One day in Kuala Lumpur

The first time I stopped off for one day in Kuala Lumpur I was young and travelling long-haul alone for the first time and on a short layover. Having a hotel room to myself after weeks sharing with others was a massive novelty and I was hesitant about heading out alone. I didn’t really leave the (Malaysia Airlines provided) hotel room.

Layovers are a great way to see other places at no extra cost so the next time I had one day in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, courtesy of a 9 hour layover between flights, I wanted to use it wisely.

Mike who I was travelling with only had around four months left on his passport before it expired and we were unsure he’d get through customs. I was determined to go regardless.

He got through.

We put our hand luggage in the airport’s storage facility before catching the KLIA Ekspres train into the city quite rapidly. From there we got some ridiculously cheap Uber rides around the city and spent around five hours ticking the boxes.

(If you’re a first time Uber user and want a free ride worth NZ$10, use my promo code sarahk1099).

Petronas Twin Towers

You need to buy tickets in advance in busy periods in order to go up the Petronas Twin Towers. With a flight we had to get to and the next available session being six hours later this it was not a possibility.

If anything you can get the famous shot for Instagram from the ground between the two towers.

The Suria KLCC mall below the towers was awesome for shopping and included my favourites Nike, Topshop as well as having an H&M just across the road.

The Menara Kuala Lumpur Tower

Hint: Don’t circle the block aimlessly looking at the tower trying to find a way in because you’ll be walking half the day.

There’s a free shuttle van from the gate on Jalan Puncak up to the Menara lobby where you can buy tickets to get up more or less immediately with no need to pre-book. We went straight up to the open deck 421 metres above ground level.

The day we were in Kuala Lumpur was the day of the terrorism attack in Paris. While many of the world’s landmarks were lit up red, white and blue, the Menara  was green.

When we’d had enough we caught an Uber back to the airport for our flight to Auckland. I’m definitely keen to return to Malaysia soon to see more of the country.