Kuala Lumpur was a four-day stopover en route to Thailand, although, by the time we left, I wish we had stayed longer. A melting pot of Malaysian, Chinese, Indian, and British cultures, KL is the kind of city that I immediately fall for.
What I Loved
Urban Beauty
It was good to come into a metropolitan area again after being in developing countries for the last while. I forgot how much I missed glistening skylines against the night sky, and feeling the buzz of energy as so many people rush around you daily. But downtown KL had a spectacular kind of urban beauty.
Buildings with lush gardens line the roof of every other condo building in the city centre, and greenery lines the streets everywhere. In the centre of the Golden Triangle, there is a stunning piece of land called the KLCC Park.
KLCC Park is a mid-city haven; peace and quiet nestled behind the world famous Petronas Towers. A well-kept park with a walking trail, gazebos, ponds, even a kid’s swimming area, KLCC Park was a pleasant surprise.
Bukit Bintang
The area we stayed in was called Bukit Bintang, and had an astonishing mix of old-school cool and modern high-end hotels. Famous Street Food and cultural hotspots share city blocks with swanky restaurants with leather seats, and menus I could barely afford to read. Smack dab in the centre of this area is Air Asia Bukit Bintang transit station, which makes traveling to other areas of town a breeze. There is also a free shuttle to Chinatown, which we, unfortunately, didn’t have time to explore.
Food & Drink
Jalan Alor
About 5-minute walk from Bukit Bintang station is a street lined with food vendors and people begging you to eat at their spot. Taking a walk down Jalan Alor, you are met with dozens of people shuffling up to you with menus trying to sell you on eating at their place. If you’re like me, you’re likely to be overwhelmed by all of the hustling going on around you.
#Protip: take a walk through once to survey the area. When in doubt, follow your nose!
Fruit Stalls
Throughout Asia, there are lovely women behind bamboo stalls serving up cheap plates of fresh fruit for passers by. And of course, who could forget the King of Fruit. No Asian fruit market is complete without the musky smell of durian. Although not wholly unpleasant, Durian is an overpowering smell that will stick in your nose for a while.
Drinks
I knew cheap booze in a very Muslim country was going to be hard to find. $5 beers at a 7-Eleven aren’t unheard of, but coming from Cambodia where $0.50 cans were the norm, there was a bit of a sticker shock. I slimmed my beer budget down to 1 tall bottle over four days to save on expenses.
Being in KL
KLIA & Local Currency
Trying to get out of the airport is an adventure in itself. As soon as you leave customs, there’re store-lined hallways everywhere. It feels more like a western mall than a travel hub. Here, you can find banks of ATMs that dispense the local currency: Malaysian Ringgits (MYR). The exchange is roughly 3:1 to CAD, which made converting in my head simple.
Pro Tip: Get some MYR before looking into getting into a taxi or buying a bus ticket, as ATM fees seem to be on par with those in the city.
Transport
Speaking of transit, KL has one of the best public transport systems I’ve ever ridden. From the Airport, a one-hour bus ride into town cost 11 MYR ($3.66 CAD,) and will drop you off at the KL Sentral station, which the majority of the bus lines and LRT will run through. From here, we took a taxi to the area we were staying, which cost 15 MYR ($5 CAD.)
Their LRT system, similar to Vancouver’s SkyTrain, works on a system where you pay for as far as you need to go. The stations are well-marked, the maps are clear and easy to read, and the announcements are loud enough that you can hear them through headphones if you were wearing them. (Try not to stand under the speakers, though, as they are quite loud sans-earbuds!)
Weather
The weather in KL can change dramatically in a matter of an hour. Om our first day in town, a few minutes after coming back to the hotel from a shopping trip, it started pouring. I’m not talking like, “Oh, look at that, it’s raining.” I mean a 20minute full-on torrential downpour that ended with 6″ of water rushing up the walkway to our hotel door.
Weather and expensive beer aside, I can’t wait to go back and explore more of this gem of a city.
Driven by a passion for travel and all things marketing. Fuelled by tea and sarcasm, she’s a gypsy at heart with a knack for telling stories.