Kuala Lumpur, being a hub for flights around South East Asia, is one of the most visited cities for travelers. Most drop by the city on a day trip, some, like us, spends a couple of nights before pushing off to their destinations. We love Kuala Lumpur—the sights are accessible, the city is safe, there’s a lot of shopping options, and the food is something we look forward to every single time.
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| DOING A ONE-DAY KUALA LUMPUR ITINERARY |
And it was no different as we flew in to KL this time around. We took advantage of Cebu Pacific’s daily evening flight from Manila, departing Friday night and arriving in KL just in time for the weekend. It’s nice that we can actually sleep and rest first—booking rooms at Dorsett Kuala Lumpur—before going out for a full day KL city tour the next day.
“The first thing we’re gonna do when we arrive in Kuala Lumpur is to have a plate of our favorite Malaysian noodle dish, mee goreng!” I excitedly told C as our plane touched down on KLIA 2’s tarmac. We arrived at Malaysia’s capital city at three in the morning, checking in at the Dorsett Kuala Lumpur for two nights. My noodle craving was still in full effect, it has been years since I had one, but when we opened the doors to our hotel room, the pull of the bed seemed much stronger than my tummy’s cravings. We slept.
Parting the drapes in our suite, the sparkling lights of early evening Kuala Lumpur greeted us on our first day in the city. We were on the second leg of our Beach Hop Asia 2016 tour and KL was the next destination on our list. This place has always been one of our favorites in Asia and the view from our room gave us an entirely new way of looking at it.
Leaving Melaka by bus, we arrived at the Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur Hotel via the KL monorail. The hotel sits right across the train station, so even if it was raining, getting there was no problem at all.
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| SHERATON IMPERIAL KUALA LUMPUR’’S POSH LOBBY |
Courteous staff greeted us at the lobby, helping us with our backpacks, something the hotel probably hasn’t seen a lot of. Sheraton, being a five-star hotel, is probably more used to crisply suited business travelers than t-shirt clad backpackers. Still, we were treated as if we were wearing three-piece suits and flowing dresses.
We have exactly two nights in Kuala Lumpur for our whole two-month ASEAN Summer Loop trip and we wanted to make the most out of it. For us, that means having mee goreng, our all-time favorite noodle dish from Malaysia, every other hour.
How addicted are we with mee goreng? After checking in at the Traders Hotel KL and freshening up a bit, we headed out by midnight to hunt for one.
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| MADAM KWAN’S MODERN INTERIORS AT KUALA LUMPUR’S PAVILION SHOPPING CENTER |
The next day, we rose early, eager to head over to Jalan Alor food street, excited to have a plate of our favorite noodles from one of the stalls that serves the meanest mee goreng in the whole of KL. But our plans suddenly took a turn as my travel mate got a message that her aunt was also in the city. Jalan Alor got ditched and we met up with her at the Pavilion Shopping Center instead.
After a bit of looking around, she asked us what we wanted for lunch. Well, we all know the answer to that burning question.
Whoa. My jaw smashed to the (softly carpeted) floor when we opened the drapes in our room. The gleaming Petronas Towers were literally shining across the midnight cityscape of Kuala Lumpur. We knew we’d have this view when we booked a couple of nights at the Traders Hotel KL, but I didn’t know it would be this breathtaking when we actually get to see it in real life. I was totally blown away.
Finally, the light weakened and evening arrived. We’ve been walking around Kuala Lumpur for the good part of the afternoon waiting for the glow of the sun to wane and the city lights of KL to take over. What we wanted was to simply see the Sultan Abdul Samad Building, which fronts the Merdeka Square, in all its illuminated glory.
From our last visit to Kuala Lumpur, we found a ref magnet bearing the façade of a Big Ben-like building. We really don’t do much research during trips, so we weren’t really surprised to find a sector of KL that we haven’t explored yet. The next day, from Chinatown Kuala Lumpur, where we had another cheap but filling lunch, we set out to find that icon.
► EAT OUT: JALAN ALOR FOOD STREET
One of the things I really miss about Kuala Lumpur is eating mee goreng (5.00 MYR) along its many side streets—cheap, freshly cooked, stir fried, and thick super spicy noodles paired with a cold, cold glass of kopi ice (2.00 MYR). Heaven.
That dish is actually the first thing we looked for during our last trip to KL. We’ve been dreaming about it through the whole four-hour flight from Manila and when we finally hit the streets of Kuala Lumpur along with our heavy backpacks, we knew exactly where our first stop would be.
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Jalan Alor Food Street is a street along the Bukit Bintang District of Kuala Lumpur and it is where we had the best mee goreng during our several trips to the city.
The area is unassuming during the day—just a strip of sleepy restaurants lining a street. But as the sun sets and evening arrives, it slowly comes to life. Chairs and tables spread into the sidewalks, until eventually, it invades the whole road. Overhead, lamps light up one after another, until the whole strip is sparkling like a cabaret.
