Things to do in Malaysia
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FEATURED
Red Ape Trail
5 days (Kuching)
An adventurous trek through virgin rainforest with opportunities to spot wild orangutans in their natural habitat, visit remote Iban communities and learn jungle survival skills.
Not LP reviewed
from USD$1,460 - All things to do
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Rohani Jelani
Book online for courses with cookbook author Rohani Jelani in her kitchen out at Sungai Penchala, 10km southwest of KL.
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Kohinoor
There are several excellent restaurants along the Waterfront Esplanade, including this Indian place offering comfortable indoor seating and a breezy outdoor patio. Take advantage of their authentic tandoori oven and don’t forget to grab a side of pillowy garlic naan.
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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 …
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Jln Alor
KL's biggest collection of roadside restaurants sprawls along Jln Alor, just north of Jln Bukit Bintang. From around 17:00 till late every evening, the street transforms into a continuous open-air restaurant, with hundreds of plastic tables and chairs and rival caterers shouting out to passers-by to drum up business.
Most places serve alcohol and you can sample pretty much every Malay Chinese dish imaginable, from grilled fish and satay to kai-lan (Chinese greens) in oyster sauce and fried noodles with frogs' legs. The best way to experience the food street is to stroll along looking at the signs and the dishes on the tables to see what takes your fancy.
Stalls to look out…
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Top Spot Food Court
The double entendre definitely holds true. This excellent rooftop plaza has acres of tables and a good variety of stalls. Order anything from abalone to banana prawns or numerous varieties of fish, and chase it down with a cold bottle of Tiger. To get here, climb the stairs leading from Jln Padungan to Tapanga restaurant, and keep heading upstairs from there.
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Bla Bla Bla
Spiffier than a pimp’s outfit, Bla Bla Bla brings a splash of Hollywood to Kuching. The tasty fusion food is anything but ‘blah’, and patrons will adore the koi pond and golden Buddhas.
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Night Market
KK’s brilliant Night Market is a place of delicious contrasts: it huddles beneath the imposing Le Meridien as venders hawk their knock-off wares. The market is divided into two main sections: the southwest end is given over mostly to produce, while the northeast end (the area around the main entrance) is a huge hawker centre, where you can eat your way right through the entire Malay gastronomy. If you’ve never seen a proper Southeast Asian market, this place will be a revelation.
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Batu Caves and Temple Tour from Kuala Lumpur
3 hours (Departs Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
by Viator
Visit the spectacular Batu Caves on this afternoon tour from Kuala Lumpur. Escorted by a professional guide, you'll view the Batu Cave Indian temple, a massive …
Not LP reviewed
from USD$24.00 -
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Kampung Baru Hawker Stalls
Saturday evening is the best time to eat in Kampung Baru, when dozens of hawker stalls set up around Jalan Raja Muda Musa for the weekly pasar malam, which rolls through till early Sunday morning. You can find all sorts of Malay specialities here, from ikan panggang (grilled skate) to rojak (spicy fruit-and-vegetable salad), and the night market positively crackles with energy.
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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.
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Junk
The coolest car-boot sale you’ll ever see, Junk is filled to the brim with…well…junk. But it’s all so very chic – when you walk in you’ll think, ‘Did Amelie explode in here?’ A favourite among Malaysian celebs, Bla Bla Bla’s sister restaurant offers superb sophisticated Western food with an Italian bias. A word to the wise: don’t set your watch by any of the wall clocks…
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Devi’s Corner
A pavement-cafe mood prevails at this food court facing the Bangsar Village II mall. The tray curries are excellent, with plenty of fish, prawns and other seafood. You can get dosa, biriyani and great satay here.
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Old Town Kopitiam
This more upmarket coffee house facing the padang seems to be forever crowded. Simple chicken rice dishes prevail.
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Café Café
Tucked down the street in the shadow of the towering pagoda, this local hotspot puts a modern spin on the traditional kedai kopi. Excellent local fare (and a smattering of designer coffee beverages) is served up amid bodacious decor and flickering candles.
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Guided Walks
Bako has a total of 17 trails ranging from short walks around park headquarters to strenuous day treks to the end of the peninsula. Guides are available, but it's easy to find your way around because all trails are colour-coded and clearly marked with splashes of paint. Plan your route before starting out on longer walks, and aim to be back at Telok Assam before dark (about 18:45). Some trails may be closed for maintenance after the wet season - check at the park office before setting out.
If you have only one day in Bako, try to get here early and attempt the Lintang Trail (5.25km, 4 to 5 hours). The longest trail is the Telok Limau, a 12km walk that's impossible to do a…
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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…
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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…
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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'.
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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.
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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.
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Hawker Stalls in Chinatown
Chinatown has some of the best street food in KL. From late afternoon the pavements along Jln Sultan and Jln Tun HS Lee fill with plastic chairs and tables, and mobile kitchens are set up in the street, serving an astonishing array of Malay and Chinese dishes. Many of the food stalls stay open till midnight or later and you can get a filling meal of rice and spicy stir-fried beef with a cold beer for as little as around RM20.
Everything is prepared fresh so the food is almost always safe to eat, but stick to stalls with lots of customers.
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Padang Brown Food Court
Everyone in town knows that this is the spot for delectable popiah (spring rolls) although the won ton mee (egg vermicelli served with pork dumplings or sliced roast pork) and bubur caca (it's pronounced cha cha - don't be so childish - and it's a delicious dessert porridge made with coconut milk and banana) is another good reason to try the food in this area. In the afternoons try the yong tau foo (clear Chinese soup with fish balls, lettuce, crab sticks, cuttlefish and more).
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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.
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