Traveling to Malaysia

[Margarita Stine]

Which place should I visit in and near Kuala Lumpur?

[Ed P]

There are lots of places on that peninsular that are within a day-trip of KL, or do you mean within KL itself, or do you mean the whole peninsular?

I spent long enough in Singapore to be able to get permanent residence so I know KL fairly well, but to give a reasonably concise answer I would need to know your general interests e.g. cultural, sightseeing, history, photography etc.

If your question is the Malay Peninsular in general then you would need to hire a car and travel around a bit. (The roads are generally very good, the other drivers not  — bribery to pass the driving test was not unknown !)

Note my opinions are now nearly 20 years out of date, and things change especially city centre traffic density (now fairly horrible I believe).

[edit] Cheating a bit, this link is pretty good for the usual touristy things. If you are interested in tech I’d ask a taxi driver to take you to Lo Yat Plaza. In all shopping markets be prepared to bargain like crazy and pretend to be an expat rather than an easy meat tourist.

My first link includes a lot of Street Food experiences. Do try and be cautious about where you eat. KL is mid-way between super safe and hygenic Singapore and Bankok where street food can be a real problem. Avoid ‘harm’, Malay lingo for clams it is really well named and can give you a nasty bout of hepatitis A -Just say ‘no harm’ in any serving of Laksa.

If sampling the food do try and sample both Penang and (my favourite) Peranakan food. To give your stomach a healthy start try and get a glass of Lassi on your first evening. The friendly bugs in this yoghurt-based drink really do help.

[Ed P]

Thinking about it, I probably misspelt ‘harm’ it probably was actually  ‘haram’ which is the Malay word for ‘forbidden by Islam’. Whatever the word, avoid molluscs of any sort as they are great filter feeders and most prolific where there are none too sanitary outfalls from cities such as Johor Bahru.(JB).

Probably best if you make sure you tell your GP where you are going and get the appropriate Hepatitis jabs in addition to anti-malaria. On that latter score I personally avoid all the mefloquine varieties (was a UK GP favourite) as it is well known to cause depression and other mood nasties. As HuffPost states it is a neurotoxic! Both my wife and I had very nasty side-effects from it. UK GPs are generally not on the ball with this problem, so beware and read around the subject of anti-malarials

[Ed P]

In and around the peninsular the following are interesting places.

a) East Coast beaches/turtles etc — Cherating. I’ll leave you to Google these places.

b) Camaron Highlands — go for a temperate break. Great tea, but lots of Casinos which can be a cheap place to stay if you can avoid temptation. (All the different teas are worth exploring)

c) Kukup – ethnic fishing village. The mainly ethnic Chinese look like everyone’s mental image of a Straits Pirate (and some may be!)

d) Malacca – Interesting, a slight step back in time.

e) Penang/Georgetown — go if you can.

f) Singapore – fantastically modern city but darned expensive and crowded. Very interesting place for rich tourists, great place to live as an expat.

If your budget allows do fly to Kochin, and Sabah and take a hike up Kinabalu. link

Imo avoid Terranganu, the almost entirely Muslim population are quite extreme in their religious observances unlike most of Malaysia. They were rumoured by the Thais to be engaged in terrorist activities across the Thai border.

Also avoid the Sepang F1 course – it is miles from anywhere and quite boring outside race-time.

 

 

[Alan Wood]

If your budget allows do fly to Kochin

 

I think you mean Kuching. If so I can thoroughly recommend it. I spent 2 years living there in the 60s and they were probably among the best two years of my life. I still have contact with friends I made there.

[Richard]

If you do decide to travel check all medicines of any kind against the list of possible problem types; they can get you arrested.

[Bob Williams]

Alan Wood wrote:

If your budget allows do fly to Kochin I think you mean Kuching. If so I can thoroughly recommend it. I spent 2 years living there in the 60s and they were probably among the best two years of my life. I still have contact with friends I made there.

+1.

And I am well out of date (1965) but I had a great time in the smaller fishing villages. Borrowed a Land Rover at weekends/whenever and took as many cig’s as I could carry. I am possibly responsible for nicotine addiction amongst Malay fisher folk, but it was currency then. Fond memories of a friendly, welcoming people who had very little but would share it with you.

 

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Ed P]

Like half these places spelling is arbitrary and what you are used to seeing. Other than this thanks for the correction – I should perhaps have said Kuching for its cats,

[Margarita Stine]

Thanks guys for your tips I will keep it in mind. BTW, where is the best and safe place to stay in Kuala Lumpur? Is it safe to walk along the famous Jalan Alor Night Market?

Also, I have been to Singapore several times so I guess I will skip that one.

[Ed P]

KL is generally safe in the well-lit tourist areas. However as usual, avoid displays of copious wealth and clutch your handbag (New York style) under your arm. My wife used to eschew the bum-bag style of safeguarding things as nothing marks you out more quickly as a tourist, and she used to like bartering.

[Margarita Stine]

I am planning to use a backpack while roaming around the city, as it has plenty of secret pocket wherein I can put my important belonging.

[Ed P]

A backpack is fine and will give you plenty of security. I guess if you pretend to be one of the myriad of impecunious Asia back-packers it is even OK for bartering!

As said, KL is safe. What you are planning is OK even for the snatch and grab capitals of Ho Chi Minh city and Ha Long Bay. Those can be quite challenging areas if you get off-course. A friend of ours wears ‘gold’ rimmed specs and she even had these stolen in Vietnam – most inconvenient! That said, even the safest of cities has some scary areas if you wander away from the main tracks – Washington DC had areas that made me feel distinctly uncomfortable.

[Tippon]

Ed P wrote:

Washington DC had areas that made me feel distinctly uncomfortable…

I’m not surprised – it’s full of politicians! ?

[Margarita Stine]

Do you think that I need to get an MY sim card?

I have heard about the taxi problem so I was thinking of booking a grab or uber.

[Ed P]

Sorry, as I said I am 20 years out of date. When I was last there getting a taxi was easy. Try Tripadvisor for that info. Google Malaysia ‘handphone’ and you will get all you need to know on SIMs. AFAIK most UK providers will have a roaming contract with Malaysia.

I just remembered, even 20 years ago Malaysia was the home base for card skimmers, I would guess that they are now even more sophisticated and have cracked the chip (there are known vulnerabilities in the Bank chips that Chaos Computer Club revealed but Banks maintain the calumny that they are secure). This link has some advice, but add to that a Faraday cage-type wallet for your cards as Bonk & Pay is even insecure in the UK, and proving your contactless card has been electronically skimmed could be a real challenge. European Banks have their heads in the sand and rely on monitoring vendors for suspicious transactions rather than improving their naff card security.

[Margarita Stine]

Thank you Ed P, I will take note of your tips and let my buddy read it as well so we will learn how to survive the environment in Malaysia. I just hope that everything will turn out fine.

[Author]

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