KAMPUNGBOYCITYGAL A MALAYSIAN FOOD & TRAVEL BLOG

Because I need a new laptop badly…

The battle of fried chicken has now begin in……TTDI where two of the largest quick-service chicken restaurant group (measured by number of units) were seen sitting opposite to each other, luring customers with their very eye-catchy signboards. It was not until last week that we have decided to check out the (relatively) swanky new place. 

Well, we might be the last flogger to write about them but better late than never right?

We had the dinner plate (RM 11.95 nett) with 3 pieces of spicy fried chicken, mashed potatoes, coleslaw and a cookie. When compared to Kentucky’s Fried Chicken, Popeye’s version is less oily with crunchier skin but it tastes pretty bland. Even the spicy version is not spicy of all, or is it that our taste bud has gone wrong?

We really like the little cookie that comes with our set. It’s like a cross between scone and bread – chewy outside and soft inside. Very good stuff especially when eaten hot!

The  smooth mash potatoes with the minced meat sauce fares pretty well. The slightly spicy bown sauce with traces of minced meat is very appetizing.No complains on the fresh, crunchy coleslaw with the right amount of dressing too. 

The chicken finger is nothing to shout about. It’s like another variant of the cajun fried chicken but boneless. It tastes much better when dipped into the mashed potatoes with brown sauce. All in all, we still prefer Kentucky Fried Chicken anytime but wouldn’t mind returning for Popeye’s side dishes. 

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen
Jalan Tun Mohd Fuad 1
Taman Tun Dr. Ismail
Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03 – 7710 1198

Continuing from Day 1…

We were pretty knackered and needed some grub after some brisk walk along Tanjung Aru and Sutera Harbour (thanks Sandra!). So we went back to the hostel to have a good night’s sleep. If you are looking for an affordable accommodation around KK, try looking into Hotels Combined which is something like an online accommodation booking aggregator. Hotels Combined even allows you to sort the hotels by its pricing, distance from the city, popularity etc. We did our booking for our upcoming trips from there too!

The great people from Lavender Lodge helped us to contact a few inbound tour agents and got us a One Day Tour to Kinabalu Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Centre & Poring Hot Spring for only RM 185 per person. Vkeong and SL who desires to do white water rafting at Padas River went on separate way (read about their little adventure here).

The journey to Kinabalu Park starts early in the morning. We were greeted by our tour guide – a sweet Dusun Kadazan girl at 7.30 am.  Along the way, our tour van picked up another family and two Singaporean girls from their respective hotel.

The ride along the sealed road was pretty winding so we get some shut eye. After 45 minutes, we stopped by the Pekan Nabalu, Tamparuli to do some shopping for crafts and local products while enjoying the most scenic view of Mount Kinabalu.

A majestic view of Mount Kinabalu

cam-whoring

We continued our journey to KK Park which lies at an elevation of 1,563 meters (5,128 feet) above sea level. The foot hill was the Mount Kinabalu Park headquarters where the hikers register for their climb but we proceeded to the botanical garden. This flora and fauna paradise covers an area of 754 square kilometers. Due to a diverse range of temperatures and climate, KK Park is a home to various exotic plants, birds and insects with new species found every year.

As our tour guide was explaining and pointing out the vast array of plants, we were busy snapping around. I felt the lovely cool wind blow on my face, such breezy weather! Though we didn’t make the trek up the mountain due to time constraints, but we truly enjoyed the park.

Mother Nature’s creation which leave us in awe

Wild Berries. Even if some of the cherries are slightly sour, they are still edible and I’ve tried it! Haha

The Naked Tree – tree that changes its “skin”

We stopped at a little restaurant near Poring Hot Spring for lunch and an energy boost because we need to do a little bit of climbing later. Do you know that one is required to climb 550m in order to reach the 157.8 m long canopy walkway with an average height of 41m? The hike up to the canopy walk is pretty strenuous to us as it is an uphill hike all the way.

I was sweating like cow by the time I reached the treetop canopy walkway…

The walkways are  planks hardly a foot wide placed on aluminium ladders supported by the ropes. At 40m above the  ground, it’s really bad for people with acrophobia like me! Walking through the first suspension bridge is tough, but as I feel much better as I go along. The view from the suspension bridge is simply awesome! It sort of distracted my attention away from the height issue.

KampungBoy & his “kick”

Rujuta from Singapore  smiling for our camera…

We are like little ants when compared to nature…

Meet Sue and her little girl from UK…

To rejuvenate our body by enjoying a refreshing dip in some sulphurous water (good for skin apparently!), we walked towards the hot spring tubs. There are limited private tubs and several tubs scattered around the communal area. Those available tubs appeared quite unsightly so we opted for a “foot spa” instead of a full body dip.

Our one day tour ended after this, where we took a ride back to civilization. With hundreds of pictures captured, we just can’t wait to share it with you guys!

Next Up: TWO rounds of seafood dinner in Kota Kinabalu town!

Did you notice the hit counter in our sidebar? We have reached 1 million hits (close to 1.1 mil as of today *being calculative*). It is really amazing for what started as a blog with a mere 10  hits per day (well, half of it come from kampungboy & citygal haha). Needless to say we couldn’t have made it without your  love & support. Thank you all for being the best readers a flogger could ask for! It does mean a lot to us  and it will definitely keep us moving.

Feel free to tell us your favourite makan places and we will try our very best to  drop by. Please email to kampungboycitygal[at]gmail[dot]com if there’s any ideas to help us do better too. Hope to hear from you guys soon!

In the mean time, we are flying off to Hong Kong from 23rd to 28th April. Wish us luck in our lil food pilmigrage to the holy land of gastronomic delight!

From “trillion dollars stimulus package”, down to “lunch stimulus package”, “recession proof your health” sort of deals, it seems that we are having stimulus everywhere. Even MAS has gone extra mile to launch their very own stimulus package with a total of 9 deals covering economy class, business class and first class! Not everyone is happy with the giant stimulus package that leaders around the world are pushing through, but I’m pretty sure that cheap fares will definitely make everyone happy!

On a separate note, MAS is having this ‘The Great Escapade‘ contest in Facebook with many lucrative prizes to be won!

1st PRIZE: 1X Return Business Class to Sydney/ Japan

2nd PRIZE: 1X Return Business Class + 50% discount for your companion to Hong Kong

3rd PRIZE: 1X Return Business Class to Bangkok

and many many more…

Me myself have actually won something via MAS facebook group and guess what, I’m going to take part in this contest too. I need to blog about a story entitled “The Great Escapade: My Fun Travel with MAS!” and incorporate a minimum of 3 of the travel deals under MAS Stimulus Package in my story and submit the entry by email. Japan, here I comeeeeee! (for more info, please log on to MAS’s facebook group)

OK, let’s check out these good deals from MAS stimulus package!

So the First and Business Class deal does not really apply to me. Boss, you can take a look at this.

Malaysia Airlines will match the price of one’s previous travel on another airline for flights above 3 hours.

This applies for First and Business Class travel.

Asean and International travel

50% discount is offered for your companion’s business class travel (Boss, I can be your note taker, I can carry your luggage, please bring me along!)

Domestic, Asean and International travel

Pay economy class fares but enjoy business class travel privileges including access to the lounges and accrual of Enrich miles.

Domestic, Asean and International travel

Travel during weekends

Enjoy all inclusive RM69 fares for travel within the Peninsular & within East Malaysia

RM99 for travel between East and West Malaysia

Domestic only

I have a great idea! We can actually plan a food trip to  Penang or even Kuala Terengganu and eat like there’s no tomorrow. Something like SIX meals a day! It’s good to go home every now and then too, as time goes in a different pace compared to KL.

Best of Penang!

From top left: Mak Long’s keropok, famous beef noodles @ Kampung China, stir fried hainanese chicken rice, the gorgeous Heritage Bay

Special fares for long weekend travel

ASEAN only

Woot! I can foresee that we are going to Bali very soon, right kampungboy? Considering the fact that you went to Phuket Island without me, you still owe me a weekend escapade there!

Hahahahahahaha

Bad Boy’s Heaven

Elephant’s Ride

(with my hobbit like metre-high frame, can I be considered as a kid?)

For every 2 adult economy class tickets purchased, a child below 12 years old travels for free

Domestic and Asean travel

Purchase 1 economy class ticket, and your companion gets a free ticket on flights operated by Malaysia Airlines

Domestic and Asean travel

What a good news for affectionate couples and BFFs who wish to travel together. While it might be a bad news for some, as possessive gf/bf has the best-estever reason to tag along!

Enjoy low fares when you book online

Domestic and Asean travel

For those who emailed me and ask me about the price of our ticket to Kota Kinabalu, you can now book online to enjoy lower air fares. Did I mention that we spent less than RM500 per person for our 3 days trip, including a visit to KK national park and TAR marine park?

From here, you get the best view of Mount KK

Canopy Walk @ Poring Hot Spring

Manukan island, the second largest of the five tropical islands of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park

Special fares for selected destinations are available online from time to time

Domestic, Asean and International travel

Hangang River within Seoul City

Gyeongbok-Gung Palace

Cheongwadae (blue house), resident and office of the president.

Korean style blue tiles from which “blue house” takes its name

Shoju (Korean rice wine) overdosed

Korean Street Food

Myeong Dong, the famous shopping district

Hui Lao Shan, everywhere in HK!

With so many pocket friendly options from MAS, it seems like recession is almost the best time to travel, given that you have some money to spend, of course. As traveling to places outside ASEAN is beyond my affordability, I’m going to draft my entry for the ‘The Great Escapade’ contest now, wish me luck in bagging the air ticket to Sidney/Japan!

Finally, I’ve found a reason to like the current economic meltdown.

* its really the best time to travel now.

*check out MAS website 

It has been a while since we have posted good places to eat around Seri Kembangan. For those who are new here, we used to reside around SK when we first started the blog, hence the numerous reviews on eateries around SK. While I was about to reformat my PC, I found some long forgotten pictures from those “seri kembangan days”. One of them is this famous mamak that takes it place in front of the tyre shop only after 930 pm daily.

The mamak is  popular;  with a fair amount of Chinese, Malay and Indian groups frequenting it.

For only RM1, one gets a packet of nasi lemak biasa. Hard boiled egg, mutton curry and chicken feet curry are among the famous side dishes that most patrons would order.

Although eating chicken feet is an acquired taste, but I swear by it. I love eating chicken feet when it is fresh cooked and hot. The mamak’s version was even better – drenched in aromatic thick curry sauce, it goes very well with our packets of nasi lemak. (RM 2 for 3 feets)

Our perennial favourite – roti tisu (RM 1.50) fares pretty well too. Paper thin, crispy, with coarse-grained sugar crystals for the sweet-toothed, it has won our votes!

How I miss those Seri Kembangan days where good and cheap food is aplenty…