Where I Stayed in KL (2) - Guesthouse in the Golden Triangle

After kondominium, what's next? We will leave the 19th storey unit in KL suburb and visit the heart of Kuala Lumpur city, where I booked a room for two nights in January 2009. The guesthouse, at Jalan Mesui, is within walking distance to Bukit Bintang, the main shopping belt of KL. The January trip was a shopping extravaganza of sort.

(Guesthouse is 500m from nearest monorail at Raja Chulan. The next station to the south is Bukit Bintang, the main shopping belt.)

My guesthouse was a two-storey townhouse, a totally different kind of accommodation from Gurney Height. Even the geography is different:

(Jalan Nagasari connects Jalan Mesui, where guesthouse is located, to Jalan Raja Chulan, the main road. The walled compound is Hotel Istana, with Jalan Raja Chulan running in the background.)

As you can see, Jalan Nagasari is sloping. So Jalan Mesui is somewhere at the "valley" bottom. I have to trudge up this unavoidable slope to Raja Chulan Monorail everyday. This is definitely a steeper incline than the one at Gurney Height. While Gurney Height rests on a "bukit", this guesthouse lies on lowland.

This is my guesthouse. Yes, the middle one .... without a gate!

(Don't know about you, but I feel insecure without a gate. I won't endanger the occupants by revealing whether the front door is locked.)

According to the caretaker, the guesthouse is safe due to the presence of security (or carpark 'jaga') at the opposite building and the crowd in the pub next door. You can see them here.

(A pub, yeah, so it can get noisy at night. You heard that.)

The caretaker can vouch for safety inside the guesthouse, but that didn't allay my fear walking back from Bukit Bintang one night. The street is pretty desolated and crowds stay indoor (guesthouse, sarabat? stalls, pubs etc.), not out. I made a few turns and thought I was lost. I panicked seeing the occasional man 'following' me.

(This is Malaysia after all and even locals do not sing praise of Kuala Lumpur. My fertile imagination warns me gang fights and gang rape mass sodomy may happen along these desolated streets.)

Finally, my single room for RM 55. Unlike my room at Gurney Height, this one has air-con, but no window or wardrobe. There is an extra cushion too.

Rate is inclusive of breakfast and towels. Exclude them and you pay only RM 50.

(I should have paid only RM 2 more for the towels, i.e. 50 + 2 = 52. I was expecting the staff to prepare scrambled eggs and sausage a decent breakfast for me. Unfortunately the staff with good culinary skills wasn't around that morning and I had to make do with a 'tabao' breakfast. So they bought nasi lemak and prepared a small banana for me. The nasi lemak was too spicy and unpalatable for my taste. It was my longest breakfast in a while.)

The townhouse has 13 air-conditioned rooms and 5 bathrooms with hot water shower. The 'highlight' (for me) got to be the bathroom "open to the sky". It is true. They have this bathroom "where guests can see the beautiful sky in the city centre".

(I must be too distraught to take a picture after seeing a building with the sky. There I was, in the bathroom, totally uncovered, looking up and saw a building at the edge of the uncovered roof. Ladies beware. If you can see 'em, they can see you too.)

To quote the website, this is "an experience not to be missed". Haha.