Sights in Malaysia
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Mt Kinabalu
Towering 4095m above northern Borneo, Mt Kinabalu is the highest mountain between the Himalayas and the island of New Guinea. Known as Gunung Kinabalu in Bahasa Malaysia, the mountain is quite unlike any other on earth, rising almost twice as high as its Crocker Range neighbours and culminating in a crown of wild granite spires. When the summit is visible (usually in the morning, before the clouds close in) the mountain literally demands your attention. .
It is clearly visible from many parts of Sabah, including Kota Kinabalu and the islands of Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park. Even if you decide not to do the climb to the summit, the park itself is a beautiful spot, and …
reviewed
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Bako National Park
Bako National Park proves that you don’t have to go too far to find Borneo’s signature jungles stuffed to the treetops with wildlife. Sarawak’s oldest national park is a 27-sq-km natural sanctuary located on a jagged jade peninsula jutting out into the South China Sea. Although it’s only a stone’s throw from the capital, it’s well worth spending the night here.
reviewed
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Taman Negara National Park
Taman Negara is billed, perhaps wrongly, as a wildlife park. Certainly this magnificent wilderness area is a haven for endangered species such as elephants, tigers, leopards and rhinos, but numbers are low and sightings of anything more exotic than snakes, lizards, monkeys, small deer, and perhaps tapir, are rare.
The birdlife is prolific, however, and chances are you'll see more insects than you've ever seen in your life. Traditionally, the park was only accessible by river. These days there's a road, but the boat trip is still recommended for the full Taman Negara experience.
The jungle at Taman Negara is so dense that you could pass within metres of an animal and never…
reviewed
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Batu Caves
Just north of Kuala Lumpur a towering limestone outcrop is home to the impressive Batu Caves. The caves were 'officially' discovered around 120 years ago by American naturalist William Hornaday. A short time later a small Hindu shrine was built in the vast open space, later known as Temple Cave.
A flight of 272 steps leads up to Temple Cave. Beyond the towering main cavern, the space opens to an atrium-like cave at the rear. Many visitors are more spellbound by the monkeys that scale the vertical cliff faces than by the shrines which are dwarfed by the scale of the cave. The whole spectacle has been enhanced of late by an enormous golden statue of Muruga, also known as Lo…
reviewed
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Kubah National Park
Only 15km from downtown Kuching, Kubah National Park is a good natural retreat within easy striking distance of the city. Kubah offers good trekking and the trails are more shaded, which is a plus for the sun-averse. The 22-sq-km park consists of a range of forested sandstone hills that rise dramatically from the surrounding plain to a height of 450m. There are waterfalls, walking trails and lookouts, and the beautiful rainforest is home to a wide variety of palms and orchids. Kubah National Park has also played host to two Hollywood productions: Farewell to the King, starring Nick Nolte, and the more recent The Sleeping Dictionary, with Jessica Alba.
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Kek Lok Si Temple
The largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia was founded in 1890 by an immigrant Chinese Buddhist. To reach the entrance, walk through arcades of souvenir stalls, past a tightly packed turtle pond and murky fish ponds, until you reach Ban Po Thar, a seven-tier, 30m (98ft) tower. The design is said to be Burmese at the top, Chinese at the bottom and Thai in between.
In another three-storey shrine, there's a large Thai Buddha image that was donated by King Bhumibol of Thailand. Presiding high above all the temple structures is a striking bronze figure of Kuan Yin, goddess of mercy. The temple's name translates, quite delightfully, as 'Temple of Supreme Bliss'.
reviewed
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Islamic Arts Museum
Containing one of the best collections of Islamic decorative arts in the world is KL’s outstanding Islamic Arts Museum. Aside from the quality of the exhibits, which include fabulous textiles, carpets, jewellery, calligraphy-inscribed pottery and an amazing reconstruction of an ornate Ottoman room, the building itself is a stunner, with beautifully decorated domes and glazed tilework. There’s a Lebanese restaurant offering a set lunch (RM43; closed Monday) and a well-stocked shop selling beautiful high-quality crafts products and art books.
reviewed
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Rainforest Discovery Centre
The Rainforest Discovery Centre, about 1.5km from Sepilok Orang-Utan Rehabilitation Centre, offers an engaging graduate-level education in tropical flora and fauna. Outside the exhibit hall, a botanical garden presents varying samples of tropical plant life, with the accompanying descriptions every bit as vibrant as the foliage. There’s a 1km lakeside walking trail as well. A series of eight canopy towers are being built – three have been completed. Paddleboats (RM5) are available to ride around the inviting lake near the centre’s entrance.
reviewed
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Menara KL
Built atop the Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve, the 421m Menara KL easily trumps the Petronas Towers when it comes to providing the highest view you’re going to get of the city, bar chartering a helicopter. The tower’s bulbous pinnacle is inspired by a Malaysian spinning top and, inside, the viewing deck is, at 276m, at least 100m higher than the Petronas Towers’ skybridge. One floor higher, you can have a meal or afternoon tea at the revolving restaurant Seri Angkasa.
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Cosmo's World
There are numerous theme parks and water parks dotted around KL. The most convenient is Cosmo's World located inside the Berjaya Times Square shopping centre. Despite the mall location, there's a full-sized looping coaster plus a good selection of thrill rides for teenagers and gentler rides for families. (Avoid the DNA Mixer unless you want too see your nasi lemak a second time.) You'll find more thrill rides and wet and wild activities at Sunway Lagoon, Mines Wonderland and Genting Highlands.
reviewed
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Canada Hill
Canada Hill, on the low ridge behind the town centre, is the site of Malaysia's first oil well, the Grand Old Lady. Bored in 1910, the well produced around seven barrels a day until it was abandoned in 1972. The hill is a popular exercise spot with a handful of refreshment kiosks, and it's worth walking up here at sunset just for the views across Miri to the South China Sea. The new Petroleum Museum on the hill has a few interesting displays on the source of the city's wealth.
reviewed
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Tua Pek Kong Temple
Tua Pek Kong Temple is an interesting riverside Chinese temple where, if you’re lucky, you’ll find Mr Tan Teck Chiang in attendance. Mr Tan will give you a tour of the temple and explain (in lavish detail) his interpretation of Taoism and Buddhism. You can also scale the seven-storey pagoda to get a brilliant view over the town and the muddy Batang Rejang as it makes its way seaward.
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Similajau National Park
Similajau National Park, 30km north of Bintut, is a quiet coastal park with nice white-sand beaches, good walking trails and simple accommodation. While the park does not have the habitat variety of Bako National Park, it’s perfect if you want a quiet, relaxing natural getaway as you work your way along the coast of Sarawak.
reviewed
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Guandi Temple
The 1886 Guandi Temple is full of atmosphere. The main hall is hung with fragrant coils of spiral incense, paper clothes and money that are burned to bring good fortune to the ancestors. The temple is dedicated to Kwan Ti, a historical Chinese general revered by Taoists as the god of war.
reviewed
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Petronas Towers
Anchoring the huge Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) urban development (with a park, convention and shopping centre and world-class concert hall) are the iconic Petronas Towers. A visit to KL just isn’t complete unless you’ve been here.
reviewed
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KL Bird Park
The highlight of the Lake Gardens is undoubtedly the KL Bird Park, the world’s largest walk-in aviary with some 200 (mostly Southeast Asian) species of birds. Check the website for different birds’ feeding times throughout the day.
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Science & Technology Centre
Just north of the main hall of the Sabah Museum, at the end of the parking lot, the Science & Technology Centre has some small exhibits on the petroleum industry.
reviewed
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Weekend Market
The Weekend Market, locally known in Malay as 'Pasar Minggu', is a Kuching institution that dates back several decades. Every weekend, traders and farmers from around the city and the surrounding villages and longhouses converge on a compact area in the Satok neighbourhood, setting up wooden stalls and colourful tarpaulin rain covers, and sell their products, ranging from fresh fish to wild jungle ferns, power tools to herbal cure-alls.
It's a garrulous gathering and a large proportion of the neighbourhood's residents, and some from farther away, show up to do their grocery shopping for the week. It is also a boon for self-catering travellers.
To get to the market from dow…
reviewed
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Eastern & Oriental Hotel
The Eastern & Oriental Hotel dominates the seafront end of Jln Penang. Originally built in 1884 as the Eastern Hotel, it became so popular that the following year it was expanded and renamed the Eastern & Oriental Hotel. The stylish E&O was the archetypal 19th-century colonial grand hotel, established by two of the famous Armenian Sarkies brothers, Tigram and Martin, the most famous hoteliers in the East, who later founded Raffles Hotel in Singapore.
In the 1920s the Sarkies promoted the E&O as 'The Premier Hotel East of Suez' (a catchy phrase the brothers later used to advertise all their hotels) which supposedly had the 'longest seafront of any hotel' in the world, at 8…
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Bukit China
East of Little India is Bukit China, which, besides being the largest Chinese graveyard outside of China, is also Melaka's best jogging track. More than 12,500 graves, including about 20 Muslim tombs, cover the 25 grassy hectares. Since the times of British rule until today there have been several attempts to acquire Bukit China for road widening, land reclamation or development purposes. Fortunately, Cheng Hoon Teng Temple, along with strong community support, has thwarted these attempts.
In the middle of the 15th century the sultan of Melaka imported the Ming emperor's daughter from China as his bride, in a move to seal relations between the two countries. She brought w…
reviewed
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St Paul's Church
St Paul's Church is a wonderfully breezy sanctuary reached after a steep and sweaty climb up a flight of stairs. Originally built by a Portuguese captain in 1521 as the small Our Lady of the Hill chapel, St Paul's Church is a sublime testament to Catholicism in East Asia and offers bright views over Melaka from the summit of knobby Bukit St Paul.
Inside the decaying stone interior are hefty, intricately engraved tombstones (of the Dutch nobility that are buried here) that lend an eerie air to an otherwise light atmosphere. The church was regularly visited by St Francis Xavier, who performed several 'miracles' in the church, and following his death in China the saint's bod…
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Sungai Pinang
Winding and farting through the heart of Georgetown before spewing into Selat Selatan (South Channel), Sungai Pinang is considered the filthiest river in Malaysia. Over the years it's become a drain for a 50km urban spread of factories, markets and tightly quartered residents who have freely dumped whatever they've wanted into the flowing sludge. Today it not-so-proudly bears a Class V classification, which means it is unable to sustain life and contact with the water is dangerous for humans.
In December 2005 a clean-up project began with goals of turning what many consider to be a sewer into a clean Class II river for swimming and boating. Optimists imagined fish flutte…
reviewed
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Mari Mari Cultural Village
Located about 25 minutes outside of the city centre, the Mari Mari Cultural Village is the most interactive centre of its kind in all of Borneo. Visitors are taken on a three-hour show/tour (beginning at 10am, 3pm and 7pm), which winds through the jungle passing various tribal dwellings along the way. At each stop, tourists learn about the indigenous way of life, and can try their hand at a variety of interesting (and fun) activities, like traditional bamboo cooking, rice-wine making (and drinking!), fire starting, tattooing, blowpipe shooting etc. But the most fascinating part of the tour is little tribal titbits offered by your guide. For example, in the Dusun tribe, an…
reviewed
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Lake Gardens Park
Just a few hundred metres from busy Chinatown, the urban landscape gives way to sculpted parks and dense tropical jungle. Covering 92 hectares, the Lake Gardens were created during the colonial era as an urban retreat where the British administrators could escape the hurly burly of downtown (as well as people of other races).
This park is pleasantly restful; it covers a huge area, planted with a variety of native plants, trees and shrubs - it's hard to believe that this calm open space exists just a few hundred metres from the main train station. In the middle is a huge children's adventure playground and nearby is the sprawling lake for which the gardens are named. You c…
reviewed
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Mahua Falls
Off the north-south highway that runs between Ranau and Tambunan, you'll find lovely Mahua Falls, one of the most interesting sights in the valley. When coming from KK, you'll descend into the Pegalan Valley and reach an intersection with the north-south highway where you turn north (you'll see a sign indicating that Mahua Falls are 13km from this intersection). After 7.3km you will come to a sign on the left for Mahua Falls, after which it's 7km down a rough dirt road to the falls.
We really don't recommend that you take an ordinary car down this road (we can still remember the horrible sound of our Proton Wira scraping over the deep ruts and rocks of the road). You'll n…
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