China Town:  What a Novel Concept ?

If they need more criteria for classifying big cities in the 21st century they may as well use China Towns as one.  It seems regardless  of which corner of which hemisphere you find yourself on you will encounter a China Town.   Being from San Francisco, China Town is something which all too familiar.

Every website and Lonely Planet guide had Kuala Lumpur’s China Town as one of the “must go” places in Kuala Lumpur.  Most travelers who find their way in Kuala Lumpur will have likely seen their fair share of Chinatowns in the past.  Whether you agree with KL Chinatown’s “must go” status depends on your style and goals of your trip.

Getting to China Town in Kuala Lumpur

China Town is not too far from the Petronas Towers.  Ask a taxi driver and they will say it is far but in decent weekday traffic (I wasn’t there on the weekend so I don’t know if it’s worse) it took less than 10 minutes to get to Petronas Towers to China Town.  If the taxi driver has trouble understanding just say, “Petaling Street.”  Petaling street is the the main Chinatown street which would me more aply named Peddling Street.

Cheap Chinese Food, Knock Offs, Beer & Cheap Hotels

Chinatown was the main area in KL for backpackers and bargain hunters (wait, aren’t they the same?).  Chinese food is world renowned for being cheap and Petaling Street is no exception.  You can find a number of Chinese food restaurants with inside and outside dining if you turn off the main street.  I actually didn’t feel like eating Chinese food at the time and I stepped outside Chinatown and found some of the best hamburgers I’ve ever had.

The main street is essentually jam packed with venders selling all kinds of junk, from life-sized gun cigarette lighters, to samurai swords to of course designer knock-off merchandise.  It is one of the few places in KL where it felt like Bangkok as the venders were somewhat pushy.  The stuff there I would say was mostly junk which was really no different from anything you can find in Bangkok or I’m sure most other SE Asian cities.  Most of the guides stated the KL Chinatown had some of the best prices on these “goods” but I didn’t even bother asking because I’m on an anti-junk phase at the moment.

All the Kuala Lumpur travel guides listed Chinatown as the primary area for cheap lodging.  I saw a lot of tourists and backpackers in the area.  There were hotels and guesthouses all around which I didn’t check out personally but I’d assume some of them offer temporary 6-legged roommates if you know what I mean.

All China Towns the Same ?

I haven’t been to every single Chinatown in the world but I’ve been to a few.  From San Francisco, to New York to Yokohama Japan to the Disneyland of Chinatowns,  Hong Kong (I guess you could call Hong Kong a Chinatown?)  I can’t really see the allure of traveling far and wide for the purpose of visiting a Chinatown.  For the China Town’s I’ve been to, I would consider San Francisco’s to be the best, even better than Hong Kong if you consider you can find tons of junk as well as some nice stuff in a 6 or so block radius.  Some may even say that San Francisco’s Chinatown has been run by Chinese longer than Hong Kong anyways?

Overall Impression

For me, Chinatown in KL was a complete waste of time.  I live in Bangkok and didn’t need to save a couple bucks to get cheap stuff I could get in Bangkok if I even wanted the stuff.  I haven’t been to Bangkok’s Chinatown yet so I cannot compare the two.  Fortunately, Chinatown was very close to the rest of  “downtown” Kuala Lumpur so it was only a pit stop on my whirlwind tour of Malaysia’s capital.

Malaysian Hamburgers

Okay, I may be 100% off by saying Malaysian hamburgers on this one but I was in Malaysia and I ate what were hamburgers to me.  If you didn’t know, like most major Asian cities,  Kuala Lumpur is a multi-national, multi-cultural city with a wide variety of ethnic foods.   These hamburgers were absolutely amazing.

I was actually quite shocked about how good they were and also amazed by the price which was only 1.5 ringgits (40 cents USD).  There were either chicken or been and you had the choice of adding cheese and a friend egg as well.   These burgers were marinated in some sort of sweet sauce which went incredibly well with the cucumber, onions and sauce which they put on.  I’m sorry for not providing a Wolfgang Puck/Betty Crocker recipe description but take my word for it, these “burgers” are worth the trip to KL.

Yes that was an exaggeration but people actually do come from all over Asia to KL’s Chinatown for cheap knockoffs so if you feel like something other than Chinese food, all you have to do is walk about 20 meters and you’ll be in hamburger heaven.

Where to Find these Delicious & Cheap Hamburgers

If you haven’t been to Asia lately you may be surprised that often the best way to describe the location of a place is by using American fast food restaurants and 7/11 as reference points.   You can actually triangulate the location of most places with the location of a 7/11, KFC and McDonalds!  This works especially well because (as with Thailand)  most of the best food is not in restaurants but on the street!

This time was no exception.  It was directly in between a McDonalds and KFC but is actually easier to find because it’s located by one of Kuala Lumpur’s major tourist attractions.  All you have to do is go to the entrance of Petaling Street which is the main street in the center of KLs Chinatown and walk to the right, until of course you see a KFC to the right and a McDonalds to the left on the other side of the street.

You will see a stand w/ a grill in front of a taxi line and most likely a line of people waiting for their “burgers.”  The stand is yellow and says Halal Berish Bermutu on one side and Pakistan Baru Beli on one side.  The guys working the stand were very nice and let you sit on their plastic chairs and put your drink on their stereo speakers.