The place which we stayed in Kuala Lumpur was located on a lonely hill in the friendly neighbourhood of Chow Kit; this commanding position gave the balcony a superb view of the KL skyline. We watched in delight at the many colorful and moody transformations which the weather and the time of day brought to the towering skyscrapers - arching rainbows, sweeping winds, temperamental passing rain clouds, broody thunderstorms, blinding sunrise, golden dusk, crawling mist and moving clouds casting shadows of all shapes and forms. We just sat back with a few scotch and soda and enjoyed the many different acts put on by nature.
We did not stay lazy for too long as we visited many of these world famous towers - Patronas, KL Tower and Merdeka 118 as well as other beautiful constructions dotted around KL. Surprisingly, we almost always managed to find a local curry house around these landmarks and had delicious Malaysian and Indian food for lunch; especially worth mentioning was the NZ Curry House near the Patronas that served the best Tandoori since we left India all those years ago !
During our month-long sojourn in KL, we made good use of the efficient metro and trains - KL has improved a great deal in this aspect, we could easily make comfortable day-outs to nearby sights. First, we hit the suburb of Bandar Sunway - a mini city practically owned by the Sunway Group, a powerful company built by a Chinese Malaysian family. Bandar Sunway has a university with a huge campus and massive sports fields, a series of mega-malls as well as numerous hotels and amusement arcades - a family could easily spend a week here and play-till-you-drop. To us, the city was best remembered by its huge pyramid and sphinx which looked totally out of place in the modern surroundings.
We also spent the good part of a sunny day visiting the Batu Caves, a pleasant 30 minutes' train ride away. The caves were populated with tens of colorful Hindu statues, which looked even more photogenic in the bright sunny morning. We headed back to our hood in Chow Kit and went to the Sunway Putra Mall (yes, another Sunway Group stronghold) and had a traditional Malaysian Laksa, a spicy coconut based noodle soup, yummy !
Christmas songs could be heard in all the Kuala Lumpur shopping malls - time to spend, spend and spend. The malls in KL really put on the display, especially The Pavillion with its grand entrance, spacious courtyard, multi-storey and multi-direction architecture brought the Christmas decorations a unique perspective as we could view the designs from all angles as well as from the basement, quite unlike other malls. The other mall which we liked the most was in Bandar Sunway, more closely packed but making it more photogenic within a compact atrium located at the centre.
Perhaps the air was clearer after the usual overnight rain storms or was our mood elated after finally confirming our month-long extension to Thailand after our stay here in KL, but the sky seemed brighter than usual and the sights of the KL neighbourhood looked amazingly colorful ! Yep, we visited the area of Petaling (KL Chinatown), oozing character and positive vibes.
In need of a major energy boost, I bought a bottle of freshly squeezed sugarcane juice from a street vendor with the mechanical manual roller and strainer and felt immediately energised. The Petaling district and the area near Jalan Rembit were full of beautiful wall murals, especially around 鬼仔巷 and there were lots of dinky corners worth exploring. We took lunch at an outdoor restaurant serving Teow Chau (潮州) food and were pretty tanked up for our afternoon swim when we arrived back home in Chow Kit. On that note, also worth mentioning was our local favourite in Chow Kit, Ben's, which served irresistible Chinese Malaysian food - take a look at Ben's amusing restaurant sign board below !
We did not stay lazy for too long as we visited many of these world famous towers - Patronas, KL Tower and Merdeka 118 as well as other beautiful constructions dotted around KL. Surprisingly, we almost always managed to find a local curry house around these landmarks and had delicious Malaysian and Indian food for lunch; especially worth mentioning was the NZ Curry House near the Patronas that served the best Tandoori since we left India all those years ago !
We also spent the good part of a sunny day visiting the Batu Caves, a pleasant 30 minutes' train ride away. The caves were populated with tens of colorful Hindu statues, which looked even more photogenic in the bright sunny morning. We headed back to our hood in Chow Kit and went to the Sunway Putra Mall (yes, another Sunway Group stronghold) and had a traditional Malaysian Laksa, a spicy coconut based noodle soup, yummy !
In need of a major energy boost, I bought a bottle of freshly squeezed sugarcane juice from a street vendor with the mechanical manual roller and strainer and felt immediately energised. The Petaling district and the area near Jalan Rembit were full of beautiful wall murals, especially around 鬼仔巷 and there were lots of dinky corners worth exploring. We took lunch at an outdoor restaurant serving Teow Chau (潮州) food and were pretty tanked up for our afternoon swim when we arrived back home in Chow Kit. On that note, also worth mentioning was our local favourite in Chow Kit, Ben's, which served irresistible Chinese Malaysian food - take a look at Ben's amusing restaurant sign board below !
