This weekend my friends and I decided to go and visit Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. This was a very easy and convenient trip since Malaysia borders Singapore. If you decide to fly, the trip lasts around 1 hour. On the other hand, my friends and I decided to take a bus which was much cheaper but it took around 5 hours (they have very comfy buses, so traveling went pretty well)! We decided to stay 3 nights, which I believe is more than enough to visit all of the important places.

BATU CAVES

Just outside of KL are the spectacular Batu Caves. It is a massive Hindu temple with walls that stretch almost to the sky, with birds flying high above, and wild monkeys running up its rock-faced walls. It is located 13 km north of Kuala Lumpur, so we took a Grab (Malaysia’s version of Uber) and the whole trip was around 20 minutes. There is no fee to enter, however there is a dress code – you need to have your shoulders and knees covered. This definitely was the most tiring day since we needed to climb 272 steps!

Batu Caves with friends

Sitting on Stairs

To the left of the stairs is the world’s tallest statue of Lord Murugan (43 meter high), a Hindu god. On the way up we met quite a few monkeys, as there is a whole colony of monkeys living in the caves. Even though it sounds cute, the monkeys are not very friendly! Try not to bring any food to the stairs because there is a high possibility that monkeys are tempted to steal 🙂

THEAN HOU TEMPLE

The famous Thean Hou temple was our next stop. The colorful Chinese Buddhist temple is beautifully located on the top of a hill with awesome views over Kuala Lumpur city. We also got a chance to try fortune telling. Inside of the temple, there is a container filled with a lot of sticks, so you need grab the whole bundle of sticks and drop them back into the container. The stick that sticks out carries your fortune. Even though my year doesn’t look good according to the Chinese fortune telling, it was very nice to experience this culture and tradition.

At the Temple

PETRONAS TOWERS

The must see place on this trip were the Petronas Twin Towers. Standing 452 meters tall, the Petronas Twin Towers retained its world-title claim to fame until 2004 when Taipei’s 101 was built. Because of its location, we also got the chance to explore the city center. This part of the city is sort of different from the rest, it’s very clean, modern and in some parts reminded me of Singapore. Besides the mall and park, the Petronas Twin Towers include other attractions such as the Petronas Art Gallery and Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. You can also go up in the towers, both to the Observation Deck at the 86th level (360 meters high) and to the Skybridge connecting the two towers at 170 meters above ground. However, we decided not to go because you can get the same good view from roof bars nearby.

Petronas Towers

Some other places we visited in Kuala Lumpur include Perdana Botanical Gardens, KL Bird Park, National Mosque Masjid Negara, and Merdeka Square Area where the Sultan Abdul Samad building is located. Even though I’m not the biggest fan of Asian food, I have to say that street food in KL is a great for dinner with your friends. The most famous and biggest street food street in Kuala Lumpur is Jalan Alor in the Bukit Bintang area. It is a lively night market packed with street restaurants and hawker stalls selling food, snacks, and drinks from all over Asia. For those who enjoy night life, KL is known for having one of the best in Malaysia.