Malaysia forum

Hi, the main categories of attractions of KL would be:

a) Touristy sites: KL Tower (excellent bird's eye view of the city); Petronas Twin Towers (KLCC) (the former tallest buildings in the world, it also has an excellent shopping mall);

b) Nature: Bird Park, Butterfly House, Orchid Garden, these are all within the city's beautiful Lake Gardens (also has the National Monument) which can be covered in one morning or afternoon; Zoo Negara; Batu Caves (great limestone caves + Hindu temple); FRIM (great tropical jungle trekking and canopy walkway - might be closed in December for maintenance, check first); these latter three are further away from city center and will each take at least 3 hours to half a day to fully justify the trip.

c) Arts & Culture: Muzium Negara (great to understand this country's history and people); National Gallery (this is near KLCC by cab); Pasar Seni (great place to buy handicrafts); Little India; Petaling Street (the so called China Town - but really the whole KL has so many Chinese, this name is a joke.)

d) Pub scene: many lively and hip pubs and discos around the CBD.

These are just a handful of attractions that I can suggest for your 3 days' consumption. Remember to eat all street foods you can because it has the most variety here than many other cities, and hygiene standard of street food here is generally higher than other S.E.Asian countries. If you need to do shopping, this is also the city to go as prices is quite low and currently many malls have year-end sale.

Have a happy trip.

Yes if you like contemporary art I wouldn't miss the National Art Gallery. There's also a hop-on hop-off bus service in KL.

Hi christay,

Thanks for your info. I think food courts are great esp. for tourists due to their easier accessibility and the concentration of a huge variety of different foods under one roof(if indoor) or in a same outdoor area. The places you mentioned are all great, but locals tends to prefer well-known stalls and they are usually established long before modern malls were built. But then again, normally only the locals have these kind of info. So for foreigners, food court in malls are the safer bet. But if you can get hold of any locals (Indian, Malay, or Chinese), do tell them you want something authentic and are favourites to the locals, you would generally find better deals than the fairs in malls.

A general rule of thumb is: the longer the queue, the better the taste! :-)

Posted from within Vietnam.

Dear all,
It's a great feeling to read all your ideas. This is somewhat a late reply but we have just finished our tour of Vietnam and there were too many placs and activities to go to.
We're now ready to arrive in Kuala Lumpur. We will visit and experiences all the places and activities you have mentioned.
We also tried street food in Manila and Hanoi. Amazing cultures. We have not booked yet for a hotel. Can you recommend for a 50USD/night?

there is an older thread here on the same topic:

http://www.travelfish.org/board/post/malaysia/7130_best-area-for-a-3-nights-stay-in-kuala-lumpur

Petaling street is an instant favorite for me. I wish I can devour all the Chinese and Korean, as well as local foods but we're running out of budget. We spent more time around the Petronas Towers and the Golden Triangle, rode the bus down to Pekeliling. Really tahnks for the many suggestions. It helped a lot.