided to have a very chilled day spent at the pool lapping up sun and relaxing. That evening Jimmy had offered to take us out for a night on the town, so he picked us up at our apartment at 7.30 and took us for a traditional dinner which was really good. From there we went on a bit of a pub crawl and stopped at a German beer house called OverTime. As we were all wearing flops (or slippers to the locals) we were struggling to get into any clubs so had to drink our beer in the outside area. We ordered a 5 litre keg and Greg popped the barrel – the beer was different but good!
From there we ended up in a club called Aloha (the only place that would take us in our casual attire). This was an awesome club with a huge bar and Jimmy ordered a bottle of Vodka to get things moving. This was polished off quickly before the girls hit the dance floor while we ordered a second bottle. There was football on the TV and the music was good so everyone was happy. Jimmy had to leave but we continued drinking the vodka and ordered a few beers to finish. The Liverpool game was on so we enjoyed the first half before heading back to the apartment to watch the second half. Feeling very tipsy we were all suddenly hungry so we heated up some frozen Macaroni cheese, not easy on a Chinese microwave but we managed – a tasty finish to the night although Shandy got tired of waiting and hit the sack before dinner was served so missed out!
Needless to say Sunday was another day of total relaxation as we took the opportunity to book our Thailand accommodation and prepare for the places we would be visiting next. We did another pizza delivery which was excellent again before having an early night.
We woke up on Monday and went for some last minute shopping and admin at the Petronas Towers again. We were all set to head up to the walkway between the two towers to enjoy the view over the city, but as luck would have it this attraction was closed on Mondays – gutted. We made our way back to the apartments for a quick swim and then took my dad and Jen out for dinner to La Bodega’s to say thanks for having us all. This is a great Tapas restaurant so we ordered a medley of dishes which were swiftly scoffed by all of us. The bill came and my dad refused to let us pay despite much protest, so it was a big thanks for another dinner! We then all enjoyed a walk home to burn off the meal, before we started packing as we were off early in the morning.
We were treated to an early breakfast in the apartment which was a good start to the day after which we enjoyed a final chat with before saying our goodbyes as Jimmy had kindly offered to take us to the airport and was waiting downstairs. This was one of the easier farewells as V and I will be back in KL in February which is great! Jimmy then dropped us off at the airport, what a star!
And so our quick stopover for Christmas in Kuala Lumpur was over, and after a hectic but awesome time here are our highlights and lowlights:
- Great to see my dad of course, who took great care of all of us thanks so much
- The KL nightlife, this city really is a party city with tons of bars and restaurants to go to
- Christmas with friends and family, after travelling for so long it was nice to feel at home
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