Hotel: The Furama
Location: Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Alleged Star Rating: 4 Stars
Decided Star Rating: 2-3 to be generous, but I'd take a hostel over this on principle
Cost: About $65 CAD per night on 55% discount through www.Agoda.com, for a ten day stay
Disabilities Access Rating: Strong
Vegetarian Suitability: Moderate
Food Quality: Leaves something to be desired
Cleanliness: Moderate--could have been worse
Location: Very close to Bukit Bintang Times Square Mall
Sleep Quality: Not much sound-proofing, but not busy enough to be a problem
Service: Don't even get me started.
Conclusions: Don't even bother.
Details...
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Seven Great Things I found in Thai Convenience Stores
7) Oishi Tea
I swear I don't love this stuff JUST because it has One Piece characters on the front. It's also weirdly addictive. Don't try the Nami variety--it tastes like dirty liquorice. I bought a pack of that, and it's definitely staying with the apartment for the next poor fool who rents it.
6) Pandan cakes.
It tastes like grass. It is also delicious. No, I can't explain in words how those two statements manage to both be true. It's worth the taste, though--Pandan is weird but good. It's like a green, grassy twinkie.
5) Cooling Powder
Okay, so I grew up in Alberta, land of unpredictable winds, cows, and perpetual cool weather. The hottest day ever recorded in my hometown a) happened in 1919, and b) was the temperature of a really average day in Phuket. So my ability to survive the heat was forged in the crucible of a tropical paradise, and frankly, that's a difficult thing to survive.
My favourite discovery for beating the heat (and not looking like something the cat dragged in as soon as I stepped outside) is cooling powder! Magic dust, this stuff. Essentially talc (baby powder) mixed with something that makes your skin feel like it's being licked by a minty-fresh polar bear when it comes in contact with moisture.
So basically, you sweat, the baby power absorbs it, and you get to feel amazingly cool. Magic powder!
Thailand has a billion varieties of this stuff, all of which are sold in your friendly neighbourhood convenience store. Sure it probably exists in Canada, but it's one of those things that I definitely didn't need there!
4) Instant Noodles
Thailand has amazing noodles. All you need to make them is hot water, and they taste like...amazing.
Yeah. Tom Yum soup is freaking delicious--it's the one with the shrimps on the front. Yeah, all of them. It's a popular flavour. Fair warning, Thailand does not skimp of the spicy--it's 50-50 on whether you're going to get a hot soup or a nuclear wasteland in your mouth. I like the excitement of finding out, myself.
It's like Russian Roulette with your tongue!
3) Meiji Milk
Of all the milk I've had in my life, this is the best. It's sweet, creamy deliciousness, far better than anything I've tasted in North America. It's like cow nectar, a lactose-filled ambrosia. I don't know what kinds of cows Japan has, but Canada should seriously look into that and import some of them in, because clearly we are failing on the delicious milk front.
2) This Pancake Thing. (Dorayaki)
I have no idea what it's called, but it's delicious! It's two pancakes made into a sandwich around an almond custard-cream. It's amazing, and insanely hard to find. Buy as many as you can and sit in your room eating them in the dark--I promise that it'll be a better evening than whatever else you had planned.
We found a cookie and cream variety once! That...was a really good day. One of the best, if I'm going to be totally honest.
1) Thai Energy Drinks
So I discovered these last week, or there about. The passage of time is kind of a relative thing under the influence of these, and/or depending on the speed of the Tuk Tuk. There's TONS of varieties, and they're all basically sugar syrup laced with...caffeine? Ginseng? I don't know. Super tasty, though.
They're great! Mix them with coke and rum/vodka for a great mixed drink that'll have you climbing the walls until tomorrow morning, or drink it straight for a non-jittery alertness that might give you heart palpitations! Lol. I'm joking, probably. There's a warning label, but it's in Thai, so who's to say what it's warning us of? Maybe mutant piranhas are addicted to the stuff and you have to be prepared to defend your stash--there's no way to tell.
These retail for ten baht, or thirty-three cents, so you can have three for a dollar! I've lost count of how many I've had! Many dollars worth, though. Lucky, a sugar connoisseur of the highest order, says these are like sugar comas in a bottle. She loves them. There's a lot to love here in Thailand!
~Geogirl
I swear I don't love this stuff JUST because it has One Piece characters on the front. It's also weirdly addictive. Don't try the Nami variety--it tastes like dirty liquorice. I bought a pack of that, and it's definitely staying with the apartment for the next poor fool who rents it.
6) Pandan cakes.
It tastes like grass. It is also delicious. No, I can't explain in words how those two statements manage to both be true. It's worth the taste, though--Pandan is weird but good. It's like a green, grassy twinkie.
5) Cooling Powder
Okay, so I grew up in Alberta, land of unpredictable winds, cows, and perpetual cool weather. The hottest day ever recorded in my hometown a) happened in 1919, and b) was the temperature of a really average day in Phuket. So my ability to survive the heat was forged in the crucible of a tropical paradise, and frankly, that's a difficult thing to survive.
My favourite discovery for beating the heat (and not looking like something the cat dragged in as soon as I stepped outside) is cooling powder! Magic dust, this stuff. Essentially talc (baby powder) mixed with something that makes your skin feel like it's being licked by a minty-fresh polar bear when it comes in contact with moisture.
So basically, you sweat, the baby power absorbs it, and you get to feel amazingly cool. Magic powder!
Thailand has a billion varieties of this stuff, all of which are sold in your friendly neighbourhood convenience store. Sure it probably exists in Canada, but it's one of those things that I definitely didn't need there!
4) Instant Noodles
Thailand has amazing noodles. All you need to make them is hot water, and they taste like...amazing.
Yeah. Tom Yum soup is freaking delicious--it's the one with the shrimps on the front. Yeah, all of them. It's a popular flavour. Fair warning, Thailand does not skimp of the spicy--it's 50-50 on whether you're going to get a hot soup or a nuclear wasteland in your mouth. I like the excitement of finding out, myself.
It's like Russian Roulette with your tongue!
3) Meiji Milk
Of all the milk I've had in my life, this is the best. It's sweet, creamy deliciousness, far better than anything I've tasted in North America. It's like cow nectar, a lactose-filled ambrosia. I don't know what kinds of cows Japan has, but Canada should seriously look into that and import some of them in, because clearly we are failing on the delicious milk front.
2) This Pancake Thing. (Dorayaki)
I have no idea what it's called, but it's delicious! It's two pancakes made into a sandwich around an almond custard-cream. It's amazing, and insanely hard to find. Buy as many as you can and sit in your room eating them in the dark--I promise that it'll be a better evening than whatever else you had planned.
We found a cookie and cream variety once! That...was a really good day. One of the best, if I'm going to be totally honest.
1) Thai Energy Drinks
So I discovered these last week, or there about. The passage of time is kind of a relative thing under the influence of these, and/or depending on the speed of the Tuk Tuk. There's TONS of varieties, and they're all basically sugar syrup laced with...caffeine? Ginseng? I don't know. Super tasty, though.
They're great! Mix them with coke and rum/vodka for a great mixed drink that'll have you climbing the walls until tomorrow morning, or drink it straight for a non-jittery alertness that might give you heart palpitations! Lol. I'm joking, probably. There's a warning label, but it's in Thai, so who's to say what it's warning us of? Maybe mutant piranhas are addicted to the stuff and you have to be prepared to defend your stash--there's no way to tell.
These retail for ten baht, or thirty-three cents, so you can have three for a dollar! I've lost count of how many I've had! Many dollars worth, though. Lucky, a sugar connoisseur of the highest order, says these are like sugar comas in a bottle. She loves them. There's a lot to love here in Thailand!
~Geogirl
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)