Destination: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Malaysia, Truly Asia

 

Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. Compared to other capital cities like Jakarta and Manila, KL is less populated with a total of only 1.6 million KLites. When my friend Pat invited me to spend the weekend in KL, I didn’t hesitate to agree. I also notified a good friend Ellie (UK), whom I met in Sagada months ago, that I’d be visiting. She’s an exchange student near Kuala Lumpur airport. So the plan is to met her for dinner and experience the city life of KL after.

My expectation about KL is not too much since I assume that they’re similar to Indonesians but I was wrong. KLites are quite diverse like Singaporeans and they come from different ethnic backgrounds. The food is mostly Chinese in nature and palm oil is the main ingredient in everything. - including Saté.

Transport System

Public transport is an A++ all across the board. With just a few hundreds of people populating the capital city, I could say that rush hours are not as stressful as other major cities in Asia. Trains are almost barren and has regular intervals. Train stations are also clean. The RapidKL bus liner is also very systematic and affordable.

Day 1

The city tour is more fun when done by walking. There's nothing much to see but the highlight is the Petronas Tower which is the only notable structure about Kuala Lumpur. Another highlight is the visit to the Malaysian Museum. It is quite interesting that the history of Malaysia is close to the history the Philippines, minus the Spanish colonization. So basically, the entire half day was dedicated to walking the streets of Kuala Lumpur.
 

Petronas Towers

The main highlight of the city is the Petronas Twin Towers. It's a shiny stainless steel building that makes KL look modern. At night, the building looks dazzling with all the lights lit up til 10PM. I think it's just a waste of electrical energy. But who cares, people pay to experience being inside the building and see the majestic beauty of the city and of course take selfies and photos. (I took hundreds of selfies but chose only two or three to post on social media.)

 

Malaysian National Museum

I learned that rubber and sugar are the main export products of Malaysia long time ago. Now everything seems to have shifted to Palm Oil and Palm trees. 

 

Perdana Botanical Gardens

The beauty of Kuala Lumpur lies to the vast space that's only occupied by a few people. If Kuala Lumpur was clustered with millions of people, it would be as messy as Jakarta and Manila. Malaysians did quite well with the botanical gardens.

 

Jalan Alor

At night, hundreds of expats and tourists swarm the night market to experience the various food available in Jalan Alor Night Market.

 

Day 2

Kuala Lumpur is not suitable for tourists as the things to do here could only be done in one day. The only highlight was the Petronas Towers and the rest are optional. In preparation for my flight back to Manila, I bought some Malaysian Mi Goreng and Maggi Kari noodles for "pasalubong".

 

The KLIA2 airport is still in construction but the experience is still better than Manila's highly taxed airport. I wouldn't think I'd come back to KL after this, unless in transit for more than 24 hours. The trip from the airport to the city centre is one hour and it costs 25 dollars. So I'll pass going back to see the petronas towers. It's ok for a once in a lifetime experience.