Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia July 14-16th, 2010

Culture: Very strict, the government seems to dictate a lot in my mind. Very conservative, with the women covered up and such.

Religion: Muslim, this was disappointing coming from a Buddhist country. The people here were rude and no where near as friendly. They gawk if a female is not almost completely covered up so cover up if you go there. For guys it is fie.

A funny shot of Laurie next to guy in blue robe.

Language: Malay, another language not worth even studying, enough people spoke some basic English for us to get around just fine.

Beer: I didn’t see any new beers here, mainly the same ones I drank in the Thailand/Cambodia. This was a huge disappointment, not only were the people rude, but the beer was ridiculously expensive, about $15-20/pitcher which made this a very bad country for us to visit. It is because the government does not like drinking so they heavily tax it.

Sipping on some beers at the bar.

Transportation: Many more cars here than motorbikes, but still a mixture. The traffic seemed pretty bad in the city area as well.

Population: 1,600,000

Currency: Ringgit, 3.06 Ringgit = $1 USD

Place Stayed at: Sky Hotel

It doesn’t look great here, but the room was nice and relaxing, and at a very reasonable price, within a quick cab ride to most of the attractions. We walked to Kuala Lumpur Tower, although it was about a thirty minute walk.

Sites to See:

1) The Batu Caves - It is one of the most popular Hindu Shrines outside of India. It is the focal point of Hindu festival of Thaipusam in Malaysia. Just a beautiful naturally formed cave, it is high up, and a bunch of steps are needed to reach it. Inside is basically nothing though, just a cool piece of natural nature. Not much to see at the top though, you can walk through it in five minutes or so. You just have to appreciate erosion, etc. A spot to skip for most people who wouldn’t care about this. There are bats at the top of it also. The statue in front was neat standing at 174 feet. A side note: I’d advise older people to not try this, we did it on a rainy day and I did not even feel safe at 24 and in shape, it was just a dangerous climb up the slippery steps.

The massive statue

The massive statue and I.

Me at the base of massive statue, I’m 6’ tall.

Shot 1 from inside

Shot 2 from inside

2) Kuala Lumpur Tower - It is 421 meters high and is a communication tower. It is currently the second largest free standing tower in the World. It was a cool spot to see a nice overview of the city. Sadly, it was overcast that day and I could not get good photos.

A shot from the distance, only decent one I got.

A shot of something other than the Petronas Towers.

3) The Petronas Towers - They were the tallest buildings in the World from 1998 to 2004, and still remain as the largest twin towers in the World. The movie “Entrapment” was filmed here with Sean Connery and Catherina Zeta-Jones where they break in to the building to steal money from peoples’ bank accounts on the night of the new millenium. Most of the pictures of them were taken from the Kuala Lumpur Tower. They offer tickets each day to walk across the platform connecting them, you must get there early to get them though as we did not.

A shot from ground level

From KL Tower

From KL Tower + Laurie

Some better night time shots from ground level.

Petronas Towers + Me (1 is blocking the other here)

Probably the best shot I got of them

4) Luna Bar - Rated as the World’s 3rd best rooftop bar, but seemed way over hyped. It had mainly romantic lounge areas overlooking the city that were expensive. The top bar with the view where you could stand was closed, which really added to the disappointment, so we just left it and had fun on our own. There is a pool in the center which is neat. It is probably worth a visit when the upper bar is open just for the view.



Likes: The KL Tower and the Batu Caves were somewhat neat, nothing you can’t find in most countries though as main attractions. The Petronas Towers looked neat, but we woke up too late so we did not get tickets during the day.


Dislikes: Where to even begin? The city was rather boring, not many attractions at all. Also, the people were unfriendly. To top that, the alcohol was more expensive than smaller USA cities which added the disappointment. This is by far my least favorite place I have traveled to and highly don’t recommend it to others.

Rating: 2/10

-P12