‘Most disgusting place I’ve ever stayed. The rooms are filthy. If you like to sleep, don’t bother’. These are just a few of the online reviews for the hostel I stayed at when I first visited Kuala Lumpur on a year-long round-the-world backpacking trip in 2010.
Located in the heart of Chinatown, Wheeler's Guest House and its £5.70-per-night rooms closed for good in 2017. And so to find myself accidentally on the same street, just one door down, 15 years later felt utterly surreal. Sipping a mango sticky rice coffee from the plant-filled surroundings of a fun new rooftop coffee shop, it was clear to see that Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown has evolved beyond recognition.
