Kuala Lumpur – Home of The Petronas Twin Towers

We landed in Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia after a short flight from Phuket.  Since we are pretty much finished with tough traveling, I booked a hotel for our 4 day stay in KL.  I got a deal from the Starwood Preferred Guest website to stay for 2 nights at the Sheraton and get the 3^rd night free, woo!  I was looking forward to Starwood’s well-known heavenly bed to get a good night’s sleep.  When we arrived in the hotel, I immediately felt a bit out of place carrying our worn out backpacks and looking slightly dishevelled compared to other family tourists with brand new shiny suitcases looking all decked out for the holiday season.  But no worries, after we checked in, Eug and I put on our best outfits too, jeans and hoodies, yeah!  Our room was awesome, it was probably bigger than our Shangri-la apartment and the bathroom had a view of the city.  Thank you Starwood!  We came to KL for two reasons.  First of all, the flight from KL to Taipei via Air Asia was half the price compared to other major airlines.  Secondly, we came to feast on the incredible variety of Malay, Chinese, and South East Asian food KL has to offer. 

This was my first time to Malaysia, so I had no idea of what to expect in KL except for the famous Petronas twin towers (picture above).  Unlike the Taipei 101, even though the twin towers were once the world’s tallest, they didn’t stick out as if they were the only buildings in the city.  KL has many other modern high rises as well whereas Taipei 101 is surrounded by a collection of much shorter buildings.  The Petronas Towers were designed by an Argentinian architect named Cesar Pelli and they were first opened in 1998.  They stand 88 stories high and are the headquarters of the national oil and gas company Petronas.  Upon close inspection, we noticed the Islamic art influence on the buildings which gave them a distinctive aura that captivated our attention.  The two towers are connected by a skybridge on the 41^st floor, however we didn’t make up it there because there were only about 1000 visitor tickets available a day.  We never made it early enough to get the tickets.  If you’ve been up there please feel free to share your experience with us.  Was it worth lining up early in the morning for?

We made our way to the Twin Towers area which is called Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) via a free shuttle from the Sheraton.  We basically waited 20 minutes for the shuttles to get organized before taking off and the ride to KLCC turned out to be less than 5 minutes, no joke.  Getting pampered costs you time and freedom I guess.  We decided to get around the city on our own after that.  It was very easy to take the skytrain or just to walk around the city on foot.  Suria KLCC is a very nice mall where we had some delicious Malay cuisine including Nasi Lemak, Laksa, Char Kway Teow (broad noodles fried in chilli and black bean sauce), and desserts like shaved ice with red bean coconut milk and fried banana fritters with vanilla ice cream.  It reminded me of the lunches in Tropika restaurant in Vancouver.  KL is also known for excellent street food.  Since there are around 50,000 registered hawkers in KL, we decided to venture to the areas where there are food stalls as well.  We went to Bukit Bintang area’s Jalan Alor street where supposedly the best Chinese hawker stalls and restaurants in KL are found.  There we tried chicken wings, noodle soup with fish balls, fried vermicelli and rice noodles.  All were scrumptious.  We also walked around Chinatown in the evening when it was the most happening.  Numerous restaurants set up extra tables outside the streets because all were running at almost full occupancy.  The night market was so packed with people we could barely squeeze through the 5 blocks of street vendors.  Here in fact was where we had the best meal in KL.  We came across a food stand right outside a convenient store.  There were fresh vegetables and meat and seafood all laid out on the stand and behind it was at least 20 tables set up with a hotpot in the middle of each one.  We first picked a few items and then the cook either grilled or deep fried the meat and seafood, while we cooked the vegetables in the hotpot.  We had really good calamari, chicken and pork skewers, and all kinds of vegetables.  The food left our taste buds extremely satisfied.  We were on such a food high that we almost tried the infamous stinky durian as well, but we were just way too full.

KL is a fascinating city to visit.  It is made up of Chinese, Malay, and Indian communities, and each marks a prominent influence that is reflected throughout the city.  It is also the most modern Muslim country we’ve been to so far on this trip.  There is an efficient public transport system, world class business and shopping districts, and a bustling nightlife full of trendy bars and restaurants.  And due to its multicultural nature, it`s not surprising to find a Malay who can speak fluent Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, and English on top of Malay.  This makes KL an easy holiday destination for other Asian country tourists.  I, for one, hope to come back to Malaysia again when it’s not the monsoon season to hit the beautiful islands and do some diving.