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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

School of slimline barracudas who didn’t seem fazed at all by the current while we struggled to stay at the bottom.

This crocodile fish was so well hidden and we would have missed it if not for the our eagle-eye dive master Ramil.

Also caught sight of a giant grouper but unfortunately they tend to be further out and the bad vis meant I caught a mere shadow of it. Managed to get a parting shot of yet another slug as we were about the surface.

Heading back, we enjoyed the sunset and another great dinner at the restaurant.

This time, a pair of turtles even graced us with their presence even though they were extremely camera shy.

Our first 2 dives for the day was going to be muck dives at Samil Island and unfortunately not many photos came out well. Dive #7 was about 50min with max depth of 20m. Dive #8 was about 35min with max depth of 20m. Visibility was pretty bad at about 2-3m for both dives. Our dive master was Ramil.

There was this nice blue ribbon eel that posed for me and more or less that was the highlight.

Caught sight of the children playing during lunch as they raced each other in the low tide.

A school of jackfish was near our descend point again and this time a rather curious reflection made this fish stand out from the whole school.

Another shot of a white tip shark that was a bit further than the first sighting.

This turtle happened to swim towards our group and luckily my off shoulder shot as it swam up for air was quite nice.

The priceless shot of this school of barracuda has a rather interesting story since I got lost trying to take it.

After Niger’s instruction to stay on the bottom while we enjoyed the view, Zh n myself lagged behind during our photo taking and with the strong current, lost sight of the group. Luckily Niger’s quick action and amazing direction found me floundering away quite some distance away. I was quite prepared to surface already since being lost in the blue wasn’t my idea of fun. We managed to hook up with the boat and waiting for everyone else to surface. Was kinda scary and exhilarating at the same time chasing the school of barracudas.

After the excitement for the day wore off, we headed back to the resort for some r&r. Found this crab resting below our room.

Shot of the pipefish at night.

The surrounding water was crystal clear with the bright sun and the pipefish which were a brilliant incandescent blue at night could be seen swimming about in the day.

The local children seem to be enjoying themselves during the low tide. What a great way to spend childhood out in the sea versus in tuition centers?

Another school of fish in the crystal clear water. It’s almost surreal seeing them this way, as if they were floating in air.

Our next dive would be at Barracuda Point which not surprisingly meant that there would be barracudas! Visibility throughout was pretty good with max depth of ~20m and total dive time of about 40minutes.

After the descend into the clear water with about 20m visbility, we were treated to a school of jackfish right below us. It’s pretty amazing to have them swim up close to you.

Caught sight of this trio of fish swimming idling by, their facial expressions look like total slackers *grin*.

Zh’s eagle eye also caught sight of this turtle taking a break on the corals.

Another reef shark but this time a lot further away and with the strong current, it was quite difficult to get in for a closer shot.