Petaling Street / Chinatown, Mar 2011

Dear Diary,

Continued from Taste of Asia Food Court, Times Square, Mar 2011

After lunch was finished at Taste of Asia, we left for Petaling Street. One of my friends wanted to buy fresh flowers for her brother’s wedding. Wikipedia’s description of Petaling Street:

Petaling Street (Malay: Jalan Petaling, Simplified Chinese: 茨厂街, Traditional Chinese: 茨廠街, pinyin: Cíchǎng Jiē, Cantonese: Chee Cheong Kai) is a Chinatown located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is infamous for pirated clothes and accessories along with bootleg DVDs and CDs. Petaling Street however does not exclusively offer pirated products. Haggling is a common sight here and the place is usually crowded with locals as well as tourists.

The area has dozens of restaurants and food stalls, serving local favourites such as Hokkien mee, ikan bakar (barbecued fish), asam laksa and curry noodles. Traders here are mainly Chinese but there are also Indian, Malay, and Bangladeshi traders.

I couldn’t remember when the last time I went to Petaling Street. After years of absence, I am impressed with its transformation. All vendors are neatly placed even though most of them are selling the same merchandise. The surrounding area is cleaner and beautifully decorated. All these are plus points in attracting tourists.

So, if you want to find fresh flowers, fruits, fabric, souvenirs and imitation of branded goods (watches, handbags, luggage, shoes, shirts, sunglasses, etc) head up to Petaling Street today. You’ll be amazed with the array of things you’d find there. In my opinion, pricing of some of the goods are way too expensive. They are just imitation after all. Words of caution though don’t bother asking for prices if you’re just window shopping and don’t have any intention of buying. Rumors saying that sellers would be abusive and would start to ridicule you.

To be continued in High Maintenance Girl?!

Sources from Wikipedia and VirtualMalaysia