25th entry - Holiday in Kuala Lumpur

S and I just returned from an enjoyable short holiday in Kuala Lumpur. I think our relationship grew even stronger after the trip, as I got to know S even better. Having stayed in KL for a while and being more familiar with the place than I was, S was naturally an excellent guide. S's dedication and tender loving care on our trip made me feel very pampered and blessed, and my love for S grew deeper than ever before. For me, apart from all the fun and pleasure we shared together, acquiring a greater understanding of S and an assurance in my mind that I made the right choice of a lover/partner made this trip a huge success.

We left for KL by coach on Sunday morning, wearing matching "lovers' apparel", after eating a hurried breakfast at S's place where I spent the night. There was a slight drizzle, yet not only did it fail to dampen our mood, I felt that it enhanced the atmosphere of romance. I waited in the shade while S went to confirm the seat number and collect our complimentary bottles of mineral water before boarding the bus. I was excited throughout the bus journey, and kept wanting to cuddle up to S, and I was pleasantly surprised that my amorous overtures were not rejected outright (for S disliked public shows of affection). Along the way, we chatted happily, snacked on pastries that S bought the night before, and occasionally dozed off.

Arriving at about 2pm at Puduraya (the largest bus/coach interchange in KL), we walked to our hotel, the Bintang Warisan, about 20 minutes away. The weather was hot and the sun was burning on our skin, but I was in good spirits as our tour had just only begun. S showed me some of the prominent landmarks along the way and before long, we found our hotel. It was lodged in the hustle and bustle of Bukit Bintang, amongst dodgy massage parlours and Arabic restaurants and boutiques. The hotel appeared to be poorly maintained, and there were no guest facilities. However, we were very happy with a free upgrade of our room from a standard to a family room.

After a shower, we decided to rest a while in the room, but we ended up making love... our unplanned intimate moment could be attributed to the fact that our emotions were running high, having newly arrived in a foreign country quite smoothly and being quite satisfied with the way things had been going so nicely for us. Our satisfying afternoon ended around 5pm, following which we headed to Sungei Wang for some shopping. S and I found a nice shop selling cute stuff like teddy bears and S bought a pack of glow-in-the-dark heart-shaped ornaments. We also went to Watson's where we managed to buy some of our favourite toiletries at a good discount.

Next, we proceeded to the bus interchange at Puduraya to book our return coach tickets. It was a mad house packed with all sorts of people: various ticketing agents who were jostling with each other for business and shouting out the names of various destinations at the top of their voices; glass-eyed bus passengers waiting listlessly for their buses to arrive, some looking glassy-eyed and others appearing to be frustrated; hawkers who were selling all sorts of ware that nobody seemed to be interested in...I was glad when S managed to secure our coach tickets and we quickly zipped out of the place.

In the evening, S and I ventured towards Chinatown.

My impression of the KL Chinatown was that it was more haphazard and dirty than the one in Singapore, but the overall atmosphere and decor felt less contrived. S brought me to this corner al-fresco eatery that served Portuguese-style barbeque food and we ordered fish and chicken with different spicy chili sauces (S loves chili). Although we sat at a grimy back-lane and hygiene conditions were terrible, the tasty food at a real bargain price was more than enough to make up for this shortcoming. Then, we went to buy cool longan teas from another stall and begun our exploration of the market - a haven for bargain hunters. We bought some food souvenirs and a tee-shirt (which S picked out specially for me). There were quite a few hawkers selling pirated and uncensored movie discs (CDs and DVDs) and I was surprised at how openly and blatantly they were going about their illegal activities. S tried to haggle a good price for some clothes that S liked but did not succeed. Before returning to the hotel, we also bought some yoghurt drinks and a delicious Thai seaweed snack from Bintang Walk, where we saw many al-fresco dining areas that even have shisha (Turkish water pipe). We were exhausted after the first day's adventures, and fell asleep at the hotel soon after we had our shower.

The next morning, we had our first breakfast at the hotel's cafe - a simple fare of nasi lemak, which consisted of sambal/assam chicken and coconut rice accompanied by fried anchovies and chili sambal, garnished with half of a boiled egg and some cucumber slices. It was served with a glass of orange juice and tea/coffee. S needed to return to S's college, the Hanxing Academy of Journalism in Cheras to collect the computerised Results Slip, which was required by S's employer. The college was located some 15 minutes' drive away from the city centre, and when we arrived I was surprised at how small it was. It was practically a shophouse with makeshift classrooms, and the principal's office was also the meeting room cum staff rest area. However, I was fascinated by the quaint little school, as it was after all the institution that S studied in several years ago. I couldnt help thinking that if S had not gone to this school, somehow we might not have had a chance to meet and even if we did, we might not have become a couple. We chatted for a while with the school administrator, "Uncle Wong", who exuded a genuine friendliness and warmth. He wore a tired expression on his weather-beaten face, and recounted in jest how S used to be "lazy".

We left the school just before noon and crossed the highway on a newly-built bridge to a mall. S and I watched The Omen after deciding that it was too early to have lunch. We bought a box of popcorn and a large cup of iced lemon tea, and walked into the nearly empty cinema. The movie was a little too sinister and dark for my taste, but it held a sweet memory for me because during the show I was shivering and S gave me a jacket to cover myself even though S was also shivering (the jacket was not big enough for both of us). Also, we adopted a cute teddy bear that sucks on a pacifier, which came as a free gift together with our popcorn purchase as part of an on-going sale promotion - we later named our bear Bobo. *Awwww*...so cuuuute...hehehe ;-)

After the movie, we went to A & W's fast food restaurant for some fried chicken, root beer and a waffle with ice-cream. From the restaurant, we caught a bird's eye view of the street where S used to buy the famous luk luk steamboat that S had been telling me about. There, S explained to me why Uncle Wong said that S was "lazy" - my poor sweetheart had been working several part-time jobs while studying at the college, including giving tuition, working at a retail outlet at the Mines etc. S also shared with me some very personal "secrets", including those concerning S's mother, which had never been shared with anyone before - not even S's Ex-es. Besides feeling a deep sense of honour, I also felt closer to S than ever before. We took the first few photos of us together as a couple after the hearty meal, and then left the mall. We crossed the street to buy a few sticks of kang-kong, fish-balls, jelly-fish, fish-cake wrapped in beancurd-skin, etc before heading back to the hotel.

Our second evening in KL was spent at Berjaya Times Square. Unfortunately, the shops were closing by the time we got there. It was a huge mall with an indoor theme park and S was keen to try it out, so we decided to come back to the park when we visited KL on our next trip. We made some pricing enquiries at a trendy KTV outlet in the mall before walking towards Melia KL, where we had originally planned to stay at on this trip. We discovered that the hotel appeared to be quite well-furnished and luxurious, and discussed whether to return to it on our next trip. Our day's activities ended with a nice dinner at Alor Food Alley (just behind our hotel) where we shared some barbequed stingray prepared with lots of chili, a few sticks of chicken satay and a bowl of iced jelly.


Breakfast was the same nasi lemak the next day, and we went back to the hotel to pack afterwards. We returned to Sungei Wang where S got a haircut that was not too satisfactory. S also bought a pair of shoes at a Bata shoes shop. After shopping we headed back to the hotel to check out and then enjoyed a nice piece of Chocolate Indulgence and a Brownie at a Secret Recipe outlet near our hotel, and we took more photos there. Following our lunch cum high tea, we headed straight for Puduraya to board our bus. Upon getting our bus number at the ticket booth, we went down to the platform to board the bus. Little did we know that our agent made a mistake and we ended up having to wait 45 minutes for another bus. S was furious with the agent over their blunder and vowed never to book any more tickets with that company again.
The return journey was uneventful and we reached Singapore at around 10pm on Wednesday.

The most memorable part of the trip for me was S's undivided attention to me during the whole time we were together. S was very thoughtful, considerate, loving and sweet - and made me feel on top of the world! We are planning another trip to KL again in Sep and/or Dec this year, and by God's grace it would be another beautiful one.