A Quick Stop in Kuala Lumpur

After our time in the rainforest, I don’t think we were mentally prepared for the urban jungle that is Kuala Lumpur (KL). A confluence of cultures and religions, we found the city at times amazing, overwhelming, but always welcoming. We had just 36 hours here and had to make the best of this giant city. Our evening arrival left us with more than enough time to explore the city by foot, especially given a much later sunset of around 7 pm here (it was closer to 5 in Japan). We meandered through Chinatown toward Bukit Bintang, a heavily commercial and touristed destination with the famed Jason Alor food stall street and Petaling Street (though locals told us it was less good food and more of a tourist site, similar to how locals probably don’t go to fisherman’s wharf in SF for the cuisine). We dined at a stall, enjoying what we think were Malay dishes, the challenge again being the confluence of Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, and other cuisines making it difficult to pick what was local or not...maybe given the melting pot it was all "local". Dana also braved trying out some durian from a street vendor. Durian is the stinky cheese of fruit, hated by some and loved by others. We both hated the smell, although Dana thought the taste was pretty good and described it as tasting most similar to garlic ice cream, she had in Gilroy one time.

Our evening concluded at the famed Petronas towers, which were impressive but over-crowded for our taste as tourists lined up for the perfect photo. We thought there would be a fountain light show outside but the small lit fountains seemed to be the sum of this experience. Pleasant nonetheless, but well below the expectation set for us at prior fountains shows in Korea (and later, Singapore).

Day two was heavy on walking, as we made our way by public transit and foot to Thean Hou temple, an extravagant display of Buddhist worship, beautiful in its architecture, statues, colorful carved walls and ceilings, and many buddha statues. The temple was full of wedding photography groups in addition to worshippers. We enjoyed a short prayer before pod-walking (my made-up word for when Dana and I share earbuds and listen to a podcast together to pass the time for long walk stretches). We made our way to little India, where Dana rejoiced at the sight of one of her favorite Indian sweets; gulab jamun. She snagged 3 for a dollar and reveled in the honey gooey balls as we walked. Also near little India was KL Sentral, the train station / mall where we’d return via express train to the airport. We stopped in to buy tickets for our return train before continuing on to our cultural destinations for the day.

First was a walk to the botanic gardens, with a lunch stop at the Hornbill cafe at the aviary. Sadly, the botanic gardens themselves, while free, didn’t quite impress us (probably as a result of comparison to other gardens we’d recently visited). It did, however, have a thriving population of monitor lizards out and about. Not quite as large as the one we’d seen in Kota Kinabalu, but formidable none the less. Also in this gigantic cultural complex was the museum of Islamic art and several others. We made our way there and enjoyed observing the vast array of featured works, from tiles and cloths to coins, weapons, patterns, and even model replicas of significant mosques around the world. We left via Grab1 (local super app, includes an Uber like service) just in time for the afternoon rains, and enjoyed Indian cuisine for dinner at Molaaga (walking distance from our hotel before) retiring for the evening.

KL was a fascinating mix. We loved the diversity, impressive buildings, good food, friendly people, and colorful murals. On the other hand, the traffic was horrendous, and walking routes incredibly confusing. Dana gave the transportation planners poor grades. At times, it was impossible to walk from one side of a road to another (walls and raised highway lanes), meaning an extended detour around to what would have been a five-minute jaunt. Or else, a maze of turns to get out of the subway through malls and hotels in order to get the exit that would get you where you needed to go, all lacking any wayfinding signage. There is a subway system, but only a few lines that don't go too many places yet, and the traffic is atrocious. Like many other places in southeast Asia, the dominant mode of transport here seems to be motorbike, which allows people to fearlessly zoom between cars on trafficky streets and store them more easily as well.

Our final day in this 36-hour adventure started off hectic; we had booked a class pass workout at a local boxing gym, only to get caught in traffic and arrive late; that aside, we had a great workout at Fire Fit (ClassPass works in KL and in general fitness seemed a big thing here), one of Dana’s first with punching bag rounds, before returning to the hotel for checkout and breakfast. We stopped by a traditional chinese tea shop Dana spotted and purchased some pu'er tea in a brick after trying it on the spot. We then split up briefly: Dana to the national museum (she saw the famous Java man and learned more about the various cultures of Malaysia) and me to a chic coffee shop (top cappucino). We reconvened for an incredibly cheap and relaxing couples massage at KL Sentral before heading to the airport via express train. We had a seamless check in and enjoyed the hotel lounge (using Priority Pass) at the Sama Sama (a hotel attached to the airport) before boarding our brief flight to Singapore.

Footnote:

1) Grab has been absolutely everywhere in Malaysia and Indonesia, and when public transport is not available is our go-to transport method for foreigners and locals alike. I do think Grab is an improvement (at least for tourists) in some of these more developing areas, since the price is listed in the app and therefore limits the crazy inflated prices game cabies would some time play with foreigners when we've traveled in the past.

After our time in the rainforest, I don’t think we were mentally prepared for the urban jungle that is Kuala Lumpur (KL). A confluence of cultures and religions, we We walked through many streets with murals on the wall, sidewalk and asphalt, something that has been in vogue almost everywhere we've been as a way to spruce up otherwise dated or slightly out of repair neighborhoods. We discussed the urban planning considerations of this approach; a seemingly low cost, aesthetic investment makes for a fairly popular tourist attraction and generally improves city exteriors and one even DOTI [Dana's employer] has started to implement. Dana's colleague (shout out to Jonathan) runs that program, but often has to spend many months coordinating the murals and street art with community members, adding to its initially low cost. We wondered what the approval process is like here.

The crowded Petaling Street had so many food options from all over the world!

Dana tried out the very stinky smelling durian fruit. So stinky that hotels and office buildings have "no durian" signs to try and prevent the smell! It tasted like garlic ice cream?

Just one example of the street art of KL. There were many alleys and narrow streets with this artwork. A great way to shine up an otherwise decrepit or sketchy neighborhood.

A quick pic by the Patronas Towers; the the world's highest buildings for 5 years until 2003.

Enjoying the Indian sweets vendors in Little India and the beautiful Chinese Buddhist temple Thean Hou

The Islamic art museum featured absolutely stunning pieces, from tiles, to jewelry, to weapons and carved wood, to mosque architecture.

Fitness classes seemed big in KL, often housed on the upper stories of the malls. Also, a round brick of pu'er; this brand is very famous for those who go in on pu'er.