Wow, it’s already been a month since my impromptu trip. I still find comfort in sorting through and editing my photos…it feels like a hug from the past. I just get so sentimental about KL because for a city I’ve never lived in, it holds some of my best travel memories and life experiences. *wipes tear from eye* I feel my stress melting away when looking at these photos and writing about them.
I arrived on a Saturday afternoon, about 8 months after my last trip there. During the hour-long ride from the airport, I would occasionally pick up my phone and watch myself, a little dot, travelling along the highway route. How I missed watching the car inching along on the map, because it meant I had somewhere to go. It’s also the only time I get to be the passenger and take a back seat for once.
The car radio was playing songs from a Joey Yung concert. The first song was 约定. I missed hearing the people around me speak Cantonese, even if it’s not my heritage; I’m Fuchow. I think it’s because I’ve Pavlov-ed myself into making the association that: Cantonese everywhere I go = I’m in the Klang Valley, ergo, I’m on holiday and there are fun times to be had.
I booked a different hotel this time, in Cheras. They were having an anniversary promotion and I liked their green-themed rooms, and that it was connected to a mall.
There’s a crater on the bed because I sat on it. After checking in, I put down my things, unpacked the essentials, freshened up a little in the bathroom, and then set off to find this Japanese restaurant (Wasabi Plus) that was supposedly within walking distance. Naturally, I got lost and walked into the wrong building. I had been going up and down the stairs, left and right along the corridors, trying to find the place, before I realised I was in the wrong block altogether.
After some more walking, I finally found the restaurant. By then, it was about 3pm and I was so, so tired and hungry. It wasn’t crowded by then, and they kindly sat me at a table right next to their giant Totoro figurine, which I appreciated, because in my hunger and fatigue I wouldn’t have noticed it otherwise.
Though I was eating solo, I wasn’t entirely alone, as Totoro and his little friend kept me company.
While I was planning my itinerary, I decided that I really wanted to try eating jellyfish. Since there was jellyfish on the menu, I ordered it. The texture was more rubbery than I was expecting, but I liked it and would definitely eat it again.
I think this ikura deserves its own close-up. It’s probably the prettiest plate of ikura I’ll ever eat.
Whenever I’m having Japanese, I like getting a mixed sashimi plate because I’m just so indecisive, I want a bit of everything. After eating, I went to the TRX mall because I wanted to see their mid-autumn themed decorations on their rooftop park.
It was raining when I got there. I went to the top floor and found the exit leading out to the park. The rain kept falling as I stood there behind the glass, wondering if I was willing to risk catching a cold if I went out in the rain. I thought about my options. The exhibit would only stay up for 1 more day, and my schedule for the next day was fully blocked out as it also included catching a last-minute flight to East Malaysia for an urgent family thing, on top of the activities I had already planned in advance.
But I came to KL to see rabbits, so I’m not leaving KL without seeing rabbits. There was an inflatable rabbit eating a mooncake a couple of metres away. I went a few floors down, looking for a departmental store or its equivalent. There was a Muji. Close enough. I went in and picked out an olive green umbrella like a woman on a side-quest to procure equipment for her main quest. (It’s a good sturdy umbrella, I still use it, especially now that it’s the inter-monsoon period.)
I went back up to the park entrance, opened my new umbrella and walked up to the mooncake-eating bunny. Of course, in the time it had taken for me to purchase an umbrella and go back up to the rooftop for the bunny, the rain had trickled to a halt, rendering my umbrella useless for the moment. Plus, now that it stopped raining, I had to compete with a crowd and queue for photos.
Their decor consisted of three glowing bunnies, two sets of glowing fish, and a tunnel with glowing lantern fish overhead. But we all know I came for the bunnies.
In Chinese mythology, the Jade Rabbit (Yu Tu) lives on the moon with Chang’E, the Moon Goddess. Speaking of which, there’s this movie that I sort of want to watch but haven’t gotten around to: Over the Moon. I say ‘sort of’, because I’ve heard that some people cried buckets over it, and I don’t think I’m in a good enough place mentally to watch a movie that will make me cry. The rabbit is named Bungee. Oh em gee, how adorable.
Hahaha, I love this photo. I snapped a photo on autopilot before realising I hadn’t adjusted the settings. A shining beacon of…bunny, guiding people through the park like ships passing in the dusk.
I want to share all my mooncakes with this bunny. I see it has opted for a single-yolk mooncake, so this bunny isn’t a vegetarian.
That bunny looks deceptively small. In reality, it’s huge. I’ll bet they can re-use it again for next year’s mid-autumn decor. Remind me to mark my calendars again next year to see what KL malls have in store for their annual bunny decor.
I love how they gave it a cute bunny butt at the back, complete with poofy tail.
I turned around and there was this building that just disappeared into the clouds.
This picture reminds me of my pet oranda about a decade ago. A classmate had won it at a school fair, and she didn’t know what to do with it afterward, so she gave it to me, though as a teenager with no fishkeeping experience I had no idea what to do either, so at first I put it in a bowl temporarily. Then, someone gave me a fish tank for free and I spent lots of my pocket money on things for the tank and the fish. The goldfish on the right almost looks like it has an oranda’s wen. Aw, man, now I’m sad.
The sky gradually grew dark around me.
I timed my visit so that it would be in the late evening, when I would have the dark blue sky as the perfect underwater backdrop for the lantern fish.
I wonder if I could make a game for myself and name one very happy memory or moment in my life for each of these ethereal-looking fish, like shimmering stars in the gallery of my memory.
Time to head out. Even the mall exit is pretty.
This was actually my dinner on day 3, after I had returned to KL, but I’ll just put it here, just because. I ordered this really delicious Norwegian salmon and a lamb dish. At some point, the maître d’ hesitated before suddenly asking me, “I think you’ve been here before, right?” I said yeah. He then continued, saying that I used to come here, but I hadn’t come for a long time afterward.
He was right, I had dined here a few times when I was in KL in 2023 and 2024 (and once, two nights in a row), and then just didn’t come back to this restaurant since then. I guess my subsequent KL trip schedules were just too packed with other things to stop by, even if I liked the food there. I was surprised that I could come back after a 2-year absence and he’d still remember me, given the amount of foot traffic that mall sees from tourists and locals. Maybe I’m memorable because while most diners come with companions, I’m the tall woman who comes alone in the evenings and then orders two plates of food, one of which is invariably the lamb. It felt somewhat nice to know that people somewhere would remember me, even if I’m memorable only because of my quirks.