Kuala Lumpur
View of the Petronus Towers from the KL Radio Tower
We spent 8 days in the capital city of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. A large city of 8 million people, we found everyone we met to be extremely friendly and very polite with diverse backgrounds. They are proud to call themselves Malaysian and they alway let us know how many generations Malaysian they are, although their roots stem from India, China, Indonesia, and many other countries. The main languages are Hokkein (Chinese), Malay, Indonesian and English. Everyone speaks English which makes it so much easier for us.
The city has many high rises as building is booming in KL. They’re not all centered in one location like NYC, but spread out in steel and cement islands surrounded by oceans of green spaces. It isn’t easy to walk from one area to another due to the distances and sometimes the heat and humidity, but they do have a metro system if you’re adventurous and patient. We mostly got around using the Grab app (like Uber) as rides are inexpensive and much more comfortable.
We didn’t visit many attractions because we came to KL mostly to explore real estate options and because we booked an Oktoberfest celebration here while we were still in Munich. We planned to come back to KL, so we felt no pressure to squeeze everything so see into a few days. Besides, we stayed at some wonderful hotels such as the Mandarin Oriental and the Arte Hotel and found leaving the comfort of the accommodations to explore the city during the sweltering heat of the afternoon less than desirable.
The pool at the Mandarin Oriental as twilight descends upon the city
Here is a gallery of photos from our stay at the Mandarin Oriental.
We headed over to the KL Bird Sanctuary on one outing, a rather impressive enclosure of netting that accommodated many varieties of birds. Beneath the netting, the Bird Sanctuary was split into 5 distinct habitats. We spent quite some time exploring sanctuary after which we planned to wander the nearby Botanical Garden.
We were exhausted from the heat, though, and decided to instead visit the KL Radio tower which afforded an excellent cityscape from a viewing deck, especially of the famous Petronus Towers.
Randy and Gitty are on top of the TV tower overlooking the city
We decided to head back to the hotel via Brickfields (Little India) and Petaling Street (Chinatown). Each a short Grab hop closer to our hotel. It was also approaching Deepawali (Diwali in the US) so everyone was getting set up to celebrate.
Randy could blend in with some of the steps
One of the most surprising excursions was to the Batu Caves, where a Hindu temple complex was constructed inside of limestone caves reachable by climbing 272 colorful steps. We used Grab to get there and took the metro back, which in itself was an experience and one that allowed us some downtime to chill before the thankfully air-conditioned train departed the station.
We moved hotels to be close to Oktoberfest, which was a smart decision although we missed the pool deck of the Mandarin Oriental as well as the live music and restaurants. Still, we had a blast meeting some local German expats and dancing to the excellent Oktoberfest band as the evening devolved into raucous dancing.
At the bar on the top floor of the Arte Hotel
One of the areas we were most keen to explore was Mount Kiara, which we heard had a thriving expat community. We booked ourselves into the Arte Hotel which won numerous awards for its construction. But Gitty mostly selected this place because she liked the photo of the bar on their website.
After looking at a number of accommodations with a realtor, we are still uncertain as to whether we want to relocate to Kuala Lumpur or Penang. Probably not KL. Now we are heading back to Penang until the middle of November to plan out next destinations!
