First Time in Asia: Visiting Malaysia - Part 1

I do love travelling, and this is not a secret, as travelling is a dedicated section of this blog, and my Instagram is full of pictures of the places I get to visit. Yet, I had not been is Asia since last November, when a dear friend of mine and I decided our next adventure would have taken place in Malaysia.

We stayed there 10 days, and we had a lot of fun. With a bit of organisation and a lot of adventurous spirit, it happened to be super easy getting ready for it, despite never having been to the place before and having none to guide us around. This is what, when and how we organised our lovely Malaysian trip.

The artificial lake in the shopping mall within the Petronas Towers

So, as I said, we went in November, more specifically at the end of the month, and we came back the first week of December. The reason we chose that time is that November/December is actually the best time of the year to visit Malaysian West Coast (but not the eastern one, whose weather is not great at all, being subject to monsoons, wind and rain).

We flew from London to Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia, with Emirates, and came back in the UK with the same airline. We booked our tickets back in June, giving us the opportunity to save a lot on the flight tickets cost.

Petronas Towers in daylight (they're much more impressive at dusk or sunset)

Kuala Lumpur is a pretty big city, and we stayed there three days, wandering around its massive skyscrapers. The first thing we learned of Malaysia is that they have a thing for high buildings. And believe me, they're all massive! Obviously the first thing to visit are the famous Petronas Twin Towers, symbol of the city; they're situated in the city centre, into a shopping centre, so you can visit and enjoy some shopping at the same time. A suggestion I'd give you is, just wait there til dusk, cause the view of the two towers illuminated is very beautiful.

Another view of the shopping mall exterior, with a Christmas tree (Christmas time when we were there)

Another tower to visit is the KL Tower, the highest in Kuala Lumpur. You can pay a ticket (which comes to roughly 20.00£) and take a lift up the highest floor, where you will enjoy the view of the whole city at your feet. That is quite impressive, and I do absolutely suggest you to go. Before visiting the KL Tower my friend and I had an “adventurous” stop at the Canopy Walk, allowing you to walk on bridges made of wood and bamboo into a piece of the forest surrounding the city. That was very funny, but you need to be very careful, as it is an open and free area where nobody takes responsibility if you hurt yourself or get bitten by an animal (massive signals situated at the entrance of the Canopy Walk warn you about that).

Canopy walk, with the KL tower, the highest tower in Kuala Lumpur

Viewing from the top of the KL Tower

One more landscape viewing; the one in construction will be a skyscraper higher than the KL Tower

Outside Kuala Lumpur and reachable by train is the breathtaking site of the Batu Caves. I am pretty sure you might have seen the picture of the massive golden Murugan statue at the base of the 272 steps bringing to one of the three caves forming the site.

Batu caves, entrance with the golden statue

So the cave situated at the top of the steps is the first site, beautiful for which that concerns its natural formation, and embellished in the inside with a few small Hindu temples.

Batu caves

The second cave is situated roughly halfway to the top (you can see the entrance as you climb up), and it knows for its limestone, at least 400 million years old. It also famous for having being used as a guano site excavation by Chinese people in 1860.

Entrance to third of the Batu Caves

The last cave is called Ramayana, and is situated on the other side of the site. On its entrance you can see a statue of Ramayana, an Hindu divinity, and the inside of the cave itself is full of statues telling his epic story.

Kuala Lumpur centre, Textile Museum

It goes by itself that in Kuala Lumpur you need to make sure you see the city centre, the Chinese district, the central market (for amazing shopping) and the beautiful temples all around the city (in some of them you might only enter at certain time because of people praying).

Monkeys walking on the side of the forest, next to the KL Tower. You can see loads of them around

As for public transport, you can use either buses, or trains or the tube. They all work perfectly, you can buy tickets from the machines outside the entrance and pay both in cash or card. Staying in Malaysia is very cheap; the costs are not high at all, and come out even cheaper when you keep in mind the conversion Ringgit (Malaysian money) with Pounds: 5.00 Ringitt correspond to 1.00 Pound (roughly).

Kuala Lumpur city centre, one of the most beautiful temples we saw

For which that concerns food, we tried loads of little local shops there, as it is the best way to try typical dishes of that area of the world. As Malaysia culture is a bit of mix of Indian and Chinese culture, those also are the restaurants you will find. Do not be shocked if going for dinner to an Indian restaurant you see people eating without cutlery, that is absolutely normal in their culture. And their naan bread, curry and mango lassi are some of the most delicious I have ever tried.

So here comes the end of the first part of this trip; see you very soon with the second part and third part, so if you're curious to know some more about Malaysia stay tuned!

Xxx