Pudu Market

Lonely Planet review

South of the Golden Triangle, accessible by LRT from Hang Tuah station, Pudu Market is KL's biggest wet and dry market. It's a frenetic place, full of squawking chickens, frantic shoppers and porters forcing their way through the crowds with outrageous loads. Stalls here sell everything from goldfish in bowls to pig heads, cows tongues and durians in baskets. Arrive early in the morning to experience the market at its most lively and pungent.

You can recover from the sensory overload at the attached hawker court. Pudu Market is five minutes' walk from Pudu LRT station; go south along Jln Pudu, right onto Jln Pasar, then right down Jln Pasar Baharu, passing the colourful temple Choon Wan Kong, dating from 1879.

As well as the permanent markets dotted around KL, atmospheric pasar malam (night markets) are held once a week at several different locations around the city. The night markets are quite a spectacle - whole streets vanish suddenly under a sea of hawker stalls, traders' tables and motorcycles modified into mobile kitchens. Stalls are piled high with grilled fish, fragrant curries in tin pots and mysterious rice cakes bundled up in banana leaves. Rice and noodles swish around in giant woks, roti and dosa (paper-thin Indian pancakes) sizzle on oily hot plates, and locals gather in their hundreds to feast until the early hours of the morning. The top pasar malam in KL are the Saturday night markets on Jln Raja Muda Musa in Kampung Baru and Lorong Tuanku Abdul Rahman in Little India, and the Sunday night market on Jalan Telawi in Bangsar.