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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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