Tips and Tricks For Malaysia (As Of 2011)

Kota Kinabalu:

Getting There – If you’re getting there from Kuching or Mulu, you can actually find pretty inexpensive flights if you keep your eyes open.

Staying – With almost everything booked when we got there, we stayed at Summer Lodge. We had a huge room with shared bath and AC for RM58 per night with “breakfast” included and coffee or tea all day long. The only downfall is the slightly painful live music going on in the street below until about 1am every night except for Sunday. Still, we’d stay there again.

Eating – There is a really good roti restaurant only 2 blocks down from Summer Lodge where you can get roti canai for about RM1.20 each. They also had some amazing stuffed roti, including one with chicken and egg that was more than enough for both of us to share. There are also a couple of Indian places as you’re walking towards the malls that have really good tandoori chicken and naan.

Getting Around – You might be better off taking a taxi to get into KK from the airport if you can find someone to split it with. The taxi costs RM30 for the ride. Just be sure to but it from the prepaid stand right outside of the airport.

Sepilok/Uncle Tan’s:

Getting There – Uncle Tan’s- From KK, you’ll have to pay for a bus to Sandakan but ask the driver to drop you off in Sepilok. You’ll be dropped off on the main road where you can cross the street and grab a taxi if you wish for about RM5 each that will take you to where most of the accommodation is. Uncle Tan’s will pick you up where you stay if you’re in the Sepilok area and bring you to their base camp.

Staying – Sepilok- We would definitely recommend staying at Sepilok Bed and Breakfast. We stayed in a dorm for RM28 each instead of staying at Uncle Tan’s base camp for RM38. We got free breakfast in the morning, the dinner wasn’t bad, and you even get free wifi in the main dining area.
Unlce Tan’s- Definitely book atleast a few days ahead of time. We paid RM390 each for 3D/2N including all meals and transportation. Definitely worth the money for the wildlife we saw.

Getting Around – Uncle Tan’s-No need to worry about transportation here. You’re either walking or on a boat heading up and down the river!

Mulu:

Getting There – Keep your eyes open for cheap flight from Kuching (or KK). Jessie scored us a flight for RM136 for both of us into Mulu and RM147 into KK both flights on Malaysia Airlines.

Staying – You don’t have many options when staying in or around Mulu. You can find a couple of small “homestay” options for about RM15 per night, you could stay at Mulu Riverside Lodge for RM35 per night, or inside the park in the dorms for RM40. The later two options include breakfast and electricity for longer than 3 hours a day.

Eating – Food inside the park is a little expensive, costing about RM8 for rice with veggies, and more for other options. We would recommend trying a little place outside of the park. As you walk out of the park down the road, take a right at the “T” and you’ll see it right away on the right hand side of the road, it’s called Mulu View Café. Meals are a little cheaper and the place is run by a very sweet woman who cooks all of the food with her daughter.

Getting Around – Other than a RM5 per person “taxi” ride to or from the airport, the only transportation for you is your feet!

Kuching:

Getting There – We flew in from KL, which is where you’ll get most of your cheaper flights from. It’s easiest if you can share a cab with someone to take you into the main part of town or Chinatown. The cab cost was RM26 total

Staying – We highly recommend staying at Three House. A twin room with a fan is RM50 per night with breakfast and free coffee included. You can also stay at Track’s if they are full, which is about 15 minutes away. They’ll tell you how to get there.

Eating – There is a really good roti place on Jalan India, half way down on the right hand side…it’s one of the only food places on the road.

Getting Around – You can walk just about everywhere you want to get to here, even the malls. If you don’t feel like walking in the heat, there are plenty of city buses running all day long and they’re super inexpensive.

Bako:

Getting There – There is a main office for booking Bako right on the outside of Chinatown close to the waterfront. It will cost you about RM3.50 each to get to the river where you’ll take a boat for RM47, again try to find someone to share it with when you get there. There’s also a park entrance fee of RM10 per person.

Semenggoh Orangutan Center- It’s super easy to get her. All you have to do is go to the bus station close to the open food stalls and get on bus #6 for RM3 each. It costs RM3 to get in, and RM3 to get back.

Staying – We paid just under RM16 for a bed in the dorm. Make sure you book as quick as soon as you arrive to ensure you can be there on the days you want to be. It fills up fast!

Eating – We HIGHLY advise bringing some of your own food to Bako. The buffet is very overpriced for what you get and the food is just not nice to eat at all.

Getting Around – You’re only option here is to walk everywhere since it’s a national park, unless you feel like paying for a boat to bring you back to the café area after hiking to a beach on the other side of the park.

Tiomon:

Getting There – Most people head to Mersing from KL to get the ferry to Tiomon. You can take the LRT to the bus station from Chinatown for RM1.60 We paid RM30 per person for our bus tickets. Once you arrive in Mersing, you can but the ferry tickets from the office right next to the bus station for RM70 with return for each person. From there, you’ll walk through town for about 25 minutes or so until you get to the jetty and board the ferry.

Staying – We stayed at YP Chalet for RM40 per night and had no complaints. The owner was friendly enough and the bungalow was much more sealed than our place in the Perhentians. You can easily find other places to stay on ABC for RM30 per night (fan room, no AC). One thing to note: If you absolutely can’t live without internet, you better bring your wallet! It’s very expensive!

Eating – The best place we found for food on ABC by far was at Yoi’s place, Mawar. The food is good and very reasonable.

Getting Around – Once you’re on the beach you want to stay it, it’s pretty expensive to get around. It will cost you about RM10 to get from on beach down to the next, and it keeps adding up the further you travel. Unless you walk the path, a 4×4 will cost you RM30 per person one way to get to Juara.

Mersing:

Getting There – You can take the LRT to the bus station from Chinatown in KL for RM1.60 We paid RM30 per person for our bus tickets.

Staying – We spent the night in the Mersing Hotel (big yellow building) just down the road from Giant grocery store. We had a fan room with wifi for only RM30 for the night with a shared bath. It was the best value in town…in our opinion.

Eating – The Indian restaurant across from our hotel served up some AMAZING Roti Canai for only RM .80 each!

Getting Around – It’s super easy to walk anywhere in town.

Melaka:

Getting There – Bus tickets to Melaka are going to run you RM22.50 from Mersing. If you’re staying in Chinatown, you can take the town bus from the bus station for RM1. It drops you off right by the river and across from the heart of Chinatown where most accommodation is.

Staying – We spent our nights at Jalan Jalan, which was a recommendation we got in KL. Sam is the one who runs it, and he does a great job of making you feel welcome. Free in room wifi, free tea, free coffee, and hot showers. Fan rooms are RM36.

Eating – What a surpise, more Indian. You can’t go wrong at Selvam with banana leaf sets for only RM4 each. The naan and Tandoori chicken will NOT disappoint you either.

Getting Around – The town bus is by far the best value. It’s not going to cost you more than RM3 per person no matter where you want to go, but most places will be less than that.

Kuala Lumpur:

Getting There – From the Perhentians- We grabbed the earliest boat we could at 8am to get back to the mainland. The bus station is literally a 10 minute walk to your right after walking through the boat waiting area. Prices can vary a little bit, but we paid RM40 to get to KL.

Staying – There are many options in KL to choose from, but the cheapest places are going to be in Little India and Chinatown. We would recommend Chinatown since it seems you get a little more for the money and a lot of the places in Little India are a bit run down, but they again you always get what you pay for, too. Plan on spending about RM30-RM40 for a fan room and RM50 and up for A/C.

Eating – You can’t go wrong with Indian food in our opinion. There are plenty of places between Chinatown and Little India you can eat at for around RM7-9 per person easily. If you’re craving a taste of fast food, you’ll have your pick of all kinds of places here. There’s a McDonald’s every couple of blocks, KFC is everywhere, and they even had Dominoes and a Papa John’s right by the Sky Tower!

Getting Around – By far the cheapest and most convenient way to get around in KL is the LRT. You can get pretty much anywhere you want to for about RM1-2 per person. It’s definitely worth it, especially on those extra hot days. When you arrive in KL from the bus, find the closest LRT and take it into Chinatown. From there, maybe another 15 minutes on foot off the LRT. If you want to take a taxi, they’re a dime a dozen. Just make sure they have a meter running and you’ll be ok. Still, the LRT is the way to go if you’re covering any decent amount of distance and don’t feel like hoofing it.

Perhentians-

Getting There – If you’re headed to the Perhentians from the Cameron Highlands, you can find tickets for RM115 straight there. This works out to almost exactly the same price as the public bus but takes hours off of the trip. That also included our boat trip to and from the islands, which is RM70 alone. Whether you take the minivan or the bus, you get dropped off very close to the pier where we paid RM4 each for the marine park fee. The boats leave pretty regularly this time of year with it being high season.

Staying – Although we had some crazy critters in and around our room, we would still recommend staying at Butterfly (although if you stay in a bungalow away from the rocks it might not be a bad idea). The rooms are really basic but not bad, and you can’t be the view of the water. Not to mention, the guy who owns the place is really nice and you can rent scuba equipment there for RM10 a piece. Another option would be to stay at Maya Guesthouse. They had rooms that were RM70 on the beach and others for RM50 per night that were set back off the beach a little bit. They looked pretty clean and the cheaper ones were a good value for the money. If you stay on Long Beach instead of Coral Bay, you’re probably going to end up paying more since that seems to be the beach that everyone hangs out at because there’s more going on and the swimming is better.

Eating – We tried a few different things while we were here, but we have to say that we were not at all impressed with the Indian restaurant. The barbecues on the beach might be a little more expensive than other options (RM15), but you do get a lot of food in your set. Butterfly has a pretty big fruit salad, fairly inexpensive cheese and tomato sandwich with fries (RM6), and the muesli with fruit and yogurt is enough to fill you up for quite a while. Many of the other dishes on the island are pretty small and Nate would have to eat 2 of them to get full.

Getting Around – You have to take a boat anywhere you want to go. It’s very easy to walk from Long Beach to Coral Bay, but it can be quite a chore to go too much further than that when it’s really hot outside. Boat taxis can run you from RM5-RM15 per person. The best transportation though, if you want to call it that, is snorkeling.

Penang:

Getting There – Penang- We found it was actually pretty easy to get a minivan from Trang all the way straight through to Penang for the same price as taking buses all the way there. We paid 550 Baht each from Trang to Penang. You are better off buying either bus or mini bus tickets along the way instead of in Koh Lanta. We would have saved a little money if we would have gotten our tickets to Penang in Hat Yai instead of in Trang.

Staying – If you’re looking for a clean, cheap room and don’t mind sharing a bathroom, Banana (the new one) is a really good way to go. We paid RM25 for a room here and the staff was incredibly friendly and helpful. You can’t go wrong.

Eating – If you’re staying around Little India, you can find plenty of places to eat at for cheap. Since Chinatown is right here as well, you have many choices of Chinese restaurants to eat at. There are vegetarian buffets at many Chinese restaurants for lunch as well that are super tasty.

Getting Around – Georgetown is another place that is easily explored on foot, even in the sweltering heat.

Cameron Highlands:

Getting There – You can get a minivan for the same price as the local bus from many places in Georgetown, but you really need to book a day or two early. Many places use the same minivans and they can fill up fast. We ended up booking ours with Banana Guesthouse because we waited until the day before to book it, and in the end paid an extra RM12. Banana charges RM50 since they have their own vans, you can find others for as cheap as RM 38.

Staying – Twin Pines was a great place to stay at as well. The lady who runs it is very sweet and helpful. Rooms are clean and there are plenty of bathrooms with hot water showers as well. For a shared bath, twin bed room it should cost RM35. We were paying RM40 because of a national holiday, which still wasn’t bad at all.

Eating – We were in love with Sri Brinching, next to Starbucks. The chicken tandoori set is absolutely delicious, and for RM7 for the whole set, it’s a steal! It was one of the best values in town for sure.

Getting Around – If you’re into trekking, you’ll be in heaven here. There are plenty of paths to keep you busy for days. If you ARE there during a holiday, it’s more than possible that you won’t be able to find a taxi driving willing to take you to certain areas where some of the treks start due to the crazy amount of traffic on the road. The local bus runs every day but Sunday to get from Tanta Rata to Brinching.