Malaysia Trip

Introduction

Malaysian currency is Malaysian ringgit (MYR) and the conversion rate at the time of my trip was 1 MYR = 18 INR.

In the month of November 2023, I came across news about Malaysia announcing visa-free entry to Indians starting from December 2023 onwards for the purpose of social visits, tourism and business. Earlier that month, Thailand also made a similar announcement, granting visa free entry to Indians for tourism purposes. Visa waiver reduces hassle in traveling as it saves time, money and travel spent on obtaining visa. So, I planned for a two week trip to Malaysia and Thailand, spending one week in each of them. During international travel, it is common for airline staff and immigration officers to ask questions regarding your trip. I have recorded all the questions asked during this trip in this pad.

Boarding a flight from the Delhi airport

On 31st Jan, I had an AirAsia flight at night from Delhi to Kuala Lumpur. Upon reaching Delhi Airport, I went to the AirAsia counter to get my boarding pass and was asked the following questions:

• What is your purpose of visit to Malaysia?
• Return ticket.
• Hotel Bookings.
• Invoice of Hotel Bookings - I did not have invoice of hotel bookings. In fact, only the first day stay in Kuala Lumpur was paid in advance. I didn’t pay for other hotel bookings and therefore I had invoice of only the first day booking. I could not show them the invoices, but they did not bother much and skipped to the next question.
• Return ticket - I showed my tickets from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok and Bangkok to Delhi.
• Email of Air India ticket from Bangkok to Delhi - I could not find the email of the ticket, although I had it in my inbox. They asked their staff to get my ticket verified with the Air India counter.
• Amount of currency I was carrying - They did not verify my claims.

They eventually issued me the boarding pass. After that, I went through the immigration of Delhi airport, where they asked:

• Where are you going?
• Purpose of travel.
• Return tickets - I showed both Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok and Bangkok to Delhi tickets.

After clearing immigration, I reached my flight’s boarding gate. Unfortunately, my flight, which was scheduled to depart at 23:30, was delayed by three hours at Delhi Airport, and landed at KLIA2 airport in Kuala Lumpur at around 09:00 local time on 1st Feb.

Day 1: Arrival in Kuala Lumpur

After arrival in Kuala Lumpur, I went through immigration at the Kuala Lumpur which had a long queue but it was very organized. The immigration officer asked me following questions:

• Purpose of visit
• How many people are you traveling with? - I said one and the immigration officer gave a laugh at it.
• For how many days will you be in the country for this trip?
• Return/onward tickets
• Hotel bookings - They also checked my hotel reservations slips, although as mentioned earlier, only the first day stay was paid in advanced, whileother bookings were to be paid later. Anyways, they didn’t bother.

I had filled Malaysia Digital Arrival Card one day before my flight time, though the immigration officer didn’t mention that. It is possible that my entry showed up in their system and since it was filled, they didn’t ask about it. After asking questions, the immigration officer stamped my passport, marking my entry into the Malaysian territory, followed by going through customs.

After clearing customs, I roamed around the airport and checked out SIM and internet plans. I didn’t buy SIM card at the airport and got better deal inside the city later. My stay was booked in the Travel Hub Guesthouse in the Chinatown area of Kuala Lumpur which was walking distance from Pasar Seni LRT station. Malaysian government was charging 10 MYR per person tax per night for stay. So, this hostel costed 26.71 MYR plus 10 MYR in taxes, adding up to a total of 36.71 MYR (660 INR) per night. To reach KL Sentral, I took a bus from the airport which costs 15 MYR (270 INR) and dropped me at KL Sentral in a little over one hour, covering a distance of 50 km.

From the KL Sentral station, I took an LRT train to Pasar Seni, which was the next station after KL Sentral. After getting off, I walked towards my hostel, reaching there in a few minutes. As soon as I checked in and entered my room, I met another Indian named Fletcher who was here to visit Malaysia. He was going to visit the National Museum and I joined him, even though I was too tired after such a long trip.

We visited the National Museum (whose ticket was 5 MYR, equivalent to 90 INR) and explored Little India, which had abundance of Indian food restuarants, especially by Tamils, making vegetarian food easily available. I came across a stall by Indian immigrants where I drank masala tea and sampled Mee Goreng. Upon searching on the internet, I found out that Mee Goreng is unique to Indian immigrants in Malaysia and neighboring countries, but not found in India!

Day 2: Visiting Batu Caves and Petronas Towers

As my stay in Kuala Lumpur was pre-booked only for the first night, I extended my stay in the same hostel by one more night. For the next day (2nd Feb), Fletcher had planned a trip to Genting Highlands and had pre-booked bus tickets from KL Sentral and cable car tickets. So, I planned to join him, but I found out the next day that the bus Fletcher would be taking was already fully booked, so we parted ways for the day. Instead, I went to Batu Caves with a family from Delhi who planned to visit Genting Highlands for the day but had purchased a bus ticket for Genting for the following day.

Batu Caves is a cave complex located in outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. Since we were at the KL Sentral station, the best way to reach there was the KTM Komuter trains which cost 5.5 MYR one way. After returning from Batu Caves, we went our separate ways. I took rest at my hostel and went to Petronas Towers, the icon of Kuala Lumpur, during the night time. As I went alone, I could not take a picture of myself with the Petronas Towers. I asked others for help and an Indonesian person took my photo from various angles.

After I was done with roaming around Petronas Towers, I gave a phone call to Fletcher asking where he was. He was about to reach KL Sentral and we decided to meet there. We went to the same stall we had Mee Goreng the previous day and ordered Ghee Roast Dosa this time. We also had nice conversations with a family having Indian ancestry dining there. Then, we went to another place to eat Roti Canai, which I had with dal. Interestingly, Roti Canai is another dish popularized by Indian immigrants which is found in Southeast Asia but not in India.

Day 3: Berjaya Time Square and Bukit Bintang

For the third day (3rd Feb), I could not extend my hostel booking as it was fully booked due to weekend. So, I booked another hostel by the name of The Manor by Mingle for two nights, 1 km far from my previous hostel, which me and Fletcher covered by walking. This hostel costed MYR 99.34 (1800 INR) for two nights, including MYR 10 tourism fee per night. This was expensive compared to other hostels I stayed in this trip, mainly due to weekend. It had a swimming pool and laundry. The fee for using the laundry was MYR 5 for washing and MYR 3 for the dryer.

After checking-in and keeping my luggage into my room, I went with Fletcher to nearby shopping mall Berjaya Time Square, which was decorated in celebrations of the upcoming Chinese New Year on 8th Feb, due to which prices were greatly discounted. After roaming around, we went back to our respective hostels to take rest. At night, we went to Bukit Bintang, which is near to that mall we visited in the evening. Bukit Bintang is known for its nightlife and as the entertainment hub of the city.

Day 4: Visiting Genting Highlands

On 4th Feb, I took a trip to Genting Highlands. I took the cable car which passes through misty air along with stunning views. During this trip, I also had some paneer dish in a restaurant which costed like 40 MYR including naan. After coming back to hostel, I went to meet Fletcher who had a flight to Bangkok. We later met in Pattaya, Thailand, which will be covered in the next post.

For now, I had to book another hostel for 5th and 6th Feb nights, which I got in the Bukit Bintang area. It was very close to the rapid transit station of Bukit Bintang. I didn’t really do much on last two days. Then I took my flight for Bangkok on 7th Feb morning, reaching Thailand which will be covered in the next post.

My expenses for Food + Accommodation + Travel added to 10,000 INR for a week in Malaysia, while flight costs were: 13,000 INR (Delhi to Kuala Lumpur) + 10,000 INR (Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok) + 12,000 INR (Bangkok to Delhi).

Notes

• I bought local SIM from a shop at KL Sentral station complex which had “news” in their name (I forgot the exact name and there are two shops having “news” in their name) and it was the cheapest option I could find. The SIM was 10 MYR for 5 GB data for a week. You need to pay 5 MYR extra if you would like to make calls.

• 24-hour convenience store chaines like 7-Eleven and KK Mart convenience stores are ubiquitous in the city, which can be helpful to buy food.

• A lot of people know English (and many - Indians, Pakistanis, Nepalis - know Hindi) in Kuala Lumpur, so I had no language problems most of the time.

• For shopping on budget, you can go to Petaling Street, Berjaya Time Square or Bukit Bintang. In particular, there is a shop named I Love KL Gifts in Bukit Bintang which had very good prices, just near the metro/monorail station. Here is the location of the shop on OpenStreetMap, which you can navigate using mobile app named Organic Maps.