Travel Tips for Kuala Lumpur

I have recently went on a 3 weeks Euro Trip around the countries in Europe. I have realised that there are a few things essential for a backpacker to know:

1) Staying in Airbnb may not be as convenient as staying in hotel. You need to know exactly the location of the place and be sure to ask for detailed instructions on how to get to the place. Also, checking in at odd hours may cause you to feel uncomfortable. 

2) One thing that I have never realised the importance of is "Left Luggage" centres. Or Deposito Bagagli in Italian. During our travel, we have had a lot of experience with Left Luggage centres. Our first interesting experience happened in Manchester when we did not realise that the centre closes at 11pm! And we had to catch a bus at 2am the next day. We were delaying taking our luggage and when we went there, it was already closed. It was a really costly mistake! We had to walk in the cold and find accommodation and book another train ticket for the next day for missing the bus! We learned our lesson though - Always check the opening hours of the left luggage centre and plan things upfront! Another thing is, since we were staying at Airbnb place which was a bit far from the bus station, we could not leave our luggages there. 

3) While back packs are good to run about and very mobile, when the load gets heavy, it eats up your stamina! - For this, we ended up buying a trolley bag to load all of the heavy stuff like fridge magnets and such. 

and there are many more. Nevertheless, the post that I am trying to create here is to provide some high level travel tips for those of you on a vacation in Kuala Lumpur! (Sorry for blabbering so much before I actually started on the main points).

So, maybe you have decided to go on an Asean Trip or Malaysian trip or Malaysian, Indonesian, Thailand trip or perhaps on a business trip in KL. There are a few things I wish to highlight. I will categorize the items into a few groups:

Food and Water

Food is abundance in KL. and cheap - relative to the prices I have seen outside KL. If budget is a concern, I would not recommend you to eat in restaurants. most of the time, they are expensive, overpriced, and not nice. Some restaurants I would not actually mind paying for the price:

i) Japanese Food - Sushi Zanmai

ii) Steaks - Tony Roma's @ Mid Valley (Ok, this is quite subjective depending on how you like your steaks done. I prefer a simple, salt and pepper version and somehow it suits my taste.

iii) Malay food - Chawan @ Bangsar 

iv) Pesto Pasta - Delicious Restaurant (and, my own homemade version :p)

Well, I would personally recommend you to try:

i) Nasi lemak - Will talk in more detail about nasi lemak in another post but for this one, I would personally recommend Nasi lemak bungkus from Pantai Dalam - This will be difficult to navigate if you are travelling by Public Transportation but you could msg me for detailed explanations. Another spot would be Nasi Lemak Jalan 222 - open 24/7. What could be better right? Nasi lemak should be CHEAP. Do not pay so much for some mediocre tasting nasi lemak that will leave you wondering - what the hell was that $$$ for? For a "nasi lemak bungkus" by the road side, usual price is around RM2.00 - RM2.50. This is basic without any "Chicken Rendang" or so. Now, if I convert that to Euro, would be around Euro0.50. Cheap, right????

ii) Pan Mee - Ok. I am not originally Chinese but I have a fondness towards this noodle!!! For the best one, I may have not tried yet but I have tried a version at Nu Sentral - Apparently it is an "Ok" version according to my friends. 

iii) Mamak Store - I have no specific recommendation for Mamak Shop but my favourite is the one near my house (biased, of course). Well, I would suggest you try the following if you ever managed to sit in a mamak store:

• Roti Canai
• Murtabak
• Nasi Briyani
• Nasi Kandar (Plain Rice, with Curry (Sometimes mixed, depending on your taste), fried chicken, and vege)
• Nasi Goreng Ayam
• Bihun Goreng Ayam 

Estimated price (RM10 - RM15 for a complete meal with simple drink like Iced Lime Juice or "Limau Ais"). 

iv) Satay - Some people would instinctively recommend "Satay Kajang" if you ever mention Satay. Well, sadly I personally feel the quality has deteriorated compared to last time. :( What I found out now is they have a factory and u know.. with all things being mass produced, they lose the "love" ingredient. Well, I have tasted better version in a normal, "Seafood Tomyam Restaurant" where they have small stalls and you can order satay as a side dish while eating all your other main dish. Price per stick of Chicken Satay is around RM0.50 - RM1.20 per stick (depending on where you eat them). 

v) Chinese Seafood - Owh, I am a big fan of buttered floss prawn, Salted egg squids and all. You should also try this while you are around in KL

vi) Indian food - Chapatti, Paneer butter masala, owh and so much more. I love them all!

Well, enough talks about food. Let's talk about water. Tap water is NOT DRINKABLE in Malaysia. Hence, it is best if you buy bottled water. Well, they are cheap. So, worry not. The cheapest water I have seen so far is available in Aeon Supermarkets. There's one available in Mid Valley. Small bottle is RM0.50 and big bottle (1L) is RM0.89. And that is Mineral Water, not drinking water. So, it tastes better. 

OK. Enough talk about Food and Water. This has become such a long post. I will post more on travel tips like getting to the city from Airport and the rest in other posts. Cheers.