We finally completed our first SEA city after over 30 hours of travel from NZ. Kuala Lumpur was well worth the pain it took to get there :) Partly because when we got there, the Aloft accommodated our every request. Checked in at 3:00pm and checked out the next day at 9:00pm. Here's what we did in our ~36 hours in KL, followed by our advice, fun facts, and some favorite pictures.
- Stay at Aloft KL Sentral
- Chinatown daytime walking around
- Central Market walking around
- Lunch at Restoran Yusoof Dan Zakhir
- Hanging around KLCC with a view of the Petronas Towers
- Batu Caves
- Foot Massage at Shujin Therapy Zone Professional Reflexology Clinic
- Mohit's haircut at the Nu Sentral Mall
- Lunch at Nu Sentral Mall Foodcourt (I Love Yoo and an Indonesian place)
- Old China Tea House
- Chinatown nighttime walk around including dumplings and a beer
- Overnight train to Singapore (departs at 11:00pm and arrives at 7:00am)
Things to know if you visit
- The KLIA express train is fantastic. Though more expensive than the regular MRT (about $9 per person), it takes 30 minutes to get from the airport to KL Sentral, the main train station in KL.
- KL Sentral is a great location to access most of the city through the MRT, especially if you're short on time. There's four major hotels connected to the train station: Aloft, Hilton, Le Meridian, and Ascott. If you have SPG points, the Aloft is awesome. 4000 points per night and you get a great breakfast buffet if you're platinum or $15 if you're not.
- MRT is the way to go for transportation. Traffic looked like any major metro, meaning crappy. The subway, although crowded during business rush hours, is cheap, clean, and quick. It's also heavily A/C'd.
- The USD to MYR conversion rate is fantastic. Meaning you can get great meals for under $5 per person.
- Most places do not accept credit card so make sure to carry cash. Including the McDonalds.
Fun facts
- The language Malay is basically just Malaysian people speaking English. Lift is lif, restaurant is restoran, and police is polis. Although Fate is shaking her head saying Mohit's just being racist, Mohit thinks he's onto something and needs to do some linguistics research here.
- Every street name begins with the word "Jalan"... it probably means "street" in Malay but we're too lazy to look this up.
- We thought Kuala Lumpur was pretty clean... until we walked by a "river"... and Fate nearly vomited by the smells.
- For some god forsaken reason, people love Auntie Anne's Pretzels. On a similar note, western restaurants named Manhattan Fish Market and Tony Roma's are always raging with people.
- Texas Chicken totally stole Church's Chicken's logo... uncool.
- We saw a ton of Arabs on vacation in KL.
Summary Pictures
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| Infinity Pool that stopped working when Mohit wanted to step inside |
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| Intense Chinatown. |
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| The damn Colonel. |
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| Funky Dutch and Roman architecture. |
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| Fate: I found my people's food!!! |
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| Masjid in the middle of the city. |
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| These folks are waiting for a tame light and water show. |
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| They waste a lot of energy keeping these building totally light up in the evenings. |
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| Giant Mall One. |
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| Batu Caves, just a quick train ride away. |
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| Just peacocks on the roof. |
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| Excited for the 270+ steps! |
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| Yayyy... it's smelly. |
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| Mama love at Batu Caves |
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| This deserves a big pic because of how tasty it was, laksa! |
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| Egg Dog: what Asians think Americans eat for breakfast. |
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| Giant Mall Two. |
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| Lanterns in Chinatown at night. |
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| This is a Hindu temple. |
The malls are super big in KL. We spent a lot of time there also. The food courts are really good. Wait till you try Singaporean food stands! They have the best filled prata with anything you want in it and fresh juice stands.
ReplyDeleteTexas chicken is the same company as church's chicken...the word church is not as inviting for food outside of usa hence the change in the name...dont worry no one stole the presious american brand name...
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