Travel and Tourism in Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur: The City in Depth

Kuala Lumpur, or KL as it is universally known, is one of the great capitals of Asia, a city that has transformed itself from a tin mining settlement established at the confluence of the Klang and Gombak rivers in the 1850s into a sophisticated metropolitan area of over seven million people in its greater conurbation. The name means Muddy Confluence in Malay, a reminder of the city's humble origins as a trading post at the junction of two rivers in the middle of the jungle. Today it is a city of gleaming towers, sprawling shopping malls, extraordinary street food, and a cultural richness that reflects its Chinese, Malay, Indian, and global communities.

The defining landmark of Kuala Lumpur, and arguably of Malaysia itself, is the Petronas Twin Towers. Completed in 1998 and standing 452 meters tall, they were the world's tallest buildings from 1998 to 2004, and they remain the tallest twin towers ever built. The architect was Cesar Pelli, the Argentine-born American architect, and his design drew explicitly on Islamic geometric principles, the floor plan of each tower based on an eight-pointed star formed by two overlapping squares that creates an interlocking pattern throughout the structure. The towers are clad in stainless steel and glass, and at night, when they are lit against the tropical sky, they are genuinely breathtaking. The Petronas Towers are not merely the most famous building in Malaysia. They represent a national ambition crystallized in steel and glass, a declaration by Mahathir's government that Malaysia had arrived as a modern nation capable of building the tallest structures in the world.

The Skybridge connecting the two towers at the 41st and 42nd floors is the highest two-story bridge in the world and is open to visitors on a timed-entry basis. The view from the Skybridge across the KLCC development and toward the surrounding city is spectacular, and the engineering achievement represented by the bridge, which is not fixed to the towers but floats on ball joints that allow for movement as the towers sway in the wind, is extraordinary.

Below the towers, the KLCC park is one of the most pleasant urban green spaces in Asia, its wide paths, jogging track, wading pool, and Symphony Lake providing a welcome respite from the city's intensity. The evening fountain show at Symphony Lake, set to music, draws crowds of families and couples every night. The KLCC mall beneath and beside the towers is among the most impressive in Southeast Asia, with a mix of international luxury brands and Malaysian retailers, and the Aquaria KLCC within the development houses an impressive oceanarium containing sharks, rays, and a spectacular underwater walkthrough tunnel.

Batu Caves, a complex of limestone caves and cave temples in the hills north of KL, is one of the most visited Hindu shrines outside India and one of the most spectacular religious sites in Southeast Asia. The site centers on a massive limestone outcrop containing a series of caves, the largest of which houses the Cathedral Cave, a soaring space filled with Hindu shrines and statuary. The approach to the Cathedral Cave is by a steep staircase of 272 steps painted in brilliant rainbow colors, watched over by a 42-meter golden statue of Lord Murugan, the tallest Murugan statue in the world. The statue, completed in 2006, is clad in 1,550 liters of gold paint and is visible from a considerable distance.

Batu Caves is most famously the site of Thaipusam, the Tamil Hindu festival that falls annually in January or February during the Tamil month of Thai. Thaipusam at Batu Caves is one of the most extraordinary religious spectacles in Asia, drawing upward of a million worshippers and pilgrims over its three days. Devotees carry kavadi, elaborate framework structures decorated with flowers, fruits, and peacock feathers, that are attached to their bodies through multiple metal skewers piercing their skin, tongues, and cheeks. The sight of hundreds of kavadi carriers, their bodies decorated with numerous piercings, ascending the 272 steps to the caves while in states of apparent religious trance, accompanied by the drumming and chanting of thousands of supporters, is one of the most viscerally intense and deeply moving religious experiences available to travelers anywhere in the world.

Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown, centered on Petaling Street, is a lively commercial and culinary district where the covered street market sells everything from replica goods to genuine local handicrafts and where the surrounding lanes are filled with excellent traditional Chinese cuisine. Char kway teow, Hokkien mee, dim sum, and roast duck restaurants compete for the attention of visitors who wander through the market lanes. The nearby Central Market, or Pasar Seni, is a more organized arts and crafts market in a beautifully restored Art Deco building where Malaysian batik, pewter ware, wood carvings, and other handicrafts are sold.

Brickfields, known as Little India, is the heart of Kuala Lumpur's Indian community. The streets are lined with sari shops, Indian jewelry stores, banana leaf rice restaurants, sweet shops selling Indian confections, and temples. The Banana Leaf Rice experience in Brickfields is one of KL's essential culinary rituals: a fresh banana leaf is spread in front of you and piled with rice, and around it are arranged multiple small servings of vegetable curries, dal, rasam, papadum, and various pickles and chutneys. You eat with your right hand, mixing the flavors as you go, in a meal that is one of the most satisfying gastronomic experiences in the city.

Masjid Jamek, the colonial-era mosque built in 1909 at the confluence of the Klang and Gombak rivers where KL was founded, is the oldest mosque in the city and one of its most beautiful buildings. Its Moorish architecture, with striped arches and minarets reflected in the river below, represents the beginning of KL's architectural story and provides a contemplative counterpoint to the modernity all around it.

The Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia near the National Museum is considered by many observers to be the finest Islamic arts museum in the world. Its collection spans fourteen centuries of Islamic civilization, from early manuscripts and ceramics through extraordinary architectural models including a stunning recreation of the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, to textiles, jewelry, arms and armor, coins, and decorative arts from Morocco to China. The building itself is a work of art, its domes decorated with Iznik tiles from Turkey, and the galleries are spacious, beautifully lit, and intelligently curated. Even visitors with no particular prior interest in Islamic art typically leave amazed.

Bukit Bintang, the shopping and entertainment district in the heart of KL, contains several of the city's largest malls including Pavilion Kuala Lumpur and Lot 10. But its most characterful feature is Jalan Alor, the food street that comes alive after dark as a dense concentration of hawker stalls and outdoor restaurants selling grilled seafood, satay, Malaysian Chinese barbecue, and a dozen other preparations. The satay stalls alone, with their rows of skewers over charcoal and the accompanying peanut sauce, compressed rice cakes, cucumber, and onion, represent one of the most sociable and satisfying ways to eat in KL.

The KL Bird Park in the Lake Gardens district is the world's largest free-flight aviary, covering roughly 20 acres and containing over 3,000 birds of 200 species in a vast netted environment of tropical vegetation. Walking through it feels like moving through a living forest where hornbills, flamingos, peacocks, and dozens of other spectacular species move freely around you. It is one of the most genuinely impressive attractions in the city, and for travelers who will not be visiting Borneo, it provides an introduction to the extraordinary birdlife of the Malaysian rainforest.

Malacca: The City That Shaped the World

Malacca, today spelled Melaka in the Malaysian national romanization, is one of those cities where the weight of history is almost physically tangible. The place that was once the greatest trading port in the world, the crossroads of the global spice trade, the birthplace of the Malay cultural and linguistic world, and the first Southeast Asian city to fall to a European conqueror now occupies a stretch of the west coast about 150 kilometers south of Kuala Lumpur. It is a relatively small city, and its historic core, jointly inscribed with George Town as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008, can be walked in a few hours. But those few hours constitute one of the most layered historical experiences in Asia.

The Portuguese fort of A Famosa, constructed by Afonso de Albuquerque beginning in 1511 and once one of the most formidable defensive structures in Asia, survives today as a single gateway arch, the Porta de Santiago, and little else. The British East India Company demolished most of the fort in 1806 when they were about to hand Melaka back to the Dutch under the provisions of a temporary treaty, reasoning that a demolished fort was of no use to rivals. Stamford Raffles, who would later found Singapore, arrived from Penang just in time to intervene and preserve the gateway that remains today.

Atop the hill behind the Porta de Santiago stands the roofless shell of St. Paul's Church, constructed by the Portuguese in 1521 as Nossa Senhora da Annunciada and later used by the Dutch as a burial ground. The church's walls are embedded with Dutch tombstones and the floor is scattered with grave markers. It was here that the body of St. Francis Xavier, the Jesuit missionary who died on a Chinese island near Canton in 1552, was temporarily interred before being sent to Goa and ultimately Rome. A white marble statue of Xavier stands in the ruins.

The Dutch Stadthuys, the massive rose-red administrative building constructed between 1650 and 1660, is the oldest surviving Dutch building outside the Netherlands. Its heavy Dutch architecture, adapted for the tropical climate with deep verandahs and high windows, dominates Melaka's Dutch Square along with the Dutch Christ Church of 1753, whose interior contains the original Dutch pew benches and ceiling beams, all cut from a single tree each. The whole ensemble of Dutch buildings, painted in their distinctive red-orange, creates one of the most distinctive streetscapes in Southeast Asia.

Jonker Street, the main lane of Melaka's Chinatown district, is lined with Peranakan shophouses whose ground floors have been converted into antique shops, restaurants, and boutiques while the upper floors often remain residential. On Friday and Saturday nights, Jonker Street is closed to traffic and becomes a night market of food stalls and craft vendors that draws visitors and locals alike.

The Peranakan or Baba Nyonya culture of Melaka represents one of the most fascinating hybrid cultures in Asia. The Baba Nyonya are the descendants of Chinese immigrants who arrived in Malaya from the fifteenth century onward and integrated with the local Malay community, adopting the Malay language, certain Malay cultural practices, and particularly the Malay approach to food and dress while maintaining their Chinese religious observances and clan affiliations. The result is a culture of extraordinary richness whose lacquerware, embroidery, porcelain, cuisine, and architecture are immediately recognizable as both Asian and uniquely Malaccan.

Nonya cuisine, the cooking of the Peranakan community, is considered by many to be the ultimate Malaysian fusion cuisine. It combines the umami depth of Chinese cooking with the spice complexity of Malay cooking, using ingredients like galangal, lemongrass, bunga kantan, daun kesom, belacan prawn paste, and candlenuts alongside Chinese soy sauce, Chinese mushrooms, and Chinese preserved foods. Dishes like ayam pongteh, a chicken stew with fermented soybean paste and dark soy sauce, and Nonya laksa, distinguished from Penang laksa by its richer, slightly coconut-inflected broth, are among the most sophisticated preparations in the Malaysian culinary canon.

The connection between Melaka and Zheng He, the great Chinese Muslim admiral who made seven voyages across Asia and as far as the East African coast between 1405 and 1433, is celebrated in the Cheng Ho Cultural Museum. Zheng He made multiple visits to Melaka during his voyages, and the relationship between the Chinese empire and the Melaka Sultanate was one of mutual benefit: Chinese recognition and protection gave Melaka security against its larger neighbors, while Melaka's position gave China a crucial trading partner and ally in Southeast Asia. Zheng He's voyages brought thousands of Chinese craftsmen and traders to Melaka and are credited with beginning the Chinese settlement of the peninsula that would eventually shape the demography of modern Malaysia.

The Malacca River cruise, a short boat journey along the narrow river that runs through the heart of the old city, provides a distinctive perspective on the layers of Melaka's history. The riverbanks have been sensitively developed with murals, sculptures, and lit walkways, and the mixture of Portuguese-era stone walls, Dutch warehouses converted to hotels, colonial shophouses, and modern developments visible from the water captures something of the extraordinary density of history that Melaka contains.

Islands and Beaches

Malaysia's coastal and island environments offer some of the finest beach and marine experiences in Southeast Asia, ranging from the hedonistic pleasure-seeking atmosphere of Langkawi to the genuine wilderness diving of Sipadan.

Langkawi, an archipelago of 99 islands off the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, has been designated a duty-free zone since 1987 and has developed into one of the most popular island destinations in Southeast Asia. The main island, Pulau Langkawi, offers everything from luxury beach resorts to mangrove kayaking, rice paddy walks, and the spectacular SkyBridge cable car. The SkyBridge itself, a curved pedestrian bridge hanging 100 meters above the valley floor in the mountains above Pantai Cenang, accessible by the Langkawi SkyCab gondola, provides one of the most dramatic views in Malaysia: the archipelago laid out below, with the Thai islands visible to the north and the mangrove coastline stretching south. The duty-free status of Langkawi makes it attractive to Malaysians and Singaporeans for shopping, particularly alcohol and electronics, which are substantially cheaper than on the mainland.

The Kilim Karst Geoforest Park on Langkawi's northern coast is a UNESCO Geopark of extraordinary beauty, its mangrove waterways threading between dramatic limestone karst formations that rise from the sea and are inhabited by cave-nesting eagles, monitor lizards, and the mudskipper fish that move between water and land on their modified fins. Kayak and boat tours through the mangroves at dawn provide some of the most peaceful and beautiful experiences Langkawi offers.

The Perhentian Islands, two main islands and several smaller ones off the northeast coast of Peninsular Malaysia near the Thai border, are among the most beautiful islands in Southeast Asia and represent the budget traveler's paradise in Malaysian waters. The islands are known for crystal-clear water, vibrant coral reefs, green and hawksbill turtle nesting beaches, and an atmosphere of gentle relaxation that makes them attractive to backpackers, families, and divers alike. Turtles are a constant presence in the waters around the islands, frequently encountered while snorkeling in the shallow reefs near shore, and the sight of a sea turtle gliding past beneath the crystal water is one of the defining experiences of a Perhentian visit.

Tioman Island, off the east coast of Pahang, is another jewel of the Malaysian east coast with a long history as a diving destination and the reputation of a film location, having served as the setting for the fictional Bali Hai in the 1958 Hollywood film South Pacific. The island's interior is largely primary jungle, and the dive sites around the island include walls, pinnacles, and the famous Tiger Reef where leopard sharks rest in the sand.

Sipadan Island, off the northeast coast of Sabah in the Celebes Sea, is universally recognized by divers as one of the greatest dive sites in the world. The island sits atop an underwater volcanic pinnacle rising from abyssal depths, and the combination of the open ocean waters and the nutrient richness of the surrounding seas creates conditions for extraordinary marine life. The signature experiences of Sipadan diving are the barracuda tornadoes, vast spiraling vortices of chevron barracuda containing hundreds of individuals, and the green and hawksbill turtles that are so numerous that divers routinely encounter multiple individuals simultaneously. Hammerhead sharks are frequently encountered in the deeper waters, and the variety of reef fish, including bumphead parrotfish in schools of dozens, is extraordinary.

Access to Sipadan is strictly controlled by the Malaysian government, with only 120 dive permits issued per day to preserve the marine environment. These permits must be applied for well in advance through the limited number of dive operators authorized to use the site, and the demand for permits consistently exceeds the supply. The restriction, while frustrating to some divers, has been essential in preserving the extraordinary quality of Sipadan's marine environment, and the comparison between Sipadan's healthy and abundant reef and the degraded dive sites elsewhere in Southeast Asia speaks clearly for the value of the permit system.

Arts, Culture, and Festivals

Malaysia's cultural life reflects the extraordinary diversity of its population, with the arts of the Malay, Chinese, Indian, and indigenous communities coexisting and intermingling in ways that have produced both distinct traditions and remarkable fusions.

Batik fabric, the cloth produced using a wax-resist dyeing technique that creates patterns of great complexity and beauty, is one of Malaysia's most important traditional crafts. Malaysian batik, while related to the Indonesian batik tradition, has developed its own distinctive characteristics: Malaysian batik tends toward larger, bolder patterns with less complexity of detail than Javanese batik, often incorporating floral and leaf motifs of considerable elegance. The kain batik sarong, the wraparound cloth in batik fabric, is worn as formal dress by Malay men and women and remains an important part of Malaysian national identity. Batik workshops in Kelantan, Terengganu, and Kuala Lumpur allow visitors to try the wax-resist technique themselves.

Pewter ware, particularly as produced by Royal Selangor Pewter in Kuala Lumpur, represents another of Malaysia's distinctive craft traditions. Royal Selangor was founded in 1885 by a Hakka Chinese immigrant and has grown into the world's largest pewter manufacturer, its flagship showroom and visitor center in the Selangor Pewter Complex in KL providing an introduction to the craft through demonstrations, a museum, and the opportunity to hand-beat your own pewter piece in the School of Hard Knocks workshop.

Wayang kulit, the Malay shadow puppet tradition, is one of Southeast Asia's most sophisticated performing arts, combining elaborate puppetry, live musical performance by a small gamelan orchestra, and the storytelling skills of the Tok Dalang, the puppet master, in performances that traditionally lasted through the night. The repertoire draws from the Hindu epics of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, filtered through the Malay cultural sensibility, and the Tok Dalang is simultaneously narrator, voice actor, director, and spiritual medium, maintaining the connection between the performance and the spiritual forces that traditional practice holds to be present at every wayang. UNESCO has inscribed Malaysian wayang kulit on its list of intangible cultural heritage requiring urgent safeguarding.

Silat, the Malay martial art, is a practice of considerable beauty and philosophical depth that combines striking, grappling, and weapons techniques with a flowing, dance-like quality that makes its demonstrations both impressive as martial arts and compelling as performance. Traditional silat is deeply embedded in Malay culture and spirituality, with certain lineages incorporating spiritual elements and ritual practices. Modern silat has been systematized and is practiced competitively as a sport while the traditional forms remain alive in the kampung villages.

The Malaysian festival calendar is one of the most generous in the world, reflecting the country's commitment to recognizing the religious and cultural heritage of all its communities. Hari Raya Aidilfitri, the Malaysian celebration of Eid al-Fitr marking the end of Ramadan, is the most important festival in the Malay Muslim community. The days before Hari Raya see a massive movement of people from the cities back to their home kampung villages, and the festival itself is marked by open house celebrations where Malay families welcome visitors of all backgrounds to their homes for food and conversation. The open house tradition, in which prominent figures including the Prime Minister hold formal open houses welcoming thousands of visitors, is one of Malaysia's most distinctive social institutions and a genuine expression of the multicultural ideal.

Chinese New Year celebrations in Malaysia are among the most exuberant in the world, transforming the Chinese quarters of Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Ipoh, and other cities with red lanterns, lion and dragon dances, fireworks, and the smell of oranges and joss sticks. The lion dance performances, in which elaborately costumed pairs of dancers animate a stylized lion puppet through acrobatic movements that bring good fortune to each establishment visited, are a spectacular art form in their own right.

Deepavali, the Hindu festival of lights, transforms Little India in Kuala Lumpur and the Indian communities throughout Malaysia with oil lamps, flower garlands, new clothes, and the sweet smell of traditional Indian sweets. The celebration of Deepavali by Malaysian Hindus, with its emphasis on the triumph of light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance, carries additional resonance in a country where the Indian community has faced significant economic marginalization.

Thaipusam at Batu Caves, already discussed in the Kuala Lumpur section, deserves emphasis again as perhaps the most intense and extraordinary religious festival experience available to travelers in Southeast Asia. The scale of the event, the physical drama of the kavadi piercings and the 272-step ascent, the devotion of the participants, and the extraordinary sensory experience of being present among hundreds of thousands of pilgrims creates an atmosphere of religious intensity that is genuinely unlike anything else in the region.

The coexistence of these major religious festivals as national public holidays, with the federal government recognizing Christmas, Deepavali, Chinese New Year, Hari Raya, and other celebrations as occasions for national celebration, is genuinely unusual in the world and reflects a Malaysian approach to multicultural governance that, for all its imperfections and ongoing tensions, represents something worth celebrating.