3 days in KL - what would you do?

[munitalP]

Hi all

If someone was stupid enough to shout you a 3 day weekend in KL staying at the Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur, what activities would you get up to?

Hypothetically this would be happening on Friday 30th of this month... :shock:

FWIW - Golf is out (hypothetically speaking of course...)

munitalP

 

[munitalP]

Oh, and Mrs munitalP would be with me (in this hypothetical situation)

munitalP

 

[drron]

Eat

 

[markis10]

Fish Spa would be a must just for the conversation value, bird park, bukit bintang for shopping and Petronas towers.

 

[docjames]

I agree with drron. :mrgreen:

Needs more satay sticks.

 

[k_sheep]

I love KL - are you open to any sort of ideas? Because I'm procrastinating, here's my ultimate guide to short stays in KL.

Lake district

I'd suggest a day at the lake district, just west of the city. I walk there and back from Masjid Jamek or Sentral (train stations) but taxis are always available (though sometimes it can be hard to get one to use their meter on the way back). My favourites are:

Bird park: RM42 each, I think there's a camera fee of RM1 as well. Open from 9am-6pm. Expensive, but great variety of birds. The hornbill restaurant there actually is not bad - meals aren't as overpriced as you'd expect with a captive audience. Don't miss the eagle feeding time! It's on at 2pm from memory, and there might be a morning one too.

Butterfly park: about RM17 each or so from memory with a camera fee. Better value for money than the bird park I think, but recommend both. It's not just butterflies there - got nice turtle ponds and have heaps of caged reptils, amphibians and instects.

Orchid + hibiscus garden: both nice ways to spend some time. They're free except sat/sun, then they're only a ringgit or two.

Just strolling around! is a nice thing to do in the district. Cooler and quieter than the city. Monkeys wandering around (particularly around the bird park netting) which is a novelty. I've never managed to get to the planatarium while it's open :-| but there's some nice views around the front, with a nice fountain display. There's a sculpture park, and the national mosque (masjid negara) is an impressive sight, and is great to hear the calls to prayer ringing out across the gardens. There's also museums, like the police museum (?!) here, but I've not been in any.

 

[Mal]

Spending half+ of a day visiting the Petronas Towers (get there early!), and then the KL Tower must feature on one of the days.

Mrs munitalP will easily spend half+ of a day (or maybe more!) wandering around the lovely shopping centres in the golden tourist areas. Some of them are big!

I agree a fish spa would be very interesting - but it's not so much a Malaysia only type activity - for example they just opened one in London with much fanfare. I laughed when I saw the price and compared it to KL!

 

[k_sheep]

new post, because I'm tired of typing long posts which then die on me and I can't be bothered retyping it!

Shopping

Shopping in KL is great. The biggest variety are found around Bukit Bintang - a couple of stops away from Medan Tuanku next to the sheraton, about 1.90 each way (can't buy returns on monorail. Can also go to Imbi station). The complexes I tend to go to or recommend are:

• Sungei Wang plaza - a mass conglomerate of confusing hallways. There tend to be "themed" hallways - all hairdresses in one hallway, travel agents in another. Mobile phone sellers everywhere! Lots of souvenirs though. Fantastic food court right up the top, level 4 I think - it's one of those ones only locals go to, it's the typical hot unairconditioned but dirt cheap eateries. It also directly joins ...
• BB plaza, with more of the same. Has a big Metrojaya, which is a big department store, with cheap perfume/cosmetics if the Mrs is into that.
• Lowyat plaza - the IT and electronics place. Great if you want a camera, or any computer hardware (you can google their pricelists), or just want a spare battery for something. The smell of nerds can be overpowering, but there's a nice japanese place at the basement level if you need time out. They had a good katsu don set when I was last there.
• Times square - has some more of the expensive stores if you like that sort of thing.
• Pavilion - also a more expensive one with the big brands like ... I dunno, gucci or something (heh - can you tell I'm poor?!). Has won architecture awards and ... stuff ...

Outside bukit bintang

• Chinatown / petaling st - tourist tackiness ahoy. Worth a stroll down for the experience if you've not done that before in Thailand etc. Go afternoon/night, get the RapidKL train from Dang Wangi to Pasar Seni, or the monorail to Maharajalela. Small walk from either of these; or a taxi from Bukit bintang is cheap. My hint here is to largely ignore the stalls making all the noise in the main area, and check the permanent stores behind them out - good bargains there (my favourite for shoes and cheap luggage)
• KLCC - RapidKL train direct to KLCC, which runs under the shopping centre. It is actually at the base of the petronas twin towers, so you can kill 2 birds with one stone. There's a nice city park here too, with a cool fountain. All the expensive Loius vitton, godiva shops are here, but it gets cheaper as you go up levels (apart from the cheapie souvenir stuff at the train level!). Food court level 4 is way better than the one on level 2.
• Sogo (quick walk from hotel). You won't find any tourists here! If you want cheap cool shirts (as in temperature, rather than the x factor!), here is the place - Mr k_sheep has gotten many from here, which suit the BNE summer nicely. They had a huge handbag sale on when I was there that the girls were going mad for.
• Chow kit night markets - not for the faint hearted. Near the chow kit monorail (walkable from sheraton). I like it here for the bustling wet market, but whenever I've taken friends there, they're always keen to get away from the locals and head to chinatown. Depends what you like!
• Central market (pasar seni or masjid jamek RapidKL station). The old wet market, converted to shops. Pretty nice souvenirs, and a nice food court up the top - a bit more fancy than most (has wooden chairs instead of plastic!). There's an art gallery here too, if you're into that stuff. Can walk to chinatown from here.
• Midvalley mall (get train to Midvalley station from sentral - less than RM2). Giant mall, again, not many locals here. Has a garden mall section with your rolexes and whatnot. Lots of nice cafes.

 

[k_sheep]

Food!

Yes, it's all about the food. I listed most of my favourite foodcourts in the shopping section, however I must pay tribute to ...

• Jalan Alor (street just north of the Bukit bintang area) - at night this turns into a great street of hawker food and restaurants. My favourite is not one of the main area eateries, but an indian place right at the end of the east street end of Alor. You can feed 4 hungry adults who may have imbibed a little too much for RM25 - brilliant roti canai, and all the other rotis that I may not know the name of due to prior partaking of liquids.

For fancy restaurants - hard for me to recommend because I don't go to many. But there's nice little cafes, italian etc down near the Pavilion shops along Raja Chulan.

Drink!

This is where it gets harder - being a muslim country, alcohol isn't a big thing and it's pretty expensive. Buy some duty free in the way in, and have a few before going out! (or go to coughtail hour at the sheraton ). Carlsberg and Tiger beer are mainstays (but expect to pay).

 

[k_sheep]

Tourist stuff!

• Yes there's the towers at the aforementioned KLCC. There is a walkway between the 2 buildings which you can get tickets to walk across - but it's only partway up, and you have to get there early (around 7am) and wait for at LEAST an hour to get your free tickets for sometime during the day. Not available mondays. I've honestly never thought that I had enough time to spare in KL to find it worthwhile to do this. Another more time friendly option is ...
• KL tower for RM38 (walkable from sheraton). They've got packages up there with F1 simulators and stuff, but I don't know much about that.
• Batu caves: about an hour out of town, there's a temple built into a cave. Good experience. 272 steps to the entrance - try not to have raging bronchitis like I did when doing it, and was very embarrassed having to stop halfway up for a coughing fit!! Busses leave from town, or there's organised groups.

Last words!

The sheraton actually isn't in a great area - there's no nice eateries around there, and can be a little dingy. But the monorail is so close so I'd just jump on! There's a couple of bars close by too if prior mentioned imbibing is required. I actually stayed there one night in June to qualify for my spg free weekend, I've got some pics around if you wanted. It's great value for what you get.

Navigation is dead easy, just make sure to get a map from the tourist place at the airport or Sentral, rather than the cruddy ones you get from the sheraton. Trains and monorails all have english ticket machines / announcements. Keep lots of RM1 notes handy for monorails. ATMs are plentiful, CCs are accepted most of the big places. Most forex places (outside the airport!) are pretty good with their rates.

.... theoretically

 

[markis10]

Tourist stuff!

The sheraton actually isn't in a great area - there's no nice eateries around there, and can be a little dingy. But the monorail is so close so I'd just jump on! There's a couple of bars close by too if prior mentioned imbibing is required. I actually stayed there one night in June to qualify for my spg free weekend, I've got some pics around if you wanted. It's great value for what you get.

Good point - It was not a great area when I stayed there for the commonwealth games, but the hotel was very nice and good value for money, had no issues with transport so no big deal. I would negotiate 3 days in langkawi over KL anyday but sometimes you just have to go with the flow