Travel Guides: All Countries / Asia / Malaysia / Kuala Lumpur
 |  | Travel Reviews : Kuala Lumpur |
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| | | | Review by Tanya Thompson from Brisbane Australia
Kuala Lumpur was a fantastic destination for our first family overseas holiday. Whilst providing us with an interesting cultural experience, it was such a beautiful blend of the old mixed with the convenience and comfort of the new. When travelling with children, safety is always a priority & we found KL to be a safe, friendly & interesting city. One week was just not long enough to see all it has to offer & cant wait to return next holidays.
Review by Jill Bulters from Dunsborough WA
Loved KL, I took my older children (21 & 27) but they did have a few problems with the spicyness of the food, still it did not stop them from shopping, they loved it, I have been to KL many times & have enjoyed it everytime.
I would recommend that you do not go in high season as we did this time (starts 1 Nov) as it gets quite expensive if you go earlier say September/October the hotels are cheaper and so is the shopping
Kuala Lumpur goes up in the world
From the Mail on Sunday
Kuala Lumpur, or KL, as everyone seems to call it nowadays, has exploded over the past decade. Gone is that old provincial town slowly stirring from colonialism, with its cosy cricket ground, old clubhouse, Betjeman railway station, old mosque and elegant racecourse.
Malaysia's capital now loudly boasts the tallest building in the world. It has transmogrified its centre - called, of course, KLCC - by using the old racecourse. It's as if two or three Hyde Parks have been relandscaped and developed.
On top of all this, Malaysia has embarked on building from scratch - and a pretty scratch, too, of rolling hills, woods, river and oil palm forests - an entirely new administrative city.
It has a swishly new airport looking even better designed than our best, Stansted, with a monorail out to the gates. A new railway line is being completed to the city. So it should. For it is nearly 50 miles out of town. There must be some singularly bold long-range planners out in Malaysia, compared with our 20 years of nattering about a possible Terminal Five at Heathrow.
Over the airport my Malaysia Airlines flight banked under the bangs and flashes of thunderstorms. I remember an earlier trip, years ago, when I arrived by road, driving for hours northwards to KL from hygienic, efficient, obedient Singapore, passing rubber plantations all with British names.
Orchards of exotic fruits have been pushed back by the city's expansion, yet they still hang on. So do the worshippers trudging to the sacred cave in the mountains. Devotees, imperious to pain, drag weights through pins fixed through their flesh. But where were all the rubber plantations?
'All gone - no money in rubber any more!' Those thousands of rolling, green acres, spreading below the flight path and lining 40 miles of road to the city's outskirts, neatly lined, brightly gleaming, were something else. 'Palm oil plantations - Malaysia's biggest export.'
Travel guide: Kuala Lumpur
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| | | | Dining Mandarin-style
Some hotel groups, like Mandarin Oriental, almost guarantee comfort and style. I've long loved the old Mandarin in Hong Kong and the Oriental in Bangkok. I'm closely observing their Hyde Park in London and thought I'd examine the new one in KL.
There, looking small and elegant at the feet of the 88-storey 1,483ft high Twin Towers, the world's tallest building, stands the Mandarin, arms wide in welcome. Despite being dwarfed, it is 32 storeys high, has 643 guest rooms and the spreading notion of Club floors and a Club lounge (on the 24th) reserved for the specially favoured travellers.
The Twin Towers by day are OTT. But by night, magically lit like tinselled rockets, they really make you goggle. One Twin Tower, sternly guarded, belongs to the state oil company Petronas, which has financed the grand, new, wood-panelled 900-seater concert hall - 'the Malaysia Philharmonic are on next week'.
All this activity flourishes within a green 50 acres of what was once the Turf Club and is now a public park of lakes with orchestrated fountains all designed by a Brazilian landscape artist. Old trees have been moved from the racecourse into what is overall a 100-acre development. This includes a beautiful mosque, delicately carved, which glows by night like a jewel with a prayer hall for 2,500 and an overflow for a further 3,500.
The Pacifica restaurant in the Mandarin looks out on waving greenery. It provided a meal ranking among the top five of my five-week tour of the Antipodes. It has an Australian chef and a Scots executive chef. They provide a delicious fusion of Thai, Chinese and Japanese cuisine. Yum. We ate Oriental-style, dipping into each other's portions. Yum Yum. The restaurant buzzed not only with businessman clinching better bottom lines. Attractive young local couples could clutch one another.
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| | | | Getting married the Malay way
There's also a pretty good Chinese restaurant the Lai Po Heen. It is designed to resemble a rich merchant's mansion in the old Malaysia of the early 20th century. It offers Cantonese cuisine which, save for lunchtime dim sum, I find too bland. But the whirling Chinese chefs in the open kitchen whizzing sizzling woks around are stirring sights.
The old Central Market used to be a sprightly place. But its two floors now, except for a few shops selling cloth, antiques or stimulating Chinese foodstuffs, are given over to turistenkrap. Groups of bemused Americans, breaking their global journeys, gawked uneasily. 'Is this Korea?' one honked. If you want cries and squash and banter and loads of CDs, mobile phones, cameras and such like, probably fallen off the backs of rickshaws, try the bedlam of the night street markets in Chinatown.
I went reluctantly to dinner and a 'floor show' at the Seri Melayu. These often tourist-geared fakes I find as offensive as animals being made to dance in circuses. But the audience, spread around the tables and helping themselves to an intriguing buffet, some delicious, some not but all strictly Malay, included hardly two foreign faces. The performers produced an elegant, pleasing and brief reproduction of an old-time Malay wedding.
The Malays intrigued me. For though a great majority look absolutely Chinese or Indian and have Indian or Chinese names, all will tell you proudly: 'No, we're Malay.' I drove out to see the new city in the making at Putrajaya. This extraordinary lavish expansion lies about 20 miles from both KL and the new airport. I haven't seen anything like it since the start of Brasilia.
Here are a huge lake, a river, the Prime Minister's colossal office block, more imposing than all Whitehall, and his extraordinary official residence, half-Versailles, half-Hollywood. We were allowed humbly to tour the latter.
There's an immense new rosy-red mosque overlooking the lake and opposite, across the water, grades of houses for the country's ministers and civil servants. Sunningdales for the upper ranks (yachts already bobbed at their garden's edges) and blocks of Croydon and Ealing to satisfy the lower grades. Begun only in 1997, it will be complete, full and in thrumming action by 2010, when the whole of astonishing Malaysia will be run from there.
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| | Destination Guide : Kuala Lumpur |
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| | | Never mind the beauty, get to the shops |  | Why go on holiday to Kuala Lumpur?
Kuala Lumpur may not be Asia's most beautiful city, but it certainly qualifies as one of its most exciting. Despite the recent economic meltdown, KL - as everyone calls it - exudes a virile sense of optimism.
What Kuala Lumpur lacks in physical charm, it makes up for with teeming markets, great restaurants and ultra-hip clubs and bars. The collapse of the local currency (the ringgit) also means that KL is now seductively affordable.
Put simply, it's a great place to shop - silk, clothing and electronics are all incredibly cheap. And like New York, KL never sleeps.
How much does it cost?
For a direct flight from London to KL's slick new international airport, expect to pay around £550, although cheaper flights can be found. A five-night package with flights and hotel (room only) is from £559 at time of writing.
You can still find guest house accomodation with air-conditioning and a private bathroom from £10 a night, though luxury hotel prices start from around £45.
When should I go?
Malaysia is hot and humid all year round. Temperatures rarely fall below 20C (68F). You'll come to appreciate the joy of an air-conditioned taxi. With an average humidity of 90%, KL is not a place for harsh exercise: save your energy for your chopsticks.
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| | | Colonial influence | | What should I do when I'm there?
Apart from sightseeing, KL's main attractions are the seductive trilogy of shopping, eating and clubbing.
Any remnants of KL's colonial past?
Like its neighbour Singapore, KL is deeply rooted in the British colonial period. Kuala Lumpur (literally 'muddy confluence') may not have a Raffles Hotel, but it has managed to preserve a fair whack of colonial architecture.
The heart of colonial KL is Merdeka Square - once the site of the city's first cricket ground. Nearby are the Royal Selangor Club, St Mary's Cathedral and the old City Hall (now the Textile Museum).
Further afield is the 1911 train station, a whimsical mixture of colonial and Moorish architecture.
What are the museums like?
The Muzium Negara houses a varied collection on Malaysia's history, economy, arts, crafts, cultures and traditions. Apart from that, most museums are for those with special interests, such as the Textile Museum.
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| | | Food fans, prepare your palates | | Where's good for nightlife?
KL's still-affluent young middle class just love their bars and nightclubs. The centre of this world is Jalan Sultan Ishmail, a precinct of western indulgence known as the Golden Triangle.
Here you'll find sleek Manhattan-style bars, Irish pubs with Guinness and sawdust, pukka gentleman's clubs and the normal swag of pick-up joints. Club Liquid caters for the gay and lesbian set.
What's the food like?
If you thought KL was obsessed by food, you'd be correct. Whole shopping malls are given over to food stalls, while busy streets are closed down each evening to accommodate impromptu food markets.
Apart from the three staple cuisines - Indian, Chinese and Malay - KL also has a fine range of Korean, Vietnamese and Japanese restaurants. Not only is the range of cuisine extraordinary but also prices are minimal.
What should I buy?
Life is a shopping mall in KL. The most seductive of KL's shopping emporiums is at the foot of the Petronas Towers, the world's tallest building.
Here you can find designer labels, local handmade silks, specialist teas in teak caddies and a vast selection of sunglasses. There are about 15 similar malls in KL and myriad street stalls and basement discount houses.
What is there for children to do?
At the weekend, take them for a cooling paddle in a rented rowing boat around the Premier Lake (Taskik Perdana) in the Lake Gardens.
The gardens also contain the enormous walk-in aviary Bird Park, a Deer Park and a Butterfly Park, plus the National Planetarium (closed Monday and Tuesday), which resembles a futuristic mosque.
The National Zoo & Aquarium lies about 13km east of the city. There are elephant rides and other amusements for children.
There is a public swimming pool next to the Chinwoo Stadium.
Tourist office
Tourism Malaysia, 57 Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 5DU. Tel. 0207 930 7932.
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| | Fact File : Kuala Lumpur |
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| | | Kuala Lumpur | | Did you know?
The head of state is Tuanku Salehuddin Abdul Aziz Shah ibni al-Marhum Hisamuddin Alam Shah.
Language
Bahasa Malaysia is the official language. English is widely understood.
Visas
None required for a stay of less than 60 days.
Getting there
There are daily direct flights from London to Kuala Lumpur. Expect to pay around £550 for a return ticket, although flights may be discounted in the low season.
Flying time from London
12 hours 30 minutes
Getting around
KL has invested heavily in a number of slick new public transport systems, so it is fairly easy to get around despite the congestion. The new Light Rail Transit, or metro, is cheap and easy to use. A monorail was due for completion in late 1999. But for most short trips, taxis are unbeatable value. Just insist that the driver turns on the meter.
Currency
Ringgit (RM)
Costs
Costs tend to vary wildly in Kuala Lumpur - you can live and eat extremely cheaply or pay luxury prices for luxury living. Litre of petrol 20p; can of beer £1.30; moderate restaurant meal £3.30 (under £1 for a meal from a stall); roll of camera film £1.50; four-mile taxi ride £3-£6 are some rough estimates.
Weather
Kuala Lumpur is hot all year round. Temperatures rarely drop below 20C (68F), even at night. The average humidity is 90%. It rains frequently - average around 200mm a month. June and July are the driest months.
Time difference
Eight hours ahead of GMT
International dialling code from the UK
00 60
Voltage
220-240V, 50Hz. Power sockets almost always have three square pins as in the UK.
Opening hours
Shops 9.30am-7pm, supermarkets and department stores 10am-10pm (bigger stores open on Sundays). Banks: 10am-3pm Monday-Friday, 9.30am-11.30am Saturday.
Health - Before you go
No compulsory inoculations, except for yellow fever if you have travelled from an infected area. You may wish to consider vaccinations for diptheria, tetanus, polio, hepatitis A and B, rabies, Japanese B encephalitis, and tuberculosis. Make sure you have adequate travel insurance.
Health - When you are there
The water is safe to drink in Kuala Lumpur, and it is generally safe to eat from food stalls. Avoid heatstroke by not rushing about too much and by drinking plenty of fluids.
Warnings
Do not dabble in narcotics in Malaysia. The penalties for the most minor offences are extreme; trafficking carries a mandatory death penalty and even marijuana use can result in a three-year stint at a "rehabilitation centre".
Emergency
The emergency number is 999. British Embassy: 185 Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur. Tel: 03 248 2122.
Customs
Malaysia is a Muslim country; both women and men will get more respect if dressed discreetly. Do not use the left hand to give or receive anything. It is considered rude to point with a forefinger; Malaysians use a thumb.
Pets
Not really an option to take pets, as they would have to go into quarantine.
Tipping
Tipping is not practised in Malaysia. However, the more expensive hotels and restaurants will impose a 10% service charge.
Tourist office
Tourism Malaysia, 57 Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 5DU. Tel: 020 7930 7932.
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| | Available rental properties in Kuala Lumpur |
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| |  | | Embassy Row Apartment
Luxury 2 bed 2 bathroom fully furnished, fully aircondioned, city centre apartment overlooking KLCC + Petronas Towers.
|  | | K L Apartments
K L Apartment is a apartment furnished and equipped to a high standard and is a superb family holiday base
|  | | K L Apartments
K L Apartments is a apartment furnished and equipped to a high standard and is a superb family holiday base
|  | | Sarang Mas Vacation Home
New 3 room home in Kuala Lumpur
city centre. Brand new and very clean. Suitable for small group or family. Very convenient. All city attractions are
|  | | Sarang Galloway, Kuala Lumpur
Ideally located in Kuala Lumpur city centre. Suitable for those travelling in groups of up to 12 or those with young children and aged parents.
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Holiday Rentals in Kuala Lumpur |
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