Kuala Lumpur

This was my fourth time visiting KL in the last 10 years and I was feeling a bit of ennui towards the place before we arrived.  But I am so glad we decided to spend two nights here re-acquainting ourselves with the city.  It is a fantastic, modern Asia metropolis – vibrant with all the modern conveniences but still maintaining that wonderful Asian chaos.  I love it.

We had a long trip from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur and arrived at our newly refurbished hotel, Cosmos Hotel, near Chinatown in the early evening.  We dropped off our bags and hit the streets for a fantastic dinner of street food on the vivacious streets of Chinatown.

Entrance to Chinatown in KL

Street food at its best

The next day we walked past old haunts; Merdeka Square, the Railway Hotel, the Central Market and discovered some new beauties such as the Majestic Hotel.  

Merdeka Square (Independence Square) was the location of the Selangor Club cricket green in colonial times and the site where the Malaysian flag was first raised when the country gained independence on 31 August 1957.  It is now a wonderful meeting place surrounded by old and new buildings and a great symbol of Malaysia’s past and future.

Merdeka Square with the Petronas Towers in the distance

We revisited the fantastic textile museum on the edge of the square.  The exhibits of Malaysian textile crafts have expanded and included some wild, modern headdresses, accessories, and examples of ethnic dress from East Malaysia.

Modern headdresses

Traditional dress in East Malaysia (northern Borneo)

Belt buckle - 360 gms of gold, rubies and emeralds - perhaps a bit OTT for my usual attire?

We then made our way towards the Railway Hotel where we had stayed twice with the kids.  Sadly the hotel above the grand mogul style railway station is now closed.  We are hoping they will renovate it to its former glory, though when we stayed there it was well past its prime and in desperate need of upgrading.

The old Railway Hotel and station

Nearby was the Majestic Hotel.  When booking our accommodation for KL, Bob had wanted to splurge and stay here but I put the kybosh on this as it was definitely beyond our budget.  We decided to go and have a sticky beak.  What a wonderful combination of old world charm and modern glitz.  We wondered around the lobbies, hallways and meeting rooms being suitably impressed.  Then just off the main lobby was a restaurant serving an amazing buffet lunch.  As it was after 2 and we were definitely peckish we decided to indulge.  There was every kind of food, Asian, Western, desserts, tropical juices, fruits, salads, cheeses, all expertly prepared.  As we had arrived near the end of the buffet hours we could only sample a fraction of what was on offer, much to the benefit of our already Christmas/Oz holiday extended waistlines.  The cost of this indulgence was equal to what we would pay for a lunch in Australia.  Perhaps our budget could extend to a night’s stay here on our next visit to KL.

The original entrance to the Majestic Hotel

Front Lobby of the new entrance

Orchid Room

Finally we ended up at Central Market.  The place has barely changed in 6 years since we were last here.  It was very comforting to see all the old shops, and fun to see the few new ones.  We went upstairs for a cold drink and Bob was thrilled to have an Es Kecang again.  It was the perfect end to a wonderful day in KL.

Es (or Ais) Kecang