Travellers kitchen : Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur or KL as it is commonly referred too is another gateway city into South East Asia. Acting both as a stopover for travellers between Australia to Europe and for those visiting Malaysian islands such as Langkawi or Penang.

I visited the city in 2014 (during the world cup hence the picture of the Brazilian mascot) and found it to be a enthralling mixture of cultures- perhaps one of the most multicultural cities outside of Europe or North America. It also stuck me as being far cleaner and better organised than Bangkok the Asian city I am most familiar with. Whilst the city has a large population it felt smaller, perhaps as within the city many of the sites can be explored on foot via the impressive air conditioned raised walkways. Sites such as the Batu caves which lie out with the city can be easily and quickly reached by train or by car- assuming you manage to avoid rush hour when the city grinds to a halt.

The city centre is dominated by the imposing PETRONAS towers, the KL tower and a whole host of glittering colour changing skyscrapers which give the ultra modern city centre the look of a video game. The PETRONAS towers in particular are lit in a ghostly white glow at night and don't look quite real. The city centre is also populated by a large number of massive indoor shopping malls of which several are located on Bukit bintang also know as Starhill- this is effectively the main shopping street in KL with several high end massive shopping malls.

Within the city there are a host of transport options such as the monorail, rail metro system and road transport. Taxis are fairly cheap here and we found them an efficient way to reach attractions such as the KL bird park and the Batu caves which are outwith the city centre area. We also took a taxi from the airport which proved to be a mistake at rush hour, there is a train service from the airport to KL central station which I would use if I was to visit again.

As mentioned above KL is a multicultural society, majority Muslim along with mainly Hindu Indian, buddist Chinese and several minorities. The benefit of this to the tourist is the availability of authentic delicious foods from India, China, Thailand and Malay food- a fusion of the three cuisines. My only criticism here is it is extremely difficult outside of hotels to find restaurants serving Malaysian classics such as Laksa (see my recipe) or Roti canai. In the end we found that we couldn't find anything better than the restaurant in our hotel - the Shangri La. For Chinese food head to China town and for Indian food head to Brickfields, the Indian quarter of KL.

As well as the food the abundant availability of high quality hotels at very cheap prices is another feather in the cap for KL. We stayed in the Shangri La which I can not recommend highly enough, not only as it is a lovely hotel b ut its location is also excellent. We visited the lobbies of a couple of other hotels and never wished we were staying there instead. Whilst we were staying there was some sort of regional military conference in the hotel, there were all sorts of high ranking military figures in all manners of different uniforms- if its good enough for the top brass its good enough for me.

Other than shopping, food and the Petronas towers Kl has two other attractions I would put in the must see category. The Batu caves are an essential site to visit both for the amazing spectacle of the massive statues and caves but also for the troop of monkeys who have made it home- just be wary as they have stick fingers. The other must see site is the KL bird park which is the worlds largest free flying bird Averie- I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and cant recommend it highly enough.

In terms of visiting the Petronas towers, it is possible to book tickets ahead of time online and this is worth doing. It sells out most days as there is a limited number of tickets and pre purchasing tickets for a set time avoids having to wait in line only to be disappointed. Under the towers is the massive KLCC mall and outside is KLCC park- well worth a visit at night for the fountain light show.