Chow Kit

It’s time to leave Kluang. There are fast ETS trains to KL, indeed an even faster ETS3 train which will run all the way from Johor Bahru to Padang Besar, on the Thai border, is set to start in a matter of days. Getting tickets at this time of year requires luck or booking well in advance - neither applies to me. But there is a slow train, the Intercity, which goes as far as Gemas, stopping at all stations. It’s non-electric and one of the few trains still hauled by a locomotive in Malaysia - when the new train starts service, the Intercity will cease to be. This is causing concern - the people in the places served by the smaller stations will no longer have a train service and the prices will triple. While I don’t find the prices super-expensive, a lot are relying on this train to get them to a low-paid job, possibly as far away as Singapore, and the finances may no longer stack up.

Unlike the more modern train, the Intercity has a proper café car - I think they may even cook some food, but I only see packs of snacks and instant noodles: I just have a coffee. The train ambles up the line, never going faster than 85 km/hr, averages around 70 km/hr between stations and takes two and a half hours to do the 150 km journey (so no slower than a car). It terminates in Gemas, where I have to wait another two and a half hours for the ETS train to take me to KL (it starts one station down, in Segamat, so no problem getting a last minute seat).

Gemas is really just a railway junction town, and I have already spent a night here on a previous journey, so it has little to occupy me. It has two notoriously falling down hotels - the pink one and the yellow one - which I was convinced were no longer in operation. The pink one does seem to be completely shuttered but the yellow one, the Beee Chew, astonishingly, is showing signs of life despite the very decrepit nature if the building. I stayed in the very much OK Tropicana Hotel around the corner when I was here.

This time round, I walk every street there is, notice that there’s a new McDonalds and a “bistro” which is not a bistro, its really just a nasi kandar (rice and various things, no booze). I have an ice cream, hang out in the Family Mart drinking coffee for a bit, explore the old railway station and then go wait for my train. Although it gets up to 140 km/hr and typically runs at 130-135 km/hr, it still takes two and a half hours to make the 170 km to KL Sentral. There is a coffee kiosk - I have to google to find out where it is - it’s so small, it’s actually in the same carriage I am but I hadn’t noticed it.

In KL, I stay four nights in Chow Kit - an area I haven’t spent much time in. It’s named after a fellow who started a department store in the area, the largest in the country at the time and the first in KL. It’s just north of the centre of KL and is a shopping district - actual shops, not just malls, and the largest wet market around. On my particular street, there are several major league (I’m talking three storeys) toy shops with three hard liquor stores in between to keep things interesting.

I have made a fatal error in my choice of hotel (Swing and Pillow Chow Kit) - there’s no proper coffee shop less than a 15 minute walk away. It’s also directly above the traffic lights on a major one way street and lacks any kind of sound insulation - motorcyles mass directly outside in their dozens, revving while they wait for the lights then roaring off. Some make absurdly loud explosive popping noises. They make it a bit hard to sleep but are fun to watch - a number go up on one wheel as they get started.

There are benefits - the monorail is a block away, there’s a pretty good food place across the street where I can get a beer until midnight (it’s nice that from my second visit, they recognise me and know what I want), and a 7-Eleven directly below where I can get one at any time. Having come from a town where I couldn’t even buy a beer, it does seem odd to have such unrestricted access. I have dinner once across the street - a tasty buk kut teh.

Apart from a walk to Bukit Bintang, I stay fairly local. The malls there leave me a bit cold, but one place I do like in Bukit Bintang is Feeka - it’s a lovely café, almost enough to make me relocate so I could make it my daily. The choclate chips in the pancakes aren’t very prevalent, but they’re delicious.

Compare this to the eating places in the side street alongside my hotel.

I don’t know how long the food sits and it’s obviously not going to be hot, so I’m not tempted but I do get essentially the same sort of food at the 23 hour place on the main street down from my hotel.

Last time I was in KL, I came across an upmarket row of restaurants - called The Row - and was most impressed with the coffee shops upstairs, so make a return visit. Sadly, they’ve both gone - one is a spa, the other is empty. There’s an OK one on the ground floor, and nearby there’s 103 Coffee - a specialty coffee place which is proud of winning latte art competitions. They adorn every cup - it puts the price up and slows down coffee delivery but does nothing to improve the flavour (which is great anyway).

Yut Kee is one of the oldest kopitiams in KL - I came here last time at a quiet moment and had a delicious chicken curry. This time round, I visit during a busy period (there’s a small wait before I can get in) and have its signature dish - a chicken chop. While it is a bit thicker than others I have had, it’s definitely smaller than most, but the chicken is quite jucy.

The Sheraton is in the same area - I accidentally go in, via the few shops connected to it, and am quite taken by its tea room. There’s no one about, otherwise I may have partaken.

The only other thing I actually do (rather than random wandering) while in Chow Kit is go to Kampung Baru - the original wooden village in the middle of KL. I’d seen a video of a wonderful food market which I suspected would not be running (it’s a Ramadan market) despite online sources insisting it was. Sure enough, it;s not on - after all, it’s not Ramadan. There is a fruit and veg market, but I’m after dinner.

After the archway thingey, the street is more or less lined with restaurants and street eats - not many are very busy, so I end up back at Wanjo for Nasi Lemak Daging Rendang (a beef curry and rice dish, with a sweet sambal).

And that’s a wrap for my four days (18 - 22 December) in Chow Kit. Cheers!

[Oh - you can see the twin towers from Kampung Baru.]