The TRX Exchange Mall Again?

I have mentioned in the past that I am a great believer in the sayings that ‘everything happens for a reason’ and that ‘you cross paths with people when you are meant to’. Well, today, I think I got a wee reminder of this. All shall be revealed when I explain…

Firstly, we did have a long, lazy lie-in this morning, which was great and just what we needed to recharge. I woke up before R, and managed to finish my current book before getting up, and R followed shortly after. We had a light breakfast as we knew we would be going out later in the morning, and we both had some bits and pieces to catch up on.

R has been going on about trying out a Shake Shack burger since he saw this place at the TRX Mall last week. Now I’m not sure if this was because our daughter, S, had beaten him to try this place when we were in Bangkok, but suffice to say, he’s been going on about it quite a bit. As a result, I suggested we go back to the TRX mall and try them out today. Note: Yes, I am aware that this is reverse psychology on his part, but sometimes I need to let him have his little wins 😉 So that is what we did today – we went back to the TRX Mall.

The weather app has been suggesting that there is likely to be some rain today, and whilst we have been faithfully carrying our brollies around with us (in R’s backpack), we have not seen any rain other than that on the first evening of our arrival here. Maybe today we will be glad of them? It’s hot (30 °C) today, but not quite as hot as it was yesterday (33 °C), and I think that is because there is some cloud cover. I know, I have got a cheek – I just checked the temperature for Glasgow, and it says it’s 5 °C but feels like 3 °C today!

It’s also probably a weird thing for me to say, but I actually want to watch a really, really heavy downpour from the confines of our apartment balcony at some point whilst we are here. Perhaps it's the Scottish part of me, and don’t get me wrong, I’m not wanting it to last too long, but I find the sound and sight of a torrential heavy downpour quite relaxing and enjoyable, especially if I’m not getting cold, wet and can observe from a dry/inside comfort. It might also help to cool things down a little here in KL.

Anyway, I digress again. We made our way over to the TRX Exchange Mall again and timed it so we would arrive after most of the lunch crowd had finished. The TRX Mall was seemingly the first Shake Shack location in Kuala Lumpur, and they now have another three locations here. I’m not sure exactly what is supposed to be so great about this burger place, but I was happy to give it a go.

The restaurant in TRX is on the very top of the rooftop dining area. There are seats inside and outside. It looks very much like any burger joint and not very fancy at all, which is a little disappointing, as it could be so much more, given its prime location on the rooftop area. The plants inside the planters in the restaurant could also do with a little TLC, as they were looking a little sad and worse for wear.

We ordered through the online ordering system (just like the ones at McDonald's or Burger King, so nothing amazing here either). At this point, we quickly discovered that their limited-edition cheeseburger was ‘sold out’ – not a great start and I sort of thought that was a bit rubbish too – I mean, it’s a burger with some cheese on top – you would think the inventory could accommodate that. Instead, we both opted for a ‘smokeshack’ burger and ordered a portion of cheesy fries to share. I got a lemonade, and R went for a salted caramel shake for our drinks. The burgers (on the small side in terms of size) and fries topped with lashings of squeezy cheese were indeed very tasty, and I enjoyed the lemonade (although still a little on the sweet side for me), but then I found R’s milkshake far, far too sweet, so be warned if you go for any of those! Overall, whilst I enjoyed it, I don’t really think it was worth the 102 MYR (£18.85). Perhaps my expectations were slightly too high, and of course I did feel a little guilty at the calories we had just consumed with this!

After we left the restaurant, we walked around the mall for a bit – yes, trying to walk off some of the calories. Then, before heading home, we picked up some grocery items (yoghurts, bananas, milk, etc.) and a rather large chocolate cheesecake for a little dessert later. Normally, we do include a bakery stop-off to get a little treat for the evening when we are settled down to watch the telly. I do enjoy the coconut buns from Lavender Bakery, which are delicious with a cup of tea. R has tried a variety of pastries and buns, but he usually goes for something sweeter than me. This time he spotted a large chocolate cheesecake in the bakery section at the grocery store for around 20 MYR (£4) and decided that was a good option as it would do a few nights and work out cheaper than buying umpteen individual bakery items. We didn’t see anything that we fancied for dinner in the grocery store, so we also decided to get a couple of Chinese Roti buns (a beef and chicken one), and that would be fine for our evening dinner. We’ve had these before, and they are very nice but also quite greasy (I also dread to think of the calories in these!).

As we were leaving, we walked past a couple of faces I recognised as YouTubers we watch, and I quickly told R and suggested we should say ‘hello’ and thank them for their insightful videos! Over the past few years, we have subscribed to several early retirees that we follow on YouTube. Gean and Kirstine are a lovely couple from Canada (& Brazil), and they (along with some other YouTubers we follow) helped us to see that it was possible for us to retire early and to still travel, and this helped us make up our minds to do just that. Despite being accosted by two strange people with weird accents, they were both absolutely lovely! I remember noting from one of their videos that they were going to be in Bangkok around about the same time as us. We had a fab little chat, and they were telling us how they had done a two-week health retreat in Ko Samui, Thailand and had just had some medicals done in KL, as their focus for this year is to get healthier. And there was us, we’d just had a burger meal, we had two hot, greasy rotis in the rucksack for the evening’s dinner, and there’s me trying to hide the big chocolate cheesecake we’d just bought in my plastic bag behind me. Talk about feeling guilty!

I think that little ‘happy accident’ intervention of bumping into these lovely folks was not a coincidence, but a deliberate ‘sign’ that we should be getting our butts into gear and start trying to improve our health too! Thanks again, Gean and Kirstine – we won’t waste the cheesecake, but it will last longer as we will both have smaller-than-normal slices until it's finished!

Anyway, we have exchanged contact details, and we hope to arrange a proper catch-up with them again, whilst they are here in Kuala Lumpur. It did make us smile, and it certainly put a spring in our step that we met these people in person and that they were both just as lovely in real life as they come across on the screen.

If you are interested in their channel, you can check them out here: 
https://www.youtube.com/@FIREWeGo and here: https://strategicearlyretirement.com/

Books: I finished Anthony Hopkins’s autobiography “We Did Ok, Kid” this morning, and now I want to watch some of his key works. It’s an honest reflection of his life, his upbringing, his work, his life whilst drinking, his ways of dealing (or not dealing) with things and people and his regrets. Hard to believe that he is almost 89 years old now, but what a life and an interesting character!

I also forgot to include the link to the video below in my previous blog about the TRX Mall, but if interested, you can check it out below:

Day 65: 28 January 2026

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia