Kuala Lumpur's shopping district, and an honest explanation of why a city this hot puts everything indoors.
Kuala Lumpur is a city of shopping centres, and it is worth understanding why before dismissing it.
It is thirty-two degrees with ninety per cent humidity, and it rains hard most afternoons. Pavements are narrow, often broken, frequently blocked, and in many places simply stop. The mall is not a failure of urban design so much as a rational response to a climate that makes outdoor public space unusable for much of the day.
So Malaysians socialise, eat, work and take their children in malls, and the good ones are genuinely good public spaces rather than just retail.
The main ones
Pavilion KL — the upmarket one, on Jalan Bukit Bintang. International luxury brands, a good food hall in the basement, and a Tokyo Street floor.
Suria KLCC — at the base of the Petronas Towers, with Petrosains, the Aquaria, the concert hall and Kinokuniya, which is one of the best bookshops in Southeast Asia.
Lot 10, with the Hutong food court in the basement — long-established hawker names brought in under one roof, and a very good and very air-conditioned way to eat.
Berjaya Times Square — enormous, with an indoor theme park including a rollercoaster inside the building, which is exactly as strange as it sounds.
Sungei Wang and Low Yat Plaza — the older, cheaper end. Low Yat is the electronics mall, floors of phones, components and repairs, and prices worth checking against home.
Mid Valley Megamall and The Gardens, west of the centre on the Komuter line, which is where locals go and is bigger than anything in Bukit Bintang.
Suria, Pavilion and KLCC are linked by covered walkways, and once you find them you will use nothing else.
The street
Jalan Bukit Bintang itself is pedestrianised in part, busy, loud and full of touts, massage shops, and people trying to sell you something.
Changkat Bukit Bintang is the bar street — Western-facing, expensive, and where most of KL’s nightlife for visitors happens.
Jalan Alor is one street over.
What is worth buying
Electronics at Low Yat, with the usual cautions about grey imports and warranties.
Royal Selangor pewter, which is made here and is a genuine Malaysian product.
Batik and songket, from a proper shop rather than a market stall.
Local skincare and coffee, both of which are good and cheap.
Not counterfeits — see Petaling Street.
The sales
Malaysia runs organised national sale periods. The main ones fall around March, mid-year (June to August) and the end of the year, and discounting is real.
Tourist refund scheme: foreign visitors can reclaim the 6% sales and service tax on goods above a threshold from approved outlets, processed at the airport. Ask for the form at the till.
Practical
Monorail or MRT to Bukit Bintang. The MRT station is newer and better connected.
Malls open around ten and close around ten.
Everything is air-conditioned to a degree that visitors find cold. Carry a layer, which is a genuinely odd thing to write about a city on the equator.
