Pasar Malam

Need a pair of socks and some shorts? And some fruits? And some beddings? What about dinner? Or traditional oitment? Did you say an alarm clock? You can most probably get all of these at a Pasar Malam.



One of the things I include in my annual trip home to Malaysia is the pasar malam. It translates to Night Market from the malay language. From my travels, one of the most interesting places to meet some locals and see how the locals live, is a market.

So yes, I am suggesting that if you visit Kuala Lumpur (KL), you can get off the tourist path and visit one of these markets. Firstly, these are not dressed up for tourists. Secondly, nothing is priced as if they are for tourists. And finally, these places are easy to find. At these markets I am suggesting, people would leave you to your own unless you ask for help.

Before I go further, a little about Pasar Malam in KL. These night markets are held in different suburbs on different nights of the week, typically from 6pm tp 10pm. As a result, the same of group of vendors may set up stall in 4-5 markets during the week. What you can find in the markets depends very much on which suburb it is and who frequents them.

Most tourists in KL find their way to China Town where there are about two streets filled with stalls selling different things. Well, that is all fine but honestly, it's more interesting to see the locals at a Pasar Malam instead. My favourite Pasar Malams are the one at Taman Tun Dr Ismail (Sundays), SS2 (Mondays) and SS2 (Thursdays).

Taman Tun Dr Ismail is about 15 minutes drive from KL city. It costs about RM10 to get there from KLCC without traffic by taxi.

Taman Tun, or TTDI as the locals call it, is an upper middle class suburb where properties have been appreciating in market value consistently since the 1970s. The Pasar Malam here is smaller than that at SS2. However, since the patronage at TTDI is a good mix of the different races, you can find a better mix of locals and products.

This pasar malam is very popular with housewives who come to stock up supplies for the work week. They buy things like fruits, cookies and snacks.

What I love about the pasar malam is that my senses are awaken throughout. The noises of people bargaining, vendors shouting out the offer of the day, the smell of food and all the colours and people around.

I normally do not have dinner but take a walk along the street at a Pasar Malam and eat tit-bits and local tropical fruits. You find things like the malay kuih (cakes) which are typically made from coconut and pandan (screwpine leaves), fresh sugarcane or longan juice. My favourite is the home made soy milk and some chinese cooling herb tea.

SS2 is a mainly a chinese area. Here, you find bustling shops and eateries which are opened throughout the night. The rows of massage and beauty parlors, electronic shops, chinese medical hall and coffee shops forms the main square. You really get to see the chinese at their best and worst entrepreneur games. SS2 is where eager business people come to sell. Only in SS2 that you will find eat-all-you-can durian buffets, old fashion gold jewellery shops guarded by small armed men.

The pasar malams at SS2 (section 2) are very popular especially with the young. Here, the stalls stretched out over four streets. Similarly, it costs about RM10 from the city or you can walk from the Taman Bahagia LRT station.

At the SS2 markets, there are more food but also a lot of the latest craze and gadgets. You can find things like fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, toads, plumbing tools, chinese medicine, Taiwanese tofa and milk tea, pirated DVDs and softwares, clothes, accessories. The list goes on. This is actually a good place to get some cheap clothes you're willing to chuck away later.

Once, my Danish friend found a pair of gloves which Malaysian women buy to cover their hands while driving. Yes. We have an obsession with staying fair skinned.

In fact, recently, some foreigners from Myanmar and Pakistan started selling things like bamboo lamps and pashmir scarves there.

A word of advice on the pirated DVDs. There are the cheap ones where the movie is recorded with someone holding the camcorder in a cinema. I cannot understand why anyone would pay anything for this. But...just ask, in case.

Once I hosted a friend from Hong Kong. After seeing my mum bargain, he wanted to have a go at it himself. So we gave him a rule-of-thumb i.e. 50% off the quoted price. Well, we forgot to tell him the exceptions. Surely, he should have known better not to bargain for an RM2 coconut jam (the locals call it "kaya").

So here you go. If you do not want to do the touristy thing and be harassed, go to a neighbourhood Pasar Malam when you're in KL.