My sister and I have lived in a combined total of eleven different cities/towns in eight countries this past decade. We have more friends outside our Motherland than we do in it. And so, with having friends from around the world comes the fun of playing tour guide every now and then when they pop in for a welcomed visit. On occasions when I am not in the city to show them around, I shoot out an email on things to see and do in Kuala Lumpur. This email has been circulated to friends, friends of friends of friends, travelers we meet on the road while backpacking...point being, it just makes sense to put it up on the web and direct people here. So without further ado:
Pretty, isn't it? But let’s be honest here. Kuala Lumpur isn’t exactly the most pedestrian friendly city. The heat and humidity is enough to kill you – if you haven’t already become road kill by crazy motorists intent on mowing you down. Drunk drivers abound between 2:00 – 5:30am. Be warned.
That being said, most sights are within walking distance. We’re slowly but surely improving, albeit a decade behind.
KLCC – Bukit Bintang strip. Walk there! It’s easy, and you’d be in the confines of air-conditioned bliss.
Go-KL City bus. Not only do you get to your destination for FREE, you get to experience the headaches and heartaches of locals stuck in traffic on a daily basis. Win!
To Do:
Can’t say I’ve tried this. However, seeing as the metro system and bus services leave much to desire (read: atrociously lacking), this is probably the most painless way to get a feel of the city. Expect to sit through mind (butt) numbing traffic.
2) Batu Caves (literally translated “Stone Caves”)
A series of Hindu cave temples, with the main attraction being the statue of Lord Murugan at the front. It's a bit far out from the city centre.
Beware when taking cabs to get here (read more in the To Be Aware Of section below). An unfortunate acquaintance of an acquaintance forked out 100 quid taking a cab from the city centre to Batu Caves!
Simpler alternative to get there: KTM. The most straight-forward way is to take the LRT to KL Sentral, then switching to the KTM to Batu Caves. The station is right beside the caves.
Come during the Hindu community’s annual Thaipusam and behold the sights of the devotees making their pilgrimage to the temple.
Do the Dark Cave Tour if you have moolah and time to spend. Claim to fame for being home to the rare trapdoor spider (spiders, bleurgh!) Wear attire you don’t mind covered in bat poo at the end of the day.
Bonus: Spiderman wannabes can scale the limestone walls at Batu Caves. Webbing not provided. Harnesses, climbing shoes, chalk and all that good stuff usually required in rock climbing highly recommended.
3) Petaling Street / Chinatown (茨厂街)
This is the place to head to for fake, black market stuff. Put your negotiation skills to use as the hawkers here hunt on foreigners with deep pockets. Tons of food options here (refer to “Food” section below!)
4) Petronas Twin Towers (interchangeable with and known locally as "KLCC")
What’s a trip to KL if you don’t head to the Twin Towers? Head up to the Skybridge for a breathtaking view of KL, that is, if you’re lucky enough to experience the rare, smog-free, blue skies day. Closed on Mondays.
There’s also a daily quota for visitors, so get to the ticket counters early. Check out the FAQ section of their website for more information.
5) KL Tower
There's an observation deck at KL Tower to get a view of the city if Twin Towers didn't satisfy it for you.
6) Day trip to Putrajaya
The federal administrative capital of Malaysia. The buildings in this area are pretty cool. Night sights are gorgeous. There is a Best of Putrajaya Tour for RM1.00.
If you're into kayaking, you can rent a kayak for RM10 there.
Heads up: This place is a PAIN to get to. Bring a GPS if you’re driving. I once spent 30 minutes looking for Precinct 18 (road signs pointed to us being in the right area/direction, which then annoyingly disappeared). In the end, we found out we were IN Precinct 18 without knowing it. D’oh!
7) National Mosque (Masjid Negara) in KL
Visit any of these mosques to check out the mosque's exterior/interior. Google for visiting times. Mosque is closed for non-Muslim tourists during pray times.
8) Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia
Off the beaten path of most tour groups. Located just three minutes walk uphill from Masjid Negara. A must-see for art lovers. This is a tremendous resource centre for Islamic studies featuring 12 main galleries exhibiting Islamic artifacts from around the world.
9) Shop!
There’s an abundance of shopping malls within the Golden Triangle catering to the electronics junkie, designers brand inclined, and the thrifty shoppers.
i) Low Yat Plaza
Seven story, 500+ retailer electronics bazaar. Regarded as “IT heaven” for some, and a place for outstanding bargains where you put your haggling powers to use.
Get an idea for the price of the product before entering this mall. The higher floors you go, the higher your negotiating powers (for me anyway). Beware of defective goods and/or pirated softwares (unless it’s your intention to purchase pirated goods on the first place.)
ii) Others
- Suria KLCC (underneath the Petronas Twin Towers)
- Pavilion Mall (featuring the gorgeous and tallest liuli crystal fountain in Malaysia)
- Berjaya Times Square (roller coaster within the mall? Heck YES!),
- Too many others to name
You might want to: Bring a light cardigan into the malls. AC’s are turned way low and malls are f-ing freezing! I’m saying this from the point of view of someone who’ve lived in sub-zero temperature countries before.
10) Eat!
Wikipedia has an extensive, very legit list of Malaysian cuisine. Your aim? Try everything out there! Dishes may not look fancy. In fact, they sometimes look downright unappetizing, but who cares when they’re OH-SO-GOOD.
This is a posh food court where the owner has brought in well-known hawker names in Malaysia who've been around for at least three generations. If you can't make up your mind and would like to try something that is out-of-this-world amazing and only available in Malaysia and Singapore, definitely try the Bak Kut Teh (肉骨茶). It’s porky goodness stewed for hours in herb, garlic and dark soy sauce to become this soupy deliciousness, eaten with rice and deep-fried dough (油条/油炸粿) Get there early!
Serves Malaysian (Chinese) Hainanese food. Lunch hours and weekends are mad. Closed on Mondays. All the stuff on their menu are great. My usual go-to is the Hainanese Chicken/Pork Chop. Also try their Hainan kopi (Hainanese Coffee).
3) Mamak restaurants
Much like the Brits have kebabs after a night of drinking, pizza for North Americans, the locals either hit up a Chinese stall for a second dinner or head to these 24 hour mamak restaurants for food at obscene hours in the morning. Try Roti Canai (You might know it as Roti Chennai or Roti Pratha), Roti Tisu (extremely tissue-thin version of the Roti Canai), Thosai, Mee or Maggi Goreng (you never knew a three-minute noodle packet can taste this bloody delicious!), Garlic Naan, Chicken Tandoori and Teh Tarik (literally translated to English "Pulled Tea"). Friends who’ve been here also particularly like “Teh O’ Ais Limau” (iced black tea with sugar and lime).
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| Roti tisu. When you need three plates to hold one food item, things get serious. Seriously good. |
4) Jalan Alor
The entire street is filled with hawkers. Prices are slightly on the higher end comparatively to other roadside stalls, since Changkat Bukit Bintang started expanding.
Food I usually order when friends come visit are: grilled ray, beef, lamb and chicken satay with peanut sauce, deep fried sotong (squid) with salted egg batter, Hokkien mee.
According to New York Times, Wong Ah Wah (aka. W.A.W; closed on Mondays), the restaurant with the Mickey Mouse logo at the end of the street (at the MRT construction end, away from Changkat), serves supposedly the best chicken wings.
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| Charcoal-grilled yumminess |
Caveat: I won't say it's THE best, but it sure ranks one of my top 5 places to eat for wings.
5) Hawker food in Chinatown. Try:
(i) Food from these article. Most stalls mentioned have withstood the test of time and now helmed by subsequent generations of the founders.
(ii) Ramly Burgers
Greasy, egg-y, mayonnaise-y, ketchup-y and all-round messy. More satisfying and fattening than McDonald's puny burgers! Don’t knock it unless you’ve tried it!
Filled with corn, butter and nuts. You'll probably come across three types, Apong (no filling, about the size of your palm), the soft ones (made in a humongous frying pan and cut into triangular pieces) and the crunchy ones (individual made, folded in half and sold.) You should be able to easily find stalls selling these in Petaling Street aka Chinatown.
6) Tenderloin steak @ Suzi's Corner
The best RM34.00 you'll ever spend. I've had friends, both local and foreign raving about this place for yonks. But being the pretentious, spoilt little brat that I am ("Not paying less than RM80 for good steak? In a grimy roadside stall? Pah! Not possible!"), it wasn't until two days ago, with visiting friends, I finally finally tried the steak at Suzi's.
Oh.My.F-ing.Foodgasm. Their medium-rare tenderloin steak with black pepper sauce is TO.DIE.FOR. The taste is going to haunt me forever. Go. NOW.
Oh.My.F-ing.Foodgasm. Their medium-rare tenderloin steak with black pepper sauce is TO.DIE.FOR. The taste is going to haunt me forever. Go. NOW.
Drinks:
With an alcohol “sin” tax of 20% imposed on alcohol, drinks are expensive. So is cover for places that charge cover.
Little do you know: While alcohol is banned in some predominantly Muslim states, the country’s population still consumes an extremely high level of alcohol (like, US$500million worth of alcohol) – so high in fact, Malaysia was named the 10th largest consumer of alcohol by the World Health Organization in 2011.
Bars
1) Luna Bar @ Menara Pan Global
2) Sky Bar @ Traders Hotel
3) The View Rooftop Bar @ GTower
4) Bars along Changkat Bukit Bintang
Great place to people watch. Happy Hours and specials vary from free drinks (usually for the ladies – what can I say? The drinking scene in Malaysia is sexist) or buy 1-free-1s. Be prepared to get ambushed by the servers, (“I make you good strong drink!”). My advice to walk the entire length of the street and settle on the best offer you can find.
1) Luna Bar @ Menara Pan Global
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| Luna Bar |
Listed as one of the World's 10 Best Rooftop Bars in this slightly outdated article. Great view and ambiance. Expensive drinks. Atrocious service.
Call in advance to get a table. Get there before 8:00pm to avoid cover charges.
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| Sky Bar |
Stunning night view – even better than Luna. No cover charge, but again, call in advance for a table by the window. Drinks and service aren't any more remarkable than Luna.
3) The View Rooftop Bar @ GTower
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| Yet another bar with a view of the Twin Towers |
4) Bars along Changkat Bukit Bintang
Great place to people watch. Happy Hours and specials vary from free drinks (usually for the ladies – what can I say? The drinking scene in Malaysia is sexist) or buy 1-free-1s. Be prepared to get ambushed by the servers, (“I make you good strong drink!”). My advice to walk the entire length of the street and settle on the best offer you can find.
5) Pubs & Bistros on Connection @ Pavilion Shopping Mall
Odd isn’t it? To have a strip of pubs lining the indoor boulevard of a shopping mall. But that’s how awesome KL is.
Clubs
Clubs tend to only start filling up after 11.45pm. In fact, now that operating hours are extended until 5:00am, word has it that people don’t start heading in until 1:00am. (Note: I don’t know this for a fact. I’m done with my clubbing days and have no interest in drunken debauchery and/or dancing up a storm on top of speakers or stages - which I may or may not have done so in my early-20's.)
Dress well. Guys are required by most clubs to be in long pants and shoes. Girls, wear skimpily and towering heels. Carding is most times non-existent, especially if you pre-booked in advance and purchase bottles and a table for the night.
Clubbing is slightly different in Malaysia comparatively to the North American/European countries I’ve been to. The main difference being that there are no seats/empty tables to mill around to rest thy tired feet should you want to catch your breath from dancing or just want a liiiiiiiiitle privacy to converse (is it conversation if you’re shouting at someone?)
Avoid:
§ Beach Club and Thai Club and Bistro located directly across the Twin Towers unless you’re into watching old sleazy men attempt to pick up girls young enough to be their granddaughters…or is it the other way around? Don't believe me? This is what a friend had to say on Facebook:
Go to:
§ Zouk. A 5-in-1 club that caters to all sorts of music tastes. Slightly further away, but very walkable from KLCC.
§ The Butter Factory. A newer club on the other side of KLCC that has opened up to rave reviews. LOUD music. Be prepared to be deaf and rocking a husky voice – if you have any voice left, that is – at the end of the night.
§ Rootz. Located on top of Lot 10 plays non-mainstream R&B, but tends to get super-packed. The bass of the music is so loud you can't hear the music if you're on the dance floor.
Notable clubs in Changkat Bukit Bintang:
§ Little Havana: For the salsa-inclined or just feel-good party tunes in general. Laid back vibe and less pretentious than any of the above clubs. One of the better clubs to head to for a fun night out.
§ Frangipani: Acclaimed French restaurant on top and hot nightlife at the bottom. The club’s motto is “Come one, come all!” Attracts the gay crowds on Friday nights. But hey, gay clubs are the bomb if you’re a straight female and don’t want men hitting on you!
Live music:
§ No Black Tie located on Jalan Mesui, a parallel street from Changkat Bukit Bintang.
§ Alexis @ the Great Eastern Mall, Ampang. Live music there can be a hit or miss.
Be Aware Of:
Snatch-thieves/muggers
Be cautious of your surroundings. Walk against the traffic. Keep an eye out for motorcyclists with pillion riders who suspiciously slow down as they come closer to you.
Girls with handbags; tourists with ginormous camera bags, beware. You want to put your bag on one side of the shoulder, not slung across your shoulders. Do not put up a fight if they snatch your bag. Your life is worth more than your wallet.
If attacked by someone on foot, throw your bag far away and run the opposite direction. Chances are they’re more interested in your bag than you.
Two words. Fanny pack. You’d look like a dork, but fanny packs are so ugly even snatch thieves, muggers and pickpockets avoid you.
Hell, I’ll give you another option. Money belt. You’d look oh-so-classy when you have to remove your money (Ew! Sweaty bank notes!), then try to inconspicuously (good luck!) stuff the belt into your pants/skirt again.
Cut-throat cab-drivers!
Tip #1: Download the MyTeksi smart phone app. Use that instead of the traditional ol’ way of flagging down passing cabs.
Tip #2: If you ignore Tip #1 (WHY are you ignoring Tip #1!? Get a prepaid local SIM card – it’s cheap! – for convenient 3G and phone services) and insist on taking a cab without prior planning, flag down passing cabs rather than take a ride with taxi drivers waiting around by the roadside, especially within the Golden Triangle area.
Ensure you haggle and settle on a price and/or the cab drivers are running on meter before hopping in. Be warned that they might take you around in circles if they are running on meter.
Tip #3: Take the public transportation.
Yes, this is a car-dependent city, but it’s not like you’re heading out to the suburbs anyway. Most places within the main city centre are (somewhat) connected by the trains.
I’ll hasten to admit it can get confusing with the many different metro system, some with the same name - LRT, I’m looking at you! Then there’s the Monorail, the KTM, ERL, and by 2016, the MRT (Wait, whaaaa…!?)
Top that off with buses that aren’t bound by timetables, you wonder whether you’d even get to where you want to go. But it’s really not THAT hard.
Tip #4: Call Me
No, I’m serious. Unless you are on some sort of weird carb/spice/whatever-free diet and/or you’re a bizzaro in general, I’ll be glad to show you around. Meals, drinks and fuel are on you in exchange for local knowledge, witty conversation, multi-lingual road-raging in the car (from my end, but you’re welcome to join in the verbal abuse too!). Heck, if I’m in a good mood, I might even volunteer to haggle for cheaper items on your behalf.
You are also bound by the unwritten rule that you will have to park the car if parallel parking is involved and show me around if I ever visit your country some time down the road. Deal? Awesome sauce.
Places to stay:
Avoid Chinatown/Petaling Street. Dodgy. Rats as big as cats. Flying cockroaches. ‘Nuff said.
This is not to say that other places are free of the above. But why choose a place when there are better places closer to the shopping and night action? If it were me, I’d focus more on the Bukit Bintang area. Tengkat Tong Shin, just around the corner from eating haven Jalan Alor and drinking and partying street Changkat Bukit Bintang, is lined with hostels and guesthouses for every budget.
For people wanting more privacy, wanting 5* facilities yet unwilling to pay 5* prices for 5* hotels, try AirBnB, especially the ones located in the KLCC/Pudu/Golden Triangle area.
Average Budget for a Day:
Eating in Kuala Lumpur can range from cheap to extremely expensive.
- Roti Canai at a mamak stall will only set you back RM1.20.
- A bowl of noodles from the hawker stall can be purchased for RM4.50.
- One steamed basket of dim sum for RM8.00.
- A plate of pasta from a posh-ish restaurant for RM25.50.
Drinking, in bars/pubs, at mentioned above, is extremely expensive. A pint of beer during Happy Hours ranges between RM15.00 – 20.00. Average prices outside Happy Hours are around or above RM22.00 per pint.
Little known tip: Go into Chinese stores selling herbs around Chinatown and check whether they sell canned beer (not many do). These places would sell it for cheapest, comparatively to grocery stores. Avoid 7-11 at all costs! Prices tend to skew on the higher side.
Disclaimer: None of the pictures in this post are mine. Thank you internet.
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