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.

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We went the wrong way and it took us a while to realize it. From the Apple Hotel KL, we saw a map plastered on one of its wall on how to get to the KL Tower—yup, Kuala Lumpur has another tower up its sleeve beside the celebrated Petronas Towers—we followed it and thought we were on the right road until we asked a local—we were directed to the opposite direction. Ugh.

Can we walk all the way there? We asked. The two girls we asked looked at each other and giggled. Definitely not! They replied.

Kuala Lumpur’s Menara KL Tower has been the city’s icon until the Petronas Towers came along and stole its thunder. After almost four years of construction, it started gracing the shimmering skyline of the city by the mid-nineties. It stands 1,381 feet high, a hundred and one feet short against the twin towers of Petronas.

But the tower is still impressive and has even attracted numerous events like the annual race to its top—pitting contestants against its 22 levels with a total of 2,058 whopping steps. Let me take the elevator now, please.

► HOW MANY STEPS: BATU CAVES

The suite has a massive living room, a very inviting king-sized bed, floor to ceiling glass windows and an enormous flat-screen satellite television. I padded over the richly carpeted floor and positioned myself in one of the room’s corner, half-squatted and took a picture. This room was not where we’re gonna stay, but it was close enough.

We were at the StarPoints Hotel Kuala Lumpur and I liked what I was seeing. Located at Jalan Masjid India, the city’s Little India, it’s one of the largest hotels I’ve stayed at during the numerous lay-over I’ve had in Malaysia in a short span of time.

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Everything skewered I can think of was probably skewered on a stick at one of the stalls we stopped by at Chinatown Kuala Lumpur. Squids, sausages, prawns, chicken bits, hotdogs, squid balls, shrimp balls, tofu cubes, octopus, corns, mushrooms, heck they even have eggplants and broccolis!

It was such an overwhelming sight that we were unable to pick even one stick to barbecue.

After landing at Kuala Lumpur for a connecting flight to Siem Reap, food was the first order of the day. Once our bags were laid down and we got to freshen up a bit at Ceria Hotel Bukit Bintang, we immediately headed to KL’s Chinatown, which we thought to be a good place as any to check the local street food scene.

► FLY OUT: SIEM REAP TRAVEL GUIDE

Location is one of the foremost things we consider when booking for a place to stay when out traveling. We want a lodging close enough to the tourist spots, the food places, and the night life. During our lay-over in Kuala Lumpur en route to Penang, we found such hotel in the heart of the city—Apple Hotel in Bukit Bintang.

► PIG OUT: PENANG FOOD TRIP

Apple Hotel is a chain of boutique hotel in Malaysia. It was easy enough to locate it. From the airport, we boarded a bus to Kuala Lumpur then took another bus from KL Chinatown, the Go KL purple bus (which is free by the way), and walked a hundred strides before we reach the hotel in the lively Jalan Alor street in Bukit Bintang.

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Twilight was upon us. The twin giants of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia shone, towering thousands of feet to the electric blue heavens. Below sat a menagerie of people, watching the fountains sway and undulate over music, gazing up at the sky once in a while to the twinkling spires of the architectural marvel that is the Petronas Towers.

The scene was how I imagined it all to be, and more.

Coming from Ceria Hotel Bukit Bintang, we walked along the fading afternoon light before boarding the free Go KL Green Bus which passes through KLCC—one of the largest shopping center in Kuala Lumpur. That said shopping haven is located right inside the Petronas Towers. But we’re not really there to shop though, we went there to gawk at the once tallest building in the world.

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I’ve never been to Malaysia before last year.

Arriving from a four-hour flight from Manila to the now defunct LCCT Airport and taking a one-hour bus to Kuala Lumpur, I was immediately seized with a mild case of a culture shock. I’ve never been out of the country that much and it’s quite unsettling to travel to a place where people don’t speak the same language as you do.

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It was such a relief then that the hotel we booked for an overnight lay-over in Kuala Lumpur has a welcoming feel and a staff that can communicate clearly with us. Ceria Hotel Bukit Bintang was our first stop in the city. Its name translates to happy, cheerful, and warm—and I immediately felt that as we entered its lobby.

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Soaring 1,482 feet above sea level, Malaysia’s Petronas Towers blazed like a cool beacon in the sultry Kuala Lumpur evening.

I have very little expectations from this city, having heard not a few good things about it from a friend. But impressions can be very personal. Kuala Lumpur took me by surprise as soon as I stepped off the bus that fetched us from the airport. The city is clean, the street food are delicious and the people are very warm and friendly.

The moral of the story, don’t judge a place until you’ve actually set foot on it.