January 1st.
It was so nice to wake up feeling refreshed and with no hangover (somebody remind me next New Years eve that water is good for you!!!). We were however too late for breakfast in the hotel restaurant.
We caught the underground train to Central Market. This was a much more pleasant experience than the Central market in Phnom Penh. We were able to walk round looking at the stalls with out being harassed. The colours of the clothes and carpets were beautiful and along with the smells of spices it really is a unique experience. The market is on 3 floors but having walked to the second floor and found the food hall we didn’t go any further.We had seen enough.
We had planned to go back and see China Town in day light and rather than go one stop on the underground we walked. We only went one street and discovered we were in a street full of red lanterns and market stalls. This market was selling very different products to the Central market. A lot of stalls had “look alike” designer handbags, wallets and purses. The Lonely Planet book says you must hassle for the best price and keep going until you are happy with what you are spending.
A stroll along the market streets and it was lunch time. We started to look for the street we had seen on our previous visit which was full of outdoor dining areas selling chinese foods. Unfortunately we could not find it and it was so hot and sticky that we decided to head back to the dining hall in the Central market. This proved not to be our wisest of choices as the meal we had was not what we had expected..Lemon chicken and rice sounds straight forward to me but I don’t know what part of the chicken I had but it still had some small feather stubs on it, skin and lots of fat. Not a hint of lemon, but something brown and very, very spicy.
We caught the tube back to the Twin Towers so that we could pop into Marks and Spencer for something for dinner. Our one evening in, in our large apartment and to make use of the cooker and microwave. Sadly all of the freezers in M&S were empty but we did purchase macaroni, cheese sauce and a crusty cranberry and walnut loaf, plus a bottle of wine each.
Still not got over only drinking water for New Year we went to a wine bar to have a “swift one” before the walk back. The atmosphere was so relaxing and the wine tasted so good, one became two.
Dinner was delicious once we had phoned down to reception to find out how to turn the hob on. The buttons all worked but no heat. We searched for a master switch in the cupboards below and above. What we didn’t do was look behind the fridge for the master switch!!!!
A lovely crisp salad with a french dressing for starters, macaroni cheese for mains followed by some Cadburys chocolate. Who would have guessed we were in Malaysia?