We arrived in Kuala Lumpur with no expectations at all, not sure what Malaysia’s capital would be like after the Philippines and compared to the other Asian cities we know. We spent four full days here and we absolutely loved it. The mix of cultures, of old and new, modern and traditional, the variety of food – and all this while being much calmer than cities like Bangkok or Hong Kong.
Maybe a short note here before going into details: we like to walk around in cities; if you replace walking with Grab or the metro, you can certainly move around faster. Since we walked a lot in the heat, we also took a couple of hours to rest in the afternoon. We think that you should spend at least 3 days in Kuala Lumpur. What we did in four days could certainly be done in three (we spent about half a day at the Thai embassy), maybe even in two if you really speed it up. But the fewer days you stay, the less meals you have – which is a pity! Here is our itinerary in a nutshell:
Day 1: Bukit Bintang – Masjid Jamek – Merdeka Square – Petaling Street – Central Market
Day 2: (Morning at Thai Embassy) – Sri Maha Mariamman Temple – Lake Gardens
Day 3: Eco Rimba Park – KL Citywalk – (back to Thai embassy) – Bricksfield – Thean Hou Temple
Day 4: Batu Caves – Old China Cafe – Kampung Baru
One of the first things we notice when we start our visit in the morning is that it is insanely hot and humid. You wouldn’t think that after four weeks in the Philippines this would bother us – but with no wind and no sea in sight, the heat feels different.
We brave the heat anyway and walk from our hotel close to Chinatown towards the fancy district of Bukit Bintang, and its “Times Square”. This wouldn’t usually be our first place to stop, but we are so happy to find the air-conditioned, fancy malls there, where we run a few errands before having a delicious lunch.
After lunch, we circle back towards the hotel and visit Masjid Jamek, one of the many beautiful mosques in Kuala Lumpur. Just across the river, Merdeka Square with the Sultan Abdul Samad building creates a beautiful contrast to is backdrop of skyscrapers.
It’s definitely time for a nap now (this would become a habit here, usually between 14-16h – it’s just too hot!) before heading towards Petaling Street – a buzzing market in Chinatown where you can buy clothes and souvenirs, and any kind of fake brand sunglasses and bags you’d like.
On our way towards the hotel, we stop for dinner at the Central Market. This is a covered market with shops selling souvenirs and batik clothes, as well as a food court with mostly Malay food.
The next morning we have a mission: get a visa for Thailand, which will be our next destination. We spend a couple of hours at the Thai embassy until we get called to hand in our documents and passports, as well as pay a fee of around 30€/person. After a seemingly endless walk (always make sure that you actually can cross the street you’re walking on without risking almost certain death), we enjoy a wonderful Indian lunch, before heading towards the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple .
One nap later, we are on our way to the Lake Gardens. They cover a huge area with a bird park, deer park, and butterfly garden, as well as some museums. We only get to see a glimpse of it, but it seems to be a haven for locals to come for a refreshing walk or run, away from the busy streets.
Once more we stop at Central Market for dinner, this time just outside in the Kasturi Walk.
Besides the Lake Gardens, Kuala Lumpur has one other “green lung”, the Eco Rimba Park – almost a jungle in the city. Trails and Canopy Walks lead through a surprisingly dense forest, just next to KL Tower. We are hoping for an escape from the heat, and while it’s maybe a little cooler, there is one problem: mosquitos! This is the most savage attack of the little beasts during our travel so far – and we are not prepared for it.
Sweaty and itching all over, we get changed, have lunch (yum) and make our way back to the Thai embassy. A short while later, we proudly hold our passport with the visa, that will allow us to stay up to 60 days.
We finish the afternoon by walking through Little India, a colourful street in an area called Bricksfield. Bollywood music, colourful shops and delicious smelling restaurants line the street.
Unfortunately, it’s not yet dinnertime and we have one more destination: the Thean Hou Temple, situated in a residential area of Kuala Lumpur, with a wonderful view of the city. The Buddhist temple is beautifully decorated and while we imagine that it can get quite busy, there are only a few other visitors.
We are done with walking for the day (almost) and take a Grab (see below) back to the city. We asked to be dropped at Jalan Alor, a street full of restaurants, and known for the hawker stands at the nightmarket. The food here is known to be good, but the eager restaurant owners and waiters shoving menus in our faces don’t really inspire us. We make one last effort and walk over to Petaling Street, not sure if we find anything there, but knowing that we have the Central Market as our backup option on the way home. We are in luck: while Petaling Street is a busy, touristy place, the focus here is on the clothes and souvenirs, so the food stalls and restaurants are more low key. We sit down at one of the simple restaurants and enjoy a delicious dinner (although, note to self: remember that tofu dishes aren’t automatically vegetarian in Chinese cuisine).
The next morning, we go a bit further afield, to the Batu Caves, about 30 minutes by train from Kuala Lumpur Sentral. This cave is a Hindu shrine, which you can reach by climbing almost 300 pretty steep steps. Guarded by an impressive over 40 metre high golden statue, the cave holds two temples – and a bunch of monkeys!
We have lunch at a so-called banana leaf restaurant. With your food, you receive a plate with a banana leaf, on which locals eat their food with their hands (we try our best). This, by the way, has nothing to do with the level of fancyness of the restaurant. It’s a traditional way of eating here.
After our nap and some errands, we head over to the Old China Cafe – a building from the early 1900s with many original furniture items – which you enter through a saloon door. For a place with such hipster potential, it is really quiet here. When we enter around 4pm, we are the only guests and are joined only by a couple of people during the hour or so we spend here. The coffee is delicious.
Kampung Baru is a Malay village in the middle of Kuala Lumpur, resisting destruction for the sake of skyscrapers. On our last evening, we head there for a little stroll (we wanted to come for the nightmarket but notice that it is only on Saturday). You find yourself in a truly suburban setting, with the most famous skyscrapers of Kuala Lumpur just across the river. You can enjoy a dinner with a view of those skyscrapers without being up high at all.
After four days of sightseeing and eating we are ready, well, for some more of that, as we are off to Georgetown, Penang. See you there!
Activities and Sights
One of the great things was that all of the things we did were free! We only paid a few cents to the guy who kept our shoes while we visited the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple.
Petronas Towers and KL Tower (Menara)
If you want to go into the towers, you need to pay, of course. But we didn’t really see the point as when you’re inside you can’t see them, but from many other points of the city you can (for free).
Eco Rimba Park
A canopy walkway and a few trails lead through this veritable jungle in the city. You can spend a couple of hours here, please don’t forget mosquito protection (we’re still itching just thinking about it). The trails aren’t difficult, but maybe trainers are better than flipflops.
Lake Gardens
We just took a walk as the attractions were already closed around 5pm or so. There are a butterfly garden, an aviary, a deer garden, a botanical garden, a planetarium and probably a few other things! These attractions ask for an entrance fee, but the park itself is freely accessible.
Masjid Jamek and Merdeka Square
It’s nice to walk around the mosque (especially outside). There are very friendly guides inside who can answer any questions you may have. Appropriate clothing is handed to you at the entrance, for free. Then just cross the river to Merdeka Square.
Batu Caves
You can take a Komuter train from KL Sentral or Kuala Lumpur (the former has a metro connection). The journey takes about half an hour and costs 0.5€/person. Check the timetable – our guidebook had mentioned that the trains leave every 15 minutes but at least for that day it wasn’t the case and we waited for about 45 minutes. Alternatively, take a Grab – we took it on the way back, cost us around 4€. You can access the shrine and the main cave for free; if your knees aren’t covered, you may be asked to rent a scarf to make a skirt. There is a temple inside the cave with an entrance fee, and other caves and a villa at the bottom of the stairs, which charge as well. It wasn’t very busy when we visited but generally it is advised to come early, also because of the heat.
Sri Maha Mariamman Temple
One of the most beautiful Hindu temples, especially from the outside. No entrance fee, but you need to take off your shoes and leave them in a cloak room for about 5 cents.
Thean Hou Temple
This was one of our favourite places to visit – what a beautiful temple. We went around 5pm and it was very quiet and peaceful. We assume it can get busy, especially around Chinese New Year. No entrance fee. We walked over from Bricksfield (20 minutes or so), but it’s not a particularly pleasant or interesting walk, so would recommend taking a Grab. We took one back into the city for around 3€, from Bricksfield it would certainly be cheaper.
Bricksfield
Colourful Indian neighbourhood. We just walked through, but would certainly be a good place for food and shopping.
Kampung Baru
Travel back to the time before Kuala Lumpur was made of skyscrapers. Have a little walk and then have dinner with view of the KL skyline (see below).
Shopping (though also worth a stop if you don’t want to shop)
Central Market
The covered market sells souvenirs and a lot of textiles and batik clothing. There is also a used book shop with lots of cheesy novels, but also some crime and other stuff. We liked the market because it was a bit less frenetic than Petaling Street. There’s also a place to do passport photos, which we needed for the Thai visa, and which is how we discovered Central Market in the first place.
Petaling Street
In the heart of Chinatown, a busy market with all sorts of fake sunglasses, bags or football jerseys, as well as your usual elephant print holiday outfits. Haggling recommended.
Bukit Bintang Malls
We went to Pavilion to stock up on Lush shampoo, also stopped by the Sephora outside. We were really impressed by this fancy mall so if we were interested in upmarket shopping right now, we would definitely spend more time here! The food court in Pavilion, as well as neighbouring Fahrenheit mall, is supposed to be good.
Food
We think that it’s probably pretty difficult to not eat well in Kuala Lumpur. We particularly liked the area around our hotel, with a lot of banana leaf restaurants and simple eateries that seemed to be a local lunch time favourite.
Hamza Cafe vs Kandar (Bukit Bintang)
A Biriyani restaurant, just down the street from Sephora. You can choose from the counter. Frequented by a local crowd on their lunch break. Good veggie options and really cheap, despite the fancy area.
Central Market
There are a few restaurants and cafes, as well as a Food Court with mostly Malay food. Our favourite was Penang Hotpot. Outside of the Central Market, on Kasturi Walk, there are also a few options, mostly fruit and dessert, but also some noodles etc. We often got a few samosas there.
Petaling Street
Good for Chinese food, duh. We had excellent noodle soup, both veggie and non-veggie – unfortunately we don’t know the name of the place. Plenty of options, so surely you’ll find your happiness.
Jalan Alor
As said, we didn’t eat here but it’s renowned for Chinese food.
KL City Walk
We walked by here and there were a lot of options, in case you’re around during lunchtime.
Chapati House
Next to our hotel – delicious chapati with veg and daal, and you can add meat if you like.
Betel Leaf
Just behind our hotel, delicious as well. It was super cold in there, so bring a sweater or scarf.
Passage thru India
Close(ish) to Bukit Bintang, renowned Indian restaurant. A bit more upscale, but absolutely affordable. Delicious!
Kampung Baru
Plenty of Malay restaurants. We ate at Thon Pai – it was delicious, but the menu is only in Malay, so good luck. 😉 There is a nightmarket on Saturday.
Soong Kee’s Beef Ball Noodles
Our Grab driver from the airport recommended this place. We walked by a few times – it was always buzzing with people. They don’t have any veggie soup, unfortunately. Brice really enjoyed the beef noodle soup.
Old China Cafe
We had delicious Malay style coffee here. Food is supposed to be good, a little pricier. Really nice setting.
Where to stay
We loved our hotel 1000 Miles (26€/night). The location was perfect, close to Chinatown and a small Indian neighbourhood, and in walking distance to many sights. It was also less than five minutes to the metro. Our room was comfortable and quiet. They offer a small complimentary breakfast (toast, jam, cereal) and tea and coffee are available all day. There is a fruit vendor right next door, so we pimped our breakfast with mangoes, bananas, and avocados. If you need something different, there is a coffee place just across the street. There are restaurants to both sides of the hotel, mainly Indian but also Chinese, frequented by a local crowd on their lunchbreak. The hotel also has a rooftop from which you can admire the Petronas Towers and the KL Tower. There is a laundry place just a few metres down the street. The staff are superfriendly and helpful. Big recommendation!
Getting around
When we didn’t walk, we took Grab or the metro. Grab is more or less like Uber for Southeast Asia. The only difference is that you know the exact price the moment you confirm your ride (with the exception of tolls), and you can also pay by cash. We used it from the airport and it cost 14€ (65MYR, fixed price from the airport) plus around 2€ (10MYR) of tolls. Note that if you are two or more people, this is cheaper than the airport express (around 12€/person), but it may take longer. For other rides around the city, we paid between 1-4€ (the furthest was from Batu Caves). For the metro, you choose the line and destination on the screen of the ticket machine and pay according to distance. It starts at around 35 cents. You receive a token, which opens the gates and which you insert when you exit at the stop – no waste created. If you use the metro more often, you can look into getting a Touch and Go card to reload.
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