My One Week Staycation

What’s a ‘staycation’?

It’s a vacation where you and your family stay at home instead of going off somewhere. Or in Malaysian terms, no money to go somewhere far for holiday so we stay at home lor.

Since my great company gave me the whole week off (so nice of them), and with my MIL visiting, i took the chance to go to some of the places i haven’t been for a long, long time.

Actually my 9-day long staycation started last Saturday and Sunday, but it was mostly taken up by my usual weekend stuff (we managed to visit 5 car showrooms on Saturday afternoon) so it doesn’t really count.

Day 1 Monday (Hari Raya’s Eve)

My MIL was in town for a couple of days, so on Monday morning we took her down to the potato factory road, a.k.a. Petaling Street. Really, you say? Petaling Street? How touristy is that? Look the last time i went there was probably in 1997 when i bought a Metallica CD from the stall under the pedestrian bridge and a Nirvana tee from one the stalls along the main street.

Things have surely changed a lot. A lot more touristy, sure, and most of the stalls are manned by foreigners now. But most of the shops are still the same, and the stuff we wanted to eat we still there.

Had lunch at the wantan mee stall, ate the fried potato balls (not that great) and visited that famous art supply store (eh, more expensive than Art Friend leh), and my wife bought swiss rolls from Happy Meal (no not the McDonalds one).

Of course we went to Central Market after that, don’t recall i’ve ever walked in before this.

There was a cool 2nd hand bookstore there, and some nice art stores, there rest didn’t seem interesting (my wife bought rubber Angry Birds toy. Authentic and traditional Malaysian craftwork right there).

In less than 2 hours and we’ve seen everything. So enroute back along Jalan Damansara, we dropped by at Tropicana Mall. I’ve been there once when it first opened. Kinda dull place, except for Borders. Found Ninja Joe at the LG level, tried the pork burger. Quite nice. Expensive.

Dinner we drove all the way to Lan Jie for my MIL to try the fish. Was a bit late, apparently we ordered the last 3 fish available for the night. Interesting bit of trivia i learnt from the lady boss. they actually go through 200-300 tilapia PER DAY. On weekends, they can sell up to 400 PER DAY. Are there even THAT MANY tilapia fish in Malaysia?!

Day 2 (First day of Hari Raya)

My MIL made a trip to Genting, so we went to the Bookfair in KLCC. IT WAS EXTREMELY CROWDED!!! KLCC was insanely crowded. The Bookfair was even worse. But more on the Bookfair later.

Firstly, lunch at Madam Kwan’s. MADAM KWAN’s was CROWDED! We had to register and was told to wait 15 mins for a table. So we went to Toys ‘R Us. Toys ‘R Us WAS CROWDED! Actually, no it wasn’t. Nobody shops there, except expats and parents desperate to buy a last minute present.

For a peak holiday period, Madam Kwan’s service was excellent and speedy. Got my Nasi Bojari (and spaghetti for the kids).

After lunch we walked across to Convention Centre for the Bookfair. The English section was crowded enough, the Chinese section was like a warzone.

I’m thinking, do Malaysians actually read this much? If they do, then i don’t think the govt should be worried at all.

Anyways here’s a pic of me and Hannah waiting for my wife and Alyssa outside the Lifestyle Pavilion (where they sell stationery) on the 3rd level.

And the view of KLCC park behind me.

It was a long and tiring day of jostling with crowds, and we finally made it back to Puchong. For dinner we tried this Taiping restaurant.

Food was cheap, but i still prefer Taiping Ho Chiak in SS2.

To be continued when i upload more pics.