We left Singapore on a fancy VIP bus. Probably the nicest bus I’ve ever travelled on. There were 19 seats on a double-decker, with each passenger sitting in a massaging recliner, with plenty of space to relax. There was even a host onboard that served non-alcoholic drinks and food.

The comfort was appreciated because we ended up spending several more hours onboard than anticipated. Aghhhh!! The traffic was terrible and a five-hour journey ended up taking around nine hours.

Immigration to Malaysia was mostly uneventful, although we had a slight disagreement with customs as to whether four people could bring in five bottles of wine. The per-person limit is one liter, so the customs agent said that meant one 750-mL bottle per person. Corey saved our fifth bottle by pointing out that all five bottles combine to just three liters. After consulting with his boss and double-checking that math, we were allowed through. (We had some wonderful wines from our Marlborough tasting tour in New Zealand.)

We arrived at Berjaya Times Square at midnight. My brand new luggage piece was smashed by the hinge of the luggage compartment of the bus, but the driver tried his best to pop it back into place, and I think it will be okay. When we exited, the busy arterial street was loud and filled with travelers heading all directions. In that moment everything felt so chaotic! We squeezed the four of us and all our luggage piled to the ceiling into a taxi and checked in to our hotel.

A Tale of Two Cities

A quick aside to explore my musings on the differences between Kuala Lumpur (KL) and Singapore. I love both cities but they’re so different!

Singapore offers tourists more to do but some of that feels like a gimmick: things like light shows and fountain shows. Those things you can experience in any city with more than 50,000 residents. Kuala Lumpur has similar sights (markets, museums, and street food) but feels like there is less happening overall.

KL has an endearing authentic grime whereas Singapore has a lacquered veneer with bright lights that reminds me of Vegas: heck, the two casinos are owned by two names familiar in Vegas: Genting Group (Resorts World) and Las Vegas Sands (developer of the Venetian Las Vegas).

Singapore is very clean and orderly where KL does not have the same standards. The public transportation in Singapore is seamless and integrated. In KL it is a consolidation of various systems that were not designed as an integrated whole (you have to exit the monorail to get to nearby subway stations). Kuala Lumpur is without a doubt cheaper than Singapore, and is a great place to stay in 4- and 5-star hotels without completely breaking the budget.

Both cities offer incredible food options, especially in food court and street food environments!

After weeks of pondering, I still could not say which one I liked more because they’re just too different. So let me get back to telling you what we did while in KL.

Kuala Lumpur

We stayed at Hotel Stripes, a nice Autograph Collection Hotel from Marriott. I loved the view rooftop pool!

We were in a central location with tons of food options all a few steps from the hotel door. One day, I ordered Grab delivery and had a number of Malaysian dishes brought to our hotel in minutes, for under $10 USD. Both cheaper and more reliable than Uber Eats and the other delivery options back in the United States!

Food

We continued our gastronomic exploration throughout the city. We were giddy with excitement to pay around $5 USD for two for breakfast, including roti canai, nasi goreng (fried rice), and teh tarik (“pulled” tea).

Roti canai is my new favorite international dish. I prefer a basic butter or garlic roti but the chocolate glaze also hits the spot. Roti is about $1 USD and is served with a small scoop of mild curry on the side.

One night we feasted at Jalan Alor, a large and hectic street of hundreds of food vendors and restaurants. It is pretty touristy but worth checking out! We devoured skewers of meat, seafood, and grilled vegetables. Somehow we found room for mango sticky rice and coconut ice cream for dessert!

We also ate delicious Thai curries, and authentic Italian pizzas from Heritage Pizza, located in a fancy row of restored shop houses. These shop houses were located near our hotel and it was nice to have a variety of food options.

One night we ate Chinese-style hot pot but made some lousy and very spicy choices. (Malaysian Steamboat is a similar-style hot pot, but we did not try that until our next destination.) The red hot and very spicy chili oil turned out to be very spicy!

We walked the streets of Chinatown, a big backpacker area, and found Crane KL, a cute speakeasy with a balcony overlooking the street scene. The cocktails were great!

But the view was even better as we could watch tourists and hawkers mingle together on the street below.

Gardens

KL is not as green as other cities (like Singapore), but there is a large park complex called Perdana Botanical Gardens. The main area is free, but there are other specialized parks inside that charge a small admission fee. We started our first day at the Butterfly Park. It was a fun place to meander and see so many beautiful butterflies.

We then had lunch at Hornbill Cafe. As the name suggests, this restaurant is associated with, and located directly above, the large Kuala Lumpur Bird Park. It is one of the largest covered aviaries in the world, with an area around 21 acres. We did not enter the Bird Park as we did not have enough time to devote to a full exploration of the vast aviary.

Hornbill was a good cafe, with only slightly inflated pricing. But we got to see some neat birds perched closely to us. Some of them seem to have developed a taste for Malaysian food!

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through the gardens. It was fun to stroll through various areas like the sunken garden, herb garden, waterfalls and water features, and a deer park. Along the walkways, various exotic plants like the “sausage tree” and “cannonball tree” are well-labeled and described in English. There were some gardens on the map that were padlocked closed and appeared to have been left neglected during COVID times. Overall, we would pay another visit to Perdana and spend more time walking and exploring, especially the Bird Park.

Batu Caves

Corey and I took a side trip to the north of KL to visit an important Hindu site, the Batu Caves. The area has several gargantuan limestone caves, with the centerpiece being the elevated Temple Cave… you must climb 272 stairs to reach it!

We decided to hire a Grab driver early in the morning to beat the heat and the crowds. Fortunately, we also beat the monkeys. Batu is well-known as a monkey-infested area. To be honest, we have seen a lot of monkeys around temple sites and it’s not because they’re religious. These cheeky little bastards love to take the food from offerings, and they live to harass tourists.

We arrived as the sun was climbing in the sky, shining light on this beautiful site. Hundreds of colorful steps and a 140 foot tall statue of Murugan, an important deity for the Tamil people.

We walked up slowly and eventually made it to the Temple Cave. We respectfully looked around at the temples and carvings in the cave.

We then made our way down the steps carefully avoiding monkey poop and banana peels. We held hands as the incline was quite steep and I’m not known to be a graceful person. It was at this point in time that the monkeys arrived in a large swarm! I could see them racing and swinging their way over the hill and arriving on the steps for breakfast.

I snapped a few photos then smartly placed my phone in my pocket and focused on the task of getting down these stairs quickly. We were about 20 steps from the bottom when a monkey bared his teeth and lunged for me. I shrieked and panicked. Corey was still holding my hand and trying to keep me upright but I jolted while moving away from the monkey and partially fell. Corey’s strong arm kept me from skidding down the remaining steps but my ass did hit a step or two. Simultaneously, an employee ran toward us shaking a long stick with a freaky rubber monkey mask at the end. The monkey ran off and we were able to escape the crowd of monkeys. It was a scary experience. I don’t want to deal with rabies or a monkey bite! But I did not let the monkey skirmish ruin the beautiful morning.

There are other caves at the complex but they have separate entrance fees, and we walked down the path toward the commuter train station. Batu is far enough from KL-proper that it is beyond the KL Rapid system. The commuter train is fairly easy, but the tickets are only sold in cash at the station, and the online schedule is not necessarily accurate. We sat on the platform for some time before a train came and whisked us back to the city.

Markets

There are several food courts and markets around Kuala Lumpur. With only six nights in town, we barely scratched the surface.

We enjoyed walking through the Central Market, and it reminded me of Pike Place Market in Seattle. There were a variety of vendors and we picked up some fancy lobster cheese popcorn for a snack later.

We also wandered through Petaling Street Market and Chinatown after that. The streets were crowded but it was a great place to shop for basically anything your heart desired.

Architecture

The buildings in KL are so impressive! Four of the 25 tallest skyscrapers in the world are located in KL. Here’s a photo summary from our walks around town.

Next for us

Kuala Lumpur is a vibrant large city, and cannot be missed on a trip to Malaysia. Next we travel north, up the Malay Peninsula, and up in elevation, to the Cameron Highlands.

Sneak peek of our time in Cameron Highlands…it took us out of our comfort zone!