We have a total of 3 full days in KL, but there is quite a bit to do seeing as this is the capital of Malaysia. We had a lot of stuff on the list today so we got to it. The first stop is the Masjid Jamek Sultan mosque, one of the oldest mosques in KL. While it was only a few blocks away from our hotel, it was blazingly hot out today and extremely humid, so by the time we reached the mosque, we were already drenched.
We arrived and Caitlyn is given a garment to cover her hair, and David is given a piece of clothing to cover his legs. We walk in and immediately take cover in a small air conditioned room exhibiting things about the mosque and its history. We then walk the grounds, which did not offer much with the limited availability to the public.
We finished up here and next walked by the “Old Survey Office”, which was an absolutely beautiful, sprawling colonial style building. We couldn’t enter, so we kept walking to Merdeka Square.
This was recommended on many guides online, and our grab driver in from the train station last night also highly recommended it. This is less of a town square and more of a large field surrounded by beautiful buildings. This square is where independence for Malaysia was declared back in 1957, giving it great significance. At the end of the field is one of the tallest flagpoles in the world, standing at over 310 feet tall.
It is difficult to describe all of the beautiful buildings surrounding the square, but in addition to these, there is also a great view of some of the tallest towers in KL in the distance. The heat became, again, overbearing.
We found a nearby building, the Kuala Lumpur City Gallery, and went inside. There were a few giant portable A/C units, so we took our time here. There wasn’t much going on, but it was a free gallery with 2 small rooms of some photographs of significance. Additionally, there is a food hall attached to this that many people were eating at. We didn’t want to eat here as we had a few places in mind, so after cooling off, we left to cross a bridge towards an area with more food.
We found a very highly rated Nepalese restaurant called Mandala, and headed inside and up a staircase to the restaurant. We ordered 3 cans of sprite to share in an attempt to rehydrate, and looked at the food. We ended up ordering the Mutton Khana set and the chili chicken.
The mutton khana came with some rice, vegetables, a curry, and some lamb stewed in a sauce amongst a few other items. It was very tasty, but just as the Indian food we have had, we felt we have had tastier Nepalese in America. The chili chicken could have been great, but had a few disappointing issues. For one, we both felt that the pieces they used for the chicken were simply the remains from other chicken dishes. Most pieces were 90% bone with a little meat scrap attached, and most of the bone was splintered, making it difficult to pick the meat apart safely. David felt the sauce reminded him of cheap buffalo wings, but Caitlyn didn’t have an issue with it. David also felt that this was more deeply fried than other food we have had in Asia, and prefers the food a little less fried. We ate what chili chicken we safely could, picked the bone splinters out of our gums, and headed on. On the walk to our next stop, Caitlyn spotted a cheese tart shop! We looked at the display case outside and Caitlyn ended up buying 3 small tarts: original, orange, and durian.
She ate the original and the orange and felt they were fine, but saved the durian for last. We have described the smell of durian before, but it is essentially a mixture of sweet and putrid. We both smelled it and it actually smelled fine, but David told Caitlyn he was too nervous and he would hold off on this one. Caitlyn took one bite and for the first splint second thought “not too bad”. Regret quickly set in. It tasted exactly as durian has smelled to us when passing by it earlier: like rotting food. She did not finish it and promptly threw it away, quickly digging through her purse for a piece of candy or a mint or anything to wash the flavor out. After a piece of candy, she did begin to feel better, but claimed she will never ever eat durian again. We then headed into Central Market, a historic shopping area from the 1800’s.
We walked around for a while, looking into some of the stores. Caitlyn went into a shop selling silk scarves, but wasn’t impressed with the prices. To be honest, there wasn’t really anything particularly impressive here, and the historical aspects probably outweigh any modern benefits. It isn’t very large, and it also isn’t very diverse, with mostly souvenir shops. There was also a small food court, but we essentially just walked through this without looking at any food as we had just eaten lunch.
We next headed to a nearby temple, the Sin Sze si ya Taoist temple. Interestingly, the wall was covered with very high barbed wire, leading us to question why a Taoist temple needs to secure their walls so badly. We entered and enjoyed this small temple briefly before continuing on.
We next walked down a famous street in China Town named Petaling street. This is known for being an active market selling souvenirs, food, gifts, and other things for decent prices. We walked along and not needing knock-off Rolexes or any handbags, we didn’t make any stops. We did have a good time, though!
Soon after this we found the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple a few blocks away. At the entrance, you had to remove your shoes. There is a small room at the entrance with lots of boxes for shoes to sit in, and a man stationed here said it was 10 ringgit per pair of shoes. We asked if we could just place them on the street as many others seem to have, and he said it would still be the same price. We wanted to enter, and this small fee wasn’t a big deal, so we handed him our shoes and went in.
This was a beautiful temple with a main area and a few offshoot hallways around the complex with beautiful artwork and statues. We quickly hear someone singing an interesting song in the main temple, so we walk in to see what was going on. A middle-aged woman was standing in front of a statue, dancing and singing an improvised song with her shopping bag on the ground next to her. We listened to her for a while and realized she was asking “Kaliyama” or “Kali” to kill the men in her life so she can go back to India. She even specifically asked for a heart attack tonight at one point. We were stuck in between abusive relationship or crazy woman, but never came to a clear conclusion. We left her to herself and checked out the temple.
After maybe 20 minutes, we left for the Guan Di temple (apparently one of the oldest temples in Malaysia). We explored for a while, but don’t really have anything of significance to say about it.
We checked our map and noted that the REXKL center was nearby. REXKL is something we had both come across in our Kuala Lumpur research. It is a historic building that has been repurposed for a multitude of cultural purposes including “events, theatre, exhibitions, performances, screenings, library facilities, workshops, retail, and F&B”. Upon entering, we quickly noted that we were in a food hall of sorts.
As we ducked inside we noted the dark clouds growingly increasingly darker. At this point, a massive deluge began. We could barely hear as the giant drops of rain barraged the metal roofs and awnings. Giant blasts of thunder let off every few seconds. We decided this was a sign to stay for a while. There weren’t many people around, but we walked around it a bit and quickly found a bar. We were extremely exhausted and hot at this point, so we grabbed a beer for David and a cocktail for Caitlyn and took a seat right in front of a big A/C unit. We sat here for a while, eventually grabbing another beer for David and a glass of wine from another vendor for Caitlyn.
Caitlyn found a place with some Lamb cumin biang biang hand pulled noodles. The employee asked her how spicy to make it on a scale from “G, PG-13, or R”. She asked his opinion and he said he can’t do much more than PG-13, so she opted for that. After tasting the noodles, she decided she could have gone up! Caitlyn absolutely loved the noodles, with a great complex flavor, good spice, and wonderful noodles with perfect texture.
We had wanted to check out the bar street from last night ever since passing through, so we decided this would be a good night for it. We took a grab in the pouring rain directly to the first highly rated bar on the street with a happy hour: The Rabbit Hole. The Rabbit Hole was pretty dead as it was fairly early, but we got a nice seat out of the rain. It was a nice looking place, clearly good when lively. There was a literal swimming pool (probably not to swim, but didn’t have fish or plants or anything in it) in the front room upon going inside. We sat down and checked out the menu. The happy hour was a two-for-one cocktail, so we picked out two cocktails. We quickly learned that these were “on draft” cocktails, and really weren’t great. Either way, for the price offered, it was no big deal!
We moved on after this, though, as the rain had stopped and there were plenty more bars. We next went to the “Loco bar” just a few doors down. Caitlyn wasn’t very impressed with the menu, but the beer was fairly cheap, and there was a pretty good vibe. We were seated and pretty quickly our server comes by. His name was Ramesh, and he chatted with us for quite a while. We really enjoyed talking with him about our trip and Malaysia. He was a very genuine guy, and when we told him we were planning on just having a beer and eating elsewhere (it was also a restaurant), he even gave us recommendations!
We decided it was time for some food to soak up the alcohol, so went to a nearby night market for a bite to eat. This was a pretty large market, with tons of seating and tons of large restaurants.
We didn’t know how to pick so we just kind of went for it, and found a place with a reasonable menu. We ended up getting chili crab (throwback to Singapore), BBQ chicken wing, and a noodle dish.
The chili crab was a little less meaty and harder to eat, the chicken wing was very small in size and a small portion, and not that tasty. The noodle dish was very forgettable. We this was a pretty disappointing meal, but we didn’t have a very high bar so it did the trick. We decided this was the end of the night for us, so we got a grab and headed back to the hotel.
David’s Thoughts of the Day: The weather in Malaysia is pretty unpredictable. You can have a beautiful day and suddenly the clouds roll in and the biggest rain you’ve ever seen starts. Rain or shine, though, the humidity is pretty high. Not as bad as Singapore, but it is definitely an exhausting kind of weather to exist in.
Caitlyn’s Thoughts of the Day: we were told by countless people in Penang and Ipoh to skip KL or to lessen the amount of days we spent here, but I am so glad we didn’t! KL has so much to offer, from historical sites, religious temples, great food, fun atmosphere, and beautiful sights!
Steps walked: 12,792
Miles walked: 6.07
Bluming Travelers 