We had a fantastic time in Kuala Lumpur (aka “KL”) visiting our friends Mike and Soo Wai at their amazing condo with a view. KL is the capital city of Malaysia.
Mike and Soo Wai were amazing hosts and showed us all around town. KL is known for having a wide variety of cuisines. In addition to Malaysian cuisine, there are great Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Indian, Mediterranean and all kinds of other restaurants. And also, for some reason, plenty of Kenny Roger’s Roasters chains. My point is, whatever kind of food you’re looking for, you can find it in Kuala Lumpur. We ate like kings.
Speaking of eating like kings, no trip to Southeast Asia would be complete without sampling the “king of fruits” — durian. If you’ve never heard of durian, I’m not surprised. It is one of those mostly love it or hate it fruits. It has a reputation for having an offensive smell, but if you can get past the smell, it tastes pretty good and has a creamy texture. But again…the smell. It does tend to linger around even long after the fruit has been consumed. It’s prohibited to bring it on airplanes, and every hotel we’ve stayed in has had “No Durian” signs posted in the lobby and elevators -- we actually had to sign a form at one hotel promising we wouldn’t bring any durian in or we’d risk a huge fine.
But durian is one of Soo Wai’s favorite fruits so she made sure to have some on hand to share with us. (Their HOA doesn’t have any rules forbidding durian…yet.) But Mike had a few objections, so we ate our treat with plastic gloves, outside, on the balcony with the doors closed so the smell wouldn’t permeate the condo. Definitely a must-try while in Malaysia!
We weren’t done eating, yet. I swear we each gained five pounds in just the five days we spent in KL. We headed out in the evening to see the famous Jalan Alor food street, with dozens of long-established food stalls all packed with people every night of the week.
And after dinner, KL had plenty of popular pubs and bars. At the aptly named "The Whisky Bar KL" Mike had a tasting flight of whisky from Australia while Kevin’s flight was a sampling of Irish whiskey. None for me since I don’t like the taste — I’ll take durian over whiskey any day!
We had a chance to explore the cultural side of the city, too. We enjoyed visiting Chinatown, which had several beautifully done realistic murals depicting life here in this neighborhood back in the 1950s and 1960s. Note the lady in curlers and the laundry drying on lines.
A couple other murals in that same alleyway allowed for more interactive participation. Here’s Kevin getting a haircut…
…And Mike showing us that even illiterate people back in the day could dictate a letter written in Chinese characters by the local scribe. By the way if Apple ever decides to make a digital calligraphy brush I’d like to claim rights to the trademark name “iBrush”. You saw it in print here first, folks.
We saw a more modern twist on Malaysian culture by visiting several malls. “Mall culture” is a big thing here, and there are miles and miles of air-conditioned shopping corridors to explore when the midday heat and humidity gets to be too much.
If mall-walking isn’t your thing, KL has several great hiking trails that are in the city but also bring you right into the jungle. Soo Wai and Mike led us on a short hike just to give us a sample of what jungle trekking is like here. Similar to hiking in Phoenix, it’s best to get an early start before the heat of the day sets in. Unlike hiking in Phoenix, there were monkeys at the trailhead. And roosters on the trail.
Just like at home, a great way to cool off in the afternoon is to head to the pool. Their condo’s infinity-edge pool had a spectacular view of the skyline. And a terrifying plexiglass window at the bottom of the pool showing you just how far up you were (35 floors!) We all spent the first few minutes just double-daring each other to step out on the glass. Eventually we all did…and lived to tell the tale.
KL is the city of tall buildings. In fact, they are just putting the finishing touches on the Merdeka 118 building, which will be the second tallest building in the world once it’s done. At 2227 feet high it's about 500 feet shy of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
But in my opinion one of the prettiest structures in the KL skyline is the Petronas Towers. These two 88-story towers were designed with Islamic motifs incorporated into the facade, to bring to mind Malaysia's official religion. You can go to the viewing deck on the skybridge linking the towers about halfway up, but that doesn’t really let you see the towers themselves in all their glory. For that, there are a few photo spots at the base of the towers, but we most enjoyed the view from the rooftop bar of the shorter Petronas 3 next door. You can really see the details of the architecture up close.
At the base of the Petronas Towers, a musical fountain puts on a music and light show several times a night. I liked the rainbow of colors.
We saw more rainbows when we visited Batu Caves. It’s a Hindu temple with several shrines built right inside a huge cave. The temples aren't very old (founded around 1890) but this temple complex is one of the most-visited outside of India.
The cave entrance is at the top of 272 rainbow-colored steps. Yes, there were monkeys. Lots and lots of monkeys.
Once at the top of the steps we arrived at the cave and had jaw-dropping views of the temples inside. The cave is enormous!
We just want to thank Mike and Soo Wai for hosting us, and Soo Wai especially for playing the role of driver/tour guide and interpreter as she showed us around her hometown. She took us to parts of Kuala Lumpur that we would never have seen on our own, and shared information about the food and culture that only a local would know. We are deeply grateful and appreciative of their hospitality while showing us this vibrant and delightful city!
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