Shop 'Til You Drop

The central point for public transit here in Kuala Lumpur is known as KL Sentral.

You may as well call KL "Mall Sentral" for it's plethora of malls, especially in the Bukit Bintang area.

As someone who is used to having malls many miles apart, having several malls so close to each other is something that takes a little getting used to at first. Don't like what one mall offers? Don't worry - there's another one just down the block, or even next door. In one case (Sungei Wang and BB Plazas,) you can walk from one to the other and back again on multiple floors without having to cross a passenger bridge or special passageway.

Another thing I noticed was the plethora of 7-11 convenience stores around the area, which seemed to play the role of Starbucks in terms of having one on every block. Speaking of Starbucks, these were visible as well, though they had plenty of competition with other chain competitors like San Francisco Coffee and The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, with prices that rivaled anything you can find in the states. These upscale cafes battle the street vendors and cafes that sell their iced coffee "take away" in plastic bags, but in good news for both extremes of the spectrum, there seemed to be ample customers for both in a society that seems to appreciate a hot (or cold) cuppa'.

Near the end of my somewhat random journey, I ended up at Berjaya Times Square, a mall seemed almost as tall as it was wide, if only to hold its indoor amusement park complete with roller coaster.

After staring down at what seemed to be a promotion based on the popular Monopoly game, I searched out for some food. I wasn't in too much of a mood to be adventurous, but didn't want to go for something that I could get back at home, so I made a compromise on the Malaysian version of KFC, Marrybrown.

There I ordered the Nasi Ayam MB, a chicken rice dish with marinated chicken fillet topped with sauce, fresh acar, crispy papadam, and a bowl of chicken soup. That plus a 7-UP set me back less than 10 RM, which equals not quite three dollars in US money.

After that meal, I started making my way back to my hotel; on the way, I spotted an ice cream vendor on the side ringing a bell, trying to entice some of the streaming masses, who didn't seem to pay him any mind, to try his wares. When I saw that they had purple yam ice cream, tasty childhood memories of my parents bringing home the Ube ice cream from a store, I couldn't help but try a couple scoops. It didn't match to the stuff I had back home, but it made for a nice cooling treat in the still quite swampy air during an early Malaysian Saturday evening.

I noticed they also had durian ice cream. I had heard much about the so-called king of fruits, but its reputation was something of a dubious one, as it is supposedly an acquired taste and its smell is pungent, to put it kindly.

Hey, I had settled on Malaysian fast food for my first meal. More adventurous dips into the fine cuisine here could wait for another day.