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Captains Log Day 10 – 03/01/17 6:17pm. AirAsia X Flight D7212.
The descent from the island paradise to the hustle and bustling KL was not ideal, the leg of the journey coming with delays, missing passengers, dramatic overhead announcements of the pilot requesting patience, as the crew unloaded all the suitcases in search for one.
The one hour journey into town had the Captain and Admiral fascinated by the size of the city, on the horizon they could see the shimmering lights of the Petronas Twin Towers.
The Captain’s plan to re-enact the movie Entrapment was finally coming to fruition, the only thing missing was the diamonds and Catherine Zeta Jones. The diamonds we could live without.
Hotel drama once again from Expedia had us upgraded to a Large apartment located in Time Square (Yep still in KL). Time Square is a GIANT shopping mall, spread across multiple towers. The complex includes hundreds of shops, consisting of local and international brands, a hotel, spa, pool, apartments, oh and a multi-level theme park with a roller coaster. Not only is this mall a one-stop-shop, it also is situated in the heart of KL. The apartment and views did not disappoint, however due to the lost time that came with the delays, it was late, dinner was going to be a gourmet selection of foods from the local 7/11.
The Captain’s favorite day of the year was finally upon us – New Year’s Eve. The day, began with a quick visit to the famous shopping strip of petaling street, followed by roaming around central market for some gifts and souvenirs. Here once again we tried to exchange our Myanmar money, only to get a third of what we paid for it – Tip for travelers, convert your Myanmar money before you leave the country, it is worthless everywhere else in the world. A few haggle battles later it was time to meet Comrade Kris for some lunch. The Comrade had chosen a place where they had 14 different types of mojitos, we were not complaining. It was a pretty cool place, finally the Captain and Admiral, got a chance to catch up with Kris and his new-found friend. The mojitos were an added bonus. We were briefed on some NYE plans and soon after, bid our friends goodbye and headed to Batu caves. Looks like it’s time for another Wiki break – Batu Caves is a limestone hill that has a series of caves and cave temples in Gombak, Selangor, Malaysia. The cave is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India, and is dedicated to Lord Murugan. Thanks, Wikipedia, here is the Captain’s description of the caves – Steps. Lots of Steps. Monkeys. Rocks hanging from the roof. Roof leaking. Pretty cool non-the less.
Departing Batu caves the NYE celebrations were approaching. With the Captain’s facial hair looking massively untamed, we set off on a quick search for deforestation expert (barber). Time was running out and every adequate beauty parlor we went to was either inadequate to handle the responsibility or booked out. Running out of time, we accepted defeat, the Captain investing in his own razorblade and returning to the apartment, hands full of water bottles and bread to line the stomach for the night to come.
Preparation for the night began with the commencement of grooming ceremonies. Everything was going smoothly until the Admiral burnt the bedsheets whilst ironing the Captain’s shirt. This resulted in a volcano moment and all plans being put on hold until the drama resolved. Luckily it was only a matter of 10 minutes as tensions diluted to acceptable levels.
We left the apartment and headed to the infamous pub crawl meeting point. The captain was already sweating as the mercury was hovering around 28 degrees with 90% humidity at 8pm at night. We walked to the Pub and signed up to the crawl, there was over 100 people in line to join up, after we signed up we headed to the bar, here the line was too long to continue, the heat was driving the Captain loco. Breaking our tradition of NYE with a pub-crawl we decided to leave, we handed back our vouchers and got our refund. Calls from Motherland coming in – the clock had hit 12 am in Aus and 2017 had begun!
Coincidentally at that point Comrade Kris pulled through and flicked across a message – He said he was at a house party and it was fine for both the Admiral and Captain to come! Feeling rude coming without any gifts of the sea, we visited a local bottle shop and picked up the only vodka they had, the pirates were ready.
En route to the apartment the Admiral and Captain were shocked at the location they were in, the beautiful Petronas towers were in plain sight from the compound. We arrived at the apartment, firstly to be interrogated by the security detail and then to be escorted by the host who had come down to get us upstairs. We made it upstairs and upon entrance both the Captain and Admiral were taken aback by the size and the interior of the apartment – it was simply stunning. We strolled around to see the magnificence of the artwork and the thought gone into furnishing the place. We then walked over to the balcony and were flabbergasted at the view. Simply stunning. We could see the Petronas clear as day. The host came around and said “best seats in the house” and they were. We introduced ourselves to all the partygoers. The host introduced us to his partner, whose father owned the apartment, here we found out she was the daughter of the owner of a very prominent university in Malaysia and she worked with Comrade Kris’ friend. It explained a lot about where we had landed and the sheer lavishness of the party we were at. She joined us in the lounge room 45 minutes later looking absolutely smashing.
A tequila shot and soon we were sipping Vodka with Gold flakes in laced cinnamon cups. We slowly settled in, the booze was getting rid of any inhibitions. We got to know more and more people, the host himself was an event manager he did events such as “it’s the ship” boat party and other events, soon other people joined including a friend of a middle eastern royal family. The night got more interesting, Kris pulled out his potent punch and conversation changed to a game of Kings cup, one of the partygoers fell out of his chair for the third time. Intoxication had begun to peak as the call was made to come outside to the balcony for the fireworks. Kris, the host Avi and the Captain having one last shot of 2016 as they stumbled to the balcony
What happened next was some of the best set of fireworks the Captain has ever seen, he has ventured to Times square in New York for NYE, seen the Sydney fireworks, but the KL display was just out of this world. #nowords. Overwhelming feelings came over the Captain as he held the Admiral close to him as 2017 peaked over the horizon. At that point everything was perfect.
There were salutations all round as we went inside and continued the celebrations. Not knowing that it was already approaching 3 am, we all ushered out bidding the fantastic hosts goodbye and exchanging Facebook details. Getting home is a blur to both the Admiral and Captain, although they do remember sitting on the burnt bedsheets and eating pistachios and debriefing on the night’s activities. 2017 was in and once again it topped the last year’s celebrations.
New Year’s Day began with a shock, we both looked at the time and it was 3:30 PM – the Captain and Admiral quickly leaving the apartment and grabbing some cheeky Nando’s at the Time Square Complex. Poor service resulted in a complaint lodged. We followed this up with a quick visit to the oldest temple in KL, the Sri Mahamariamman temple, to repent our sins from the previous night. Hungover as hell we started our shopping adventures, first up was petaling street again, followed by Central market (again), followed by Times Square. 5 hours later, hands full of bags and hungover we had to call it quits as shops put up their shutters.
Since the Captain had kept his promise to take the Admiral Shopping it was time to cash in on his reward. Whiskey. We headed to Jalan Alor – the Famous eating street that’s open till 1am for dinner. Here we walked about and decided that before dinner we needed some drinks in our systems. Heading to the street where we heard the most music pumping we ended up on Chunkit Bukit Bantang – a Street full of bars. Walking up and down being approached about shisha, free drinks for ladies and 2-4-1 cocktails we got to a very up market Whiskey Bar. The Captain was in heaven, ordering a tasting platter of 8 whiskeys, he acted like a connoisseur when really he had no idea what was going on! Tasting, smelling and almost chundering on some expensive whisky. Finishing up and pretty drunk we headed for the next bar, here the Admiral got 2 for 1 cocktails and the captain had a beer. Smashed we walked looking for food. We found heaven when we found Al-Halabi, an Afghan restaurant where we had Shisha and the BEST BEST Baba-Gonush ever. I cannot recommend this place enough in fact here is the url (https://www.zomato.com/kuala-lumpur/al-halabi-gourmet-bukit-bintang/info) Full and pretty intoxicated we looked at our watches to reveal that it was 3 am – we rushed home. Our flight to Legoland was tomorrow at 8am. We had made a huge mistake.
Flight at 8am we woke up at 5:30am – still drunk and feeling like death we ate the fruit we bought in our drunk adventures the previous night, got ready and headed for the airport. Today the Captain and Admiral were off to Johor Bharu – a city 400KM away from KL. Boarding our flight, we instantly passed out. After a nap and an uber ride we arrived at Lego Land. The captain was so excited he forgot his hangover and started jumping around. Our stars had aligned as the park was… empty. No Waits for any rides. The next few hours were epic, as every ride was ridden. Even as the Captain’s thongs broke, it did not hinder him rushing to every ride. The 0 lines continued as we went to the water park sitting on every water ride that they had, without any wait. Exhausted and satisfied, we decided to finally eat something, just as we sat in an eatery that was on the opposite end to the exit some Torrential rain started to pour down. We ate our pasta and pizza hoping the rain would stop, that unfortunately did not happen. We made a mad dash for the entrance, the Admiral was pleading to get a poncho, however with the inflated prices, the Captain was not going to fork out $10 for a piece of plastic. Drenched and almost drowned we completed our overpriced Lego shopping and departed Legoland. First we went to a place we had been hearing a lot about, the JB Premium factory outlet, this proved to be a fail as everything was branded and overpriced compared to home. We then took an uber to a local mall where we were more successful in buying random gifts. Finishing up and heading out to the rain that had not stopped, we called an uber and it cancelled, once again and again after 3 ubers we hit the road looking for a taxi, with no success and the stress of missing our flight kicking in, we walked down the road and in the rain, finally an uber picked us up. Soon for some reason we were exchanging details with our driver and he was to visit me in Melbourne.
Boarding our flight back to KL, we were exhausted and planning how to maximise our last few hours before heading home, we decided upon landing with all our gear we will hit up Petaling street again and do a mad dash shopping. What proceeded was an hour of ‘SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY’. Hands full of bags and the clock hitting 12am we dumped our shopping, half packed our bags and headed to Jalan Alor for some late-night foodies before flying back to Aus. Once again the temptation of our previous night’s dinner at Halibi got the better of us and once again we found ourselves munching down on what I deem the world’s best Baba Gonush. Looking at the time – it was 3 am again. We needed to pack and sleep, our flight back to Aus was 10am the next morning.
Up at 5:30, our last 48 hours consisted of only 5 hours sleep, we bid our epic apartment goodbye and rushed to the airport where we met Comrade Kris, he was on the same flight back home. We enjoyed some coffee, followed by breakfast and Dutyfree shopping. The Captain at this point was stressing that the flight will be missed, However Comrade Kris was calm and collected as we strolled towards the gate. Last to board the flight we made it. It was not long until the admiral passed out, only to wake up an hour before descent.
Our Last adventure for 2016 and first few hours in 2017 had come to an end, we departed KL with a head full of memories, a book full of stories, body full of bruises and a backlog of unaccomplished sleep. It was time for the Captain and Admiral to dock and gear up for the next Adventure that will be 2017.
#captainout
