Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

We flew to Kuala Lumpur from Bali with our new favourite airline Malindo Air. We still love it even though our flight was delayed 2 hours. This is basically due to the free check in baggage, free meals (vego friendly), entertainment and it is the same price of Jetstar or Air Asia- What a win.

Flying into Kuala Lumpur was beautiful. I didn't have a window seat but I could creepily look out past my neighbour to see acres of row upon row of palm trees (I am yet to figure out what variety- as surely they have a purpose?).

Immigration was a breeze. The officer didn't even ask how long we were staying (I'm so glad we bought flights to Phuket for proof of onwards journey as all government websites said we needed). Our next mission was to get from the airport to our accommodation in China Town. We got a bit lost looking for the shuttle bus. On the way we came across some taxi drivers and asked for directions. They said “There are no shuttle buses to China Town” but for once we stood our ground and said that there definitely was. Yay! We are getting better at this travelling thing, and didn't get ripped off.. this time anyway. Shortly after we found star shuttle and paid 3 AUD pp to get to Pudu Sentral Bus Station, China Town. This took about one and a half hours. 

China Town Kuala Lumpur

China Town is pretty dodgy but centrally located. We stayed at Raizzy's Hostel. It had clean enough rooms but the toilets were less than desirable. Majority of toilets Luke and I have come across so far have had urine on the seats and water all over the floor - something we are slowly, slowly getting used to. You are welcome for the over-share by the way! 

We had two full days in Kuala Lumpur.

Day 1:

Batu Caves, KL Sentral Mall, Cinemas and China Town.

We woke up at 6am as we wanted to get to Batu Caves early before all the tourists as we new it's pretty popular and can get busy. We caught the LRT train from, Pasar Seni (one minute walk from our hostel) to Kuala Lumpur Sentral station where you can get the KTM line directly to Batu Caves. Well normally you can but the line was closed so we had a slight detour to catch a free shuttle bus to Sentul and then got back on the KTM line to Batu Caves. 

Batu Caves

Once we were finally there the statue out the front and cliffs out the front of the caves are spectacular. The stairs up to the caves are pretty precarious so I went very slowly (Luke was very patient with me, as usual). The caves themselves have shrines inside and have lost somewhat of the natural beauty because of this. Our highlight of going to the Batu Caves was a nearby Indian vegetarian restaurant where we had the best roti and curry ever. 

We went back to KL Sentral Station which has a shopping mall connected to it. We decided to live the high life went to the movies to watch the new avengers movie for 4 AUD pp. Unfortunately Luke got a migraine so he went and slept for the rest of the day. 

For dinner we went to China Town where it was ridiculously hard to find vegetarian options. That and we saw multiple rats around many of the vendors. We finally found somewhere and ordered tofu and fried rice. This turned out to be crab tofu (who knew that was a thing?) Its safe to say we will not be back to that restuarant. Dessert was the best as there is heaps of fresh fruit stands around so we got to gorge on pineapple and mango. 

Day 2

Botanic Gardens, Petronas Towers, KLCC mall, Central Markets and Vegetarian Indian for dinner.

The sun didn't come out until 7am so for the first time this trip I slept in, until 8am that is. The day started off with a walk to the botanical gardens where we enjoyed the orchid and hibiscus garden. The botanic gardens themselves are pretty weird with roads and random buildings throughout. There wasn't many walking trails where you could just enjoy the natural beauty. 

Hibiscus

Hibiscus

Butterfly

Orchid

Our next tourist destination was the Petronas Towers or the twin towers (we caught the LRT rail from Pasar Seni to KLCC). In front of the towers is Titiwangsa Lake Garden which we enjoyed more than the botanic gardens. Here we witnessed one of the strangest things Luke and I have come across. The gardens themselves are the size of one (maybe two) aussie rules footy fields with walking tracks throughout and water features, this was all beautiful. But there was thousands and I mean thousands of people young and old and every single one was plastered to their phones  (up to three per person). It freaked us out. We then finally realised that they were all playing pokemon go! Who knows if there was a tournament or something but this was the only place in Malaysia we witnessed this.

Petronas Towers 

The rest of our afternoon consisted of walking around the central markets which are filled with beautiful textiles (if we were going home I would have bought MANY items). Instead I bought one persian silk scarf (Thanks to Luke for letting me splurge). Dinner was delicious at Sangeetha Vegetarian Restaurant. 

What are our thoughts on KL? We went from loving it one minute to hating it the next to loving it yet again. It is a sprawling city full of diversity in cultures and architecture. We enjoyed our time but glad we only had two days and won't be back. 

Next stop Cameron Highlands, inland Malaysia.

Love, 

Claire and Luke (Luke was doing yoga whilst I wrote this, that counts as a co-author right?)

Yogi Luke, Frame Homestay Georgetown Malaysia