Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia D74-78: Shopping & Eating Our Way Through KL

We flew to Kuala Lumpur on Malindo Air (who?), who weighed Ian's bag at 6kg (13lbs), which is utterly impossible. They did not get my vote of confidence, but hey, we made it safe. The airport is very far from downtown, like Denver Int'l to downtown Denver.

There are few "cultural adventures" to go on in Kuala Lumpur (KL). To learn about Malaysia and its short history, you either take a trip to a museum or a trip out of the city. We decided to forgo the cultural adventures and stick to city life for the few days we were in town.

Notable buildings:

Petronas Towers

KL Tower

Taxis are cheap and the monorail is cheap, clean and air-conditioned:

Ian made friends with the owners of a burger shop (Black House Burger) in Legian (Bali), who recently relocated from Kuala Lumpur. They wrote him a list of places to eat and things to see/skip, which was invaluable to our short stay.

We stayed at the Tune Hotel in Mo Chit, a budget hotel in a great location. It's $26USD a night, and it's dirty and gross and horrifically small. Room 409 had a broken faucet, goo on the walls, crumbs on the ground and smelled of mildew; Room 431 had SIX cockroaches in the bathroom when we opened the door; we settled for Rm 438, a cleanish room that smelled like cigarettes. We found out the hotel used to be a hospital, and people online swear it's haunted. Ian takes care to tell me this on the last day.

The area we stayed in is just a short hop to downtown on the monorail. If we walked down our street, we were in what I called "Little Islam"- a street filled with Islamic restaurants and Islamic clothing stores, and hundreds of thousands of good ol' Islamic STAREDOWNS.

We also visited Kuala Lumpur at a very important political and economic time. The Malaysian Prime Minister doesn't seem to be too popular. Taxi prices just went up, and starting April 1st, a sales tax of 6% began. Everything we bought on our stay did not include sales tax. To go from 0% to mandatory 6% is a hard pill to swallow. Also, though only around 61% of Malaysians are Muslim, you're essentially not treated as a citizen unless you're Islamic.
Wikipedia: "As defined by the Constitution of Malaysia, Malays must be Muslim, regardless of their ethnic heritage; otherwise, legally, they are not Malay. Consequently, apostate Malays would have to forfeit all their constitutional privileges, including their Bumiputra status, which entitles them to affirmative action in university admissions and discounts on purchases of vehicles or real estate." 
Residents of Indian and Chinese descent have notably less liberties in Malaysia, and often have to pay more than Malays for things like houses and cars and job permits. They're treated unfairly, to say the least.

But enough about social injustice! Here's what we did:

OUR ONLY NON-SHOPPING, NON-FOOD ADVENTURE:

Ian and I had never participated in a breakout game before. It was AWESOME! You chose a room with a story and you have to use a mix of imagination and logic to breakout. It's a series of tricks and traps and we absolutely geeked out. You have one hour to complete your mission, and in our first game we escaped with 6 seconds left! It was a rush. We immediately played another game and won even faster. I won't spill any beans here, so that's all I'm going to say. DO IT.

SHOPPING:

KL is a city of 62 indoor malls. Holy shopping spree!

The Pavilion is a beautiful mall with a bomb-ass food court on the lower ground level. Lot 10 is a shitty mall with another bomb-ass food court on the ground level. Sungei Wang Plaza is cheap cheap cheap. Berjaya Times Square Mall is the eighth-largest building in the world, and has THOUSANDS of stores where I can literally afford every item. We dedicate a whole day shopping here. Heaven.
 
"World's Largest Capsule Vending Machine" didn't work...

 
The currency in Malaysia is ringgit. One US dollar is 3.7 ringgit. Ten ringgit equals $2.70. Everything I bought in the Times Square Mall was 10, 15, or 20 ringgit, or $2.70-$5.40 USD each. I took out one hundred US dollars and bought:

1 cardigan

2 scarves

2 lingerie outfits

3 necklaces

8 dresses

11 shirts

FOR $100!!! (I will note that it cost $60 to ship it all home, BUT STILL!)
 
One thing sucked- you're not allowed to try on stuff before you buy it. Well... you ARE if you're brown. If you're white, like me, they literally block the fitting rooms and say "NO". Most of the clothes in the mall were visibly too small for me, but I accepted the challenge and came out with great fits. I've been to a Ross on a Saturday, so I came prepared.

I also ventured down "Little Islam" to see the clothes they had to offer. They had a lot of oversized, very conservative tops and dresses with beautiful prints. You can find any color or pattern of fabric in this area. I bought a meter of a print I liked, and I'll wear it as a scarf.
  

EATING:

There are a million places to eat, and I daresay this could be a better food city than Bangkok. Thankfully we had the list of must-eats in hand, and with that, we conquered the city.

MyBurgerLabs: Petaling Jaya location
Burgers. Good Cause. Cool kid hangout. Long line. Best Burgers ever!
Get: "Kick in the Face" or the "Hangover"
 

Lot 10 food court: Eat at Suckling Duck and Chinese Character Place
Suckling Duck: Combo #2 with duck and bbq honey pork with ginger infused rice.
Chinese Place: Xaoi Long Bao

Not Everyone Wants to Pose

   

Betel Leaf: Indian Food in Mo Chit
Chicken Tikka Masala and Mutton and Paneer. Everything was awesome. So awesome we forgot to take pictures.

Kin Kin: in Mo Chit, a block away from Tune Hotel.
Get: Dry Pan Mee. It's their staple, their errything. Less than $5USD for two people and two waters.

"To the superb taste of original,
Treasure yourself, give yourself a best treat
Bring all your friends along for a big delicious surprise!!!
To the true wonders of finest and famous dry chilli pan mee in Malasia.
That will wake everyone up with excitement, fill the air with the joy of laughter
till the last perfect bite, make the day special and proud in Kin Kin!
The origin of chilli pan mee was born here.
The restoran that created and started the first dry chilli pan me in Malaysia 30 years ago,
Restoran Kin Kin"

i-Dragon: a few locations (Berjaya and Pavillion)
Get: xaio long bao and sautéed spicy chicken.

Espressolab: superb coffee place in a variety of locations
Get: Melbourne Coffee-- iced latte with vanilla ice-cream as your cream/sugar. Life-changing.

Anyway, I'm fat now. I type this with a deeper voice.