Kuala Lumpur

Currency

The money changers in Bukit Bintang and at the malls beat the banks by a wide margin and are entirely normal to use. Avoid the airport counters for anything more than taxi fare.

ATMs & cards

Most Malaysian banks charge around 10-15 MYR to foreign cards, far less than Thailand. Maybank and CIMB are widespread. Decline the machine’s own conversion.

Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.

Safety

Safe by regional standards, with ordinary big-city caution. Bag snatching from passing motorcycles is the one local speciality — walk on the inside of the pavement and keep your bag on the far shoulder. Flash floods hit the city centre hard in the wet months.

Our own assessment, not a sourced index.

Entry & visa

Health & emergencies

Required to enter

No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.

Worth having

• Hepatitis A
• Typhoid
• Tetanus up to date
• Rabies if you will be near animals or staying a while
• Japanese encephalitis for long rural or Borneo stays

Getting treated

Kuala Lumpur and Penang have excellent private hospitals — Malaysia is a medical tourism destination in its own right, and standards and English are both high at a fraction of Western cost. Care thins out quickly in the interior of Borneo, where a serious case means a flight to the coast.

Dengue is endemic and Malaysia has large outbreaks; there is no prophylaxis, so repellent and covered arms at dusk are the whole defence. Rabies is present — any bite or scratch from a dog or monkey means a clinic the same day.

Orientation, not medical advice. Entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history and where you have been — check with a travel clinic or your national health service four to six weeks before you go.

Food tip

This is the reason to come. Nasi lemak for breakfast, banana leaf rice in Brickfields, char kway teow and Hokkien mee at the hawker centres, and roti canai at any mamak stall at two in the morning. Jalan Alor is the famous street; the food courts under the malls are where office workers actually eat.

Getting around

• LRT, MRT and Monorail — clean, cheap and cover most of what you want, 2-5 MYR a trip
• Grab — cheap and the default here; taxis are best avoided
• KLIA Ekspres — airport to KL Sentral in 28 minutes, 55 MYR
• Walking — possible but hard; the city is built for cars and the pavements show it
• Free GOKL bus loops the centre if you have patience

Must-see

Things to do

• Climb the 272 steps at Batu Caves
• Go up the Petronas skybridge
• Eat your way down Jalan Alor
• Visit Masjid Negara, robes provided
• Wander Brickfields and Little India
• Day trip to the Batu limestone hills

Nearby day trips

Religion

Sunni Muslim, officially

Islam is the religion of the federation and about 63% of people are Muslim, but Malaysia is genuinely plural: roughly 19% Buddhist, 9% Christian and 6% Hindu, largely along ethnic Chinese and Indian lines. Muslims are subject to sharia courts in personal matters, non-Muslims are not. In practice this means mosque etiquette matters, alcohol is available but not everywhere, and the conservative states of Kelantan and Terengganu are noticeably stricter than Kuala Lumpur or Penang.

Do's and don'ts

Do

• Use your right hand to eat, to give and to receive — the left is for the bathroom
• Remove your shoes before entering a home, a mosque or most temples
• Point with your thumb over a closed fist; an index finger is rude here
• Dress modestly away from the beach, and cover your head and arms at a mosque — they lend robes at the door

Don't

• Do not offer alcohol to a Malay Muslim, and do not assume a restaurant serves it
• Do not eat or drink in public during daylight in Ramadan, out of ordinary courtesy
• Do not touch anyone of the opposite sex in greeting unless they offer a hand first
• Do not show affection in public — it draws real disapproval, and in the conservative north it can draw the authorities