Tips and Tricks for Malaysia

After traveling for 3 weeks around the west coast of Malaysia I thought I would put together a few tips and tricks for anyone planning a similar trip.

Main Places to visit:

- Langkawi, a island to the north, very close to Thailand. Great beaches, activities and fantastic to chill out. Langkawi has limited night life, not many night clubs. Rent a Scooter then and discover the island, the Cable Car is a must.

- George Town (Penang), World Heritage Site, wonderful culture, history, and blend of nationalities as well as a wide variety of outdoor activities. The night life is great, lots of places to young people to party and chill out. It also is great hub for visiting the Cameroon Highlands. *for the Cameroon Highlands you will need to sleep one night there.

- Kuala Lumpur (a.k.a KL), the capital and great place for shopping and site seeing. If you don’t have much time, the hop on hop off bus is easy, and costs about 10euros per person for a 24h ticket.

- Malacca I would not spend more than 3 days there but really worth the visit. Great food, and interesting relics of the past.

 

Transportation

Buses are the cheapest and most efficient way of getting around. There are always loads of different companies selling tickets to where ever you want to go. You can buy online, just be careful to make sure that you go to the right bus depot. *in KL there are several bus depots/stations.

We never paid more than 23 Ringgit per person.

If you would like to save a few hours, AirAsia is a great company and a good low cost option. They are FAR better than Ryanair.

Trains are also reliable, but we did not try them as some of the stations are not located in the city centers, hence an additional bus is usually required.

Taxis are cheap, just be careful not be ripped off. Always go for the meter.

For local transport, renting a scooter for 30MR per day is clearly the best way to get around (not for KL), but remember… stick to the left! Petrol is about half the price compared to Europe.

Where to stay

I am a strong adept of HostelWorld.com, just read the reviews and book it online.

Clothing

The weather in Malaysia is great, you don’t need more than 1 pair of trousers, take a some shorts, and some slops. If you need to get any cloths just buy it locally. I would recommend to travel light and leave plenty of space for shopping. It is a temptation from start to finish.

Food

Malaysia is home to a pleasant mixture of cultures, and there is no shortage of cheap restaurants. They may seem to the average European different, but guaranteed you will get a good meal. On average we spent about 3 euros per meal. If you go local. If you are looking for western food, it will cost about 10 euros a meal.