Kuala Lumpur is the national capital and the largest city of Malaysia. It has many tourist destinations and is the sixth most visited city in the world. This travel blog covers my experience from the short stay at Kuala Lumpur. After my PhD open seminar, I traveled to Kuala Lumpur and Angkor wat for a vocational trip in August 2017. Kuala Lumpur has a tropical rain-forest climate which is warm and sunny throughout the year and maximum temperature varies between 31-33 degree C.
Travel requirement:
Flight ticket was booked in Airasia from Bhubaneswar to Kuala Lumpur. The cost of the ticket to Kuala Lumpur was INR 3900 including return ticket from Kuala Lumpur. I booked a bed in a dormitory (Step-Inn Too Guesthouse) at Kuala Lumpur through Hostel world for 5 days at a cost of MYR 150. Dormitory is the best option for solo backpackers. I prepared all my documents and packed my luggage. The important documents were my Passport, printout of evisa and soft copies of flight ticket, hostel bookings, cash/ cards etc. I planned and made a list of places to be visited and saved the offline google map of these locations. A GPS enabled smart phone with google map application is very helpful while traveling an unknown place. The saved offline map along with GPS helped me a lot while traveling without internet. I didn't carry any foreign currency and I withdrew the currency from the ATM at Kuala Lumpur using my debit card.
Traveling to Kuala Lumpur:
Journey started from Biju Patnaik International Airport, Bhubaneswar where I boarded the Airasia flight at 11:55 PM on 9th August 2017 and flew to Kuala Lumpur. The flight landed at Kuala Lumpur at 6:20 AM on 10th August 2016 after flying for 4 hours. I went through the immigration check and came out of the airport. I had a multiple entry visa for Malaysia. Then I flew to Cambodia at 1:05 PM. After spending 6 days at Angkor wat, I returned to Kuala Lumpur. The flight landed at KLIA2 at 6 PM on 16 August 2017. After exiting the Airport, I purchased a bus ticket (Star Shuttle Express) at a price of RM 12 and traveled to Pudu Central. Step Inn too Guest house is at a walking distance from the Pudu central. It was already 9 Pm. I had my dinner at a restaurant at Pudu central. My room was the 4 bed dormitory with good condition. Exploring Kuala Lumpur:
Kuala Lumpur which is commonly known as KL is the largest city of Malaysia has a population of 1.73 million. It has a good and efficient transportation system comprising of metro rail, light rail transit, commuter rail, monorail systems, buses, and taxi. KL has many tourist attractions like Batu cave, Petronas twin tower, KL Tower, National palace, National Museum, Islamic Arts Museum, Central Market, KL Bird Park, KLCC Park, Aquaria KLCC, china town, Bukit Bintang. I have only covered very few tourist destinations due to time limit. Batu cave:
Next day morning at around 8 AM, I traveled to Batu cave from KL station by train. The ticket cost RM 2.5. The train stopped at the Batu cave station. Then I climbed the steps to the Batucaves. Batu cave is a limestone hill located in Kuala Lumpur which is popular for Hindu shrine dedicated to Lord Murugan. Lord Murugan is the Tamil name of Lord Kartikeya and he is considered as the god of war. He is the son of Parvati and Shiva. Kartikeya is an important deity in south Asia and predominantly worshiped in South India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore as Murugan. Just outside the Batu cave at the foot hill, there is 140 ft tall statue of Lord Murugan and is the tallest statue in Malaysia. Inside the cave there is a temple dedicated to Lord Murugan and regular rituals conducted in the temple. There are lots of monkey which is very common in Hindu temples and pigeons. I spend some time in feeding the pigeons and monkeys with ground nuts. It is very fun to feed them as they took the grains from the hand and captured many photos with monkey and pigeons. After spending approximately 2 hours, I moved to the nearest Dark cave.
Dark Cave:
It lies below the temple cave and has a 2km long passage. Dark cave has its own different ecosystem and different rare species. For the conservation and protection of the ecosystem, tourism is restricted in the cave. The cave management group conduct 45 min education tour for travelers at a fee of RM 35. I joined the group for the education tour. We are guided by a tour guide who has strong knowledge of dark cave eco system. We moved through the narrow passage of the cave and saw different species and different stone formations. There is zero visibility inside the cave. We were given torch to move inside the cave and told to use light below eye level. After walking approximately 1 km, we arrived at a big chamber where there is small incidence of sun light from the top of the cave. Nobody is allowed beyond this point. Only researchers working in the dark cave are allowed for research purposes with special permission. After spending 10 minutes at this point, we returned to the cave entrance point. Inside Dark cave.
There is also a Ramayana cave nearer to it. I mistakenly skip this cave. The entrance fee for the Ramayana cave is RM 5 and the Ramayana story is told with sculptures inside the cave. After visiting Batu cave, I returned to the Hostel by train. I had my lunch at Pudu central. Indian restaurants are very common in Kuala Lumpur. The lunch can be availed at a price of RM 10-20.
Cultural show:
Next day I moved to the Malaysia Tourism centre (MATIC). It has restaurants and food stall inside the premises. It has also souvenir Shop where Malaysian handicrafts are found. MATIC conduct daily (except Sunday) free cultural show at Amphitheatre Hall inside the MATIC from 3 PM to 4 PM. It showcases the traditional dances of Malaysia which is a mixture of Malay, Indian and Chinese culture. After the show the audience can took photos with the artists. MATIC organises heritage walk in Kuala Lumpur. The information about the heritage walk is available at MATIC. Night Life:
Kuala Lumpur has an exciting night life. Alcohol is available in all bars and night clubs though Malaysia is an Islamic country. Crowd of the nightclubs are mostly expats and tourists. Pub crawl is the best way to explore the night life. KL Pub Crawl is the only pub crawl in Kuala Lumpur which organized events on every Thursday and Saturday. The pub crawl starts at 8:45 PM and ends at 3 AM. The cost of the pub crawl is RM 70 which includes free visit to 5 bars with 5 free drinks. They have also different games which are very fun. Pub crawl is also a good way to hang out with fellow travelers and to make new friends. After spending 5 days at Kuala Lumpur, I returned to Bhubaneswar. I traveled to KLIA2 from Pudu central by bus and flew to Bhubaneswar by Air Asia flight at 10 PM on 20 August 2017. The experience at Kuala Lumpur is memorable and explored a different culture.
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16 August 2017
About me
Tapan Kumar Pradhan Post Doc, IIT Kharagpur PhD, IIT Kanpur http://tapankp.weebly.com Currency Conversion:
1 RM = 16.65 INR 1 US Dollar = 4.16 RM Malaysia Visa:
E Visa: $ 25 (Multiple entry) Visa rule may change with time E visa Online: www.windowmalaysia.my |