That's what the city's name translates to, as it sits at the junction of the Klang and Gombak Rivers, but I think "Kuala Lumpur" has a nicer ring to it.
After a couple hour delay at the small, humble Luang Prabang airport, I landed uneventfully at the complete opposite--Kuala Lumpur, home to one of the region's most impressive airports. A fancy bus brought me into the city center on smooth highways (full of toll booths). One of many metro lines then brought me to Bukit Bintang district where I was greeted by 7-11's familiar green and orange beacon. My hostel entrance was at the back of an Indian restaurant, which provided free breakfast of roti canai. It's a common Malay breakfast of flat bread and curry, and certainly one of my favorites. When I woke up at 4:30am, freezing from the A/C just inches away from me, they were already pounding out bread dough for the day.
My first full day in Malaysia was the king's birthday. They have an interesting royalty setup here: nine of the Malay states have their own king. Those kings convene every five years to elect one of them to serve as the king of Malaysia. A few days before was Hari Merdeka, Malaysia's independence-from-Britain day. The week before, a last minute holiday was called after Malaysia performed better than expected at the ASEAN Games. And a week later was Malaysia Day, which celebrates the coming together of the Federation of Malaysia, North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore to form Malaysia. Malaysia celebrates more public holidays than almost any other country. Part of this is due to being such a diverse country, so they include holidays and holy days from a number of religions and ethnic groups.
The melting pot of Malaysia results in some diverse but universally delectable cuisine. I could hardly pinpoint "Malay" cuisine because that's really a mish mash of Indian, Chinese, and Thai influences. Conveniently I slept just steps away from Jalan Alor, a lively street full of delicious food and street musicians ("Take me Home, Country Roads" was on heavy rotation).
An interesting part of the country's history are the Peranakans. While most prevalent in the straits settlements of Malacca, Georgetown and Singapore, for me they perfectly illustrate the fusion of cultures that make up Malaysia. Peranakan translates to "child of" or "born of," and describes the ancestors of foreign traders who settled down in ports and started a family with a local woman. So you have Chinese Peranakan, Indian Peranakan, Arab Peranakan, and so on. Within the families the foreigners would hold on to traditions and beliefs from back home, but also be influenced by day to day life in Malaysia. This resulted in a Peranakan culture rich in traditions and full of great food.
After one morning of exploring, I found myself near the national monument and hungry. I wandered up a narrow staircase to a buffet crowded with locals and a traditional Malay band performing. I must have looked a bit overwhelmed by the options as a local family offered to guide me through my options. They then had me join their table and encouraged me to eat like a local--by hand! Little did I know there's actually a technique to make things a little less messy. So I shoveled in one handful (right hand only!) at a time, and it was all good.
English is widely spoken here, usually as a second language to Malay, Cantonese/Mandarin, or Tamil. That made it easy to get around, and even in written Malay, a lot of words are just slight variations of English words: bas, teksi, muzium, polis, restoran. Bro, sis, auntie, uncle are all used commonly to respectfully refer to an unrelated friend or stranger.
This place takes malls very seriously. Plaza Low Yat is "Malaysia's largest IT lifestyle mall," and it's a bit overwhelming. Everyone wants to sell you their smartphone repair, iPad, netbook, or camera. There's everything you could dream of on the first floor. The next five repeat more of the same. I only went there as I needed a replacement camera, and after shopping around and bargaining a bit, I walked out with one. Now this was a mall dedicated just to electronics. There are countless other malls around KL. I've seen nice, big malls before, but there's just so many of them here. I don't understand it.
Six months of hard wear did a number on my shoes--many kilometers of jungles, mountains, caves, beaches, pavement, mud, gravel, elephant poo, and countless river crossings had the treads down to nearly nothing. In need of something more for trekking, I ventured into one of those megamalls and got lost before landing in a (real) North Face Store for some suitable replacements.
The Petronas Towers really were an impressive sight, lit up at night with a fountain water show below, and the nearby mosque broadcasting their evening call to prayer. Inside at the bottom was--what else--a six story mall with uber high end shopping.
Uber and Grab are prevalent here, but difficult to arrange a pickup spot between all the one way streets and and no grid system or discernable street planning. While public transit is clean and comfortable, you leave a station and then struggle to cross the street without a major detour to the nearest crosswalk or pedestrian bridge.
As one skyscraper after another continues to shoot up with shiny apartments and malls in between, I was glad to still see some green space. KL Eco Park was a nice retreat right in the middle of the city, a proper jungle with a canopy walkway, monkeys, and all.
KL was a great, comfortable place to start and end Malaysia. It came across as a much cleaner, modern city, than any other stop on this trip so far. But after returning to KL after a visit to Singapore, I suddenly found plenty of minor faults to complain about here. Because Singapore is in a league of its own.
After a couple hour delay at the small, humble Luang Prabang airport, I landed uneventfully at the complete opposite--Kuala Lumpur, home to one of the region's most impressive airports. A fancy bus brought me into the city center on smooth highways (full of toll booths). One of many metro lines then brought me to Bukit Bintang district where I was greeted by 7-11's familiar green and orange beacon. My hostel entrance was at the back of an Indian restaurant, which provided free breakfast of roti canai. It's a common Malay breakfast of flat bread and curry, and certainly one of my favorites. When I woke up at 4:30am, freezing from the A/C just inches away from me, they were already pounding out bread dough for the day.
My first full day in Malaysia was the king's birthday. They have an interesting royalty setup here: nine of the Malay states have their own king. Those kings convene every five years to elect one of them to serve as the king of Malaysia. A few days before was Hari Merdeka, Malaysia's independence-from-Britain day. The week before, a last minute holiday was called after Malaysia performed better than expected at the ASEAN Games. And a week later was Malaysia Day, which celebrates the coming together of the Federation of Malaysia, North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore to form Malaysia. Malaysia celebrates more public holidays than almost any other country. Part of this is due to being such a diverse country, so they include holidays and holy days from a number of religions and ethnic groups.
The melting pot of Malaysia results in some diverse but universally delectable cuisine. I could hardly pinpoint "Malay" cuisine because that's really a mish mash of Indian, Chinese, and Thai influences. Conveniently I slept just steps away from Jalan Alor, a lively street full of delicious food and street musicians ("Take me Home, Country Roads" was on heavy rotation).
An interesting part of the country's history are the Peranakans. While most prevalent in the straits settlements of Malacca, Georgetown and Singapore, for me they perfectly illustrate the fusion of cultures that make up Malaysia. Peranakan translates to "child of" or "born of," and describes the ancestors of foreign traders who settled down in ports and started a family with a local woman. So you have Chinese Peranakan, Indian Peranakan, Arab Peranakan, and so on. Within the families the foreigners would hold on to traditions and beliefs from back home, but also be influenced by day to day life in Malaysia. This resulted in a Peranakan culture rich in traditions and full of great food.
After one morning of exploring, I found myself near the national monument and hungry. I wandered up a narrow staircase to a buffet crowded with locals and a traditional Malay band performing. I must have looked a bit overwhelmed by the options as a local family offered to guide me through my options. They then had me join their table and encouraged me to eat like a local--by hand! Little did I know there's actually a technique to make things a little less messy. So I shoveled in one handful (right hand only!) at a time, and it was all good.
English is widely spoken here, usually as a second language to Malay, Cantonese/Mandarin, or Tamil. That made it easy to get around, and even in written Malay, a lot of words are just slight variations of English words: bas, teksi, muzium, polis, restoran. Bro, sis, auntie, uncle are all used commonly to respectfully refer to an unrelated friend or stranger.
This place takes malls very seriously. Plaza Low Yat is "Malaysia's largest IT lifestyle mall," and it's a bit overwhelming. Everyone wants to sell you their smartphone repair, iPad, netbook, or camera. There's everything you could dream of on the first floor. The next five repeat more of the same. I only went there as I needed a replacement camera, and after shopping around and bargaining a bit, I walked out with one. Now this was a mall dedicated just to electronics. There are countless other malls around KL. I've seen nice, big malls before, but there's just so many of them here. I don't understand it.
Six months of hard wear did a number on my shoes--many kilometers of jungles, mountains, caves, beaches, pavement, mud, gravel, elephant poo, and countless river crossings had the treads down to nearly nothing. In need of something more for trekking, I ventured into one of those megamalls and got lost before landing in a (real) North Face Store for some suitable replacements.
The Petronas Towers really were an impressive sight, lit up at night with a fountain water show below, and the nearby mosque broadcasting their evening call to prayer. Inside at the bottom was--what else--a six story mall with uber high end shopping.
Uber and Grab are prevalent here, but difficult to arrange a pickup spot between all the one way streets and and no grid system or discernable street planning. While public transit is clean and comfortable, you leave a station and then struggle to cross the street without a major detour to the nearest crosswalk or pedestrian bridge.
As one skyscraper after another continues to shoot up with shiny apartments and malls in between, I was glad to still see some green space. KL Eco Park was a nice retreat right in the middle of the city, a proper jungle with a canopy walkway, monkeys, and all.
KL was a great, comfortable place to start and end Malaysia. It came across as a much cleaner, modern city, than any other stop on this trip so far. But after returning to KL after a visit to Singapore, I suddenly found plenty of minor faults to complain about here. Because Singapore is in a league of its own.