KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

KUALA Lumpur, Malaysia

Where we stayed: Mandarin Oriental

When we got to Kuala Lumpur, we didn’t have high hopes. We had just got in from Ho Chi Minh City and it wasn’t an amazing time. We’ve had never been here or knew much about it, but we were extremely surprised and had an awesome time. We stayed at the Mandarin Oriental, an absolutely fantastic hotel, it was in a great location. It overlooked KLCC park and was right next to the Petronas Twin Towers.

The Petronas Shopping Center is at the base, an incredible, massive mall with tons to do and see. We found this one science center called the Petrosains, The Discovery Centre. This place was so much fun, we went twice during our two-day trip. The Discovery Centre is in the mall and by the outward appearance, we were underwhelmed. It was a gift shop with the ticket booth, but we had time so we decided to give it a go. They told us it was roughly going to be 3-4 hours long and we kind of laughed. Even Science World doesn’t take that long and it’s its own building. What happened in the next 3-4 hours may have been the most fun we’d had our whole trip. It was super fun, an interactive science center with tons of mini-games and fun things to look at. We thoroughly enjoyed it, we goofed off and played all the games and then the next day we went back. We highly recommend checking it out if you have some time to kill.

We visited during Ramadan so most restaurants were empty and some were closed. Ramadan was an awesome time to visit, not because it was empty, but you got to hear the bells ring and the city come to life at sundown. It was a surreal experience, and it was awesome to witness, but I felt guilty when eating at a restaurant during the day.

The pool at the Mandarin is incredible, it’s an infinity pool that overlooks the park, and it’s massive. We had a lot of fun hanging out by the pool for the afternoon.

It was also on this trip that we discovered Nobu. Nobu is an incredibly high-end Japanese restaurant chain. Marika noticed the sign on our walk back to the hotel and we decided to give it a try, Nobu is everywhere. Before that night, Marika almost never ate seafood, so it was quite the step to go to Nobu where the menu is mostly seafood. It was also this trip that we found out Nobu has a dress code— great excuse to buy new clothes. For dinner, we asked the waitress what were the chef recommendations, we wanted the full experience but we are not familiar at all with the type of food or the style. The menu consists of share plates, about 4-6 dishes between the two of us. We had the Black Cod Miso, a signature Nobu dish, and we’ve been obsessed ever since. Every Nobu we go to, that is a dish we MUST have. The Cod, cooked perfectly and extremely flavorful. The food here blew us away and we knew that we had to try other Nobu restaurants if we get the chance.

We had an awesome time at Kuala Lumpur, it really blew our expectations. The people were so friendly and the city was so clean. It was a very different experience compared to Ho Chi Minh City. We would definitely visit again for longer if we had a chance to be in that area.