Since it had been one hot minute since I had travelled anywhere, I was bursting to do so many things on this trip. That’s why the planning process was a little daunting, even if I was excited to have something to look forward to again. It took many days to trim the to-do list down to what was humanly achievable. For a 5 day trip I could do anything, but not everything. The next struggle was playing calendar Tetris. Like: should I put two cake classes on the same day? Nah, the second cake would turn out garbage, for sure. The other problem was that some places opened late and closed early, so I had a smaller window to work with for most of the days. Then, there were reviews to read and driving distances to consider. I got so caught up in decision paralysis that I only did all my bookings the week before flying off, when I no longer had the luxury of procrastination.
As always, the first order of business before any trip was to get my nails done. They are super short because of violin/cello, so I wanted nail extensions too. At first I was considering just doing a clean French mani, but I wanted to do some bold things on this trip, so I decided to get a bolder colour to suit the mood. When in doubt, get cool red. With crystals, because I love my bling. And I wanted to have Miffy, because it’s cute. These nails survived everything, even when I had my hand pinned between an inflatable raft and a giant rock.
Here’s how things went:
Day 1, Saturday (7th February 2026):
I reached KL around noon after a 2+ hour flight. I had a quick and overpriced lunch at the airport, then took a cab to where I was staying in Bukit Bintang.
I checked in at around 2 pm to my studio room. The hotel was a little dated, and my cousin asked if I wasn’t worried about ghosts, but I’ve always found it to be comfortable enough for my needs. It was hard to find a hotel that was both new and spacious. The really nice-looking ones would either induce a feeling of secondhand claustrophobia through the computer screen or put an even bigger dent in my already haemorrhaging wallet. I didn’t want to get one of those capsule-adjacent rooms that looked nice but had the foot of the bed literally pressed up against the TV wall. This room had everything I needed, plenty of walking room, and a bathtub. The chaise lounge was my favourite place to wind down on at the end of a long day. I’d lie there for hours on end with a drink in hand in the evenings, listening to sappy Chinese ballads and feeling like the jilted female lead in a period drama. I would reflect on the day that had come and gone, and wonder how the next day would go.
After setting down my luggage and unpacking the essentials, I sank down on the soft bed and lay there with my eyes closed, too tired to do anything until it was almost 3. Then, I forced myself to get up off the bed and get a ride to my next thing: plushie-making at Happy Hour Club (hey, it’s almost like my blog name). They also had a pottery workshop, but I only had time for one workshop that afternoon. The booking included a drink, so I chose an ice lychee soda. I was quite distracted by the plushie-making process, though, so by the time I had my first sip, the ice had already melted and it was just cold water with a faint memory of lychee.
There were a whole bunch of different animals to choose from on the shelves. Naturally, I chose a bunny plushie. It was just the plushie skin, without any stuffing.
Stuffing the bunny at the fluffinator. You step on a pedal to get it going. I could really feel the heat emanating from the nozzle. It made me nervous, not to mention the velocity with which it dispensed the stuffing. I sort of forgot to say ‘when’ and ended up with fluff in my hair and on my black dress. The bunny ballooned from skinny to morbidly obese (thanks to my very Asian-coded mindset of “more is better”, like when you’re at a buffet and you take as much food as you can) before I remembered that I still had to sew it shut later, so I released the pedal. At that point, the plushie looked more milo tin than rabbit.
Then, I sewed up the back of the plushie. There was a selection of accessories and clothing to choose from. I picked a green crocheted hat with a flower on it and and a pink cardigan. I don’t know why, but I was sweating at this point.
The staff wrapping up my new friend.
After I was done, I sat and waited there for a ride to my next appointment, which was a full-body massage at Pavilion. It took an hour to get there, but it was amazing and absolutely worth the one-hour drive.
Link to spa post: https://www.myhoppyhour.com/2026/03/03/my-neck-my-back-my-anxiety-attack/
However, I made the mistake of wearing drugstore eyeliner thinking it would survive the massage. It didn’t. Despite being careful to avoid letting any part of my eyelids touch the edges of the face cradle, the liner had smudged onto my lower lash line somehow by the time I looked in the mirror at the end, after it was over. I tried to maintain dignity while excusing myself to the washroom to freshen up. Maybe I underestimated how oily my eyelids were. Maybe I made weird faces every time a knot was found. I wiped at the smudges until my the skin under my eyes were rubbed raw red. If you asked me, red under-eyes were still preferable over looking like I had just lost a boxing match.
It was past 9 pm when I got back to my room, because of the distance. I drew a warm bath and had a long soak. It felt like the perfect follow-up to the massage. I had planned to get an early night’s sleep, but somehow the hours kept passing and I didn’t. My mind and body were still buzzing from the day. Plus, I still needed to eat. It was late, so I ordered food delivery. I was really hungry, so I just ordered from the first shop on the Grab app without reading the fine print. I would later realise that the Japanese restaurant I had ordered from was literally twenty steps away from my hotel. I had paid for someone to ride their bike to the restaurant and then drive the distance of fifteen feet to my hotel lobby. Oh.
Day 2, Sunday (8th February 2026):
I went to Suria KLCC. Since I had gotten out of bed late, I kinda had to hurry things along.
I only had time to pop into Kinokuniya. I do most of my reading on Kindle now, but I’m not averse to a good old-fashioned book. I left empty-handed, though, because I didn’t really have time to pull up Goodreads reviews for every title that caught my eye. My time there was reduced to mostly admiring book cover art. This bookstore has a special place in my heart. I first came here in 2011. It felt surreal to stand there in that same spot more than ten years later and realise I was a completely different person now. I thought about about all the things I worried about back then that had been put to rest with the passage of time. So many things that were important to 17-year old me back then aren’t important to me anymore, not in the slightest.
“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”
– Zora Neale Hurston, “Their Eyes Were Watching God”
They were having some kind of in-store pop up as usual (the last time I went, it was a Miffy pop-up!). I was itching to get the avocado plushie. Or one of the frogs. I’m a sucker for anything with a smiley face on it.
I had this delicious Japanese curry beef patty dish at a place called Kyoto Katsu. I feel hungry just looking at this again. I ate at record speed, got a little lost while trying to find the e-hailing pickup point, and rushed to my next venue. In KL noonday traffic, though, ‘rushed to’ is merely a figure of speech.
I had my first cake baking class right after lunch. Here’s my Earl Grey Chocolate cake, which took maybe 2 hours from start to end. I found the recipe to be fairly complex, not least because my level was probably more suited to making plain cupcakes. It tasted delicious, even if I do say so myself. I ended up bringing most of the cake back to Brunei because I didn’t manage to finish it while staying in KL.
Link to cake post: https://www.myhoppyhour.com/2026/02/27/selangor-earl-grey-cake-workshop/
In the evening, I went to Mid Valley and had dinner at a place called The Travelling Duck. The duck was not bad at all. I didn’t shop much; the only things I remembered leaving with were a pair of UV arm sleeves from Uniqlo. I was tired of having 3-layer teh c peng arms and I want to protect my skin from the sun while driving, so.
I didn’t know there was a lion dance performance that night. I only caught the tail end of the show when they were already wrapping up.
Day 3, Monday (9th February 2026):
The day I’ve been waiting for! I went whitewater rafting in Kuala Kubu Bharu in Selangor. It was an hour’s drive away. I think this is the only time I’ve ever done anything remotely approaching adventurous. I’ve been on rivers a handful of times, but I was always dry and on a motorboat. Prior to this, I had never swam in a river and couldn’t imagine actually being tipped overboard. When I showed up, I had expected to only get splashed by water at most. I was mistaken. The raft capsized three or four times. The activity concluded at around 2 pm with us jumping in and floating downstream to the end point.
Link to rafting post: https://www.myhoppyhour.com/2026/02/18/selangor-white-water-rafting-9th-february-2026/
I got back to the hotel at 4pm. After showering and resting for a while, I decided to drop by Sunway Pyramid Mall in Selangor.
I had planned to do some shopping, but by the time I got there, the exhaustion from the day had really settled into my bones. I only had enough energy to walk around and find a place to eat. I went to a place called Tea Garden and had a chrysanthemum tea and Hainanese chicken rice. The rice balls are so cute. After that, I just went straight back to my hotel.
Day 4, Tuesday (10th February 2026):
I went on a full-day tour of Cameron Highlands. We departed at 7 am and returned to KL around 9 pm, so I couldn’t schedule anything else for the day. I knew I was going to sweat a lot, so I skipped make-up altogether. I made a friend for the day, so I wasn’t alone on the walking tours.
They really love their strawberries here. Our first stop was a strawberry farm where we could snip our own strawberries from the plants growing there. I also got a box of strawberry black tea, which I only tried once I got back to Brunei; it’s very fragrant, but flavour-wise not as strong as the smell would suggest. I enjoyed it.
Then, we we went to the Agro Market. There was a very colourful flower garden, and I got to feed some parrots and sheep. There were also many vendors selling snacks, souvenirs, and toys, but I didn’t have much time left over to really have a look at what they were selling save for the few souvenirs I hurriedly bought before it was time to get back to the bus.
Later, we walked down to the giant “Cameron Valley Tea” sign in the tea plantation and back. I found it a little trying because it was hot and I was dehydrated (my fault). I had to stop a few times to catch my breath and rest my legs. I liked the views and the nature, but man, the sun was brutal. The tour ended with a short visit to a local waterfall.
Link to tour post: https://www.myhoppyhour.com/2026/03/11/pahang-cameron-highlands-day-tour/
Day 5, Wednesday (11th February 2026):
I have to admit, I really felt like my patience was being tested that day. It continually surprised me in ways I never saw coming. It had already started in the morning. A woman who had criticised, undermined, and then lowballed me months ago texted me to offer me a job again, despite me already rejecting it twice. This trip was supposed to be a clean break from everything the last few years had lobbed at me. I did not consent to having my morning notifications punctuated with unwelcome texts from people who were nuttier than fruitcakes. Then, an evening plan that I had been very much looking forward to had to be postponed to a later date, which for all practical purposes meant it was off the table entirely since that was my last night in KL. I would also go on to argue with my grab driver over his insistence to drop me off at a side street instead of at the entrance of where I wanted to be taken. I subsequently got lost walking around “massage parlour” street, trying to find my spa while avoiding sketchy people. I allowed myself to feel each frustration without letting it win. The day had tried hard. But I had tried harder.
The morning was reserved for another cake workshop, this time a Strawberry Victoria sponge cake. I started at around 10 am and finished around lunch time. It was technically much less complicated than the earl grey cake, and the techniques I had learnt from the latter three days ago proved to be helpful. I left the cake in their fridge while I went out to find lunch. I chose a ramen dish that turned out to be saltier than I had bargained for and left me very thirsty even after drinks. I went back to the bakery afterward to collect my cake and wait for a driver.
There were horse decorations everywhere I went.
In the afternoon, I had a painting workshop. I think it took two or three hours. Yup, I chose a bunny theme yet again. It reminds me a little of my first rabbit, Bibit, who was a similar shade of brown and the sweetest thing.
Link to cake & painting post: https://www.myhoppyhour.com/2026/03/07/kuala-lumpur-strawberry-cakes-textured-art/
Afterwards, I had my last massage for the trip. I felt like I needed another one after everything. It really hurt when the MT was massaging my thighs though, because they were still sore from all the walking/hiking in Cameron the day before. But overall, it was still a good massage, if not a little rough. Then I had a late dinner. It was hard for me to fall asleep that night, but I think I handled it the best I could.
Going Home – 12th February 2026:
I finished up the last of the packing that I had been too tired (it seems like being tired is the main theme of my trip) to get done the night before. Then I checked out at around 9 am to go to KLIA2. I had a spicy chilli pasta from a booth called Fork It. I sat at that table for another hour after eating, because I was too lazy to walk around.
Closing Thoughts
This trip was very different from the types of trips I usually planned (aside from my Bangkok trip last year, which was also worlds apart from the way I had structured trips from earlier years). I feel changed. I also learnt that, apparently, there’s something called “Type 2 Fun” which means you don’t particularly enjoy something in the moment because it’s difficult, uncomfortable, hot, challenging, etc. but you only start to enjoy it afterward during the reflection period. I think that’s how I would describe some of the things. My old pessimistic self would diminish these experiences and chalk it up to the cognitive bias of rosy retrospection, but present-me maintains that just because something was difficult in the moment doesn’t mean it cancels out the beautiful and wonderful things I take from it with me. It took me too long to understand this, but I don’t need something to go perfectly to enjoy it. I also learnt a lot of little tips and lessons for future travels.
I definitely feel like I’m better at travelling now. The first few times I travelled abroad, I only knew how to go to malls and shop. I won’t pretend I’m not still materialistic to some extent, but I’m getting better at planning my trips around fun and meaningful experiences and scratching that itch for adventure. It’s been slightly over a month since I came back from the trip, but I still have lots of warm and tender feelings left over from it.
I first saw this poem about a year back. I had been feeling stuck and unhappy for years because I was scared to walk away from a bad situation with crappy people. When I read this, it filled me with optimism that one day, I would be in a better place and come across it again completely by chance, and by then, it will take on a different meaning the second time around. It was my beacon of hope during those times. And I had been waiting for that day. I didn’t know what shape or form this plum would take on in my life once it was ripe for plucking, but I was really looking forward to finding out. Well, I finally tasted the plum while I was there that week. God, it feels amazing to be free.