In search of home away from home away from home

Impressive decorations outside the Brazillian
place

I would say I had a moderately successful long-weekend (it was Chinese New Year (CNY), so I had Thursday and Friday off) quest for a nice cozy place out of my hotel apartment to chill. On Friday I decided to brave the heat (actually, with a nice little breeze, not too bad, as long as you stick to the shade) and walk over to the closest little coffee shop recommended by one of the online "best cozy coffeeshops in KL" lists.

The little nook at the Intermark

On the way I found that there’s another, smaller, mall nearby, attached to a Doubletree hotel. It’s not far, but to get there you have to cross the multi-lane street (again with the street crossing!) – this time legitimately at a light, but the traffic patterns aren’t super clear, so I was happy to tag behind other pedestrians, as the pedestrian walk signals didn’t seem to be working? Not sure, but crossing over the major roads here is definitely a bit of a challenge.

The cozy lounge at the Intermark

I decided to persevere and keep going to my original coffeeshop destination, as it had looked quite promising on-line. It turned out to be a ways off, tucked into a residential neighborhood, down a street that didn’t initially quite look like a street. An adventure. It didn’t turn out to be a place that I’ll be going back to – while indeed quiet, the omelet I had was terrible, and it’s just too much of a hike down a not quite shady area, but not somewhere I’d want to walk alone at night.

RGB Coffee - not quite what I'd expected

On the plus side I struck up a conversation with a lovely couple from New Zealand, Sue and Dave, who were also eating there. They’ve been in KL for 2 years via Singapore, for Dave’s work, but sadly were going back to New Zealand in a few weeks. Sue was telling me about the vibrant expat community in KL which, unfortunately, seems to revolve around the non-working wives of husbands sent here for work, so most of their activities are during the workday. Alas.

Though my omelet was pretty terrible, the
fizzy lemony drink was quite good, and the
bamboo for a straw was a cute touch;
that's Sue in the background

Sue and Dave also told me that in the basement of the mall I passed is a good supermarket, and offered me a lift back there as that’s where they were headed. I gratefully accepted, then bade farewell to Sue and Dave, and decided to check out the rest of the walk to work, to see if there’s anything else of interest there. Turns out, not so much – other than really intense crowds, more so than even during the week. I spent the rest of the day getting a really good pedicure, and then a mediocre Thai dinner, before heading home.

On Saturday I met up with Priscilla, a friend from back home who came to KL, her birthplace, for CNY. She had graciously offered to bring me anything I need from back home, and I jumped on the opportunity to get my pair of sneakers which will come in very handy in this land of small feet (read: no US size 10 shoes to be found!)

I wandered over to Avenue K (another mall– I TOLD you life happens in malls here) to see if I can find anything interesting / appealing to eat. I found an escape room place, and an impressively decorated Brazillian charcouterie, but just wasn’t feeling it. I eventually decided on a Mexican-cum-Dim Sum place (?!) where I had some pretty decent dim sum – the sticky rice was especially yummy.

Dim Sum order form

One thing I don’t get (here just as in the US) is when people take their very small (and very LOUD) children out to eat in restaurants. Sorry folks, but for the rest of us this is really truly a hardship. Have a heart… (ok, ok, I get it, but…)

Ultimately, the initial impression (from the restaurant images on google maps as well as from driving by) that there’s nothing of interest around my residence hotel apartment turns out to be inaccurate. Upon closer review – both in person as well as by doing a search for restaurants specifically in the area – there appear to be several places worth checking out.

Start of my Friday evening at Savini

In fact, on Friday night I went out to grab dinner at Savini, a well-rated Italian place at the Intermark. I had brought a book with me, and had been able to leave work around 6, so was happy to finally get a chance to have a nice meal.

I actually worked out really well that my waiter totally forgot to put in my order for my main course, as I ended up hanging out there long enough to encounter a quite good band they had going. And then a co-worker pinged me and I told him about the band and we ended up closing the place down after their 3rd set.

I recorded a couple of little clips - need to figure out how to share them here.