Chinatown and The River of Life

Ok folks, following the last blog interlude, normal service has been resumed, but I thought it was important to explain our reasoning and thoughts around why we do what we do! That said, I shall now tell you about our trip to the Chinatown area of Kuala Lumpur.

Jalan Petaling or Petaling Market is a covered street in the Chinatown area of Kuala Lumpur that is bustling with shop sellers selling their wares. It has lots of red lanterns overhead, and the street entrances are marked by large red entrance gates. It reminded me very much of the Jalan Alor food sellers on our first evening when we arrived in KL, as there were lots of vendors trying to get our attention and to entice us to look or buy their goods. It was too busy and not enjoyable for me. We both much prefer to amble along and nosey at things ourselves, and the minute someone heads towards us or starts to engage with their sales pitch, we are off. I really don’t understand why sellers don’t profile their customers better, as I think they would be more successful. Sure, some people are happy and fine with these types of selling techniques, but there are others (i.e. us) that you can sense from their body and behavioural movements (and lack of eye contact) that they are not ready to engage with the seller, so just quietly observe and give them their space. As soon as they need you, rest assured that they will make eye contact or gesture for your assistance. Anyway, we ended up sort of rushing through this street as it was too chaotic and busy for us. It also came across as just selling a lot of the usual tourist tat that we are not interested in.

Time Magazine rated Petaling Street as the 6th coolest street in the world. Err really? Not for us, it wasn’t!

However, walking around the nearby areas, with the lovely street wall art, we did enjoy and those parts of Chinatown we would recommend visiting. These areas very much reminded us of the Song Wat area of Bangkok. It was very nice, and there were lots of tourists around these areas taking photos like we were.

For lunch, we went to Lucky Bros Kopi, which was spacious with air conditioning (always a great choice). There we each had a Nasi Lemak dish. Nasi Lemak is known as the national dish of Malaysia. It comprises fragrant rice cooked in coconut milk and pandan leaves, served with a side of sambal (a spicy paste), eggs, peanuts, cucumber and anchovies. Variations of Nasi Lemak include a side of rendang (beef curry), curry chicken, fried chicken and other meat dishes. The portion sizes were a little small, and overall it was ok, but not something I would order again. R’s was a little spicier than mine. It’s a strange combination of items, but it’s a dish you see everywhere, so it’s worth a try.

After lunch, we started to make our way towards the Central Market shopping mall, stopping briefly at the Sri Maha Mariamman Hindu Temple for a few photos.

The Sri Mahamariamman Temple was founded in 1873 and is the oldest functioning Hindu temple in Malaysia. It is also reputed to be the richest in the country. The temple was originally sited somewhere near the Kuala Lumpur railway station and moved to its present location in 1885. This temple is very colourful and ornate and quite similar to the one we visited in the Bang Rak area of Bangkok.

Our next destination was Kolam Biru, also known as the River of Life. This is the convergence point of the Klang River and the Gombak River. Literally meaning Blue Pool, Kolam Biru is designed to visually transform the convergence point of the Klang and Gombak rivers into a stunning, sensory experience. Equipped with a Dancing Symphony Fountain, Blue Corridor, fog and lighting effects, Kolam Biru aims to enhance the focal point of the historic Masjid Jamek and Sultan Abdul Samad Building and create a cool recreational area for locals and tourists to gather.

Of course, we didn’t actually see any stunning visual display as we visited the location in the afternoon, so I guess we might need to come back to see this some evening.

By this point, we were starting to get a little weary of the heat, so we then made our way back home.

Today's route:

Day 55: 18 January 2026

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Central Market

Central Market is also known as Pasar Seni. This market houses more than 350 shops retailing traditional goods, art collectables, local handicrafts, and more. The three zones—Lorong Melayu, Lorong Cina and Lorong India—feature stalls that highlight the three main races in Malaysia.

The market was again very busy with people – it was a Sunday, so perhaps that explains why as perhaps that is when families all go out to shop. Although there are a lot of shops, it did feel a little too warm and claustrophobic for us, so it might be better to go here early in the morning rather than in the afternoon. We wandered around the market for a bit before we had seen enough and left.