Kuala Lumpur - 1 thing I like and I hate.

Kuala Lumpur (KL) is the capital of Malaysia. I lived in KL there for more than 1 year. I just want to share 1 thing I like and 1 thing I hate about KL:

 

I like KL Food

 

Since the population of Indian and Chinese are quite high, the food here is quite diverse. I like to have roti Chanai with teh tarik or nasi lemak with beef or chicken rendang. Roti Chanai usually can be found in Indian or mamak (Indian moslem) stalls. There is a variation by adding an egg inside the roti Chanai (they call it Roti telur). If you opt for healthier roti, you can try Chapati (looks like Chanai but cooked without oil). Teh tarik is milk tea creating by pouring the tea from one cup to another like pulling (tarik means pull). 

 

 Also like Nyonya food. Nyonya (for ladies) and Babah (for men) are the words used for Chinese who came to Malaysia (and also Indonesia) long time ago and married local people. They then adopted local culture (like the clothes, kebaya, for ladies) and local food. The food is then called Nyonya food, a combination of local/malay and Chinese food. One food I like is asam fish (fish cooked in sour soup).

 

I also like the mooncakes made in Malaysia because of the varieties and the pretty packaging. You even can find Mooncake with sambal (chilli sauce) here. I never try it so I don't know how strange the test is. My favourites are alwasy the one filled with lotus seed paste with 1 or 2 egg yolks inside. I like to buy mooncakes here as a gift to my relatives. As I said before the packaging is beautifully created and suitable as a gift (either tin or paper box). The price is also reasonable.

 

I hate KL Taxi

 

The Taxi is really irritating here. Firstly, 90% of taxi don't want to use taxi meter with many reasons. They always haggle for the fare (either withourt meter or with meter plus additional money). And it seems that they have gang of taxi drivers doing the same thing. Secondly, most of the time the taxi doesn't want to go to certain places with various reasons (Traffic, not on his way home, etc). If you are in KL for long term, I am suggesting you to buy a car since it will make you mentally healthier due to less angry moments with the Taxis here.

 

Airpor taxi is another thing. If you arrive at KL airport maybe around 11:30 pm (almost midnight), please expect to queue for long even if you already purchase the taxi voucher in arrival.  Once I queue more than 1 hour with other pissed off pasengers. The reason is the taxi driver will not pick up the passanger before midnight, because the midnmight rate is 50% more than the daytime rate. However when they pick the queuing pasenger at 12:00 midnight, since the passanger purchase the taxi voucher before midnight, the rate is still daytime rate. So they will wait for another taxi to pick up those passengers first. The problem is that "another" taxi also think the same, resulting no taxi picking the passenngers even after 12 midnight, you have to wait maybe until 12:30 morning then you will get the taxi.

 

Hopefully someday Indonesia taxi like Blue Bird can open its branch in KL so they can shut down those irritating taxis forever.