Michael & Yuhui – Our Life Journey

Travelling out from Mid Valley during peak hours. Loong Yuan Seafood Restaurant just had to wait until after 8pm

Friend recommended a place (Restaurant Loong Yuen) not far from Mid Valley for nice seafood – crabs (our favorite!). Unfortunately, going after work meant the dreaded peak traffic time of (6pm to 8pm). iPhone 4’s zoom isn’t that great but you can roughly tell the amount of vehicles trying to get out of the area from the photo above. We waited till 8pm so as to avoid the crush and in the end the cab fare turned out to be RM 9.20 only (it would normally be 1.5 times to double during peak traffic due to high waiting time in jams).

Crab Bee Hoon was very good and the salted egg and deep fried crab was also delicious. Forgot to take photos of second dish as was busy enjoying the meal! Also snapped this picture of the crab hammer which we seldom see nowadays .. only for true crab eaters! 

Loong Yuan Seafood Restaurant
No. 79, Rukun Empat, Happy Garden.
Off Jalan Kuchai Lama, 58200 Kuala Lumpur.
Call +60 3 7982 3486 for reservations.

And yes, call ahead if you want to eat crabs (which we did thanks for friend’s advice). Cindy from the restaurant was very attentive (as were all the other staff) which made us feel right at home. She suggested 3 crabs (not all dishes allows just 1 crab) cooked in two ways which came up to about 2kg. Total bill was RM 120+ which was quite reasonable considering Crab Party in Singapore was about SGD 100+ last time we went there.

If you don’t drive, you’ll definitely want to spare 10-15 minutes wait time to call a cab before leaving. The place is definitely not easily accessible without driving. Highly recommended to give a try while you’re in KL or near the area.

Other delights in Chinatown (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

Saw this old building right across from a bookstore (can’t remember the name). Yh visited 3 bookstores, none of which I can appreciate due to the incredible amount of only Chinese books!

This was from Shanghai Bookstore and I was quickly bored after 1 round. Apparently the owner was also having a mini-celebration with tea/desserts being served.

Right opposite Shanghai bookstore is Nam Heong chicken rice. I had wanted to try it but it was closed (luckily, Yh found it at Mid Valley.. she is really good at finding stuff.. I’ve been there 3 months and didn’t even realise )!

Again on Jalan Sultan, we came across Hong Kee, according to their tagline <Famous Clay pot chicken rice>. Tried that for dinner and Portuguese grill fish and came away rather impressed. Good flavor and not too expensive. Worth trying if you are in the area.

Last place if you are a biscuits fan is Fung Wong Biscuits 凤凰饼家. Fresh out of the oven, the biscuits (Kaya puff, char siew and red bean) are heavenly! Yh made a special trip 2 days later to get another box for me.

Back in Chinatown (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) after 10 years! First meal? Bak Kut Teh

Can honestly say that I have very little memory of KL’s Chinatown 10 years ago and everything this time round was new to me. Luckily with trusty iPhone n map, we just walked around the area looking up interesting spots to visit.

Yh managed to find some bookshops and got some chinese books (according to her, they are a lot cheaper here than in Singapore). Myself on the other hand was searching for good food! Came across “Bak Good Teh" at the intersection of Jln Hang Lakir and Jln Sultan. Was pretty decent and good tea break.

Working in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Been travelling to KL for work for 3 months now. Before this, my last trip had been a drive up to KLCC for a meeting 5+ years ago and another holiday KL/Genting trip 10 years ago. Only managed to venture a little out of Mid Valley last week so capturing some moments from Chinatown and a nice recommended restaurant in Rukun Empat, Happy Garden.

Oddly enough, only on this trip did I realise that KTM was just 5 mins away from the hotel. Feeling adventurous, we decided that we would attempt to take the train to Chinatown instead of getting on a cab.

The train ticket to switch at KL Central was just RM 1 per person. Unfortunately, the timing (3pm+ ) was quite bad and the train was very packed. Turning tail, we quickly headed to the taxi queue and headed down to Chinatown (RM 7.30 by cab from Mid Valley).

Tip:
Watching Movies @ Mid Valley. Golden Screen Cinemas rates:
Weekends : RM 12
Weekdays : RM 11
Wednesdays : RM 7!

Dive #10 at Ribbon Valley, Mabul

Our last day at Sipadan Water Village was supposed to be more of r&r but we found out that we could actually squeeze in two more dives so we took another trip back to Ribbon Valley. This time round, managed to get in some interesting shots with the help of our new DM, Sandra. Total bottom time was approx 45min at 20m max depth. Vis was about 5m+.

This was probably the dive where we saw the most nudibranch. Singles, doubles mating. Colorful looking slugs.

Caught this pair doing the deed. Nudibranchs are apparently hermaphroditic, and thus have a set of reproductive organs for both sexes. They also typically deposit their eggs within a gelatinous spiral.

Another nudibranch but not as colorful, still pretty good camouflage and would be hard to notice it.

This shot was cropped from my blind photo taking as the ghost shrimp was so small that I could hardly see it and was aiming at the wrong location. Luckily, it managed to make the frame in the top left corner.

Another parting shot of the awesome turtles in the area. Kinda nice how we kept bumping into them.

A goby guarding it’s home. Was hard to take this shot since it scares easily and kept popping in and out. Fascinating to watch.

Another species of crab which I thought looked cool dangling on the coral.