I encountered a pleasant surprise during my stay at the Park Hyatt Kuala Lumpur: just minutes away on foot is KL’s vibrant Chinatown neighborhood.
Chinatown Kuala Lumpur, A Cool Neighborhood Worth Visiting
When you arrive at the Park Hyatt, you feel like you are in a very urban, almost sterile area. Look around and you don’t see much. In fact, I wondered whether I’d have to take a taxi to go anywhere if I wanted to leave the property.
I searched out coffee, as I always do, and found there was a specialty coffee shop called Kaffee 16 within walking distance, so after settling in my room, I set out to find it.
Crossing the hotel entrance, I hopped over a guardrail and turned left on a road going west. Two blocks later, I found myself in Chinatown:
What a cool, bustling neighborhood. I’ve been to Bukit Bingeing several times and enjoyed that (minus that one massage) but I had no idea this neighborhood even existed…it’s on the other side of town.
Malaysia is such a rich mix of Malay, Chinese, and Indian cultures and this Chinatown had several döner kebab places (meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie), where I ended up eating dinner…I had a beef shawarma wrap and a falafel wrap. Malaysia has so many great food options and if you like Middle Eastern food, as I do, there are so many places…you can even get mansaf and knafeh, two of my favorite dishes in the world.
Chinatown is centered on Petaling Street, which you can picture as one street stall after spread out over a grid of several alleys and blocks. Like so many Chinatowns, you can get virtually any knock-off goods here…think Louis Vuitton bags, Mont Blanc pens, Rolex watches, Gucci sunglasses, etc.
I used to LOVE stuff like this…over the years and in so many countries, I’ve bartered for Rolex watches or Rayban sunglasses. But you know something? The fake sunglasses can damage your eyes without UV protection and the watches may look nice, but they are not built with Swiss engineering and generally do not keep great time. I’ve moved beyond the “fake” stage in life. In fact, I’d rather wear no brand at all on my clothing than be the pretentious logo-conscious middle-class traveler.
Anyway, if you want fake goods in KL, Chinatown is the place to find them…
And when I was done, it was just a short walk around the corner back up to the hotel, which again felt like a whole different world.
What fun!
I’m sharing about my whirlwind trip through Asia.
That neighborhood is a gem of a find. My kind of place to experience local food and culture.
Since you are exploring a multicultural area of the world maybe you should post l about Israelis who are occupying the West Bank of Palestine attacking and killing Palestinians there. Read recent news.
You posted a lot about your support of Israel attacking Gaza and how that was not genocide. Typical Christian hypocrite who sees the world through a book of fiction.
Looks like a nice, intereting neighborhood.
Noticed you removed my comment
You are a hypocrite
But expected for someone who is wacky job Christian
Honey, I didn’t remove your comment.
Agree with the comments above. Would love to find that area! Great article.
My kids and I had a very brief 24 stopover in kl this year and we didn’t get a chance to find much local stuff unfort. Had an air Bnb in apartment block with great views of petromas towers and then a reasonably local like food court in the morning before climbing batu caves and heading to airport.
Grab has a good service where you can book the driver for a couple of hours which helped with room checkout and bags while we saw a few things.
Did you do any research before going to KL? Chinatown (Petaling Street) is one of the most visited tourist attractions in KL. I’m surprised that you found Chinatown by surprise and didn’t even know it existed. LOL.
Well, it’s true…I had no idea.
Mathew in good way you sometimes manage to shock me. Lol. Oh btw is not the Bukit Bingeing the Bukiy Bintang? But the Park Hyat which is in Merdeka 118 tower is not sotuated in Bukit Bintang. Just fyi. I love the chinatown around jl Petaling. Fantastic food as well.
I just meant that all I knew about was Bukit Bintang…did not know about this area until my stay at Park. What a pleasant surprise.
I’ve been through the area while jumping off the hop-on-hop-off bus. Those things are great for getting your bearings in a new city.