Kuala Lumpur is not only Malaysia’s capital, but also a place that has become very special to us. We had the honor to stay one week with a dear friend of Martina’s mother, Soon Peng, who lives in a beautiful residential area called Petaling Jaya, just 15 minutes from downtown KL. Martina had been here in 1991 when she was just 5 years old, so quite a while ago… Thus, since her memory of that visit was quite vague, it was time to refresh and re-live KL!

Our experience in the city was most definitely enriched by the great hospitality of both Soon Peng, her daughter Xiao Wei and her boyfriend Ravin. Among other things, they introduced us to the delicious and large selection of cuisine existing in Malaysia. As it is composed of 3 predominant ethnicities, majority Malay, and then Chinese and Indian, the restaurants to chose from are very diverse. From the simple Chinese chicken or duck rice, to the meatball noodle soup; to the Indian thosai, roti canai, and chicken masala; to the Malay flavors blended with coconut and hundreds of spices we had never tasted*, including the wonderful dancing fish. In addition, we were brought to true local -and sometimes remote- restaurants that we would have never found had it not been for our fantastic Malaysian family.

The city itself is very beautiful and full of contrasts, displaying the many cultures and lifestyles that converge. It has an interesting blend of Islamic mosques and buildings, together with the cozy old-town with some colorful British colonial buildings, and topped off with the modern financial district crowned by the overwhelming Petronas Towers. These towers were for us one of the most spectacular modern buildings ever seen, especially at night when illuminated in a pearl white color. The very impressive Merdeka Square is not to be forgotten. From there one has a panoramic view of KL’s main buildings, including the beautiful Islamic influenced Sultan Abdul Samad Building that used to be the symbol of KL before the Petronas Towers.

We very much enjoyed the Central Market and its endless antique shops, being almost a museum on its own. Passing by the street stores of Jalan Petaling and walking through the outdoor food stalls of Jalan Alor was also a very nice experience. As coffee lovers, we were blown away by the place where Ravin took us the last day. An old part of a newspaper factory turned into a unique coffee place, where aside having great coffee, the owner extensively explained to us very interesting information about coffee cultivation and its preparation process – much more complicated than you could imagine!

What can we say, we loved Kuala Lumpur. In large part, this is thanks to Soon Peng, Xiao Wei, and Ravin; for their kindness, extreme generosity, and especially great company. We had our fair share of laughs! And yes, we would like to not leave out Soon Peng’s sweet dogs Max and Kanga, thanks for always being so happy and giving us thousands of kisses! We hope to see you all soon!

After one week, our time in west Malaysia has come to an end. We will be visiting east Malaysia (Borneo) a bit later on, but for now, it’s off to a new country..

Next stop: A country that is composed of more than 7,000 islands. Can you guess?

*To those who have been following our posts, finally we ended up eating at Chef Ismail’s restaurant, remember… the famous chef we met in Kota Bharu? And we can say, he lived up to his promise – it was food heaven!! Anyone traveling to KL don’t hesitate to ask us for the details of his restaurant.