KL's Night Fever

Photo credits : OXYMANUS 2008

With the notorious traffic jam situation in KL never seems to end, what better way to travel to get home by none other than via public transport i.e. the LRT,i repeat the LRT, be it the Putra line, Mono rail or the STAR line especially after the dreaded and regimental office hours of 9 to 5.You will not believe that the traffic flow along the federal city roads are superfluous as long as time propels in a 24 hour motion of people, cars and activities. What happens when the sun goes down in KL then ? Although KL far still lacks and lags the feverish and zingy nightlife essence of Ginza or Las Vegas or Amsterdam, the sophistication of Singapore(where even entertainment is a regulated pastime),the city of Kuala Lumpur actually never sleeps, much to the credence and exaltation of somnambulists,night owls and other nocturnal beings alike.

KL is a transitory city where traffic flows in from all the cardinal points of the Klang Valley region,so it is not surprising therefore to substantiate that while the city denizens actually snuggle in their comfy beds,a different kind of alien community is actually invading the city. These are strangers of people from all walks of life who would soon be arriving at Puduraya alighting or boarding their buses and taxis towards their new found destinations in pursuit of happiness and perhaps depression.

Nearby,vagrants with other street urchins and scums loom in as they loiter the streets, either looking for crack and doping, conduct petty crimes like vandalism and thefts in the view of faulty CCTVs while some scavengers could be seen digging out overfilled thrash from dilapidated stinking bins searching for recycled items in order to eke a meager living while some other homeless souls whom are mostly addicts will simply accommodate themselves to a world of fantasy slumber in the cold blanket of the night on top of concrete pavements and benches or even staircases, hidden away from the public eye. The irony of the fact is that these people will soon disappear mysteriously when the daylight comes to change the time.

Further up at some busy stalls,in Chinatown,late diners would be seen slurping their meals while yakking and laughing at the top of their throats so much so that this place conjures an ideal venue for constant merry making and heartwarming meetings amongst friends and chums.Some foreign backpackers can also be seen enjoying the cheap cold beers in the open air as they mingle tete a tete exchanging their travel experiences with their fellow travel mates. They must be staying along the many small lodge houses or inns located ubiquitously around the Petaling Street vicinity.The Nepalese,Myanmarese and the Bangladeshis on the other hand could be seen packing and rolling things to their respective storage hideaways after a rousing infamous piracy and counterfeit business and other clandestine deals made hours earlier in the tourists crammed street.No wonder Petaling Street owes its PS Boutique tag mark quite appropriately, shoes, handbags,cd's,computer software,pornography,t-shirts,watches,perfumes,scarves,sportswear,eyewear,belts and even exotic meals of the rare kind,you just name it.

The Reggae Bar tucked at the other corner is indeed a lively spot for the European backpacker tourists that its patrons can be seen almost spilling over to its alfresco walkway reveling in quiet celebration through intimate conversations. The music of Bob Marley rules here and all kinds of graffiti can be seen written on the walls like a mural of sorts giving notice to the visitors' past presence. The snooker tables and the bar counters also portrayed a jam packed audience. The sparkling neon lights and signs as well as unique plants decorations dotting its building structure which almost camouflaged its social image makes the Irish-style pub hardly noticeable until one approaches it,quaintly snug in the colonial rows of 1940's pre-war shop houses.

The stalls near Chinatown are alive with a multitude of characters,loud music of Oriental descent performed by inexperienced local buskers,and mobbed by the touts and peddlers, beggars and impostors, the passersby, and other triads business people in a crowded locale.

Over at Kampung Baru and Chow Kit areas, the scene at the food stalls is similar ,where locals and Indonesian immigrant traders combine their presence in plying their gastronomic business to the visitors who would have come to indulge in their supper and night cap refills. The stalls with its running lights and colourful posters attract hungry strangers like it was just the beginning of the day break.
Car wash depots sprouting their lucrative business next to the food stalls makes every services complete and available at a one stop shop.The food quality served and sold in Kampung Baru however leaves a great deal of discernment as far as hygiene standards are concerned.Charging exorbitant bucks and creating fast profits for these unscrupulous entrepreneurs is the order of the day.None of the food here tasted palatable at all !

Brickfields too is an area that has its own fair share of insomnia. Here the subcontinent Indians and Bangladeshis and the Nepalese spread their influences even more actively and most appropriately as they take the looks of the local Malaysian Indians,quite amazingly unwary to many Caucasian tourists who so think they are locals too. Contrastingly, the Brickfields area attract less foreign Caucasian tourists than Chinatown and this could be due to the proximity of the bus terminal, since backpackers are known to favour the bus mode of travel as against air travel when entering the country via Thailand and Singapore.

The scenes at the Beach Club,Aloha,and the Thai Bar, Zouk disco adds even a more cultivated groups of people seeking company of one another prancing through the din and humdrum of deafening music till the wee hours of the morning where booze and designer drugs share the limelight on the dance floors.

The crowded and noisy nightlife entertainment scenes continues and extends to Bukit Bintang, Bangsar,Shah Alam, PJ,Damansara, Puchong,Rawang, Selayang, Setapak, Ampang, Jalan Ipoh, you name it, the list goes on and on and true enough KL is the city that never sleeps.Each pockets of urban settlement conspires a different criminal element of sorts, all hovering and cooking up in the disguise of conventional goings on of the night.

Beyond its normalcy of just eating and drinking,karaokeing and gambling the city police is also busy traversing the city's crime scene whose activities synchronises almost at the same time. Crimes and felony like murders, rapes, robberies, vice, drug pushing,illegal gambling,blackmailing and kidnapping are almost a KL fabric of a Malaysian mafioso's night life. The newspapers and TV station the very next day will then report how sordid and threatening the KL night scene would have been with news that will sometimes shake the country almost overnight stronger than the previous tsunami.