Malaysia is a melting pot of cultural diversity; a vibrant and rich electic mix of people and cultures. You will find Malays, Indians, Chinese and many other ethnic groups all living together in one of the most peaceful multi-cultural regions in the world.
First stop, Kuala Lumpur (KL): the bustling, sprawling, cosmopolitan capital. KL is located in west-central Peninsular Malaysia.
I am not a city girl but it was impossible not to fall in love, KL is a really cool city. Probably one of my favourite cities ever visited. It’s modern, clean, and safe, with an all year round tropical rainforest climate.
Glittering skyscrapers and lush green rainforest parks – KL strikes a great balance. It is the only city in the world to have a natural rainforest in the centre. KL’s modern skyline is dominated by the stunning 451m-tall Petronas Twin Towers – the city’s most iconic building that once was the tallest building in the world.
Food, Glorious, Food
My favourite thing about KL – people here know how to eat. KL’s multi-ethnic population lends itself to plethora of incredible culinary options. There is so much delicious, top-notch Asian food here it makes me salivate just thinking about it.
You don’t need to visit expensive restaurants to eat the best food because the street food is the real star of the show. We could not wait to indulge, and what better way than doing a Food Tour with a local. One of my absolute favourite things to do when visiting a new country.
We met Siddoz, our ‘Get Your Guide’ tour guide outside Lot 10. “Sorry if I am a little rusty, you are my first customers in two years since Covid”. Having only opened its doors to tourism a few days ago (on 1st April), we were among the first tourists to enter Malaysia and we felt very privileged (and welcomed) indeed.
Siddoz took us around the Lot 10 Hutong Food Court then later along Jalan Alor; a well-known bustling street lined with endless Asian street food hawkers. It was a 2.5 hour tour for 277 Malaysian Ringitt (£50.47) for both of us, and we cannot recommend it enough.
Here are the treats we sampled; try not to drool too much..
- Kee Mei Siew Pow (baked BBQ pork / chicken buns)
- Siew Bao (sticky and sweet BBQ pork steamed buns)
- Ice cold fresh juices (coconut and mango with condensed milk)
- Satay Lok Lok (grilled satay skewers)
- Teh tarik ‘pulled tea’ (hot, frothy tea with condensed milk)
- Nasi lemak – Malaysia’s national dish (rice cooked in coconut milk and pandan leaf, anchovies, boiled egg, peanuts, fried crispy anchovies, spicy sambal, cucumber – served on a banana leaf).
- Paper dosa with dhal
- Roti with dhal
- Crispy grilled chicken wings with spicy chilli sauce
Of course, everything was top-notch and we left feeling incredibly full and satisfied. My favourite treat was the Kee Mei Siew Pow baked pastry buns full of mouth-watering sticky, sweet BBQ roasted pork. Absolutely divine!
We returned to that Lot 10 Food Court again, and again. Trying sweet and sour pork (amazing), giant pork buns, three cup chicken, wedding biscuits with lotus filling, pineapple buns, egg custard tarts, dim sum, flavoured soju. Yummy!
KL’s nightlife is absolutely buzzing. We often indulged in late night dinners with friends (we can recommend the deep fried tilapia fish, garlic pak choy, fried ginger and prawns, and mango sticky rice on Jalan Alor). At the top of Jalan Alor, you can also get incredible Thai massages – we had a couple of pre-bedtime foot rubs (each costing 65 Ringget [£11.71] for 45 minutes).
Batu Caves
Batu Caves are home to one of the most important Hindu shrines in the world: a homage to Lord Murugan. It was just us tourists and Mark from Melbourne, so we joined forces, and climbed up the colourful stairs to stroll around this impressive cave temple.
Another great thing about KL is the shopping. There are some fantastic super shiny malls here; with huge food courts, hairdressers, designer shops, and even amusement parks.
We did the Hop On Hop Off “City of Lights” nightly bus tour at 8.30pm. It was a great way to see the all the city centre buildings lit up!
Not cultural, but definitely worth a visit is also KLCC’s Aquaria!
KL Bird Park
They claim to be the world’s largest free-flight walk-in aviary. Inside there are a huge array of interesting beautiful, noisy birds. Flamingoes, oriental birds, parrots, hornbills, emus, ostrich, lovebirds, storks, and countless peacocks… and monkeys!
Although it’s a netted park, the sneaky monkeys have created a hole in the roof and were coming in to steal the poor birdies corn on the cobs. Leon was trying his best to scare them away but he was massively outnumbered.
My bird of the day was the great hornbill (pictured below)! Found in the Indian subcontinent and south east Asia, this beautifully coloured, large bird is the only bird to have eyelashes! There are 54 species of hornbill in the world, and are an important symbol for tribes in East Malaysia. Some tribes consider the hornbills emblematic of the spirit of God.
Top Tip: We definitely recommend using the Beam e-scooters to get about in KL. They are cheap and so much fun! If you’re visiting, here is our referral code to get yourself free credit – 7xSkTW.
Cameron Highlands
Famous for the rolling tea plantations, hiking, and strawberry picking we stayed two nights here in Cameron Highlands, a scenic hill station in the state of Pahang.
Strawberry picking took me back to my childhood when me and my mum would go picking in the summertime. It was always one for the basket, one for me, one for the basket…
We did some pretty cool hiking…
Visited Mossy Forest… beautiful views from up here!
And enjoyed a very wholesome (and crazy) night with a group of local Malaysians staying at our hostel. Too much Timah (a local spirit) was drunk!
Ipoh
Our third pit stop was the British colonial city of Ipoh. Some places we checked out included the well-known Concubine Lane. It was also called second wife lane, though now it’s just full of cute small shops and interesting looking foods.
Their local market.. Check out the guy selling cables (pictured below). Just looking at the huge bundles of tangled cables was giving me anxiety.
And, the very instagrammable Kong Heng Square…
Penang
Final stop: Penang island. We were staying with my friend Hannah (she teaches here, but we met in 2018 when we were both traveling in South America). She has two gorgeous kitties, Rodger (pictured) and Mabel.
Hannah kindly provided us with an itinerary and off we went. We scooted up to lower Penang and got the speedy funicular up Penang Hill. The views of the city are very pretty!
We also checked out The Habitat – Penang’s beautiful rainforest discovery centre. We saw a black giant squirrel here, apparently one of the largest squirrels in the world!
And, Kok Lok Temple: the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia.
We scooted our way through to Georgetown and toured the beautiful famous street art.
Georgetown has some pretty cute streets too!
We also soaked up the cafe culture here and enjoyed cake and drinks at Chinahouse. For the final night, we finished our two weeks in Malaysia with a board gaming night with Hannah and her boyfriend, Dan.
Leon and Amy’s Big Adventures 