Malaysia
Day One
After wrapping up our journey in Bali, we took the roughly 2-hour-45-minute flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We flew a low-cost carrier, Batik Air, and our experience was awful. Their operations are pretty chaotic; they don’t communicate well during delays, and sadly, their flight attendants are left to answer questions they may not have answers to. I chose this flight because its schedule aligned well with our check-out time. We arrived in Kuala Lumpur about three hours later than our scheduled arrival time, forcing us to cancel some of our plans for the day. While in Kuala Lumpur, we stayed at the beautiful Mandarin Oriental in downtown. We applied my American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts $200 credit toward the booking cost, which allowed us to have a bargain price for this five-star hotel. This hotel is located adjacent to Suria Mall and the Petronas Towers complex. It is also a short walk from Kuala Lumpur City Centre Park, a beautiful 50-acre park with a two-acre children’s playground and splash area. Once we checked in and settled, we grabbed dinner and called it a night.
Day Two
We spent our second day walking around Kuala Lumpur City Centre Park (KLCC Park). We allowed the kids to enjoy the playground until the heat and humidity eventually tired them. KLCC Park is located adjacent to Petronas Towers and is clean and well-maintained. It also offers a splash area for the kids to cool off in the sweltering Malaysian summer heat.
Next on our agenda was the Islamic Arts Museum of Malaysia. This exhibit has excellent artifacts and pieces if you’re interested in Islamic art or history. They have a restaurant and a large gift shop with something for everyone. We spent a few hours here and loved everything it had to offer. I highly recommend adding this to your must-visit list in Kuala Lumpur.
For the evening, we went to the trendy and vibrant Bukit Bintang neighborhood of Kuala Lumpur. This neighborhood has high-end designer shops, restaurants, and gift shops, and stays busy beyond midnight. Traffic here is a nightmare, so I strongly recommend using Grab or the complimentary shuttle between this area and the Petronas Towers. After dinner, it was time to call it a night and prepare for our final full day of this trip.
Day Three
On our last day in Kuala Lumpur, we walked around different neighborhoods, admiring the beautiful architecture of mosques and various government buildings.
Later in the day, we had tickets (purchased days in advance) for the Petronas Towers observatory deck. As part of the experience, an elevator takes you up to the 42nd floor. At this point, we walked the bridge that connects the two towers and were allowed to spend about fifteen minutes in this area. With our cohort of about 20 other visitors, we took another elevator up to the 86th-floor observatory deck. The views are magnificent; if you can get tickets for sunset or the hour before sunset, you will have some fantastic photo opportunities.
These time blocks are also the most popular and tend to be sold out a few days in advance. The only downside to our experience at the observatory deck is that it did feel somewhat rushed. You only get fifteen minutes, and since you are with a group of about 20-25 people, you’re hoping to get to all the spots on the deck that offer a great view without waiting too long for others. When our trip to the observatory deck concluded, we spent time at the Suria Shopping Center, part of the same complex as the Twin Towers. This is a beautiful mall with hundreds of stores and several restaurants. Following dinner at Maria’s Steakhouse (highly recommended) at the Suria Shopping Center, we enjoyed the fountain show in front of the Twin Towers and adjacent to KLCC Park. The nightly fountain show is beautiful, and the Petronas Towers offer a perfect backdrop. With the conclusion of the fountain show, it was time to get to bed and be ready for our early flight out of Kuala Lumpur the following day.
Malaysia has more to offer than just the limited number of sites we visited in Kuala Lumpur, and three days certainly didn’t do it any justice. This is a country that we hope to come back to visit for a longer trip. This extended trip in Asia encompassing three countries was a memorable and fun-filled experience that allowed us and our boys to learn and gain an appreciation for different cultures. Japan, Indonesia, and Malaysia offer so much for toddlers and kids, and I recommend all these countries to families visiting with little ones.
Miles for places 