Food Malaysia

A City Break in Kuala Lumpur

October 13, 2016

Ever leave to travel for a year and after a few months find you just need to take a break in a city that has modern amenities and do nothing? Yeah, same. So I took a week to have a little rest:  a city break in Kuala Lumpur if you will.

A quick note on the chronological order of things: The Hong Kong week of my Southeast Asia trip is being skipped over for the time being. Not only did I refuse to take my DSLR out into the chaos that is Hong Kong during the Rugby 7s, but I’m pretty sure I’m being held to some sort of group confidentiality agreement about the debauchery of that weekend. Maybe in the future I’ll write a “First Timer’s Guide to Surviving the Sevens” but it seems the interwebs are pretty loaded down with those sorts of posts already.

To say that I had little to no plan after leaving Hong Kong is an understatement. Bali and the Philippines were on the to-do list, yet no flights had been booked. But like, I HAD to get out of Hong Kong! For my own health. I’d spent a full day in the fetal position in my hotel room that Sunday, and changing cities was absolutely necessary.

City Break Kuala Lumpur - Trailing Rachel

Luckily, I’d had the foresight to book a flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – lovingly abbreviated as KL – because it’s a great hub of an airport where tons of cheap flights fly out to all areas of Southeast Asia on the reg.

I was kinda skeptical of this big Malaysian city for that reason:  I’d heard that most backpackers typically used it as a stopover for flights and got out as quickly as possible. But the good thing about keeping up this blog – despite it’s lack of providing any sort of reliable income! – is the very cool people that it has connected me with. It just so happened that the author of one of my favorite blogs, Anna, was living in KL at the moment. She’s another American who’s quit her job to travel and she’s super into food, so it was the perfect chance to meet up! It also made the sprawling city so much more approachable.

Taking her advice on which neighborhood to stay in, I found a three-bed dorm room (pretty luxurious for me!) and settled in. For eight days, I got (relative) privacy, fantastic food, and a great location in which to recover, relax, and regain my voice (which I’d lost within 24 hours of arriving in Hong Kong – seriously, a story for another day).

City Break Kuala Lumpur - Trailing Rachel

Staying in Bukit Bintang – the area of the city known for its shopping, entertainment, and long street of bars – I was within walking distance to happy hours, malls, and western food options. Of course, all of this was totally unnecessary for me considering I was in recovery/get my life and budget together/detox mode. (Okay, I did give happy hour a chance once!) But, taking Anna’s excellent advice, Uber could get me cheaply and safely around the city to any other neighborhoods I might need to visit. As my finally-booked flight to Boracay was nearly a week away ($92 direct on Air Asia!), it looked like I’d be seeing and eating a lot of this city. Annnd I’d also sleep a lot.

There’s not too many touristy sights in KL, but that was actually a relief for me. No must-do’s meant that I could leisurely stroll and eat and nap.

Oh yeah, what did I say this blog post was about? Ahh, well now that I think about it, it’s basically just the meals I ate in Kuala Lumpur…

City Break Kuala Lumpur - Trailing Rachel

The first night I met up with Anna, we went to dinner at a mamak – one of the ubiquitous restaurants or roadside eateries around the city that are often open 24 hours. They often don’t have booze, which I quickly learned after trying to order a beer like some kinda newbie. And this particular one had a huge menu which we took advantage of by ordering Indian food, Mediterranean food, and roti canai (which, unbeknownst to me, would become the edible love of my life when I later returned to Malaysia for a whole month).

City Break Kuala Lumpur - Trailing Rachel

For lunch one day, we visited a crispy pork joint that was packed full of locals for this amazing plate of meat. Like, this could really take off back in North Carolina. It’s amazing… oh, and it comes with a spicy sauce that is so necessary with all that fatty richness.

City Break Kuala Lumpur - Trailing Rachel

Another day, we gave in to some Western options because, um BRUNCH. And fries…

City Break Kuala Lumpur - Trailing Rachel

aerial view #bloglyfe

Oh, and the malls! There are so many! Shopping and hanging out in malls might actually be the activity of choice in KL. I mean, they are an excellent air conditioned escape from the hot and humid city and a nice chance to visit any and every Western store you might’ve been missing while traveling Southeast Asia.

In an effort to get myself together, I hit up one of the cheaper malls, Sungei Wang Plaza, to get a super affordable haircut and pedicure. It turned out to be possibly the best pedicure I’ve ever had anywhere. And my Malaysian hairdresser warned me that my thin, blonde hair would “not be very good” in this climate. (Yep… it turned out he was correct when a chunk of my hair later broke off in the Philippines, leaving me with what looked like terribly short bangs.)

City Break Kuala Lumpur - Trailing Rachel

But malls are also a sneaky delicious and cheap place to eat. On Anna’s advice, I headed to the popular downstairs food court in Bukit Bintang’s Lot 10 Mall to eat… like, more times than I care to admit.

City Break Kuala Lumpur - Trailing Rachel

City Break Kuala Lumpur - Trailing Rachel

And in the Pavilion Mall, there’s a branch of Din Tai Fung, a restaurant famous for its soup dumplings (xiaolongbao), something I avidly seek out every time I hear of their existence nearby. The Hong Kong branches of this place even received a Michelin star. The service here is spectacularly efficient and the food is high quality and affordable.

City Break Kuala Lumpur - Trailing Rachel

XLB!!!

City Break Kuala Lumpur - Trailing Rachel

with a side of hot and sour soup

For some outdoor eating, I visited the night market located on Jan Alor, just a few blocks from my hostel. I got noodles with pork and a few sticks of satay, but the possibilities are endless!

City Break Kuala Lumpur - Trailing Rachel

After all that eating, my conscience got to me a bit… well, after I found out that Anna’s apartment had a gym and a rooftop pool. Yes, I worked out. And it was hard.

City Break Kuala Lumpur - Trailing Rachel

nope, no pictures of me at the gym // obviously

“So, uh, are there non-food things to do in Kuala Lumpur?” I hear you ask.

Yes. Kinda.

Eventually, I started to feel like I should do something besides resting, relaxing, and meal-planning. Like get up and move a little. Take some photos. Check out the scenery. The Batu Caves are the only other thing I could find online that struck my fancy. After lots of internal debate regarding the mixed reviews I’d heard – about the crowds, whether it was worth the trip out of the city, and the apparent bad smell in the caves (the smell?! I don’t know, I didn’t notice) – I figured why the hell not?! Seeing another cave in Asia couldn’t hurt. Also, climbing all those steps there might help me work up an appetite!

City Break Kuala Lumpur - Trailing Rachel

City Break Kuala Lumpur - Trailing Rachel

monkeys honestly scare the hell out of me // and they are everywhere here.

City Break Kuala Lumpur - Trailing Rachel

City Break Kuala Lumpur - Trailing Rachel

monkeys holding babies though…

All in all, I’m glad I went. It was just a quick, cheap train ride out of the city, and I got some exercise and good photos.

Finally, the Petronas Towers might be the only real touristy thing to do in the city proper, and they are actually worth checking out as well. The buildings at night are visually stunning and very impressive, and the inside is has the feel of a luxury mall… okay it kind of is a luxury mall on certain floors. Go at night to be even more wowed. Anna took me to check out the light show in the fountains out back and it was pretttty cool.

City Break Kuala Lumpur - Trailing Rachel

I also hear there’s a nice bird park in the city too, but just saying the phrase “bird park” makes me laugh out loud.

Anybody else surprisingly love Kuala Lumpur?

Where I Stayed: Rainforest Bed & Breakfast. Great three-bed dorm for about $9/night in the popular Bukit Bintang area. Plenty of private rooms available too. Perfect location, nice beds, low key, and not super social. Small (but free) breakfast spread.
Where I Ate: Other than all of those places listed above, I also ate an outdoor dinner at an indian place, Nagasari Curry House that served booze; for a nice cafe, Feeka Coffee Roasters where I’ve now been multiple times for coffee and wifi, but they also have a solid crepe cake and trendy breakfast foods; The Bee with Anna, located in Publika shopping center, which serves solid Western food – I had a burger.

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  • Anna October 18, 2016 at 11:10 pm

    I’m so glad we got to meet and hang out a ton!! I hope we meet up again somewhere else! KL has no touristy things but it’s such a fun and livable city. And of course, the food is probably the most amazing out of anywhere in the world, just because of the sheer amount of options there are!

    • Anna October 18, 2016 at 11:16 pm

      And don’t knock at the Bird Park… it’s pretty fun! 😛 Someday, I’ll get around to a post on it.

    • Rachel October 20, 2016 at 10:07 am

      You definitely made my experience in the city so much better and ever since I have sung the praises of KL! So thanks! Going back through my food photos from Malaysia I have started to think it miiiiight be the best food in SEA.

  • First time in Kuala Lumpur: where to stay, what to do, and what to eat | slightly astray December 13, 2016 at 11:07 am

    […] Source: Trailing Rachel […]

  • Bhavani October 23, 2017 at 3:34 am

    You should have checked out fireflies park in Kuala Selangor in Selangor. And next time maybe you could visit the National Park. It’s beautiful!