Visiting Malaysia

Welcome, mixed-up reader, as today I give you a flavour of what it's like to visit the cultural melting pot which is Malaysia.

Our first visit was to Kuala Lumpur. Unlike Jakarta, KL is delightfully easy to get around: firstly it's pretty walkable and the traffic is relatively sane, and secondly, it's got a well-connected and efficient metro system. One minor drawback is that it's quite the opposite of cashless here: we had to find an ATM before we could buy a ticket or travelcard for the metro. We headed South West from the Petronas Towers area (which calls itself "Kuala Lumpur City Centre", or KLCC, despite the fact that it isn't) and started our tour at Independence Square. From there it's obvious that KLCC is full of 'statement' buildings from whatever era: there's a big, old, minaretted government building just across the road, and various architecturally pleasing skyscrapers jostle for attention. Given that, and the river running through the middle of the city, I was somewhat reminded of Chicago.

One of KL's tourist hotspots is the Central Market, which is roughly what it says. It's a pretty, colonial-style building in a rather fetching shade of powder blue, but these days it only really sells tourist tat. Excitingly, there were several pop-up coffee stalls in there, replete with Malaysians in little flat caps pretending to be San Francisco hipsters. I of course asked for neat espresso despite it not being on the menu; my barista chum was very excited by this, suggesting that "only a genuine coffee lover would ask for espresso" and taking a picture of me for his socials after handing over the goods. Roughly $2 US (8 Malaysian Ringgits) and really quite good.

Next we went to KL's Chinatown, in particular its covered streetmarket, because who doesn't love "genuine fake goods"? There I could have picked up a genuine fake Nike trainer, Gucci bag or Mont Blanc pen. I loved the sheer chaos of the place: the street is full of shops, and the stalls are just in the road outside them, and the road's still open to traffic so the odd car, van or motorcycle will nudge its way past you with varying degrees of tentativeness.

We were left with a good feeling for how KL is a fusion of the Malay, Chinese and Indian cultures living alongside each other vibrantly, and what a fantastic city they've built. It's a shame we didn't have more time here.

Next up, we visited Georgetown, on the island of Penang. Georgetown is a little microcosm of Malaysia, where the heritage of the Malay, Indian and Chinese populations are right next to the shiny metal and glass that have come from new investment. In Georgetown, these two styles largely keep to themselves, with the area near the port being the old town, with a "little India" area and a significant Chinese population, whilst further afield there are tall buildings and a sprawling urban area. We wandered around, loosely sticking to a tour I found on the web, seeing Hindu temples, Malay mosques, street art, and another Chinese Buddhist temple where folks were buying the biggest joss sticks I've ever seen, lighting them and leaving them in burners with messages (presumably of goodwill) attached.

One strange, but very nice, surprise, was finding an amazing coffee place. I'd looked for coffee on Google Maps, and saw three shops on one street nearby. One of them seemed to be no longer trading, the other was called San Francisco Coffee, and the final one was Norm Coffee Roasters. When we got to Norm, it genuinely looked shut: no windows, no sign over a door, nothing to indicate it was open. Only when a local went in, pushing open the swing door, did we see there was actually a coffee shop there. And what a shop it was: whilst the espresso was only good-not-great, Helen's tea was pretty good, and the chicken and fries we ate was maybe the best food we've had since leaving SF. A real find, and all the better from being apparently somewhat secretive from the outside. They certainly don't need the publicity, as the place was packed.

So from here it's on to Malaysia's even more successful cousin, Singapore. Bring it on!