Saturday, June 20, 2009

How you gain 5.5kg in 4 days...in KL...

How do you gain 5.5kg in just 4 days? Let me show you how... on the 10th of June till the 13th of June.. my lovely inlaws, my girls and myself took the AirAsia flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a short school holiday family getaway.

My family minus CJ who stayed behind in Singapore for work. :)

The girls and myself in the 45 minute van ride which we took from KL International Airport. RM150 (around SGD$70?) to take all 7 of us in the passenger van to our hotel which was situated in walking distance from the Petronas Twin Towers and KLCC.

We stayed at the Renaissance Hotel... strange though.. many things weren't working in our room.. the bathroom light was flickering when we entered - they fixed it in 10 minutes.. the toilet flush didn't quite work well, it was uber SLOW... and one out of the 2 phones in the room didn't work... hmn... ookkay...

The lobby of the hotel.. where we were given 2 complimentary hotel buffet breakfasts each morning.. of which I took completely full advantage of and practically had EVERYTHING.. plus several thick slices of hot toasted butter rustic loaf... *heaven*...

The room was comfortable though.. the girls slept together on one bed and I took the other.. and they had a ball of a time each evening catching the cartoon channel which showed cartoon movies which they loved and watched till they fell asleep.

Bathroom was standard but not as clean as Singapore.. personally, I would NOT have a bubblebath in that bathtub.. it was strangely yellow and stained.. eeeeewwwww!!! But different from Singapore Hotel bathtubs *those that I have patronised at least* which usually was.. quite spotless and shiny. I'm sure there are exceptions where some were frankly just as gross? But those that I have gone to here ARE spotless and shiny. Hahaha! :)

Heeheee! Camlovin' in the bathroom of course!

I opened the window and looked down and we had a lovely view of the pool! Which we swam on the 3rd day once in the morning and once in the evening... and I got a chance to lounge by the poolside in my red bikini... damn! that $5 bikini gets alot of mileage!

When we touched down and unloaded our lugguage, we head over to go check out the Petronas Towers from the outside... didn't take the tour which they supposedly had? and head up to KLCC Shopping Mall for some dinner and a little shopping.

During the trip however, I was in awe at the many amount of shopping malls, their multiple levels of shops and the multitude of luxury brand name boutiques that profilerated the malls in KL. Even Singapore doesn't have that many boutiques I'm sure!

A viewpoint of me staring up at one of the Petronas Towers. So high!....

Inside the KLCC, one of its atriums... it was around 8+pm and the mall was still crawling with shoppers..

I looked up and I love high ceiling malls and took that viewshot only to stand there for a while longer and think that the structure of the ceiling was quite intruiging! So I took another picture facing up while kneeling on the ground. If I stood and looked up, I probably would have lost my balance and fallen backwards.. *pffft! my balance isn't that great*

And an even closer view.. nice structure eh? Looks like.. *bursting out in laughter as I realise this.... an asshole!!* Hahhahahaa!!!.. damn!... ok.... moving on...

And the trip was very very very very generously sponsored by my lovely sister in law - Serene *CJ's younger sister* and her hubby, my brother in law - Mark... *loves loves* Eirian took a picture with her grandma aka my mother in law - Catherine!

We went to a Japanese restaurant and I took my first dish in KL that broke my carb intake cycle.. Ebi Tempura with Ramen... *slurps* Not bad!

We did a little shopping and the girls found a T-Rexs' head and posed under it...*roar!*

We then head down to the supermarket and I fulfilled completely my first thing on my shopping list.. bubblegum and chewing gum!! Now that really gave a new name to a "kid in a candy store" because I was literally shoving packs right into my basket.

And I came away with my personal stash! Which by now - a week later .. has already been 1/3 obliterated/injested and bubbles blown.

And we found cute little kiddy sized bottled of flavoured strawberry milk and grape milk for the girls to drink while on the trip! ... cute lah!

And then the carb sinning continues... I walked past the Cinnamon roll shop and stopped in my tracks.. CINNAMON ROLLS!! Why why why did they stop selling those damn sinful things here in Singapore?!? ... so I bought 2. Hehehhee! *Finished one that first evening and the other the next evening.. all by myself.. (pats belly in satisfaction).*

And then we walked past... Omg!! Dunkin Donuts!! Buy donuts!! Packed in 6 and happily walked away with my carb stash for the evening.. when we hit back the hotel.. the girls and I wacked up 5 of these donuts and left one sadly in the box for the next day....

The next day was filled with window shopping, accessory shopping.. I found black knee height boots with heels! Love it! And it can ACTUALLY FIT MY fat calves... *happiness*....

And of course.. more food.. after a heavy buffet breakfast.. we head over to the Overseas Restaurant for lunch...rated one of the best Chinese restaurants in KL.. and after that lunch.. I TOTALLY AGREE!! *slurps*

Started off with old cucumber, pork and date soup... then fish fillets with green onions, sambal kangkong and a tofu eggwhite vegetable dish that everyone loved...

And its speciality - its roasted sweet pork aka Char Siew.. which was.. really.. absolutely heavenly that we had to order it twice... along with an order of excellent roast pork... *drooling*, deep fried corn tofu nuggets and sweet & sour pork... all good!!

The Char Siew was really succuent, the tender, juicy meat not over done but the charred bits and its seasoning was done EXCELLENTLY...

Then we head down to Times Square where we did somemore window shopping.. and found..

Some baby blue icecream which we bought because it just looked intruiging.. Lauren tried it and said.."Vanilla!!" and Eirian tried it and said "PLAYDOUGH!!".... -.-''.... playdough? *cough*... uh huh... okay.. moving on...

And then the best thing EVER... we found a KRISPY KREME shop and I knew I was in carb heaven.. we qued up for our selection of donuts and tea and while in the que, they gave us free original glazed donuts too! Very Singaporean to be so happy about free donuts huh? But How lovely is that? Good ah! *Still fantasising about warm glazed covered soft chocolate donuts...* Singapore MUST have Krispy Kreme lah!!

Some more shopping and then dinner! I had Pasta Marinara at the food court with homemade mushroom soup. The soup was gooood but my pasta was a little over done and too soft... and they used HOTDOGS.. pfffft! I could make better pasta than that.. but whatever it was, it was all still finished till the last drop and I practically waddled out of the food court with a belly that looked like I was 5 months pregnant.

We then went around desperately looking for a pharmacy where I could get some ENO to help the indigestion and heavy feeling of nausea from over eating.

The unsettling thing about that day though was that I started sneezing non stop and my nose was dripping steady streams of water. I chugged up Panadol Flu over several 3-4 hour intervals and prayed that I wouldn't fall sick more and end up not being allowed to travel back to Singapore! Thankfully, the next day.. I was fine.

The 3rd day's lunch was at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and we had Dimsum in the Lai Poh Hin Chinese restaurant which supposedly served the best DimSum in KL.

Our starters which was a tangy mixture of preserved vegetables, carrot, black fungi, fresh mushroom and chicken strips. Not too bad.

Carrot cake, cuttlefish balls, fish cake and stewed chicken feet...

Dumpling Money bags, Siew Mai, Haw Gow aka crystal prawn dumplings and Gyoza dumplings...

Then we proceeded to more shopping and back to the hotel for dinner at their in house chinese restaurant and to our surprise.. the food there was so damn good...

Eggplant with fishcake and minced meat, vegetable tofu mix with crab meat, steamed codfish and roasted chicken.... and their sweet & sour pork was absolutely first class.. we had to order two sets of that because everyone loved it so!

We were regretting not getting supper stash at the mall so we went to the hotel lobby and checked out the pastries and cakes... heh! heh! and bought some too!!

Their custard filled donuts were crazy big. See my finger? Its diameter was double the length of my finger.. big!!! A Lemon tart.. I love lemon pastries! and a Blueberry nutty cake... *so good*

The next day after breakfast, we checked out the chocolate factory across the road and bought chocolates to bring back home. The girls checked out the chocolate kitchen where there were chocolate chefs preparing different treats like bars and chocolate covered biscuit fingers...

If you ever go there however, I would suggest buying the chocolates in the value packs available as it is more worth the money... those in boxes are all just packaging and when you open them, you find a small packet inside.. not worth it!

And there was a street artist Silver man which we found sitting in a corner on one of the streets, "frozen" in his art and people gathered around him to take pictures with him and he just sat there.. frozen... unmoving... must be quite taxing on him after some time I'm sure...but very intruiging.. Human statue.

And a picture of the Petronas Twin Towers when I first walked past in the day on Day 1 of our trip.. and when I walked past again after dinner.. a night shot.. :)

So thats it! Thats how you gain 5.5kg of food weight in just 4 days.. Full Breakfast-Lunch & Dinner PLUS a full Tea break and Supper treats consecutively for all days... I came back to Singapore knowing that I've packed on alot and I stepped on my scale on our return on Saturday to check, I saw the 5.5kg gain... staring at me right in the face.. *faints*

4 days later... on Thursday.. after a little bit of detoxing.. I'm down 4kg.. with the remaining 1.5kg left in my system to slowly work off.... :) KL.. you'll see us again...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow! what did u do/eat to lose the 4kg? mind sharing? :p

Aka Pamela S. said...

Hello Anonymous,

No one really gains THAT much packed in weight in just over a couple of days.

Usually, it is all food weight. With food weight, all you need is a little detoxing, eating a little healthier with vegetables/fruits, go low carb and drink alot of fluids to flush out the excess packed food in your system..

And of course it would help to be exercising.. :)

I'm not surprised it dropped off so fast as it is only food weight, however this instance is not a case where someone who is innately heavier than normal to be able to lose 4kg of fat/weight in 5 days without prior regular levels of physical activity and fitness level. :)

Hillary said...

Hi Pamela, I enjoy reading your blog, thanks for writing.

Just a thought, I don't think it is completely accurate to deduce that all Singapore bathtubs are spotless and shiny. It may lead the reader to deduce that all Malaysian bathtubs are not clean which from my experience, is not true.

I am surprised that the Renaissance is not that well-maintained but otherwise, I think most hotels in Malaysia should be able to provide you with a hygienic and pleasant stay.

Aka Pamela S. said...

Hiya Hillary,

Yes you are right. I have edited that segment. :) However.. that particular bathroom was really not maintained well. The shower curtains were not clean and unscrubbed and the air vent just above the shower was packed with dust hanging from the vent grill.. seriously? It was gross.

I'm sure there would have been better hotels there in Malaysia and we will try another one at another time :)

Serene said...

Wah lau! So yummy food!!! Especially the dunkin' donuts and krispy kremes which didn't have, which so reminds me of Australia! Sigh.... No wonder 5.5kg!

Anonymous said...

Hi Pam, my family and I went to Malaysia too last week (13th-21st June), but we drove all the way to Cameron Highlands, Penang and KL. And yes, I did gain as much as u!!! Cuz all we did was to eat, and eat, and eat!!! Especially for us Malays from Singapore sure "Yao-Kui" with all the Halal food there since most of them are not Halal here, like Subway, Kenny Rogers, and all nice food to enjoy! And till now i still feel "fat" since i haven't detox all the food that i indulge... Anyways, glad to know that i'm not the only one who gain that much after a long holiday. ;) - Juli Kasmani