Why Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu?

Kuala Lumpur was part of my great Qatar Airways Travel Festival deal I was able to scoop in January 2017 so I figured I might as well explore this city a bit on the back-end of my trip from the Thailand portion.

In September 2018, I decided I wanted to go to the mystic island of Borneo due to many areas of its rainforest have been untouched.

Things to do – Kuala Lumpur

Day Trips:

During my stay, I took 1 day tour due to time constraints where I was able to see the Batu Caves, go to a chocolate factory shop, make a brief stop at the Petrona Towers, and see a few other interesting sights during my time. The Batu Caves are home to several friendly monkeys which had to the mystic of this landmark.

I highly recommend taking a tour which includes a combination of these during your stay. There are a few other interesting tours around Kuala Lumpur and mainland Malaysia in itself but I did not have time for that on this trip.

Self Tours:

Kuala Lumpur is the perfect place to shop and hassle for goods through their Chinatown and other retail shops. Such goods include watches, shoes, leather goods, and silk dress shirts.

The city features a nightlife scene as you would expect in a major city. I stayed at Reggae Mansion KL which had a scenic rooftop bar which was good for meeting other travelers and was logistically convenient since everything wass close by. This place is top notch and even has it’s own full service restaurant.

Getting around/safety

The best way to get from Kuala Lumpur’s International Airport is to take the train which is conveniently located inside the airport which will take you to the city. This takes about a 30 minute train ride depending on where you are staying in the city. You can download a map here.

For all other standard transportation needs you can take the public bus, taxi, or use what I recommend is the GrabCar app which is similar to Uber for getting around KL.

One other thing I should mention here is that all international inbound flights into Malaysia, the cabin is sprayed with pesticide approximately 30 minutes before landing which happened on both my inbound Qatar Airways and AirAsia flights which is the first place I have ever experienced such a country’s strict agriculture rule. So please plan accordingly if you have any type of respiratory issues due to this law.

Things to do – Kota Kinabalu

Day Trips:

During my stay, I did the Klias River Fireflies Cruise which includes seeing fireflies duh. And seeing the rare and endangered Proboscis Monkeys in their natural habitat. One of the more cultural enriching tours I went on was the  Native Village Cultural Centre which entails seeing several tribes while being able to interact in native ceremonies and sample village made food & drinks.

Self Tours:

There are just a few sites you can see the in the city of Kota Kinabalu, I won’t go into a lot of detail only because coming here is more about the activities outside of the city itself rather than in city attractions as they are lacking in terms of quality.

Getting around/safety

The best way to get around the city is by walking, which is a city that can be easily navigated. For going outside of the city, consider city buses, taxis, and tuk tuks.

For more in depth information on how I felt about Kota Kinabalu check out my blog post.