So many versions of so many itineraries have come and gone at this point.  I have found the planning process sometimes overwhelming for my brain cells.  Other times, I have found bliss in knowing that I can go anywhere (yes, it’s that simple).  In the case of Kuala Lumpur, lovingly referred to as KL by its residents and visitors alike, this city chose me.  You see, it was the first stop on the Remote Year itinerary.  While I am no longer following the Remote Year itinerary, as my time in KL proved to me that I am better off with the freedom to create my own schedule, I thought this would be an excellent gateway to a region of Asia I had never visited before.  I had no expectations, no idea what the map of the city looked like, no concept of the cool neighborhoods, and no idea what to eat.

Affordability is probably the dominant theme for me in KL.  When I think about all of the elements of a city that contribute to quality of life, KL offers these things but at prices that are more similar to Mexico than Manhattan.  Don’t get me wrong, KL is metropolitan and has a lot of super fancy areas.  At the same time, it is filled with mixed ethnic neighborhoods nestled between giant skyscrapers.  Cheap eats are abundant in the form of food stalls (known as hawker centers).  Between these neighborhoods are big roads, elevated train lines and and a monorail system.   You can sort of walk along these roads but it isn’t that much fun.  KL is really trying though.  They just opened their first metro line and a second one is rapidly under construction.  There is a special bus system that links the neighborhoods of the Golden Triangle: Chinatown/Colonial District, Bukit Bintang and KLCC/Petronas Towers.  

While maps will show that the central train station and old colonial district are meant to represent “downtown” KL, the real downtown is the confluence of the Golden Triangle neighborhoods.  Within 15 minutes of walking you can experience colonial-Islamic architecture, Chinatown bakeries, nasi ayam (chicken rice), Indian roti, Arab schawarma and hookah, a bar district that rivals MacDougal Street, a massage parlor district, a night market, and air conditioned mega-malls.   This is the Golden Triangle.  The more the city planners can connect these neighborhoods, the more amazing KL will become in the next few years.  The free GoKL buses are a wonderful addition but they are unfortunately overcrowded and do not run frequently enough.  You can tell they are really trying though.  The monorail is only two cars long and seems to be under maintenance right now and it runs every 10 minutes during peak time.  You can imagine how crowded it is.  The MRT metro system is state of the art and rivals Singapore and Taipei’s systems.  It goes from one end of Bukit Bintang to the southern border of Chinatown and I have found it quite useful.

Because my apartment is in Bukit Bintang (between Chinatown and KLCC), I’ve created two paths in the morning.  If I head left or west, I can get my fresh coconut juice and garlic bread from the Chinese bakeries in Chinatown.  If I go one block north, I can go to The Weld mall and get my iced coffee and garlic bread there.  If I go to the right, I walk to The Pavilion mega-mall complex where my coworking space is located.  I can get my iced coffee, fresh fruit juice and garlic bread there too.  Why all of this garlic bread, you ask?  Because I like it.  A lot.  It reminds me of home and it is also not as readily available at home.  So… I’m just eating it up.

Sometimes when I was home in Manhattan, I would find angles looking up an avenue where you could see all of the cranes from all of the skyscraper construction.  The Hudson Yards area is worth walking by and admiring, if you have not yet.  However, in KL, there is construction almost everywhere.  You don’t need to find a special angle or viewpoint.  With the combination of subway construction and skyscrapers rising, you automatically sense the city in a state of transition.  Many times new skyscrapers abut tiny neighborhoods of 1-2 storey buildings.  You have to wonder if these homeowners have any power.  Giant buildings looming over groupings residential neighborhoods creates a forboding sense.  Finding the right mix of traditional housing with commercial skyscrapers will be key for this city.  If they bulldoze everything, it will lose its charm and perhaps one of the things that makes it special.  If they keep too much, the city cannot grow.

I feel bad for the folks who have to plan KL.  It seems like instead of modernizing the infrastructure, they keep adding layers.  This means that wide avenues adorned with pedestrian bridges that connect to elevated rail lines and offer transfer points to underground passages to the metro are common place.  How to transfer is rarely clear.  Maps do not show you how many flights of steps you will have to go up and down.  When transferring from the KTM Komuter Rail to the TBS bus station, you get a clear example of where this could have been better thought out.   People going to the bus station most likely have luggage, right?  

Transferring from the metro at Muzeum Negara (The National Museum) to KL Sentral (Main Train Station) is another nightmare of endless hallways and horrifically long escalators.  I wanted to experience this all first hand to see if KL had really made enough progress in trying to get cars off the road.  Have they made it fast enough and easy enough to get from different points of the city to major transfer hubs?  Sadly, the answer is no.  It is still incredibly more convenient and not much more expensive to just call a taxi service.  Uber and Grab are the preferred options.

In the midst of all of these confusing avenues and meandering transfer paths is the KL Tower.  It lights up at night.  It was only built in 1996!  It was KL’s first iconic tower.  Petronas Towers followed soon after.  It’s lovely to see it from different parts of the city to help orient yourself.  A few things start coming together as you learn about the KL Tower, though.  Next to the KL Tower is the KL Rainforest Ecopark.  It is the last remaining protected area of the original rainforest that once covered the city.  It has progressively been destroyed in the name of progress.  This has happened as recently as 1996 when they cleared even more of the forest to build KL Tower.  There was a mudslide a few years ago and they had to clear even more to make the avenue safer.   It makes me wonder if they couldn’t have found another site for KL Tower.  Another undocumented discovery I made is that at the top of the rainforest mountain, where there is a flat patch of cleared land, there is a water treatment plant.  I do not understand why this had to be build in the area where the protected rainforest is.

KL represents the best of Malaysian diversity.  Beyond the United States, Canada, France and Israel, I do not think I’ve ever experienced such a mix of ethnic identities in one place.  Here we mostly have Malay, Chinese, Bangaldeshi and expatriates.  They speak English to one another, primarily.  Everyone seems to know at least a few words of Malay.  Malaysian culture is just as open and friendly as Mexican culture.  Large family meals are a big deal here.  However one special feature of this culture is their openness to celebrating holidays from all of the different ethnic groups.  Hindu festivals get as much attention as Chinese New Year, for example.  In this respect, I am reminded of New York City and our many ethnic parades and celebration of religious holidays  in ways that incorporate friends and coworkers from different backgrounds.

Food in KL is incredibly affordable.  Of course, I have not been eating any many restaurants.  I have not felt the need to experience the restaurant scene because the meals at food stalls has been so incredibly satisfying.  I’m going to write an entire post about the food of Malaysia.

I decided to use KL as a hub in Malaysia.  From KL I traveled to many other places in Malaysia.  I saw rivers, mountains, forests, jungles, islands, and beaches.  My next series of posts will cover these journeys and some of my thoughts along the way.