We arrived in the evening and our suitcases were taken care of by the hotel personnel as we got out of the taxi. In this hotel you first get into an impressive foyer with a grand staircase and this area also had a grand ballroom. But to get to the lobby you actually have to take the express elevator up to the top floor located on level 40 to check in. I see that some reviews comment on this as they find it annoying that you have to take another elevator to get down to your room but I will get back to that. When you get to level 40 and the elevator doors open you get a spectacular view to the Petronas Twin towers both day and night – once the tallest skyscrapers in the world but still one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. Our check in took a bit longer than expected as the woman behind the counter could not find our papers – but when we got to the room it looked like all the paper work and keys had been prepared and had been placed in the room so I think the receptionist did a mistake in the check in process but it was not a problem.

When we got to our room on 28^th floor we had gotten a room with a great view of the Petronas twin towers and with windows from floor to ceiling you get an amazing view. Before we traveled you Malaysia I asked the hotel if it was possible to get a vase from room service as I want to buy some flowers for my wife’s birthday – when we got to the room there was a trolley there with a plate with a large domed lid on top. When I opened it was a cheese cake with a sign saying “Happy birthday” – how great is that!

The hotel opened in the fall of 2012 so it is still a new hotel. The room that we got was great and it was larger than most hotel rooms that I have stayed at. The room has tiles on the floor in the entrance and bathroom part and wooden floor in the bedroom part of the room. They layout of the room was also a bit different than your average hotel room. The huge bed is the center piece in the room as you can actually walk around it. The bed was comfortable and came with several huge pillows. On one side there was an alarm clock with a built in docking station for an iPhone which was handy for us as we both have iPhones. When we were lying in bed we had a direct view to the Petronas twin towers. On the left hand side there was a glass desk and TV. The big flat screen TV was on contraption in order to fold it into the wall or bring it out in order to watch in when in bed – a very good setup in my opinion. On the right hand side there was a sort of sofa with table next to it – and we got some chocolate candy as a welcome gift. There were lots of bottles of complimentary water.

Directly behind the bed there was a bathroom – the bathroom is separated from the bedroom with a window which I thought was quite cool as you with a touch of a button could make it frosty if you want some privacy. The bathroom only contains a shower (with a big rain forest shower head) and a bathtub (toilet and sink is in separate rooms). As you would expect from a 5 star hotel there were lots of amenities: shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, lotion, shower cap, loofah etc. There was a separate room for the toilet and a small walk in wardrobe with a safe, iron and ironing board. Between the room and the shower there was a sink and under the sink there were more amenities such as emery board, hair band etc. On the opposite side there was a bench with cupboards that included glasses, a water boiler with coffee and tea and a pull out drawer fridge.

The breakfast is served on level 38 in the restaurant that is called Thirty8. The breakfast is over the top with a great selection of egg, cereal, bread, Asian style breakfast, good juice, fresh fruit etc. The only thing missing was of course real bacon – as Malaysia is a Muslim country a lot of the restaurants is halal. It is not the most extravagant breakfast that I have come across but I can’t think of much that I was missing in the selection. Thirty8 is also a good restaurant at night and they also serve and impressive champagne lunch on Sundays! (with a free flow of Bollinger).

The hotel also has a good workout room but if you want to go jogging and can stand the heat, it is easy to walk through the convention center to get to the KLCC park which is ideal for jogging. Right next to the gym there is also a big pool with a number of sun beds. I guess this is a typical business hotel as the pool was never crowded when we were there and it was not a problem finding a sun bed. There is also a bar in connection with the pool where you can buy drinks and food.The location of the hotel is good – located in the KLCC area it only takes a few minutes to walk to the shopping mall KLCC Suria and Petronas Twin towers. You can also walk on an elevated walkway (with aircon) to the shopping mall Pavilion where you get into the Bukit Bintang area.

When I checked out of the hotel I noticed that I had been charged for breakfast. I told them that on the first morning I had to sign a bill and I asked the staff if breakfast was not included. I got the answer that this was only for reference. When I told this to the person checking me out of the hotel, he immediately removed in from the bill. What a great service!

Conclusion

I have to say that this is one of the best hotels that I have stayed at. The rooms are big and have a good setup. The quality of the room and furniture is top notch; the aircon was quiet and easy to control. The service at the hotel was great – they brought a vase for the flowers that I bought for my wife, they brought champagne glasses when I needed that and there was constant refilling of water in the room and turn down service. I see that some people complain that you have to take the lift up to the lobby and then down to your room in a “local” elevator. I did not think this was much of a problem and you can get around if by taking the lift to the gym and taking a lift to the lobby from there.

All in all an amazing hotel in my opinion and I have stayed at some nice hotels around the world. I would not hesitate to recommend this to anyone. Take a look at the photos and I’m sure you will understand what I mean.

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com – trip reports and pictures

The first night we came after sunset and we were thrilled to see that you can get a table both inside in the bar (which has glass walls and a great view) and on tables outside. When seated outside you can of course enjoy the KL heat while enjoying the great view. The restaurant and the cigar lounge was not open at this stage so this is just a review of the bar itself – the restaurant is due to open in July 2012. But back to our visit – we went there with some friend and we were a group of four. As an avid traveler I have been fortunate enough to visit a few places around the world and for some reason I love rooftop bars with a view. On this night it was easy to see that the staff was a bit inexperienced and it is no wonder as they had only been open for a week. One example is that the waitress managed to serve the wrong drinks to all of us. The tapas/snack that we had was OK but I think the staff needs to know a bit more about the food…as a trick question I asked the one waitress what kind of cheese we had on the cheese platter and she had no idea. I have to admit that I didn’t really expect her to know it either so it was a bit mean of me to ask a question like that. When we ordered the panna cotta I think they totally forgot about it so in the end we had to ask for it a couple of times but it was worth waiting for: the panna cotta was very good and the same goes for the tiramisu and dark chocolate that came on the dessert platter!

We also went there a couple of days later when they had a soft opening for the sunset happy hour. We got there about 6 PM so this time the sun was still up and we sat outside again. From the outside you get an amazing view of the sun setting in KL and at the same time you are also so close to the Petronas Twin Towers that it almost feels unreal. Once again we tried some of the snack and also tried some of their cocktails and the drinks were very good. I think this will be a great place once the staff gets a bit more experience. The location is great and from the 57^th floor you get an amazing view of more or less the whole city and if you get there on a nice day you will experience a great view to the sunset in KL. I’m already planning to go back to Marini’s on 57 to check out the restaurant and the cigar lounge when I return to KL in September J Thanks to Ginny Lotto for the invitation to the soft opening and for introducing us to some new and exciting cocktails. This place is going to be one of THE places to go in KL. Check out the webpage or their facebook page.

Regards
Gard
gardkarlsen.com – trip reports and pictures

So on a Sunday afternoon at 4 pm I had a ticket and I got there 15 minutes ahead of time as instructed. After an introduction where the animation was displayed on water vapor(!) I was allowed to enter the elevator. The whole thing was organized in a great way as people got different color badges and hence it was easy to instruct people around. The elevator that took me up to the skybridge on 41st floor is really a service elevator I guess but they have pimped it a bit as there were screens on the wall displaying the view of the KLCC area as if the elevator was a glass elevator.  The view from the skybridge is pretty good but not amazing in any way – but as it is located about 170 meters above the ground (about 560 feet) you get a good view of the KLCC park and area but a lot of the view is also blocked by the towers. Due to this I have always recommended people to rather check out the view from KL tower instead. After about 10 minutes on the skybridge I was summoned by one of the guards and we were pushed into the elevator once again and this time I was transported to 83rd floor. From here there was a passage where they had posted info about some of the tallest buildings in the world (like Burj Khalifa in Dubai which I had the pleasure of visiting a while back …see http://gardkarlsen.com/blog/?p=696 ). Once again we had to get into an elevator – this time much smaller and much slower as it only took us 3 floors up to 86th floor.

The 86th floor was actually a lot bigger than I thought it would be – when I have enjoyed the view from the lounge at Traders hotel (see my review of this great hotel on http://gardkarlsen.com/blog/?p=72 ) the top of the towers looks so small – but in reality there was quite a lot of room and the best thing was of course that there was a view in more or less all directions!  It was unreal to see how tiny buildings like Citybank and Traders were compared to the height of the Petronas tower! The 86th floor is located about 360 meters above the ground so the view is just spectacular! Apart from the view there were also various models of the city, of the towers and also a model of how the future of KLCC might be. They also had a couple of screens with some augmented reality (so hang on to your ticket after you go in). After 10-15 minutes at the top we were called again by the guards and after a quick stop on 83rd floor, we took the lift all the way down from 83rd to the ground level (or sub level actually) where we had to go through the gift shop on the way out. If you are into skyscrapers and buildings with a view you should definitely stop by Petronas Twin Towers to enjoy the view from the 86th floor

Regards
Gard
gardkarlsen.com – trip reports and pictures

Thaipusam was celebrated on February 7th of 2012 and I took the train to Batu Caves as lots of the roads are blocked due to the procession. But luckily the KTM Komuter train goes from KL Sentral station and stops right at the Batu caves. When I boarded the rather small train at KL Sentral it was easy to see where this was leading – the train cars were totally packed and I just managed to squeeze in before the doors closed behind me. In advance I has asked Malaysian acquaintances about Thaipusam at Batu Caves and most replied that it included too many people, that it was way too crowded, too hot etc. The train to Batu Caves was only like 2 Ringgit (70 US Cent) and it takes maybe 30 minutes. When getting out of the station, I was basically in the middle of it all. There were people serving food so there was a scent of cooking in the air, music was blasting from loudspeakers all over the place, people were selling books and there was even a couple of rides there (like a ferris wheel). But the main thing is of course the procession that ends here so I made my way over to the steep stairs leading up to Batu caves while I was holding on to my belongs as there had been a bit of talking about pickpockets during the festival. I moved close in on the procession to try to get some nice photos but unfortunately my digital SLR camera stopped working on me so I had to stick to my small Canon IXUS camera. I guess I got a bit too close to the procession as all of a sudden I was in the stream of people and I was “dragged” towards the steps leading up to the Batu caves. It was fascinating to see some of the people carrying their HUGE kavadis. Each of them seemed to have a team of helpers who provided them with a stool to sit on, some water to drink and that shouted words of encouragement. Many of the people had piercings through their cheeks and tongues, some had hooks in the backs with apples or small bells and some even had larger hooks in the back and with ropes they were held back. The steps leading up to Batu caves were totally packed and I’m glad that people stayed calm as it could have been ugly if people had started panic for one reason or another. I walked up the steps slowly as I wanted to take pictures on the way and because it was 30-35 degrees Celsius so I was actually soaking wet of sweat after a few hours.

Inside the cave itself there were lots and lots of people and I guess this marks the end of the march. I just looked around there for a while and as it was pretty packed it was hard to move around. I don’t envy the people that had to clean up the area after the festival as there was trash everywhere. Going down also took a bit of time as it was packed but it seemed like they controlled which of the three “lanes” in the steps that were leading up and which was leading down. When I came down there were still lots of people lining up to start the climb to the caves and the procession leading to the area seemed to be never ending. Seeing this festival with my own eyes was a real treat so if you are in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia during thaipusam you should not miss out on a visit to Batu caves. Yes, it is crowded and it is hot – but it is totally worth it.

Regards
Gard
gardkarlsen.com – trip reports and pictures

We booked a room through the company that we worked for in KL and we got confirmation that we had gotten rooms on the club level in the west wing. When we arrived late at night on June 21st I asked the cab driver to take us to the west wing lobby. Normally when you arrive at a 5 star hotel in this part of the world you are met by people that opens the door, helps you with the suitcase etc. This was not the case for Renaissance. We dragged our suitcases into the lavish lobby and the chandelier was enormous. When we came to the counter we were informed that we were not to be living in the west wing after all but in the East wing…so we had to drag our suitcases over to the east wing lobby…it was only a couple of minutes away. I did ask what the difference of east and west wing are and according to the staff the east wing was better. But from what I have read it seems like the west wing is the best…it is more expensive at least.

When checking in it was hard to communicate with the people behind the counter as a lady was entertaining people in the bar upstairs in the lobby. I’m tone deaf and admit it…but the lady that was singing was not doing a great job in my opinion. I got room 2325 on the club level and despite the bad start I walked to the room with an open mind. I’m not sure what I expected but I was disappointed when I walked into the room. I guess I was expecting more of a 5 star hotel. The room was OK in size and it started of with tiles and the rest of the room floor was a carpet. This carpet had seen better days and there were stains here and there that looked a bit disturbing actually. The light walls also had a few scratches and marks and I got the feeling right away that it was a room that needs an upgrade.

The big bed looked tempting and there were lots of huge, soft pillow. But when sitting down on the bed it felt uneven and felt like it was overdue to be replaced. The rest of the room was pretty standard: a two seat sofa with a small table, a desk for work, s small minibar (a beer was 22 ringgits), a safe, iron/ironing board etc. The TV was a small CRT TV (the old type TV) in an old fashioned cabinet…I don’t think I have seen this in a hotel for many years. Not very practically if you ask me.

As we were on the club level I was expecting a complimentary internet connection but that proved to be wrong. First of all: the work desk did not contain a plug for the PC so in order to get some power to the PC I had to crawl under the desk and pull out one of the plugs. The hotel does not seem to have wifi but standard wire connection…and you have to pay for it. I don’t understand how hotels can use this to make money…in these days an internet connection is vital on a business trip. The bathroom was in old fashion style but did contain quite a lot of amenities. But there was one major “flaw” in my opinion: the shower. You have to take a shower in the bathtub and there is a shower curtain that prevents the water from flooding. But even if I did use the shower curtain right, the water were still leaking on to the floor. The shower head was also too low so I had to bend down to wash my hair…and I’m average in height.

In the hall outside my room music were played constantly and the volume was so loud that I woke up in the middle of the night hearing the music. It was pretty bizarre waking up to Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg for Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt. The club level lounge did offer evening cocktails and breakfast and the food and drinks were quite good. The lounge had a view to the Petronas twin towers and the location of the hotel is not bad on Jalan Ampang, right next to Bukit Nanas monorail station. I don’t think it took more than 10 minutes to walk to KLCC. The pool was pretty big and it looked ideal if you are bringing your kids.

Conclusion
As you can understand from my review, I was not very impressed with the hotel. What bugged me the most was the lack of internet…well, you could of course buy access but we were already paying 540 Ringgits per night. The fact that the room was not very attractive did not help either and the music in the hall was annoying me. So in the end we did something that I have never done before…we started checking out other hotels. After two days we called Traders and we were more than thrilled to hear that they had rooms vacant. So we checked out of Renaissance and into Traders…not only did we get a nice modern room, free internet, closer location to the Petronas twin tower…we also got it about 100 Ringgit cheaper.

After a week at work in KL it was time to start the trip back home – and I was just getting over the jet lag on the last day there I checked out early from the hotel but as I’m a regular at Traders hotel I was allowed to use their facilities throughout the day. But after a glass of wine during “happy hour” in the afternoon, it was time for me to get on the road. I took a taxi to KL Sentral and from there the KLIA Express train to the airport. If you are flying Emirates or Malaysia Airlines you can actually check in at the train station but as I had a Thai airways flight, I had to drag my suitcase on board the train. If you want to read more about KL feel free to check out my KL trip report.

I came to the airport at about 7.30 on February 27th and check in was fast. I asked if I could request an upgrade from Bangkok (BKK) to Copenhagen (CPH) but the lady behind the counter told me that I had to make this request in Bangkok. I went through immigration to check out, safety control and took the train out to the terminal to find a lounge.
I first stopped by the Singapore Airlines lounge as I have a Eurobonus Goldcard and Singapore Airlines is also a part of the StarAlliance. But it seems like this lounge is only if you are flying business with Singapore or have a Krisflyer goldcard. So I went over to the Thai lounge instead – right opposite of the Singapore lounge. The Thai lounge is OK but it is relatively small and the selection of food and drinks is limited. But at least I could sit down in a comfortable chair, get a cold drink and get online on the wifi. It didn’t seem like there was any wine on offer in the lounge by the way.

Short video from the lounge

I didn’t stay long in the lounge as I had to go to the gate at about 8.30 pm. My flight was TG418 and I was seated in 33B on this Boeing 777-200. The flight was actually quite full and I guess there are a few people that commute between KL and Bangkok and this was a Friday night. The flight itself was pretty boring…I was stuck in a middle seat so there was not much space to move around. The highlight of the flight was the meal of course. Some sort of Waldorf salad, chicken in a pepper sauce with rice and vegetables and a sweet rice dessert.

The flight was about 2 hours and we landed in Bangkok at about 10 pm. I first headed to the transfer desk to make a request for an upgrade on my SAS flight from Bangkok to Copenhagen. From there I went to the D section of the airport as the flight was leaving from D2 and as there is a Thai lounge there.The Thai lounge in the D section is huge and offers a combination of chairs, reclining chairs, room for meetings, work stations for getting online etc. There are also big TV screens in the lounge that shows news and there is a nice selection of snack and drinks. I have seen better food selection in other lounges but the Thai lounge is not bad at all.

Once again I didn’t have to wait that long as my flight was at 12.30 am. I had to go through security once again when going to gate D2 and once again the machine went off so I had to get frisked once again. I don’t really mind being felt up but it is kinda annoying when you have been through lots of these controls during a long trip. It didn’t take long before I reached D2 and I was of course hoping and keeping my fingers crossed to get an upgrade to business class by using my Eurobonus points…but I soon got the bad news: “Flight is full today”…meaning no upgrade. I got seat 23B on this SK972 to CPH in the Airbus A340 – this was an aisle seat in the 2 seat part of the 2-4-2 configuration.

It was the row right behind Economy Extra and I think this gave some extra legroom and that was of course nice (but then again I’m only like 177 cm/ 5” 10’). Before take off the air con was on and there was lots of “steam” as the cold and warm air met. But it was still very warm on the plane but as soon as the doors were closed it got a lot better. Luckily there was a bottle of water for each seat so that we could stay hydrated. The seat was a bit narrow (or maybe my ass is just getting wider ) and the placement of the hand control is a bit strange. Located on the inside of the seat rest made it hard to get it out and a bit hard to adjust things like channels and volume. The screen is on the tiny side if you ask me and you do not have video on demand in economy and hence you just have to find a movie that has just started. The games were the same boring games that I have tested in business class on SAS.

Take off was on schedule and at about 12.30 am we were on our way towards Denmark. After take off we got our headsets and dinner was soon ready. The meal that evening was chicken on pasta and fried vegetables on the side and there was a cream dessert to round it of. Note that you on SAS economy “only” get two alcohol beverages complimentary. Funny enough I was not sleepy so I started watching the Matrix, The Usual suspects etc. I also walked around in the plane a bit and I walked all the way to the back were a couple of the cabin crew were located andI got some water and candy from them. I found it to be considerably noisier in the back of the plane compared to at my seat over the wing. In the end I had to face my fears…I went back to my seat and tried to get some sleep. But it is not easy as the seats are not really comfortable for sleeping. The flight this time turned out to be quite a marathon flight as they had to slow down due to turbulence. Because of this the flight was 12 hours and 18 minutes!

After a night with lack of sleep and lots of acrobatic attempts to find a comfortable sleeping position, it was time for some breakfast at about 5 am Scandinavian time. The breakfast was very standard…a bun, some ham and cheese, some orange marmalade, orange juice and yogurt.

We landed at about 6.45 am and it was so nice to get out of the plane and walk around on “terra firma”.The sun was rising as we landed and it was beautiful. There was a bit of a stampede as there was a flight leaving for Oslo in just 30 minutes after our landing – but I managed to get through security control without any problems

I went to the SAS lounge to get some coffee, water and get online. It seems like they have gone over to Mac in the lounge now and I don’t mind that. But I think I have to find out how to type in the @ sign when using Mac because I had major problems with that

At 8.10 am it was time for my last leg with SK1870 with Atlantic Airways to Stavanger in Norway. It would have been great with a window seat on this flight as the weather was pretty good. But I was stuck in an aisle seat – well, I was passed out most of the time as I was getting really tired. I landed in Stavanger and as usual it was a bit of a shock…I left KL with like 33 degrees and came to 1 degree and light snow in Stavanger.

Conclusion
Despite of being a Eurobonus goldcard holder this is the first time I have flown SAS long haul in economy class. All in all I wouldn’t say it is any better or worse than other companies that I have used…it is always a bit hard to travel long flights like this in economy class as it is hard to sleep in the economy seat. I would have enjoyed seeing video on demand and I would also like to see more than two complimentary alcoholic drinks. I also like playing games on long flights as it is more interactive – I would like to see better games on the SAS flights.

Room
The room was located on the 31st floor and had a nice city view thru large windows. My colleague got a room with a park view and he had an amazing view straight to the Petronas twin towers…once the highest buildings in the world.

My room was pretty standard in size but it was easy to see that this was a hotel well above average once I came in. The floor featured a light, beige carpet and the beige walls were tastefully decorated with colourful art. By the window there was a nice 2 seat sofa and a funky looking armchair and a small table. The bed was KING size and there was a good, thin duvet and 4 pillows. It seemed like the pillows came in 2 different versions: firm and soft and that made it easy to sleep good at night. As most hotels there was air-condition in the room and everything was controlled by a panel on the wall.

The work desk had a great leather chair, plugs to charge the laptop, cell phone etc and a flat screen TV. There was a cable for connecting to the net but I used the wireless connection to hook up on the net and this was free for those staying in on the club floors. In the hall there was also a workstation setup if you needed a PC to work on and this was also connected to the internet. In connection with the desk in the room was a mini bar with soda, beer etc but also a water boiler with tea, coffee etc. I never got anything from the mini bar as I got 2-3 complimentary bottles of water each day.

The 2 closets had a number of hangers and there was also an ironing board and a steam iron. I was not that impressed by the iron but it was pretty cheap to get shirts pressed anyway. In the closet there were also a couple of bathrobes and slippers. The mini safe was placed in the one wardrobe.

The bathroom
The bathroom was tiled in beige and it featured a bathtub and a shower. A glass door in front served as splashing protection for both the bathtub and the shower. The shower featured a huge shower head and the water pressure was great. There were lots of amenities such as tooth brush, shaving kit, emery board, comb, shower cap, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, bath salt etc. The make up mirror even had a light around the rim and there was anti fog function on the mirror. The sink was lit from below and the whole bathroom was well lit in general.

The room was so quiet by the way. Even if the hotel was fully booked I never heard anything from my neighbour, from people in the hall or from the city outside.

The club lounge
View from the Traders lounge on 32nd floorThe club lounge on the 32nd floor is where we had our breakfast. This area was for the executive floor guests and even if the hotel was full it was never crowded there, They had a nice selection of fresh juice, fruits, yogurt, cereal (but I did miss the muesli), sushi, various hot dished ranging from beef bacon, sausages, sautéed mushrooms etc. A coffee machine provided pretty good coffee in various styles. I never did try the breakfast area on the 5th floor so I can’t really compare it. But it was very nice to have the breakfast in peace and quiet on the 32nd floor with an amazing view to the KLCC park and the Petronas twin towers.

Everyday they had complimentary drinks from 5.30 PM to 7.30 PM. During this time it was possible to get red wine, white wine, various kinds of stronger spirits, beer etc. In addition to this they had a nice selection of snack ranging from spring rolls, cheese, sushi etc.

There is a outdoor pool, skybar and spa on the 33rd and 34th floor. We never did get to try out the pool but it was a standard square pool with no fuzz. But at night it was pretty lively as the skybar was around the pool and once again there was a great view to both the KL Tower and the Petronas Twin towers.

Location
The hotel has a pretty good location right in the KLCC park. This means that you are more or less in the convention center, a 10 minute walk from the Petronas twin towers and the Suria KLCC shopping mall etc. You can actually walk indoor all the way from the hotel to Suria KLCC. This might not sound like an important issue but if you are dressed up for work you might break out in a sweat if you choose to go outside in the hot and humid weather. The hotel also has a small shuttle bus to Suria KLCC throughout the day. The KLCC park features a 1.3 km track so if you want to workout it is a nice place to go jogging.

Conclusion
I have to admit that I loved staying at the Traders. I paid 330 RM (+17% tax) which is about 100 US dollars and for that I got a nice comfortable room, a staff that was very helpful and polite, a club lounge area where I could have breakfast and evening drinks, good location for working and sightseeing in KL etc. The only problem is that it is so fantastic that you might be tempted to just stay at the hotel instead of exploring the city itself and that it a shame. But fortunately I have been to KL 5 times and hence I have seen many of the sights so this time I could concentrate on working and just enjoying the hotel facilities. If you get a chance to stay at the Traders don’t hesitate…it is way above average and one of the best hotels that I have stayed at.

Here is a video from Traders