After years as a Southeast Asian runner-up, Kuala Lumpur (KL) is on a winning streak. More fun and easier to negotiate than Bangkok, grittier than Singapore and more eclectic than Hanoi, the buzz about KL is as palpable as its intoxicating aromas of sizzling satay, stinky durian, and sweet incense and petrol fumes.It’s curious that a city where you still have to watch your step for pavement cracks and pot-holes can also feel cutting edge, but cast your eyes to the skyline and around the streets and you’ll see what we mean. In just 150 years, KL has gone from a tin prospector’s hovel in the jungle to a thoroughly modern metropolis, home of the shiny Petronas Towers, a design classic and until recently the world’s tallest building. In the rush for the new, much of the old has been (and is being) demolished. Still, some impressive colonial-era buildings remain and the city’s most atmospheric and colorful quarters are Chinatown, Little India and Kampung Baru, the heartlands of KL’s Chinese, Indian and Malay communities.

It’s this multicultural character that makes KL such a fascinating place – one moment you could be burning joss sticks at a Chinese temple, the next shedding shoes to enter a mosque or Hindu shrine. Hedonists will also be happy: you can eat and shop like a king in KL and the nightlife is cranking. For all its activity and urban landscapes KL also has its tranquil moments. This is a city where you can chill out in lush parks or escape to the countryside in the surrounding state of Selangor.

Weather
KL’s temperature ranges from 21°C to 33°C and the average humidity exceeds 82%. Although there’s rain through the year, March to April and September to November are the wettest months.

Money
You’ll seldom be far from a bank/ATM. Moneychangers offer better rates than banks for changing cash and (at times) travelers checks; usually open later hours and on weekends and found in shopping malls.

Getting around
KL Sentral in Brickfields, 1km south of the historic old train station, is the hub of a sophisticated rail-based urban network consisting of the KTM Komuter, KLIA Ekspres, KLIA Transit, LRT and Monorail systems.

Unfortunately the systems – all built separately – remain largely uninterested. Different tickets generally apply for each service, and at stations where there’s an interchange between the services they’re rarely conveniently connected. This said, you can happily get around much of central KL on a combination of rail and monorail services, thus avoiding the traffic jams that plague the inner-city roads. And the Touch & Go stored value card (available at all LRT stations) can be used at the electronic gates to the LRT, train and monorail systems.