Unable to stay away from our wonderful company for too long, my mom Sheila braved a 30-hour journey to meet us in Kuala Lumpur. She managed to use her timeshare to get us a very nice condo in the middle of the city, and I can safely say it has been/will be the nicest place we stay our entire trip. Thanks for the taste of luxury, mom!!

The Sites

Our first full day we figured we would see the city in my moms favorite way – a tour bus! We got on the KL hop-on hop-off bus prepared to see the sites and learn the history of the city. Instead we mostly saw traffic jams and sat in our seats sweating profusely. We definitely saw some cool buildings and got off at a few stops, but I don’t think any of us would recommend it. 

The most iconic buildings in KL are the Petronas Twin Towers. 88-stories high and connected with a sky bridge on the 41st and 42nd floors, the towers are mostly offices for the Petronas petroleum company. We went up to the top and enjoyed the panoramic views of the city while learning about the construction, most notably that the sky bridge is not fully attached to the buildings but is designed to allow for movement during strong winds. But even better than going up the towers – in my opinion at least – is the view of the towers at night. They light up so brightly they look other worldly and magical. Every time we got a glimpse of them at night we had to stop and stare.

The Batu Caves are another classic tourist attraction, and for good reason! The colorful Hindu temples surrounding this ginormous cave with a giant gold statue and stairs leading up, it is a spectacular sight to see. Once you climb the stairs in the unforgiving heat you’re rewarded with another temple inside the cave. I will say it was overall dirtier than we expected considering most temples are kept in really nice condition. We think that’s probably due to the monkeys though – they will take anything from you and run away with it, which includes trash. In fact a monkey stole our water bottle within 5 minutes of being there! We got it back, but considering he chewed on the top for a while we decided to trash it (for him to find later).

One of our favorite places in the city was Chinatown. Full of delicious food, temples, and vendors, there is something for everyone. We were there in the week leading up to Chinese New Year, so the city was decorated in red and with rabbits everywhere we looked. Very festive and fun! Also near Chinatown is the new Merdeka 118 Tower, the second tallest building in the world. It isn’t open yet as it is still under construction but pretty much anywhere you look in the city you can see it!

The tours

One of the best things we did in the city was take tours with local tour guides from the website WithLocals. It allows locals to give tours to people without having to be part of a big tour agency – plus they’re usually pretty cheap. 

Our first tour was the Temple & Mosque Cultural Tour with our guide Paul. We met him near Chinatown at the Chan She Shu Yuen Clan Ancestral Hall where he explained the history of the temple/family lineage and more generally how Chinese people ended up in Malaysia. He then took us to a Hindu temple and two Chinese temples within Chinatown. We thought the Chinese temples were interesting because the religion is a bit more fluid, you can go there and worship/pray for whatever you believe in. Finally, we went to the National Mosque, a huge mosque with a 15,000 person capacity. We had to dress in robes to cover our heads, arms, and legs, but then were free to explore. Overall we learned a lot and it was interesting to hear how all of the different religions and cultures coexist in the country.

Our second tour was a street food tour with our guide “Chef Faris” (he’s a chef and introduced himself as such). He took us on a three hour eating tour of the best KL foods, and man were our stomachs happy and full! By the 4th food my mom and I already started giving our leftovers to John to finish. Luckily full is not a sensation John understands so no food was wasted!

Our food tour included:

• Nasi Lemak – the national dish of rice, sambal, egg, and anchovies.
• Keropok Lekor – fried fish sausages… but they almost have the consistency of bagels. Sound weird, taste good.
• Karipap – sort of like an empanada but with curry and vegetables.
• Apam Balik – a very thin, fried pancake. It was filled with creamed corn, which was unexpected but good!
• Putu Piring – a steamed rice cake. This was my moms and my favorite!
• A “Malaysian burger” – they fried an egg then wrapped the patty in it, plus a bunch of unique sauces.
• Mee Goreng – fried noodle dish
• Roti Canai – an Indian flaky flatbread. Amazing.
• Chai tea

This is probably our favorite thing we did in KL, so we highly recommend it!! But maybe don’t eat anything before to prepare yourself.

Pulau Ketam

We took a day trip to the small island of Pulau Ketam, a couple hours away from Kuala Lumpur. Situated on stilts, the fishing village has several restaurants that cater to tourists but beyond that is mostly residential. Pulau Ketam literally means Crab Island, so we were very excited to partake in the local cuisine. We got the local crab as well as bamboo clams which were truly delicious. After walking around for a bit, we spent an hour or so waiting for our ferry at the only restaurant we could find with a western toilet – they knew what they were doing!!

The Food

Beyond the street food tour, we tried so many different dishes that were delicious. Some favorites –

• Shredded chicken porridge – my favorite breakfast!
• Nasi Lemak – we had this on the food tour, but many other times as well. It’s a favorite, we even got it from Mcdonalds one day when we were in a rush.
• Pandan – a type of leaf used to flavor so many different things. John is a huge fan and wants pandan flavored everything.
• Soups – pretty much every soup we’ve had has been delicious. Wonton, curry, ramen, etc.

We also tried one not so delicious cuisine – durian. It’s a popular fruit in SE Asia, but it is most well known for its horrible smell. So much so that they are banned from public transportation and hotels make you sign an agreement saying you won’t bring them in the building. Locals swear that it smells horrible but tastes delicious, but we would all beg to differ. We tried it and it was truly horrible. I think my moms face in the picture below says it all.

Overall KL was a great entry point to Malaysia. A couple final takeaways that we learned –

• Malaysia is HOT. But almost every afternoon/evening a big rain storm would come through and cool it down a little, so don’t forget your umbrella!
• Muslims consider the left hand dirty, so when exchanging money always use your right hand
• Almost everyone in KL speaks English
• Most places only accept cash (Malaysian ringgits)
• And most importantly, bring your own toilet paper with you everywhere

Christine