Some curious facts about Malaysia

In total, we spent 28 days in Malaysia and we have visited Kuala Lumpur, Borneo (Kuching), Penang (Georgetown) and Langkawi. Our main purpose was to do a „little travel break“, meaning that we wanted to use some time for ourselves, travel slower and take time to understand what we have already experienced during our world tour till that point. This little break felt great, especially in Kuching where we could enjoy moments of a „normal life“.

What we understood in these 4 weeks in the country is that there is too much to discover and therefore we will definitely need to come back. Here are some of the facts that we learned about Malaysia:

Fact #1 Diversity

In Malaysia, you can find a great diversity of landscapes: beaches, jungle, big city life, small city life, islands, mountains and hills etc. Even if we stayed for a short time we got to experience a bit of everything. We got to know the variety of food on the island of Penang and in Borneo, we explored the jungle wildlife of Bako National Park, we enjoyed some time at the beach and hiking in Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur impressed us with big skyscrapers and well organized public transportation – Malaysia really offers everything.

Fact #2 Religion and ethnic groups

It is not only the way nature defines the diverse landscapes, but also the cities are shaped by their population described as a diversity of nationalities with different cultures and beliefs. In Malaysia, you will find many different ethnic groups. The Malays are the biggest community, practicing Malay culture and customs and following Islam. Also, their language (Malay) is the national language of the country. The second-largest group is the Malaysian Chinese (23%) followed by the Indian community that, with 2 million people (7%), is the smallest of the three main ethnic groups.

English is spoken all over the country as Malaysia has been under the British Empire till 31.August 1957. That day was declared as Independence Day and public holiday (Hari Merdeka).

KUCHING BORNEO MALAYSIA

Fact #3 Palm oil

The next fact is a critical one, but we think it is important to be spoken about. Malaysia is after Indonesia the second largest producer of palm oil. Palm oil comes originally from West Africa, but nowadays 80% is produced in Indonesia and Malaysia, which means around 60 million tons of oil per year. The problem with the cheap oil is that is used in many different industries (auto, food, cosmetics, etc.) and the request is permanently increasing, therefore more and more rain forest is burned down, which creates an extremely dangerous threat leading to the extinction of orangutans and other animals.

Fact #4 Petronas Towers

The most known symbol of Malaysia are definitely the Petronas twin towers in Kuala Lumpur. They are the tallest twin towers in the world, and from 1998 to 2004 they were the highest building in the world. With 451.9m high they also feature the highest 2 store bridge in the world in the 41st and 42nd floor.

KUALA LUMPUR MALAYSIA

Fact #5 Modern country Malaysia

We must say that Malaysia has a similar culture and natural environment to the one in Indonesia, but it is much more modern than we thought at the beginning. Not only in Kuala Lumpur, but also in other cities you can find a very good infrastructure and transportation methods, modern buildings, commercial centers and malls.

There is so much more to say about Malaysia and we really hope that soon we will get another chance to not only visiting Kuala Lumpur while changing flights but also have another longer stop in this modern country.

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George Town Penang – street food and street art in Malaysia

One of our highlights in Malaysia was the visit of the city George Town on the island of Penang, which covers a surface of 292km² that includes the island part and the state which extends outside the island on the west coast of Malaysia. The population consists of Chinese-Malaysians mainly and a large number of foreigners.

We dedicated our visit to George Town, called also Tanjung in Malay. The city is best known for street art and street food and has been included in the list of world cultural heritage in 2008. We spent 3 nights in town and enjoyed our sightseeing to the fullest. The hostel was close to the historic center so we could explore everything on foot.

By the way, coming from the airport, you can easily reach the city by bus for a cost of 2,70 RM per trip and the bus leaves every 30 minutes. You can take bus 401, 401A and 401E.

Street Food

Basically, you can find street food everywhere in the city. We began our search in Lorong Baru, where the New Lane hawker stalls are located, but we tried many different specialties also in several other places. Another cool place to eat with a huge variety of local and international food is called Red Garden Food Paradise on Lebuh Leith street. Like many other places, this is a tourist hot spot and some dishes might be a bit more expensive than in other places, but still very reasonable.

Some of the most famous dishes served in hawker stalls in George Town are:

  • Char koay teow: noodle (rice noodles) dish that is commonly prepared with stir-fried egg, sprouts and seafood.

PENANG MALAYSIA STREET FOOD GEORGETOWN

  • Asam Laksa: while Laksa can be found in different countries in South East Asia, the Penang Asam Laksa has been awarded in 2011 as number 26 of Worlds 50 most delicious foods by CNN go. Laksa is a noodle soup with seafood or chicken. The origin of the Peranakan cuisine came with the Chinese immigrants. Asam stands for tamarind and fish-based soup. Ingredients like lemongrass, chili, coconut milk and galangal add to the flavor.

PENANG MALAYSIA STREET FOOD GEORGETOWN

  • Curry Mee is typical from Malaysia and Singapore, which is a kind of noodle soup with curry, coconut milk and chili and partly also with tofu, egg, chicken or fish. Sometimes this dish is also called Curry Laksa.

PENANG MALAYSIA STREET FOOD GEORGETOWN

 

  • Wan Tan Mee, also named Wonton Noodles is an egg noodle dish that is being served with dark soy sauce and barbecue pork.
  • Teochew Chendul is one of the strangest things we’ve ever tried. It is a typical Malaysian dessert that is served with shaved ice, pandan palm flour noodles and coconut milk, together with kidney beans and gula melaka for the sweet taste. It is said that the most famous Teochew Chendul can be found on Penang Road. We honestly tried only one Chendul, so we cannot say if it is better than others. We believe that one thing is not necessarily better than others just because it is mentioned in a guide book, although the long line in front of the stalls spoke for itself.

For those that are not so much into the experimenting mood, but still prefer something sweet, there is also plenty of Pastry available. My favorite was the Coconut Tart. You can also find bites like Kaya Puff or Kaya Kok, a pastry filled with coconut egg jam.

We tried lots of different foods in Penang. Another one of my favorites was Apom Manis, a pancake typically with sweet corn banana and coconut, but other options include chocolate or different delicious ingredients.

PENANG MALAYSIA STREET FOOD GEORGETOWN

 

As speaking of food we should mention as well the beautiful and cozy coffee shops spread all over the old town. They are really inviting and beautifully designed, convincing you to stop for a coffee every few meters, which for most people would be impossible as honestly, these places were quite pricey. But the good thing is that street food is quite cheap (4-5 RM per dish) and the small portions allow you to try as many dishes as you want.

Street Art

After eating so much, the city gives you the chance to do something for your stuffed belly: a walk in the neighborhood to admire the incredible street art of George Town. Many of the impressive colonial buildings are decorated with the paintings of the Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic who was hired in 2012 for the George Town Festival to beautify the city.

I think there is no need to explain them, as we believe that art can be interpreted in many ways. It might be interesting to know that you can download google maps for offline use with the different street art spots. Also, many hostels and hotels offer printed maps with places where you can find these interactive paintings.

PENANG MALAYSIA STREET ART GEORGETOWN

Chew Jetty

Another cool thing to experience in George Town is Chew Jetty, a famous tourist spot and a nice ending for a walk in the city center. This village is built with huts that stand in the water on stilts. It is overcrowded with shops and little restaurants. The village is nice to look at and offers a nice view over the harbor. It is said that the Jetties outside this area are more original and worth visiting, but probably it would be also irritating for the people that live there if tourists just come and walk “into their garden”.

PENANG MALAYSIA GEORGETOWN

 

Another place we visited was little India, the small quarter spread over Chulia Street, Market Street and Queen Street. In this Indian community, you can find a lot of different Indian food, music, clothes and you can visit the oldest Hindu temple of Penang.

We know that one day we will be back to explore more of Penang but until then we will definitely keep in mind the beautiful memories we have from George Town. See more pictures from George Town here.

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Langkawi – paradise island of Malaysia

Langkawi is a small island paradise on the northwest coast of Malaysia. With beautiful beaches, a large jungle area and incredible hikes, it offers a large range of activities that can probably satisfy any traveler. But, while possibilities were many, time wasn’t enough for us to explore everything that the island had to offer.

It was the last week of our time in Malaysia, which we dedicated to exploring some of the smaller islands of the country. It was still Ramadan time and tourists in the area were few, which allowed us to enjoy more space for ourselves on the beach and in the beautiful jungle that was covering the high hills of the island.

Despite being off-season, local entertainers were available at all times to offer their services to visitors. Water sports seemed to be the most popular and, apart from the well-known ones, one the best was the tour around the smaller islands near the coast, home to a rich mangrove forest.

But we had different plans and skipped the water sports and decided to visit the waterfalls in the jungle. The closest to our location was the Seven Wells Waterfall that had plenty of water eyes resembling natural Jacuzzis, which were perfect spots to cool down after a walk under the hot sun.

The waterfall was just the first stop on a hiking route that was leading to the top of the mountain. We did not plan to go hiking and neither were we properly equipped for it but still spontaneously decided to walk to the top. And if you ever find yourself in the same place unprepared, trying to make a decision, we can only advise you not to go for the hike. We found out only one hour later how difficult the path is, perhaps very dangerous in bad weather conditions. The first part of the two hours hike is beautiful and easy, but the rest requires climbing rocks and holding yourself on ropes and tree branches. The closer you get to the peak the more difficult it feels.

 

The view from the top was indeed beautiful, but we enjoyed it less seeing how our water reserve reached the bottom of the bottle and feeling the sun above us burning like crazy. So we didn’t lose much time up there and climbed down the mountain, stopping in between for a second time at the waterfall to freshen up.

Sun, beach and Indian food

The beach felt nice and we imagined it much more crowded during the season, so we enjoyed being there during the Ramadan. The sea was calm, there were plenty of bars at the beachfront offering good coffee with a beautiful view and restaurants where we went for candlelight dinner during our two evenings on the island. There was a large offering of Asian food. Our favorites were the Indian restaurants, where we always knew that we can find something we like.

LANGKAWI ISLAND MALAYSIA

We also went for one of the infinity pools at one of the resorts in the area, which was open also for outside guests and where it was only required to consume something from the bar in order to use the facilities. It felt like a perfect place to enjoy a refreshing drink under the warm sun at the pool.

LANGKAWI ISLAND MALAYSIA

At the end of the three days, we found ourselves again at the airport for the flight to the island of Penang, where we were planning to explore Georgetown.

Read more about it here.

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Bako National Park in Borneo

The island of Borneo is home to some of the most fascinating and diverse faunas in the world. The biggest island in Asia is covered by thousands of square kilometers of beautiful green jungle and is divided between Indonesia and Malaysia, the latter owning the north part of the island.

Borneo offers a range of unique activities to its visitors, but probably the best experience of all is a jungle walk, which we had in mind when visiting the Bako National Park in Sarawak, Malaysia’s largest state.

A good place to start an adventure in Borneo is Kuching, which has a well-connected airport to the rest of the country and Bako National Park is just one of the places that the city offers easy access to.

Getting to Bako National Park

What makes Bako National Park special is the fact that it is isolated in the north part of the Muara Tebas peninsula and the only access to it for tourists is possible by boat. There are accommodation options in the park, but few and conform standards are low, which leaves room for a more authentic experience for those searching for wilder places to get lost in.

We took a bus from Kuching for 3 RM, which dropped us at the boat terminal, where we had to pay 40 ringgit for a half an hour round boat trip to the start of the trekking routes. Bako’s trail system is made up of 16 color-coded jungle trails, offering a range of walking and hiking options. Visitors are required to register themselves at the reception in the park and mention which route they plan to walk on, as well as the departure and arrival time. Some of the routes have a high difficulty level and the visits in the park need to be monitored for safety reasons.

 

We chose one of the more difficult routes that led us for longer than five hours through rich vegetation and offered us the chance to see multiple animals and plants. The park offers access also to some very beautiful beaches, but we’ve been advised to not get close to the waters as crocodiles have been spotted on the beach.

Seven distinct ecosystems and the superb wildlife viewing opportunities make Bako a truly beautiful and unique place. The park is very well maintained, with marked trails and several maps along the way. At the reception in the park visitors are being already welcomed by proboscis monkeys, known also as long-nosed monkeys, and lots of long-tailed macaques, monitor lizards, bearded pigs and a variety of birds. The dipper you go into the forest the more diverse the experience feels.

BAKO NATIONAL PARK MALAYSIA

 

We met with several marching giant ant colonies, large spiders, two types of snakes, including the famous pit viper and, of course, a lot of mosquitoes.

At the end of the day, a boat picked us up from the beach at the reception of the park and brought us back to the point where we started in the morning. Since we had to wait a while for the following bus to take us back to Kuching, we agreed to pay a bit more than for the standard bus ticket to a passing minivan driver that offered us and to a few others a ride.

Read more about our adventures in Malaysia here.

For more pictures from Bako National Park and Kuching click here.

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Kutching and the island of Borneo

The island of Borneo is one of the biggest in the world, home to diverse fauna and flora and beautiful beaches. It is divided between Indonesia and Malaysia. After a week in Kuala Lumpur, we took the flight to Kuching, one of the main access gates to the Malaysian part of the island.

While we found it to be more of a quiet place, the city is actually very big. Its many accommodation options, varying from simple hostels to five stars hotel chains, an abundance of touristic resorts and commercial centers are proofs of intense touristic activity… although this wasn’t the reality when we were there.

Most public buses didn’t offer rides anymore due to the low number of requests. Transportation from the airport towards the city had to be organized by car. We paid 30 ringgit for a ride to our hostel, which has been the last taxi ride that we took in this country. We found out that other transportation methods were available and way cheaper.

We started moving around by using Grab, a convenient alternative for Uber but much more used in Southeast Asia. And with so many drivers making a living from offering a ride on Grab, we never had to wait more than five minutes to have a car waiting to pick us up.

 

Le Nomade Backpacker Hostel has been our “home” for two weeks, a small hostel with simple accommodation options, basic breakfast and extraordinary people. We found plenty of restaurants in the area around the hostel, a big supermarket, from where we always bought our groceries whenever we felt like cooking some of the foods we usually enjoy at home and cute coffee places to hide and chill during the rainy and hot afternoons. It has been a wonderful place to relax after long travel times, to work and get up to date with our projects and to enjoy the simple daily Malaysian life.

While many touristic activities were available to choose from inside the city, we spent only one day outside of it, when we visited the Bako National Park. The city is hosting some of the famous Malaysian street art, which we went to discover one day. Colorful paintings contribute to the charm of the animated streets and definitely add flavor to the Malaysian experience of every tourist.

KUCHING MALAYSIA

 

In the end, our time in Kuching felt rich in memories but, despite the two weeks that we spent there, still short in time. The following days we would go to explore some of the smaller islands of Malaysia. Read more about it here.

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Kuala Lumpur – the beautiful capital city of Malaysia

Our time in Nepal was short and even if we wish it could have been a bit longer, the first signs of the upcoming monsoon convinced us to plan an early escape. The last week of May would find us walking on the streets of Kuala Lumpur.
Our expectations for Malaysia were low since we were only searching for a good place to stay away from the rainy season and rest after more than three months of being constantly on the road. But we were very much impressed by how beautiful and modern the country is and Kuala Lumpur happened to be at the same level as many European cities.
But, despite the fact that we had good weather on our side, we appreciated every drop of rain. The high temperatures kept us most of the time inside our accommodation until we were able to adapt to it properly.
Luckily, the Malaysian capital city has a well-organized public transportation system, so we hadn’t had to move much on foot, but still be able to see most of the landmarks that we planned to visit. There was even a free bus system that connected most of the touristic attractions. The Sultan Abdul Samad Building at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur Railway Station and Merdeka Square were just some of the stops on our route. Apart from skyscrapers and a sophisticated transportation network, Kuala Lumpur’s streets are filled with markets, restaurants and gardens, all bringing together a diverse community of people of different traditions and beliefs.

KUALA LUMPUR MALAYSIA

The Skyline of Kuala Lumpur

One of the highlights of our stay in Kuala Lumpur was admiring the skyline at night from the top of one of its skyscrapers. Heli Lounge Bar has a large terrace opened on the roof of the building. It is enough to order a drink and that will serve also as a ticket for a spectacular view. The Petronas Twin Towers and the communications KL Tower are dominating the urban landscape.

KUALA LUMPUR MALAYSIA

 

But there is fun happening also outside the city’s center. Take a train or a bus to the Batu Caves, to admire impressive rock formations, some of them hosting large Hindu temples. Visiting the Dark Cave requires a higher fee than the other caves due to conservation efforts, but instead promises to offer more entertainment to adventurous explorers.

 

A large variety of foods is available on almost every street in Kuala Lumpur. Chinese and Indian restaurants are widely spread, together with well-known brands that offer western food.
We arrived in Malaysia at the beginning of Ramadan and while the holy Muslim time is considered to be low season, we were more than happy to enjoy our stay away from the crowds of tourists. Ramadan also brings people together during the many buffets that offer tasty and cheap street food. So we could say that Ramadan time can be a food lover’s paradise.
One week later we took a flight to Kuching, on the island of Borneo where we went to discover other parts of the country.

See more pictures from Kuala Lumpur here.

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