During my recent
new year expedition to Bali I also spent a long weekend in Kuala Lumpar, one of
Asia’s most bustling and modern cities. But while some visitors head to the
iconic Petronas Towers I discovered some other remarkable things about the city
that will always be dear to my heart.
1. Monorail
My inner travel geek surfaced as soon as I
disembarked from the coach from the airport into town. To get to my
accommodation I had to board a monorail and despite the fact it was 11.30pm and
I had just spent 15 hours travelling, I could not believe my eyes when I
witnessed the sheer beautiful of this incredible feet of engineering. A far
superior version of the DLR (which is a driverless railway in London, of which
I am a huge fan), these two-carriage trains zip around the city, high above the
streets. A kind of Bladerunner meets Gotham City form of transportation with
added sunshine (each carriage door has floral glade air fresheners attached),
the journeys were smooth, frequent and most pleasurable.
2. Women only carriages
In fact, I sampled five modes of transport while in
KL – local trains, coach, monorail, boat, taxis and the suburban train. One
thing I was completely shocked about was the incredibly high standard of the
taxis – I’ve never been anywhere in the world where taxi drivers are so
friendly and take pride in turning on their meters and as such, the fares are
extremely cheap (at most we spent 80p getting between places). But what
surprised me the most was the suburban trains. The main platform at Sentral
station looks European, the only difference being there are women only benches,
positioned directly infront of where the women only carriages are. Yes this may
seem like an alien concept to Westerners but I can confirm, women only
carriages are clean, well kept, friendly and make you feel special.
3. Batu Caves
Wannabe batgirls like me clearly have to visit
batcaves from around the world for research and these ones at the edge of the
city were no exception. Ignore the various tourist coach trips and organised
visits to the site which will set you back £8-12. You can take a train from
Sentral station – 30 minutes, dropping you directly outside for just 10p each
way. I think this makes it one of the cheapest tourist attractions to visit in the
world and it’s free to climb the 272 stairs to the top too. Add to this the
fact one of the best places to eat in town is across the road (an ultra cheap
Indian restaurant serving up street snacks, thalis and fresh coconuts for a
couple of pounds), it makes a dream daytrip. (You need to pay a few more pounds
to go deep inside the caves but I skipped that part…I have to save something
for next time!)
4. Curry
Everyone I know who has ever been to KL talks about
the food and how yummy it is. From all of the different cuisines I tried, the
best by far was the Indian curries. They have the best flavours outside of
India – fresh, simple and wholesome. This thali style feast served on a banana
leaf was a particular highlight.
5. Bubble Tea
Bubble tea is a beverage trend currently sweeping the
UK and is a cold flavoured tea or milk drink with small chewy balls at the
bottom made from tapioca starch. If you loved screwball ice-creams as a child
(ice cream that came with bubble gum) you’ll develop an immediate appreciation.
Extremely refreshing and fun to drink, the balls can be slurped up with your
straw. Most of the time, it’s a surprise as you don’t quite know when one will
pop up. I’ve not tried any of the London cafes yet, but I’m told Bubbleology is
the place to go!
6. T-shirts
Despite the plethora of shopping malls containing
miles of clothing shops, I couldn’t buy any as the sizes were so small. I’m
quite petite in terms of the UK but clearly a giant in Asia; everything was teeny!
Apart from the t-shirts…there were so many incredible designs. I wanted to
photograph them all but after I shot this one, the shop assistant told me off
and said I couldn’t take any more photos!
7. Rainy day devices
Speaking of quirky design, someone really ought to
import these handy devices into the UK – umbrella hats as worn by children
sitting at the back of bicycles to keep their heads dry and modelled here by my
travelling partner Janine.
8. Sunday night market
Sunday markets in the UK are about waking up at 6am
to get to a car boot sale. In KL Sunday markets are slightly more sociable,
opening from 4pm until the early hours. So while we are at home chillaxing on a
Sunday night ahead of the dreaded Monday morning, things are buzzing in Bansar
Village. It’s the place to stock up on your essentials and fresh fruit and veg.
The one stall that particularly caught my eye was serving sweet steamed
dumplings topped with coconut; a dish I haven’t tried for over a decade. They
were a speciality my mum used to make, on rare occasions as they were so labour
intensive. She ground the flour, had the filling shipped over from Bangladesh
and spent hours steaming them inside cloth. My dad and his best friend were the
number one fans. Seeing and eating them made me feel incredibly comforted.
9. A,b,c dessert
As a connoisseur of puddings, nothing could have
prepared me for the Malaysian signature dish of A, B, C – Air Batur Campur
translated as mixed ice. It’s so advanced even Heston Blumenthal couldn’t come
up with something this peculiar. It consists of a tower of shaved ice with
different toppings, the most common being red beans, grass jelly and sweet
corn. Never, ever have I tasted anything like it…nothing comes close to the
sensations you experience when sampling this most bizarre of concoctions. It
sounds straight forward, but look at this picture and imagine mixing it all
together into a complete mess – that’s how you eat it. The taste sensations are
unexpected – smooth, creamy, milky, refreshing – all these things excite your
tongue and then you realise the reality, you are eating sweetcorn….in a
dessert. Though I consider myself an adventurous eater and though I loved the
dessert I still cannot get over the fact the dish contains sweetcorn –
something normally eaten with tuna in sandwiches, grilled on bbqs, served with
chicken at fast food stores and here it was for dessert. The texture just felt
so wrong. I would have this again but I’m not sure I could do it with the
yellow stuff included!
10. Britpop
Call me naïve but I always thought Britpop was a mid
90s music scene that only stretched as far as British shores. There was the
occasional band that made it to America (sadly this ended the career for some
bands like the Longpigs) but I had no idea is was a scene that was still big in
Asia. There’s me getting on down at Nuisance club, the 3rd Friday of
every month in Camden, Londinium, while KL has a Britpop clubnight every Friday
night thanks to this fine DJ on right (my friend’s boyfriend, she’s Lee,
pictured next to him and they live in KL.) Added to this the fact many Britpop
bands have been to KL (Lee’s boyfriend was the official guide for Super Furry Animals and Mogwai when they visited the city), it’s clearly a city I could
easily make my home.
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