EYE-CATCHING: The entrance to Petaling Street.
LET’S be frank. Petaling Street is world famous as Kuala Lumpur’s most vibrant night market to go to if you want to buy cheap knock-offs of branded handbags, shoes, t-shirts and watches.
Key ‘Petaling Street’ into Google’s search engine and you would have to click past pages and pages of links before you could find an entry which did not allude to this. This rather seedy reputation as a central marketplace for imitation goods is something the Tourism Ministry would rather not promote. But let’s face it, Petaling Street (also known as Chinatown) is one of the main attractions in KL. It’s an identity locals are unapologetic about.
Life unfolded
It would be a pity to let this somewhat narrow view overshadow the many fascinating facets of life which unfolds on this street everyday.
Despite a reputation built on fakes, imitation and mass production, modern Petaling Street has a unique soul and heartbeat very much its own.
The ebb and flow of life on Petaling Street is at once charming as it is intriguing. Much like a theatre play – where actors enter the stage, act their part, then exit – from dawn to dusk, each person who steps onto Petaling Street has a role to play, from the wide-eyed tourists to the photo-shy stall attendants, no-nonsense locals and irate road users.
In the day
Petaling Street Chinatown during early morning seems more like a ghost town. It is deserted except for two parallel lines of vans, trucks and cars snaking the length of the street as far as the eye can see.
It’s the only time of the day where motor vehicles have unchallenged reign of the street, so many shoplot businesses use that time to receive or send out deliveries. Foot traffic is minimal, consisting mainly of breakfast seekers, delivery people, people on their way to work, or people on the way home from work.
Just before 9 am, the tide of life begins to surge stronger.
Carrying cases and racks of goods seems to materialise out of thin air as stall holders take them out from unseen nooks and crannies, hidden behind creaky old wooden doors, located along the various sidelanes backlanes leading away from Petaling Street.
Only a handful of stalls are open at this time of day. There’s no sense of rush as attendants take their time to set up displays and arrange their goods for sale. Most of the stalls would only set up later in the morning.
Meanwhile, a few enterprising individuals have set up trolleys, laddened with soft drinks and snacks which they push up and down the street as they look for customers.
Hidden wet market
Further along Petaling Street is Jalan Hang Lekir that crosses perpendicular at just about the halfway point of Chinatown. It is a busy intersection — thanks to heavy foot traffic in the area and also food and drink stalls selling a wide variety of tasty snacks including peanut pancakes, roasted chestnuts and fresh fruits can be found there.
Of particular note is the Kim Soy Bean stall, owned by Ng Lee Yam, which has been selling homemade soybean milk and taufu fa (soybean milk jelly pudding) for over 30 years. Such is the quality of his soybean dessert that in 2007, a local newspaper reported that former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad instructed his aide to buy taufu fa from Ng for afternoon tea while he was receiving treatment at the National Heart Institute.
Just across the road from Kim Soy Bean is a mua chee stall which is also quite popular as evidenced by a number of yellowed Chinese newspaper clippings featuring the stall owner pasted on its sides.
Mua chee is a chewy, peanut encrusted delicacy which is a delight to savour and goes well with a cup of ice-cold soy bean milk. It’s not difficult to find the stall as the owner has wired a small loudspeaker to play a sound clip inviting listeners to try her homemade dessert.
Because of the high-foot traffic in this area, it is not uncommon to see individuals such as monks and the less fortunate soliciting for public donations.
Just off Jalan Hang Lekir, a covered walkway conceals a bustling wet market which probably looks just the same as it did before many of us were even born.
It is here many residents from surrounding areas source for fresh meat, fish, vegetables and fruit. A fascinating feature in the market is a crossroad point where four large clocks hang from the ceiling, keeping perfect time.
Unfortunately, not being able to speak nor understand Cantonese meant I was unsuccessful in discovering who put up the clocks and why.
Just at the end of the market is a series of food stalls popular with office workers and also students for their curry noodles.
Afternoon buzz
Meanwhile, back at Petaling Street, noon time brings with it a fresh wave of humanity as people spill out from nearby buildings in search of sustenance and maybe a little shopping on the side.
Cars and stalls are forced to an uneasy standoff over who has right of way. A sign put up by the local council reminds operators they are only allowed to do business on the road after 6pm but some stall owners try to push their limits as they jostle for space on the street for attention from passersby, especially foreign tourists.
Street justice
Stall staff, especially those dealing in non-authentic goods, are rather suspicious of outsiders.
So I don’t know whether to feel insulted I was not approached by shady individuals offering me the latest designer wares from Europe or grateful they decided to leave me alone and not beat me up for failing big time at trying to discretely take photos of them going about their daily (but mostly illegal) activities.
Big signboards all along the street, warning against selling of imitation goods, are all cheerfully ignored by the stall operators.
CCTV cameras are placed at certain intervals but it’s not clear who are in charge of monitoring them.
Interestingly, Petaling Street is supposedly quite safe in terms of crime statistics. Locals have a reputation of sending unwanted individuals quickly on their way with a few well-aimed blows, even administering severe street justice to pickpockets and thieves before handing them over to the police.
Observing the number of punk-haired tattooed toughs and brusque bald shaven blokes who watch over these stalls, it’s not so difficult to believe the truth behind this claim.
The shop businesses here are a juxtapose of the old and new. Budget hotels with wifi, traditional Chinese medicine stores, mini supermarkets, old-school kopitiams, reflexology centres, fashion clothing and accessories wholesalers all exist comfortably side by side, doing brisk business from the thousands of locals and visitors who pass through daily.
Brisk nightlife
However, night is when the surge of life is at its peak. Motor vehicles all beat a hasty retreat after 6pm as stalls take over the whole street. The (in)famous Chinatown nightmarket springs to life and the crowd starts to swell with hundreds of sightseers, gawkers and bargain hunters.
Stalls try to squeeze full use from every possible inch of space. For first-time visitors wandering through this crowded, glittering maze, it is a scene reminiscent of Hong Kong nightmarkets — thanks in part to Cantonese being the Chinese dialect of choice. However, English and Bahasa Malaysia are also widely spoken.
Bargaining for a good price on Petaling Street is not for the faint-hearted as the seasoned stall staff are typically ruthless at wringing as much profit as possible from every sale.
It almost seems like a high-stake poker game as the potential buyer and seller try to call each other’s bluff. The only difference is the jackpot in the form of whatever the buyer has his or her eye on, be it a new pair of shoes, clothes, leather goods such as wallets and handbags, perfume, pewter souvenirs, designer sunglasses or jewelry.
The fast, furious pulse of the night market only begins to ease as midnight approaches.
As the crowd thins to a trickle, the clatter of metal shutters and grilles being pulled down for the night signal the end of the business day.
As quickly as they arrive, the stalls disappear. Canvas partitions are taken down to reveal iron frame skeletons which are quickly dismantled and stored with unsold goods in wheeled iron cages secured with ropes, wires and waterproof tarps.
Some cages and stalls are trundled away to be tucked into the various sidelanes around the area, where they solemnly sit like an eerie museum of silent Stonehenges awaiting the light of day.
Others are loaded into vans, cars and delivery trucks while yet others are squirreled back through narrow lanes into unseen rooms and storage areas where they came from.
Still busy
By midnight, the tide of life has mostly ebbed away, leaving stray plastic bags, scattered styrofoam containers, discarded food and other debris in its wake.
At one end of the street, a crew of sweepers, clad in fluorescent green uniforms, banded with reflective strips, and wielding gigantic brooms, begin their unforgiving assault on the piles of garbage. They work quickly and methodically up towards the other end. By the time they are through, Petaling Street will be almost spotless.
High above the street, workmen in a truck crane are busy stringing red lantern lights in a zig-zag pattern across the length of Petaling Street as decoration for the approaching Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival (or Mooncake Festival), as the last few remaining stalls pack up.
Once again, the street is quiet, except for the occasional motor vehicle passing through.
In the few short hours between the time after the last cleaning crew leaves and daybreak, the street belongs to the homeless and streetwalkers plying services to johns cruising by in their cars.
As first light creeps over the horizon, the homeless bundle up their scant bedding and melt into the backlanes and the cycle of life at Petaling Street begins all over again.