Kuala Lumpur is an Amazing City

The food in KL is the best in Asia.  There is so much diversity or cuisines and food types.  The best is the street food you can pick up in Bukit Bintang, Chinatown, or in the sidewalk cafe's near the hotels in near the center of KL.  There is amazing Indian Food, of a variety that makes you realize that what we think of as Indian in the USA is Americanized-Indian food.  I had Northern and Southern Indian, for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Then there are food courts in every shopping mall with huge assortments of chinese, Malaysian, Thai, Indonesian, and Indian foods.  You can try four different cuisines in an evening and never spend more than $20.

The city is quite safe from street crime in as much as any city can be.  I'm sure it happens, but I didn't see any of it while I was there from 7 to 11 of May.  What I did see was an amazing city choked full of people, and cars, and buses.  I saw gleaming towers from the future...

Next to broken neighborhoods from the past...

There is a vibrancy and freedom about KL life that you don't feel in buttoned down Singapore.  Yes there is wide disparities in living standards, but you feel like people in KL have a more free and dignified life.  The government subsidizes everything - Fuel, cooking oil, rice, bus and subway fares.  It is so cheap to eat and travel in Malaysia.  

You can combine that with some of the most interesting urban vistas in the world and you have a city with style, heart, and soul.

In the streets at night, you have a completely different experience from Singapore.  Where Singapore is modern and convenient, KL is open, dirty, and real.  Hawkers stand in front of sidewalk restaurants and shove menus in your face to tempt you in.  Tatoo artists ply their trade on the street as live advertising.  And real artists sit in quiet corners and paint.  

And then across town, there are groups of young people sitting in front of the Petronas Towers talking and eating as if the towers themselves were a sidewalk attraction to congregate around and enjoy.

As a New Yorker, used to contrasting urban environments, KL is very familiar and fascinating.