I was going through my photos from last year's annual KL trip, and I realized I hadn't posted photos from our trip the year before that. (I found the photos sleeping in Lightroom 😔) Now that I have more than enough free time on my hands since community quarantine is extended until the end of the month, I'm going to try and clear my backlog from 2018 and 2019. (The keyword here being "try".) 2018 feels so long ago though, so I'm not sure if I remember what I was thinking when I took these photos, but I'll do my best!
Our order of business upon arriving in Malaysia is always the same: exchange our money for local currency, buy Malaysian sim cards for our phones, have lunch at the Burger King on the 2nd floor of KLIA2 Gateway, then take a Grab to our Airbnb of choice. Aian and I have been visiting KL every year since 2013, and after A LOT of trial and error, we came up with this routine to make things easier for us. We made a lot of mistakes and bad decisions during our first few trips, but thanks to that we now have a good idea of what works and what doesn't.
We always book our Airbnb at Mercu Summer Suites in Kampung Baru. Out of all the areas we've stayed in, this one was the most convenient. It's only a few minutes away from KLCC so it's easy to get a GrabCar to and from. It's also near two train stations: Bukit Nanas (KL Monorail) and Dang Wangi (LRT Kelana Jaya Line). We just prefer taking a Grab because it's more convenient.
One more thing we like about the place is that they have convenience stores, a restaurant, and even a cafe on the first floor of the building. One of the convenience stores is open 24 hours, which is great. This is when we ate at the restaurant that was there at the time (when we came back the next year, it was replaced by a different restaurant). We tried nasi lemak for the first time. It was...interesting, haha.
After that we met up with our friend Noko, who was also in KL for Comic Fiesta, then called it a day.
As you can see, someone isn't a morning person. It was a free day anyway, so it's okay.
I always make sure to save a whole day for shopping (because Aian tends to spend too much time at Kinokuniya and I tend to spend too much time swatching makeup at Innisfree and Sephora). Apparently 2018 Chai thought it was a good idea to do it on our first day there, eh.
We had lunch at the famous Nando's. Their smokey BBQ peri-peri chicken was so good! Too bad they only had it for a limited time :( I think I had this more than 5 times during the whole trip.
I spent 10,000 years swatching makeup (the last photo is of 3CE liquid lipstick swatches), but ended up not buying anything. It was just our first day, and I could always go back anyway. (Or so I thought.)
Aian's turn to spend 10,000 years browsing.
He ended up buying something though! One paper bag full of somethings.
That year's Comic Fiesta poster, on the window of Kinokuniya.
We took a short break from shopping to get merienda. Kaya toast with soft-boiled eggs!
After that it was back to shopping. I went to Watsons to stock up on my skincare. No Hada Labo, no life!
We stayed at Suria until late evening, but only because we were waiting for friends to have dinner together. We ended up not having dinner with them though. Since most of the restaurants were already closing, we decided to head back to our Airbnb instead.
We were supposed to just get food delivered, but Aian thought why not go to Jalan Alor for late dinner, since they're open until past midnight anyway? So we did. We had butter prawns, char kway teow, stir-fried veggies, and assorted dumplings. Aian had two servings of watermelon shake, too. For some reason, watermelon in Malaysia tastes really good. I don't know why, haha.
That's all for the first day. Next up is day 2—our first time at Stickerrific! I'll come back with the photos as soon as I can :) Take care and stay safe, everyone! 💕
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