KL

KL

After 60 hours of travel, blech, we arrived late in KL.  The airport is about 40 minutes from downtown but we checked into the Shangri-La just after midnight. There are about 1000 hotels to choose from in KL ranging from economy to the Ritz. Long story short, you probably are going to find a good place with easy access to down.

Kuala Lumpur is a melting pot of just about everything in Asia, and somehow this really works. https://www.shangri-la.com/kualalumpur/shangrila/

The food is super diverse and relies heavily on other cultures for influence.  The markets are abundant and easy to navigate, the street hawker alleys and lots are home to every meat on a stick you can imagine, stores and sit down restaurants outdoors.  You never know when a rain storm will pop up, but you can be highly assured that at the first drop, an angel with umbrellas and ponchos will appear and sell them to you for less than 1 USD.

We also went to the Pavillion Mall near the massive Petronas towers (formerly tallest building in the world before the Birj in Dubai).  The nice thing about the Pavillion is that if you want the insane brands, they have it all, but you’ll never catch me trying to kiss the ass of a sales associate at Gucci or Hermes to pay for something with hard earned money, so that floor was quickly ditched.  All of the brands that you can get on Amazon for knock off fashion are there as well as floors dedicated to clothes, food, toys, electronics, you name it.

Pavilion Kuala Lumpur

+60 3-2118 8833

After exploration, we hit a fancy bar at Shangri-La and another happy hour location on our way to Jalan Alor, the most well known of the food hawker streets. Jalan Alor is just one of MANY street food centers.  It is the best of slightly uncontrolled chaos and everything is made in front of you, including meats on sticks, lemonade with kalamansi fruits, sting ray on a stick.  This was the first place the umbrella fairies appeared when we needed them.  If you’ve been to Asia, you know what I mean. Sunny skies, all is well, instant downpour and 100 people come out of NOWHERE to sell umbrellas.

You cannot go wrong with whatever you choose, however. So get a little bit from everywhere, and if you like spice make sure you keep reiterating that.  Malaysians have been conditioned to assume that Americans can’t handle a 1/10 spicy, probably because of whiners.

https://www.wonderfulmalaysia.com/food/jalan-alor-food-street.htm

The second full day we started with a morning trip for a market tour.  It was really neat to see Halal items on one floor, pork on the lower level as respect, separation of the beef for the Hindu observers, etc.  We got a quick class in local products we can’t really get a home before heading to LaZat cooking school.  Samiah, our instructor, is a lovely and tiny chef with over 4 decades of cooking experience from scratch between home life, catering, and hotels.

We learned proper cooking skills for Rendang, 2 sambal recipes, nasi lemok (the treasured coconut rice that comes with EVERYTHING.  We also learned how to make pandan cakes for dessert, which are little green cakes colored and flavored by pandan juice (very green from juicing a leaf that is native to SE Asia and has a slightly sweet and earthy smell and taste).  We pounded all the sambal and fried anchovies ourselves so also got the workout in.

After our class, we decided to set out on another wandering adventure around downtown KL including the KL tower which stands hundreds of meters tall and has several levels of observation towers at the top.  If you go here at sunset it is best, because the transition of the skyscrapers from day to night is quite awe inspiring.  You can also go out onto mini platforms with glass bottoms for an additional fee, but honestly, the view is just plenty.

Next order of business was shopping the night market for silly trinkets and on a mission for food at a place called Fook. We are very immature, we know, but we didn’t JUST choose Fook because it’s called Fook…it was also because the reviews were pretty Fooking good.  Ok, I will stop.  The staff were a little weird to be honest, and it looked as if they were trying to figure out if they actually wanted to seat us.  But, after a little persistence, the view of the gardens was lovely, cocktails were intertesting and quite good, and the fried noodles and spicy prawns were amazing.  We also shared an app tray with satay, ahi seared, papaya salad, and spring rolls. 

The next morning, we had a guide reserved for a 15km walking tour.  Our driver Mathan was like, why would you want to walk when we could drive, but hey, using public transit and absorbing things on foot is totally our jam.  If there’s one thing Tim and I agree about, it is the on foot nitty gritty of every city.   Our guide was fantastic.  At 76 yrs of age, he was an endless ball of energy and helpful information about the culture and the city.  As a Sikh, he showed us around a Sikh temple that we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to see, showed us some more great street food and the remnants of the British occupation in the form of fancy clubs for the white rich guys, polo fields, pubs.  Apparently he used to be a very good rugby player in the 1970s and got paid in beer to play.

He even taught us some seedy scandalous history! Side note…did you know that prostitutes are known as ‘chickens’?  They are plentiful in certain places and the reviews are priceless over an afternoon beer.  Really, just look up red light district KL. Chickens…cheap chicken and if you leave with your phone and wallet, you did good.

Kuala Lumpur prides itself on inclusivity of religion, even if everyone has opinions about them all.  The oldest and largest mosque is at the center of the city, which is at a confluence of rivers that are really, um, muddy.  Which comes to the city name, which is for ‘where the muddy rivers meet’.  Not flattering per se, but accurate.  I highly highly recommend having locals show you all the nuances here…they know a lot more than you are ever going to get from this blog or that guys blog or the official tourism site.  Example, did you know that, in spite of India revering the cow as a holy animal, that almost all of the beef in Malaysia is imported by…India??  This prompted us to look up more info, and in fact, India is the largest exporter of beef in the ENTIRE world outside from Brazil.  Let that one sink in as the $$ ruling all.  I wonder if the Hindus know?

Following this tour de force, we weren’t finished yet! Time for the Bird Park…the largest outdoor open air aviary in the world. Right in the city.  I love birds, everyone knows this.  If there is cooking, boating, fishing, hiking, animals, and birds, not one of my friends is surprised that I will squash them alllll in. Link to bird park.

After the adventure, we went to the W hotel which boasts the best view of the Petronas towers. In spite of the hipster, way way too young for us environment, the view was fantastic, and the cocktails at the W never disappoint.  Watching the people is also top notch…expensive ‘chicken’

For dinner, Tim found a Gin place…right near the hotel down an alley.  The vibe was super weird and funny.  Very very strange videos on screens while you sip your cocktails and observe the high end chicken.  We ate there too because we had run out of creative energy, but I am so not going to review the place because, well, the food and staff in the restaurant side, place needs um, a little attention.  I don’t leave 1 star reviews.  My rule is that hospitality is hard, really hard.  Be gracious and forgiving of wait staff when possible.  I bartended and waited tables before. It SUCKED and so do people sometimes.

We weren’t really ready to leave because the to do list got longer, but the jungle was waiting!