City Guide: Kuala Lumpur

It is one thing to have vacation with your family and get there by car. It is another thing to fly “away” to another country on a regional distance. But it is a completely other thing if you’ve only slept for two hours the night before your daytrip and connecting flight which takes twelve hours! Nevertheless, we did make the long journey to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

As soon as we were ready for touring through the city after having finally arrived at The Majestic Hotel (check out our review), there was one thing we noticed immediately: The Majestic Hotel was definitely not the only five star hotel in this city!

This is just an example we caught on our first minutes on foot. And let’s be honest, it was hard. Do you already know about the climate in Kuala Lumpur? If not, let me tell you something: Besides having an average temperature of 32°C every month a year, the capitol of Malaysia is distinguished of having an air humidity of mostly over 80%! So making a city tour is like exercising in a steam bath.

When seeing these pics, nature should explain the extraordinary climate conditions. Kuala Lumpur was literally built in a jungle! We were very curious about this and spent lots of time in the “nature-side” like the Botanical Gardens or the Bird Park. Anyway, we decided after some time that the train may be the better choice for getting back to the hotel. But this was not really what we were expecting.

To be quite honest, I still don’t know why there’s a coach for ladies only! However, we could just presume that this has religious reasons, as Malaysia really is somehow a melting pot of all religions.

Masjid Jamek or the National Mosque

Due to that, we decided on the next morning that we were interested in seeing the National Mosque. However, on our way from the hotel (by foot!) we were wondering why we met that many people going there.

• Find more content about Kuala Lumpur on our city page!

It didn’t take long before we got a clue of what was going on: A muezzin was loud enough to let everybody know that it was – I call it – praying time. As a form of respect, we decided to not go into the mosque, but here’s one photo we were able to take anyway.

As a consequence, we decided to visit other places instead like the Independence Square or the Freedom Fighters in front of it.

Due to the high flag, we could find it without difficulty. Once there, a group of Indian teenagers found us and these guys were soo damn keen on taking a picture with us. At first, I was perplexed and didn’t understand why. Then I got that it is something really special to meet someone with European/American appearance. Well, why not though. Unfortunately, they just took the pictures, so we don’t have any.

Stuck in between two national days

Okay yes, we were astonished by this kind of patriotism at first. Pretty occasionally, I found an interesting article about it in a magazine while chilling poolside. So here’s the reason: Malaysia has actually two national days, one on August 31^st and the second one on September 16^th.

On the first one they celebrate the independence of Malaysia from Great Britain, the second one is the so-called Malaysia Day, which means they celebrate the formation of Malaysia. As we visited Kuala Lumpur in between these two dates, the flags we literally everywhere, and they were really big!

High up

I guess I haven’t mentioned two of the most famous attractions KL is famous for yet. One of those is Menara, a television tower. Even though the entrance fee was pretty expensive (and hey, what’s this that you have to pay the double sum as a tourist than someone living in Malaysia?), we decided to enjoy the beautiful view over the city.

This is a photo I took on our way back down, as we went on foot. Another anecdote: As we actually wanted to take a taxi, we asked the man on the counter what it would cost to The Majestic Hotel. He just typed two numbers in a technical device and showed it to us: 35 Ringgit. Pah! We payed 15 on the way there in an expensive taxi called by the hotel. We refused. We don’t support this kind of behavior!

But, to get back to the point, here’s what we could see from the tower.

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Of course, we did want to see the world famous Petronas Twin Towers! The next day, this was our first destination for our tour.

However, they look pretty from down there, yet we didn’t want to go up as the Menara was higher and we already could enjoy the skyline.

Pavilion

For this tour, I still have a little special for you: The Pavilion.

It’s a shopping mall where you will find everything you need to be satisfied, especially clothes. But be aware of the prices, they’re not any other than in Europe or in America. We found it very nice in there, especially the red carpet and the amount of moving stairways fascinated us.

One last hint for this city: You probably won’t believe the huge difference of temperature inside a public building and outside. Believe me, the air conditioners make their jobs more than just assiduous! I’m not saying that’s good, a bit too much in my opinion.

You want to read more city reviews? Check out our other posts!