A Travel guide to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!!!

Yes this time to Malaysia, our trip was from 15th of Aug 2018 to 18th of Aug 2018. For a change we are listing the main attractions of the city, how to travel within the city and details which you would like to know as a traveler. Along with this we are just adding our itinerary as well.

So we boarded our flight from Cochin on 14th Aug at night and reached Malaysia at 6:20AM. Our stay was at WP Hotel.

View from WP Hotel 

Our itinerary were as follows:

Day 1:

We covered KLCC Aquaria, KLCC Park, Suria KLCC. We couldn’t get ticket for Twin tower on this day.

Day 2:

Twin Tower, KL Tower, Lot 10 Mall Hutong, Bukit Bintang, Thean Hou Temple, Petaling Street

Day 3:

Batu Caves, Putrajaya, Central Market, Mariamman Kovil

On 18th early morning we checked out to catch our flight to Bangkok. Bangkok diaries will be coming soon in our blog.

So here we go with the list of places and its specialties:

Kuala Lumpur (KL):

KL is the capital of Malaysia and is one of the finest capital cities.  Like many a capital cities it is the melting point of local and international community,  so the integral Malaysian culture has blended with the different cultures around the world to form a sandwich culture. 

KL Twin Tower / Petronas Tower:

The highlight of the city is the KL twin tower / Petronas Tower. It was one of the tallest buildings (451.9 meter) of the world till recently. There are 2 towers as the name suggests but only one is open for tourists the other being used by the employees of Petronas. 

When you enter the twin tower, you would see 2 formula one cars on display with Petronas as their sponsor, probably in reference to Malaysia GP.

Formula One cars at the entrance of Twin Towers 

The Entry fee to Twin Tower is 80 ringgit per person. You could buy the tickets to the tower from the building itself or through online. To go to the ticket counter take left from the entrance where Formula One cars are placed and then take the elevator down, you will reach your destination. I would suggest to use Klook app and book online, may be 2 -3 days in advance for a good deal. You could choose a time slot. Night view should be amazing but it would be a long queue. Once you get the tickets, go to the basement 10 minutes in advance to your slot time. Once your time comes, you would need to stand in a queue and would be provided with a tag representing a group.  Each group has different colored tags like red, blue, green, etc. 

View from Sky Bridge 

Once the time slot is ready, you are called in to a lift.  Please be informed that umbrella, selfie sticks are not allowed. Don’t worry if you have one, there is a provision to keep these items in the locker. At the entrance itself you would be asked to pose and take few photos. After posing for the pics, you would be taken to Level 41. That's where the sky bridge that connects two towers exist. A guide would walks you through the details of the building. You could take photos or just stand and witness one of the finest marvels of modern engineering. You get to see the heart of KL city from there. Each team will be provided with some time to spend at the sky bridge and once your time is up you will be called upon.

From there, you would be taken to 82nd floor and from there you have to take another lift to 86th floor.  There you get to see the sky deck observatory.  Breath taking views of KL city, its sky scrapers, traffic etc. can be viewed from there.  There are few souvenir shops there if you would like to buy Twin Tower souvenirs. Here again you will be allotted with some time. You could take snaps and spend time enjoying the view from different ankles. There are also some models of twin towers placed in the observatory deck and an animation which will give you the impression that you are holding the Twin tower in your hand. You just have to stand in a place and keep extend your hands and you could see the twin tower being displayed in your hand. Isn’t it a nice one?

Once your specific time is over, you would be taken back via the lift.  There you could see the photos which you posed neatly framed. You could choose to buy those photos with you and Twin Tower as the back drop. 

Visiting Days: Tuesday to Sunday (Closed on Monday) 

(Closed during Hari Raya Aidilfitiri and Aidiladha) 

Visiting hours: 9.00am to 9.00pm (Closed from 1.00pm to 2.30pm in Fridays) 

In & around Twin Tower. 

KLCC Aquaria: Inside twin Tower, there is an Aquaria. You can try out the Aquaria if you love Marine animals. Entry fee is 65 ringgit per person. There are wide varieties of Marine animals in display. The best part being the feeding time, when a diver dives and provides food to this fishes, sharks and turtles. A visual to experience. Kids would find this activity more entertaining.

Feeding Schedule are as follows:

Every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday:

Flooded Forest – Level 2:              2:30 PM

Aquatheatre – Level 2:  3:00 PM

Every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday:

The Deep Sea – Level 2:                11:30 AM

Suria KLCC:

A high end mall is also available just near to twin Tower. There is an entrance to this mall inside of twin Tower or else you could choose through walk outside and reach here.  There are few terrific fountains in display which provides awesome fountain display during the evenings. Most of the people come and sit around this area in the evening to watch the fountain works, relax and enjoy.

KLCC Park:

In front of twin Tower, there is a park.  Most of the joggers and fitness enthusiast frequent this place. There are specific slots on the road in this area for the joggers.   If you walk around this area you can take some terrific pictures of twin Tower. 

KL Tower:

KL Tower is different one from Twin Tower. We mistook Twin Tower as KL Tower. So using an App called Klook, we booked a visit to KL Tower. It costed us 88 ringgit per person.  The Actual cost is 99 ringgit per person.  There like twin tower, you get to see the bird’s eye view of Kuala Lumpur.  So there is a sky deck and a sky box.  Sky box is pretty amazing where you walk along a glass floor to the edge of the tower to feel the adrenaline rush. A must try for sure.

There are photographers who would take pictures of you and you could choose to buy them if you like them. So there are 2 sky box in the tower, one on each end of the tower. Next to the sky box there is a cafe if you like to enjoy the view with a cup of coffee.  There is an observatory Tower where you get to see the beautiful view of the city, also there are few telescopes in display which you could try on.  We were using the telescope to find the hotel we lived. KL Tower also lists all the tallest buildings of the world. Also there are few souvenir shops there also if you would like to buy one.

 KL bird Park: 

KL Bird Park is one of the popular tourist attractions in KL. Due to time crunch we were unable to make to the bird park. There is always a next time. 🙂

Bukit Bintang:

Probably the most busiest and happening place of KL. A shopping Paradise so to say. The Pavilion mall is the highlight of this location, with almost all of the international brands in display, this mall just spoils you with choices.  A fountain towards the entrance of the mall is a landmark you can't miss. Other than the international brands there are quite a lot of local brand shops available on both sides of the road. We visited an outlet called 'brand' which had quite a lot of offers. 

Another attraction around this place especially for foodies the Lot 10 mall at Hutong. It’s a must visit place with wide variety of small shops serving different cuisines of different regions. This place provides you a one shop stop for trying out and just to have a glimpse of different food items available from in and around this region. 

Thean Hou Temple:

So if you want to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city, a soothing experience would be the Thean Hou temple.  It's a Chinese temple.  It's a bit far from the city atop a hill.  We used grab to reach there. We get to see the marvel of Chinese architecture. 

There are few statues of Buddha in different postures. The whole temple was decorated with Chinese lanterns which added to the beauty of the temple.  There were many a devotees who were offering prayers there. The scent of candles and the chants of mantras added to the divinity of the place. Behind the temple there were lot of Chinese sculptures in display.

Open hours for Temple: 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM

Petaling Street / China town:

Like many big cities, KL also has its own China town.  A visit to Petaling Street is a must for all travelers to KL.  There are numerous small small shops offering different products with less price.  There are fruit stalls, dress shops, shoes, bags, watches, souvenirs at display. The rates are tempting and you get to bargain your price around here. 

Batu caves:

From KL Sentral station we took trains to Batu caves. Considering other trains this train is quite slow.  It took us close to an hour to reach there. The per person ticket rate is 2.60 ringgit. Batu caves is quite near to the station. Once you get out of the station, just before the Batu caves, there is a Geeta upadesha / Cave. Inside the cave, there are statues placed each representing one of the highlights of Ramayana. 5 ringgit is the entry fee.

Just near to the Geetha upadesha cave, there is a small temple. As we walked further, we could see the mighty Muruga statue adorned in golden. There are a series of steps towards the cave.  There are quite a lot of monkeys enroute the cave. Many a people stop there to feed monkeys. Once you get inside the cave, there is a small temple. There are strict rules regarding the attire to the temple. It would be really good to wear appropriate dress mainly covering your shoulders and legs for this visit.

While you are getting down you can see Dark cave entrance at the right hand side. If you would like to see it you can get your tickets from there itself which will cost RM s5 per person. Once you completes your roaming you can get tickets back to KL Sentral from Batu caves station itself.

Batu caves to Sentral train time table 

Putrajaya:

From KL Sentral we took KLIA express to Putrajaya. Per person ticket charge is 14 ringgit. KLIA express is a better looking train than the usual metros that run in KL.  Putrajaya is the official capital city of Malaysia so to say.  All the government buildings, PM's office etc. is situated there. It's a planned city.  An artificial river runs through this city.  From the Putrajaya station we took a 2 hour package for a city tour which costs us 80 Ringgit. The driver was an old guy.  We had some interesting conversation with him regarding the new PM Mahathir Mohammed, Politics in general and the overall situation and life of Malaysians. We stopped near a bridge - Seri Wawasan - which had futuristic design making it one of the major landmarks of the city. We stopped near some of the government buildings. There were quite a lot of tourists mainly from China.

Putra mosque and Seri Wawasan bridge 

Then we went to putra mosque. We stood in a queue for a while. Here my wife had to get a special dress more of a long gown with a hood - kind of dress - which all women had to wear before entering the mosque. We visited the mosque, the mosque ceiling was adorned with colourful designs with elaborate architecture. We then roamed around and then went to the nearby lake view. Took few pics. There were few small shops just adjacent to the mosque. We had a quick look and then continued our city tour. We then stopped near Putrajaya International convention center. On the way there was a beautiful bridge - Seri Gemilang -. We stopped there for a while and wondered at the marvelous construction and was amazed by the view that it provided. You can go down the bridge via stairs and it has a small garden of sorts where people could come and visit. We took few snaps from there. Next we went to the top of convention center.  There we stood at a spot which was like the middle of the city.  We could see almost the entire city.  A view in itself. Our driver was happy enough to come and take our pic. After that he dropped us back at the station. 

Seri Gemilang Bridge and view from Putrajaya international convention center 

Central Market: As the name suggests, it’s a market in KL. It was established in the year 1888 by the British. Its considered as a heritage site. It’s a hub of activity through out the year. It has quite a lot of stalls on both sides. Travelers can scroll through the main sections with frequent food stalls in between. A must visit place of KL.

Mariamman Kovil: Its quite hard to believe that there is a mariamman kovil in the centre of KL city, but it’s true. As the name suggests, the main deity is Mariamman. There are other deities too. We visited the place in the evening, where there were lot of localites and foreigners. There was a Chinese group and there was a guide who was explaining about the temple and its history. We sat there for some time. We were offered the prasada , we had it and then after a while said adieu to this place.

Transportation in KL:

Monorail/KLIA express/KTM ETS/RapidKL:

Integrated transit Map 

Train services in Malaysia is quiet good too.  If you are aware of the nearest station to your destination then you can get into the train. Different routes have different modes of trains so you better do a thorough research before hopping into one. The tickets are in the form of tokens in case of RapidKL and monorail whereas for KLIA express it is a card. 

Card for KLIA express and token for RapidKL 

GOKL bus service:

Go KL is a free bus service provided by Malaysian government. This service is available via all the tourist attractions. There are 4 bus routes available like green line, purple line, red line and blue line. Please find below the link which provides the map for the GOKL. 

https://www.gokl.com.my/getting_around/index.html

Grab:

Grab taxi is one of the easiest means of transport in and around KL. You can download the app and register in it using the number and hail a ride using the app.  We found the rates in grab is cheapest among the taxies available within the city.  

SIM card:

We took Digi which is considered to be one of the stable network connection.

Visa:

We took multiple entry visa as we had a connection flight. You could go for single entry visa. For Indian citizens you should take take visa in advance.

Tips:

1) It’s better to avoid visiting Malaysia from October to December as this is the rainy season
2) There are 2 international airports in Malaysia. One is specifically for Air Asia. So if you are booking a connection flight in air Asia make sure that your both flights are of Air Asia.