Going around Kuala Lumpur downtown

By Izah Morales

BEFORE the sun painted the sky with orange and indigo hues, my companions Liberty, Maya, Red, Jing, Eden and I found ourselves stuck in traffic as we approached Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC). The cab driver told us that almost every household in Kuala Lumpur owned a vehicle, which explained the traffic jams.

Sitting for almost an hour and a half reminded me of how this trip from the Pan Pacific Hotel to KLCC was like going from Calamba City to Makati City. Finally, the cab driver dropped us in front of the famous Petronas Twin Towers, which was the world’s tallest building from 1998 until 2004 when Taipei 101 claimed the title of being the tallest building.

From the Petronas Twin Towers, we headed to the Raja Chulan Station, KL’s monorail. Paying RM 1.60 (approximately P15), Maya and I were off to Maharajalela Station, where Petaling Street was just a few meters walk while the others went to Bukit Bintang.

Unlike the train stations in the Philippines, the KL Monorail stations have some sort of fences on the platforms protecting passengers from accidentally falling on the railway. As we boarded the train, I noticed that a mixed of men and women were riding the same coach, a stark contrast to the Philippines’ Metro Rail Train and Light Rail Train 1 where a separate coach is designated for the female and the elderly.

As we alighted from the train, I grabbed the map from my backpack just like Dora the Explorer, the animated TV series, to check what direction to take to get to our destination, Petaling Street. The map seemed different from the real picture of the place. It was still better to ask a local. Luckily, a woman in her 50s pointed us to where we’re supposed to go.

A glimpse of a Chinese Temple told us that we were on the right path because Petaling Street is also known as Chinatown. Since 1857, the Chinese have been staying in KL and have populated this area and thus was called Chinatown. So what brought us to Petaling Street? Nothing else but bargain goods.

Seeing the Ark of Petaling St.reminded me of Binondo, Manila’s own Chinatown. The walkway on the street was narrow because stalls have occupied almost three-fourths of the street leaving a quarter of the walkway for customers. Maya and I hopped from one stall to another to canvass first before buying anything. From branded bootleg watches to bags, shirts to shoes, name it, they have it. We bargain hunters do not mind walking from one stall to another to find the right price. During our stall hopping, one vendor instantly recognized that we were Filipinos. He said, “Maganda ka. Mahal kita. Bili na [You’re beautiful. I love you. Buy now].”

Haggling was fun because the vendors would eventually lower their price if you appear that you’re ignoring them. At first, I did not know about this technique. When the sales lady said that the batik polo was priced at RM 100 (P1,300), my counter-offer was RM70. I eventually got the polo for RM 80. What I learned was that you should bargain for about 60 percent of the original price. That way, you’ll get a very good price. Nonetheless, in my succeeding purchases, I got good deals like a souvenir shirt, which originally costs RM8 (P104), and I bargained for RM 5 (P65).

After shopping for almost an hour, our legs and feet were about to give up so we made our way back to KL Sentral to ride the Kuala Lumpur International Airport Express train, which took us back to our hotel. But when we passed by the diamond-like glitter of the Petronas Twin Towers, we did not let the chance slip by and took souvenir photos.

Visiting downtown KL allowed me to see some similarities with Philippines. We have similar features as well as similar words but different meanings like tanda (toilet), bayaran (fee), pintu, and kompleks.