We ate so much for the past days that hubby said he had forgotten how it felt like to be hungry, haha. Especially during a ritual visit to the chinese restaurant in KLCC. We ordered peking duck (whole duck + 2nd course which we requested to have the meat fried with rice), dim sum & soup at one go. Been craving for peking duck & some other dim sum.. so having two very bloated tummies & leftovers were the result of our greediness. And the carrot cake fried with XO sauce was also too good to be missed. Sedap!
One of the evenings we had Japanese buffet at Saisaki Japanese Buffet Restaurant. The place was very near our hotel... just about 10 mins' walk. Good that I made reservation a few days before as they were running full on a weekday night. This gotta be the most generous spread we've ever had and the food was fresh! And the best part was.. we paid only S$53.40 for two (S$26.70/pax)! Too happily indulging in the great food that we had forgotten to take any pic.
Can't tell the shabbiness from this picture. We usually prefer to sit outside as it's very warm in there... and with the very worn-out interior plus it's exactly this dim inside, it's definitely not a preferred place to sit. Yet the place is always full. This was the second visit during last week's stay.
Address: Jalan Tengkat Tong Shin
Well it looked much nicer in the photo. In fact it's better now as they've done up the entrance few years back... Before that was a long dirty smelly drain after the steps (at the gate).
Fully occupied but the turn-over rate was very high... everyone just wanted to sate his char siew craving chop-chop.
Waiting for our dinner at a 大排档 on the following night near Bukit Bintang (opposite Ritz Carlton KL). Another of our regular makan haunts.
We're seated in a very old coffee shop. But we ordered our 鸳鸯 (in cantonese: yin yeung) which was hor fun+bee hoon (yummy!) & hokkien mee from the trolley cart hawker parked in the side lane just next to the coffee shop. There're also rows of tables & chairs on the pavement. Apparently the stall was so popular that they needed to rent space from the coffee shop since they're not open for business at night. Fyi, they only sell staples (fried rice/kway tiao/noodle..) & not a normal zhu-chao but all seats are usually taken up for both in & outdoor... again, it's a place with high customers turnover.
Dinner at Bakerzin in 1 Utama while resting our extremely tired feet & eyes. Great ambience & like the interior (we're currently into contemporary decor with lots of glass & hues of burgundy, hee). The big catch was the Clams Linguini Vongole that we both love. We usually pay S$14.80 here in Singapore whereas we got to indulge in the same stuff for S$9.40... & it tasted just as delicious!
The only dampener during our trip - Chakri Palace @ KLCC. The food served was great before renovation. The restaurant looks much nicer now but the food sucks. The deep-fried prawn wrapped in wanton skin was so salty & peppery, the fried tang hoon was very oily & tasteless, the Kung Po chicken & cashew nuts was pretty ok except the meat a lil too tough. The only one that didn't go too wrong was the thai coconut soup (Tom Kha Gai). We deduced that there must have been a change in chef. And I got even more upset when we footed the bill... it's more expensive than previously. Definitely drop this from our list of places we frequent.
In between meals we had lots of bites (& daily ice cream treat!).
Of Shopping.
Compared to the last couple of trips, this year's damages were not the biggest. Before the trip we're quite happy as it coincided with Malaysia Mega Sale Carnival (started just 2 weeks ago) which promised better buys. But to our disappointment the sale wasn't as attractive. More commonly seen were 10% - 30% though did come across some 50% discounts. Rarely saw 70% ones. Unlike in the past when there're 70% - 80% off everywhere.
Nevertheless, we managed to find some great deals from each of the places we shopped - KLCC, Times Square Berjaya, Sungei Wang, One Utama. By the way, 1 Utama is H-U-G-E... we're so exhausted from walking & browsing as well as trying not to get lost. 5 million sq.ft with more than 600 shops & restaurants... wOw!!!
In the midst of consolidating all the items
Among which these are hubby's...
Flat-front lowrise pants from local designer Key Ng. Very nice cutting & according to hubby, very comfortable. Considered the best buy of all as these were 2 of the only 3 items we got that were slashed by 70%.. ie. S$18.50 each. Very rarely we can find good cutting guys pants at this price.. except in Bangkok which is still the cheapest @ 350 baht for a nice pair of bell-cutting pants & doesn't look cheap at all (always receive compliments from his fashionable colleagues, hee). Never prefer hubby to wear those roomy, high/normal waist pants & thank goodness that his taste is exactly same as mine. Phew.
One of the 2 nice shirts bought. He'd worn the missing one to LL & Mandy's wedding dinner last evening.
3 polo tees. Hubby likes the one on right most... it's a muscle polo tee with just a simple read logo "Kuan" (軍).And mine....
A top, mini tube dress & 2 tees. I didn't realise I was into yellow tees of late.
This not very cheap but it fits me real well. Given the fact that I always have difficulty in finding a nice pair of pants, I couldn't let this go.
I like this FCUK dress which we paid 30% of the original price (yep besides hubby's pants, this is the only item that went for 70% discount).
Clockwise: A pair of red earrings, sunglasses, cream color nail polish with purplish-blue shimmer, Cyber Color black eyeliner (looking for cheaper substitute for my Shu Uemura eyeliner), Kanebo Kate white eye shadow.
4 pairs of shoes
Our accomodation
We stayed in Traders Hotel for the first time. Wanted to try this relatively new hotel (1 year old) since I couldn't find a room in Mandarin Oriental. Besides the excellent view, there's nothing very impressive.
The hotel is strange in many ways. Firstly, I was led to my room straight upon arrival by the limo driver who fetched me at the airport. It's the very first time I've come across limo drivers doing the hotel reception job & I personally don't think it's a good idea. I'm not discriminating at all but they are of totally different roles so how can they combine the two? Once I was in the room he asked me to sign on the check-in form. But I realised I was checked into a deluxe room while I had booked an executive room. So I told him but he knew nothing & insisted that it was the correct room assigned to me. I refused to sign on the slip & with no choice he called the front desk & passed the phone to me (this is what I meant.. he didn't have a clue of what's going on & I don't blame him.. his job was just to get my signature on the form). I told the guy what's the problem & only then he explained that the hotel had upgraded me to the next category which was the city-view deluxe room on Club floor. But I told him I preferred space & view other than the club facilities as I don't utilise them (tested & proven many times). The guy must have thought that I'm weird but he agreed to give me back an executive room. Then we waited in the room for the key to be delivered in awkward silence. Well I wasn't impressed at all with this type of service if different was what they were trying to be.
Another thing that truly turned me off was the pillow cases. Every single piece was stunk with a very strong damp smell. I asked for 2 more pillows & it's the same... so were the entire days of our stay.
Then there's always this funny knocking sound on the glass window that I heard every few minutes. Initially I thought there're workers washing the window but nope, no one out there. It's kinda irritating.
Take a look at the picture below.
Can you tell what's amiss?
Yes! There's no shower door. Initially I thought the sliding door was broken when I saw this in the deluxe room I was first escorted to. But seemed like it's the same in every room. Frankly I did find it quite refreshing to be showering in an open space.. but if this is really what they want the guest to feel, they should have taken good consideration of the layout for the guests' safety. After each shower, the toilet bowl & flooring surrounding would be all wet. There's once I nearly slipped when I was about to do my business. The bathroom is very spacious so why did they put the bowl so near to the shower area?
Oh yes, there's something quite interesting that I've observed. I think the hotel only hires young staff to portray a young & vibrant image. At the main entrance, there're quite a few guest relations officers to welcome arriving guests and all the male GROs wore big crystal/diamand ear-studs. Hmm.. is that somewhat a part of their uniform or it just happened that they've become buddies?
On the other hand...
I'm so into this beautiful night view of Twin Towers & KLCC Park. That's the reason I chose this hotel.
Also like the contemporary & hip image of the hotel though the lobby & reception is a tad too small. The business centre is nice & unique too. What we've missed was the Skybar on Level 33.. heard it's chic.
Had dinner with Jose on the day of my arrival which happened to be his birthday. I wanted to get him a gift & my sweet hubby was so supportive in helping me to search for one on the Fri evening before my trip. But without any clue, it's tough. So I decided to get him a nice cake instead. Ordered one from the hotel's coffeehouse & planned to enjoy it together over drinks after dinner. We went to the hotel's Gobo Upstairs Lounge & Grill (there're only 2 restaurants in the hotel) and it's a nice one. Like the metropolitan atmosphere (I always do ;>). And it turned out to be very funny as after dinner, a few staff sang birthday song aloud while bringing the cake to us. Oh man I should have guessed it would happen this way. Honestly I was kinda embarrassed and so was Jose, being a cool guy. First he's shock (me too!), then he went "f***...". What tickled me even more was the one who sang the loudest & handed the cake to our dear friend was a very feminine waiter with a very entertaining voice. Thereafter we moved over to the restaurant's lounge for a drink, continued with our catching up in front of the dazzling Twin Towers. Cool! Dear friend, thanks for spending your birthday with me :)
Nice park view from our room.
The Twin Towers & big fountain in the day. A lil blur because of the (dirty) window. The building on the left was Mandarin Oriental & I missed my stays there whenever we walked to Suria KLCC. Traders not too far away though - a all sheltered 10 to 15 mins walk.
Alternatively, the guests can take the hotel's buggy to KLCC via the park. It's nice. But most of the time we still walked due to various reasons - the buggy just left / there's already a waiting group / during non-operating hours.
Enjoying the buggy ride.
Hubby dearest did all the packing
One last pic before checking out
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