Kuala Lumpur
When we look at flights for our travels, whatever’s cheapest rains supreme – no matter the route. So when Skyscanner offered to fly to India via Kuala Lumpur with a six-hour layover, we decided to break up the journey and spend three nights there instead.
With it not being on the original plan, we had very little idea of what to expect but managed to find a cool-looking place in a well-equipped part of town so we left the rest of the planning to our arrival.
By the time we arrived at the hotel, it was close to 1am so we got some shut-eye and after the long journey, we fell asleep quickly.
The next morning, we were slightly confused about what exactly we should eat to try some Malaysian cuisine. This was made more confusing when we asked our taxi driver the night before what local food we should try and he said something like “depends if you want local Indian, Arabic or Malay.”
I guess it's a good time to note, by the end of the first day we realised how diverse the city was. With a whole quarter dubbed ‘Little India’ and shawarma stalls on almost every corner, it definitely has something for everyone.
So on our first morning, we were pleased to find a taste of home – more my home than El’s – with a middle eastern restaurant next door.
With a mixture of Ful Medames, Tahmeya – a better version of falafel – Shakshuka, Hummus and Flatbreads, it was different to anything we had eaten in the past 7 months and tasted incredible. It was made all the better when I found out we were being served by an Egyptian woman and when she found out I was also Egyptian, the service was even better than before.
After a sufficiently filling Arab brekky, we wanted to chill but still do something fun and different – and the cinema was just that.
Apart from the cinema on the beach in Gili T, we haven’t been able to enjoy the big screen and we’ve watched all of our TV on a small iPad. So we were in for a treat when we found out ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ was playing that afternoon. We highly recommend a trip to see it.
For us, the cinema is always the thing that we come out of and ask why we don’t go more often. Once you bypass the overpriced food – we recommend a big Egyptian breakfast for that – and find a good film, it’s far superior to watching something made for the big speakers and screen on an iPad with sound that you can barely hear.
It was in a huge mall, which meant we had several shopping temptations on the way out and by we, I mostly mean El. In all fairness, we did have another casualty in the form of Ellie's daypack – seeing as it is almost 10 years old, it was due for an upgrade.
So we made the most of the shops and she tried some rucksacks in a few places. Eventually, she found one she liked, but with it being a bit pricey she slept on the idea before pulling the trigger.
With zero purchases, we managed to refrain from any other shops and with the exit in sight, we thought we were in the clear, before hitting a hard stumbling block. Five Guys. Random I know, but here’s why…
Back when we were in Indonesia, we listened to a podcast about it and I found out that El had never tried the most underrated burger, in my opinion. So when we saw the bright red and white lights, we couldn’t say no as it was the first one we’d seen since leaving home.
We shared a burger, which is the first and last time I do that, with the intention of this being a snack before dinner. But we realised straight after how big they were. El was more than impressed and I’m sure we'll visit again the next time we cross paths.
The next day, we planned to be proper tourists and had an exciting day planned with the open–top sightseeing bus. This was my first experience doing this and when you want to see a big city but don’t want to walk in the heat, it seems like the perfect option. So we headed down to the ticket office, grabbed two and waited for a bus to arrive.
Unfortunately, the bus was a bit busy so the exciting rooftop was full, meaning the only seats left were downstairs. It wasn’t all bad news as we had the aircon.
But from being down here, we quickly realised that we could have been on any bus and it almost felt like a commute rather than an experience. It was still fun and there was only a short stint before our first stop so we would have another opportunity to get the prime seating.
We hopped off the bus in Chinatown and El had a cafe in mind from all her research. Unfortunately, the bit she missed out on was the opening times and it was closed. As the bus pulled away, there wasn’t much else to do here, so we walked to find some lunch.
I spotted a nice-looking cafe, which also happened to appear in El’s rather dodgy research. And thankfully, this one was open. We sat down and noticed there was a favourite dish coming out of the kitchen – fried chicken on the side of creamy mushroom spaghetti. We can’t argue with that, so we ordered two.
After the indulgent meal, we headed out to walk around the rest of Chinatown and found ourselves walking through the local market. Interestingly they had the same North Face bags we saw in the mall for about a tenth of the price, but we thought these might not cut the mustard.
After a loop around the area, we headed back to the bus stop and waited for the next passing sightseeing bus to pick us up. About 15 minutes later we found ourselves back on the bus but still sat downstairs. The commute continued.
We had a long journey this time, as the next thing we wanted to see was Kuala Lumpur’s main attraction – the Petronas Twin Towers.
It took close to an hour, but we saw all the main sights from the windows before jumping out and looking up at the almost 90-story building. The top thing to do is the tower tour but to our luck, it was sold out for the whole time we were in the city.
Feeling slightly annoyed we wouldn’t get the full experience, we remembered a quote from the wise Karl Pilkington. He said why would you pay more to go inside the famous building when the best view is of the thing itself – Karl Pilkington, An Idiot Abroad, Jordan.
We lived by those words that evening and found a rooftop bar on the 57th floor of the building next door and booked a table for a drink.
Wearing our best clobber, we got there just before sunset and were dizzyingly high up. But with a table by the window, we truly had the best view of the towers and the rest of the city. We caught the sun going down and the lights came on. We even caught the famous dancing fountain from a bird's eye view.
All in all, it was more fun – we suspect – than touring the tower itself and it was much cheaper too. That evening we grabbed a pizza from next to our apartment and a couple of Peruvian-inspired cocktails before calling it a night.
The next day was our last, and with an evening flight, we had the day to make the most of Kuala Lumpur. We organised a 5pm check out, meaning we didn’t have to do our usual wait in the airport and went out for a final lunch.
First things first, El had some shopping to do. With her bag in almost two pieces and the poor prospects of finding a decent mall in South India, she decided to bite the bullet and get the bag she found the day before.
Next, some food. Seeing as we hadn't tried any traditional Malay cuisine, El found one of the best-rated places in town and we headed there to see what all of the fuss was about.
We say this a lot, but it was genuinely one of the best dishes we’ve had since we left. It was a local veggie Laksa which was full of spice, alongside some chicken satay to cap off some surprisingly good days in this city.