Malaysia- Day 1: Kuala Lumpur

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On Friday night I got a friend to take my last class and Joel and I immediately picked up our backpacks and made our way to Seoul Incheon Airport. This involved taking a cab to Suwon (close, larger town) and picking up a shuttle bus from a hotel. We withdrew Malaysian ringgits from the bank (which is a pretty snazzy trick if you ask me) and were able to skip a really long check-in line by using a little trick my mom taught me called “Just try it.” The line for “self check-in” was short, but we didn’t have e-tickets or the credit card that booked our tickets. I just tried it anyway and what do you know? It worked.
The flight to Kuala Lumpur was not fantastic. It was a 6-hour red-eye flight with a lot of turbulence and an extremely unhappy baby, but we landed at the Kuala Lumpur airport at 4:30 a.m. local time (5:30 a.m. our time). Right before you get off the plane to walk across the tarmac, they tell you that photography on the tarmac is strictly forbidden (in English and Korean). So what’s the first thing the Korean tourists do? Obviously have a photo shoot. The Malaysian airport workers were not impressed. But we thought it was hilarious.
At immigration the man and I had this conversation: Him: “Wow. How long have you been in Korea? Seven months?” Me: “Yeah, seven months.” Him: “For holiday?!?” I wish I could go on vacation for seven months! Who could even do that? After immigrations was customs. And if you have nothing to declare, this involves…walking out the door. We got breakfast sandwiches from KFC (not enough sleep to deal with Malaysian food just yet) and took a bus into the city. I understand the reasoning behind putting your airport out in the middle of nowhere, but I still find it frustrating to land in a city and be all excited and “I’m here!” and whatnot and then have to get on a bus or train that takes an hour to actually get to your destination. Anticlimax.
The bus took us to KL Sentral Station, from which we got in a cab and said “Chinatown” since we figured it would be easy to find a place to nap and shower and we could spend the day exploring it when we woke up. 3rd time was a charm. The room was sparse but completely adequate for what we needed.
When we got in we ended up paying more than I thought we would for a room. But when we checked out after only 4(!) hours (definitely felt longer than that – we were rested and ready to start the day) she returned most of our money and charged us the hourly rate instead. Win!
We used that money to pay for our food for the day. We had Chinese doughnuts and sweet iced tea with what we think were lychees for breakfast. Between the two of us, this cost 5 ringgits (approx. $2). We wandered Chinatown for a while. They sell a lot of counterfeit purses, cheap watches and t-shirts, and black market DVDs (their sales staff was aggressive, but impressively hard-working). After exploring for a bit, we decided to eat lunch at this sit-down restaurant just behind the stalls. There seemed to be a lot of locals there and the owner and waitress recommended some items, so that’s what we ordered. We got a dish of basmati rice, chicken, and curry and a dish that was like a flat loaf of bread stuffed with chicken curry. They were both served with a delicious curry sauce. We were sort of in love with the food.
After that we decided to check out some other areas of Kuala Lumpur, so we asked our waitress the best way to get to the Petronas Towers. She told us we could take a cab, but the train station was close. We had already figured that we had been robbed on the fare from the train station to Chinatown, but this was confirmed when we decided to take the train and the map told us that Chinatown was only one train stop from the main train station. Before leaving for other neighborhoods, we stumbled upon the Central Market. We looked at a lot of handicrafts and I ended up buying a long skirt so that I could visit mosques for the rest of the trip. I had considered packing jeans, but they take up too much space and would be WAY too hot! When I bought the skirt, it was my first instance of using any Malay and it was a great idea. When I told the vendor “Tarima kasih!” (Thank you!) his face lit up and he said Tarima kasih back. If you’re only going to learn one phrase in a language, learn “Thank you!”
We checked out the Petronas Towers, which photograph extremely well, and the luxury mall attached. We ended up resting at a restaurant across the street from the towers called “The Library” and people-watching for quite a while. When we left the Petronas Towers, we decided to check out the Brickfields, which is Kuala Lumpur’s Little India. We were underwhelmed by the neighborhood, but we found a street vendor selling fried dough balls stuffed with a sort of peanut chutney. They were amazing!
After that, we went back to Chinatown. When we got off the train in Chinatown we found vendors selling fried bananas and fruit juices. I got lime and Joel got coconut. Both were delicious, but obviously I made the better choice. We spent some time at the Reggae Guest House talking to the staff and watching The Animal Planet. We got an answer to the critical question, “Do you tip in Malaysia?” In Korea, it’s considered rude to tip because it implies that you don’t think they make enough money. Luckily, we found out that this is not the case in Malaysia before we upset everybody. It’s very easy to fall into the habit of not tipping.
We picked our bags up from the hostel around dinnertime and decided to get Chinese for dinner since we’d had Indian for lunch. We found a little Chinese restaurant where we could eat on a balcony overlooking the still crowded streets of Chinatown. We got a chicken fried rice, a sweet and sour pork, and a black pepper deer plate. They were all delicious, but I think the sweet and sour pork was my favorite, which is surprising because I feel like Koreans eat too much pork and I thought I’d never order pork again in my life.
After dinner we wandered a bit, trying to find a 7-Eleven so we could buy razors and water. In the process we found a Hindu temple that we walked around a bit, and some street dancers doing traditional Malay dances.
Eventually we made our way to the main train station again to take our overnight train to Butterworth. We finally found some sunscreen (always have to check the pharmacies in foreign countries – it’s a rule I always forget).
I got stared at a lot in KL and we can only figure it was because I was wearing shorts. Even among the non-Muslim Malaysians, shorts seemed rare. I was torn between wanting to respect their culture and wanting to not die of heatstroke. Malaysia is so hot! I decided to leave the long pants/skirts to the days with mosque visits.

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