Asia – Page 8 – One girl… One backpack…

Contrary to visual indications, you can drink the water in Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur means a meeting of muddy rivers. In the early days, people came here for the mining of tin and for trading. Kuala Lumpur, or KL, as it is referred, is still a place in the middle. For the city itself, its progressing from old to new, remaking itself into a hub of South Asian business to rival, in its image, that of the titan Singapore or Hong Kong. On a grand scale, the Petronas Towers are the tallest pair of towers in the world [some call them the Twin Towers, but being an American, I really don’t think that I can].

On a more subtle basis, there is the street to street takeover of the bank buildings, climbing up like interest rates as they over-take their crumbling neighbors, the vestiges of KL’s past. According to the heritage tour that I took, there are no measures in place to protect or maintain the old colonial roots of KL. In fact, the nicest colonial style building I’ve seen is my hostel. The tour, offered for free, wasn’t even government sponsored, but from a private council.

Old, meet New. New, take care to wipe the rubble of your shoes from all the crumbling buildings when entering the new lobby.

The mix of native Malays and generations of Chinese and Indian immigrants has created a diverse cultural blend here, but I can’t help but feel that most of their cultural displays created just for the benefit of the tourists (maybe that’s because I spend most of my time traveling through the food stalls and hawker lean-tos in Chinatown). With no focus on real thoughts of the past, KL is truly a city in transit, living in the present for the future.

A city in transit for travelers in motion– Kuala Lumpur is a gateway of sorts for backpackers and vagabonds. Travelers may fly to the large, KLIA terminal on Air Emirates from their homes in Europe or North America before flying out of the low-cost airport on AirAsia to their true, desired location. If not flying in, backpackers will use KL as the bus hub, allowing them a break from the days of bus-riding it takes to travel from Singapore or Melaka up to Thailand and beyond.

There are a few things to do here to keep tourists interested for a few days — the aforementioned heritage tour, 2 large parks containing bird and butterfly areas along with gardens and greens, the Petronas buildings, KL Tower, aquarium, and just outside the city, the Batu Caves.

On street level, the Chinese and Indian quarters are packed with enough food stands and discount goods to keep your belly and bag full for days. However, many travelers are more inclined to grab their brand of toothpaste and a quick nap before moving on than truly revering the city.

KL Tower and Petronas Towers -- pretty at night

My friends here in Thailand will tell you that perhaps I have been a bit irrational when it comes to approaches the street vendors here. After a couple incidents where I felt a little ripped off as the “single, foreign travel girl”, I am a little wary off approaching transactions where the cost is not clearly marked and irrefutable.

There is also such a culture of bargaining here, that the price a seller might tell you on a sarong or t-shirt is completely and totally negotiable, but I really don’t know if I have the presence to negotiate. I think the attitude to walk away has to be ever present.

In any case, I think food is a bit easier on the price because it is so cheap. Fruit is about 20 – 30 baht and hot food is probably 30 – 40 baht (30 baht equals 1 American dollar). It’s a lot easier to point and ask for what you want and food, more than any type of good, has to be sold. So I think they’re apt to quote a fairer price to anyone, farang or not.

Many of the vendors that sell food have their little kitchens attached to platforms on their motorbikes. The fruit-man comes around the the gym area and honks his horn to alert the camp to his arrival. He has a glass box filled with ice and fruit. You point at what you’d like they finish the chopping process and stick it in a bag for you (everything comes in bags here, including soup).

Obviously, the process is much easier and less mysterious than I imagined. Therefore, I’ll provide a step-by-step instruction of just how simple it was.

Step 1: Find the fruit man