Kuala Lumpur. Chinatown, Hedgehogs, Temples and Street Food.

Yesterday we checked out modern Kuala Lumpur, today we stepped back in time.

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Chinatown is on our doorstep here at the fabulous Back Home Kuala Lumpur just a short walk up the road, which is good. The heat, the traffic, the uneven pavements and the exhaust fumes don’t make walking much fun for the kids.

Our walk today was well worth it , we came across some of my favourite things, food, temples and tea.

First up, iconic Petaling St, the hub of Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown. It was OK, lots of shops selling T shirts, bags and all things cheesy, an old school meat market which we didn’t venture into. I had a horrible experience in a meat market in China once, I didn’t want the kids seeing anything that would upset them, and food.

Deep fried sweet potato balls and pineapple pies were a good find. Ten balls for a dollar, yum! The sweet potato lady took a shine to the boys, particularly my curly haired one, we’ll be back to see her again.

We’re meeting so many lovely ladies here, it’s really, really nice.

So, lunch in hand, we trotted down to check out the temples, Chinese and Indian, on the same street, on opposite sides of the road. That says a lot about Kuala Lumpur, I think.

I love a good temple! I haven’t seen a gopuram like that since we were in Southern India, years ago, that’s the tower thing with the carved figures, they’re very characteristic of the south. The kids spotted Ganesh and his parents, Shiva and Parvati, straight away, I’ve filled their heads with all this stuff since before they could talk.

Just as we were feeling the heat and heading towards the free Go-KL pink bus stop, we wandered into a little tea shop and were given the full tea-making works, green tea and oolong with ginseng. The boys enjoyed both, they’ve never really had tea before, they loved the experience and the make-you-strong  ginseng tea.

My newly strong boys perked up enough to walk the ten minutes back to our hostel. Thanks for that Mr Tea!

The most amazing thing we saw today I’ve saved ’till last. I wonder if they make good pets?

We’re finding loads to do in Kuala Lumpur, a wonderful mixture of cultures, ancient and modern, side by side. We’re going back to the 21st century tomorrow, we have a date with another travelling family, our first time, we’re looking forward to it!