So I had to get up at the butt crack of dawn (3:45 a.m.) to head to the airport for my 7:00 a.m. flight to Kuala Lumpur. I ended up arriving at the airport by 4:50 a.m. and was checked in, through immigration and into the Singapore Air lounge by 5:05. (Changi Airport is THE most efficient airport I have ever been in not to mention the most beautiful. Artwork, waterfalls, and high end shops everywhere. It’s quite the place.)
Anyway, my flight left on time and before I knew it we were already descending into KL (Kulala Lumpur). Now as efficient as Changi Airport is, KL airport is … well not quite so efficient. After deplaning, I had to wander though the airport looking for the immigration signs before seeing a small entrance where business class travelers can go through immigration, which is when I found out we had not landed at the main terminal. We then had to wait in line for a shuttle but to the main terminal (a 15 minute process) before being herded through doors, up and escalator and into the immigration hall where a massive and I mean MASSIVE line awaited. Fortunately, some guy tipped me off that there was actually another line on the other side of the massive line where business class travellers can go for immigration. Fortunately, this line “only” took about 25 minutes for me to reach the front of the line and less than 2 minutes later, I was finally through and into Malaysia.
Now the baggage claim was another shit show. I wandered over to the carousel and waited for about ten minutes before I noticed that some guy near where the bags were coming out of the shoot was simply pulling them off the carousel (before they even made a round) and piling them up. So I headed over and sure enough … there was my bag. Unbelievable! So it only took 1 hour and 15 from when I had deplaned to when I walked through the arrivals hall to meet Joel my guide. (I am pretty sure I would still be in the immigration line if I hadn’t paid the extra $100 bucks for the business class ticket.)
Anyway, once I found Joel (who by the way looks like Andrew Zimmern, the chef), we set out for the 1 ½ hour drive to the Batu Caves. (I was bypassing going to the hotel first because Joel said the traffic later in the day is a nightmare so best to do the touring first and checkin later).
Anyway, it took 45 minutes to reach KL (the airport is out in the middle of nowhere) where we passed straight through the city and then back into the countryside to the Batu Caves.
Now the Batu Caves (Batu means rock in Malay) are a series of caves and cave temples in Gombak, Malaysia. The caves are one of the most popular Hindu shrines and are dedicated to Murugan, the Hindu god of war. The temple is the focus of the Tamil festival of Thaipusam, in which believers bring milk offerings to the site and also participate in piercings of the skin, tongue or cheeks with vel skewers or piercings with large hooks into their backs. (I don’t get it …) Devotees prepare for the rituals by keeping clean, doing regular prayers, following a vegetarian diet and fasting while remaining celibate for months before entering into a trance and undertaking the piercings. The most recent Thaipusam festival was held at the Batu Caves in January and 2.2 million people attended. Seriously.
Now access to the caves requires one to hike up 272 multi-coloured stairs (no small feat in the heat and humidity), but once at the top, the views were spectacular. And the cave temples inside were equally impressive with statutes dedicated to Murugan and his family (including his brother Ganesha). There was also the ever present incense and a handful of worshippers practicing their beliefs, but mostly a lot of tourists.
Once inside, we wandered around looking at the various shrines (while wild roosters crowed everywhere) before climbing the 62 step staircase at the other end of the cave to reach another temple that had been constructed below an opening in the roof of the cave. Sunlight was streaming in making the site absolutely beautiful.
So once we had taken in the entire cave complex we made our way back down the 272 steps (easier going down than hiking up), and we climbed back in the car to head to the Kanching waterfall about a half hour away.
The drive took us further out into the countryside, but surprisingly, there was a lot of construction of apartment buildings, which Joel said were completely unoccupied. The construction was causing landslides during the rainy season (we saw the remains of three landslides) and with no one occupying the buildings, the whole thing made little sense. But Joel said the Malaysian government was allowing the construction by Chinese developers in exchange for kickbacks, although if no one is occupying the buildings what’s in it for the Chinese??
Anyway, we eventually reached the site of the Kanching waterfall, and fortunately this week kids are on school break so the place was teaming with youngsters trying to get out of the heat. Joel and I made the climb up through the forest towards the waterfall and as we climbed higher, I could hear the rush of water and the screams of kids. Eventually, the lower level of the falls came into view and there were kids playing in the water and families grilling up lunch.
I decided to climb up to the second level of the waterfall while Joel waited from me, and as I climbed the stairs, I ran into a troupe of monkeys. I stood and watched them as two juveniles brawled and then what I presumed to be a parent go after them. At one point a couple of the monkeys moved quite close to me and that is when I decided I needed to move on to the end of the path for the second level of the waterfall.
Once I reached the end, I hiked over some rocks and found the views of the waterfall pretty awesome. I said hello to a group of young Muslim women who were picnicking before hiking back down to find Joel. We watched the kids play in the water for a bit longer before taking a path along the river and over a bridge back to the entrance. And on our way, we ran into a rather old monkey who was just sitting on a square garbage can hoping that someone would abandon some of their food long enough to snatch and run. (No such luck.)
By now, it was VERY hot and humid and I desperately needed something to drink as well as something to eat. Fortunately, Joel knew the owners of a small little food stand near the entrance so we planted ourselves in front of a fan and ordered Lychee juice and a rice dish called Nasi Goreng Biasa, made with rice, chicken, spices and eggs. Now I know it sounds like chicken fried rice (and in fact nasi goreng means fried rice in Indonesian), but it was nothing like I have ever tasted. The depth of flavour was absolutely heaven with some spicy flavors, chilis and a brown sauce. It was fantastic.
And the proprietor and his wife were as nice as could be. We sat and chatted about my trip and they made a couple recommendations for places to eat. Just lovely people.
Anyway, it was getting to be mid-afternoon and we had one more stop for the day: the KL Tower where I was going to the Observation Deck to check out the views of KL. Now I know everyone talks about going to the Petronas Towers, but it turns out that construction near the Petronas Towers limits the views making the KL Tower the better choice.
So Joel and I made the loooong
(only because of traffic) journey back to KL and by 3:30 I had bought my ticket and was in an elevator on my way to the Observation Deck, 276 meters above the ground. And the surprising thing was that there could not have been more than 20 people on the Observation Deck making is super easy to walk around, take pictures and admire the amazing skyline. I was able to easily take pictures of the 88 story Petronas Towers, the Merdeka 118 (the tallest building in Malaysia and the second tallest in the world) and the remarkable KL skyline.
We finally left the tower at 4:00 and wound our way through the horrible traffic to my hotel. Now at this point, I had to RUSH with a capital R as I was scheduled to meet Kiran (former Mrs. Universe … seriously) to go on “A Chef’s Tour”, a walking food tour of the old Kuala Lumpur areas of Chow Kit and Kampung Baru.
So once checked in, I did a quick change and raced downstairs to order a “Grab”, KL’s version of Uber. Now the Grab was showing only 5 minutes away … and that lasted for 35 minutes. The driver finally showed up at 5:15 and I had just 15 minutes to get to our meeting point. I had texted Kiran that I was running late and she said they would wait until 5:45 otherwise I would have to meet them at the first top.
Fortunately, this driver knew what he was doing and maneuvered the hell out of the horrendous traffic and got me from my hotel to the meeting point by 5:40. Once I apologized profusely to my fellow travellers (2 from the U.S., 2 from Germany and 1 from Australia), we set our for Chow Kit and the myriad of tightly packed (and I do mean tightly packed) food stalls and fruit and veggies stands, which sit on prime real estate (which the Malaysian government would love to buy).
Anyway, first up was a fruit stand where we tried salak, rambutan, longan and mangosteens. The salak was the only fruit I had never tried, with a hard snake like skin and the flavors of a mangotsteen. All of the fruit were super sweet, tasted a lot like lychees and was the perfect to start the food tour.
We then wandered through the market past fruit vendors, a guy chopping a freshly wacked chicken, a butcher and a lady grilling satays before reaching our next stop at an Indian restaurant. Once we washed our hands, we each took turns trying to make roti canal (a form of bread used to eat curries and other sauces). We had to dip our hands in oil, take the flattened dough in our hands by placing the left hand under then the right hand over the dough and using the right thumb to flip the dough And … yes we all sucked at it.
Once the the cooking lesson was over, we sat down with two drinks: Limau ais (lemon ice – delish) and teh ais (a chai like tea that was WAY WAY too sweet). Then came the mee goreng mamak, a spicy noodle dish that was fabulous and the roti canai with three types of dipping sauces: a fish sauce, a chicken sauce and a lentil sauce. The fish sauce was my least favourite while the other two sauces rocked.
We then moved on to a second walk around the area taking in one of the oldest houses in the neighborhood, (while dodging the ever present accident waiting to happen motorcycles) before stopping at the local durian market.
Now I had been dreading this stop, but I had been assured that the taste of durian was far better than the odor (it reeks) but … they LIED!!! This fruit deserves a special spot in hell. It is mushy, putrid and tastes like crap. Fortunately, we were given Chendol to wash it down. Chendol is a combination of shaved ice, gelatinous pandan rice flour, sweet corn, coconut milk and palm sugar syrup. It may sound weird, but I assure you that it is quite spectacular and very refreshing.
So after the durian crap, we moved down the street past a stand where a woman was selling putu piring, a coconut, pandan cake-like desert sweetened with palm sugar … one taste was OK, but after that I thought I was going to O.D. on sugar. Damn it was sweet.
But it wasn’t long before the sweet was replaced by two kinds of soup and a dish made up of all sorts of meats, First up was minun soup, a rice noodle soup with chicken and spices. Excellent. Next was the Mi Kari aka curry laksa, which had curry, noodles, beef and veggies. Also excellent. Both were served with spicy sambal sauce.
From here, we moved across the street for charcoal grilled mackerel (good, but a little boney), satay padang (chicken and beef), which were grilled in a variety of spices and really terrific, followed by the star of the show, fried chicken. I don’t know how they cooked, it, but it had just the right amount of spice and crunch and was off the charts fantastic.
By now it was time to leave Chow Kit and head a few blocks over to Kampung Baru, an old KL neighborhood filled with houses and street stalls, which the Malaysian government also wants to purchase. Sad really, because there are few historic neighborhoods left in KL.
Anyway, as we walked through the main street in Kampung Baru, we stopped at a vendor’s stand where he was putting a paste into palm leaves and steaming the leaves. The treat was called otak otak and was made up of anchovie paste with lots of spices. I tried to eat it, but it was way too salty for my liking (and my poor old kidney’s liking).
We ended the food extraganza by eating ikan bakar, chicken covered in a spicy sauce and cooked in a palm leaf. It was pretty good, but the real highlight was the mango shake made with condensed milk. It was out of this world. Creamy, smooth frothy goodness.
And while the food portion was done, we were not done. Kiran took us a few blocks away to the illuminated Saloma Bridge which is one of the best ground view points in KL to see the Petronas Towers lit up at night. It was really spectacular.
So that was day 1 in Malaysia. Tomorrow it is a day tour around KL. For now, my looooong day was over and it was time to head to bed.