Week 6 – Sunday 18th January – Saturday 24th January 2026

So that’s Malaysia done… We absolutely loved it, spending our Christmas and New Year in Kuala Lumpur. The people were lovely, they work really hard. They make a fantastic effort at everything they do. The only thing we noticed was that the food is not the healthiest in Asia. Largely made up of fried chicken and rice. Sure, there are other great dishes, but it is all fried. What we did discover is that life expectancy is 10 years less than the uk average due to heart related diseases. We are off now and on our way to Vietnam. Another fabulous, and totally different place. Here we go…

Sunday 18th January

We are up early today to finish our packing and leave for the airport for a midday flight. We are sad to leave our lovely apartment that has been home for nearly a month; we will really miss our fabulous view of the city of Kuala Lumpur.

The flight passes quite quickly, and we are soon landing in Danang, about 1000 miles north of KL. The queue for immigration is huge, or rather, there are 6 huge queues of hundreds of people. We get through after about 25 minutes and onto the baggage claim, but the belt is full, as everyone is still in the immigration queue and not picking up their bags.

We got through early because an immigration officer told us to go through the queue for Vietnamese citizens.

Eventually, we get out, and the driver, who our hotel in Hoi An has laid on, is waiting. It’s about an hour’s drive to the hotel. It has only been 9 months since we were last here, and nothing much has changed. Soon, we are checking in. This is our 4th time in this hotel, and it does seem like home.

We unpack and discuss “logistics” for the upcoming days. Del will be leaving in 4 days to go to Portugal to work, while H is staying here in Hoi An. 

Once unpacked, we set off for a drink on the beach. It’s such a contrast from Kuala Lumpur. Gone is the constant hum of traffic and mass air conditioning, to be replaced by the sound of crashing waves of the East Vietnam/ South China Sea, lovely.

We set off for a wander around our local beach village. Not much has changed here either. We have dinner in one of our favourite places, it’s a small restaurant run by a family. Their children are the waiters and are very good at it, too. They do the best cocktail in the world here, it’s called Pho’s Cocktail and is the “taste of Vietnam in a glass“, it has cinnamon, cardamom and star anise in it. We have a delicious dinner of lemongrass chicken and banh mi.

We end the night early as we are up early to catch the bus to Hue tomorrow at 8:45. It’s great to be back in Vietnam 

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Monday 19th January

We have an early breakfast by the pool at the hotel; it’s all very calm and peaceful here.

We are booked on a luxury bus to Hue at 8:45, so we pack a small rucksack each for the overnight stay. We get a cab to the rather ‘rustic’ looking travel agent. Del is being his usual doubting self about H’s travel arrangements and is saying, “It won’t be a luxury bus, not here. This is Vietnam!” He’s imagining the type of bus you sometimes see on ‘race across the world’, with wooden seats and chickens running up and down the aisle. H just ignores his moaning.

The bus arrives, and it is indeed luxurious. Private leather lie flat bed/seats each with blankets, AC, TV, wireless charging and mood lighting. We get a bunk in the top and opposite each other. Del is beaming ear to ear. Not bad for £8 for the 3-hour journey to Hue. Del has been on touring buses in the UK and Europe, and this bus just beats them hands down.

After a few stops to pick up more people and to get fuel, we arrive in Hue three and a half hours later.

It’s feels quite quick, though, and we’ve enjoyed the journey, which takes us past some interesting scenery. 

We make a beeline first for the imperial city, and after some complications of us not having enough cash and them not taking a card, we finally get a ticket online. A lot of places here only take cash, yet bizarrely the entrepreneurial beach ladies who sell jewellery, bookmarks and such like have a mobile card reader to take card payments.

The imperial city is very large. Hue’s Imperial City, built by the Nguyen Dynasty starting in 1804, was Vietnam’s imperial capital for over a century (1802-1945), serving as the political, cultural, and religious heart, inspired by Beijing’s Forbidden City but with unique Vietnamese elements. It’s absolutely vast. We spend a couple of hours walking around the old, but ornate buildings and the palace itself.

We are not sure what’s going on, but groups of girls are dressed in national dress and are having their photos taken. It’s a big deal as they come with wardrobe and makeup, and spend a long time getting ready for the photos.

We are staying at a hotel in town called Hotel Elegant. It’s lovely, very bright, clean and tidy and with a decent room. We booked last minute, and it was incredibly cheap at only £15 for the night…with breakfast! 

Hue is a very vibrant and very modern city, but it hasn’t lost its traditional charm and culture, which includes a busy local market. After a while, we decide to have a beer at a bar that is situated on a major junction. The bar is a normal setting here in Vietnam, of a lady selling drinks out of a cooler with a few miniature plastic chairs and tables (Vietnam loves the small plastic chair for restaurants and bars when outside. Space must be a premium).

We walk back toward the hotel and find that there’s a specialist beer place right next to our hotel. We try some tasty local craft beers; they even sell St. Bernardus here, which is from a tiny town in Belgium that we have visited in Jess many times and which is one of our favourite beers in the world.

Dinner tonight is in a local backstreet restaurant called Nina’s. We have a traditional Hue pancake to share. H has a Bun Bo Hue, a local noodle broth very famous in Vietnam. Del has clay pot chicken, which is delicious, and we finish it off by sharing a coconut tart. With water, the bill is a princely total of £8! Unbelievable.

The streets of Hue have come alive now that it’s dark. There are vibrant bars and lots of restaurants full of people, mainly youth in gangs, just eating, drinking and talking. It’s quite different here from how we imagined, but we do like it. 

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Tuesday 20th January

We have a very simple breakfast at the hotel and set out to try some local coffee in a nearby coffeehouse.

The coffee culture here in Vietnam is huge, and they do it very well. Salted coffee originated from here in Hue, so we both order an iced one. It is fabulous, strong black coffee with condensed milk at the bottom and a salted foam at the top.

H is not a fan of milk in coffee, but is blown away by this; it could become her favourite coffee in the world. We hop in a cab to go to the Thien Mu Pagoda, which is 7 story Buddhist temple built in 1601. The grounds are very tranquil and calming, and the buildings are impressive.

They also have a famous car here that appears in a very famous and troubling photograph. It is the car that drove Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức to his suicide by fire (self-immolation) in Saigon in 1963.

You can read all about him and the events that led up to that terrible day here.

The car can be seen in the background of the famous photograph. It’s rather sobering to see the car and imagine the horror of that day.

The monk was protesting about South Vietnam’s, Catholic-led, government’s persecution of Buddhists, and this was the start of a few similar protests. 

After spending about an hour here, we catch a boat back along the perfume river (named after all the blossom leaves that fall in it) to the centre.

We are the only ones on board, and they put 2 chairs out for us in what we think is normally their living room. It’s also a mobile shop, and of course, being Vietnamese, they don’t miss a chance to sell us some souvenirs, so we buy a couple of pretty pop-up cards.

Once at the station, we have a quick lunch opposite and board the train, which will take us to Da Nang (an hour’s drive from our Hoi An hotel).

The train will journey over the Hai Van Pass, which is famous for its mountain and sea views. Boarding the train involves walking along the tracks. Once inside, we find it spacious and comfy. Two women opposite us have bought a shrink-wrapped marinated whole fish and proceed to open it and eat it on the train; it’s rather pungent.

We make slow progress at about 35mph top speed and stop often to let trains pass, as most of the line is single track. There’s a carriage that sells food and drink and also has a local singer and musician entertaining people. Once on the Hai Van Pass, we slow down to about 12mph to climb up to over 100m above the South China Sea. The scenery is spectacular. 

We arrive back at Da Nang after about three and a half hours and hop in a cab back to our hotel. We have dinner next door at our favourite place, H has barbecued squid in lemongrass and chilli, and Del has a traditional bahn mi. 

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Wednesday 21st January

Today is Del’s last full day here before he flies off to Portugal. H will stay in Hoi An for another 6 days, then move on to Da Nang for 3 days, followed by a quick flight to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), where she will meet up with Del again a day later.

After a delicious breakfast, we go to the town of Hoi An. We have been here a few times before and love it. It’s a UNESCO heritage site with a well-preserved ancient town and is famous for its coloured lanterns.

Last time we were here, last April, the town was heaving with tourists, but it’s a lot quieter now and much more pleasant to walk around. We have a coffee in one of the ancient houses.

This whole town was flooded in October 2025, with a loss of 90 lives across the central Vietnam region. The coffee house has markers on the wall of the different floods over the years. It’s unimaginable to have to deal with that amount of water.

Lunch is a vegetarian bahn mi at a little stall in the backstreets, which is very tasty.

We take the 5 min cab ride back to our hotel as we plan to spend some time on the beach together, but the clouds are rolling in, and soon we have heavy rain! This lasts all afternoon. Del has a business call at 5 pm so after that we go down to the beach to see if we can get a drink. It’s all a bit blustery and deserted, so we head back to our restaurant next door to have their amazing Pho cocktail and some dinner. We have local prawn and pork herb rolls, Del has a barbecued fresh fish, and H has Cau Lau, which is a Hoi An speciality – the chewy dark noodles are supposed to be made with water from a local well, and therefore it can only be authentic if it’s from this area. 

For the last part of the night, we have a walk around and stumble on a bar where there are a few musicians jamming.

It’s a strange collection of people here, including a woman with a recorder who adds a few flat and unneeded notes every now and then. We have a glass of wine and enjoy the vibe for a while, and then head back. Del has packed his bag ready for his morning departure. 

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Thursday 22nd January

We breakfast together, and it’s all too soon that Del is off in a cab to Da Nang airport to catch the first of 4 flights to Portugal. He will fly to Saigon, Dubai, London and then to Lisbon for a regular job. He doesn’t want to go, and it’s a bit weird saying goodbye.

H is sad to see him go, but will be fine here as she knows the area well. It’s a bit cloudy today and breezy, so plans to go to the beach are off. H heads to the gym and then sets off for a back massage in a nearby spa. She follows this with a lovely lunch of grilled beef with lemongrass and a jasmine tea. Poor Del is now at Saigon airport waiting for his 7-hour flight to Dubai. 

H gets a cab and sets off to the town of Hoi An tonight. The evening is when it comes into its own. It’s famous for lanterns, and many of the shops and restaurants, especially those in the historic buildings, light lanterns. You can also take a boat (also with lanterns) and put a little floating candle lantern on the river for good luck.

When we first came here in 2018, there were hardly any boats, but now it is bonkers. It makes for a very pretty sight, though. She finds a restaurant on the river where she has ‘white rose’ (steamed Hoi An shrimp in rice paper) and a baked aubergine clay pot. It’s all very nice.

She walks around the night markets and gets a small coconut ice cream roll (they spread ice cream paper-thin, then roll it with a scraper). As she’s walking back through the pretty streets, she comes across a bar with two live acoustic guitarists who are very good at bashing out a tune or two.

She sits and has a glass of wine, listening to this in the balmy evening air. What a lovely night, such a shame Del isn’t here. 

Del’s day…

My cab to Da Nang airport gets me there with plenty of time to spare. Vietnam Airlines will take me for a 1-hour flight to Saigon, where I’ll pick up an Emirates flight to London via Dubai.

My domestic flight arrives at the domestic terminal in Saigon. Next, it’s a shortish bus ride to the International departures terminal via shuttle bus that takes you away from the airport before heading back and dropping you off at another terminal and leaving you there. Which was nice! Fortunately, it’s a short walk to the terminal and to check in.

I’ve got an Emirates partner lounge here in Saigon, so I get a small dish of chicken and rice with some fish. It’s ok, but the fish is a bit ‘iffy’. I leave the rest.

We are off to Dubai in an A350. It’s not bad. It’s their latest plane, and they are making a big noise about it. My plan is to stay awake for this leg and sleep for the Dubai / London leg. I have no choice. The part of the cabin I was in was chock full of noisy Russians, who, like some parents think it’s ok for their kids to run around and make as much noise as they like, because they are only children after all, and we all like them… Not!!

In Dubai, I get use the lounge again and have a shower there. I have a 4-hour layover here, so I make the most of it with something to eat and a glass of fizz. This next leg, I’d like to sleep. I arrive at Gatwick early in the morning, so it will be a good reset.

The Emirates 777 is much more comfortable and ‘solid’. It’s much quieter, and I get over 4 hours of sleep during the 7-hour flight. A couple of hours before landing, I wake up with horrendous stomach cramps, bad though, which soon turned into ‘regular‘ toilet visits! The crew are sympathetic, but I’m avoiding all liquids and solids. I think it was the rubbish fish back in Saigon… I will never know…

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Friday 23rd January

It’s cloudy and breezy in Hoi An again, so H won’t be going to the beach. She reads on the balcony and then goes to lunch next door for a bahn mi and a beer. Del has just landed in Gatwick. It’s 13:40 here, and he left yesterday at 9:30 in a cab. We built in some extra time for connecting domestic flights, a shower and a refresh at Dubai. He still has a flight from London to Portugal to get.  

Del’s day…

My stomach cramps are much less, but when they do come, it’s catastrophic. My next flight is a two-and-a-half-hour flight from Gatwick to Lisbon, Portugal. I’m keeping my fingers and legs crossed!

All good, all safe as I get a quick Uber to the hotel and get settled in. It has taken 36 hours door-to-door. Once settled in, I have a long bath and just relax for the rest of the day and night. The weather here is grim. Cold with heavy rain. In at 8am tomorrow…

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Saturday 24th January

Finally, at last it’s sunny in Hoi An after a few days of cloud and rain, so after visiting the gym, H sets off for the beach and rents a sunbed for the day. It’s a beautiful day, and the temperature here is very comfortable both day and night after our very hot and muggy weeks in Kuala Lumpur.

It’s an odd thing to see, but there’s a group of cows and bulls here sunbathing on the sand and looking very chilled and relaxed.

Sadly, after only an hour, a big grey cloud comes over, and it starts to rain. She tries to sit it out under her parasol, but it just gets heavier; even the cows are calling it a day and packing it up. H gives in and returns to the room.

Tonight she is heading back into Hoi An town to see the ‘Hoi An Memories’ show. We both saw this show last year and were very impressed by it. It is a cultural theme park built on a large island in the river.

It’s highly decorated with lights and traditional features and has temples, bridges, and an old Vietnamese village. But first, dinner…

There are a few pre-show scenes with dancers and actors displaying cultural stories from different times, which lead you through the park to the large auditorium.

It’s purpose-built with lots of special effects hidden in the ground and the mock-up buildings of the old town.

The show is recognised by Reuters as the ‘most beautiful show in the world’, has won world travel awards and is on the scale of an Olympic opening ceremony. It has 500 performers depicting 400 years of the city’s history. Even though we have seen it once, it’s definitely worth coming back again. 

Del’s day…

Having had 9 hours’ sleep, I have woken up feeling much better and ready to start the day. After a light breakfast, work starts at 8 am.

The day has gone well, and we are in a good position. I have also seen a couple of work friends that I’ve not seen in years, 10 plus years in fact, so I got off to a bit of a slow start, catching up on the gossip. Back at the hotel by 7 pm, in bed by 10. It’s freezing in Portugal; there was a flurry of snow early this morning. I did this same show at the same time last year, and the weather was completely different. It was warm and sunny every day. We wore T-shirts all day. That’s global warming for you.

To see many more pictures of our first week in Vietnam, have a look here

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Week 5 – Sunday 11th January – Saturday 17th January 2026

We have been away for 5 weeks, and now our stay in Kuala Lumpur is coming to an end. Our next stop is Vietnam, another regular stop for us in Asia. For most of last week, Hayley has had a difficult and stubborn cold, which required a trip to a doctor and some medication. She has been improving this week, but it’s still lingering. We are rushing around a bit now to tick off places to see and things to do.

Sunday 11th January

We have a quiet morning in, and H is feeling a little better today. It’s all go here again today. Last week, it was the world lion and dragon dancing championships. Today it’s the junior version, so more drum and cymbal banging! It’s also the finals of the cat show, festival thing.

We set out for a late lunch at our favourite place in town, the Capitol Cafe, after walking around Chinatown. It’s hot and humid and brewing for a storm. We get back home and just miss the rain and lightning.

Despite it being the end of the rainy season here, the weather has been pretty good for us with only the occasional rainstorm. They are prepared for it here and even have rental umbrellas at train stations. 

We are doing another escape room, a futuristic one, Eureka, and we get out in time, only using 2 of our 3 clues. We pick up some Japanese food on the way back to the flat. Not a bad day.

There is a video wall here in the street, which is flat, but curves around a building. Using light and shade in the content can make it look 3D. Here is H’s favourite video.

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Monday 12th January

Big day today. We are quite excited, we’ve booked an A320 simulator which is located at a small airport 30 minutes away. First, we have breakfast out. Traditional Malaysian breakfasts are usually a spicy chicken dish or kaya (a coconut spread) toast with eggs. Del has the Kaya toast, and H has the spicy chicken.

We make our way to the airport. We have a briefing before our simulation, which is in an airplane cabin mockup, and then move through to the cockpit. Del is on first. We will both do a take off, a landing and quick take off (touch and go) and then another landing.

The simulator is not a moving one, but as soon as we set off, the wrap-around screens make us feel like we’re moving.

Del goes through the many checklists of taxiing, pre-flight and take off, and soon we are rolling down the runway at 130 knots and lifting off. He flies between the small airport we are at and the main KL airport (KUL). Oh dear, Del’s first landing, it has to be said, is not going well as we bounce off the grass (‘pull up, pull up’) next to the airport. He quickly steers back to the runway and takes off again. After a quick fly past the Petronas Towers, he completes his second landing much more proficiently.

Next up, it’s H; she’s off. She brings it in ok and lands and takes off again. The instructor suggests that he throw some weather into the mix. Her next landing is in fog, and the runway isn’t seen until quite low.

This landing isn’t quite as slick as the first one, but it’s ok, despite the passenger’s coffee going all over the place. H decides that she wants to be a pilot, but maybe it’s too late now. 

It’s a great experience, and we have thoroughly enjoyed it. We have even more respect for pilots now. 

See the edited highlights here. It’s about 20 minutes long, but a good watch with a nice little gallery at the end.

We grab a cab back into the centre and visit the aquarium. We have only a few days left here and still many things to see. The aquarium is good, although a little crowded; we’re glad we didn’t go last week when it was even busier.

They have a good collection of fish and the best glass tunnel we have ever seen in an aquarium. 

We walk back to Bukit Bintang, where we catch our local monorail and go back home. Dinner tonight is a sushi delivery with a bottle of sake while we watch ‘Downfall, the case against Boeing’ now that we’re pilots and firmly in the Airbus camp.

On a serious note, though, it’s a very sad, shocking and unforgivable story. Highly recommended if you get the chance to watch it. 

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Tuesday 13th January

After a day getting some jobs done on our own, we reconvene back at the flat and visit Brickfields or ‘little India’ as it’s known. The area has a completely different feel from other parts of the city, and interesting smells waft through the air.

We visit a vegetarian restaurant for dinner. Del has a butter masala with a vegetable paratha, and H has a masala dosa; they are both delicious and very different from the usual Indian food we are used to back home.

A dessert is recommended by our friendly server (who once lived in Greenwich), which we try: ras malai, which is paneer soaked in a saffron milk sauce. It’s delicious too. We walk around the colourful streets looking at the street food, clothing, and beautiful flowers on display, while sipping a masala chai tea, which costs roughly 18p!

Rain is threatening, and the humidity has gone through the roof, so we hop on a monorail and make our way back home. 

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Wednesday 14th January

Today we visit the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park. It claims to have the biggest free-flight aviary in the world. It’s only a short cab ride away, and when we arrive, we do see that, yes, it is very, very big, with smaller areas where you can hand-feed lorikeets.

We get swamped by them when we buy the food for a couple of ringgit. They land gently on us, then fight with each other and squawk in our ears, just chaos. We love them. There are all sorts of birds here and a lot of peacocks.

We spend a couple of hours wandering around and watching a bird show. H is so hot she’s craving some quality AC and a cold drink, so we have a quick lunch in the bird park restaurant.

We’ve had better lunches, but it’s ok, satay, nasi goreng and a fresh coconut each. 

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Thursday 15th January

H is feeling much better today, so tries some time in the gym and has a swim in the pool, it’s great to be getting back to normal. 

We have been away for a month now, so H’s hair needs a bit of tending. We find a hairdresser who speaks English. 30 mins later, and after some miscommunication about hair length, H is out and has a shorter haircut than expected. Never mind, at least it will last longer.

Tonight we are taking an organised tour to see fireflies and ‘blue tears’ (a bioluminescent display in the water) in Selangor, which is about an hour and a quarter away. Our driver picks us up at 4 pm. He’s a local chap, very knowledgeable and friendly. He even takes us on a detour to see the royal palace on the way.

Once in Selangor, we are taken up to a lighthouse for a view of the Malacca Strait, very impressive.  There are lots of monkeys here (long-tailed macaques to be exact), and some brave tourists are feeding them.

One woman has 3 of them climbing on her. We have a distrust of monkeys, so this is not for us. Sri, our driver, tells us we’ll be ok as long as we don’t have food or put our hands in our pockets. The monkeys are all over the car by now. We get out, and he’s right, they do leave us alone.

Next, he takes us to a Chinese seafood restaurant by the river, where we have an included meal.

We have prawns, spicy fish, sweet and sour chicken, veg and rice, and it’s all very nice as the sun sets over the riverbank. 

As darkness falls, we board a boat full of Koreans and are taken up the river at very high speed. This is a thrill in itself, and there’s a lot of screaming and dramatics coming from our fellow travellers; however, we love it.

A few miles up the river in the middle of nowhere, we stop where the fireflies are in the bushes at the side. They are all flashing and look like LED Christmas lights! Nature can be very strange but beautiful. Next, it’s out to sea (at high speed again). When we stop, we are given nets to agitate the water to make the bioluminescence glow. It leaves pretty blue trails in the water.

We are now in the Strait of Malacca, it’s warm and dead calm, like a lake. The stars look spectacular here, too. Back at the dock, our driver takes us back for the 1-hour drive to the city and home. All in all, an interesting and enjoyable afternoon/evening out. 

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Friday 16th January

After a few chores at the flat, we head to a recommended restaurant in the city, but find it’s closed for Friday prayers. Nice timing! So we hop in a cab and go to the Capitol Cafe for the last time. Del has a delicious Bali chicken curry, and H has a Nasi Lemak, which is also delicious; their claim here at the Capitol is to be the best Nasi Lemak in Malaysia. It may well be true. 

After a pleasant 30 mins on some massage chairs in a mall, we return to the flat, where H does some research and manages to shoehorn an extra trip into our upcoming Vietnam schedule. We will now spend a night in the ancient citadel city of Hue. We will take a luxury bus to get there and will be travelling back on the train, which is supposed to be one of the world’s most scenic train trips.

We are having our last Japanese takeaway feast tonight outside on our balcony.

A massive pile of sushi and a bottle of good sake. The city is lit up and looks beautiful. We will miss this view. As cities go, KL is one of the best!

It’s a lovely dinner. H has ordered some jellyfish (she hates them; they might as well make themselves useful). We had jellyfish at our dining in the dark experience two weeks ago, but we didn’t know it when we were eating it. After dinner, we make a spontaneous decision to go for a night swim on the 35th floor pool deck, with the infinity pool and the best view of the city. Fabulous…

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Saturday 17th January

H goes to the gym this morning, finally being able to go and do a proper workout now that she appears to be clear of the cold, which seemed to last forever. Later we set off and go out for a brunch at one of our local favourite coffee shops.

Del has his favourite kaya toast and half-boiled egg, and H has a vegetarian laksa which she manages to splash on herself over her new, freshly laundered top.

Today is our penultimate day, so we are doing all our laundry and ironing, ready for leaving tomorrow. We have been lucky here in that we have had our own washing machine and have been able to easily dry our clothes, but from now on, we are going to be in hotels and using local laundries, so it’s a full reset of our clothes. We take turns keeping our eye on the washing machine, drying stuff and doing the ironing.

While we have been here, we have been taking advantage of the Rest N Go full-body massage chairs.

They are very popular here and can be found in all of the malls and airports. We have the app (there’s an app for everything now), and we have been getting good use of it.

With not much time and not much more to do, we set off for a Korean ice cream. There is a very popular brand that we like, and a stall has been set up promoting it. Simply scan one of their social media QR codes, follow them, and they will give you a free ice cream. Very nice. Very nice indeed.

We head back home to finalise the packing and clean down the flat. A sad time.

Tonight, our final dinner in Malaysia will be a Korean BBQ. We get a cab straight there and get a table for two. We are having a set menu. For some reason, because it’s a set menu, they cook the BBQ at the table for us rather than leaving us alone to do it.

Probably a good thing if they value their fire insurance. It’s all very delicious, with 3 different meats, chicken, mushrooms, and lots of dips and some kimchi of course. It’s quite a feast.

As a final closing to our last night here, we take a look at the Saloma bridge, which has a great view of the twin towers on the other side.

The bridge is listed as an attraction to see while in KL. The bridge spans one of the main arterial roads in and out of KL, very “arty’ and it changes colour!

Our walk continues right up to the towers for one last look before getting on the train and the monorail, which we end up paying three times for because of ticket confusion (that’s a whole 80p we’re out of pocket!).

Back at the flat, we are almost packed, the rest can wait until morning, for now it’s time to finish off the rest of last night’s fizz with a toast on the balcony to the night sky of Kuala Lumpur.

That was Malaysia. Next stop, Hoi An in Vietnam.

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Week 4 – Saturday 3rd January – Saturday 10th January 2026

Temperatures back home in the UK are below freezing this week, with snow, wind, and rain, but it’s in the low to mid 30s here in Kuala Lumpur. However, that didn’t stop us both from getting nasty colds this week! There’s justice for you…!

Saturday 3rd January 2026

Today we are going to the jungle for a couple of nights. We have booked into a small place called The Sticks, which is just over an hour from the city, where we have booked a cabin by the river.

The one and a quarter hour taxi ride actually takes two and a quarter hours with terrible traffic jams and a motorway closure with no warning or diversion. The poor cab driver doesn’t know what to do. 

We eventually find the place and send the taxi driver off on his merry way with a hefty tip. To get to reception, it’s a 7-minute walk through the forest, which includes crossing a rope bridge over the river.

The reception is a lovely, open-air place with a dining room which has a relaxing atmosphere. We sign in and have a refreshing homemade barley drink. We are taken to our ‘tendok’, a cross between a tent and a cabin.

It’s a wooden frame with canvas sides, it has a very comfy, large bed and a small bathroom with toilet and shower. In this tendok, we also have direct private access to the river.

There are a few other cabins here, all nestled in the forest away from each other, but only 2 of them are occupied, one by a French family and one by a Chinese family, so it’s not very busy here. We explore the pathways and meet the friendly pets here, two dogs and two cats. 

Tonight is a ‘steamboat’ dinner, we have heard of these but never tried one. On our table in the dining room, there is a large pot on a burner with a tasty broth in it. We are brought many plates of raw chicken, fish, prawns, tofu, mushrooms, noodles and greens. The idea is to put a little at a time of the various ingredients, let it cook and eat, then repeat.

The broth gets richer and richer as you go on. You are given eggs to whisk in to thicken it. It’s a lot tastier than we thought it would be, and we enjoy a glass of red wine with it.

Afterwards, we play chess on the world’s most mismatched chess set. It’s a collection from about 5 sets with some pieces missing.

We manage with some difficulty (“Is that your pawn or mine?’). H wins twice. Del is complaining of a sore throat and we are both coughing.

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Sunday 4th January 2026

The river outside is very noisy here, but luckily, H brought plenty of earplugs for the night. We have a decent sleep. H sees a firefly fluttering around on its own in the dark room, its green glow slowly dancing around the room before gently disappearing.

We are up bright and reasonably early and set off for breakfast at 9. Del has a cooked breakfast, and H has continental. The food is included (as there are no restaurants nearby), and they provide lunch, afternoon tea and dinner too. So we will be well fed.

There are a couple of treks available in the nearby jungle. We don’t have good walking shoes, so we opt for the short 45-minute hike. The guide warns us what trees not to touch and confirms there are dangerous venomous snakes and scorpions (but they’re probably asleep).

He then gives us a walkie-talkie and asks us to radio in at 4 different checkpoints to make sure we’re ok.

Off we set, at first it’s easy, but soon it changes to steep banks, big plants and streams. It’s good fun, and we manage ok with only one fright when H  sees a snake head complete with a forked tongue, only to be relieved when it runs off on four legs; thankfully, it’s just a large gecko. 

Lunch is delicious with many dishes of tasty food, prawn curry, papaya salad with chicken and chilli, many vegetables and much more. A short nap back at the tendok (are you paying attention? What’s a tendok?) is needed after all that.

We are up and about, refreshed, and ready to go tubing on the river. You basically sit in an inflated truck inner tube, walk upriver a hundred metres, get in it and float down to the small waterfall near our hut. The river is very clear and fast-running. Del has checked with the staff that there are no leeches or other nasties. We’re informed there are crocodiles in the nearby lake, but they don’t like the river. Right.

The tubing is fun, we do the walk upstream and then float back, stopping just before a weir of rocks. We spend an hour doing this and nearly miss our next feeding opportunity. Besides, there is only so much excitement one can handle floating about in an old truck inner tube.

It’s afternoon tea, which means a banana fritter and French toast with coconut sauce. It’s only 2 hours until dinner! 

It’s a BBQ night tonight, and we are served an array of grilled meats, fish, and vegetables served on a huge banana leaf on our table. It’s fabulous, the food here is really quite good.

We finish off our wine from yesterday and then have a game of mismatched chess before an early night.

At around midnight, we hear a short loud noise like fireworks or gunshots very near our cabin, followed by another short burst 10 mins later. We don’t know what it is; it’s too short for fireworks. Could the electrics have shorted and exploded? H imagines all scenarios as she lies awake, while Del goes back to sleep.

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Monday 5th January 2026

We wake and make our way to breakfast. More strange noises are coming from outside; this time, machete chopping and chainsaws can be heard. During the night, a neighbour’s tree, a huge one, has fallen and snapped the nearby bamboo and damaged the roof of an unoccupied cabin near us just before the bridge crossing. Ah, that explains the noises in the night. The staff are hacking away at the bamboo to get to the fallen tree.

It’s quite a mess; it also blocks the only road out, so it needs to be cleared and the damaged day cabin repaired quickly.

We’re told this has never happened before. The neighbour doesn’t look after his boundary and has a lot of very tall trees on a steep bank, so they are not very happy.

We have breakfast and arrange transport to the nearest town with a station for 11am. We set off in a Toyota Hilux to ford the river that we tubed on yesterday, and then swap to a car for the trip to the station. 

We will get the train back today. It’s no quicker on paper, but at least it won’t be subject to traffic jams, and we’ll get to see more stuff along the way. The train takes just over an hour, and we are soon on the monorail home. 

We decide to try a GRAB delivery. Grab is very much like Uber Eats; we have never used Uber Eats at home, so we thought it might be a wheeze to give it a go. We find our favourite Japanese restaurant- the one with the train that serves the food to your table from last week, does Grab delivery, so it’s a Japanese dinner in.

To add to the authenticity of the dining experience, we have purchased a bottle of Sake from the supermarket to go with it. Delicious. We are both feeling a little under the weather tonight, with a lingering cough, and Del’s sore throat seems to be getting worse. 

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Tuesday 6th January 2026

We are both coughing this morning, and H feels very tired and a bit yuck. Del goes out on his own to Chinatown for a walk and to explore. He has a sneaky beef roti while he’s out and buys H some ‘treats’. 

Back at the ranch, H has been doing the ironing with a view of the Petronas Towers. Del comes back with her treats: 2 bags of dried spicy squid and a bag of Hawthorne flavoured sweets, yummy?

It’s back to normal on the work front. Del does a little bit of homework for some jobs coming up very soon, the first of which is in Portugal in a couple of weeks. H is still feeling a bit tired and just a bit not quite right.

Dinner tonight is in a nearby and popular coffee shop where we have some chicken curry and rice, helped along with a natural fruit juice or two, very nice.

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Wednesday 7th January 2026

Today, H wakes up feeling less tired and a bit more with it, so we go out to have a walk around the Pavilion Mall, now that the chaos of Christmas crowds has gone. It’s been stripped of its Christmas decorations, but now they are being replaced by Chinese New Year decorations.

This is still with about 5 weeks to go. As a reminder, Malls here in Malaysia are a big deal. They are nothing like the malls back home. They are centres not just for shopping and eating but for events. They have themed sections and are known as lifestyle malls.

It is nice to wander around without the big crowds, and we stumble into a nice Japanese restaurant in ‘Tokyo Street’ in the mall. We have a delicious set lunch. 

We have heard that it’s possible to walk from this mall along a covered air-conditioned walkway all the way to the Petronas Towers, which is 1.2 km away. It takes us a while to find the entrance to this, but once we do, it’s a good walk and leads us straight into the Suria Mall right under the Towers.

KL is a great city, but sometimes awkward to walk about due to ‘rustic’ pavements and infrequent road crossing opportunities; this walkway is just perfect. At the Petronas Towers, we see if we can go up them, but all the tickets are sold out for today. We buy them for tomorrow instead.

Once back in our local area, we try another escape room. We intend to try them all; one day, we might even become good at them. This one, Patient 13, is very creepy with a jump scare in it, which catches H unaware. We get out just in time with an extra hint from our game master.

No dinner tonight as we are still full from our Japanese lunch, just a glass of wine at the flat and a bit of Netflix, watching the sunset on the towers.

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Thursday 8th January 2026

We have our booked tickets for the Petronas Towers for 1 pm today, so we do the laundry, and Del goes to the gym, and then we hop in a cab to the towers.

We’ve been up them before, but we love the building, so we really enjoy it. While we are there, the windows are getting cleaned…

There are some new bits that have been added since our last visit, including a smart cafe where we share a slice of cake with some drinks, looking at the view before us. Fantastic…

Next, we visit the eco park, which is a forest in the middle of the city with canopy rope bridges and towers. There’s a warning sign of dangerous insects and animals, which, for some reason, worries H despite just having hiked through an actual jungle a few days ago.

It’s a nice walk, but the only creature we see is a squirrel. Del gets bitten all over his legs, though; the insects usually prefer H. 

We decide to eat in again tonight. We will get a takeaway as H is coughing a lot now, as is Del. We have a kitchen here, but it’s a bit basic for cookware, and we would need to buy too many storage cupboard ingredients to cook anything decent, so we only use the kitchen for breakfast. The food here is so cheap and so good, we’d be mad to try to cook dinner. Tonight it’s an Indian, while we watch a movie. Tonight we are watching the first of the Knives Out franchise. A good old-fashioned whodunit thriller.

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Friday 9th January 2026

H stays in this morning; she is not feeling great at all. A cough and lots of conjestion. Del still has a hard cough, but the sore throat has gone, so he manages to get out and explore the city. In our local mall, there is now a ‘meow fiesta’ setting up, which finishes on Sunday. There is always something going on in the malls..!

It’s a cat show and rehoming event, so we have to pop over to have a look. There are about 50 gorgeous cats and kittens all looking for homes. Dinner tonight is at a local dim sum place, which is delicious. 

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Saturday 10th January 2026

Despite having a good sleep, Hayley has woken up feeling much worse. It has been decided that she should really see a doctor, as none of the usual over the counter stuff is working. Del goes to the gym, cleans up, and we set off for the nearest doctor. There are a few dotted around the city, which are walk-in doctors and dispensaries. We find one just 10 minutes walk away and set off. There is no waiting. Hayley shows her passport, and she is seen 2 minutes later by a young doctor who listens to her chest and prescribes some antibiotics, some meds for clearing up the phlegm, and a bottle of cough mixture that Del might have a swig of. Total bill 13 quid.

The rest of the day is spent indoors, H nursing her cold, Del doing homework, and looking after H. We manage a short walk to the shops via the cat show in the mall, which now appears to be in full swing. It’s another warm day, and the humidity is building.

This month is the 270th birthday of Mozart, one of our favourite composers. There is an HD showing of the original film, Amadeus, screening at the Philharmonic concert hall under the Petrona Towers, where the soundtrack is being played by a full orchestra and choir. It’s expensive, but it’s an opportunity we cannot miss.

The film, starring Tom Hulce, is now 42 years old…! That is scary…! We leave just before 7 pm, H is drugged up and feeling a little better as the drugs start to soothe her symptoms.

The concert hall is directly under the wonderful Petronas towers and is beautiful inside.

We have some good seats, and we get settled in. The film is long, three hours. The lights go down, and the orchestra strikes up. Wow! This is not a new thing: orchestras playing the soundtrack live to a movie. It is very clever how it’s done.

The conductor has a monitor that shows the film as we watch it, but overlayed on his version is a timecode, a series of coloured bars that sweep across, counting him in and out of each section of music, along with a series of white flashes that give him the time signature. It’s an incredibly tricky thing to coordinate, especially in a film like Amadeus, which has dancing and close-ups of instruments. Here is a link to a 4-minute video that provides a better explanation of how it’s done. The video is for the film Raiders of the Lost Ark.

It is a truly wonderful night. The whole thing is so smooth and well done; hearing it live gives us goosebumps. It’s amazing.

As we exit the concert hall at ground level to the outside world, Del looks up and sees the towers, immense and lit up white; the sight is jaw-dropping.

As we walk further, the towers look more and more imposing, lit up in pure white, making them look like glass towers.

In all, an unforgettable evening. H’s drugs are wearing off as we get back home to have a small snack, more drugs and bed. Del is still humming tunes from the film.

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Well, that’s another Christmas over and done with. Was it really worth all the fuss…? We are settled into our new home in Kuala Lumpur, where we celebrated Christmas with a mix of the traditional and the local Malay way. We are a day early this week with our blog as we are off to “the jungle” for two nights, where we are told there is no decent mobile or wifi connection to the outside world. Blimey, how will we manage?

Sunday 28th December 2025

After a relaxed morning, we go out for a walk and try find some food. We are planning to have a very early dinner today and visit a nearby coffee shop. Coffee shops here in Malaysia are nothing like home; they serve coffee but also a full selection of meals. We have a Thai tofu starter. Del has a Laksa (coconut noodle soup), and H has squid and noodles!

After our feast, we take a walk to the grassed rooftop of our local mall that has a small concert stage with lighting and sound, etc. There is always something going on here, and today is no exception, as we watch a very strange show of young Japanese girls singing and dancing, watched by nearly all adult men who know all the dance moves. Very odd. Even Del knew them!!

We walk back to the flat only to stumble across 3 large yellow Pikachus marching along to a guy with a whistle.

Pikachu is very popular here in Asia, and he is everywhere. All the kids have t-shirts and bags with him on them. There is always something going on here, but sometimes, to us, some of it just seems so random. It’s an interesting place, this Asia. 

Once it gets dark, we get a cab to the river that winds its way through the city. They pump mist onto it and light it up at night.

It looks eerily impressive. We then hop over to the Petronas Towers and KLCC park on the metro and arrive in time to see a colourful fountain display. The two towers look impressive behind a huge Christmas tree, gleaming silver against the black sky.

It’s gone 9 pm, and the mall is still mega busy; we are dodging people trying to walk in a straight line. This place just never seems to stop.

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Monday 29th December 2025

We go to the gym this morning and then have a swim in the other pool here, which is lovely. Once changed, we visit the butterfly park, a large, lush, and beautifully landscaped area where butterflies flutter around. A nice place to get away from the noise of the city.

They’re not as brightly coloured as we thought they would be. Asian butterflies are mostly brown with dashes of colour on them. They have an interesting indoor display here, complete with a tank of many nasty-looking native scorpions. 

There is a Middle Eastern restaurant in town that is famous for its shawarma kebabs, not something H has ever really fancied, but the reviews are good, and there is always a queue of about 1.5 hours at night. We decide at 3 pm to have an early dinner and beat the queues; however, when we arrive we still have to queue for 15 mins. This is madness; it better be good!

Once inside the pretty dining room (there are 4 floors of dining areas here). We have the famous shawarma and a traditional dessert. The food is tasty, but we really can’t see what all the fuss is about. We should know better, as we would normally disregard any restaurant with a queue as just hype. 

We’ve booked another escape game at a different place, this one involves a prison cell (again), crawling through tunnels and an electric chair. It’s very good, and we manage to escape with only a couple of hints needed. In fact, it’s so good we will come back and do another one tomorrow.

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Tuesday 30th December 2025

We enjoyed yesterday’s escape room so much that we start the day with another one, and why not, as they are a fraction of the cost of UK ones. This next one is a bit harder, and we have to sign a waiver for the physical aspects(!?). It is based around a serial killer’s barber shop. We think we’ve cracked it, only to find out there’s another room to go and we’ve run out of time. Oh dear.

We go for lunch at the Capitol cafe again and have their Nasi Lemak, which is delicious. Del tries a cup of local ‘cham’, which is a mix of tea and coffee with condensed milk.

An odd mix, but Del thinks it’s quite nice. Whilst we are enjoying this, it has started to rain heavily, so next we jump on the metro and go to another immense mall – the TRX. It’s staggeringly big with a whole floor of just designer and high-end shops. They also have a very impressive Apple shop. How can there be this many malls, and who is spending all this money?

We get back, and it’s Hayley’s turn to do the ironing with a view of the Towers…

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Wednesday 31st December 2025

We get up late and set off for the gym. H has decided it’s time to try out the rollercoaster near our flat, so we walk over to the mall opposite and pay the small amount to get into the theme park.

It’s amazing how they’ve squeezed so much stuff into part of a shopping mall. H goes on the coaster twice; it’s a good layout, but a bit rough and twice is all she can do. It’s not a bad coaster at all and certainly one of the better indoor coasters.

By now we are both hungry and go to a sushi restaurant, a chain, which we’ve been to before on past trips to Japan. The food is ordered on your phone and delivered on a ‘train’, which makes us grin.

We go mad and have a massive sushi feast, we eat half the sea… It’s delicious, though.

We head back. The mall below us is ramping up for the new year with live bands on the roof. We walk down there and check it out. It’s very good, but we leave as it starts to get very crowded; besides, we have our own view and goodies to bring in the new year, and we will see and hear the bands playing below us anyway.

We walk back through a games arcade. There are games in here that we don’t even understand. One looks like a washing machine, but it’s a music video game called Maimai. Watching the kids play is mesmerising.

We feel a bit old, or rather, we’ve been dropped 50 years into the future. Some of these games require super-fast reactions and attention, whilst having your brain bombarded with sound and colour. Crazy.

Back in the flat, we open our Laurent Perrier champagne that we have bought for tonight. The Petronas towers and other buildings are all lit up, and we await midnight.

Just before the big hour, a mist descends, and visibility drops, but the fireworks are all around us. We can see Merdeka 118, the second-tallest building in the world, clearly, as it is right next to our apartment block, and it looks fantastic. There’s even a drone show that we can just about see. It’s fabulous, we love it.

Happy New Year to all of you!

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Thursday 1st January 2026

After going to bed late, past 2 am at least, we get up quite late and have a relaxed day in. Here’s something for breakfast. A dragon fruit with rambutans. Very nice.

Tonight we have booked into a very special restaurant nearby, but first there is the matter of the ‘world dragon and lion dance extravaganza’ happening just below us on the roof of the mall. There are 40 lion dance troupes with associated noisy drums and cymbals.

We go down and watch them for a while. It’s busy and hard to see what’s going on, but the heat and humidity beat us, and we return to the flat to get ready for dinner. 

Tonight we have booked at ‘dining in the dark’, a restaurant where the dining room is pitch black. The concept has been around for a while – by having no vision, it enhances your other senses and enjoyment of the food. We arrive at 6:30pm, have a welcome drink and are blindfolded and given a wooden shapes puzzle to get us ready for the experience, already this is harder than we imagined.

After this, we have our phones and any light-emitting devices locked up and place our hands on the shoulders of the blind waiter who leads us into the dining room. It is indeed pitch black, and we are guided into our seats and told where our drinks and cutlery are. It is rare to be in an absolute blackout, there is usually a chink of light somewhere. The darkness here is very unnerving.

Del has a bit of a panic and feels a little overwhelmed and nauseous, but this soon passes. It is the weirdest and strangest experience. Our waiter, AK, is visually impaired, as are all of the waiters here. How he manages to move around in the dark and serve us food and drink so efficiently and professionally staggers us! The food is placed before us, 4 courses, each of multiple dishes, and we are left to work out what we are eating. It’s all delicious, and we will find out what we have eaten afterwards. We think we have identified quite a few flavours.

We make it through the evening without knocking anything over or spilling our meals down us. Outside, we have the menu revealed to us, we are for the most part right, but one of the starters that we thought was definitely seaweed was actually jellyfish!

We highly recommend the experience if you ever get the chance to do a ‘dine in the dark’ evening, an unforgettable night and most enjoyable. 

We walk to the nearby Bukit Bintang Centre, where it’s chaos. This is the centre of Kuala Lumpur nightlife, it’s noisy, bright, and the smell of all the different foods is just incredible.

There are a few buskers, but it’s not just someone with a guitar going “la la la…”, but full band set-ups on a street corner. We found a heavy metal band, led by a muslim lady, they really rocked. What a din…, they drew quite a crowd. Great fun to watch.

There were ladies dressed in traditional Chinese dress doing a ‘thing‘, promptly followed by a marching band with bagpipes. Well, why not…? There is something for everyone here… and not a policeman or ‘official‘ in a hi-viz vest in sight. Who needs them? Leave us alone.

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Friday 2nd January 2026

Today, we are visiting a place called Immersify, which is described as a “multimedia art gallery, and it just so happens to be in the building next door. It’s made up of 14 rooms of projections, props and clever lighting, but on a massive scale. Some make us a bit giddy, and there are some beautiful landscapes. There is one attraction where you can decorate your own animal on a piece of paper, scan it and have it appear within seconds, swimming or walking past you on a huge screen.

It’s very interesting and entertaining, and takes about an hour. We can’t help but notice the contrast between last night’s dinner with no vision and today’s feast of colour for the eyes.

 We have a light lunch in the mall at a Chinese restaurant recommended in the Michelin guide. The lunch is 3 courses with dim sum and water for £8 for two! It’s not bad, but we both agree to having had better.

We head back to the flat, and later on, we’re going to yet another escape room. This time, we are going for an easier one, after failing so badly on the last one. This one involves creepy clowns (are there any other types?) It’s a wonder we don’t have nightmares. 

We do quite well at this game and escape with 5 mins to spare! Proud of ourselves, we go for a beer nearby. This is a craft beer bar run by an Irishman. H has an IPA, and Del has a chocolate orange tiramisu stout (really), which tastes just like it sounds and is a bit odd. We try a Malaysian IPA and share a bagel as we are peckish now. It’s a nice location with an unobstructed view of the second-tallest building in the world, the Merdeka 118.

It turns out to be a rather expensive evening. Malaysia has the second-highest alcohol tax in the world, which they call a sin tax, and every penny goes to the health service. You can go to a hospital here, and all you have to pay is 1 ringgit or 20p! or so we are told.

We call it a night as H is getting bitten by mosquitoes. Don’t know how she’s going to cope tomorrow in the jungle. 

Happy New Year to all of you!

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