Scott and Sophie Love to Travel

Kuala Lumpur (or KL as it is often referred to) is the capital city of Malaysia as well as its economic hub. Until the mid 19th century, it was primarily dense jungle and home to small indigenous Malay communities. That changed in 1857 when tin was discovered in the area, which attracted many immigrants and led to a population boom. In 1875, KL was made the capital of the newly formed Federated Malay States, a British colonial protectorate. This lasted until 1957 when Malaysia gained its independence. The city saw rapid industrialization since then and now has over 1.8 million inhabitants in a cosmopolitan metropolis.

We flew into the international airport called KLIA. It is a massive complex built an hour outside of the city center. Our flight from Perth landed just after 2AM, but after getting through immigration, finding our driver, etc., we didn’t get to our hotel until after 4AM. We slept a few hours then explored the central business district by foot. The city is an interesting mix of modern and impressive skyscrapers, shopping malls and parks – yet still has grittier buildings, streets and markets mixed in. One minute you are walking in a high-end air-conditioned luxury mall – and the next you are on a crumbling sidewalk next to dilapidated buildings. It seems like flashy, big projects get built, but no one wants to finance the maintenance and upkeep of older projects. I imagine these are the growing pains of a country that is on the cusp of becoming fully developed.

The Petronas Twin Towers are the highlight of KL’s downtown. Petronas is a Malaysian oil and gas conglomerate. Standing nearly 1500 feet tall (88 floors), the buildings held the record for the tallest buildings ever built between 1998 and 2004. Today, they are still the tallest twin towers in the world. Tours to the top were unfortunately sold out when we were there, so we admired them from the ground. There is a nice park as you approach the towers which gives great views and is picturesque on its own. And at the base of the tower is a large luxury shopping mall, with brands like Gucci, Fendi, Philip Patek and pretty much any high-end brand you could imagine.

KL is very hot and humid! The heat index was above 100 every day we were there, which meant you pretty much sweat just standing outside. By the time we got to the mall, we were ready to enjoy the air conditioning and get a bite to eat. We found the Japanese Isetan department store there and headed to their lower level where they have gourmet food markets. We bought some fresh sashimi, watermelon juice and some local bakery items to eat there.

After that, we walked around the city some more making our way back to our hotel. We passed a McDonald’s and decided to see what their menu looked like. We weren’t intending to eat there, but we like to see how they adapt their menu to local cultures. They had some interesting local options like Nasi Lemak (Malaysia’s national rice dish) and Ayam Goreng (spicy fried chicken). We thought it was interesting that one item on their dessert menu was a bowl of corn. Of course, once we saw the dessert menu we had to order some ice cream to cool down, as well as a delicious fresh Mango/Peach juice.

The next day we visited Batu Caves, which is the most popular tourist spot in KL. Batu Caves is a Hindu temple built high up in the caves of a limestone cliff. Archaeologists believe the caves had been previously inhabited by indigenous peoples for 2500 years. When immigrants from India began settling the area in the late 19th century, they laid claim to the caves and dedicated temples to Lord Murugan, the Hindu god of war. Today, there is a massive golden statue of him in front of the entrance and an enormous staircase that brings visitors up to the main temple in the cave. As with many Hindu temples, everything is colorful and fantastical. This includes the colorful steps which have become somewhat of an instagram thing. We walked up the 272 steps and enjoyed the amazing views of the caves, temples and Kuala Lumpur. During the annual festival of Thaipusam, some Hindu devotees climb the steps with heavy offerings hung from body piercings as acts of penance and devotion. It was hard enough to climb in the heat with our light bags – I think we will skip the body piercings.

We took a Grab (South East Asia’s equivalent of Uber) back to the city to our next stop, the KL Forest Eco Park. This is a preserved tropical rainforest right in the middle of the city. It featured a pretty neat canopy walkway that gave us some nice views of the treetops, as well as the KL Tower which is next to the park. There were several walkways in the park, including one that featured some pretty impressive bamboos. Like elsewhere in KL, though, the park was lacking maintenance and looked a little rundown.

By the time we were done with the park, we were hot and sweaty again. We walked to a nearby trendy ice cream store and got some unusually flavored ice creams (like toasted black sesame). Then, we headed back to our hotel to cool off. There was a Chinese snack food store next to our hotel, so we decided to check it out. They had the craziest things there – we had to try some. Even though our receipt was pretty long, the bill ended up being only $2.85! Once back at the hotel, we tried them along with some gin and tonics from the lounge. The chicken foot was tasty, but a bit too crunchy 😉

That evening, we walked to nearby Jalan Alor street, which is loaded with street food vendors and restaurants selling grilled fish and typical Malay foods. We stopped at one of the restaurants recommended by our hotel and ordered their famous BBQ chicken wings, some grilled fish we didn’t know, some sort of garlicky local sautéed greens and a plate of noodles. We washed it all down with a surprisingly big bottle of Asahi beer, which was needed to offset the spiciness of some of the dishes. I am normally not a big chicken wing fan, but these were fantastic. The only utensils we were given were chopsticks and Chinese soup spoons. We had never eaten a whole fish without a fork and a knife before, but we figured it out.

The next day we took a Grab back to the airport for an Air Asia flight to Krabi, Thailand. We would be spending a week in southern Thailand before heading back to Malaysia to explore some other areas. We found Kuala Lumpur to be very inexpensive (currency is Malaysian Ringgit – RM) and easy to visit. Travel tips:

• Download and use the Grab app to get around. Rides are super cheap, you can take them anywhere and drivers typically arrived in less than a minute after booking. And did I mention they are cheap? One 30-minute ride with tolls and tip was only $3.78!
• It is hot and humid here! Don’t plan on doing a lot of walking outside during the day. Also, bring an umbrella as it often rains at some point in the day. You will want to take advantage of the many air conditioned shopping malls to cool off. Also, the Grab cars always had air conditioning, so we often found it advantageous to take a car between sight-seeing spots in order to cool off.
• The international airport is a long ways out of town. We were a little concerned about arriving in the middle of the night, so we booked a driver via the Welcome app (we have used them before) to make sure we had a car and driver waiting for us. While this wasn’t very expensive ($33), it really wasn’t necessary as the airport is busy at all hours and we could have easily taken a Grab for half the price.
• Everyone seems to speak English – and most signs are in English, and we found the people to be very welcoming.
• We stayed at the CitizenM hotel in Bukit Bintang, which is near the street food markets and within walking distance of the Petronas Towers. It was a good location for us. We have stayed in CitizenM hotels before. They are interesting concepts – they have really nice common areas to work or hang out in, and the rooms are smaller, but high-tech with king-size beds. You control everything with an IPad. They are very comfortable and this one was much bigger than we expected. They also offered a nice breakfast buffet.