Pigeons, Cookies, and a Supermarket Friend

I started my third day in KL with breakfast in SB corner and ordered 1 big big cup of Fresh Coconut Susu (which I didn’t know it would be so large beforehand) and a Roti Canai Telur (Roti Canai with egg) paired with dipping sauce of curry and Sambal. The drink was sort of bland though and there’s not a distinct smell of coconut or milk. The flatbread was good, crispy on the outside and soft in the inside. When dipped with curry sauce or Sambal, it became more flavorful.

Then I set off to KLCC. Having the experience of going to KLCC yesterday, I decided to go there without the help of navigation app but unfortunately got lost and needed its help to find my way back to Suria KLCC (still not a navigation expert yet). Almost melted down walking under the scorching heat for about an hour, being able to enjoy the AC in Suria KLCC is like a luxury feeling. Having learned the lesson from ordering a cup of hot in Molten Chocolate Cafe yesterday, I ordered an iced chocolate at The Coffee Been & Tea Leaf, an American coffee brand based in California. Having an iced drink at the hottest time of the day in Malaysia is incredibly satisfying.

The first half of day was all about eating and drinking. At lunchtime, I was attracted to by the pictures of salads of a Japanese seafood restaurant The Fish Bowl since I hadn’t consumed any vegetables in Malaysia yet. Not familiar with Japanese cuisine in English (to name a few, Bases: Quinoa, Soba; Sauces; Lime Aioli, Baby Racha, Teriyaki, Sesame Miso; Sides: Shallots, Edamame; Toppings: Wasabi, Fish Roe, Furikake), the ordering process was so challenging and frustrating that I needed to constantly use Google to find out what most dishes on the menu are. What’s worse, I had a hard time understanding the cashiers in the stall, which was even more discouraging. Though the ordering experience in the restaurant had not been good so far, the fish and salad bowl was delicious and it was quite enjoyable to eat it. The baby greens were fresh and crunchy. Add-on such as sunflower seeds, carrots, mangoes , pineapples and seaweeds added more flavor profiles to the salad, making the salad richer. The texture of the Shoyu Salmon was smooth and it was seasoned well.

After lunch it’s time to the aquarium! On my way to it, I happened to pass by Cold Storage, a large supermarket, and I decided to buy plain water to drink to quench my thirst. However, after seeing varieties of food sold here, I decided to buy some souvenirs. I didn’t have anything specific to buy and only wanted to take back food that can represent Malaysia, so I ended up buying lots of durian flavor food that I didn’t actually like and the fancy packages also took up unnecessary space in my luggage making it difficult for me to pack up all the items in it later when I was traveling to other cities. This, the lesson that I learnt from this overwhelming shopping experience was that I should choose the things that I truly love and need instead of just buying them for the only purpose of taking home as souvenirs. Even if the space in the luggage is not enough, I can still take it out and consume it myself instead of keeping it in the suitcase taking up space. Also, I should take the package of products into consideration so that they can fit into limited-space suitcase.

Despite the immature shopping behaviors making the shopping experience awful, I met a girl from Sabah who worked part-time in the supermarket. She smiled to me when I was browsing through different varieties of cookies on the shelves and I thought she was just a normal customer who was friendly to me. Then she carried a plate of chocolate cookies and kindly asked me if I wanted to try one and I said why not. It was indeed tasty so I took 3 packages of chocolate cookies and when I was walking towards the cashier I happened to meet her again and just told her that I took the cookies. Then we started to chat up! We even followed each other’s instagram and chatted on it for several days straight! It’s so nice to make friends with a Malaysian local. She recommended me to visit her hometown Sabah one day and also Parsar Seni, which is a central market with lots of boutiques and stalls selling local handicrafts.

Carrying so many stuff from the supermarket, I had to give up my plan to visit the aquarium and return to my residence first. Coming out of Suria KLCC I saw a group of pigeons feeding so I sat down, fed them with the chocolate cookies I just bought and watched them feeding on the cookies. It was overcast, with breeze brushing my face. I sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the peace and comfort in front of Symphony Lake. After a while, it started to rain and I had to go back. With so 2 heavy bags on hands, it might be better to make my first Grab order but the app estimated that the time that the driver came and picked me up was 15 minutes, which was almost the same time it took me to walked back! Again, it showed that the weather in KL, and tropical areas in general, can be so unpredictable. After walking for a while under the rain, it stopped and the sun came out again, directly shedding its heat on me. The other thing I couldn’t help complaining about was how poorly constructed the zebra’s crossing was. There were quite a few pedestrian’s crossing on the road but Google Maps constantly instructed me to cross the road to the opposite side, so I had to disobey the traffic rules, if any, many times, which was unsurprisingly very common among locals as well. Combined with the painfully long waiting time of pedestrian’s lights, I had the feeling that the city is just built for vehicles instead of pedestrians.

In the afternoon, I headed to KLCC park to chill out. It has well-maintained jogging trails, large areas of greenery, many water features and children’s pools and playgrounds, making it a great place to escape from the hustle and bustle of the city and take a walk to relax. A feature that impressed me a lot is that there’s some pavilions and filtered water tap alongside the jogging trail, making it more welcoming for joggers. A lot of adults and children had fun in the pool to escape from the scorching heat of KL. Even women wearing hijab were soaked in the water.

It’s just impressive how Muslim women in this country wear hijab all the time no matter how hot or rainy the weather is.

Walking out of the park and back to the Symphony Lake again, rows of people were sitting on the stairs, which raised my curiosity and I talked to one guy among them to find out why. It turned out that this is just how locals like to spend their time before or after dinner with their friends or family to chat and relax.

As for dinner, I went back to the bustling Jalan Alor and grabbed

• an Arabic chicken sandwich (full of chicken and only cost RM 10),
• a box of Musang King Durian (5 seeds and cost RM 55, smooth, but bitter and not so fragrant, totally not worth the price),
• a scoop of durian ice cream (a scoop of coconut ice cream topped with durian paste, RM 15, not impressive and not worthy either),
• a box of jack fruit and mango sticky rice (too full that night and ate them in the morning the next day, the jackfruit was wet and smelled like it’s rotten; the coconut cream sauce was sticky and too sweet).

Therefore, I didn’t have a pleasant experience in Jalan Alor and it was too commercialized and obviously aimed towards tourists so the products were overpriced.