Just Back From

Kuala Lumpur

By Jeremy Nguyen

'Selamat Datang' or 'Welcome' to Kuala Lumpur (or K.L as it is affectionately known)

This was my second trip to K.L, the first being 2 years earlier, and although it's not necessarily the first place you think of when you think 'Shopper's Paradise, that's exactly what my partner and I did, SHOP!

With a population of 1.4 million, you never felt like it was crowded and congested like for example Bangkok (6 million) where I was approximately the same time the previous year.

The temperature was slightly cooler than Bangkok which surprised me as it is closer to the equator.

We stayed at the Federal Hotel on the main entertainment/shopping street of Jalan Bukit Bintang, the equivalent of say Nathan Road, in Hong Kong. We stayed as part of the Golden Holidays/Malaysia Airlines stopover package, which offers great rates for Malaysia Airlines passengers. The package includes return coach transfers (to/from airport) and daily breakfast.

I'd recommend getting the train from the airport to the city as the train only takes 28 minutes from the airport, whereas coach transfers take the highway and even at average 110km/hour it takes a good 50 minutes into city, not to mention the extra time taken to wait for all other passengers that they must collect and drop off before getting to your hotel. It took my partner and I two and a half hours from touch down to arrive at the hotel.

Having said that, K.L as a city is a lot more developed than one thinks. It's a growing economy, and it showed, with high-rise buildings including the K.L tower and the Petronas Twin Towers, which up until recently were the World's tallest man-made structures.

Shopping, the main reason I was in K.L, varied from the low-end of town at Petaling street (in Chinatown) which is great for bargain-hunters, especially at the night markets, or nearby, during the day at the Central Market for arts and crafts.

At the other end of town near where we stayed (Jalan Bukit Bintang), there is 'Lot 10' and 'K.L Plaza' where you get your Gucci and Versace designer stores.

For the middle of the range, which is what I preferred, the best shopping is at the base of the Petronas Towers, the shopping complex known as 'Suria KLCC'. Another great place to shop is the longest shopping centre in South East Asia, the 'Mid Valley Megamall'. Get your rollerskates on, as it's LONG.

K.L loves it's shopping plazas! A few of my favourites were 'BB (Bukit Bintang) Plaza', & 'Sungei Wang Plaza'. These were middle of the range shopping. I've always found K.L great for shoes (mens or womens), clothes are always cheap, and if you are into electronics, Low Yat Plaza is a good place to shop.

Kuala Lumpur is not normally one of the most popular cities to fly through (compared to Bangkok, Singapore, and Hong Kong), but with just as good connections through to Europe flying with Malaysia Airlines and superb shopping and good quality hotels it is growing in popularity.

Malaysia Airlines fly twice daily from Sydney to KL. As a stopover destination, it is a city I would highly recommend for a couple of days - it offers much more than you think!