Our Time in KL (Part 1)

December 21-January 1

Apr 03, 2024

We were in Kuala Lumpur for two principal reasons: 1) To see how we liked Malaysia and to get a cursory sense for whether it could be somewhere we might consider coming back to stay for a while, and 2) to overlap with a worldschooling pop-up hub that was happening. One of the principal challenges I knew tween/teen worldschoolers tend to face is how to make and have friendships while traveling. So a variety of “camps”/gatherings (aka hubs) have sprung up in different parts of the globe to help worldschooling kids connect. They’re all different in intent, duration, and cost.

What I liked about the one we attended in KL was that it was low cost and flexible. We could join in the activities that interested us and skip the ones that didn’t. I thought it would be a nice way to dip our toe in and a good way for the girls to interact with some other kids. (Sadly, it didn’t quite pan out for us the way I had imagined, but more on that in a subsequent post.) And, if I’m being honest, I knew I’d enjoy interacting with other families. So one of the first things I did upon arrival was go to a social gathering. It was prior to the hub starting, but many of the families had already arrived and one of the co-hosts offered to have us over for a holiday gathering.

It was the morning after we had arrived from Singapore while we were in the middle of dealing with some of the challenges of the apartment, so I went alone, as the rest of the family wasn’t ready to be social. I hopped in a Grab and headed west to DesaPark City to what turned out to be one of my favorite areas of KL. It felt a bit more suburban and there was more green space. The gathering was at the community pool and it was so lovely! I really enjoyed meeting everyone.

Since the hub itself didn’t start until the new year, we had plenty of time as a family to explore KL on our own, and that we did!

One afternoon, Chris and I left the girls at the apartment (their choice) and headed out to KLCC park. There just so happened to be during Comic Fiesta, one of Southeast Asia’s largest and longest-running animation, comics and games events. It wasn’t our cup of tea, but the park was full of people who had come from all over to attend. Many were dressed in cosplay and it was quite fun to see them. After a bit I begged to duck into the mall for the A/C (it was SO hot out); it felt fantastic, but the mall was packed! Despite the throngs of people, everyone was calm and orderly; no one was pushing or impatient. It was a nice surprise.

Of course, we also spent some time at the pool and gym in our apartment building since we had access.

And we checked out one of the climbing gyms, Camp 5 at 1Utama (yes, in a mall!). Apparently this is one of the largest indoor climbing gyms in SE Asia. It was on floor 5 of the mall and we had a heckuva time finding it. Supposedly 1Utama is one of the largest malls in Malasyia and is top ~10 in the world for size. So no wonder we felt lost, LOL. The climbing gym indeed was a good size, though compared to US gyms (especially in CA and CO) it wasn’t as big as the biggest there. Unfortunately, while we were climbing Chris injured his finger, so that put the kibosh on us climbing again during our stay in KL. Apparently one of the other Camp5 gyms had an even better bouldering area that we would’ve liked to have checked out.

I found a salon to get my hair done. I wasn’t in need of a cut yet, but I definitely needed my roots covered. Could I have gone somewhere cheaper? Absolutely, but I wanted to make sure it was done well, so I opted for a salon with Western prices and excellent reviews. The stylist was great and we talked about the difference between KL and The Philippines, where she was from. She told me about how things had been locked down in KL during Covid and how she had to have a pass just to leave her building. Wow.

One afternoon I wandered through the mall across from ours and spent a chunk of time in the Kinokuniya bookstore. It smelled so good and had everything you could ever want to read and more. Unfortunately, they shrink wrap all their books so you couldn’t open and left through them, so I had to make do with looking at front and back covers. Still, I enjoyed perusing the shelves.

They had quite a wide-ranging selection to choose from. I was impressed!

One night N and I went out front of our building to see “snow” fall. The mall did this nightly and sizable crowds would gather for the fun. Well, the snow turned out to be soap bubbles, which gave us a really good chuckle! I mean, it was definitely creative, so I give them props for that! It made me really grateful that we’ve had the experience of actually living in the snow. I’d guess many in SE Asia never have that opportunity. Oh, the things we take for granted.

We hired a driver one afternoon to take us all over KL, really just so we could get a sense for its size and the different areas. Holy cow, it’s huge.

And we went ice skating at yet a different mall. (Everything happens in a mall in Malaysia.) It was a really small rink (think half the size of one you’d find in the US) and they made you wear gloves so that if you fell your hands were protected. The skates were hockey skates with bindings that felt like ski boots. So it was different than what we were expecting and then when we got on the ice they had a ton of assistance devices for kids who couldn’t skate. They were great in theory but, since the rink was small, it meant we were constantly dodging them and the kids who didn’t understand about skating all in the same direction. We made the most of it, but it wasn’t quite the experience we had been imagining.