Asian Food (Rice & Noodles) - People, Electronics and Malls in Malaysia

Roughing it in the Malaysian Jungle








Rice and seafood - yum





Happy Sunday (or Saturday in your world, I suppose). I wanted to share a couple of observations about Malaysia.

1) Dining in Kuala Lumpur
2) Density of people, malls and restaurants in Kuala Lumpur

It's rained a lot the last couple of evenings here, so I've just been hanging at the hotel. Not all bad, but I'd rather be out roaming the town.

Dining - There are many cultures present in Malaysia, mainly native Malaysian, Chinese and Indian. Thai, Vietnamese, and others are here as well. Outback Steakhouse also. Most restaurants seem to serve noodles and/or rice with just about everything. The variety of spices and styles is staggering. What I really like is that Malaysians like spicy food (there's plenty that's not also) and seafood is plentiful. Scallops, mussels, crabs, prawns, fish and other seafood are served just about everywhere. I've never seen mussels this large before. Most places serve a 'chili sauce' that is spicy but not painful, to add to your dish, if desired.

The hotels here (the Le Meridien I'm in, and the Hilton next door (attached) have nice restaurants, though a little pricy. I've seen many options around town, from the nicer places, like at the hotel, to all the streetside dining options in Chinatown and in Bukit Bintang (tables on sidewalks) to simple carts with snack-type food, mainly in the same areas. All the restaurants always seem busy too.

The nicer restaurants I've tried cost me a little over RM100 for dinner (about $30) and the cheaper end is easily under RM20 (about $5). It feels funny to order items off menus that cost RM40 to RM80, and a martini can cost RM15 to RM20, but when you divide by 3.65 or so, the cost ends up pretty reasonable. Food is cheap here.

People, Electronics and Malls - There are so many people everywhere you go. The trains are packed tight sometimes, with everyone totally pressed against each other. I was on one today that when the doors opened, several people who didn't plan to get off just kinda popped out the door, then a couple of new people crowded on, and the ones that were previously on the train ended up having to watch the doors close and wait for the next train. Crazy. With 4 cars or so on the train, and no dividers between the cars, I think I was looking at a couple of thousand people on that one train (of course I taller than 99% of everyone else here).

Every corner in KL has a shopping mall, or so it seems. They look very much like the crowded trains. The economy here is pretty healthy and everyone is spending their money. I'm told that people here are regulary replacing their mobile phones, MP3 players, stereos and more every few months, as new models come out. A couple of malls I've seen have large numbers of mobile phone stores. They all have a crowd of people in front of them. DVD stores and watch stores are just about the same. Chinatown is a whole different type of crowded crazy. Cheap stuff, but quite a hassle to make your way thru.

During the day today (Saturday) I attended the largest convention center show I've ever seen. It was the Kuala Lumpur PC Fair. Doesn't sound like much, but the convention center routed people thru 6 or 7 large rooms (each was half the size of Bartle Hall's largest Home Show arena). All of the big electronic vendors were there (HP, Fujitsu, Canon, Kodak, Samsung, Creative Labs, LG, Motorola, Netgear, Dell, Toshiba, etc). I think all of the bigger names had 2 or 3 booths each, spread thru the rooms. The 1st rooms you went to were mainly big glitzy booths of the big companies, and the last rooms were more of the lower price, warehouse type local companies that carry a large variety of heavily discounted items.

Except for PC's and printers, it was all cash and carry. Like the malls and trains, it was solid people, going thru the rooms like a river. I found out that I could walk along the sides of the rooms, behinds booths and avoid some of the flow. I did end up buying a DVD burner, a wireless router (never seem to have enough of those), a small optical mouse and a lightweight computer bag. I have my big laptop bag, on wheels, but it is very difficult to have it on the trains here, and as wet as it is here, I'm carrying it most of the time anyway. I'm going to just carry a lightly loaded smaller bag to and from the Cerner office.

Tomorrow (Sunday) taking a bus up into the 'highlands' to a resort that has a cable car lift going up the side of the mountain and an amusement park. Very popular I hear. It is costing me RM39 for the bus (1.5 hours each way) plus the cable car lift, plus either lunch or admission to the amusement park. Another good buy, I think.

Take care all. (Misc pictures follow)







Map to the PC Fair - biggest show I've ever seen










By the pool at the hotel (looks better if you click on it, as do most of the pictures










Lounge at the hotel (again, click on it)










Restaurant that also provides power connection for your phone, if needed












just a fun sign









Pic from 'Good Happiness' restaurant - home of the seafood fried rice, pictured at the top, and the mobile phone friendly attitude








Large Mussels (show your Mom, Tracy) at the Manhatten Seafood Restaurant.








Small Indian shop with native (from India) items








Beatiful inlaid wood. They also had a table and 6 chairs for about $2000 US.