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Global Travel Planning
Exploring Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Ipoh: Our Complete Malaysia Itinerary
We take you on a journey through our 13-day adventure in Malaysia, exploring Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Ipoh by train, ferry and grab taxis while sharing our experiences, favourite foods, and practical tips.
• Flying business class on Malaysian Airways and enjoying their famous satay chicken skewers
• Staying at the Crowne Plaza in Kuala Lumpur, perfectly positioned five minutes from the Petronas Towers
• Taking the first-class train to Penang with access to the Ruby Lounge and meal service
• Exploring Penang's UNESCO sites, including the Peranakan Mansion and the Chew Jetties
• Witnessing monkeys crossing electrical wires at precisely 6:30 pm to reach their dinner spot
• Discovering Ipoh's incredible cave temples: Sam Po Tong, Nam Thaum Tong, and Ling Seng Tong
• Trying countless Malaysian dishes at hawker centres, including bean sprout chicken and Ais Kacang dessert
• Using the Grab app for easy and affordable taxi service throughout Malaysia
• Catching the comfortable Aeroline coach from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore instead of flying
Whether you're planning your first trip to Malaysia or returning for more exploration, be sure to carry some cash for food courts, stay hydrated in the tropical heat, and most importantly, come hungry for the incredible Malaysian cuisine.
Show notes - Episode 67
🎧 Listen to next
- Episode #15 – Insider’s Guide for First-Time Visitors to Singapore
- Episode #62 – Making Long-Term Travel Work: Practical Advice for Your Own Adventure
- Episode #47– Pack Like a Pro: Essential Tips, Tricks + Travel Hacks
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Planning a trip to Malaysia. In this episode, doug and I share our full 13-day itinerary through Kuala Lumpur, penang and Ipoh, plus practical tips to help you make the most of your time. Hi and welcome to the Global Travel Planning Podcast. I'm your host, tracey Collins, who, with my expert guests, will take you on a weekly journey to destinations around the globe, providing travel inspiration, itinerary ideas, practical tips and more to help you plan your next travel adventure. Hi and welcome to episode 67 of the Global Travel Planner Podcast.
Speaker 1:In today's episode, doug and I are sharing all the details of our recent trip to Malaysia, a 13-day journey through Kuala Lumpur, penang and Ipoh. We'll walk you through exactly what we did day by day, how, including how we got around, where we stayed and what we saw. And, of course, we ate yeah, we ate a lot. Whether you're planning your first trip to Malaysia or just curious about what it's like to travel there independently by train, we did this, all planned this all ourselves. As always, this episode is packed with tips, stories and lessons we learned along the way, including some of the mistakes we made and some of the things we definitely would do again, um we both love Penang, don't?
Speaker 2:we.
Speaker 1:There's a bit of a spoiler anyway, we're going to chat through, um, each of kind of day by day what we did and give you a basic overall of our trip. So let's get talking all about Malaysia. So I guess the background to us actually going back to Malaysia because it wasn't our first visit, was it?
Speaker 2:No, no, we went about eight years ago on our way to Australia.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we did. When we emigrated to australia in 2017, we actually traveled through malaysia. We went to penang and then to kuala lumpur and then actually did the same as we did. This trip got actually got the bus to singapore we did.
Speaker 2:We fell in love with the place. The first time we visited, though didn't we, oh, we did.
Speaker 1:They were both really love malaysia and we were really excited about being able to include it in our itinerary. So if you've listened back to episode 62, you'll know that we had basically planned to travel back from Europe to Australia via a number of different destinations, so some destinations in Europe, we also went to some destinations in the Middle East and then we ended up in Asia before arriving back in Australia. So basically, malaysia was nearly our second last stop before we got back to Australia, so we flew in from Sri Lanka.
Speaker 2:We did. It was an overnight flight.
Speaker 1:It was. It was overnight, which I'm never, I don't like flying anyway which everybody always thinks is really funny, but I really don't. But I'd actually put a bid in for an upgrade on Malaysian Airways to business class, so we did your first business class flight, doug, that's right, my first ever one.
Speaker 2:And guess what? I never want to go back to do anything else other than business class. Well, that's not going to happen. That's not really going to happen. No, no, no, it's just going to be expensive.
Speaker 1:Unless you get a bid, which was really good, anyway. So what we did have on that flight, which was amazing, were the very famous Malaysian satay chicken and skewers, and we had those on the flight. You get those in business class and, honestly, that was immediately. I love Malaysian food anyway. That just got us excited. Even more excited about the food, that's true, it did so. Basically, we were in Malaysia from the 26th of April till the 8th of May, so we had 12 days there, and when we would plan our itinerary we were kind of deciding where to go, weren't we?
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, turning around, it was where we were going to leave out.
Speaker 1:Well, I guess. Well, yeah, because actually we wanted to go everywhere in Malaysia and, yeah, we actually looked at Borneo at one point, didn't we? There was there's just so many places to go. So we knew we loved penang and we knew we wanted to go back to penang, didn't we?
Speaker 2:we knew we're going to work our way back there.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, so basically to give you a quick overview of the trip, we flew into kuala lumpur, we then took the train up to penang and then we went back to kuala lumpur, but via ipo, which we decided that was somewhere we hadn't been before and we thought we'd actually stop off there for a few days when you yeah, so anyway, when we arrived in Kuala Lumpur we'd been before, so we didn't necessarily do a lot of the kind of touristy things, because we're done it, the Batu caves we did last time.
Speaker 2:We returned it length, so we stayed quite close to Petronas towers again, yeah, again, yeah. We actually arrived in torrential rain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we did. It was actually quite bad weather, but we'd organised a transfer from the airport. We always do that. It's one of my tips. Even in an airport, I know, even in a place I know, I like to be picked up and taken to my hotel.
Speaker 2:It was an overnight flight still, so you're tired.
Speaker 1:Anyway, we actually chose to stay in the crown plaza uh, in the center of kuala lumpur, and they very kindly let us check in at 9 am. So thank you so much for the staff at the crown plaza. It was. It was actually a lovely stay, really enjoyed it. Some lovely, lovely staff that's right um so, and also it's a really well positioned hotel and that it's like five minutes walk to patronronas Towers about five to ten minutes, yeah, yeah yeah, I mean we did. We did on the first day get a grab out.
Speaker 1:It was raining, but after that we didn't, because it literally is like five, ten minute walk around the corner. So you know, if you haven't been to Kuala Lumpur before, I would highly recommend staying in that area most definitely lots of restaurants and cafes, and not to mention this, shopping malls around the Petronas Towers themselves.
Speaker 1:Yeah, kind of lots to do and pretty good transport as well. I mean, we just spent a couple of days there. Actually we caught up with Shelley, one of our ladies who travels. She'd flown into Kuala Lumpur to see us from Bangkok, so we had a good chance to talk about planning for the podcast episodes for the rest of the year with Shelley. So that was really cool, but anyway, so that was a bit of a personal aside business. But then we went the next day to I think it was day three. Then we headed to Penang.
Speaker 2:We did. We caught the train, went from Kuala Lumpur Central, so we booked the tickets and we managed to get a first-class ticket for that one. So we were very, very lucky. We found ourselves in the Ruby Lounge, which is complimentary if you're booking a first-class ticket, and it's very posh. There's food and drink available. Then they actually escort you down to the train before everybody else gets on board, which is makes you feel like royalty.
Speaker 1:That's true.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was really nice. There's a meal included. There's an entertainment unit on the seat which sort of plops up like an airplane.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it was very good. I was very surprised, I mean, it was really amazing. And then food was good.
Speaker 2:Food was excellent. Yeah, the journey time was about four hours. We took a little bit longer.
Speaker 1:I think the time was a bit delayed, but a lovely journey, yeah it's really yeah, I really enjoyed it and we have got lots of video from that, so we will be putting some video on the youtube channel of that and that took about four hours yeah, just over four hours.
Speaker 2:And you catch the train to butterworth yeah, um, and then you have to, uh, walk five minutes or so to the port and catch the ferry across, which takes about 15, 20 minutes yeah, and this is the first time we've done the ferry, because the last time we stayed in penang we actually just got a taxi to the hotel.
Speaker 1:We stayed in the same hotel this time, but um but this time because our daughter had actually been about she. She did it about a year and a half ago and she was like I'll just take the ferry. So we thought, well, why not, we'll do the ferry, we've taken the, we've taken the taxi, let's try the ferry and we were traveling very light at the time because we'd left most of our luggage in Kuala Lumpur itself.
Speaker 1:So we're traveling very large yes, because we were doing the same as we had in Colombo, which is a really good tip. If you're doing a round trip, leave the most of your luggage behind. If you're like we were, doing long-term travel and then just travel light, and then it's just so much easier so, yeah, we didn't have to worry about luggage uh, which, so that was great. So, yeah, we caught the ferry, so we spent a few days in panang, and we both love panang, don't we?
Speaker 2:we do. We did find ourselves doing the things that we'd done last time as well, yes, because you know. You know where the nice food is, you know why the nice street art is, and we find ourselves repeating a lot of what we've done in the past yeah, I don't think we're quite as obsessive about the street art or the metal.
Speaker 1:Uh, street art that's around, because I know when we were there last time we were a bit obsessive about following the trails.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're not bothered it's 102 degrees. We're not bothered that we've had no lunch, we just, yeah, we want to go and see. Yeah, 10 miles away.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, we literally wanted to take every single bit of street art off. This time we were a little bit more laid back. It was hotter this time.
Speaker 2:A bit more controlled is probably the word.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it was also. It was hot. So we stayed in the Monterey Grove, which is the same hotel we stayed in last time. We would probably not stay there again. We'd probably stay somewhere else in London, in Penang, same area. Yeah, but it was nice enough. The staff were fine and it's a nice hotel, lovely pool, so certainly nothing to complain about. We did enjoy it and it's in a very good location, very close to the Red Garden Hawker Centre, which is our favourite place to eat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've been there several times. When I say we'll stay in the same area, maybe, maybe not I don't know what you think about it yeah, arms. When I say we'll stay in the same area, maybe, maybe not I don't know what you think about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think maybe somewhere different, but um, yeah, so it was really good. So there are plenty of places to stay in Penang, so that's why I think we probably would stay, maybe towards the jetty area next time yeah, that's right, yeah, possibly but anyway, there's lots and lots of things to do and see in Penang itself. So, um, this time we probably did as I say. Doug said we did a little bit less than we did when we were bombing around trying to find all the street art.
Speaker 2:Well, a little bit older as well, of course.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true, we did go up the Choo Jetties.
Speaker 2:Yes, we did. We liked the Choo Jetties, didn't we? That was nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now people actually live on the Choo Jetties, so just be mindful of that. We also went to paranican mansion, which is hold on, hold on.
Speaker 2:You're not mentioning the durian ice cream that you tried I forgot about that.
Speaker 1:Yes, so on the two, um at the two, uh, jetties, there are places where you can like buy souvenirs, buy food and drink, and there was one place that was selling their speciality was durian ice cream, so we decided we had. So we decided we had to, because I've tried durian before but I couldn't really remember and obviously the smell kind of puts me off.
Speaker 2:Most people.
Speaker 1:So we tried durian and it was all right. You didn't like it, did you?
Speaker 2:I didn't. I couldn't get past the smell.
Speaker 1:to be truthful, yeah, I think, if you hold your nose, it might be the best bit. Had a walk up and down the jetty, took some beautiful photos which I will share in the show notes, and then we walked to the peranakan mansion.
Speaker 2:Now we did have to buy tickets for that we did.
Speaker 1:Let's see unesco world heritage site. Um, it was beautiful it was. It was so beautiful and I would highly recommend going and, uh, having you know, having a a few, maybe an hour, two, maybe an hour and a half.
Speaker 2:We were there oh easy, yeah, easy yeah, so, uh, yeah.
Speaker 1:So definitely go to see the paranakin mansion. We also had a little bit of a wander around little uh little india. We went to armenia street where a lot you'll see a lot of the street art and some really nice little shops yeah, some nice quirky little shops there yeah, um, but mainly, I think what we did in penang for the few days that were there is eat.
Speaker 2:This is true.
Speaker 1:And you know something I can't and I know people often list the types of foods that they eat. For example, in Thailand I go and I have da-da-da-da-da. I couldn't tell you really because I just like all of it. Obviously, I love satay chicken. If that goes without saying but I just don't think, anything I ate I didn't love.
Speaker 2:I loved satay chicken if that goes without saying. But I just don't think anything I ate I didn't love. I loved all of it. No, we tried lots of different things at the street food, didn't we?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and there's the Hawker Centre street market food place opposite to Jenny's, which we also really liked.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did enjoy that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that was good, and also pace yourself, because it was very hot. We were there it's the end of April, first few weeks of May, and it was very, very hot. So I was thinking about kind of standout meals or hawker centres, but honestly, just all of it is amazing.
Speaker 2:I was going to say I don't think any one was really nice.
Speaker 1:No, it was all good. I mean, there were a couple of places that our daughter recommended. One was closed on the afternoon we got there, and the other one it closed at half past six and we got there at 29 minutes past six. Actually, it closed at seven, but the kitchen closed at half past and I think we literally got to the door as they were turning the sign around to say closed. Um, and unfortunately it was our last uh opportunity to visit. So there's a lesson that was. A lesson that we learned is that, if you know and I normally do plan food, but because I was a bit unfair with like, oh, there's so much to choose from, but then when dominique was like you need to go and eat here, you need to go and eat there but what it does present us with another opportunity.
Speaker 1:You need to go back absolutely need to go back um. So, as well as like eating lots of food, we did do a couple of kind of day trips. So we on the previous trip we had gone to the um we got the snake temple but I think that was actually in georgetown itself yes, it was but we took a trip to a fruit farm last time, which was fantastic because I love lots of the it wasn't the season no, no, that was.
Speaker 1:It was kind of august time, so it was better. Um, so it wasn't the season for that, so we decided we got the butterfly farm. So we did that, which was quite good, enjoyed that, yeah. And we also went up to Penang Hill. Now you went to the Keck Lock Temple. Now for me it was too hot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was too hot. It was a bit of a climb, but it was just so. So hot and humid.
Speaker 1:And it was busy because it was a public holiday. So something else to check. Yeah, we also didn't plan that very well, because the driver took us to the butterfly farm first, then brought us back and then took us to the actual temple and, to be honest, it would have been more cost effective to have done that on two separate days yeah, because he it was um because the private tour.
Speaker 2:He just asked us what we wanted to see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think we did not plan that as well as we normally would have done or should have done. So sometimes we make mistakes as well with things and on reflection that's something I would look at. I would have done Penang Hill. It's much closer. I would have done that separately. You could have done that by public transport and then had the driver take us around the island, like we had last time, I think it's worth saying that up to this point we've traveled to several countries.
Speaker 2:You know lots of planning, lots of uh time spent over a computer. So I think by this time we thought maybe a little bit of overconfidence that we knew the place well, too well, or well enough not to.
Speaker 1:I just thought we'd just make it up as we went at this point, because sometimes you know we I do a do a lot of planning and after nine months I got to the point where I think you know we've been with planning before. But there you go, there's a mistake. So sometimes it's worth, you know, looking at the map and actually listening to what your daughter tells you because Dominic did say not to do it that way.
Speaker 2:Right, she did indeed.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I mean, which hadn't happened last time is we walk into the Red Garden for food and there were some monkeys crossing the street. Now, obviously, I know there's lots of monkeys in Malaysia, but I hadn't actually seen them.
Speaker 2:We hadn't seen them there, but they looked like they were against the clock. They knew exactly what time they were getting there for their food. They were in a rush to cross the road, cross the wires, and the second they got there my watch went straight on to 6.30 pm, so I think that was dinner time.
Speaker 1:I think so it was really funny. They were definitely heading over there for the dinner and they were climbing across the wires in the street. Got a great video of that as well. So again, that will go on our YouTube when I get a chance to put the videos together. But I know you know a question we get often asked by people where would you recommend that we go? For example, if you go to malaysia and I would say 100 per cent penang I most definitely would agree with that.
Speaker 1:Yes yeah, in fact we'd like to live there for a bit we possibly would. Yes I just would worry about the eat too much food. But um, yes, it is amazing. It is well known for its food, with very good reason and, as I say, I love the people. Yeah, people all of the, it's just a very historic, beautiful place to visit.
Speaker 2:So then we took we took the train to um ipo we did just a couple of hours journey, um, obviously, back across the ferry back to butterworth station and then a couple of hours, uh, on the train there. We didn't do the first class on that one. We want to try the standard class it was fine and it was fine, nice, comfortable seats, just the same yeah, it was absolutely fine.
Speaker 1:So we decided to stay in travel lodge, which was okay. Um, it was absolutely fine, uh, breakfast. I struggled a little bit with them, but I'm you know, I would say I'm a kind of self-confessed picky eater yeah, it was really not 100 catered for western diet, so you know you could consider where you are yeah, but the views from the room were great. The room itself was large. We actually did do some work while we're there yeah, so we're able to do some podcasts and some work.
Speaker 1:So that was really good. But now we included ipo because we knew we're going back to kuala lumpur and we kind of I just looked at a map. I did a bit of research on youtube and I thought, well, ipo looks interesting, let's go um. So we probably wouldn't rush back to ipo. I wouldn't but because there's mainly because there's lots of other places I want to see in Malaysia, but I wouldn't not discount it. If you're considering visiting, I think it's an interesting place to visit for a day or two. Again, it's very famous for its food and you can go and explore some of the historic places like Concubine Lane.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's well known, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you've got lots and lots of food, stalls, street food. There was lots of food, wasn't there?
Speaker 2:Some of the street art looked a little bit tired.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think there was a street art trail that you could follow and there was another couple actually who were following the trail because we were all taking photos and some of the street art really is beautiful, but I would say it's starting to get a bit tired. It's not really being looked after, which is a bit sad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, some of the streets the street art's on is not actually occupied.
Speaker 1:No, no, yeah, a bit overgrown and kind of fallen to bits a bit. So yeah, so just prepared for that. Now, some of the food that I enjoyed was was this I tried Sendal I think I'm hopefully I'm pronouncing that correctly which is an iced sweet dessert. Now it's got green jelly noodles, red beans, coconut milk. We had it in the shopping centre, because we found a shopping centre with air conditioning which we spent some time in and I was desperate to try some of the desserts and that was quite. It was interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and some of the other things to try.
Speaker 1:I don't know exactly what the words to be true for, but yeah, tried them and yeah, and then I also. We went to and I think this is quite a famous place Lu Wong for bean sprout chicken, which didn't look great but tasted really good. Full of flavour, yeah yeah, and we just sat on our little plastic chairs. In fact, when they were setting up, it was just the beginning of the evening really, so it started to get very, very busy.
Speaker 2:It is just like on the crossroads.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and there was lots of different places to go and try out different foods and buy things. So that was cool, so that was something that we did. And then another reason we had decided to go to Ipoh was to go to the temples. So we went to visit three temples in a row, all very different, all amazing, all beautiful. I have millions of photos of each of these. I don't know if you want to go through them.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, first off is the Sam Po Tong temple, which you go straight through and out the back and you've got beautiful gardens there and it's really well. This place is set for photos and videos.
Speaker 1:Oh, just beautiful and I have to say, all these temples are set in caves oh yes um, so just just fantastic, so that that sample tongue you actually go through like a tunnel under a cave like, and then you come out the other side and it's beautiful. Yeah, so I'm not going to tell you what's on the other side, because you don't have to go and check out in the show notes, but it's well. Yeah, so I'm not going to tell you what's on the other side, because you're going to have to go and check it out in the show notes, but it's well worth seeing.
Speaker 1:Make sure you do so go and check out the show notes. And then, next to that, was the one with the pretty garden.
Speaker 2:That's like the Nam Thaum Tong.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:Which was, as you say, very, very nice.
Speaker 1:Beautiful garden.
Speaker 2:I've got pictures and that one. You explored a bit more the caves than I did. Yes, I went around a bit further and looked at the different designs and talked to a couple of people.
Speaker 1:Actually, they're really, you know, really helpful the stuff there and then the last one in that row is the Ling Seng Tong temple, where you've got lots of colorful statues. There's a big Buddha. That was lovely. I mean, it's like little areas with all the different statues to take pictures on, of course, like lots of people were coming in, um, I don't know like making prayers and leaving offerings and yeah, but but it was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've never seen anything like that actually it's very important, when you visit these places, to be respectful and oh yeah, I mean all these places.
Speaker 1:They're all free to enter, but you can leave a donation. Obviously, consider how you dress. Make sure that you dress. Respectfully, take some water with you. I can't stress that enough, just how hot and humid it was.
Speaker 2:It was, and also be respectful when you're taking photos and videos.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Now we just managed. We just got a Grab each way. We have to say that was one of the really easy things. Things to do in malaysia was just to order a grab. It's just uber, that's what. Um to just download. That that's what we had. Um, and we used grab all the time from our, from our hotel. Um, we used it in kuala lumpur, we used it in in penang and we used it in ipo very straightforward really and also got incredibly cheap as well.
Speaker 1:Um then we so the next day we just had a work day, which is sometimes what we have to do when we travel.
Speaker 2:We had to catch up and we had work to do, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then we went back to Kuala Lumpur, didn't we?
Speaker 2:We did, and that was straightforward. Instead of going into Kuala Lumpur Central Station, we decided to. Well, I decided we were going to stop off at Kuala Lumpur Station itself, which is the old traditional station or colonial buildings, and just a little bit if my same distance to the hotel yeah, oh, and this is a big tip to take, because actually our daughter had booked exactly the same first-class train from Kuala Lumpur to Penang that we had.
Speaker 1:But they had got, they had gone to the old station where there's no Ruby, there's no Ruby lounge. So they got there and they had no idea. So they actually had missed out on that really lovely experience and had to catch because they were at the wrong train station. So if you are catching the train from Kuala Lumpur, make sure you know which train station you're leaving from that's right, but it was, yeah, lovely.
Speaker 1:We've got some lovely pictures of that as well. Yeah, that's right. And then, of course, we just ordered a grab and went back to the hotel.
Speaker 2:I have to say anybody who knows me, the hotel do a fantastic pot of tea.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you did enjoy a cup of tea.
Speaker 2:I did have quite a lot of tea there. I have to say they did make a very mean gin and tonic as well.
Speaker 1:So we enjoyed yeah, I enjoyed. That was really nice. You could sit in the bar, you could have a gin and tonic or you could have a cup of tea like Doug did, a pot of tea a pot of tea, and then, of course, we would head. What is really good as well about the location of that hotel is it's very, very close to the food courts at Petronas Towers yeah, and there's such a lot of selection there you can so that's what we did.
Speaker 1:We basically went to have a look at the light show which we'd seen before, but again, it's also worth going to see.
Speaker 2:It's one of those things.
Speaker 1:It's lovely to go and watch, but again, even at that time of night, because you obviously have to wait until it's dark. That's when it starts. But it was lovely.
Speaker 2:One little tip is to have a look around all the different food halls, because there's a shopping centre around the Petronas Towns, but also the one across the road we went to when we first arrived. But they wanted cash, didn't they?
Speaker 1:Yes, that's a good tip actually, because I think we got used to quite a lot in Europe just using contactless and obviously when in Sri Lanka you needed to use cash there and when we arrived in Malaysia I kind of thought, no, we'll be all right with contactless.
Speaker 2:We left our cash and things in the safe, didn't we?
Speaker 1:Yes, but we thought in fact we didn't have much Malaysian money. We didn't have much Malaysian money, we didn't have much Malaysian cash at all, and we went to eat in this food court and there was nobody that would accept contactless. They all wanted cash.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:Whereas it was different. Across the road, the Petronas Towers were able to use contactless, but actually that first night we were wandering, we were starving. That was actually the first night.
Speaker 2:That wasn't actually the first night.
Speaker 1:So we kind of learned from that. So then we did go and get some cash out from a cash point and used that. So, yeah, and another thing I know was I was thinking about our favourite favourite time, favourite things that we did when we were there, and it always goes back to food.
Speaker 2:So I do apologise if you're not a foodie, our food but we malaysian food it's a bit.
Speaker 1:I love moroccan food and I love malaysian foods. They're probably my favorites, but, um, I I just I was kind of wondering the question about the best thing that we ate. What was the best thing? Can you think of the best thing you ate when you were there?
Speaker 2:well, I'll say, the satay on the on the plane was pretty impressive very tasty.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, I had some vietnamese food when I was there actually as well, which was incredibly tasty as well it was such a huge variety of food, yeah because you have so many small portions of things yes, you can try a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we did. We did try a lot of stuff. And also, I have to say one thing if you do go to one of the food courts like we did, for example, in penang um, the thing to do is go and get yourself a table, make sure it hasn't got a reserved sign on it and then order a drink. Somebody will come and take an order for a drink, um, so you have to have a drink, um, so I mean you can order.
Speaker 2:We had watermelon juice because we love watermelon juice, and it was so that was great.
Speaker 1:You have a great big fat of watermelon juice so once you've done, that you can then go and have a wander around. Remember the number for your table. So doug went and had a wander around and I sat chilling out and then I went and had a wander out and you can just order from the different stores and they'll bring it to you.
Speaker 2:I was gonna say we don't always eat the same food from the same places, did we? We had multiple dishes from different stores yes, oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then you have different people and some you paid, some you paid at the store and some you'd pay when they brought you the food.
Speaker 2:But yeah, sometimes we tried each other's.
Speaker 1:Oh well, yeah, it depends, but yeah, I mean. So I think, and one of the things I did want to talk about and I'm probably going to pronounce this totally incorrectly was in Kuala Lumpur, because I was a bit fascinated by all these amazing colourful desserts. Because I was a bit fascinated by all these amazing colorful desserts, so I tried a dessert called AIS or AIS Kacang, or I'm going to say I'm going to apologize if you're from Malaysia K-A-C-A-N-G, which was basically like that shaved ice with different I don't know what's in it, like coconut, different kind of like noodley things and just beautiful colours and flavours and just it was huge. The one I ordered was huge, wasn't?
Speaker 2:it. We both ate it.
Speaker 1:It was massive. Again, if you want to see what that looked like because I'm not doing a very good job of describing it, but you need to have a look at the photo, which I'll put in the show notes, because that was just fantastic. Now we always get asked if we ate any weird foods, but I don't think Malaysia ate anything that was out of the ordinary.
Speaker 2:No, I don't think so.
Speaker 1:No, I think I guess when we did have the chicken when we were in Ipoh I wasn't sure when it first came out, because it didn't look very appetising, but my goodness, it tasted so- good.
Speaker 2:There was something strange happened. I nearly had a cup of coffee once. Really Not for long. I kept out the sun the rest of the day, just in case.
Speaker 1:Oh well, there you go, Saw a few coffee drinkers out there. Yeah, now they drink coffee, but what would we do differently? So obviously this is only the second time that we've been to Malaysia.
Speaker 2:What would we do differently is spend more time in Penang.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes, probably spend more time in Malaysia.
Speaker 2:I'd actually like to go and spend longer the Cameroon Highlands we'll want to visit at some point.
Speaker 1:Yeah absolutely Cameroon Highlands. I think there's so much more in Malaysia than we've yet to discover. I certainly would like to go to Borneo, so I'd like to go over there. And Malacca, I've heard, is amazing.
Speaker 2:Maybe hire a car next time as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, we did talk about that and you were a bit uncertain about it A little uncertain but after that last trip I think, yeah, I could easily drive, you could drive.
Speaker 2:so that's really good.
Speaker 1:Is there anything else you think that we should say you would like to know before you arrive? That would be useful, I guess. I think the cash thing Know that you're probably going to need some cash again. Make sure water bottle is really important.
Speaker 2:It's incredibly hot yeah, try the food. Talk to the people. They are the most genuine, lovely people you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Is there any other tips that you can think of? Because we always end the episode with the one tip we'd share with somebody planning to go.
Speaker 2:I would look at the trains as well. They're reasonably priced and the service does look very good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and I think my tip would probably be to do what I didn't do and actually plan a little bit better if you plan to do some of the day trips and also, I guess what I when I'd done my research. One of the reasons that we wanted to go to Ipoh was to go to the Kelg Tong Temple, which I had done some research on, seen on YouTube, and it looked absolutely amazing. What I didn't realize is that that had shut the October previously, so October 2024,. That had shut the October previously, so October 2024,. That had shut. So we got there in early May 2025, and it had been open, so we did not know that.
Speaker 2:No, but the temples we did visit were very good.
Speaker 1:They were amazing, but I would really like to go to the Keluk Tong Temple because it does look fantastic and I know Shelley has been and she was telling us how amazing it was. Yeah, so I guess that was the one thing.
Speaker 1:we're pretty good on research, but it was one of the ones where we we did not know until we got there, so we're a bit disappointed that's true yeah, um, yeah, and I think probably, uh, with penang, I would a little bit been a little bit more conscious of when we had to drive exactly what we wanted to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right. I think next time I go back to kuala lumpur as well, I would uh like to go back to the the batu caves as well yeah, well, it's an easy day trip from again train so now we ended that trip, I'll just let you know what we did after this.
Speaker 1:We actually um. One of the reasons we chose that area and the particular hotel is that it's close to where we caught the airline bus to singapore. Now it's the second time we've done this. As I've said, I don't like flying. It's an easy trip, that's right. It's about six hours.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:And we just literally took our luggage, got a grab, took our luggage to the Corus Hotel. The coach left at 10. It was 10 o'clock, yeah, and then it stops along the way so you get off and you can go and have you know something to eat, a break, um, and then you get to singapore, have to cross over, obviously, the border, so you've got to do the border formalities, um, back on the coach and then actually dropped off. And we dropped off right beside our hotel that we're staying at, weren't we not?
Speaker 2:too far. No, that was really really good. It's actually very, very simple. It's um double decker yep, really comfortable a coach and we had the front seats, in fact the same seats we had yes, last time we did it yeah and the little mail is brought to you again, the little entertainment unit yep and so yeah, very straightforward so that's probably my, that's probably my major tip.
Speaker 1:Actually, if you're going to go to Kuala Lumpur and you're going on to Singapore, take the coach, don't fly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a nice thing to look at as well. It's nice scenery and the weather is nice.
Speaker 1:Just sit back and relax. It was fantastic. Anyway, I guess that kind of wraps up our Malaysia trip. We have got a full itinerary of what we did with a bit more information about the different things we saw. So a little bit more obviously about the two jetties, about the peranakan house, um, you know, about what they actually are, because we can't go into too much detail on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's worth reading a bit on that yeah, um, and the different accommodation that we chose and stayed in. So that's all in there, and also pictures of the food that we've we tried, which could be a whole blog post on its own. So they're all in the show notes as well. So you can look in the show notes. You can actually find there the link to the whole itinerary. We've also got an article with top tips for first-time visitors to Malaysia, so you can find those at globaltravelplanningcom. Forward slash, episode 67. But, as always, we love to hear from you, so do leave us a message via Speakpipe. Again, you can find that in the show notes. Leave us a review. Please leave us a review. We'd love to hear more of what you're. You know, if you're enjoying our podcast, just hop on. If you're on Apple, you can leave a review. On Spotify, you can leave a review and we get alerted of that and it does help other people to find the podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it really does, yeah um, but yeah, we appreciate your support, don't we? Most definitely, thank you so, um, I guess that just leaves us to say as always, until next week happy global travel planning.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us on this episode of the global travel planning podcast. For more details and links to everything we discussed today, check out the show notes at globaltravelplanningcom. Remember if you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a review on your favorite podcast app, because your feedback helps us reach more travel enthusiasts, just like you. Anyway, that leaves me to say, as always happy global travel planning. Thank you.