Asia Mega Tour 2026 - Days Thirty Nine and Forty - A Little Lagniappe From Malaysia

On Monday, we relaxed, packed, had our last (or thought it was our last) Malaysian meal and began preparing ourselves for the long trip home. Today, we used the same service to take us back to Kuala Lumpur. They upgraded our vehicle because they had one in JB for a delivery. It was really nice with captain's chairs that reclined. Very de-I worthy 🤣. This driver drove even faster than the one taking us down. He cut 45 minutes off of the time it took to get to JB. I guess if you fail to make it on the professional auto racing circuit, you get a job with this limo company. 

We are staying again at our 'happy transit place' at the Kuala Lumpur airport, the Sama Sama Hotel. We have a very early (7:15am) departure so we wanted to eat on the early side so we could go to sleep early. We debated eating at the hotel. But it is quite expensive, at least by Malaysian standards, and is a bit pretentious compared to what we've been eating. So we decided to go to the airport itself which is a quick 5 minute golf cart ride from the hotel. There are a myriad of food options (around 20) on the land side part of the terminal. 

Wife declared she had a craving for Chicken Curry Rice one more time. So began the search. The food options are on three different floors and we checked them out...as in checking out each and every one. We found a multitude of chicken curry with noodle options, but no Chicken Curry Rice. We arrived at the very last eating place option, 

 

 A very traditional Malaysian 'diner' type of place as we'd been enjoying during our time in JB. Sure enough, on the menu was Chicken Curry Rice

 

 Wife was so happy. What a lovely little lagniappe for Malaysia to give to her.

Honestly, as much as I wanted to have another Curry Laksa or Curry Mie, my system is suffering from over eating. So I opted for something I wanted to try but hadn't ordered yet, Rojak

 

 This is basically a fruit, vegetable salad in a very thick dressing that was sweet with a chile spicy kick. It took me a while to adjust to the temperature (cold), texture (very crunchy), and flavor but ultimately, it really hit the spot for my over indulged system. I also had a last cup of great, black, Malaysian coffee

Wife then proclaimed that she wished she had ordered one of the places 'famous' egg tarts. 

 

 Which even have their own special section

 

 We ended up ordering a couple to take to our hotel room for later. 

All in all, it was a lovely, unexpected last meal for our trip and even though this was an airport restaurant, we spent no more than we'd been paying in JB (which was about 50 to 60% less than the hotel restaurant would have). We even had a nice kibitz with the buggy driver back about our meal and all we'd eaten and liked in Malaysia. 

And because you are THE MOST WONDERFUL BLOG FOLLOWERS, I offer you one last...

SIGNS OF THE WORLD

During our restaurant search, we walked past the airport police and overheard a lecture being given. Not to the police, BUT TO SOME WOULD BE CRIMINALS!

 

 Evidently these would be criminals are rather inept compared to the professional gangs of China and it has become an embarrassment.

Asia Mega Tour 2026 - Day Thirty One - Get Thee Back To Asia For Real! Transitioning Again

Not much to write about today. Yesterday was just a travel day. We packed up, cleaned up the Airbnb per instructions, and were whisked the 3 hours back north to Perth International Airport. By Pooh Lee Shah Carriage Services. They promise the smoothest most stress free ride and delivered in spades. (😱)

 Check is was a bit bizarre as at the Malaysia Airlines Business Class check-in there was a family checking in with about a dozen people. And there was just one check-in agent. Finally, the ground staff saw the problem and whisked us to another area to get quickly checked-in. 

Our flight departed and arrived early. It was just a narrow body plane so the seats, even in business class, were not great. Malaysia Airlines catering, however, was again, very good. 

When we arrived, we used the automated passport control which defeated us last time. This time we were successful. Our bags were already out. It was our fastest arrival through KLIA ever. Once at the Sama Sama hotel, we found we were again in the executive floor. Not sure why this happening. Have we become recognized as frequent guests?

Today, we drive 3 hours to Johor Bahru for the last part of our stay. 

Around The World In 72 Days - Continental Transitioning

We are almost done with Asia. We are well past the half-way mark of our trip. Our time in Thailand has come to an end. We are on our way to Africa, to Ghana. I will be introducing Wife to all the people and things I've been doing these past five-years. And we will both be doing some touring which not even I have done. 

It is a good long way from Thailand to Ghana. BUT in line with our focus on traveling slower so as to not kill ourselves, I have broken up the journey. Much like when we flew from Shanghai to Krabi, it was easier on the body and less expensive to go through Kuala Lumpur and change airlines. Again we're staying at the Sama Sama hotel in the airport which I will reiterate is just about the quietest hotel I have ever stayed it which is why I use it again and again for my Asian transfers. It has a very good restaurant that is not badly priced for an airport hotel. Plus it has these neat touches. For example...

Disoriented from your flight? Not sure what direction Mecca is in for your daily prayers?

A nice indicator on your room ceiling is a lovely thought.

Today, we had to get up early because our flight left at 8am (It was changed. It was originally at 1:30pm. We over estimated how much time we needed so we sat in the airport (which is quite small) for a long time. Though (shockingly) we had a nice Western style breakfast sandwich made with real eggs) at the airport. Arriving at KLIA Terminal 2, it was the usual extra long schlepp to get to passport control. We had to kill time in the airport before we could go to the hotel and check in. 

Tomorrow, will be a long travel day. As I mentioned in my last post concerning getting through KLIA, you have to leave a lot of time. Our flight leaves just before 9am. It's an almost 11 hour flight. Rather than fly right on to Accra, we took advantage of a flight option that gave allowed us a full day in Istanbul between flights. So we'll do a day enjoying this city which is one of our favorites. Then on Wednesday we'll complete the journey to Ghana.

Asia Mega Tour II - Kuala Lampur

When we did Asia Mega Tour I last year, our last stop was in Malaysia. It was a very short stop over compared to other countries we'd visited. After all those other places, we were taken by Malaysia as a place that we thought we'd like to go back to. Hence our decision to come again this trip.

Our first stop was the capital city of Kuala Lampur. We'd heard mixed things. Some said it was a great city and they loved it. Others said it was 'just a big city' and compared to other places they weren't so crazy about it. We'd met a KL guy (that's what people in the country and elsewhere in Southeast Asia call it) during a tour we took in Kyoto. We asked him what to do in KL He shrugged his shoulders and said 'eat and shop'.

We were in KL for two full days and loved it. We have met up with the #2 family (Venerable Pu-Lee-Shah, Tiger Daughter) and her family. They made us reservations at a really nice hotel, the Traders, and we enjoyed the locale as you will see in the pictures. We took a half day tour of the town and were convinced we could have spent two or three days there by ourselves taking all kinds of pictures. And we enjoyed the food too.

Compared to anywhere else we've been in Southeast Asia, the driving in KL is very civilized and sedate. Malaysia also has a very positive vibe and upbeat attitude compared lets say with Bali/Indonesia where folks were talking about things being very tough. The language is virtually the same as Indonesian so I've been able to take all the phrases I've learned and used them.

One Butt Ton Of KL Pictures

View of from our Hotel Room

We were offered an upgrade for 'view of the Petronas Towers for not a whole lot. Malaysia is crazily affordable...seriously.

The view from our hotel room

The view during a thunderstorm that took place late each afternoon

The view at night

The view of the great park with all kinds of playgrounds and water areas for kids just next to our hotel

View of the Towers from the Park

View of grandchild 2.3 looking at View of the Towers

View of a sign telling you of where you can take a picture of a View of the Towers

View of a sculpture and grandchild 2.4 in the park

View of #2/Venerable Pu

View of our hotel from the park

Pictures from out tour around town

The Palace of the King

Very stunning

And - totally amazingly enough - under repair

The War Memorial which commemorates sacrifices for WWI, WWII, and the War for Independence

The official seal of the country

The official flower, the hybiscus

The official slightly narcotic substance - the betel nut

(not really)

We were told it has fallen out of favor with most Malaysians

The unofficial garden by the War Memorial

Scenes from India town

There are substantial populations of Chinese origin and South Indian origin (Tamil) in Malaysia

The sound of Little India

The largest Chinese Temple in KL

The Theon Hou Temple

Because I know...I KNOW...you are missing temple pictures so

Gastronomic Interlude

We have had so many of our most enjoyable meals eating at international market food courts

Here in KL we had another success at the Central Market, one of the city's oldest

The two places we went to

Wife had spicy fried chicken with rice

As so often is the case, the translation into English was not quite right for it wasn't the chicken that was spicy, it was the rice.

It was not uncommon for us to find meals with just a little bit of protein. On the other hand they were costing around $2-4

I hand laksa, a noodle soup in a rich curry broth.

It was vegetarian and was wonderful

The City Gallery

This is a private place, promoted by a company that produces miniatures

It featured a complete, to scale map of the city with a sound/light show to match.

It was very cool

Overview of the map

The finale!

A de-Intimidator Exclusive!

Rare pictures of a almost 12 year old girl smiling

Granddaughter 2.2

And last but not least

SIGNS OF THE WORLD

If you can't figure out what this means from the five languages that it is given in there are the menacing red arrows to help you.