Day 1: Kuala Lumpur, Bukit Bintang and surrounds

Some travelling days end too soon. Other days find me frequently repeating the Henry Rollins’ mantra, “Smile, you’re travelling”. Today was a fair whack of the latter, and a hint of the former.

The plane got in early, and I spent the flight with a row to myself but even with that space I didn’t sleep comfortably. I tried lulling myself into a state of rest listening to Natalie Imbruglia’s Male, which has some really good cover versions (but I’m still not sold on the c&w “Friday I’m In Love”, I think she either needed to go much bigger or back the hell away) but even with this I don’t have the body that can contort sideways comfortably.

I did have one interesting experience on the plane: when they came around with food (dinner, because everyone wants dinner at 3am) my fellow passengers were all being asked if they wanted the nasi lemak or the pasta. When it was my turn, the wonderful crew member asked me if I’d like the “coconut rice” or the pasta. I think she was a little surprised when I asked for “the nasi, please”. Sure, I’m a barbarian, unable to grasp the subtleties of any number of languages, but I do try to speak food (and thank you) in any language I can. (Though I do sometimes stuff this up, hving a habit of saying “terima nasi” which loosely translates to “thank rice” or if being generous, “thak you for rice”.)

I had a plan at the airport: get a Digi mobile sim, and a return ticket for the KLIA express, and all would be good. I had been briefed where to find the Digi stand, however overlooked a very simple detail: it’s before you go through border control. I made the fat-headed assumption that it would be after, which I can tell you, is wrong.

Getting through border control was easy, hand over passport, tell them how many days I’m in town for, and let them take a picture of my index fingers. Even grumpy tired me can manage that, though if I’d known I’d already f*cked up getting a cheap local sim with huge amounts of data, I might have struggled a little. Ditto for the KLIA ticket, if I’d bought it online like I almost did, I’d have got it for 85MYR, but the other side of customs it’s 100MYR return. Sure 15MYR is almost $6AUD, but still…

Catching the KLIA express, after first walking all over the KLIA trying to find Digi, was okay, but (and here’s where things start snowballing) the free wifi was somewhat dodgy, wanting me to register, and give an email address, without actually being able to access email (and it then didn’t email me any sort of confirmation anyhow).

I’m beginning to think that Malaysians like to party, partly because the Sentral railway station was quiet and half closed at 9.30am, and partly because there are still a lot of cars going past my hotel and people just starting dinner at local restaurants, and it’s after 10pm.

I walked for a while around deserted Sentral, and the even more deserted attached mall, in my quest for a local sim, also failing to find free wifi (not even the McDonald’s had it, and while Starbucks did, it wanted me to fill out a whole f*cking form to activate). Eventually I saw a sign! In the window of a 7-11 was the Digi logo. Elated, I strolled in (past the security guard that had probably seen me go past at least 3 other times, wheeling my case, she was probably about to call SWAT if she saw me again). I waited in line, andwhen it was my turn, asked for a Digi sim card.

“We don’t have them, only somethingorother brand,” came the reply.

“But, but, but the sign, the sign, in the window, the sign, you must, you must, pleasehelp me, you’re my only hope,” I pleaded.

“Nope, but the place just across the hall has them.”

Yup, the place across the hall, past the security guard who definitely has me under observation. The place across the hall, with its windows adorned with a different brand of phone provider.

Smile, you’re travelling.

So I got the sim, but not the airport deal of 25GB for 40MYR, but something like 7.5GB for 18MYR. I can live with that, especially as I’m still using my same number, and can send/receive SMS, and it has separate quotas for facebook and whatsapp.

With the internets back in my hand, things went a bit smoother, I got a Grab (the local Ola/Uber) to my hotel, which cost 10MYR because I couldn’t get the bonus KLIA 10MYR Grab voucher code to work, but at less than 1MYR/minute, can’t complain. My hotel let me check in early (though hit me with a “refundable deposit” of 200MYR, which given there’s no minibar, WTF but I’m viewing this as money to spend at the airport when I leave). The room is a little small (it’s a queen deluxe, apparently), a little noisy, and has asolutely no art or other wall adornments, but it has a good shower, water pressure, and decent aircon, so I’ll survive.

After unpacking and a little decompression, I took a stroll around. I’m on the edge of the main touristy area Bukit Bintang, but far enough away that there seems to be more locals than tourists around the streets here. There’s also a bit of construction happening around here, so my Grab driver had to deal with some road detours and closures, and walking around I need to keep an eye on the ground as well as the occasional large truck. I found a place that seemed to have a decent crown of locals for lunch, serving Chinese Malay. After failing to elicit a recommendation by asking “What’s good?” (the answer, “All of it”) I went for a chicken curry with noodles. And it was good, fairly priced, and hit the spot.

I’m pondering spending minimal time eating Chinese Malay while I’m here, just because so much of it seems familiar to Chinese food I’ve already eaten, it lacks a little of the surprise factor. It will be good for the occasional comfort meal, and I may find other places that are quite different, and I also may have dim sum at least once while I’m here, but in general I think I’m looking for something different.

I had more walking around after lunch, eventually stopping at a hipstery coffee place near my hotel. I can’t remember the name, but will probably be back, as the coffee is quite good and the aircon is great. Paid 25MYR for a pot of Guatemalan coffee, a little pricey but I’m developing a bit of a taste for that area, lots of chocolate and berry/fruit notes. I was feeling quite flat before I had the coffee: long day, bad sleep, silly mistakes, 80% humidity, feeling a little alone, overcast sky, irregular eating, lack of caffeine, not enough water, sweaty, … so a nice coffee in aircon was a good pickup.

Then it was back to the hotel for a nap (also missing the afternoon rain that seems to be a regular feature of KL), before scanning the internet for a good night market. Jalan Alor (Jalan just means Street) was less than 15 minutes away, according to the app, so off I went. Got there just after 7pm, and it was pretty quiet, a bunch of places still setting up. There were still plenty of touts waving menues at passers by, but I’m getting good at avoiding eye contact so it wasn’t so bad (insert discussion about male privilege etc here). It also probably helps that at 6′, I’m a fair 6-12″ taller than a lot of the locals so it’s harder for them to make eye contact (insert discussion about genetic privilege here). After a quick bite of deep fried and battered jackfruit, I did a couple of laps of the street before deciding on somewhere. I wanted somewhere that seemed to have a decent amount of local looking clientele, and somewhere that didn’t particularly want me, i.e. wasn’t waving a menu at me.

Found a place that fit the bill, and after again trying to get a recommendation (at least this guy pointed to a couple of things, before then pointing out items that got incrementally more expensive) I went for the special bbq chicken wings and the spicy tofu dish. I wanted satay, but the minimum order was 10 and I wanted to leave some room for more food. The tofu was good, it was in a meaty and spicy sauce so don’t freak that I’m going vegetarian or anything (though I may have committed a faux pas by not ordering steamed rice with it, as I had 2 other servers come up and ask if I wanted rice too). The chicken wings came with a siracha-type dipping sauce, which was good but could have been spicier. The wings themselves were really tasty.

Then it was back up the street (with a quick stop for a Portugese-style durian tart) and more wandering. Found a swanky mall (Pavilion?) and a slightly less swanky one (F-88) that had a bookshop that I’ll probably revisit for some gifts. They also have some weird thing with a big doughnut out the front and something about Arianna Grande, but IDK what. There’s also a “Mr DIY” shop, that has a very intimidating but capable cardboard cutout woman out the front. Again, IDK.

Then more wandering, checking out some of the streets near the hotel. I’m trying to guage the area, it feels like a lot of the locals are working on nearby construction projects, and there’s a fairly large male presence, but there are also families, and kids playing badminton in the street. The restaurants all seem to be locally focussed, so I’m looking forward to checking them out for something different.

That’s it for day 1. Tomorrow has no fixed plans, other than hitting the Taman Connaught night market for dinner.