Better Beer in KL

Time Out KL Magazine's monthly feature for September is on beer. Maybe it's telling that the article is only three pages long... So seeking better beer in KL, we started last week by dragging Isabel on a beer hunting adventure to Publika. Love that mall, but the layout drives me crazy. The stores are in 4 long "blocks" (buildings) with stores on each side of the buildings on four levels (some above ground and some below). It's darn near impossible to find anything there. The good news - in hunting down the beer store via address, Isabel and I deciphered the complex Publika numbering/addressing system. The bad news - the beer store is small and very expensive. So we walked in and Brian stood impressed at the selection. Then, the owner informed us Brian was drooling at empty bottles. That was a wall showcasing what the store had carried in the past... He directed us to a mini-fridge that held the bottles for sale. In all fairness, the owner is knowledgeable and very helpful. He just has supply chain and tariff issues - guess that's the problem with a beer business model in Malaysia. So this only made us more determined to find better beer. So on Tuesday we headed for drinks (and dinner) to Taps Bar in downtown KL. It's amazing how good a good beer tastes with taste buds deadened from two months of Tiger. Awake taste buds to the fine flavors of an American-style double hopped IPA! Yes, despite a horrible drive into gridlocked downtown in rush hour, the beer at Taps was mighty good.

Clip from our weekly swim lesson, with the amazing Michelle.
(Tyler is still calling her Miss Shell. I can't bring myself to correct him.)

Friday we had a great dinner out in Bangsar with some folks we met while shopping for school uniforms. They are also new to KL. They offered to leave the kids with their nanny and have an adult dinner. Lovely. We accepted! It was a wonderful evening of good food and lots of laughs. It's great to start extending our social network, even if it feels a bit like I'm picking someone up and setting up a blind date... ("Can I get your number? Text me! Is it too soon to text her back?)

We spent Saturday at the Kuala Lumpur Center City Aquarium. Located at the base of the Petronas Twin Towers, adjacent to Suria KLCC (a mall, of course), the aquarium is small, but really nicely done. The star attraction is a tunnel under the largest tank. Cool to see the sharks swimming over our heads. They also have the largest ray I've seen. I was also a big fan of the otter feeding. Man they are cute.

We found an ROUS!

Tyler photo bombs a shark!

After the aquarium, we headed to Taps again to join Charlie and Zack at the KL Better Beer Festival. Zack, Charlie's son, lives in Kuala Terengganu on Malaysia's east coast where he is engaged in a Fullbright English Teaching Assistantship. After several rounds with Charlie and Zack, we ran into a family Brian had met while buying beer in Publika. We ended up hanging there a few more hours which afforded us the opportunity to hear bands and taste a few more beers.

Yes, he's wearing a Minion hat (while singing Simon & Garfunkel's "Homeward Bound")

That's all for now; but, I'll post soon on the first days of school!