Malaysia Part 3 - Petaling Street

Wednesday 11th July

The Chinatown area in Malaysia is hugely busy at night and is filled with tourists. The streets are crammed with hawker food stalls as well as shops selling knockoff t-shirts, bags, dvds and lots of other things.
The main and longest street with all these stalls is Petaling Street (Jalan Petaling).

Street food is great but you have to be careful as a tourist about hygiene. I think that things are better than before but I am still very careful about what I eat from street stalls.
One type of food I recommend in Malaysia is satay. In the streets around Petaling street, there are street vendors with food on sticks. You basically pick what you want and then either they cook it or you cook it in boiling water wok at your table. Because you are having the food cooked fresh - either grilled or boiled, it is less likely to make you sick.

We call the night markets with all the stalls "pasar malam". Bargaining is a must if you want to buy anything from any of the Petaling Street stalls. They will always start at more than double the price. My tip is to know how much you are willing to pay for something. Bargaining is good for both parties. You don't want to get ripped off but at the same time if there difference converts to something little like 20c then it's just a bit ridiculous to keep bargaining for the sake of it. The people are so poor there that 20c isn't going to kill you.