Visiting a new place beyond the boundaries of your country is never an easy thing–there’s always some questions that prop up in your mind, especially you have some conditions like you are visiting with a family, you are vegetarian, etc.
Every limitation and additional point that you have apart from you traveling on your own put up a question that you would like to answer. However, visiting Kuala Lumpur is a pleasant experience, to say the least, for all kind of travelers–whether solo, in a family, or for a business trip.
Here are some tips and points to keep in mind if you are traveling to Kuala Lumpur (Points I came across)
- Water is paid–even restaurants won’t serve your water for free. Go for ice-water because they usually serve hot water. Even lemonade is served in hot water with ice added.
- Almost all the food is on the sweet side–salty, spicy food will be hardly available for vegetarians. Non-vegetarian food may be salty or spicy.
- Metro ride is cheaper and offers a nice experience but taxis are also readily available and are affordable.
- Buy beverages and drinks from vending machines wherever possible. They are dirt-cheap; cheaper than even India. I paid 1 RM (~17-18 INR) for a Pepsi can of 325 ml. (!)
- KLIA Terminal 2 security check-in does not allow to take cold-drinks and water bottles in. Because the water dispenser at the gates does not have glasses, ask the security person to give back your bottle without water so that you could use it to drink water from the dispenser.
- Vegetarian food options are very-very limited (and I mean an extremely low probability of finding anything vegetarian). So, if possible, pack a lot of food items and snacks in your luggage.
- Kuala Lumpur (KL) is a small town. Grab Car is the best option because the taxis are usually personal cars and the condition of these cars is usually very nice.
- There are no winters in Kuala Lumpur. Only in planes, cars, and hotels, you will need full-sleeve clothes, otherwise, it is usually hot and humid.
- If you have booked your flight with Air Asia, be aware that they charge for check-in luggage, food, and in-flight entertainment. Usually, they make a terrible experience for international travel, so make sure you are ready to be negatively surprised. Make sure you have pre-booked everything so that you get things on time (It took almost 2 hours to get food while I traveled back to Delhi from Kuala Lumpur because I hadn’t booked my food online).
- The Wellness Spa, hosted by Plaza Premium Lounge, does not accept HDFC RuPay debit cards, though HDFC’s website says that it will be accepted. The food inside the lounge also does not have an extensive menu–just a couple of items and drinks.
- The food court in KLIA Terminal 2 again does not have any vegetarian food available–only French Fries and rice with curry, which is not very tasty.
- If possible, take a lesser amount of money with you in Malaysian Ringgits and try using your credit cards. Because if you have more money than needed, when you come back and convert the spare money again to Indian rupees, the exchange rate rate will be lower–you will lose around 4/- INR per Ringgit because of these transactional charges only.
