Hey guys! Now that I am in KL for at least two weeks, I have been wanting to lay down my thoughts about the differences between KL, the city where I grew up, and Jakarta, where I now live, since I always get asked which one I like more. What better way than to write a short blog post I guess 😅, in somewhat of a homage to Dvij’s post on being a third culture kid.
My Background
For context, I am proudly 100% Indonesian 🇮🇩, but was born and raised in KL, Malaysia 🇲🇾. I lived in KL for 18 years until graduating from Sixth Form/High School. Shortly after, I swiftly moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, to complete a new found dream: study medicine. Every year or so since moving to Jakarta 6 years ago, I have had the privilege of visiting KL for a few weeks to a month at a time, as fortunately my family seem to be sticking around for the moment.
Why I enjoy KL
If I were to summarise, every visit to the place I once called ‘home’ has been incredibly enjoyable. This may be partly due to the opportunity to satisfy long unfulfilled cravings for nasi lemak, roti canai and teh tarik, and partly due to my familiarity with the hotspots of the city, how to get around, as well as the cultural environment. As an Indonesian I do have to say, Indonesian food is overall just better (a hill I am willing to die on), but there are just some things you will always miss no?
Growing up I have always appreciated the mix of ethnicities in KL, which seem to be far more pronounced than in Jakarta, despite the latter being a very diverse city too. This time around, having been forced to learn Bahasa Indonesia for the past 6 years, I have a new found appreciation for Bahasa Melayu and the differences in loan words from the English language that differ from the borrowed Dutch language found in Bahasa Indonesia. As I am currently observing in a hospital, I am easily amused and much impressed by the ability of many Malaysians to switch between Bahasa Melayu, English, Tamil and Mandarin and their ability to mix words in between; while we have our fair share of polyglots and thousands of local languages in Indonesia, it really is just something different over here.
Comparisons with Jakarta
Lately I have noticed how crowded KL is at the moment – the roads and pavements that I remember not having as much traffic as they do now, are absolutely packed. Tourists must feel very comfortable over here, which I would think has something to do with the abundance of English speakers, well developed and maintained infrastructure, as well as proper public transport – things which Jakarta simply does not possess. I’m sure when it comes to hotspots, cafes and night life the two cities are very comparable, it’s just much harder/impossible to get around on time in Jakarta!
Air quality is also one of my biggest complaints in Jakarta. While KL is not completely immune from the uncontrolled blaze in Sumatra and Kalimantan, Jakarta seems to suffer much worse from the terrible haze, which makes going outside of AC-filtered rooms such an unpleasant activity.
All in all, I’m sure you understand that I have always much preferred, and to this day still prefer, living in KL than in Jakarta. Other than food, it really is not much of a competition, but that is of course just my opinion. I am always hoping and pushing for that to change however, and regardless I am very grateful to be in the position that I am in. I very much hope that I can contribute something to make life better for Jakartans moving forward.
That’s all from me for now! Let me know where you want to move to in the comments below. Till next time!
– Verrel
Featured image by Esmonde Yong on Unsplash
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