Kuala Lumpur - in general

Kuala Lumpur in general – best description is a less “perfect” version of Singapore (ie. Less clean, but generally still the same kind of place). For those who have never been to Singapore, apologies for the crappy description. It’s hot and humid. It seems that if you go outside you will get wet – either rain or sweat or both.

It’s good for shopping, both upper end stuff, and market stuff. Although Dave had previously given me the heads up before hand, not knowing where it was, I accidentally stumbled across Petaling Street Market. An amazing place. Here you can buy a fake version of just about anything. From Rolexes to fresh white Nikes, to Louis Vittons, to Ray Bans. Everything can be found here. Haggling is a must. My new principle is don’t buy anything you actually want because you will be ripped off (you need to make the vendors want to sell their goods more than you actually want to buy the goods in order to get the price down). Also pretending to leave without buying is a sure fire way to slash the price of anything by at least 50%. I spent a couple of hours wandering through here, before I found Central Market (an indoor, and more importantly air conditioned market) which actually sells authentic stuff like local handi-crafts, souvenirs etc.

Oh I forgot to mention, that food can be bought basically anywhere for quite cheap ($3 AUD for main meal seems about average).

In terms of food, Jalang Alor seems to be the place to go. The street sides are lined with little food stalls, and at night, they put tables out (even on the road) and serve heaps of customers (both locals and tourists). The place is very busy, and it’s interesting sitting and eating dinner on the middle of the road as cars and pedestrians pass by. Most of the time I order by pointing at a picture, only to find that what is brought out doesn’t look much like the picture. Also most of the time, I’m not really quite sure what I am eating, but it seems to taste pretty good, so no complaints yet. Chinese or Indian style food seems to be most common.

Sightseeing in Kula Lumpur seems to involve towers. The biggest and most famous are the Petronas Twin Towers – the largest twin towers in the world. The biggest building(s) I have ever seen, and make all the other sky scrapers in KL look small and inferior. I reckon even King Kong would have trouble climbing this bad boy. You can climb to the skybridge for a free lookout of the city, however, there is only a limited number of tickets available each day. I was advised to get there early to get a ticket. I did get there early – but not early enough, as all tickets were snapped up before my arrival. I consoled myself by taking some token photos Valentino Rossi’s motorbike (which is in the lobby of the building), exploring the shopping centre which takes up the bottom 5 floors of the building and then heading to the next best tower, KL Tower.

KL Tower, was unfortunately not free, but admission to the observation deck did get me complimentary admission into the “Animal Experience” as well as a ride of a dodgy F1 simulator (and a free pony ride, which I decided not to take). KL Tower is a big pointy tower (much like the one in Sydney) which gives 360degree views of the city (supposedly better view than the Petronas Towers).