Five reasons I love Kuala Lumpur
This city does not let go. I love him, I miss him and come to see him whenever the opportunity comes up. Two years of life in KL made it possible to see both light and dark sides, but for me it remains the best of the tropical megacities (sorry, Singapore). Briefly, so as not to tire anyone, I will tell you why.
Chinese temple near KL Sentral.
Climate and location
It is always warm and humid, there are no sharp changes in temperature and precipitation, as, for example, in Delhi, Bombay, and Ho Chi Minh too. Personally, in Asia it is more pleasant for me to live at the eternal + 30-33 ° С, than to die from the heat in April-May + 42 ° С for four months without rain, and in January to bite my teeth. A humid climate very well affects the condition of the skin and hair - there are practically no creams needed. Kuala Lumpur is located 40 km from the sea, and somewhere around the same drive to the mountains with a height of 1500-1800 meters. That is, if you wanted to go to the beach or cool, the desire can be fulfilled in an hour. And the city itself is very green - there are many parks, pieces of pristine jungle in the hills right in the center of the city.
Genting Highlands cable car (40 km from KL)
People
Malaysians living in KL are a mix of three nationalities: Malays, Chinese and Indians (mainly Tamils). Due to the fact that for many generations they live side by side, the local inhabitants are quite tolerant of many oddities of each other, and the oddities of foreigners, too. They are more curious and open to new things than, for example, residents of Bangkok and Bangalore - megacities dominated by one nation. They understand and respect the traditions of others, especially religious ones. In Ramadan, for example, the Chinese can refrain from eating food and water if the company is small, and the Indians will celebrate the Chinese New Year just as joyfully as the Chinese themselves. And also - almost all residents of the capital speak English!
Malays at the newly opened KLIA2 Airport
Logically arising from the previous one - the kitchen
The cuisine in KL is very diverse due to the fact that each local national group has its own restaurants and eateries and enjoys tasting the food of others. Malays can eat dosa at lunch, Tamil can eat Chinese noodles, and Chinese can eat tandoori chicken. And everyone is happy. Plus, there are a lot of international restaurants in the city, in supermarkets you can find cheese, good bread and, in principle, almost all the products we are used to. That is, as a Ukrainian, I didn’t have to suffer without home borsch :)
Express train to the airport.
Transport and infrastructure
After KL, it is always difficult to return to Ho Chi Minh City, where from public transport there are only buses 30-40 years old. There are already 4 types of rail transport in Kuala Lumpur (monorail, MRT, LRT, KTM), a good network of bus routes, including free GoKL. Convenient transfers and one pass for all types of transport. Grab, Uber and a cheap taxi. It is very easy to get from KL by comfortable buses to almost anywhere in continental Malaysia (as well as to Thailand and Singapore), but only the most dense did not hear about AirAsia.
My first "window view".
Large selection of modern housing
Guarded condos with a four-story parking lot, a couple of pools, a gym, a minimarket and a view terrace for picnics on the 30-40th floor will not surprise anyone here. This is a normal way of local life. Rent is cheaper than in Singapore by a factor of three: for $ 1,000, for example, you can rent a large apartment with three bedrooms near the metro in one of these crammed houses. Furnished. For 400-500 - a studio in the center (I myself lived in general for 350 - I was lucky). Although, to be honest, I’ll have to search, because the studio is not the most popular type of housing, they are much less in percentage of 2-3-4-bedrooms.
