Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur City Scenes

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. One can sure have a love-hate relationship with this place.
For one, my arrival in Kuala Lumpur was not a good experience at all. Maybe it was the schedule or the time, since it was already the wee hours of the morning, plus the added stress of having slept inside the airport and the stress of having to travel to Kuala Lumpur and arriving to yet another terminal and the fiasco with an Indian Haggler. Read below and you'll know.

Now I want to ask, if there are other travelers viewing my site...if youve been to Kuala Lumpur and honest to goodness enjoyed every minute of it? I really want to know. Maybe I needed some perspective.

So anyway, the Malaysia trip is relatively short since I went straight to Singapore, and only came back and stayed at a hostel in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur called Haven Hostel. Finding Haven Hostel is yet another lost and found story...spent a good hour walking around the area trying to find it.
Let's focus on the nice things about Malaysia.

1. Malaysia is truly asia!!! Because of super diversified populace. Chinese, Malays, Indians, Arabs peacefully cohabiting. Interesting! If not a bit surreal.I think Malaysia is the grittier sister. Singapore is more Westernized.

3. Food! Singaporean and Malaysian food are both savory. But Malaysian food...one of the best!!!Peanut sauce and chicken and lamb satays the best!! And Jalan Alor is the bomb.It is a street where a lot of hawker food stalls are installed. Hawker food is what's typical turo turo or carinderia (small eatery) to us Filipinos. Malaysian food is yum yum yum.

4. The Kuala Lumpur Monorail. I took this ride to be able to get to Bukit Bintang, Malaysia where my hostel was located. Riding it is a novelty. Since of course the train runs on only one wheel, or attachment as opposed to the local Metrorail system.

5. The City Scenes. Bukit Bintang sort of looks like the middle class neighborhood of Makati and Jalan Alor looked like the back sides of Ortigas and Makati. Seriously, but it's a weird feeling. It's a city of course, what would one expect. But there are lots of weird yet interesting things going on like the a gold man on the street, stalls selling durian, and a lot more. There's a vast amount of energy in the place.

 

5. The Petronas Towers. I went to the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. Then to the mall beneath the structure. It was hot and tiring.But a trip to Petronas is something one should really experience. Well it used to be the world's tallest buildings before being surpassed by Taipei 101 in 2004 However, the towers are still the tallest twin buildings in the world.

 

Food: Hawker Food Culture in Malaysia

You're still reading my Singapore and Malaysia food and travel memoirs.

After my touch down from the Philippines to the Kuala Lumpur Low Cost Carrier Airport in Kuala Lumpur, I took a bus in Puduraya Terminal to Singapore where I alighted at the Singapore Terminal after inspections and immigrations. And in Singapore I stayed for three days in a hostel called Inn Crowd, where I met fellow backpackers George, Amy and Pam.

After three days, I tearfully went back to Kuala Lumpur and stayed at Haven Hostel in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. And there, I took the bus to the city center (I think) and explored the famous Petronas towers—truly a handsome, photogenic structure.

After that I went to the Hindu pilgrimage, the Batu Caves 13 kilometer north of Kuala Lumpur.

But what is even more exciting than site seeing is dining! My stomach took me to Restoran Waw in Jalan Alor, a hawker food street, a lively strip of grills and eateries which is widely popular in Kuala Lumpur.

And for my meal - chicken and lamb satays, grilled to perfection together with a curious concoction of peanut sauce and fish paste dip; yang-chow fried rice, and the traditional Bak-kut-teh, ( long-simmered pork in herbal soup, with the pork’s tender meat slipping easily from the bone). Downing the meal with Carlsberg beer, I thought there could be no better way to end my whirlwind of a five-day trip to Asia’s melting pot of Asian cuisine than this.

The Taste Traveler
In the end, I realized that I was too adventurous for a leisure traveler, but too soft to be a hardcore backpacker. Hence, this trip made me a taste-traveler - a foodie whose travel and adventure take me to where my taste buds lead me ●