At 7 in the afternoon Ashlynn and I decided to go to the night market! It was right down the street in KL, about 20 minutes from the city center. I decided to take the metro to get there.

Take a bus to the night market

I arrived at Taman Connaught, the nearby train station. When I got off the escalator, Ashlynn was waiting for me. Apparently, she wanted me to hurry up. Apparently, I had to take a bus to get to the night market there. So she lent me her bus card. She was always smiling, and she was so energetic that I was affected by her smile and became energetic too.

After that, we boarded the bus. Ashlynn did not have a mask and had to wear one on the bus. So a man waiting in front of her had a bunch of masks and gave her one of them. I thought to myself, “The Chinese are so kind.”

Besides, according to Ashlynn, people who live in Malaysia seem to be native speakers of “Chinese, English, and Malay,” and everyone speaks English, of course, and Chinese, of course. I thought that was so cool I couldn’t believe. In Japan, when someone speaks English, people are surprised and say, “Oh my God, you speak English!”.

So, I think Malaysian people are very smart in that respect. I wish they would give us Malaysian education in Japan, too.

Then, when we were riding the bus, we talked about Malaysian license plates. In Malaysia, license plates are black. I thought it was really cool. Apparently, the first letter of W or V means the car is from KL. She told me about that.

Then she told me about my trip. I told Ashlynn that I am going to Kota Kinabalu and Penang. She was very surprised and told me many things. Apparently, there is a festival going on. She was very energetic on the bus and always seemed to be energetic. The bus is only going about 10 meters in 5 minutes. Because it seems to be stuck in traffic right now and 7:30pm is exactly when the traffic is congested.

It would take more than 30 minutes to arrive at the night market, which is only less than a kilometer away. I was already getting tired of the bus.

However, I was glad to finally arrive at the market. I hadn’t eaten anything all day, so I was very hungry. So I was looking forward to eating something now.

Area with a large Chinese population.

When I got off the bus, I suddenly saw many yellow tents lined up. The people are almost exclusively of Chinese descent. Surprisingly, there were no hijab wearers at all, which was a big surprise to me. Because in the center of KL, there are almost always people wearing hijab, but here there were no hijab-wearing people. I was surprised to know that there are different areas in KL, one with a large Indian population, one with a large Chinese population, and one with a large Malay population.

Apparently, according to Ashlynn, there are a lot of Chinese people living in this area, which is why there is pork in the food stalls. In Islam, there is something called halal food, and “halal” means “no pork”. I found Malaysia’s complex mix of cultures interesting, or something like that.

KL’s longest night market with food stalls

We immediately started walking around the stalls in the heat of the day. There were so many Chinese people that we could no longer move forward. It was such a situation.

He’s making some kind of yakisoba in a big pot.

The first restaurant we found. As we were walking along, an old man was cooking in a very large pot nearby. He was cracking eggs, mixing them together, and adding some spices. So I couldn’t help but think it looked delicious.

Ashlynn was very insistent that I try it. I can’t eat spicy food, so I asked her to make it not spicy. She spoke Chinese, which I thought was amazing. Of course, it is a matter of course, but since Chinese is too difficult for me to understand anything, I just thought it was really great.

I heard that we have to take a seat to order, but there were so many people that it was hard to take a seat. So we stood there wondering what to do.

At that time, one of the people eating said to us in English, “You can sit here when I finish eating.” I felt he was really kind. Thanks to his kindness, we were able to eat without any problems.

Finally! Eat! This is 7 ringgit (210 yen)

With Ashlynn!

Ashlynn is actually my first Chinese friend. This was a really great thing for me. I had never had any Chinese friends, and I had never eaten food prepared by a Chinese person before. That’s why today was really a memorable day for me.

It was a kind of fried noodle, but it tasted good. It tasted like yakisoba, it was delicious. I wonder if it is what we call yakisoba in Japan. While I was eating the yakisoba, a man came up to me, apparently the owner of a nearby food stall, and asked if I wanted a cold drink. So Ashlynn ordered one of those. And the man immediately made it with various ingredients. Here is what he brought.

Chinese drink with various ingredients.

This was a drink, but it was a liquid with a lot of something in it. When I drank it, I could not describe the taste. I can’t explain it. I wish I could, but I don’t have the adjectives. I couldn’t understand what it was because it was a Chinese drink in the first place, and the ingredients were Chinese. But I do remember that there were things like kikurage mushrooms and gummy bears in it. So I feel that they are all fattening.

The stalls are so crowded that it is very tiring to walk around!

People are crazy about it.

After finishing what looked like yakisoba, I started walking around the stalls and the crowd was already bad. It was surprisingly crowded. The stall is apparently held only on Wednesdays, not every day. I wondered if that was why it was so crowded.

Still, there were so many stalls, selling many things I had never seen before. Of course, there were things that I could recognize. Mochi, fried foods, and so on. But there were also many things I didn’t know at all.

I told Ashlynn that I wanted some kind of protein because I was full after having yakisoba and a drink. Ashlynn had bought mochi. Apparently, she loves Mochi. So I went to a fried food stall nearby. There, they were frying a whole squid and selling it cut into pieces. So, on Ashlynn’s recommendation, I ordered the squid. The price was 14 ringgit (420 yen).

With the squid in my hands, we walked around, eating as we went. But we were a bit tired, and the last stall had just finished, so we decided to sit down near it and take a rest.

Knowing a lot about Malaysia and her

While we were sitting there, we were talking about her job. She is working as a Video Editor at the moment, but she is aware that her personality type is definitely not the type to sit and work all the time, and she is thinking about becoming a marketer in the future. She is working as a VideoEditor now, but the company is located in Penang, so she is working online now and working from home. So that’s why she’s so energetic! lol.

Plus, from her vibe, I figured she must be an ENFP, so I said, “You’re an ENFP, right?” and I was right! A typical ENFP is “when people around me are introverted, I become very active and diplomatic, but when people around me are diplomatic, I become introverted.” Since I am also an ENFP, I could understand her personality right away. Besides, I was thinking about becoming an Instagrammer and becoming an influencer, and when I shared this with her, she showed me many Instagrammers.

She also showed me her company’s website. Apparently, they are looking for UI&UX designers right now, so “why don’t you apply?” I wonder if I want to be an UI&UX designer too lol.

She also told me about Malaysia and Singapore. Apparently, Singapore became independent from Malaysia in 1945. But nowadays, the economic disparity between the two countries is so great that Malaysian people want to go to Singapore. In fact, the food in Malaysia is far better than in Singapore. She told me such things.

She also told me about the salary, saying that the average salary for a first-year university graduate is 70,000 Japanese yen. I think that is too little. Really. But a new graduate in Singapore earns 350,000 yen. What a difference of 5 times. I couldn’t believe it. That’s right. Singapore is the most expensive country in the world to live in. Even more than New York.

We also talked about fashion. She seems to love Audrey Hepburn and likes vintage fashion. Fashion styles from her grandmother’s time. She showed me on Instagram and it looked exactly like, you know, France in 1950. So we were talking about how she hope to wear clothes like that in the future and go to France.

She had been to Singapore before, but had never been to any other country. So, what a surprise, she had never experienced “winter” and didn’t have a coat or jacket! I couldn’t believe it anymore. I felt so lucky to be Japanese, thinking that there are people in the world who have never experienced winter. I thought to myself, “I really want her to experience snow too.”

She wants to come to Japan, but she can’t because of money and her mother’s refusal to let her go alone. I understand her feelings very much. However, Japan is not an expensive country anymore. I was explaining to Ashlynn the cost of living in each country and the monthly rent. And airline tickets are not expensive at all. I was really surprised.

But I feel that because I am a freelancer, I can fly whenever I want, which is why it is so cheap. If it were summer vacation or japanese long vacation, I’m sure it would be expensive.

Ashlynn was very complimentary of my communication. Apparently I am a very good communicator. I was very happy to be recognized for this because it was the complete opposite of when I was bullied in high school. She said I am a good communicator, and since Ashlynn talks all the time, I asked her, “You’re an ENFP, aren’t you tired of talking all the time?” and she said, “No, I’m not tired”. That was a surprise to me lol. I thought that was different from her, because I definitely need my alone time. But, I guess everyone is different! I guess.

Discover many interesting things at the food stalls on the way back home

We walk in the direction of the bus stop. On the way, we found many interesting stalls. As expected in China, there was a man with a hammer and an iPhone ready to sell glass film, showing everyone how strong glass is by tapping it with the hammer.

In the midst of all this, there was a drink stall that sold drinks in a huge tank filled with a large amount of liquid, which they scooped up with a ladle. Most of the stalls here were written in Chinese, sometimes in English below. I was very curious, so I decided to buy the drink, which was labeled “Honey,” so I knew it was sweet. And Ashlynn also told me it was a lychee and honey drink, so I decided to have it.

A drink in a crazy huge tank. It seems to be Chinese.

It is very tasty when you drink it!

When I drank it, it tasted just like the juice Ashlynn had given me earlier. Apparently, it is a bit bitter, but I didn’t find it bitter at all, it was very sweet. It was another drink that was so Chinese that I can’t even describe it with adjectives. Really.

Walking further, I found something like Japanese “warabimochi” on the way, so I decided to buy it! Like a craftsman, they were cutting up the mochi and putting kinako (soybean flour) on top, which only made it look really delicious. And the sound of the chopping was the sound of metal clashing against metal, which reminded me even more of ice cream sheets, and it was very appetizing.

Mochi is cut into small pieces.

It tastes like strawbaked rice cake!

In fact, this strawbale-like food is made of glutinous rice cake, but there are two kinds of glutinous rice cake, one is green, and it is made of something that looks like grass. It was very strange. But when I actually tried it, all I could taste was the soybean flour, thanks to the soybean flour (laughs).

We kept going and finally arrived near the bus stop where the bridge was! And then we took pictures of the view from the top. It really was a night market, with yellow tents lining the street. I was really surprised at the sheer scale and size of the market.

Very long night market

No buses at all

We then headed for the bus stop, but the bus didn’t show up. In the meantime, I talked about Malaysian banknotes. Apparently, there are 100 and 200 Malaysian ringgit bills, but the most common bill in circulation is the 50 ringgit. And the king is depicted on the banknote. To my surprise, it seems that Malaysia has its own king! What do they mean by “nine kings”? What does nine kings mean? I thought, “Isn’t there usually only one king? I thought. But apparently, there used to be many more kings in Malaysia. That was also a surprise to me. A country with so many kings. How interesting!

So we called a cab to take us to the metro station.

Then we took the metro to our respective stations. At that time, she told me about her high school and middle school days. Sjhe also showed me some pictures, and apparently, middle school was a mix of Malays, Chinese, and Indians, and in high school, she went to a high school with a lot of Chinese people. Still, I think Intercultural middle schools are very nice. Besides, I heard that in Malaysia, students go to school at 7:30 in the morning and school finishes at 1:00 pm. How incredible, I thought. I heard that after that is clubs activity.

In Japan, school starts at 9:00 a.m. and ends around 4:00 p.m. So I feel that there are so many morning types in Malaysia.