Kuala Lumpur: the underdog among Asian cities
It’s a long journey from Bali to Ko Phangan, our next destination, and all flights go through Kuala Lumpur (commonly known as KL) so we decided to make a pit stop in KL, instead of just flying through.
This city was not really on the “high prio” list on this 4 month tour but it just didn’t make sense to skip the capital of a major Asian country.
KL has a reputation (among many friends/acquaintances/bloggers) of not being very interesting and not really worth visiting. I can imagine some of the reasons behind this “lack of excitement” over KL so here are some random thoughts on why there might be a limited “hype” over it:
- Expensive alcohol! A shocker, right? :) Well, with Islam being the state religion, there are high taxes for those wanting to indulge in such lifestyle. While non-muslims are allowed to drink, they will have to pay a high price for that. A large can in supermarket will set you back in ~5 EUR.
- The feeling of a transit, functional city. Just as mentioned in the beginning of this story, anyone who travels around SE Asia for a while will, at some point, take an AirAsia flight and go through because… well, it’s convenient. Nobody really seems to really want to see it.
- It’s sort of… westernized? Thinking of the tuk-tuk chaos in Bangkok? Forget, none in KL. Lanes and lanes of scooters in Hanoi or Saigon? Again, nada. The road is mostly occupied by cars. It’s also a relatively new and modern city (funded in 1859) and thus no old architecture to look at as you have in other Malaysian cities such as Malacca — at the same time, it’s still not ‘a’ Singapore.
Think for a moment about other major SE Asia cities and what “feeling” you get:
- Bangkok: sex, booze, rock n’ roll and ping pong shows. The city knows no limits, everything runs 24/7. KL is nowhere near it. In fact, we stayed in Chinatown (that’s the center of the city) and everything is pretty much dead after 10 PM
- Singapore: shopping; electronics; low tax; marina bay sands; modern; top 5 countries in GDP per capita (you guys know I love these numbers :))
- And the list goes on…
This list could be extended further, but I think this blog sums it up nicely:
And if there was ever an underdog city, it’s Kuala Lumpur. It’s not that people hate it, it’s more that people just don’t seem to love it. It’s the mousey girl at school who everyone knows the name of, but no one knows anything about. When I spoke to other travellers about Kuala Lumpur before visiting, most people replied with a shrug and an “It’s alright”
As we were deciding where to stay, 2 areas would constantly come up: Chinatown (one could call it also city center proper) and Bukit Bintang, the upscale shopping/entertainment district, with more malls per square kilometer that I could count and where most of the nightlife takes place.
Finally we ended up going for Chinatown — it was just more convenient. We picked a place called “The Explorer’s Guesthouse”, based mostly on a great rating on HostelWorld based on cleanliness and perfect location, short walking distance to public transportation and the central market, etc. Our flight came in very late so I always like to check the best way to get to the hostel in such cases. Here’s what was recommended by the hostel staff:
Star Shuttle bus usually drops off passengers near Mydin Wholesale Emporium. Since you are arriving very late, we would not recommend you to walk from the said drop-off point to our hostel. When you purchase the ticket, you may request the bus driver to drop you off in front of our hostel.
This was not a good start. Mind you, the “said drop-off point” was merely 220m away from the hostel’s door! Not recommended… seriously? Once we arrived at the place, we realised why we might have received that recommendation. All around Chinatown, you will find that the streets are very poorly lit, most businesses are closed and hardly anyone walks around, with the exception of homeless people sleeping outside… however, as soon as we entered the hostel the receptionist told us to neglect the staff member who wrote this note as it shouldn’t be considered unsafe at all. And indeed, the area felt perfectly safe and every night we saw groups of volunteers coming around this area to help out the people sleeping outside, providing them with food and drinks. Anyway, we arrived safe and sound at our hostel and went upstairs to our cosy but windowless bedroom :)
Chinatown and the surroundings
We started our first day in KL as most people who visit the city do; by looking for a place to do our laundry, followed by a long walk around Petaling Street (the main street in Chinatown)
and a compulsory visit to one of the most famous mosques in the city, the Jamek mosque. On the way to the mosque, we stumbled upon a cool gallery with pictures of… Berlin! The mosque was unfortunately under renovation, and the only “walkable area” was off-limits for non-muslims so we decided to continue north towards the Chow Kit market, an infamous landmark and largest wet market in KL, not for the faint-hearted: meats are butchered in the open while live fish swim madly in pails.
Little India
To reach it, we first went through the KL gallery where Kasia instantly became a star: a Chinese man just pushed his daughter next to her and basically ordered both to pose for the camera! No hello, no nothing… just smile!
After that, we went across the Freedom Square towards Little India, and that felt like a most interesting walk. It was like a different city, where the sanskrit alphabet took over the more familiar latin one, samosas were sold instead of noodles and shops were selling all different types of textiles. Needless to say that Kasia stopped in every other shop, tested her bargaining skills but luckily ended up empty handed :) The rain soon took over so we decided to stop the walk and try our luck in the petronas towers…
Central Market
… the rain did not stop so we went back to Chinatown and towards another must, the central market. Naturally, we started off with some food and then a relaxing “foot massage” provided by skin eating fish!:)
A few more shops later and a lot of silk… we bump into a Henna tattooist that caught Kasia’s attention. Guess what, she decided to go for it!
The sun had long set, the rain continued so we decided to call it a day! The national mosque and the picture in front of the Petronas were left for day two.
National Mosque
Thanks to the lack of light in the bedroom, we woke up late on day 2 and had to quickly make our way to the national mosque: the visiting hours for non-muslim are from 9 AM to 12 PM so we took a Grab (similar to Uber and it works wonderfully) to check it out before they closed it on us.
My feeling, from the few mosques I have visited, is that these are generally simple buildings. Most tend to consist of an open, large space for people to walk around and a smaller, completely carpeted area with a dome (reserved for muslims only), where the prayer takes place. And of course, the iconic minaret.
This mosque was no exception and the reflective, marbled floor allowed for some pretty cool pictures.
Petronas towers
Soon it was noon, and it was time to see another icon of KL, the Petronas Towers. As expected, the monorail isn’t far and 10 minutes later we were just outside the towers. Hundreds of tourists gather there for one of the most photographed places in SE Asia and we are no exception. Some sellers try to make some extra cash by selling/renting out a lens which widens your camera’s ability to take a selfie with the full towers as a background. As you can see from the picture… we did not go for it! But hey, checkpoint 2 of the day, done!
It’s only 2 PM and we have plenty of time left so I pressure Kasia into going to… see a movie!:D For some years now, on Christmas day, I have been going with some family members to watch a movie — started with Lord of the Rings, then The Hobbit and now Star Wars! You can stop reading now if you are just facepalming and thinking “Really, watching a movie while traveling around SE Asia?!”. Well, after 5 weeks of travels, it feels pretty normal to spend a couple of hours doing something a bit more ordinary, just as you would back at home (especially if it’s raining outside). And after all, spending your afternoon in the mall is one of the most common activities for KL so… this was a very very local activity by any Malaysian standard!
Bukit Bintang
There’s still plenty of time before the movie starts so we head to Bukit Bintang, the shopping district. How does that look like? Well, think of any shopping center you know of and then… multiply it. By a lot. All the shops you can imagine, they have it there. We chose one of the many multiplexes and continue our afternoon walk in the same district, slightly away from the skyscrapers in the upcoming “hipster neighbourhood”. Low buildings are now occupied by cool looking restaurants, bars and the obligatory “specialty roasted” coffee. We got our caffeine fix and went on discussing our next destination, which is our next post!
Where we stayed, what we ate, where we hipstered
The Explorers Guest House — we recommend this place for a short, uncomplicated stay. No luxury but good enough, surprisingly nice (shared) bathrooms. WiFi only in the lobby which means everyone hangs out there until late hours (it’s not a party hostel, though). Convenient central location. We paid 20EUR for a private double room without windows.
Restoran Beriani Asif (in Bukit Bintang) — delicious Indian style lamb (even if you are not so fond of Indian food, we aren’t and loved it!). Don’t trust them abot the size of the portions though, they are huge. Big recommend and not far from some hipster cafes.
Feeka Coffee Roasters — when looking for some good coffee and wifi, this place has both including the international flair of hipstery. Nothing special but felt like an oasis of familiarity after two days of Asian sceneries.
Can’t get enough? We committed to post one picture a day to Instagram.
