Kuala Lumpur: High Tech with High Temps

A quick 1.5 hour flight from Krabi landed us in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. The bus ride from the airport to our hostel, Mingle, took about as long as the flight. We stayed in Chinatown for two nights, just off Petaling Street, which seemed to be the focal point of the night market scene where very convincing fake merchandise is sold alongside strange meats and fruits.

Durian, the alleged king of fruits, mounts an olfactory assault on every corner with its painfully overripe odor, exacerbated by the near 100 degree temperature. Our first impression was that Kuala Lumpur is an impressively modern city, that manages to stay in touch with its heritage. It is very clean and trendy but equally traditional and unique.

Our first dinner was local buffet style fare - rice, chicken, various vegetable dishes, curries, etc. It was outstanding, full of flavor, costing just $3 each.

We spent the evening admiring the street vendors, temples, and artwork around Chinatown. We stumbled onto Kwai Chai Hong, a charming, hidden alley whose heritage houses were recently revived into high-end bars, dessert shops and creative murals that pay homage to early Chinese settlers who lived there during the 1960s.

It was here we decided to try a popular local dessert, tau foo fah, or soy bean pudding. While beautiful to look at, it was, in my ignorant Western opinion, a bland bowl of slime with vegetable-based candies...glad we tried it, but we don't think we will be returning to it any time soon.

The next morning, we woke up early enough to beat the heat and went for a 4.5 mile run at the Perdana Botanical Gardens. Beautifully manicured gardens and winding paths make it an essential stop (plus, it's free)! Deana's childhood friend, Anna, arrived in Kuala Lumpur this same morning - she was in the area for a wedding, and decided to stop in Malaysia to meet up with us for a bit.

After an average, but hearty, breakfast provided by the hostel, we decided to head to the Batu Caves, where tourists, monkeys, and pigeons flock to ornate temples within massive caves. In our experience, Malaysia is much happier to share their natural wonders than Thailand as this tourist hot spot was free of charge. A clean, silent, and smooth train brought us to and from for about 60 cents each way. It felt like we were in the distant future compared to riding in the NYC subway.

Once back in Chinatown we headed to the Little India neighborhood, Brickfields, where we ate a traditional consisting of a banana leaf adorned with various spicy vegetable and meat dishes which we ate with our hands. We then roamed the neighborhood, perusing the shops selling flowers, foods, traditional clothing, and jewelry. Loud Indian music filled the streets. We took a train back to the hostel once we had our fill.

We stumbled onto Kwai Chai Hong, a charming, hidden alley whose heritage houses were recently revived into high-end bars, dessert shops and creative murals that pay homage to early Chinese settlers who lived there during the 1960s.

The next morning we again woke up early for a run through the gardens, packed our bags and rushed to the train station to catch the train to the Cameron Highlands, arriving completely saturated in sweat only to learn the train was sold out. So we had an hour to cool off until the next train arrived.