Chinatown, Kuala Lumpur

28 - 29 March 2012

On arriving at KLIA, I took a bus to KL Sentral and from there, a RapidKL train to Pasar Seni Station, which is the nearest station to Chinatown in Petaling Street. However, this time, the ticket officer refused to sell me and others the RapidKL tickets, and insisted that passengers buy them from the ticket vending machine. I wasn't too eager to try the vending machine and asked a lady in front to show me. It was just two simple steps of pressing the station names on the screen, confirming the ticket cost, inserting the payment into the slot and voila, out came the token. It seemed that buying the token from the vending machine has not caught on yet and many people were still being turned away from the ticket counters. This must has been something which has just been implemented recently.

This was the first time I would be staying in Chinatown. The main reason for staying there was the food. I wanted to try Chinatown food. I had booked a room at Hotel China Town (2) and it took me a while to find it. The street was crowded with shoppers and tourists and by the time I checked in, it was almost 9:00 p.m. already.

I took a quick shower and went to look for dinner. There was a Curry Mee stall just a few steps away. I found most of the tables occupied. It must be a popular place.

It was a very satisfying meal for RM5, worth every sen of it.

Then, it was strolling around to see Chinatown at night, which I last visited decades ago. Then, the stalls were manned by Chinese Malaysians and the streets were exposed to the open sky instead of plastic shelter.

The next morning, I was on the street by 8:45 a.m. to look for breakfast. There were a few places which had opened for business. I saw China Town Food Paradise and went in. It was still early and there was hardly any patron. Food was still being brought out from the kitchen to the stall selling economy rice at the front.

I spotted this stall and ordered BBQ Pork Noodle for MYR5.00.

I was soon on the street again looking for my second breakfast. I soon spotted a coffee shop with fair number of patrons and concluded that it must be offering something good. I ordered a big bun. While eating, I noticed that patrons were having Dim Sum. I decided to have some too. The big bun tasted alright but the Dim Sum was below average.