Kuala Lumpur
WHERE IS KUALA LUMPUR?
Kuala Lumpur is the capital city of Malaysia. It is located on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The most well-known places around the city are the Petronas Twin Towers and the Batu Caves. The city is also known for its delicious food, culture, and history.
TRAVEL COMPANION
Laura 😊
MY FAVORITES
Central Market - Batu Caves - Genting Highlands - Wet Deck
CURRENCY
Upon exiting the airport immigration, I withdrew 400MYR from the nearest ATM. Currently, one USD is 4.46MYR. Here is a link to see the current conversion ratio. I used cash to pay for street food, but almost every place we visited had card machines so I never felt stressed about having enough cash on hand.
BUDGET
On average, I probably spent about 50USD a day.
TIME OF VISIT
End of December
WEATHER
74 °F - 88 °F or 23 °C - 31 °C
CLOSEST MAJOR AIRPORT Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA)
KLIA was very easy to get from and to the center of Kuala Lumpur. The airport has a KLIA ekspres train that goes all the way to Central Station. This ride takes about thirty minutes and is very clean. From Central Station, you can get pretty much anywhere else in the city that you would like to go.
VISA REQUIREMENTS
It is not required for United States citizens to get a tourist visa if your stay in Malaysia is under 90 days. This requirement may have changed since I have written this post, so always double check the U.S. Department of State website for the most up to date information. You will however need to complete a Malaysia Digital Arrival Card (MDAC) prior to your arrival into the country. If you are entering Malaysia via an airplane, your airline should send you a link to complete the MDAC about 3 days before your scheduled flight. If you arrive through other transport means, you can access the link here.
TRANSPORT
We loved the public transport around Kuala Lumpur. We found it reliable, cheap, and very easy to use. We also felt safe using it at late hours of the day. They even had women only coaches on some of the transport lines which made us feel even more comfortable. On the occasions where we traveled further outside the city, we found Grab taxi to be reliable and cheap.
PACKING LIST
light and loose clothing - suncscreen - umbrella or rain jacket - swimsuit - sandals
ACCOMMODATION Sunshine Bedz
We loved our stay at Sunshine Bedz. In this hostel, we stayed in a 4-bed all women’s dorm room. The room had large lockers, amazing air conditioning, and they provided us towels. We had access to shared bathrooms and showers. There was a large common area, rooftop overlooking the city, a laundry service, and great hostel-organized events.
FOOD
Night Markets! (Jalan Alor Food Street) - Grumpy Bagels - Zhang Lala Mee Tarik (spicy hand pulled noodles) - MMM Café by Lesim
SHOPPING
Lot 10 - The Pavilion - Central Market
LANGUAGE Malay & English
Malay is spoken in Malaysia, but English is commonly understood and spoken within Kuala Lumpur.
GOOGLE MAPS PINS
Here is my Google Maps link for all of Malaysia and Singapore. You can zoom in to Kuala Lumpur to see only the locations around this area.
DAILY ACTIVITY BLOG
Day 1 (Saturday)
We left Nairobi on a direct flight to Kuala Lumpur, landing around 4PM. Getting through immigration was very easy. They had an automated gate where United States citizens could enter which made the process so quick. Once we were out of immigration, we found an ATM to withdraw cash for the next few days.
We then boarded the KLIA ekspres train to go to Central Station. This ride took about thirty minutes and the train was so clean. Once we got off in Central Station, we had two more public transport transfers before we arrived at Bukit Bintang, the city square where our hostel, Sunshine Bedz, was located.
The check-in was very simple and we were soon settling in to our room. We stayed in a 4-bed all women’s dorm. After quickly setting our things down, we were ready to explore by 7PM.
We walked and window shopped our way down Jin (Street) Bukit Bintang before turning onto Jalan Alor Food Street. This was one of my favorite night markets. It was well lit and decorated and they had pretty much any street food you could possibly want to try.
We tried ice cream, mango smoothies, green onion pancakes, cheese corn (my favorite), potato towers, and tanghulu (candied fruit). If you wanted to sit down and eat at an actual restaurant, there were multiple lining this street as well. I’d say the street food venders would be the better option though.
Around 10PM, we started to walk back to the hostel. The streets just kept getting busier the later it got which made us feel very safe walking around. We got to see many different types of vendors and street performers on our walk back. Some of the craziest things I saw were street piercers (like you could get anything pierced right there on the sidewalk) and a man with a variety of different large snakes.
Before getting to our hostel, we stopped at 7/11 to pick up waters. There are no shortages of convenience stores which is so nice. Back at the hostels, we showered and made our plans for tomorrow before calling it a night.
Day 2 (Sunday)
We started our day around 9AM. Our first stop was Shunde Hometown Taste SDN BHD, a local restaurant that was already busy when we arrived. I had my first white coffee of the trip here. Malaysian white coffee is made by roasting coffee beans in margarine / olive oil then mixing it with sweetened condensed milk / creamer and sugar. It was delicious!
For food, I enjoyed a salted egg bun and a sweet corn bun. Laura and I were surprised to find that the salted egg bun was a sweet bun and not a savory bun. They were both delicious though and we enjoyed the local feel of this restaurant.
From here, we walked to Grumpy Bagels. We ordered an everything bagel with cream cheese and a garlic with cream cheese bagel. We hadn’t had bagels since we left the United States, so we were overjoyed with these bagels. They were delicious.
From here, we began to shop 😊 Our first stop was Lot 10 Mall. It was about a week before Christmas, so they had a Christmas market set up on the main floor of the mall. This is where I did my shopping because I love to find locally made things on my trips. Here, I purchased the famous Southeast Asian flower hair clips. They have been all over my social media feeds so I had to purchase one while I was here.
We then walked down the street to The Pavilion, another mall. On the way, we ran into another Christmas market and I found a beaded thumb ring that I was very excited about.
In The Pavilion, we found some great food stops. I enjoyed Szechwan shrimp dumplings from one restaurant. On our way to sit down and enjoy our food, we ran into an Auntie Anne’s so we had to get more food for our lunch spread. I added on cheese pretzel bites and a lemonade. All of this was food I haven’t had in over a year and Laura and I were so happy.
After lunch, we walked to and through the park in front of the Petronas Towers. We continued walking into the mall under the Petronas Towers and out the other side so we could see the towers from all angles.
We really enjoyed the park, mall, and the Petronas Towers, especially since it was all free to view from ground level.
After this landmark, we headed over to Central Market and Kasturi Walk (more shopping). At the 7/11 near these spots, I found a slurpee and was able to enjoy it while I shopped.
In Central Market, I found a traditional hairpin. The saleswoman showed me how to put it in my hair and it stayed in my hair so well, I was very surprised. Our day of shopping ended around 10PM and then we went to go find food.
We headed back towards our hostel to Zhang Lala Mee Tarik for spicy hand pulled noodles. We still think about this dish, it was delicious. On the walk back to the hostel, I got fresh lemonade. Back at the hostel, we again showered and made plans for tomorrow.
Day 3 (Monday)
Laura and I started our day at 6:30AM so we could leave the hostel by 7AM. We stopped at McDonalds for breakfast, another luxury lacking in Kenya. From here, we boarded public transport to the Batu Caves. It was very easy to get to because the train goes straight there.
The Batu Caves are cathedral caves dedicated to a Hindu god. The statue in front of the rainbow stairs is the tallest statue of that Hindu god in the world. Before we headed to the main attraction, we took a side quest to the Sriramayana Cave.
It had interesting statues and lights inside, but we would have skipped this if we had known the Batu Caves were around the corner. We had thought we were entering the caves, woops.
When we walked up on the Batu Caves, it really was incredible to look at. The colors and the statue with the background of the lush rock formation behind it were really incredible. Entry was free, we just had to ensure that our shoulders and knees were covered. We walked up all of the steps and by the time we reached the top, we were at an extreme level of sweat.
I truly don’t think I’ve ever sweat more in my entire life. We enjoyed the views and the inside of the cave for as long as we could physically do it then headed back down to enjoy the air conditioning of one of the restaurants back at the bottom.
After cooling back down, we took the train back into town so we could go to Nu Sentral Mall (yes, central with an “s”). I purchased dry shampoo (another amazing find as Kisumu does not sell this), white curry from Mykuali, makeup remover wipes, face sunscreen powder (incredible if you don’t like the way normal sunscreen makes your face feel), a phone case, a toy fish for Nala, nail glitter, nail tape, and a compact travel mirror.
We then wanted to go to the National Museum of Malaysia because it looked very close on the map. The only problem was that there was no way to cross the highway separating the mall from the museum. Later we found out that the trick is to use the subway system entrances – they connect either side. Since we didn’t know this at the time, we took our first Grab taxi for a few bucks to get to the museum.
I think visiting this museum was worth it. It wasn’t too big and we learned quite a lot about Malaysian history which is always good to learn about when you travel to a new place. Most notably, we learned Malaysia began as Malay Kingdoms, Melaka being a major powerhouse (a Melaka blog is coming soon). We also learned they were colonized by the Portuguese first then the Dutch and finally the British.
When we finished walking through this museum, we took public transport back to our hostel square and ate at MMM Café by Lesim. This place was adorable and I highly recommend for some cute and traditional sweet treats. We ate frozen yoghurt cubes and matcha/strawberry bingsu. It was my first time trying all of these sweets. My favorite was the yoghurt cubes and Laura’s favorite was the bingsu.
We then headed over to The Pavilion again so we could go to Tokyo Street, a line of Japanese shopping stalls. Our favorite store here was Daiso, a Japanese dollar store.
After doing a bit of shopping here, we went to Din Tai Fung, a very famous Taiwanese restaurant chain found scattered in different places around the world. We had hyped this place up in our head and were so excited to try the food here that we were honestly a bit let down. While the food was definitely good, it just wasn’t as good as the street food we had been eating. I ordered shrimp and pork dumplings, vegetable and pork wontons, and Taiwanese spring rolls. My favorite was the vegetable and pork wontons. For dessert, we shared an order of chocolate xiao long bao and these were absolutely delicious. I would definitely recommend going to Din Tai Fung to try these. Once we finished dinner, we walked home, got ready for bed, and made plans for tomorrow.
Day 4 (Tuesday)
We woke up and were out the door by 7AM. We headed to the 7/11 for breakfast which consisted of an egg sandwich, chocolate bun, and flavored iced tea. We then took a Grab taxi to Awana SkyCentral. The taxi only cost us $20 which was amazing considering the ride was over an hour.
At Awana SkyCentral, we purchased roundtrip gondola / cable car tickets and had our own bucket going up to the top of the mountain to Genting Highlands.
This ride was amazing. The views were incredible. We went through two layers of clouds to get up there and you could see Kuala Lumpur in the distance. It was really beautiful.
When we arrived at the top, we walked straight to Genting SkyWorlds Theme Park. Laura and I had the BEST time here 😊 We were the first people to enter the park so we were greeted with the entry show.
It was cloudy all day so we did not have to wait for any of our rides because people were staying away from the possibility of rain. We rode as many rides as we could from 10AM-1PM then left to eat lunch inside of the massive mall that is connected to the theme park.
We ate at Five Guys which made my day even better. It was the best cheeseburger, fries, and milkshake I’ve had in over a year. After letting our stomachs settle, we re-entered the park and rode more rides from 2PM-5PM.
Our favorite rides were Independence Day: Defiance, Rivet Town Roller, Alpha Fighter, Pilots, and Acorn Adventure. We also rode on Samba Gliders, BlueSky Carousel, Rio Carnaval Chaos, Epic Hummingbird Flyers, Sia’s Rock’ N’ Slide, Ice Age: Expedition Thin Ice, and Invasion of the Planet of the Apes. We thought everything was so cute and well themed. When we finished our time here, we did some window shopping in the mall before heading back down the mountain on the cable car.
At the bottom, we got a taxi ride back to The Pavilion mall. This ride cost us $35, but still, a great deal for how long of a drive it was. At The Pavilion, we ate a light dinner of sushi at Ichi Zen. Here, I tried (and liked) inari kani mayo (sweet bean curd stuff with crabstick) and wasabi. I am so thankful for all of the new foods I’ve been able to try here. After dinner, we went to our local 7/11 for an ice cream bar to enjoy on our walk to the hostel. We again ended the night with a shower and plans for the next day.
Day 5 (Wednesday)
We started our day by going back to Central Market. My first stop was breakfast. I got an iced mocha coffee and a ham / cheese croissant.
Still in Central Market, we went to Ainna Artwork and colored our own batik paintings! Batik painting involves dyeing textiles by applying wax in a specific pattern to leave certain parts undyed. They had different sizes of canvases you could choose from, but Laura and I chose the smallest. This cost us each $4 which was such a great deal for how much fun we had.
I colored in tulips and Laura colored in a turtle. When we finished our batik canvases, they dried and packaged them for us which was so kind. While walking around Central Market for the last time, I found a pop socket and a phone wrist strap to go with my new phone case I purchased a few days ago. The pop socket is a black cat (for Nala 😊) and the wrist strap is beaded with flowers and leaves.
After shopping (again), I picked up a slushie from 7/11 for our walk to the post office so Laura could send her post cards. From here, we headed to the Petronas Towers and ate lunch in the food court.
For our drink, we enjoyed a Korean drink from a convenience store. You choose a cup of flavored (or normal) ice and a packet of liquid drink. I chose blue lemonade ice and a normal lemonade drink. It was so refreshing and such a fun thing to make! For food, I got a spicy Italian sub from Subway and it was delicious.
We then walked over to The Wet Deck and enjoyed a rooftop pool with a view of The Petronas Towers all afternoon. This was such a great experience. It only cost us $10 and they gave us a coconut drink, towels, and access to their fully stocked showers.
We left here around 6:30PM in search of dinner. We stumbled upon a Chili’s so we had to go. We shared chips and salsa and I got chicken fingers, French fries, and a strawberry lemonade. I was so happy. It all tasted exactly how I remembered from home which was amazing.
After dinner, we took public transport back to the hostel and met up with everyone for a ladies’ night pub crawl at 9PM. We went to three different bars and the gals got unlimited free drinks at each of them. I would be warry about events like this, especially in Southeast Asia, because there have been some recent tragedies with methanol poisoning. With that said, just stay safe out there ladies. We did have a really fun time meeting lots of new people and I appreciated how organized the pub crawl was. Laura and I called it a night around 2AM and headed back to the hostel to organize for our next city tomorrow.
WHAT I DID NOT HAVE TIME / $ FOR BUT WISH I DID
Broga Hill Park hike at sunrise - Putrajaya
