There was a time, about ten years ago, that I was seriously considering a move to Kuala Lumpur. It came at a period of my life when I was doing a lot of travelling, and indeed writing about travel, and so I thought what better place to be based than the heart and headquarters of Air Asia who were often looking contributors to their in-flight magazine. At the time, Air Asia were running daily flights at midnight from Haneda to KL, meaning during vacations I would find myself taking red-eye flights to Malaysia in order to connect to other parts of SE Asia. In this way, I was able to explore places like Myanmar and Brunei for the first time, as well as taking multiple trips to different parts of Indonesia.
In the end, I’m glad I opted to stay in Tokyo, but I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I had taken the plunge, moved to Malaysia and dived head first into trying to make it as a full-time travel writer. Despite only being in KL for a few days this time, we managed to eat some good food and enjoyed dipping our toes into sensory areas such as Chow Kit. Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) is also still perhaps my all-time favourite airport to transit through.
Straight off the plane and Mrs IKIMASHO spotted a Dunkin’ Donuts, a throwback to her youth in California. We also actually had one in my hometown of Bangor in Northern Ireland but admittedly hadn’t seen one in about 20 years. And so, at 6:30am, our breakfast was a sugar overload.
More excitement ensued (yes, I guess we are nerds) when we spotted a Malaysian FamilyMart, stocked with completely different stuff to Japan. Here, we were surprised to find lots of UK snacks.
Like Narita, KLIA offers its own airport shuttle into the city. We also liked taking the metro which was easy to use. (They use the same kind of plastic tokens that I saw once before in Taipei.) The handrails of the metro were transparent which somehow managed to give off a futuristic-mixed-with-1970s vibe.
Our very first non-donut meal on this trip was at a random buffet restaurant at about 8am. There were about 20 different chafing dishes laid out with various stuff. You just load up your plate with whatever you want and then bring it to the guy at the register. As is the norm in SE Asia, the fried eggs were served crispy style, and I had had totally forgotten how obsessed Malaysia is with fried chicken. As simple and bland as this looks, it was actually really good.
For the past ten years, I have been lucky enough to be hosted in some very nice hotels in exchange for exposure on IKIMASHO. Our chosen partner in KL was The RuMa Hotel and Residences, and you can read our full article about our stay here. I’ve also included a short video of the hotel below.
Our hotel was just around the corner from the Petronas Towers, offering up Gotham vibes.
Some random food encounters included wok hei noodles that have a charred, singed taste to them because of the high heat. These ones were cooked with quail eggs.
Nasi lemak with beef rendang, spicy sambal, fried chicken, and coconut rice.
A few stops down on the metro, and Chow Kit’s wet market was an assault on the senses with lots of people – and smells – coming and going. In the meat section there were cow heads just sitting on a table, something you don’t see in Tokyo!
Kuala Lumpur International Airport
See you next time!
IKIMASHO! 
Awesome post. Loved reading this. Reminded me how big Petronas Towers were. Got dizzy just looking up lol.
Thank you for the posts and excellent photos. You are not nerds: part of living overseas is seeing what non local food is on offer. I always check out convenience stores or supermarkets when overseas. And BTW Dunkin Donuts had a Shimokitzawa, Tokyo, store in the mid 1980s.
Wow! You finally came to my home country Malaysia. Selamat Datang!
Awesome post thank you!