Second Time Round in Kuala Lumpur

This Time it’s Different

We stopped over in Kuala Lumpur nearly 4 years ago on our way back from Thailand as my birthday treat.  Back then there was a limousine waiting for us at the airport to whisk us away to our 5 star hotel.  From then on it was taxi’s, mini bus and private tours as well as beer, wine and cocktails.

We couldn’t be further from the above on this visit.  We had 5 nights booked at a 3 star hotel and we had to figure out the cheapest and quickest transport from the airport.

We did a lot of research on things that we hadn’t ticked off the list with the first visit and wasn’t going to sink the budget at the same time.

This is How We Did It 

Airport Transfers

No limousine waiting for us this time.  We booked our seats on Air Asia Sky Bus.  You can travel on this bus whether you are flying Air Asia or not.  It leaves every 30 minutes outside the terminal and takes you direct to KL Sentral where you can generally carry on with your onward travel by train or taxi to your destination.

We compared this with train transport from the airport but it worked out a lot cheaper – bus 10.50MYR ($3.50nz) each compared to 55MYR($18.40nz) each.  The bus trip took us close to 1 hour but it was a good run with the traffic as it was a Sunday.  Different story week days though.

You can book on line at www.skybus.com.my.  You can then just show them confirmation on your phone on arrival at the ticket office at the airport.

It was then a taxi to our hotel which was only a 15 minute drive and it cost us 7MYH ($2.34).

Mastering the Rail System

Always a challenge at first with any large city but we are firm believers that if you can crack the trains/buses then you are well on your way to having the freedom to visit all the spots you want to visit and really getting the feel for the city.

There are a couple of options for train travel in KL.  Monorail, Light Rail and Subway (also known collectively as Rapid Rail).  There was

one card (The Rapid Card) but didn’t cover all rail transport so we decided to go for Touch N Go Card which we purchased from KL Sentral.  We believe that the fares are discounted when using this card but you can just keep topping up the card as you need to.  This card can also cover buses, road tolls and even some food purchases at various outlets.

After witnessing the roading network during the working week, the trains would be our recommendation as it is very much like Bangkok where the roads turn into parking lots and there is a lot of time spent sitting in queues of traffic.

This is another reason why we didn’t use the free tourist bus that circumnavigates the city.  There are two buses, one is free and the other is the Hop On Hop Off bus which is 45MYR per person.  We figured that we would be spending more time sitting in traffic than getting to the attractions we wanted to see.

We got everywhere we needed to go by train or walking as they also have an amazing covered raised KCC walkway which goes for kilometres above the roads and you can easily wander from one side of the CBD to the other…….amazingly simple yet so efficient.  This was well used by the locals and tourists.

Highlights of Our Stay

Bukit Bintang Food Night Markets

You all know that we are street food fanatics.  This famous food night market is a must to visit when in KL.  Luckily it was either a one stop train trip or a stroll from our hotel.  It is a long street lined with food stalls as well as restaurants set off the road.  Be warned however, that the restaurants are not food stall pricing as we found out.  It was a particularly wet night so we decided to seek shelter and eat in one of the restaurants within the food market.  The meal and beer cost us over 100MYK ($34)    which doesn’t sound expensive but considering most of meals was costing us 20MYK ($6nz) on average, it was a blow out for the budget.  And it really wasn’t anything special to rave about which is a shame.  Lesson learnt.

KL Bird Park

After doing some reading up on this Bird Park and understood it to be the home to more than 3,000 birds and the largest walk through aviary in the world.

We caught the train part way then walked the rest – with some rather steep uphill leg work, a few kilometres and searing heat it was

challenging to say the least.

On arrival we discovered that it was 67MYR each to get in but it was one of those moments that we had worked so hard to get there and read so much about it we thought we might regret not going through.

Unfortunately we did discover that there were still quite a number of birds in captivity and we felt that they could do more to ensure the birds had more freedom to fly around in a natural habitat.  Sure enough there were some free flight zones for some of the birds but not all.

This was the most expensive attraction that we went to during our stay and we did not feel that it was worth paying such a high entrance fee.

Royal Malaysian Police Museum

This was a lucky find as this museum next door to the Bird Park.  It was free to enter and we spent a considerable amount of time here wandering around the displays and learnt a lot of information on the history of the Maylasian Police with displays of old police uniforms and equipment, police force’s vehicles including investigations into triads, secret societies and communists. 

It was a good find and we would recommend a visit when in KL.  Click here for more information.

Petronas Towers

Well, not much more to say about the most photographed and iconic building in KL.  The Petronas Towers loom up high above the skyline of tall buildings.  We had been on the tour up the towers the last time we were visiting so didn’t go there again.  We did however pay the towers a visit at dusk to take in the grandeur and the water light show.  It was amazing to watch and would recommend a visit.

KL Tower and Grand Hyatt Hotel

The decision was made to go up the KL Tower on this visit seem we weren’t doing Petronas Towers.  I found a 15% discount card at the hotel so it cost us 88MYH ($29.45nz) for both to get to the Observation Deck.  It would have cost us double this if we wanted to go to the outdoor level so we didn’t think it was worth the extra.  The views of the city were great, 360 degrees as you wander around the circular venue.  The Sky Tower in NZ is 220 metres and this tower is 420 metres.  It took 12 years to build and is primarily a communications tower.

During our research we read about being able to visit the Grand Hyatt Hotel 37th floor and looking across the city sky line.  Our dress code wasn’t quite up to being able to sit at the bar for a drink so it was a walk around to admire the view and back down again before anyone noticed.

Batu Caves

We didn’t visit the caves last time and it sounded like it was worth a visit out to the caves.  It is the last stop on the train…..how hard can it be.  More tricky if you get on the wrong train!  After a couple of hiccups we managed to get ourselves onto the right track and we made it there.  The caves are situated right at the train station so after navigating your way through the hawkers it is just a short walk to the main cave.  That doesn’t include the 272 steep stairs to climb to get into the vast chasm of the cave opening.

Be prepared to be a little underwhelmed by the tacky painting of the walls, the commercial activity going on in the cave and some crass decorations.  However all this aside, it is an impressive sized cave with some Hindu temples, lots of monkeys and some natural beauty.  It is free to enter the largest of the caves but there are entrance fees into some of the other caves on site.  Remember to dress appropriately to cover knees and shoulders or bring a sarong.  You can hire sarongs for around 10MHY.

Click here for more information. 

We enjoyed getting to know KL and checking out the places we missed the first time we visited.  Enjoy the video showing the highlights (and challenges) of us getting around this massive city.