Chinatown in 2 hours KL April 13th 2012

China Crumble

 Chinatown KL

Chinatown centres around Petaling Street, renowned for having the full-on Asian market experience of scams, pickpockets and bargains as traders try their best to convince tourists that their goods are genuine - should be fun then. that's later, for now it's got to be food, cup of tea, and checkout what other accommodation is available around here. It's actually quite a small area, about an hour to cover the streets that have guesthouses, mostly clustered around Petaling Street and surrounds. Full, all the singles rooms are taken and I scoured every inch of Chinatown. When available they generally go for around 40-60 RM for a fan room, quite expensive. One place did go as low as 35 RM but, after a phone call, no go! Oh well, might as well stay put and ride it out for the next few days.

Crumbling old style terraced houses surrounded on all-sides by skyscrapers, high-rise glass buildings, but with a few colonial buildings slotted here and there. These seem to be well kept, used as restaurants mainly, but at least being used. Mosques, quite a few of these are around the place, often with loud speakers wailing some rather out of tune singing! Galleries and a couple of museums on the outskirts here, and quite interesting too. 1 is dedicated to displaying shipwrecks - Chinese trading boats carrying potteries. Easily missed as its underground, just next to the tourist information office. Then attached to the tourist office is a display all about 'Old Kuala Lumpur'.

It's all over in about 2 hours. Yep, that's how small the area is. About 18-20 guesthouses I would say, most are part of blocks, accessed on floor 2 or maybe floor 5, and Western tourists seem to be flocking here,  despite the relatively high rates!