Things to do in Malaysia
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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$1,290 - All things to do
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Fat Mum’s
Fat Mum’s serves up Chinese dishes. It’s cheap, cheerful and can get pretty boisterous come the evening.
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Enak
Finely presented Malay cuisine with a sophisticated twist, as befits the trendy Starhill Gallery.
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Upperstar
Opposite the Hilton, this pleasant semi-outdoor bar offers cheap booze and decent pub grub.
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Ipoh Parade Shopping Centre
You'll find some smarter restaurants and a food court in the Ipoh Parade Shopping Centre .
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Golden Screen Cinemas
Book a seat in Gold Class (RM40) for La-Z-boy–style reclining chairs and drinks service.
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Nerovivo
Nerovivo is adept at turning out delicious, authentic Italian staples.
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Food Junction
Spic-and-span food court in the Mid Valley Megamall serving all sorts of Asian treats.
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Penang Museum
From the town’s foundation site, it’s only a short stroll to the Penang Museum, one of Malaysia’s best presented museums. The permanent exhibition is a comprehensive walk-through of Penang’s history, festivals and cultures. No settler group is left out and all are admirably described in sympathetic detail, a testament to this state’s admirable record of tolerance. Look out for the beautifully carved opium beds, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and the incredible silk-brocade outfits once worn by the Baba-Nonya (Straits Chinese) population. Temporary exhibitions are eclectic, ranging from galleries of colonial prints to displays on traditional Malay seamanship.
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Little Penang Kafé
Set meals (RM13.50) let you sample several of the Nonya dishes that Penang is famous for, including lobak (deep-fried tofu-rolled chicken strips) and the spicy Siamese lemak laksa (using coconut milk), only available Friday to Sunday.
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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…
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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…
reviewed
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Liwagu Trail
The 6km Liwagu Trail, which follows the Liwagu River, is the most rewarding trail around park HQ, and it's a great option for those who just can't face the trek up Mt Kinabalu. It's a pretty easy walk, but there are few drop-offs which make it unsuitable for children below eight years of age, and those with fear of heights.
The start is 200m before Timpohon Gate (you can catch a minivan from HQ to the starting point). It's very straightforward until the last kilometre or so (just as you get back to the park base area). At one point, you come to a junction where you could go left (downhill) but the trail is closed off. Do not go downhill here. Follow the arrows marked…
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Walking Trails
Other than just relaxing on the beach, the main highlight of Simalajau are its walking trails. All the trails start just north of park headquarters, on the far side of the Likau River. Trails are clear and a guide isn't necessary; a simple trail map is available from park headquarters. Be sure to bring plenty of water as there is no drinking water en route and keep in mind that distances seem much greater in the tropics than they do back home.
As soon as you cross the bridge over the Likau, you'll see a plank walk off to your right, following the river upstream. This 600m Education Trail leads straight through the riverside mangroves and it's brilliant - if you've never…
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Mt Kinabalu Summit Climb
Thousands of people of all ages climb Mt Kinabalu every year. It can be close to freezing near the summit but if the weather is clear on your summit day, you'll be rewarded with an incredible view that starts with the otherworldly summit plateau and extends across all of northern Borneo and the islands of southern Palawan, in the Philippines.
Climbing Mt Kinabalu is a two-day exercise for most people. The usual routine involves starting around 08:00 on the first day, taking a minivan to Timpohon Gate and walking four to six hours to reach Laban Rata at 3273m where you spend the night. On the following day you rise at around 03:00 and climb to the summit in time to catch…
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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…
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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…
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Cookery Course - Hotel Equatorial
The best souvenir you can bring home from Melaka is the cuisine. The Hotel Equatorial runs the only cookery course in town, which is available both as part of a hotel package and as an independent course. Instruction in Nonya cooking is given at the hotel's Seri Peranakan Restaurant by its head chef, Bong Geok Choo.
The hotel package, the 'Wok and Walk', includes a one-night stay in a 'superior' room, one buffet breakfast, one Nonya set lunch, one buffet dinner, two cooking workshop sessions, a walking tour of historical Melaka and a souvenir cookbook. It's quite a bargain when you consider that the published price of a one-night stay in a superior room without all the…
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Pusat Makanan Peng Hwa
KL has dozens of intriguing, off-the-beaten-track places to eat - our favourite is the permanent hawker court at Pudu Market, known locally as Pusat Makanan Peng Hwa. This congregation of cooks sprawls beneath a gigantic tin roof behind the wet and dry market. The pavilion is as big as an aircraft hangar - fans on the ceiling whir ineffectually, failing almost completely to drive away the tropical fug. Nevertheless, as the sun sets, this is the place to be.
The hundred or so plastic tables and chairs fill suddenly with locals ordering big bottles of ice-cold Tiger beer and bags of Chinese marinated sunflower seeds. Waitresses in matching T-shirts fight their way through…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Mt Trus Madi
About 20km southeast of Tambunan town is the 2642m peak of Mt Trus Madi, Sabah's second-highest peak. It's possible to make an ascent of this peak, but it's more challenging than Mt Kinabalu, and more difficult to arrange. Though Mt Trus Madi is surrounded by logging concessions, the upper slopes and peak are wild and jungle-clad and classified as forest reserve.
The muddy trails to the summit can be treacherous in parts - just the thing for those who find the open expanses of Mt Kinabalu a bit pedestrian. Independent trekkers must be well-equipped and take all their food and water up the mountain. Most climbers take a 4WD vehicle to Kampung Kaingaran then trek for most…
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Rumah Berhala Tow Boo Kong
If you're a Chinese-temple freak, it's worth checking out Rumah Berhala Tow Boo Kong which began its existence as a shed on a rented piece of land in 1971. The temple blossomed little by little and was completed in its final form in the year 2000. It's exceedingly ornate for a modern edifice, with a dramatic roof swarming with curving pagodas and golden dragons. It's home to a Taoist group who worship the Nine Emperor Gods, the nine sons of the Queen of Heaven, who are the patron deities of, among other things, prosperity and health.
Their festival, called none other than the Nine Emperor Gods Festival, is held on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month each year when the…
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Wat Buppharam
Is there a question in your life that needs answering? Head to Wat Buppharam , a 1942 Buddhist temple bursting with cartoonlike sculptures of Thai, Taoist and Hindu religious figures. The ornate Thai entrance archway is the largest in the state. The wat is home to the 'Lifting Buddha,' a 100-year-old, gold-leaf encrusted Buddha statue about the size of a well-fed house cat.
As a seeker, kneel in front of the statue, pay respects to the figure with a clear mind and then ask, in your mind, the yes or no question you wish to have answered; ask also that you wish for the figure to become light for an affirmative answer. Try to lift the statue. To verify the answer, ask your…
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Tamu
Every Sunday a huge tamu takes place on the outskirts of this small, sleepy town. The market is a congested, colourful and dusty melee of vendors, hagglers, browsers, gawpers and hawkers, all brought together by a slew of everyday goods in a bustle that consumes the whole town each and every week. A smaller version takes place on Wednesday.
A tamu is not simply a market where villagers gather to sell their farm produce and to buy manufactured goods from traders; it's also a social occasion where news and stories are exchanged. Sadly tourists now often outnumber buffalo, and the fascinating local Bajau horsemen have mostly moved away from the car park, though some do put…
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